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Forecasters say the twister had winds up to 90 mph and moved from just north of Olar to near Ehrhardt late Tuesday afternoon.

The storm also produced baseball-sized hail and did severe damage to homes, automobiles and crops. No injuries were reported.

The weather service received at least 20 reports of high winds and 35 reports of hail as the storms moved across the state.

The South Carolina Insurance News Service reports 2,000 claims have been made for wind and hail damage from the storms totaling more than $4 million.

Now, the news that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy has a cancerous brain tumor is forcing people to contemplate the day when he will no longer be there.

"It's almost incalculable," said Thaleia Schlesinger, whose brother, former Sen. Paul Tsongas, toiled in Kennedy's oversize shadow before resigning in 1984 to cope with cancer that eventually killed him in 1997. "He's the go-to guy over and over again. You just look at the universities, the hospitals, the high-tech industry, education, never mind health care. He's always been there."

Immigrants lining up at the John F. Kennedy Federal Building, tourists strolling on the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway and ordinary folks who received handwritten thank-you notes from the senator or a surprise distinguished visitor at a family wake pondered a future without Ted Kennedy.

"Forty-six years is a long time to be a senator. That's got to count for something when it comes to delivering for the state," said Ron Mills, who runs the shoeshine stand next to 122 Bowdoin St., the Beacon Hill address John F. Kennedy claimed when he served in the House and Senate and was elected president in 1960.

Irmo High School Principal Eddie Walker confirmed to The Associated Press he is stepping down in the summer of 2009.

Gay-rights group Faith in America says Walker's decision is based on prejudice that is harmful to students and likened his decision to policies that once allowed segregation to flourish.

In a letter writter to the "Irmo Nation" Walker wrote:

"However due to a recent conflict involving my professional and religious beliefs I sent Dr. Angela Bain a letter of resignation effective June 30, 2009. On May 14, 2008, I was instructed by email to allow the formation of a Gay/Straight Alliance Club at Irmo High School. On May 15, 2008 I told Ms. Ann Pilat to allow the formation of this club for the 2008-2009 school year. Allowing the formation of this club on our campus conflicts with my professional beliefs and religious convictions. I considered resigning this year but reconsidered because to not fulfill my written contract for the 2008-2009 school year would also conflict with my professional beliefs and religious convictions. In my opinion failure to fulfill my contract would constitute a breach of trust with School District Five of Lexington and Richland County, my student heroes, returning Irmo High School employees, and new employees who have chosen to work at Irmo High school for the 2008-2009 school year."

Hector C. Villafuerte, 29, is charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping, and assault and battery with intent to kill, the release said.

— Lee Higgins

Todaro, 28, a pilot in the 20th Fighter Wing at Shaw Air Force Base and the husband of News19 anchor Andrea Mock, is charged with assault and battery with intent to kill.

He is accused of shoving a man outside Locals, a Harden Street bar, at about 2:45 a.m., Dodson said.

Todaro and another man allegedly shoved the victim after the victim reportedly touched a number of women inappropriately, including Mock, police said.

When Todaro shoved him, police said, the man fell, smashing his head into the window of a car, shattering the glass.

One out from victory, the Gamecocks fell 5-4 to LSU on Wednesday in the first round on Blake Dean’s solo homer in the bottom of the 10th inning.

LSU’s Matt Clark hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth to make it a one-run game, then the Tigers tied it on a bloop double that barely hit inside the left-field line.

USC wasted a great pitching performance by starter Sam Dyson; the redshirt freshman held LSU to two hits over 6ð innings.

The Gamecocks will face the loser of the Vanderbilt-Florida game at 11 a.m. Thursday.

Former State Law Enforcement Division chief of staff Mark Keel was chosen to head the agency that oversees the Highway Patrol after Sanford accepted the resignations of Public Safety Director James Schweitzer and Highway Patrol Col. Russell Roark. Both men resigned earlier this year following the release of videos that showed trooper misconduct, including using a racial slur and threatening a fleeing suspect.

"Mark ain't Jesus, but he's as close as I could find," Sanford said last month in announcing his nomination of Keel. He cited the veteran officer's three decades of experience in undercover narcotics, hostage negotiation and bloodhound tracking.

