Category: News

No fatal injuries showed up in an autopsy yesterday on a 74-year old man who lived at Townville. Oconee Coroner Karl Addis said the death of Hartwell Lassiter is due to natural causes.  If there were a toxicology analysis done, Addis says, it could take weeks to complete.  The investigation started after the body was found Monday in a partially-decomposed […]

Squad cars from the highway patrol and the sheriff’s office were at the scene of an accident involving a car and a deer near Walhalla.  The accident was reported shortly after 5 this morning on SC 183/the Westminster Highway at Summertime Circle, about one-quarter of a mile south of WGOG.

South Carolinians should be aware of the continued risk for health effects related to smoke that originated from wildfires burning across parts of central and western Canada and the western United States, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) announced today. Smoke from these fires, which was expected to drift back into the state beginning Wednesday evening, […]

The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) has issued its COVID-19 interim guidance for K-12 schools as students, teachers, parents, and staff all prepare for the 2021-2022 school year. DHEC’s interim guidance includes recommendations that reflect the latest COVID-19 trends and is meant to protect everyone who plays a role in South Carolina’s students receiving a quality […]

South Carolina DHEC requests anyone who thinks they may have come in contact with the puppy referenced in a July 23 news release to contact the DHEC offices in Aiken or Florence, if they are not already in communication with the agency.  The state health agency has learned the puppy was about seven weeks old ands weighed about five pounds.  […]

Numbers today from South Carolina DHEC show that more and more South Carolinians who are being tested for COVID-19 are positive for the virus.  The state health agency today recorded as positive 17.5% of 6.719 test results evaluated as the result of the 24-hour count that ended at at 11:59 Monday night.  Statewide, the death toll rose by nine state […]

Traffic is once again moving southbound on I-85 in northeast Georgia in the aftermath of this morning’s fatal accident.  Just after 5:30 this morning, according to the Georgia state patrol, a box truck and a tractor-trailer truck were involved in an accident at mile marker 172 on 85 southbound.  A passenger in the box truck was reported to have been […]

Rory Jones, the nine-year chief of police in Westminster, will retire, but maybe not completely.  Jones has had a long law enforcement career that included stops in Seneca and Walhalla.  Westminster’s first-year city administrator Kevin Bronson said of Jones:  “Chief Jones was the first department head I met with on my first day in Westminster, he was forthright, cordial and […]

If you come across a group of 15 Oconeeans, you can expect that some five of them are fully vaccinated.  Now that CDC has declared the COVID-19 Delta variant the pre-dominant COVID virus in the country, the website for the Centers for Disease Control shows 35% of Oconeeans are fully vaccinated and 39% have had at least one dose.  As […]

Helen Westmoreland of the Oconee Sheriff’s Office has set plans for the county’s annual National Night Out against crime, to take place next week.  It’s an annual effort to promote police and community partnerships and neighborly camaraderie–all of this to make neighborhoods and communities safer and more caring places to live.  The public is invited for Oconee’s event to be […]