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Haley: Task force’s mission is urgent
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BY SEANNA ADCOX The Associated Press COLUMBIA — Gov. Nikki Haley told members of her domestic violence task force Tuesday to take the problem personally, saying if their effort fails, people die. The Republican governor led the first meeting of the group she created last month to come up with recommendations for stemming South Carolina’s generational cycles of domestic abuse. She told more than 40 people gathered at the Department of Juvenile Justice that their task involves evaluating how people respond to victims, not how the victim thinks. “Part of changing the culture is to stop trying to figure out how the victim thinks. We’re never going to fully understand the victim because we don’t live in their shoes,” Haley said during the 30-minute meeting. “It’s not about why; it’s about our response.” The group’s final report is not due until Dec. 31. But Haley laid out deadlines calling for interim reports due over four phases. South Carolina has long ranked among the nation’s worst states in violence against women. “If you think you don’t know anyone involved in a domestic violence situation, you’re not being honest with yourself,” Haley told the group. “We have no option to fail, because if we fail, someone dies.” The task force’s members represent wide-ranging fields, including law enforcement, courts, churches, health care, social services and cosmetology. Domestic violence survivor Elizabeth Gray said she endured years of abuse from her ex-husband before getting
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Man will serve 69 months for 2012 shooting death BY MATT BRUCE matthew@theitem.com PHOTO PROVIDED
frailty of current laws regarding how evidence is collected against drunken driving offenders. State law requires that field tests, arrests and breath tests be videotaped. As it stands, the law allows for cases to be dismissed for any technicality in the video-recording process, including obscured faces and feet, whether by darkness or the vehicle. Law enforcement and legislators want to put a stop to these “loopholes.”
A Sumter man scheduled to begin a murder trial Tuesday at the Sumter County Judicial Center instead pleaded guilty to lesser charges and was sentenced to five-plus years in prison. The developments came in the case of Mario Antwan Lloyd, 21, of 210 E. Newberry St. Lloyd faced the possibility of life behind bars when he entered the courtroom Tuesday to begin trial in the October 2012 shooting death of 34-year-old Kevin LLOYD Donnell Jones. But after a late-morning plea hearing, he walked out of the courtroom with less than three years remaining on his sentence. A circuit court judge issued Lloyd, who pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, a 5-year, 9-month sentence as part of a negotiated plea deal struck by attorneys on both sides. The sentence credited him for the 25 months he served behind bars awaiting this
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Above is a dashcam video of a DUI stop in which the driver got her case thrown out because her back foot could not be seen while walking a straight line. Third Circuit Solicitor Ernest “Chip” Finney III watches dash cam video which highlights why changes to South Carolina’s drinking and driving laws were proposed in Columbia on Tuesday. KEITH GEDAMKE / THE SUMTER ITEM
Law enforcement, legislators meet to discuss reform of DUI law ‘loopholes’ BY HAMLET FORT hamlet@theitem.com Lawmakers and S.C.’s law enforcement officials met Tuesday in Columbia to encourage the reform of drinking and driving laws in South Carolina that allow many offenders to get off on technicalities. State senators and representatives, victims advocates and members of statewide sheriff and police departments convened to demonstrate the
Obama requests authorization to take fight to Islamic State BY DEB RIECHMANN AND NEDRA PICKLER The Associated Press WASHINGTON — The White House circulated a proposal Tuesday to authorize the Pentagon to fight Islamic State terrorists without an “enduring offensive combat” role, an ambiguous phrase designed to satisfy lawmakers with widely varying views on the need for U.S. ground operations. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J, describing the proposal to reporters, said President Obama would seek an authorization for the use of force that would expire after three years. It would end the approval for operations in Iraq
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that Congress passed in 2002. Menendez spoke after he and other Democratic senators met privately with top White House aides, on the eve of an anticipated formal request for legislation from the president. “Hopefully there will not be a significant delay in Congress acting,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest. The meetings unfolded against a fresh reminder of the threat posed by terrorists who occupy large areas of Syria and Iraq — the confirmed death of a 26-year-old American aid worker who had been held hostage by the group. Obama pledged to bring anyone responsible for Kayla Mueller’s captivity and death to justice “no matter how long
it takes.” Of immediate concern was a legislative struggle — the search for a compromise that could satisfy Democrats who oppose the use of American ground forces in the fight against ISIS, and Republicans who favor at least leaving the possibility open. Menendez, in describing the White House’s opaque formulation, said it remained subject to modification. “That’s where the rub will be” as the White House tries to win approval for the legislation, he said. One influential Republican, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said it was “bizarre” for Obama to be asking lawmakers to limit his own power as commander in chief.
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Broken glass remains at the scene of a suicide bomb attack at Adan Square, located in a predominantly Shiite part of the capital, Baghdad, Iraq, on Monday. President Obama was expected to ask Congress for new war powers, sending Capitol Hill his blueprint for an updated authorization for the use of military force to fight the Islamic State group.
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