News from around The Carolinas

South Carolina

GREENVILLE

Body found outside church

Investigators are looking into the discovery of a man’s body found lying in front of a Greenville church.

Greenville County Deputy Coroner Mike Ellis says the body of 50-year-old Billy Joe Jamison was found Monday in front of Long Branch Baptist Church.

Ellis says Jamison likely died sometime between midnight and 2 a.m.

The coroner’s office says the cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries. But investigators are still trying to determine the manner of death – in other words, how Jamison came to be injured.

Investigators including the Greenville City Police Department are treating the death as suspicious.

SPARTANBURG

Man faces shooting charges

A Spartanburg County man faces being charged with four counts of attempted murder after investigators say he shot at sheriff’s deputies who were at his home to check on his well-being.

Sheriff’s office spokesman Lt. Tony Ivey says 63-year-old James Hugh Workman is currently at a local hospital recovering from non-life-threatening injuries. Ivey says the arrest warrants will be served once Workman is able to leave the hospital.

It wasn’t immediately clear Monday if he has a lawyer.

Deputies say they were called to Workman’s home in Inman on Christmas Eve after he gave a relative a note saying he was thinking about killing himself.

They say Workman fired a gun at them, and that he was wounded when deputies returned fire. None of the deputies was hurt.

GREENVILLE

Musician’s house destroyed in fire

Firefighters say members of a Greenville musician’s family were rescued by a neighbor from a fire that completely destroyed his home.

Boiling Springs firefighters say pianist Emile Pandolfi was unhurt in the Sunday blaze, but that four members of his family were trapped on the roof after the fire started.

George Genero, a neighbor, ran over with an extension ladder and helped them get down to safety.

Genero says it was lucky that he had recently borrowed the ladder.

Firefighters say the house and most of the family’s possessions were destroyed. Investigators are working to determine the cause of the blaze.

Pandolfi’s website says he has recorded more than two dozen albums and sold more than two million records since 1991.

North Carolina

HENDERSONVILLE

Clerk socks would-be robber

Police say a would-be robber who demanded money from a store clerk got a fistful.

Before he could run off with any cash, the clerk at the We Buy Gold store in Hendersonville punched him in the nose on Friday. Sgt. Dale Patton with the Hendersonville Police Department tells the Times-News of Hendersonville that 25-year-old Mostafa Kamel Hendi dropped to the floor.

The clerk, 26-year-old Derek Mothershead, then grabbed the gun – it turned out to be a pellet gun – and called police. Hendi lay bleeding on the floor until he was arrested.

Patton says the clerk was on high alert because the store had already been robbed once recently. Authorities are looking into whether Hendi was involved in that heist.

FAYETTEVILLE

Change in bill affects veterans in school

A recent change in federal law could mean huge tuition bills for hundreds of military veterans in North Carolina looking to attend college.

The Fayetteville Observer reports that since August, the G.I. Bill no longer pays out-of-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities.

For about 420 veterans who haven’t been in North Carolina long enough to establish residency, that could mean thousands of dollars in costs. And many veterans have been stationed in North Carolina too long to qualify for resident status in their home states.

The only option in many cases is to wait a year for resident status.

Mark Waple, a lawyer representing the Student Veterans Advocacy Group of North Carolina, says the organization is lobbying state and federal lawmakers for changes to the program.

RALEIGH

Professor appeals ruling on NCSU job

A professor who says her remarks about a Palestinian film cost her a job at North Carolina State University wants the state Supreme Court to review her case.

Lawyers for Terri Ginsberg filed an appeal this month of a ruling by the state Court of Appeals, which dismissed her lawsuit.

Ginsberg says her remarks in support of a Palestinian filmmaker at a public screening of his movie left her frozen out of consideration for a tenure-track job.

The appeals court ruled in November that Ginsberg failed to prove her remarks had anything to do with the university giving another candidate the job.

Ginsberg’s appeal argues that the court’s decision could harm free speech in academic settings.

From wire reports