Videotapes that began emerging earlier this year prompted state and federal investigations into possible civil rights violations. One video showed a white state trooper using a racial slur while chasing a black suspect. Others showed troopers ramming fleeing suspects with their patrol cars and kicking a suspect in the head multiple times after a high-speed interstate chase.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Glenn McConnell asked his staff to compile questions and review dozens of videos in preparation for the confirmation hearing, which begins Thursday. Panel members have said they expect Keel to face a grilling over the images but are confident the misconduct will stop when he assumes control of the agency.

Prosecutor Jerry Peace said two state-ordered evaluations last year showed that Arthur Bixby was fit to stand trial. But an evaluation requested by defense attorneys found Bixby incompetent.

Bixby was to undergo the fourth test Wednesday. Peace said he plans to go forward with Bixby's trial if he is found competent.

Authorities said Bixby and his son, Steven Bixby, ambushed a sheriff's deputy and state constable in December 2003 over a land dispute with the state Department of Transportation.

Bixby's son has been sentenced to death in the killings. His wife is serving a life sentence because she knew what her son and husband had planned but didn't tell authorities.

Council members Kirkman Finlay and Daniel Rickenmann, both restaurant owners, voted no.

Originally passed in 2006, the smoking ban would now include bars, defined as establishments that make 85 percent of their income from alcohol sales.

Council also voted to delay when the ban would go into effect. Instead of July 1, the ban will go into effect Oct. 1.

The measure approved unanimously Tuesday would eliminate sales taxes on energy-efficient appliances, light bulbs, doors, windows, ceiling fans and air conditioners each October from 2009 to 2019. That is national "Energy Efficiency Month."

Under a change made in the House, the measure also creates 48 tax-free hours dubbed Second Amendment Weekend. On the Friday and Saturday after each Thanksgiving, handguns, rifles and shotguns would be sold tax-free.

The bill needs another routine vote before returning to the Senate, which approved the energy-saving piece last month.

Geathers defeated Family Court Judge Robert Jenkins of Travelers Rest, while Lockemy beat out Circuit Judge Mark Hayes of Spartanburg.

Circuit Judge Alison Renee Lee of Columbia and former U.S. attorney Rene Josey of Florence were nominated, respectively, for the seats won by Geathers and Lockemy, but dropped out of their races earlier.

Geathers will fill the seat of John Kittredge of Greenville, who was elected in February to the S.C. Supreme Court. Lockemy will take over for Ralph King Anderson Jr. of Florence, who is retiring.

— Rick Brundrett

Carol Ivey Prince of 723 Old Pump Station Road in Union died from head and neck injuries, said Tommy Williams, Chester County chief deputy coroner.

"She was actually cutting a yard," Williams said. "It looked like the lawn mower turned over on top of her. It was just a freak accident."

No autopsy is planned, Williams said.

Carol Prince and her husband, William "Bill" Prince, operated a 27-year-old grass-cutting business. But maintaining lawns was not a job for Carol Prince. It was her passion, William Prince said.

The measure exempts from the state's Sunday closing laws wine that is harvested, processed, fermented, bottled, and sold at the same location. The bill allows Sunday sales only if the local county or city government approves a permit.

The measure needs one more vote in the House before heading to the governor. The Senate approved it last month.

The Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism lists eight wineries across South Carolina on its Web site.

The May 8 crash on Interstate 26 in Charleston County killed 3 1/2-year-old Ana Garcia-Millan and 18-month-old Juan Garcia Carbajal.

Maria C. Millan-Frausto, the 42-year-old grandmother of the children who was driving, was charged with improperly restraining a child, Sheriff Al Cannon said. The toddlers' mother, Delores Veronica Garcia-Millan, 22, was charged with two counts of illegal conduct toward a child stemming from failure to insure their safety, the sheriff said.

Charleston County Coroner Rae Wooten told The Post and Courier that the older child was not wearing a seat belt, but the attorney for both of the women said she was buckled in the back seat.

Defense lawyer Don Gibson said the accident was caused by the failure of a rear tire and he is looking into a civil lawsuit. Cannon said accident investigators also think a malfunction in the driver's side rear tire caused the car to veer off the road.

Columbia City Council voted 6-1 today to add two floors of public parking in a six-story retail and townhouse project in Five Points.

In an 11th-hour deal leveraged by council member Daniel Rickenmann, 5 Points South developers Stan Harpe and Ron Swinson agreed to accept $500,000 rather than $1 million for air rights.

That lowered the price to taxpayers for the approximately 200 parking spaces to no more than $5.3 million.

As part of the deal, the Five Points Association merchants group agreed to lease up to 50 percent of the spaces and offer them free to the public and employees.

