By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      Students at Nakina Middle School will spend the rest of this week in virtual instruction, Wednesday through Friday, the Columbus County Schools announced Tuesday.      Staffing issues that grew much worse Tuesday, with numerous staff members moving to quarantine following COVID-19 exposures or symptoms, forced the decision, spokesman Kelly Jones said.      COVID-19…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      Community complaints and tips are credited with leading Columbus County Sheriff’s Office Vice-Narcotics unit investigators to a large stash of drugs, weapons and cash on Peacock Road east of Tabor City.      Two Tabor City men were arrested after investigators executed a search warrant at 24344 Peacock Road on Jan. 6, a…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      “I still have the dreams,” Theresa Boyd said Thursday of the Nov. 29, 2021 fire that consumed the family home west of Tabor City and burned most inside, including her 9-year-old daughter Isabella Boyd, who alerted the family to the blaze.      Isabella was the focus for some better memories made Thursday,…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      Fleeing from a Columbus County Sheriff’s Office traffic stop late on New Year’s Eve made a Rowland man the county’s first arrest of 2022, CCSO reports show.      Rondrell Santana Leach, 30, of Hickory Street in Rowland, faces a long list of drug and weapons charges, with his vehicle, a large quantity…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      COVID-19 cases are exploding in the Carolinas, racing past all previous records in North Carolina on Thursday, fueled by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, health experts say.      Locally Columbus County recorded 32 newly confirmed COVID cases on Thursday, Horry 166, both numbers well ahead of typical days during the pandemic…