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Fairfield County Sheriff's deputies used an informant and marked bills to purchase $50 worth of cocaine from Kenneth Surratt at his home.

A subsequent search turned up more than 20 grams of crack and cocaine, scales and baggies. Officers also found $980 in Surratt's bedroom, including one of the marked bills, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

The charge brings a maximum sentence of $2 million and 40 years in prison. Judge Cameron Currie accepted the plea and will sentence Surratt at a later date, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

-- Kelly Davis

The New York native started collecting original comic strip art decades ago, amassing and selling off such important cultural icons as Donald Duck, the evil queen in Snow White and autographed Peanuts strips.

Although those same strips were worth only a few hundred dollars when he sold them in the 1980s, many of them are now valued at thousands of dollars.

Now, the Woodside Plantation retiree wishes he would have held onto some of them a little longer

"I was paying $35 a strip from people who had them and selling them for $50," Martone said of Peanuts strips. "After he (cartoonist Charles Schulz) died, they just went up in value."

Officials at Draytonville Elementary School and Ewing Middle School told WHNS-TV in Greenville that both schools were locked down Friday morning after officers responded to reports of shots being fired in a neighborhood about a mile away.

A woman at the elementary school told the station the school was locked down after reports of a shooting at a residential subdivision about a mile away. The woman was not identified and the school's line was busy on later calls. The principal of the middle school and a spokeswoman for the district did not immediately return phone messages Friday.

No injuries have been reported.

A spokesman for the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office did not immediately return a voice message Friday.

While neighborhood leader Jim Jaco sees the new poles as an improvement, others shook their heads.

“Our neighborhood plan all along has been to return the avenue to a pedestrian street,” said Bob Guild, a long-time resident of the Granby mill village. “Putting ugly power poles through there is a step backward.”

Previously, power lines ran down the median of “The Avenue,” where electric street cars used to rumble.

But the old power lines weren’t as prominent as the new ones, said fellow neighborhood leader Larry Gates.

She's taught fashion in West Africa and mathematics from Philadelphia to Washington D.C., and even Barbados in the West Indies.

But she left her big city life when an opportunity presented itself on a routine drive from Florida.

"At the time, I was teaching day school, night school and Saturday school and seeing as many as 600 different students a week in the very overcrowded Maryland school system," she said. "I had an aunt that lived in Florida and she'd been talking about moving back to New Jersey, so one day when moving her stuff back and forth, we stopped in Florence and I picked up an Assist-2-Sell paper and found the property."

Baronda said it had been her dream to someday own enough land to start a subdivision filled with all her family members. The ad she saw was for 38 acres: 30 in Darlington County and eight in Chesterfield County.

Joe Brown died in April at age 62 in Rock Hill, after coming home years ago to drive a truck for a living. But he left a legacy that lasts in the memories of those who heard him.

The Thrashing Wonders, which would open for the largest gospel groups of that era, at gigs before thousands, had three Rock Hill members at different times. Joe Brown, Billie Brown and Willie Roach. Roach, nicknamed "Blues Man," even was able to make his living in music, with the Thrashing Wonders and other groups, before coming home to Rock Hill in the late 1980s

"Joe had this mellow, mellow voice," Roach said. "A versatile voice. Really, he could handle all of it."

Based in New York but playing up and down the Eastern Seaboard, the group made a reputation on the black gospel circuit. Some of those groups turned to rhythm and blues and found stardom. Others, such as the Thrashing Wonders, stayed with gospel and never became household names outside the core group of fans.

The Charlotte Observer reported Friday that Special Superior Court Judge Karl Adkins will be replaced by Raleigh lawyer Cressie Thigpen Jr.

Easley spokesman Seth Effron wouldn't comment on why Adkins wasn't reappointed. Adkins also declined comment.

Easley picked Adkins in 2005 to fill the remaining three years of a judgeship vacated when Democrat Rep. G.K. Butterfield was appointed to Congress. Adkins' term ended in December.

