TheSunNews.com: Local

Crimes up during holiday weekend in Myrtle Beach

Mon, 28 May 2012 19:54 EDT

Extra traffic in town for Memorial Day in Myrtle Beach had police working overtime.

Capt. David Knipes, spokesman for Myrtle Beach police, said it’s something the agency plans for every year. Extra officers are brought in to handle the volume of calls that skyrockets with the influx of tourists.

“Obviously it’s a three-day weekend,” Knipes said. “It’s a combination of the long weekend, Military Appreciation Days and [Atlantic Beach] Bikefest all rolled into one.”

Myrtle Beach area ceremonies give a heroes' welcome to Memorial Day

Mon, 28 May 2012 21:53 EDT

MYRTLE BEACH They came alone, in pairs, as a rumbling motorcycle caravan.

They came in uniforms, in business suits, in red, white and blue.

They gathered at ceremonies in Georgetown County, Horry County and Brunswick County, N.C.

Beryl to bring rain to the Myrtle Beach area starting Tuesday

Mon, 28 May 2012 23:52 EDT

The storm that dampened Memorial Day beach vacations in Florida and Georgia will start affecting Horry County on Tuesday and could have lingering effects through Friday.

What was Tropical Storm Beryl is now reduced to a tropical depression that is expected to bring 30 mph winds and rain to Myrtle Beach as early as Tuesday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service in Wilmington, N.C.

At 7:30 p.m. Monday, Beryl was still hovering over Georgia and was slowly moving towards Myrtle Beach. The first bands of the storm were expected to move into the area overnight Monday with slim chances of rainfall and isolated thunderstorms from Florence to Myrtle Beach. Beryl could drop 2.5 inches of rain in the area starting Tuesday afternoon with the heaviest rain falling later in the night, according to the NWS. More rain is likely through Friday, with the storm expected to mix with a cold front late Wednesday.

Two armed suspects shoot at vehicle during attempted robbery at Myrtle Beach ATM

Mon, 28 May 2012 18:37 EDT

Myrtle Beach police are searching for two men suspected of trying to rob a woman at an ATM and shooting at a car as the driver tried to leave the parking lot, according to a police report.

Officers were called at 10:15 p.m. Sunday to 2501 N. Oak St., for an attempted armed robbery and gunshots fired, police said.

When officers arrived they spoke to a 49-year-old woman, who said she was with two men that drove her to the Automated Teller Machine to get cash, according to the report. The woman said as she walked up to the ATM from the parking lot, a man, who had a bandanna covering his face, stepped out from behind the ATM and yelled for no one to move.

Myrtle Beach Notebook | Organic community garden will help the hungry

Mon, 28 May 2012 22:00 EDT

While many people attended Memorial Day ceremonies on Monday morning, there was a ceremony of another kind going on at the Good Shepherd Anglican Church in Myrtle Beach.

The Rev. Creighton Jones and about a dozen others gathered at the back of the church to bless a community garden that’s growing there.

Jones sprinkled holy water and, with fellow church leaders’ help, asked God to help the garden so it can help others.

Things to do in the Myrtle Beach area on May 29

Thu, 24 May 2012 11:01 EDT

CCU hosts ‘Continual Condition’

“Continual Condition,” pop-culture paintings and collages by Craig Hill, continues through June 13. Details at 349-6454 or www.coastal.edu/bryanartgallery.

Details | 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays and 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Fridays in Coastal Carolina University Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery, in Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts, in Conway, for free.

Myrtle Beach woman reports attempted rape

Mon, 28 May 2012 21:58 EDT

Police are looking for a man who reportedly tried to rape a woman in Myrtle Beach Monday afternoon.

The woman, whose age was redacted in the police report, said she left her apartment and started to talk to her neighbor and his friend introduced as Jack. She was headed to the Alliance Inn and he offered to walk with her saying he was meeting friends on Dunbar Street, the report said.

When they reached the area of 8th Avenue North and Cedar Street the man started telling the woman how pretty and sexy she was and said “I’m going to take that, I get what I want,” according to the report.

Police roundup | Man dies after being struck by car, girlfriend charged

Mon, 28 May 2012 21:53 EDT

Police

BRUNSWICK COUNTY, N.C.

Man hit by car, girlfriend charged

Questions surround shooting of naked man eating another man’s face

Mon, 28 May 2012 18:12 EDT

Only the police tape, the bloodstain on the ground and a grotesque mystery remained after the brutal attack on the MacArthur Causeway in which one naked man was shot dead by police after he attacked another naked man and began eating his face.

Drivers coming back from Miami Beach on the causeway took their feet off the gas, bike riders slowed down and dog walkers stopped to look at the scene of Saturday afternoon’s macabre assault, which generated international headlines.

They didn’t see much. The scene had been cleaned up

Doctors test new approach for stubborn hypertension

Mon, 28 May 2012 18:18 EDT

“Maxed out on the medications,” is how Bill Ezzell describes his struggle with blood pressure. It’s dangerously high even though the N.C. man swallows six different drugs a day.

Hypertension may be the nation’s sneakiest epidemic, a time bomb that’s a leading cause of heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure, and one that’s growing worse as the population rapidly grows older.

Despite an arsenal of drugs, millions of people in the United States can’t get their blood pressure down to safe levels. Now, in a high-stakes experiment at dozens of hospitals, scientists are testing a dramatically different approach for the toughest to treat patients, by burning away some overactive nerves deep in the body that can fuel rising blood pressure.