Zelma Henderson died Tuesday in Topeka, six weeks after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Her son, Donald, said she wasn't physically imposing, but when she was passionate about something, "She was just fire."

In 1950, Henderson signed onto the litigation on behalf of her children challenging Topeka's segregated schools. In all, 13 black parents in Topeka, including the Rev. Oliver Brown, took part in the federal case.

The plaintiffs lost in U.S. District Court, but the case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, along with similar cases from Virginia, South Carolina and Delaware.

“I’ve been getting a lot of warnings from friends I trust that the word is going around people are plotting on you,” said Jonathan Vargas, who is the youngest and only South Carolinian to claim the S.C. Education Lottery Powerball Jackpot.

North Carolinians have won the previous four Powerball jackpots sold in South Carolina.

Vargas, a construction worker, is going to take a lump sum of $17 million.

Vargas said he is considering making an appearance on the Dr. Phil show after being contacted by one of the outspoken talk show host’s executive producers.

Dezzarie Mayhew, 19, and John Dial, 30, both of Columbia and Larry Moon, 20, of Elgin, face charges including second-degree burglary and grand larceny and petit larceny.

Sarah Larson, 28, of Columbia, is charged with receiving stolen goods.

The arrests follow an investigation into reports in late April and early May that items were stolen from construction sites, including on Kelly Mill Road, Bombing Range Road and in Lake Carolina, a sheriff’s department news release said.

Many of the stolen items contained copper, incident reports show.

Cotey Harris, 18, of Farrowood Drive, and Miquane Archie, 17, of Valleybridge Road, are charged with malicious injury of personal property.

Deputies responded to the bank about 1:46 a.m., found the drive-up ATM was broken into, then arrested the two nearby, according to an incident report.

— Lee Higgins

And just to show there are no hard feelings, the city is planning to forgive all late fees during a special amnesty period, under a proposal officials plan to present to City Council next week.

City staff members are working out the details, including the dates for the amnesty period. But they already have the approval of Mayor Bob Coble and city manager Charles Austin.

“I think it would provide a motivation, an incentive, because people would realize that there is no threat of punitive action,” Austin said.

For years, Columbia has struggled to collect unpaid parking fines that over time can add up to millions of dollars.

But when it comes to underage drinking, parents play a bigger role than they realize in preventing it, several teens said at a round-table discussion Tuesday at Ridge View High School.

“Parents can start by setting an example,” said Shelby Graves, 15, who attends Richland Northeast High School. “I know kids whose parents drink and don’t think it’s a big deal for their kids to drink.”

But Shelby knows better. Her 4-year-old sister was killed eight years ago in a wreck involving a drunken driver.

Parents, teens, law enforcement and school officials attended the meeting to discuss the issue of underage drinking. The forum was organized by Reconnecting Communities and Schools, a Richland 2 coalition aimed at strengthening the relationship between the community and district.

Obama’s supporters — mindful of the fact Obama has not officially beaten back the challenge of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton — are careful in how they describe this moment. But its historic significance can hardly be overstated.

Never before has a major party in the United States had a black man as its presidential nominee. Indeed, most states have never had a black man or woman elected to the U.S. Senate or to the governor’s office, the platforms that frequently produce presidential candidates.

The party Obama now leads was once in the vanguard of black oppression. Obama’s breakthrough victories, in Iowa and here in South Carolina, came with significant support from white voters. His overwhelming win in the Palmetto State saw him generate a wave of enthusiasm among black voters, energized in part by the prospect of a black politician who could win a presidential election.

Supporters and other political observers say Obama’s winning the Democratic nomination could alter the way white Americans see black Americans, just as it could change the way black Americans see themselves.

Police had been looking for Sallie Rohrbach, 44, since she was reported missing Friday. Michael Howell, 40, has been charged with first-degree murder in her death.

Chrissy Pearson, spokeswoman for the North Carolina Department of Insurance, and police confirmed the body’s identity.

“We are devastated that all hope is lost, but we also find a sense of closure in knowing that we can lay to rest our dear friend and colleague with the dignity and respect she deserves,” Pearson said.

Her body was found near Fort Mill, about 25 miles away from Howell’s Dilworth Insurance Agency in Charlotte.

Bush is scheduled to give Furman’s graduation speech May 31 at the fairly conservative school with Baptist roots and an enrollment of 2,625 undergraduate students. Some professors have suggested they would not attend the ceremony in protest.