Adkins was placed on probation in March after pleading guilty to DWI. During a traffic stop last year, Adkins' alcohol level was measured at 0.08. State law makes it illegal to drive with an alcohol level of 0.08 or more.

For the fourth month in a row, the economy lost jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday. But in April the losses totaled 20,000, an improvement from the 81,000 reductions in payrolls logged in March. Job losses for both February and March turned out to be a bit deeper than previously reported.

The latest snapshot of the nationwide employment conditions - while clearly still weak - was better than many economists were anticipating. They were bracing for job cuts of 75,000 and for the unemployment rate to climb to 5.2 percent.

The unemployment rate, derived from a different statistical survey than the payroll figures, fell to 5 percent from 5.1 percent in March. That survey showed more people finding employment than those who didn't.

Businesses are handing out pink slips as they cope with an economy that is teetering on the edge of a recession, or possibly in one already. A severe housing slump, harder-to-get credit and financial turmoil have forced people and businesses to be more cautious in their spending. And that has hurt the economy.

A $12 million renovation project at Charleston's Grace Episcopal church is being delayed because a family of red-tailed hawks is nesting in the steeple.

The Post and Courier of Charleston reported Friday that it's against the law to move the birds. So, that means the congregation has to wait about two months until the chicks are hatched and able to fly before they can complete the project.

The delay will cost the church about $60,000, the price of renting the scaffolding that's already in place.

The church's rector, the Rev. Canon Michael Wright, says the hawks are a reminder that the world is bigger than man's individual struggles.

The Island Packet of Hilton Head reports that Paul Danao appeared in court Thursday and remains in the Beaufort County jail.

Danao was arrested on April 12 after bomb-making materials and child pornography were found in his van.

Earlier this week, the Bluffton man also was charged with two counts of performing lewd acts on children. Authorities say he molested two 6-year-old girls he was baby-sitting.

A bond hearing on those charges has not been set.

The Times and Democrat of Orangeburg reports that 29-year-old Oscar Beecher McDowell was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty to killing 31-year-old Ruby Rawls.

McDowell also was sentenced to 25 years for arson.

Rawls' mutilated body was found in her burned Cordova home in February 2007. Authorities said her hands and legs had been cut, and her genitals had been mutilated. She had also been shot a dozen times.

Prosecutor David Pascoe called the crime one of the most gruesome he had ever seen.

Solicitor Chrissy Adams told The Independent-Mail of Anderson Thursday that the tapes are part of an ongoing investigation.

Nathan Dickson was arrested April 26 and charged with murder in the deaths of his father, brother, stepmother and stepsister.

The Independent-Mail reports that at least two 911 calls were placed the day of the shootings - one by a neighbor and one by Andy Dickson, the suspect's father, after he was shot.

Services for Dickson's father and brother are scheduled for Friday afternoon at Robinson Chapel in Easley.

A Spartanburg County jury found 24-year-old Santiago Rios guilty of murder Thursday after a four-day trial.

Authorities say Rios shot 22-year-old Eliza Hernandez in the face in November 2006 in their home.

Deputies say Rios first told them three armed men broke into the home and shot his wife during a struggle, but backed away from the story after no blood was found where Rios said the fight happened.

A witness at the trial said Hernandez was shot moments after the couple went into a bedroom during an argument.

Two houses down, Thomas Martin sat in a lawn chair, watering his grass. Across the street, his neighbor put a new coat of black paint on her mailbox post.

Such tranquil neighborhood scenes are common — but they were once hard to find in Hollywood Hills. As recently as six months ago, residents say, they were afraid to let their children play outside.

But these days — thanks to a community-police partnership devoted to scaring crime suspects straight and improving the neighborhood’s appearance — Hollywood Hills is a dramatically different place.

“I can’t describe it. It’s a lot better,” Martin said. “Lots of people are less worried.”

WiMax would allow extremely fast connection to the Internet from anywhere in the state and access to never-before-seen interactive tools.

