Area News

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…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      An inmate at Tabor Correctional Institution died early Wednesday of an apparent suicide, the NC Department of Public Safety reported.      Malek Moore, 29, “was found unresponsive in his cell around 4:34 a.m.,” a DPS news release said. Prison first responders “performed lifesaving measures until local paramedics arrived who also worked to…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      Battered by hurricanes that decimated its downtown, Fair Bluff’s plans for a new uptown area away from potential floodwaters have been given a boost with a donation of land by R.J. Corman Railroad.      News of the gift came from a corporate news release just two days before Christmas.      “This donation will…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      A 20-minute long police pursuit that began in a “high crime area” of Tabor City ended with stop sticks disabling the suspect’s pick-up truck and her capture during a foot chase, the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office reports.      Christina Marie Manuel Hernandez, 34, of Conway was charged by the Horry County Police…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      A former coaching assistant for the Loris High School baseball team is facing two sex crime charges involving a student.      Ronnie Lee Barron, 44, surrendered to police, accompanied by his attorney, Monday morning, Loris Police Chief Gary Buley said.      Barron was charged with sexual exploitation of a minor and sexual battery…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      Stonewall Jackson, a country music legend and Tabor City native who just a few years ago gave his blessings to welcome signs erected in his honor, died Saturday. He was 89.      His death, following a long battle with vascular dementia, was reported Saturday by Nashville’s Taste of Country at tasteofcountry.com.      Born…