“Some professors seem intent on turning what should be a celebration of their students’ accomplishments into a forum to air their political differences with President Bush,” said the letter, released Monday by Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow. “A letter that, by its own contents, accomplishes nothing and seeks to change nothing should be regarded as precisely that: an empty message.”

Earlier this month, more than 200 Furman students and faculty members signed and posted on the school’s Web site a statement criticizing the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq war and environmental issues.

Christopher Mills, a junior leading the Conservative Students effort, said Tuesday no faculty members had signed the letter, which also asks that the petition opposing the visit be removed from the university’s public Web site.

Some say the New York senator has set a high political bench mark for the women who will surely follow.

Others are looking to salve wounds caused by what some see as misogyny.

“I think this was her turn, our turn,” said Marjorie Spruill, a USC professor who communicates with other Clinton supporters all over the nation.

Spruill, as well as her 87-year-old mother, say they will vote for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in November.

“He said he was just thinking about me and wanted to know how I was doing,” Hollings said Tuesday, reacting to the news the Massachusetts senator had been diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Hollings has been a close friend and political ally of the Kennedy family since the 1960s, when he was a young South Carolina governor and John F. Kennedy was running for president.

Hollings said Tuesday that Ted Kennedy is a fighter who will beat the brain tumor if anyone can. He noted Kennedy has beaten the odds before, having survived a 1964 plane crash that killed the pilot and an aide.

Hollings has three paintings by Kennedy, a fellow Democrat, in his house on the Isle of Palms, of flowers and sailboats. And he keeps an autographed photo of Jack, Bobby and Ted Kennedy in his Charleston office.

A Gilbert couple captured video of what probably was the same bear on Sunday, when it explored their backyard near U.S. 1 for nearly 90 minutes.

Wildlife officials recommend residents in rural areas around Gilbert, Red Bank and Lexington empty bird feeders, batten down outdoor trash cans and keep pet food inside.

If people treat black bears with caution and respect, they pose little threat. Nobody has been injured in a bear attack in the state in recorded history, according to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.

Bear-human encounters have increased in the past 15 years as development moves into traditional bear habitat in the mountains and along the coast.

Jonathan Vargas, 19, said his phone has not stopped ringing. He was overwhelmed by all the attention his lottery win was getting.

“I’ll get back to you,” he said when reached Tuesday afternoon.

Vargas is the youngest winner and the only South Carolinian to win the S.C. Education Lottery Powerball Jackpot, said Stephanie Summers Hemminghaus, lottery spokeswoman.

The previous four winners were all North Carolina residents.

“We’ve gotten a bad reputation for being more tolerant of this type of thing than we should have been.”

— Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, leading the charge Tuesday for committee approval of a bill creating a felony trespass charge for offenders who enter the grounds of a domestic violence shelter, and allowing for warrantless searches and arrests by authorities when there is probable cause to believe an individual has committed criminal domestic violence

S.C. PRIMARY

Days left until the June 10 primary: 20

Margaret Moore is her name, and she plants part of herself in a culture once unknown to her but now firmly rooted in the soil of her soul.

As a child, she never knew about Gullah culture, and as a young adult, she believed it was something to be ashamed of.

Moore now knows about the culture and celebrates it in crafts made of rice and straw, her clothing accented by African shells and her style of living in a home with Gullah art on its walls.

“In New York, if you called a person a Geechie, they wanted to kill you,” she said breathlessly before laughing and returning to a serious tone. “It’s the truth.”

Mayor Bob Coble said bar owners wanted the change so the county’s proposed smoking ban and the city’s could take effect on the same day.

Richland County Council members are considering a smoking ban, but they are not as far along in the process as City Council.

“I would recommend to council we adjust the date,” Coble said Tuesday afternoon.

Coble and council members E.W. Cromartie, Tameika Isaac Devine and Anne Sinclair have said they would vote for the smoking ban, which prohibits smoking in all workplaces but mainly affects bars and restaurants.

Terence Thompson, 41, of Ladson, is accused of having sex with a 16-year-old student several times, authorities said.

The former Fort Dorchester High security officer also is charged with stalking, accused of calling a 15-year-old student out of class to a security room where he allegedly asked for a kiss and hug.

Thompson has been released and must stay away from the students, North Charleston police said.

