Monday, Nov. 09, 2009

The Carolinas | City can be seen on Discovery show

South Carolina

CHARLESTON

City can be seen on Discovery show

Fans of "Dr. G: Medical Examiner" might see some familiar sites during tonight's episode.

Dr. Jan Garavaglia, TV star and medical examiner, toured Berchtold Corporation's Charleston showroom earlier this year while shopping for new LED medical lights for her Orlando, Fla.-based facilities.

Footage from that visit is expected to air at 9 p.m. today on the Discovery Health Channel.

Jim Wetzel, vice president of global marketing for Berchtold, said the company took Garavaglia, who goes by "Dr. G" and her crew out to see the city the night before.

The next day the company showed off their technology on-camera.

The lighting is important because it allows Garavaglia to examine the color of the properties of the tissue and see down dark cavities -- all necessary to help determine how someone died, Wetzel said.

"She has some very big cases she has to be very accurate with," he said.

MONCKS CORNER

Dangerous road getting makeover

The spot where Black Tom Road hits a two-lane section of U.S. 17 near Moncks Corner is a challenge every day for parents driving their children to and from nearby Whitesville Elementary School.

Cars back up waiting to get out, and wrecks happen when drivers mistakenly think somebody is letting them out and traffic keeps moving, officials say.

Berkeley County Supervisor Dan Davis recently characterized the two-lane section of U.S. 17 between Goose Creek and Moncks Corner as the most dangerous stretch of road in Berkeley County. He said more than a dozen people have died on the road in the last five years.

Black Tom Road will be realigned with Gaillard Road across the highway and a traffic light installed. The project should be finished in the summer of 2012.

It's estimated that widening the highway will cost $22 million. .

CHARLESTON

Teachers' supply 'store' growing

The nonprofit that gives teachers the opportunity to "shop" for free school supplies has grown and expanded again.

The Teachers' Supply Closet in West Ashley had allowed teachers from 10 high-poverty schools in Charleston and Berkeley counties to take advantage of its goodies, but now teachers in 21 schools can shop there.

Teachers can go to the Teachers' Supply Closet and pick up free school supplies for their classrooms with no strings attached, and it appears to be the only store of its kind in the state. The store opened in spring 2008 to six Charleston County elementary schools where more than 95 percent of students live in poverty. As awareness and support for the nonprofit has risen, so has its ability to serve more teachers.

COLUMBIA

New immigration law catches some

Sixteen businesses have been cited so far by state officials under the state's new immigration law.

The citations totaled more than $60,000 in penalties, but almost all were waived under the law's provision that first-time offenders be allowed to escape fines if they correct their verification system, said Jim Knight, spokesman for the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.

"We have about a 97 percent compliance rate, which is excellent, we think," he said.

The 16 businesses were cited from about 600 that have been checked since July, Knight said.

He said the violations range from a company not having any verification system at all, to not verifying all of the new hires in the required time period, to using non-approved methods for verification, such as a permanent resident card or an unapproved driver's license.

The new immigration law calls for enforcement of new worker verification beginning this July for businesses of more than 100 employees and next July for smaller businesses.

The law requires businesses to verify a new employee's legal status within five days of their hiring using either the federal electronic database, E-Verify, a South Carolina driver's license, or the driver's license from one of 26 approved states.

Companies can avoid fines if they correct the violations within 72 hours of the citation, verifying or terminating the workers in question, Knight said, and are first-time offenders.

North Carolina

SYLVA

Retirement home fire kills one

One person died and another was injured in a fire at a retirement community in western North Carolina.

The Asheville Citizen Times reported Sunday that rescue workers received a report at 2:08 a.m. of a fire at Jackson Village, a retirement community in Sylva.

Sylva police chief Jeff Jamison said a breezeway connecting apartments caught fire, destroying the four apartments it connected. Officials say 76-year-old Forrest Lee Aikens lived in one of those apartments and died at the scene.

Another resident was injured after jumping from the second story to escape the flames. Jamison wasn't sure of the nature of the resident's injuries, but said they were not life-threatening. The resident was transported to Mission Hospital for treatment.

Jamison said the cause of the fire is still under investigation.