House lawmakers voted Thursday to appoint a panel of seven tech experts from the private sector to study the options and make recommendations to the State Budget and Control Board.

WiMax technology is wireless, interactive and about 10 times faster than current wireless broadband. And because of its broad reach, it could bring wireless Internet and an array of new interactive tools to every S.C. home, school and business, even those in rural areas.

Some lawmakers say only rural South Carolina and schools should get access to WiMax, which proponents say is superior to all other broadband available.

They don’t have the money to buy materials for school projects.

When they wear a hole in their shoes, there is no money to replace them.

But there is help available.

The weeklong ETV series “Give Me Shelter,” which began April 27, explores aspects of homelessness in South Carolina.

Floodlights at a nearby feed mill spill onto a screen and into windshields at the drive-in in Monetta, some cinephiles say.

For some regulars of the drive-in 50 miles west of downtown Columbia, the amber gleam is exasperating.

“If another drive-in existed, I’d probably go there because of it,” said Brett Banchero of Gilbert. He said the drive-in is the only theater he and his wife can take their 2-year-old son to without complaints.

Shields that the feed-mill company recently put on the lights and the blossoming of leaves on trees along U.S. 1 reduced — but did not eliminate — the glare, drive-in co-owner Richard Boaz said.

The financially broke town asked for an injunction to postpone its May 13 special election to replace disgraced mayor Larry Sharpe.

Judge Knox McMahon granted the delay until January. That is the normal election timetable for Gaston’s mayoral and two council seat races.

Sharpe, 60, resigned in late January, but denied wrongdoing. He was arrested last month on charges of embezzling from the town. Gaston’s former town clerk and traffic court clerk also were charged. Together, the three are accused of siphoning at least $15,000.

The Lexington County town is struggling with election and financial troubles.

The state Law Enforcement Training Council voted Wednesday afternoon to offer the job to Harrell, who has been with the Sheriff’s Department since 1997.

“He’s the total package,” Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said Thursday. “There’s not one area out there he’s lacking.”

Harrell was selected over two other finalists — former state Department of Public Safety director James Schweitzer and Brian London, a North Carolina native who works with the Interpol police agency in France, said York County Sheriff Bruce Bryant, the training council chairman.

Gov. Mark Sanford on Feb. 29 ousted Schweitzer and Highway Patrol commander Col. Russell Roark, contending they should have fired a white trooper who used a racial slur while threatening to kill a fleeing black suspect during a 2004 Greenwood County traffic stop.

The Chesterfield student accused of plotting to blow up his high school was evaluated by a psychiatrist who found him competent to stand trial, his defense team says in court filings.

Dr. Harold Morgan evaluated 18-year-old Ryan A. Schallenberger on Wednesday and found he “is competent to the extent that he is presently able to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him, and he is able to assist properly in his defense,” says the motion filed Thursday in federal court in Florence.

Morgan, a board-certified psychiatrist, evaluated Schallenberger at Chesterfield County jail, where Schallenberger is in the general population.

The meeting came the same day U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas E. Rogers III ordered a psychiatric examination for Schallenberger, granting a request by federal prosecutors.

Under legislation passed late last year, violators could face fines of $1 million a day.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said the best way to bring down the price of gasoline at the pump is for the administration to start seriously policing the oil industry.

Legislation Cantwell sponsored and Congress approved in December granted the FTC powers to investigate petroleum markets.

Last month, Cantwell called on the FTC to launch an investigation into oil prices, and more recently she asked the Justice Department to create a task force to look at whether high crude oil and gasoline prices are the result of market manipulation.

Loadholt, who will take over as board chairman this summer, said the pool of candidates includes sitting presidents at other universities.

The board has set July 31 as a tentative deadline to hire a new president. President Andrew Sorensen is scheduled to retire from the presidency and assume a teaching position in the School of Medicine on that date, but he has said he would stay on if the committee takes longer to hire his successor.

