Across South Carolina

Wounded Marine will go to State of Union

SPARTANBURG --- A year ago, Andrew Kinard was just getting back to speaking and eating solid foods. Today, the Marine first lieutenant will be in the Capitol listening to President Bush give his final State of the Union.

The 25-year-old was injured in a bomb blast in October 2006.

He is continuing occupational and physical therapy at Walter Reed Army Medical Center but can walk short distances with the assistance of canes and has a new state-of-the-art knee joint. He works part time at the Pentagon in the office of the general counsel.

"Doing any sort of work sort of restores my sense of purpose," he said in a recent telephone interview with the (Spartanburg) Herald-Journal .

Boy dies of injuries after church bus crash

GREENVILLE --- An 11-year-old boy critically injured in a church bus crash last week died Sunday, a spokeswoman for Greenville Hospital System said.

Austin Green was a sixth-grader at Liberty Middle School, hospital spokeswoman Sandy Dees said.

He was injured in a crash Wednesday night when the Lakeview Baptist Church bus he and nine other children were riding in crashed into a tree. Eight children and the bus driver were injured.

The Highway Patrol said there was fog in the area where the bus crashed, but it was unclear whether that contributed to the accident.

Prison escapee is sentenced to 15 years

FLORENCE --- An inmate who walked away from a minimum security prison in Florence last summer has been sentenced to 15 years on a weapons charge.

U.S. Attorney Reginald I. Lloyd said in a news release Friday that 23-year-old Jamie Grooms, of Bennettsville, was sentenced for being a felon in possession of firearm and ammunition.

Investigators determined that Mr. Grooms was hiding in Florence after escaping from the Palmer Pre-Release Center in June. He was captured five days later in a pickup about 30 miles away.

Officers found loaded weapons in his jacket and in the truck. Mr. Grooms was in his first year of a five-year sentence for burglary and larceny at the time.