Obama says Vietnam veterans too often ‘denigrated’

Mon, 28 May 2012 18:02 EDT

Paying tribute to dead soldiers and their families, President Obama said Monday that the nation had reached a “milestone” of relative peace, noting the end of the Iraq war and plans to end America's role in the Afghan war.

“After a decade under a dark cloud of war we can see the light of a new day on the horizon,” Obama told a crowd of military families gathered at Arlington National Cemetery to commemorate Memorial Day.

Obama made his remarks after laying a wreath laden with red and white roses at the Tomb of the Unknowns, a presidential tradition each Memorial Day.

Convern about diseases spreads with new ticks across Southeast

Mon, 28 May 2012 18:37 EDT

In the trees and grasses of the South, there are a growing number of unwanted visitors that at best are an itchy nuisance and at worst can carry debilitating diseases: Ticks.

Public health officials say that numbers of reported cases of diseases like Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever are not yet alarming and have not yet shown a definitive trend upward from a national perspective. But they do worry that more ticks means more of a risk that those diseases will spike.

And scientists are finding species of ticks not seen before in the region – just ask pediatric nurse Maria Mekeel, who has plucked 37 of the arachnids off herself and her husband over two months of dog walks.

Many men reject experts’ advice on skipping prostate test

Mon, 28 May 2012 18:45 EDT

They’re at it again – trying to deny lifesaving cancer tests.

That was the reaction from many men last week after a top-level task force bucked two decades of medical practice and recommended against routine use of a common blood test to check for prostate cancer.

The PSA test does more harm than good, the group said. It pointed to two huge, expensive studies, which involved 259,000 men in the United States and Europe, that found that routine PSA testing of healthy men saved, at best, one life per thousand. And the tests drove many men to get expensive treatment – surgery, radiation, chemotherapy – they didn’t need. That’s the harm part.

Southeast tries to work with persistent drought

Mon, 28 May 2012 19:46 EDT

The persistent drought across the Southeast forced Ashley Ergle to put his dock on wheels.

The 45-year-old homeowner on Strom Thurmond Lake spent a couple of thousand dollars to be able to extend his dock several dozen feet because the water always seems to be below normal these days.

“I decided I was going to have to chase the lake if I was going to enjoy it,” said Ergle, whose home is on the lake along the South Carolina-Georgia state line. His grandfather bought the land for $500 in the 1950s when the lake was built.

As Edwards jury deliberates, how long is too long?

Mon, 28 May 2012 19:54 EDT

With the jury at the John Edwards trial set to begin deliberations for a seventh day on Tuesday, speculation grows that the 12 people charged with deciding the fate of the former presidential candidate may be deadlocked.

Edwards faces six felony charges in a case involving nearly $1 million provided by two wealthy political donors to help hide the Democrat's pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008.

To determine Edwards' guilt or innocence, the jury must sift through notes from 17 days of testimony and review about 500 trial exhibits, many of them voluminous phone and financial records. They must not only determine whether the candidate knew about the secret payments, which he has denied, but whether he realized he was violating federal law by allowing them.

Motorcycle rallies winding down across Grand Strand

Mon, 28 May 2012 10:52 EDT

Though statistics won’t be available until later this week, the weekend seemed busy, at least from area police officers’ perspectives, as the Harley-Davidson Spring Cruisin’ the Coast and Bike Fest motorcycle rallies began to wind down.

“Each year is different, so it’s hard to compare them, for me,” said Myrtle Beach Police Capt. David Knipes on Sunday afternoon. “But it has been busy today. There are a lot of people in town.”

This weekend is also the culmination of the city’s Military Appreciation Days, which would also contribute to larger numbers of people in town.

Shots fired at Myrtle Beach bank, police searching for shooters

Sun, 27 May 2012 22:59 EDT

Two men attempted to rob a woman at an ATM in the 2500 block of Oak Street in Myrtle Beach on Sunday night, and fired several shots, and two bullets hit the woman’s Dodge Stratus.

As of 11 p.m., officers had not located the two suspects, but continued to search the area.

Myrtle Beach Police Lt. Doug Furlong said a perimeter has been set up around the Bank of America branch on Oak Street, where the incident occurred just before 10:30 p.m. Officers are looking for two men who were wearing masks when they approached the woman at the ATM, he said.

Police | Two men arrested after armed robbery reported

Sun, 27 May 2012 22:30 EDT

Police

MYRTLE BEACH

Two arrested after armed robbery

Adjutant general sees remembrance, renewal in Myrtle Beach Memorial Day celebration

Sun, 27 May 2012 22:54 EDT

Memorial Day brings its own three Rs for the S.C. adjutant general: remembrance, renewal and a reminder of Americans’ resilience.

Army Maj. Gen. Robert E. Livingston Jr., who heads the S.C. state military department, including the S.C. Army and Air National Guards, speaks at the city of Myrtle Beach’s Military Appreciation Days closing ceremony at 5 p.m. Monday at Valor Memorial Garden in The Market Common.

He also served as grand marshal in the city’s Memorial Day weekend parade.

Things to do in the Myrtle Beach area on May 27

Sun, 27 May 2012 08:35 EDT

Cruise in

Hot Rod Promotions welcomes all cars at a cruise-in. Details at 503-8245.

Details | noon-3 p.m. at Big Lots, 1641 Church St. (U.S. 501), Conway, by Applebee’s, for free.