Area Upfront News

Tuesday, 5 p.m.      Columbus County Schools will close at noon Wednesday due to the threatening winter storm, with classes in session at the regular time Wednesday morning, the school district announced just before 5 p.m.      Southeastern Community College near Whiteville will also close at noon Wednesday, while all classes are cancelled for Wednesday…

     Expected extreme cold temperatures will mean a late start for the Columbus County Schools on the first school day of 2018.      In a test message to students and staff, the district Monday said “Due to extreme cold, Columbus County Schools will operate on a 2 hr delay for students and staff on Tuesday…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      Family, both biological and professional, gathered at a rural gravesite Friday to remember the life and sacrifice of Lt. Randy Gerald of the Horry County Sheriff’s Office on the 16th anniversary of his murder.      Then a part of the leadership at the J. Reuben Long Detention Center near Conway, Lt. Gerald…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      Three men are being sought in the armed robbery of a Tabor City area convenience store Tuesday night.      No one was hurt in the hold-up at Norris Country Store at 6088 Swamp Fox Hwy East, Tabor City, Columbus County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Michelle Tatum said Wednesday.      Two female employees were in…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      An early morning shooting near Loris that left a Chadbourn man dead is under investigation by the Horry County Police Department.      Officers responding to the 3:44 a.m. Wednesday shooting call in the area of Redenbo Drive and Cedar Branch Road found the Bryan D. Marlowe “laying on the ground on Redenbo…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      Details on a long-running federal investigation that resulted in the arrest of an eighth suspect Tuesday are outlined in a federal indictment that alleges money laundering stretching from February 2014 through November of this year and a more recent series of drug sales.      A principal owner of a chain of auto…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      A criminal investigation is underway after what initially appeared to be an auto crash that sent a car sinking to the bottom of a rural pond claimed the lives of two Tabor City men during the weekend.      Horry County Police Department detectives have taken the lead in the investigation into the…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      On the run since being tried in absentia in early November, James Lamont Arthur of Nichols is in custody and set to spend the next 25 years in prison for gun and drug crimes.      U.S. Marshals Task Force members took Arthur, 35, into custody, booking him into the J. Reuben Long…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      Hubert G. “Doc” Dameron, Tabor City’s oldest active merchant, died Friday at McLeod Loris hospital. He was 94.      Active in Tabor City’s business and civic community for seven decades, Dameron never stepped away from the Dameron Drug, the business he founded in 1946.      A graduate of the University of North Carolina…

By DEUCE NIVEN tribdeuce@tabor-loris.com      Eight people are facing federal drug charges, seven in custody Tuesday as the FBI and area law enforcement agencies served criminal indictments alleging narcotics sales in the Tabor City area.      A “coordinated law enforcement operation” resulted in seven arrests Tuesday morning, a news release from U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District…