Category: News

The South Carolina Department of Education reports that the state high school dropout rate declined for the fourth straight year. The department announces that 5,232 high school students dropped out in the 2011-2012 federal fiscal year. That is nearly 670 fewer students than a year earlier and 2,800 fewer than in 2007-08. Oconee County Schools Superintendent Dr. Mike Lucas gives the dropout figures for the […]

An Upstate woman will spend the next 11 years behind bars after pleading to child abuse charges.  Tenth Judicial Circuit Solicitor Chrissy Adams announces that 38-year-old Renita Lee pled guilty in Anderson General Sessions Court. The Honorable Alex Macaulay sentenced her to seven years in prison. Lee will also be placed on the Child Abuse Registry.  On April 17, 2012, deputies […]

A man who made threats against campus has been released from jail after pleading guilty.  Clemson University Police announce that 33-year-old David Reed Graham pleaded guilty to breach of trust with fraudulent intent and received a five-year sentence, suspended to three years of probation with one year of intensive probation. Clemson University Police charged Graham because of the theft of more […]

The Department of Justice has favorably resolved three actions it filed in Arizona, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, to seize and condemn dietary supplements containing the unsafe food additive 1, 3-dimethylamylamine, commonly known as DMAA, an amphetamine-like stimulant that has been linked to at least 86 adverse health events.  According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and federal law, […]

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) introduced an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2014 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act to prohibit the federal government from bailing out municipalities like Detroit, which are facing bankruptcy. Several Members of Congress have suggested the federal government should step in an assist Detroit.  In addition, just last week President Obama’s former ‘car […]

A company plans to invest $1 million and create five new jobs in the City of Seneca.  COE Optics, LLC, a leading provider of optical research and development solutions, announced plans to establish its new research manufacturing operations in Oconee County. This decision represents a $1 million investment and is expected to generate five new highly-skilled research intensive jobs. “We […]

Members of four rural Oconee County fire departments took part last weekend in a training exercise in which they shuttled water from one location to another. Having the ability to quickly transport water, according to Oconee County Fire Chief Charlie King, is essential in areas where no or few hydrants exist. The focus of last Saturday’s training for the Fair […]

The police have arrested and charged a 31-year old woman with telephoning two bomb threats to the Seneca branch of South Carolina Bank and Trust. Melissa Ann Barksdale of the Shiloh Road was arrested yesterday on warrants charging her with telephoning the bank twice the morning of May 28 and claiming a bomb was in the By-Pass 123 bank. According […]

Oconee libraries are uncomfortable with a new duty that the chairman of the county board of trustees describes as having been suddenly put to them. It’s that role of being a connection point for those applying for state unemployment benefits. The matter came up during this week’s meeting of the library trustees, according to Chairman Danny Day. The problems the […]