Loadholt’s comments followed news that Harris Pastides, vice president for research and health sciences, had withdrawn his candidacy in the search for a new chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Pastides taught at that institution for 18 years.

On Wednesday, when UMass President Jack Wilson nominated the provost from the University of Tennessee for the UMass post, Pastides would not comment on how he had fared in that search. But he wrote in an e-mail to USC colleagues that he had turned down the UMass position when it was offered to him.

This year’s gathering — scheduled for tonight in a downtown parking garage — comes in the midst of a heated Democratic primary, with members of the party split between candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Clyburn, the driving force behind the South Carolina primary, which Obama won in January, has not declared support for either candidate. He has admonished them for the negative tone of their campaigns.

Clyburn is a voice Democrats respect, especially since it now belongs to the third-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

C-SPAN, the network for political junkies, plans to film the goings-on before taking its broadcast bus to North Carolina, where Obama and Clinton are competing in Tuesday’s primary.

“This is not an attack on the illegal (immigrant) problem, it is an attack on small business in South Carolina. It is an attack on large business in South Carolina. That’s the most anti-business piece of legislation I’ve ever seen.”

— Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, speaking out against a Senate bill that would require S.C. businesses to take extra steps to verify the employees they hire are in the United States legally. Businesses have been cool to the idea because of the costs involved.

S.C. PRIMARY

Days left until the June 10 primary: 39

The 7-year-old Iraqi boy left the Hilton Head Island airport Thursday, headed for Atlanta, and ultimately his hometown of Karbala. His aunt, Batool Al-Hakeem, was with him.

The Haider who flew away from the island is a different boy from the one who arrived here nearly four months ago through the Gift of Life program. Gift of Life helps children and young adults with debilitating injuries or deformities who can’t get adequate treatment in their home countries.

Haider’s face, hands and legs were severely burned in a mortar attack when he was 2.

After two surgeries, his face is smoother, and the skin on his legs is not stretched as tightly, work that he says should make him a better soccer player. He also has recovered about 75 percent of the function in his damaged right hand.

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

The incident apparently occurred during recess, and two school resource officers were needed to subdue the 16-year-old, said Lt. Chris Cowan, Richland County Sheriff’s Department spokesman.

A deputy assigned to the Richland 1 school intervened when the boy tossed a cup of liquid into a girl’s face, Cowan said. Told he was going to be charged, the suspect scuffled with the officer, Cowan said. A stun gun was then used once on the boy by a second officer, Cowan said.

The boy awaits a family court hearing.

— Bill Robinson

Railroad Avenue, 100 block: A woman called police at 2 p.m. Monday to report that her former roommates had turned off her electricity. The woman told deputies that when she left her home at 7 a.m. her lights and power were on, but when she returned about 1:30 p.m., she had no power. She said she called the power company and was told that someone had called and using her Social Security number had the electricity turned off. The woman said the former roommates had her information from the time when they lived together.

RICHLAND COUNTY SHERIFF

Chickasaw Court, 5th block: A man called police at noon Wednesday to report that someone had stolen his 10-foot-high basketball goal. He said the goal was in his yard at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday when he took his trash cans to the curb, but when he went to get them Wednesday the $150 goal was gone. He said he drove around the neighborhood looking for it but didn’t find it.

Hard Scrabble Road, 4000 block: Police were called to a construction site at 8 a.m. Wednesday after workers discovered $3,000 worth of aluminum beams had been stolen. They told deputies that the property was a funeral home and was in the process of being moved when the theft occurred.

Pickens County Assistant Sheriff Tim Morgan interviewed 61-year-old Gary Michael Hilton on April 17 at the Georgia state prison in Jackson. Morgan said authorities are inclined to believe that Hilton was not involved in the disappearance of 20-year-old sophomore Jason Knapp.

Knapp was last seen on Easter Sunday, 1998. He is thought to have disappeared somewhere in Table Rock State Park in Pickens County. South Carolina authorities questioned Hilton because of similarities in the cases, Morgan said.

