News from around The Carolinas

South Carolina

CHARLESTON

MUSC to go tobacco-free by March

Tobacco will soon be banned from the Medical University of South Carolina.

The medical school’s campus will be a tobacco-free zone in March. President Ray Greenberg told employees in an email that part of MUSC’s mission is to prevent cancer and to lead by example with a healthy campus environment.

The new rules apply to faculty, students, volunteers, patients and visitors. They bar smoking in vehicles parked on MUSC property and even forbid smelling like cigarettes. Employees who repeatedly violate the policy could be fired.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND

Councilman pleads guilty to domestic violence; agrees to anger management

A Hilton Head Island councilman has pleaded guilty to criminal domestic violence after deputies responded to his home in January.

Town Councilman Bill Ferguson pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge Friday and agreed to complete anger management counseling to avoid jail. The 63-year-old has been on Town Council since 1993. He had faced a felony charge.

GREENVILLE

Man accused of lighting woman on fire

Greenville County authorities say a man is charged with pouring gasoline on a woman and setting her on fire. Greenville County Sheriff’s Master Deputy Jennings Autrey says deputies responded to a 911 call about 3:20 a.m. Saturday. The caller reported that a woman was on fire outside and screaming.

The victim was taken to a Greenville hospital and is expected to be moved to the burn center in Augusta, Ga. Deputies charged a man with attempted murder and burglary.

AIKEN

Golf cart incident leads to firing

A Savannah River Site employee has been fired, months after a golf cart accident at work sent him to the hospital. Officials confirmed Friday that the worker was fired for failing to follow safety procedures.

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions spokeswoman Barbara Smoak says an employee accidentally drove a golf cart into a gate post Sept. 30 and spent several days in the hospital. She says the employee may have been leaning down to reach something and may not have been wearing a seat belt.

North Carolina

RALEIGH

Wind farm faces bird-loving challengers

Environmental groups are fighting a planned wind farm near a wildlife refuge in northeastern North Carolina over fears the giant blades will kill migrating swans, geese and other fowl.

Construction on the 11,000-acre Pantego Wind Energy Facility was planned for next year. Plans for what could be North Carolina’s first commercial wind farm call for 49 turbines rising 492 feet, to the blade tip.

Several years ago, the U.S. Navy had to abandon its plans to build an airfield nearby over similar concerns about bird kills. Many of the same environmental groups who fought the Navy, and have long advocated for wind energy, are lining up against the wind farm in Beaufort County. They worry about more than 100,000 birds whose migrations in North Carolina typically begin this month.

WINSTON-SALEM

Sen. Hagan promotes Peace Corps

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan practiced her West African drumming skills Friday on a trip to Winston-Salem to promote the Peace Corps. She joined Peace Corps national director Aaron Williams as he travels the country and world celebrating the 50th anniversary of the organization. They led a panel discussion at Winston-Salem State University focused on recruiting minorities to the Peace Corps.

Hagan, whose nephew was a member of the Peace Corps, said the experience is probably worth as much, if not more, than a college education.

“It really shows you what the real world is like in so many other places,” she said. “And we don’t live in a bubble. We have to have an understanding of our global peers.”

WINSTON-SALEM

Legislator in stable condition after crash

State Rep. Larry Womble remained in critical but stable condition Saturday evening following a head-on collision in Winston-Salem near his home that killed another driver.

Friend and state Rep. Earline Parmon, a Winston-Salem Democrat, thanked the paramedics for their quick response and hospital staff caring for Womble.

Womble, D-Forsyth, has been in the House since 1995. His family asked that the public keep the other driver’s family in their thoughts and prayers.

LEXINGTON

Bell ringer tries to stop theft in progress

A bell ringer for The Salvation Army of Davidson County says she tried to stop a shoplifter outside a Big Lots.

Holly Rouse, 26, was manning a kettle Thursday morning when she noticed a man who didn’t go through checkout putting items in his pocket. She says when she told him to go back inside and pay, he pushed her.

She says she tackled him, but he got away, though she took down the license plate number of the vehicle he got into. Salvation Army corps administrator Les Ashby said Big Lots wants her outside the store for the rest of the season.

From wire reports