By DEUCE NIVEN UPDATE: Late afternoon Wednesday      Criminal charges including two counts of murder, armed robbery and weapons violations will be brought against Brandon Michael Council, initially described as a “person of interest” in Monday’s killings inside a Conway bank, 15th Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson said Wednesday.      Council, 32, of Wilson, was taken into custody…

By DEUCE NIVEN      A two-state manhunt was underway Tuesday, a day after two employees at a Conway CresCom bank branch were murdered during an armed robbery, the Conway Police Department reported.      Kathryn Davis Skeen, 36, of Green Sea and Donna DeVuyst Major, 59, of Conway, were shot and killed during the hold-up at the CresCom…

     Kingstree in Williamsburg County proved a good spot to experience today’s total eclipse of the sun, though some clouds and a distant thunderstorm gave the countdown a bit of excitement.      Totality meant darkness, street lights turning on, and some oohs and ahhs from a couple of dozen people gathered in a Williamsburg Technical College…

     Ground was broken for the Matthew 25 Center at Tabor City on Sunday, with several dozen people celebrating an ongoing effort to provide families of those incarcerated at Tabor Correctional Institution and other area jails and prisons with a safe place to stay when visiting their loved ones.      See the story, more photos…

By DEUCE NIVEN      A Longs man has been charged with murder after an exchange of gunfire outside a Finklea area nightclub killed a Tabor City man, the Horry County Police Department said Wednesday.      Dimnique Lequan Bellamy, 23, was booked into the J. Reuben Long Detention Center near Conway at 1:40 p.m. Tuesday, charged with murder…