Hilton pleaded guilty Jan. 31 to killing Meredith Emerson, 24, who disappeared while hiking on New Year’s Day.

Contributing: Staff writers Lee Higgins, Joey Holleman, Rick Brundrett and Ishmael Tate; The Associated Press

Riddle, who was nominated for the award by the Richland County CASA organization, was selected for her “tireless commitment to child advocacy and the tremendous impact she has made on the community,” the release said.

Riddle, a Family Court judge for nearly 13 years, will be honored during a reception banquet June 8 in Washington, D.C.

William Renard “Ray” Gourdine, 44, of Columbia, accepted cash and attempted to learn details of SLED investigations concerning video poker in exchange, the release said.

He was arrested during a sting and has not been sentenced, the release said.

Moore has been with the department for three years and has worked with Chapin police and the Richland County Sheriff’s Department.

Animal control officer Jan Otterbacher was named civilian employee of the year. Otterbacher has been with the city of West Columbia since 2001.

The average daily temperature registered last month at Columbia Metropolitan Airport was 62 degrees, or 1.2 degrees cooler than normal. Rainfall measured 3.48 inches, or half an inch above normal, according to the National Weather Service.

Of the eight weather stations with long-term records in South Carolina or just over the border (Augusta, Savannah, Charlotte), half were slightly above average in temperature and precipitation, and half were slightly below.

After dry springs the past two years, this year’s rainfall has put a dent in drought conditions, which still are classified as severe in 12 Upstate counties.

And while nurses do see a lot of those kinds of concerns, clinics in Midlands area schools are starting to more closely resemble hospital examination rooms.

“Basically every day is different,” said Ginny Sightler, a nurse at Dutch Fork High. “You never know what you’re going to get in the school system.”

That’s the reason why she chose the job.

That’s also why Lexington-Richland 5 nurses this spring requested — and received — funding to hire a school nurse coordinator to oversee health operations.

Hall is the linchpin of the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative — a joint effort between the state Department of Juvenile Justice and the sheriff’s department to keep troubled youths out of jail.

The month-old program targets nonviolent offenders such as truants or runaways who are disconnected from their family and school life, but still have an opportunity to get it together.

Hall works to keep them off drugs, away from gangs, in school — and out of DJJ’s detention centers.

“You can’t just warehouse them,” Hall said. “They’re young people; they’re going to make mistakes.”

The School of Entrepreneurial Leadership will be a school within a school focusing on marketing, citizenship and technology. It will be available to all fourth- and fifth-graders enrolled at Keels beginning next school year.

Richland 2 received a $350,000 grant from the state Department of Education to create the program, which will be partly extended into Dent Middle School. The key, said Keels principal Lynne Ladue, “is to link academic learning to real-world experiences.” And, with the grant, the students “can actually see that happening,” she said.

Richland 2 hopes to serve about 450 students yearly with the approach, which is modeled after micro-society programs nationwide. Ladue discovered how it worked at a Connecticut school.

Spaces within Keels Elementary will be revamped over the summer to create state-of-the-art studios for science and weather, broadcast and digital media.

But Mary Orrell got her life back.

The 38-year-old woman was battling depression and her weight when she applied for a scholarship in April 2006. Since then, she’s lost 40 pounds and found friendship in a diverse community of exercisers.

“It’s not a meat market,” she said. “People aren’t there to primp, they are there for their own good.”

Now the city wants to take the Charles R. Drew Wellness Center to the people with it’s city-wide “Get your wellness on!” challenge.

Those homes often are dilapidated, making them dangerous eyesores, town leaders say.

About 80 of the town’s nearly 2,200 homes are targeted for razing if not renovated.

A plan taking shape among Town Council members would give owners of the residences 90 days to start making improvements — or face tearing down the dwellings.

Town personnel would demolish a home if the owner makes no response, a job estimated at $1,500. The bill for that work would go to the owner, collected when a site is sold.