Contributing: Staff writers Lee Higgins, Jeffrey Day and Ishmael Tate; staff reports; The Associated Press

The meeting will include a recap of collections, programs and finances for the past fiscal year and plans for the coming year. Elections of new board members also will be held. Call the museum at (803) 799-2810.

With the end of the legislative session less than a month away, the Senate quietly approved an amendment that gives people fighting certain state permits less time to prepare for the case, critics say.

The House is expected to discuss the amendment today.

“It makes a mockery’’ of the permit appeals process, said Pawleys Island attorney Jimmy Chandler, who has practiced environmental law for parts of three decades.

Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, said he doubts the amendment will open the gates for unchecked development. The amendment makes changes to an otherwise routine bill about the state administrative law court.

Assistant Chief Ronald “Ronnie” Classen will run the Fire Department once Chief Rusty Thomas retires at the end of June, Mayor Joe Riley announced Tuesday. Riley said Classen plans to retire once a permanent chief is chosen.

An independent report sharply criticized Thomas and the department for decisions made fighting a furniture store blaze that killed nine firefighters last June.

Geddings, a Charlotte-based consultant who served as chief of staff for former S.C. Gov. Jim Hodges, will remain in a federal prison camp in Georgia until 2010 unless he successfully appeals to a larger court.

A federal jury convicted him of fraud for failing to disclose thousands of dollars in work he did for a lottery company in the years before his appointment to the N.C. lottery panel.

Next to the Richard M. Campbell State Veterans Nursing Home, the 57-acre M.J. “Dolly” Cooper Veterans Cemetery will open in stages, with 28 acres open in phase one. The 11 a.m. dedication will be at the cemetery at 140 Inway Drive, in Anderson.

Contact cemetery staffers at (864) 332-8022.

Calvary Church Road, 1000 block: A man called police at 10:30 a.m. Sunday and said his neighbor was shooting at him. The 42-year-old man said the 58-year-old neighbor was angry because her grandson had spent the night at his house. He said the woman came to his fence, yelling and swearing and saying she was going to kill him. When police questioned the woman, she denied threatening to kill the man but did admit pointing the gun at him and firing it in the air several times. Police confiscated the gun, but because there were no witnesses, no arrests were made.

Barnwell Court, 100 block: A woman called police at noon Sunday and said her ex-husband’s ex-girlfriend was harassing her. The woman told deputies the ex-girlfriend was angry because the ex-husband wanted to spend time with their son. She said the woman had sent her several text messages and a handwritten letter and had made dozens of phone calls to her. All the calls were threatening, and the woman used foul language and insulted the woman and her child, a report said.

RICHLAND COUNTY SHERIFF

Forest Trail Court, 60th block: Police were called to a home at 7:20 a.m. Monday; a woman said someone had vandalized her home. The woman told deputies that overnight someone had put a condom on her front doorknob, and her son found it. She said she thought it could have been a prank played by children.

Smith was honored by Richland 1 at its Celebration 2008 employee recognition banquet. She will represent the district next spring in the state Teacher of the Year competition.

Also recognized at the May 8 banquet were: Marv Ward, producer/director with Richland One TV, who was named Classified Employee of the Year; and Austin Jeffries of Hopkins Middle School, the district’s Substitute Teacher of the Year.

For a second day, McCain criticized Obama for saying, in a debate earlier this year, that as president he would meet with the leaders of Cuba, Iran and Venezuela without preconditions.

McCain insisted such a meeting could endanger national security, sounding a theme that is likely to persist until the November general election.

The Arizona senator recalled the ridicule President Carter faced in 1979 when he kissed Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev during the signing of an arms treaty.

“Carter went over and kissed Brezhnev, remember?” McCain said Tuesday in Miami. “So it’s dangerous; it’s dangerous to American national security if you sit down and give respect and prestige to leaders of countries that are bent on your destruction or the destruction of other countries. I won’t do it, my friends.”

The findings come as blood agencies increasingly rely on young people to maintain an adequate supply. Blood donation has declined in recent years, particularly among some older age groups, and the American Red Cross, which conducted the study, has supported efforts to allow more high school students to donate.

The study appears in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

Lead author Dr. Anne Eder, an executive medical officer at Red Cross headquarters in Washington, emphasized that while teens are more susceptible to problems, their risks for having a bad reaction are still small. “We want donors to know what to expect and we want them to have a good experience,” Eder said.

Lightheadedness, sweating and small needle-related bruises were the most common problems. More serious complications were mostly caused by fainting — concussions, cuts and one broken jaw — and occurred much more often in the youngest donors.

