Free Republic

Former Vice President Joe Biden attacked President Donald Trump on Wednesday for downplaying the threat of the coronavirus earlier this year to discourage panic — but he himself told Americans not to panic about the disease. Sean Hannity aired archival footage on Fox News of Biden speaking to supporters in Sumter, South Carolina, on Feb. 28 — one day before Biden won the state’s primary, securing his first victory in three presidential campaigns and creating a path to the nomination

A Squadron from Shaw Air Force base will be deployed next week to the Middle East, Lt. Keavy Rake with Shaw Air Force Base said Friday. Rake said Shaw will be sending F-16's to "join the airstrike fight" in the Middle East. Rake could not confirm what day the team would be leaving or how many personnel would be going. Shaw is the home to three F-16 squadrons: the 55th Fighter Squadron, 77th Fighter Squadron and the 79th Fighter Squadron.

SUMTER, S.C. - Authorities say a 33-year-old man beat a woman to death with a hammer in a Sumter County home and hurt her 14-year-old daughter and a disabled woman in the home. Investigators said one of the injured women managed to call 911 on Saturday morning, and deputies arrested Jason Compton as he stood outside smoking a cigarette. Deputies say Compton beat the 44-year-old woman, then forced the woman's 14-year-old daughter to see what he had done. He continued beating the mother when the teen refused to have sex.

SUMTER, SC (WIS)- Police in Sumter are investigating the attempted armed robbery of a jewelry store that ended with the suspect shooting himself in the head. Sumter Police say officers were called to Galloway and Moseley Fine Jewelers on North Guigard Drive for an attempted armed robbery Thursday morning. Police say just before 8 a.m., the man tried to rob two employees as they opened the store. Chief Russell Roark says one of the store employees holds a concealed weapons permit and was armed. Roark says the employee drew his gun in self-defense and pointed it toward the suspect. Roark...

For the first time since 2000, a black Republican is running in South Carolina's black-majority 6th Congressional District. The Rev. Leon Winn, a Baptist minister and retired small businessman, says the key to defeating incumbent Democrat Jim Clyburn is to convince GOP voters to go to the polls and to convince Democrats not to vote a straight party ticket. The 58-year-old Winn says race is important because the district was gerrymandered as a black majority district. He says he's targeting younger voters who were not those who first put Clyburn in office more than 20 years ago. Winn says he'd...

Some guns purchased privately at a Phoenix turn in event Sumter, South Carolina, will be having a gun turn in even on 10 August, 2013.  While these events are commonly labeled with the propaganda term "buyback" the guns were never owned by the people attempting to buy them. The event will be held at two locations:Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 325 W. Fulton St. and Alice Drive Baptist Church, 1305 Loring Mill Road.  The events are scheduled to run from 10 am to 2 pm.  People often turn up early at these events. The incentives for the gun turn...

A South Carolina man has pleaded guilty to a federal fraud charge in a scheme authorities say includes severed limbs. Gerald B. Hardin of Cayce admitted in federal court in Columbia on Tuesday that he was part of an insurance fraud scheme. Hardin told Judge Cameron Currie that he used a pole saw to cut off the hand of a mentally disabled man in Sumter County in 2008. Federal prosecutors say another man filed insurance claims based on the injury and collected more than $671,000. In exchange for his participation, Hardin said that man loaned him money for a down...

The communications director for U.S. Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., recently made comments comparing the likeability of the congressman's opponent to that of the world's most well-known terrorist. On Wednesday, Columbia's Free Times published a story quoting Spratt Communications Director Wayne Wingate as saying, "If Osama bin Laden ran in this district as a Republican, he would get 38 to 40 percent of the vote in any election year." State Sen. Mick Mulvaney, R-Indian Land, is running against Spratt to represent South Carolina's 5th Congressional District in Washington. A day after the comment was published, Wingate said he was standing by...

One of the longest-running medical practices in Sumter has closed its doors - in large part, one of its partners says, because Medicare can't keep up with skyrocketing health care costs. Internal Medical Associates PA, which started in 1968, fielded patients for the last time Friday. The practice, which was located for 36 years at 244 Church St., consisted of four medical doctors with a combined 115 years experience. Dr. Lea B. Givens, 81, helped start the practice 42 years ago and is battling a serious illness. Dr. Hugh Stoddard Jr. worked for 32 years at the practice, and Dr....

On Wednesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detained 25 illegal aliens who attempted to enter Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, SC. All of the were carrying fake identification and worked for a contractor doing work on the base. According to ICE, two of the illegal aliens were being held in the Charleston County Jail, as they were wanted on other charges. The other 23 were released pending deportation hearings. The foreign nationals were working for Palacio Drywall of Cornelius. The company is being used as a subcontractor for Caddel Construction Co. of Montgomery, Alabama.