Here’s a quick look at what’s inside the current spending plan:

2007-08 budget: $66 million

Proposed for 2008-09: $76 million

Difference: 15 percent increase over current year

Council gave adminstrator Katherine Hubbard’s fiscal plan an initial vote last week.

But members usually whittle that proposal into a trimmer version by the time a final vote is taken in June. The new fiscal year begins July 1.

The $94.9 million plan contains $4 million in new programs, Hubbard said, and asks council to take almost $2 million from its reserves for three big ticket, one-time projects:

• $750,000 for a pilot program to use cheaper materials to build or resurface roads

Cayce officials announced plans for the 24-court center off 12th Street Extension near I-77 last week. It would be slightly larger than the 21-court complex on Oak Drive, and the two would have the combined capacity to host major national tournaments, said Jay Criscione, executive director of the Lexington County Recreation and Aging Commission.

“There’s a lot of national tournaments that have minimum requirements for X number of courts, and we just didn’t have that number of courts,” Criscione said. With the addition of the Cayce complex, “we’ll qualify for all kinds of tournaments.”

The recreation agency built the Oak Drive complex in 2002, with the dual purpose of giving local tennis leagues a central place to play and bringing in state and regional tournaments to boost the local economy.

It’s been a huge success, hosting national and even international tournaments.

COLUMBIA CAMERA CLUB: 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Capital Senior Center, Maxcy Gregg Park. Program will feature graphic artist Virginia Saunders. Open to all ages and skill levels. (803) 786-7022, www.columbiacameraclub.com

C.A. JOHNSON HIGH SCHOOL CLASS OF 1984: Class meeting, 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Ruby Tuesday, Dutch Square. jahoward@ddsnc.gov; nicenezone@gmail.com

BRIARWOOD NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION: 7 p.m. Thursday, May 8, at Windsor UMC, 9500 Windsor Lake Blvd.

PALMETTO PERSONAL COMPUTER CLUB: 6-8:30 p.m. Thursday, May 8, at Capital Senior Center, 1650 Park Circle, Maxcy Gregg Park. Microsoft Windows and advanced users meet 6:15-7:15 p.m. www.palmettopc.org

MARY KATE BELL BREARLEY GLASSER was presented a concurrent resolution by S.C. Rep. Chip Huggins, R-Lexington, in recognition of her being named South Carolina’s Mother of the Year. The retired educator and mother of four was honored at the April 9 Irmo Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

SCOTT AEBERSOLD has earned the designation of Eagle Scout. His project included the design and layout of an orienteering trail at Harbison State Forest. The son of Tom and Kris Aebersold of Columbia, the Dutch Fork High School senior will attend the University of Alabama School of Engineering.

NIKKI YANCEY of Columbia won the title of Queen of Roses 2008 at the recent pageant, held in Orangeburg April 12. Batesburg-Leesville residents Ariel Fox and Meredith Hoffman finished first and second, respectively.

MILITARY

The body of Deborah Jeane Palfrey was found in a shed near her mother’s home about 20 miles northwest of Tampa. Police said Palfrey, 52, left at least two suicide notes and other writings to her family in a notebook, but they did not disclose their contents.

Blanche Palfrey had no sign that her daughter was suicidal, and there was no immediate indication that alcohol or drugs were involved, police Capt. Jeffrey Young said.

A federal jury convicted Palfrey on April 15 of running a prostitution service in Washington. She was convicted of money laundering, using the mail for illegal purposes and racketeering.

Palfrey had denied her escort service engaged in prostitution, saying that if any of the women engaged in sex acts for money, they did so without her knowledge.

A U.S. crackdown is causing the longest and most significant drop in illegal migration from Mexico since the Sept. 11 attacks. Officials say the U.S. economic downturn, tighter security and a more perilous and expensive journey are persuading many who try to sneak into the U.S. to give up sooner.