The 76-year-old Massachusetts Democrat, a liberal giant of the Senate, remained hospitalized in Boston, surrounded by family. Doctors revealed the diagnosis after they got the preliminary results of a brain biopsy. The tumor was described as a malignant glioma.

The news hit Washington like a thunderbolt and ignited a nationwide outpouring of concern. Kennedy is the Senate’s second-longest serving member and has been a prominent figure in American politics for nearly 50 years.

“I’m having a hard time remembering a day in my 34 years here I’ve felt this sadly,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D.-Nev., called his colleague “an American icon.”

In court documents filed late Friday, the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups asked a federal judge to reject Interior Department actions announced last week.

Polar bears are threatened with extinction in many areas because of the melting of their sea ice habitat. The groups say greenhouse gas emissions have led to rapid melting in the Arctic.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, facing a court deadline because of the groups’ earlier lawsuit, had announced Wednesday that polar bears would be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Among the steps he proposed to help them were increasing research and working with Canada to help the bears survive in the wild. But he rejected the addition of broad steps to reduce greenhouse gases, saying he would not allow the Endangered Species Act to be “misused” to regulate global climate change.

Since all paper money feels pretty much the same, the government is denying blind people meaningful access to the currency, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled Tuesday. The decision could force the Treasury Department to make bills of different sizes or print them with raised markings or other distinguishing features.

The American Council of the Blind sued for such changes, but the government has been fighting the case for about six years.

The U.S. acknowledges the current design hinders blind people, but it argues that they have adapted. Some rely on store clerks to help, some use credit cards and others fold certain corners to help distinguish between bills.

“I don’t think we should have to rely on people to tell us what our money is,” said Mitch Pomerantz, the Council of the Blind president.

RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia law banning partial-birth abortion is still unconstitutional, even though a similar federal ban was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirms the same court’s 2005 ruling striking down the law. The Supreme Court had ordered the appeals court to take another look at Virginia’s statute after the ruling on the federal ban.

The appeals court cited a key difference between the federal and state bans on the late-term procedure. The federal law protects doctors who set out to perform a legal abortion that by accident becomes the banned procedure. The Virginia statute provides no such protection.

The state has two weeks to ask the full federal appeals court to review the ruling, or 90 days to appeal to the Supreme Court. The attorney general’s office “is reviewing all possible courses of action,” spokesman J. Tucker Martin said.

Weeks of rain have eased the drought that has gripped the Southeast for two years. But government forecasters warn that the crisis is far from over and could soon grow worse. And some worry that the spring rains have lured politicians into a false sense of security.

“We hope it turns around, but to assume it will turn around is dangerous. It takes time to recover, and with summer upon us, it’s important for us to not move too quickly,” said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center. “We’re still behind the eight ball, and we’re going into high-demand season.”

Most of the Southeast has gotten 10 to 20 inches of rain over the last three months. Some 8 percent of the region is now in “extreme” drought, and none of the region is in “exceptional” drought, the worst category. That is a welcome change from October, when 45 percent of the Southeast was locked in one of those two conditions.

But most of the Atlanta metropolitan area of 5 million people is still in extreme drought, and the rain has not done much to recharge its chief source of water, Lake Lanier, because its watershed — the area that drains into the lake — is relatively meager.

Smith was named winner of the honor a week ago by Richland 1 at its Celebration 2008 employee recognition banquet. She will represent the district next spring in the state “teacher of the year” competition.

She writes about herself on the Hand Web site: “I am a Gamecock fan and a lover of books, words, and poetry. I am an avid reader and am passionate about writing. My goals are to foster a love of reading and to instill a belief in the awesome power of words.”

Also recognized at the May 8 banquet were: Marv Ward, producer/director with Richland One TV, who was named classified employee of the year, and Austin Jeffries of Hopkins Middle School, the district’s substitute teacher of the year.

Smith and Ward received commemorative plaques and $500. Jeffries received $250 and a plaque as well.

The first session for the weeklong science-based program begins June 22. Two other sessions will run the weeks of July 13 and July 27.

Open to teachers from across the state, the three-hour graduate (or recertification) course focuses on how teachers can integrate science and core subjects such as language arts, math and social studies into the regular curriculum.

The institute costs $175 for teachers, which includes materials, the graduate credit and meals. Participants can also pay $250 for housing during the week.

For more information call (803) 400-1151 or visit www.edventure.org.