Across South Carolina

SC man charged with killing his girlfriend

GREENVILLE, S.C. - Authorities have charged a 30-year-old Greenville man with killing his girlfriend, a week after her body was found near a dirt-bike trail.

Greenville County Sheriff's Lt. Shea Smith said Willie James Poole was arrested Tuesday and charged with murder and weapon possession in the shooting death of 31-year-old Talibah Allen. It was unclear if Poole had an attorney.

Two people riding dirt bikes found Allen's body on Jan. 12. An autopsy determined the Greer woman had been shot four times in the chest.

Allen's family reported her missing Jan. 10. According to arrest warrants, witnesses saw Poole in Allen's car a day earlier.

Groseclose resigns as head of SC ports authority

CHARLESTON, S.C. - Bernard S. Groseclose Jr., who served as chief executive officer of the South Carolina State Ports Authority for more than a dozen years, announced his resignation Tuesday.

"I just feel I have found the job is not as rewarding as it once was and just feel it's time to pursue something else and do something with the rest of my life," said Groseclose, 55, who also serves as authority president.

Longtime authority board member John F. Hassell III will assume Groseclose's job immediately and serve until a permanent replacement is found, the agency said.

Hassell said the agency would conduct a nationwide search for Groseclose's replacement, which should take three to six months. He said he is not interested in assuming the job permanently.

Groseclose, who made $264,000 a year, was named CEO in 1996. He joined the agency in 1985 as manager of business analysis and later served as director of planning and development.

SC prisons director wants guns, razor wire, cash

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Razor wire, new guns and loads of cash are needed to avoid a repeat of what's shaping up as a $36 million deficit in South Carolina's prisons budget, director John Ozmint told state House budget writers Tuesday.

Another suggestion: stop doing autopsies on executed inmates.

In November, Ozmint told a state budget oversight panel he was expecting to run a $14.5 million deficit. Within a month, a 7 percent across-the-board budget cut more than doubled that to $36 million.

Ozmint and the rest of state government are wrestling with the loss of $1 billion in spending in a budget that started July 1 and has shrunk to $6 billion as a recession blew through the state's economy and finances. Now agencies are being told to present plans to cut more as the new fiscal year's budget is written.

Ozmint wants $32 million put back into his $342 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year. That includes $3.7 million for maintenance and gear. And he's struggling to keep pace with medical cost inflation and rising food costs.

Ozmint said manufacturer parts aren't available for the revolvers that have been in circulation since some of the prisons opened. And the protective vests prison guards wear - hand-me-downs from other law enforcement agencies - are worn out.