South Carolina

CONWAY

Democrat Senate recount set

Horry County will recount votes in a close Democrat Senate race on Monday.

The Horry County Elections Commission will conduct the recount for the Democrat Senate 32 race at 9 a.m. Monday in the Horry County Registration & Elections Office, 1515 Fourth Avenue in Conway. The state requires a recount when the vote difference is less than 1 percent.

Sen. Yancey McGill and challenger Cezar McKnight were separated by only 82 votes in the primary last week. The district includes parts of southwest Horry County (where McGill won handily) and much of western Georgetown County (where McGill also won by a solid margin).

The challenger took 1,642 votes more than McGill in Williamsburg County. The incumbent McGill managed to win the majority of voters from the rest of the representative counties, as he made up ground in Berkeley, Georgetown, Horry and Florence counties en route to posting 50.32 percent of the overall cast ballots in the race.

The final unofficial totals showed McGill with 6,375 votes and McKnight with 6,294 votes. With the separation between the two candidates so close, an automatic recount was triggered.

RICHLAND COUNTY

Officers train for Navy SEAL workout

The Richland County sheriff and 10 deputies are training for a 50-hour workout in California designed by a former Navy SEAL, with some of the training happening in Myrtle Beach.

The State newspaper reported that Sheriff Leon Lott and the deputies are training for a SEALFIT camp that's being held in July in Encinitas, Calif.

SEALFIT waived the $1,495 enrollment fee for each deputy, and the sheriff's department is paying the airfare through forfeited drug money.

The group has worked out for two hours each morning since February. They have spent a weekend at Myrtle Beach, where they ran through sand with huge logs on their shoulders and swam in ocean waves, which they'll face in California.

On Friday night, they trained in a 12-hour workout.

Participants range in age from the 58-year-old Lott to a 25-year-old deputy.

WINNSBORO

Divers find body of SC man

Divers have recovered the body of a man listed as a registered sex offender who disappeared while swimming in Lake Monticello.

Authorities recovered the body of 24-year-old Jonathan Kornegay of Chester County on Saturday afternoon. The Fairfield County Sheriff's Office says Kornegay swam outside the roped-off swimming area and didn't resurface.

The Department of Natural Resources says Kornegay was wearing a monitoring band on his ankle. But the device didn't help divers find him because the water disrupted its frequency.

The website of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division says Kornegay was convicted in 2009 of attempting to commit a lewd act on a minor.

Dive teams from several areas were training at the other end of the lake when they got the call to search for Kornegay.

North Carolina

CHARLOTTE

Thousands register for American Idol

They came armed with their fluorescent signs, their pink guitars and – of course - their singing talents, with one mission: to become the next American Idol.

Thousands of people from all across the southeast spent the early morning hours of Father’s Day camping outside of Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, waiting to pick up a wristband that they will need before the first round of auditions Tuesday.

Hopefuls will be viewed by teams of producers, who decide which acts will advance to the show’s judges in front of cameras.

This is the first time “Idol” has held auditions in Charlotte, and officials predict up to 15,000 could participate.

“The South always gives us the best talent but you really gotta narrow it down to the Carolinas,” said Patrick Lynn, supervising producer for American Idol. “It’s been a long time coming for us to come to Charlotte.”

Several Idol contestants and winners have come from North Carolina, including season two runner-up Clay Aiken, season three winner Fantasia Barrino, season five contestants Chris Daughtry and Kellie Pickler and others.

“What draws us to a city is whether we think we’re going to find good talent there,” said Lynn. “This is like the epicenter for Idol.”

FORT BRAGG

Soldier based in NC dies in Afghanistan

The military says a 31-year-old paratrooper from the 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg has died in Afghanistan.

The Defense Department said Sunday that Staff Sgt. Nicholas C. Fredsti of San Diego, Calif., was on patrol Friday in Spedar when insurgents attacked his unit with small arms fire. He died from his injuries after being evacuated.

He was promoted posthumously to staff sergeant and awarded the Bronze Star Medal and the Purple Heart.

Fredsti joined the Army in August 2000, graduating from the U.S. Army Airborne school later that year. He deployed twice to Afghanistan and once to Iraq before leaving again for Ghazni, Afghanistan, earlier this year.

He is survived by his father and mother, Carl and Sherry Fredsti of San Diego.

From wire reports, McClatchy Newspapers