Single father wins lottery at state fair
COLUMBIA - At the South Carolina State Fair in Columbia on Thursday night, a Fort Mill cop who spent $20 on lottery tickets made a million bucks.
All it took was pressing the remote trunk entry button on a set of car keys for a 2006 Ford Mustang.
A single dad, 46-year-old Wendell Hughes, a supervisor with the S.C. State Transport Police, stood on a stage.
The emcee said, "You are South Carolina's newest millionaire" and begged for a speech.
"I'm speechless," Mr. Hughes said.
Firms to merge, take Dixon Hughes name
CHARLESTON - Two of Charleston's largest and best-known accounting firms will merge next month, and the combined firm will merge with one of the nation's largest accountants, a "super-regional" firm that is the Southeast's biggest.
Gamble Givens & Moody LLC and Pratt-Thomas & Gumb CPAs, two firms that count many of Charleston's heavy-hitters as clients, will merge and then join forces with Asheville, N.C.-based Dixon Hughes PLLC, the nation's 17th-largest accounting firm, with annual revenue of $125 million.
The Charleston firms will take the Dixon Hughes name effective Nov. 1. Its move to Charleston is the company's second acquisition in South Carolina this year. In June, Dixon Hughes announced a merger with Spartanburg-based Trammell & Co.
Roberts says judicial confirmation too long
COLUMBIA - Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts encouraged the Senate on Friday to look at the judicial confirmation process, saying the hearings last too long.
Chief Justice Roberts, who was confirmed after four days of hearings in September 2005, told University of South Carolina law students that much of the testimony during his confirmation was essentially discussion among senators.
Chief Justice Roberts was invited to South Carolina by Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee that approved the chief justice's nomination last year.
$3,000 fine issued in worker's death
ROCK HILL - A Columbia company has been fined $3,000 after a worker fell to his death in Rock Hill.
Two employees of Capitol City Erectors did not use a fall protection system while working on Winthrop University's new fitness center Sept. 14, according to a citation from the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
One of those workers was 51-year-old Wade Henry Dowling, who lost his balance and fell nearly 25 feet to his death, authorities said.
- Edited from wire reports
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