Border Patrol arrests are down 17 percent so far this year along the U.S.-Mexico border after falling 20 percent all of last fiscal year and 8 percent the year before. The Patrol uses apprehensions to estimate the ebb and flow of illegal traffic.

The downturn in illegal immigration has created labor shortages throughout the United States and several states are considering temporary-worker programs, especially in agricultural fields, where produce is going bad.

Mexicans in the U.S. are starting to send less money home, too, according to Mexico’s central bank.

Stark statistics underlie the initiative by the national governing body for swimming. Black children drown at a rate almost three times the overall rate. And less than 2 percent of USA Swimming’s nearly 252,000 members who swim competitively year-round are black.

The group’s initiative involves local governments, corporations and civic groups. One key participant is black freestyle star Cullen Jones, who hopes to boost his role-model status by winning a medal this summer at the Beijing Olympics.

Making kids water-safe is “just the right thing to do,” said Chuck Wielgus, USA Swimming’s executive director.

“And quite frankly it’s about performance,” he added. “We’re something of a niche sport, and for us to remain relevant, considering the changing demographics of the population, it’s important we get more kids involved at the mouth of the pipeline.”

A hard coating fuses to the tablet, making it harder to crush — and turning into a gooey mess if abusers try to inject it, maker Purdue Pharma LP said in documents released by the Food and Drug Administration Thursday.

The FDA will ask its scientific advisers Monday if the reformulated drug seems tamper-resistant enough to allow on the market.

“These are clearly difficult questions for which there are no easy answers,” Dr. Bob Rappaport, FDA’s chief of painkilling drugs, wrote the advisory panel.

OxyContin was hailed as a breakthrough in the treatment of severe chronic pain when it was introduced in 1996.

Iraqi civilian deaths also remained high following the Iraqi government crackdown on Shiite militia factions — accused by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of using residents as human shields during close combat in the teeming Sadr City slum.

The clashes in Sadr City — a base for the powerful Mahdi Army militia — show little sign of easing as Iraqi and U.S. troops try to exert control over an area containing nearly half of Baghdad’s population.

The growing violence in Baghdad has taken a toll on U.S. forces. At least five soldiers have been killed in the city since Tuesday, bringing the monthly count to at least 49 — 27 in Baghdad — in the deadliest month since September, when 65 U.S. troops died.

Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, at least 4,061 U.S. military personnel have died in Iraq, according to an Associated Press count.

Taliban resistance has stiffened in the south since NATO took command there in mid-2006, and some in the Bush administration believe the fight against the Taliban could be strengthened if the U.S., whose span of control is now limited to eastern Afghanistan, were also in charge in part or all of the south.

The internal discussions about expanding the U.S. command role were described in recent Associated Press interviews with several senior defense officials who have direct knowledge but were not authorized to talk about it publicly. All said they thought it unlikely that a decision would be made anytime soon.

Giving the U.S. more control in the south would address one problem cited by US officials: the NATO allies’ practice of rotating commanders every nine months — and their fighting units every six months, in some cases. The 101st Airborne, by comparison, is in eastern Afghanistan on a 15-month deployment. In the U.S. view, nine-month commands are too short to maximize effectiveness.

U.S. combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq are to shrink to 12 months starting in August.

Activists predict turnout for the more than 200 events planned today from Seattle to Miami will be far less than in years past. But they say efforts demanding comprehensive immigration legislation — including pathways to citizenship for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. — have extended beyond the streets.

“While the breadth of activities will be significant, most eyes are turned toward the November election,” said Rich Stolz, a coordinator with Fair Immigration Reform Movement, which oversees activist groups across the country. “We’ve been calling on the candidates to prioritize immigration.”

The scope of the pro-immigrant rights movement has seen significant change in just two years’ time.

More than 1 million people nationwide marched in the name of immigrant rights in 2006. Fueled by a blitz of coverage in churches and Spanish language media, many united to fight a bill that proposed making it a felony for all illegal immigrants to live in the United States.