Across South Carolina

SC postal worker will keep job after leaving mail

BEREA, S.C. - A postal worker who abandoned her mail truck to tend to her wounded fiance will not be fired, the U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday.

Tammy Rochester told The Greenville News for a story Wednesday that she had received notice from the Postal Service that she would be fired in 30 days because she failed to properly perform her duties and was absent without leave.

The Postal Service said in a news release that it was rescinding that notice because of the extraordinary circumstances. Rochester has no previous disciplinary actions in her work file, said Wayne Harlow, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 439.

"Abandonment of the mail is a serious offense," Postal Service human resources manager John Fry said in the news release. "It is the duty of every Postal employee to protect the sanctity of the mail."

Postal Service spokesman Harry Spratlin in Columbia said Rochester abandoned the mail when she turned over the keys to her truck to a Greenville County sheriff's official instead of another postal worker.

According to police and published reports, Rochester's fiance David Dill was shot Dec. 10 after he thought he saw a bank robbery suspect and started following him. Dill, a project manager with an electrical contractor, was on the phone with police when he was shot.

McMaster criticizes Internet safety report

COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster has withdrawn from a group studying the problem of Internet predators on social networking sites after a report downplayed threats that children face online.

McMaster said Wednesday that findings from the report commissioned by a National Association of Attorneys General working group create a "false sense of security on the issue of child Internet safety."

The report released Wednesday played down fears of Internet sexual predators who target children on social-networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

The Harvard-led study also dismissed prospects for age-verification technologies, the approach favored by many law-enforcement officials who had pushed for the creation of the task force.

Senate considers taking 4 weeks out of schedule

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The Senate is considering a plan to shave four weeks from its session, a move that could save taxpayers some money.

A plan offered by Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell on Wednesday includes taking next week off. Many Democratic members planned to be gone next week to President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural events and the House is taking that week off as well.

McConnell said the Senate will take a break for Easter between April 7 and April 9. And in February, March and May the Senate wouldn't meet in its chambers although committees would convene.

McConnell said that schedule could let the Senate end its session two weeks early on May 19.