SHAW AIR FORCE BASE - You could hear them coming long before you could see them, but that didn't stop people from looking up whenever they heard the distinctive roar of several jet engines. The Air Force Thunderbirds arrived Thursday afternoon to get a feel for how their performance flights will go during ShawFest this weekend. The eight-member Thunderbird squadron has not performed in Sumter since 2005. But they will once again fly over Shaw Air Force Base as part of ShawFest 2010. Other than the Thunderbirds, the Army Golden Knights and the Navy FA-18 Super Hornet demonstration team will...

Wateree Community Actions Is… · An Empowering Facility in the Community - It builds, rehabilitates and weatherizes houses for clients. - It introduces its clients to the political process. - It brokers for clients to help them gain access to services and information. - It sponsors employment training, hands-on work experience, and does job development for clients. - It teaches clients self-help and life skills to become self-sufficient. - It exposes to clients opportunities available to them. * An Economic Enhancer in the Community, an Added Value - Annually it brings into the area over 11 million dollars, which translate...

SHAW AIR FORCE BASE -- Less than five minutes before Airman 1st Class Eric Rigsby, 24, stepped off a plane that brought him from Afghanistan to his the Air Force base in Sumter, his wife could barely talk about his return. "I'm so glad," Jill Rigsby said, choking up. "It's been a long time." The couple's first deployment sent Eric Rigsby and more than 200 other airmen from Shaw's 79th Aircraft Maintenance Unit to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in early October 2009, where they became part of the 79th Air Expeditionary Force deployment. Troop Commander Maj. Langdon Root said...

SHAW AIR FORCE BASE (AP) – Members of the 79th Fighter Squadron are heading home to South Carolina from their first-ever deployment to Afghanistan. Shaw Air Force Base spokeswoman 2nd Lt. Emily Chilson says members of the unit were scheduled to return sometime late Friday. Hundreds of airmen and about a dozen F-16 Fighting Falcons headed to Afghanistan in October in support of NATO efforts there. The group included members of the 20th Equipment Maintenance Squadron on the four-month long deployment. Squadron commander Lt. Col. Ken Ekman said at the time that the squadron would fly missions supporting ground combat...

A 59-year-old convenience store owner was shot in the arm Friday night during an armed robbery, and the suspects are on the loose. A report shows police responded about 10:21 p.m. to Dev's One Stop at 2041 U.S. 521 — also known as Thomas Sumter Highway — in reference to a 911 call of shots fired during an armed robbery. The store's owner, Kanu Patel, told officers two black men in dark clothes and ski masks entered the store and robbed him at gunpoint, then fled across the street toward a car wash. A 22-year-old man in the store said...

The Sumter metropolitan area is the third-most dangerous in the nation for pedestrians, according to a recently released national study. Sumter is the most dangerous area for pedestrians in South Carolina, which itself ranks as the third-most dangerous in the country, according to the report, titled "Dangerous By Design" and released by Transportation for America. The organization is a national coalition advocating for safer and more efficient transportation in the United States. Only Macon, Ga., and Punta Gorda, Fla., are more dangerous for pedestrians than Sumter, according to the study. The report uses a measure called the Pedestrian Danger Index,...

SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, SC (WIS) - Two Air Force F-16 jets based out of Shaw Air Force Base collided off the coast of South Carolina Thursday night, and one of them is missing. Air Force officials said the fighters were assigned to the 20th Fighter Wing collided in mid-air over the Atlantic Ocean about 8:30pm on Thursday near Myrtle Beach. The aircraft were participating in night training maneuvers, officials said. The aircraft carried one person each. One F-16 was able to land safely at Charleston AFB, and the pilot is being examined by Air Force medical personnel. The location...

MANNING, SC (WIS) - A 11-year-old Sumter girl who attended Laurence Manning Academy has died according to her family. Ashley Pipkin's family says she died while riding in an ambulance headed to Palmetto Health Richland hospital in Columbia around 2pm Wednesday. Hospital officials say Pipkin died of pneumonia from flu-like symptoms she had been suffering from. Pipkin's family adds Ashley had already visited Tuomey Medical Center in Sumter twice for the same issues. Ashley's mom, Brandi, says the 5th grader felt fine last Friday and didn't feel any symptoms until Monday when she woke up sick. Brandi says Ashley was...

It has come to my attention that there was a peaceful display of opinion here recently in Sumter in which someone held a sign stating that a village in Kenya is missing a idiot. Well, seems as if people have a lot of time on their hands to sit in analysis of this when what they should be doing is simply work and get something done. It's really getting tiring to hear that if the organization of the NAACP doesn't like one little thing, all of the sudden the race card comes out over anything they see fit. Free speech,...

Chuck Lustig thinks the federal government hasn't done anything in the last 50 years without screwing it up. Lusting, 74, retired from the U.S. Air Force as a lieutenant colonel after 21 years of service and flew aerial reconnaissance during the Vietnam War. He loves his country but is extremely worried about the future. "I'm afraid we're going to lose our country," he said on Saturday afternoon, as he held a sign with pictures of two South Carolina congressmen — Rep. James Clyburn, D-6th District and Rep. John Spratt, D-5th District — wearing dunce hats. The sign's message didn't mince...