Local

Charges were filed Monday against a Lancaster man who fired a handgun Friday night outside the Buford Sports Bar off S.C. 522.

The Lancaster County Sheriff's Office has charged William Wesley Branham Jr., 36, of 2736 Kirkover Drive, with assault with intent to kill and pointing and presenting a firearm.

Branham was involved in an altercation with a man outside the bar about 2 a.m., according to a sheriff's office incident report.

Witnesses told deputies that Branham pulled out a knife after he began to fight.

Ulyses Oliver believes he might have been killed if an assault on him occurred just a few moments later.

When Oliver stepped outside the Grown Folks club off Kershaw Camden Highway early Friday morning to go home, three men approached him and demanded money. Two had guns and the other man had his hands under his shirt pretending to have a firearm, he said.

Oliver said one of the men told him that they had "wanted to get (him)" for a while.

The standardized test that South Carolina students have been taking over the last several years may soon be a thing of the past.

Last week, the state House voted unanimously on a bill to do away with the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test, which was created in response to the state's 1998 Education Accountability Act.

The "Death to the PACT" bill moved to the state Senate this week.

Most showed up to defend man's best friends - in this case, pit bulldogs.

Others handed out police incident reports and photographs of wounds suffered at the mouths of pit bulls.

It was clear in County Council chambers Monday night - either you love pit bulls, or you hate them, and the county needs to do more work on a proposed ordinance that targets dangerous dogs.