Posted on Wed, Aug. 16, 2006

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S.C. surplus bigger than expected

South Carolina ended the fiscal year with a more than $170 million surplus, according to Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom.

Eckstrom’s office finished the final tally of state revenues this week.

The surplus was larger than projected by the Board of Economic Advisors last month. State tax collections have continued to surge throughout the year.

The additional money has been placed into a new savings account created this year by the General Assembly. The money can be spent only on hurricane or other emergency response, roads and bridges, to buy school buses or to replenish other state savings accounts.

SPARTANBURG

• Mouse in salad was hoax, restaurant says

A dead rodent found in a salad at the Dorman Centre Ruby Tuesday two weeks ago was put there as a hoax, the restaurant said Tuesday.

“It’s evident to us that we were the victim of a hoax or prank,” restaurant spokesman Rick Johnson said.

Johnson said the company did not have enough evidence to accuse anyone of committing the alleged hoax and had no plans of speaking with authorities about the possibility of prosecution.

Edward Viehman, 17, of Inman, said he found the rodent July 30 while eating a spring mix salad, which he had prepared from the salad bar.

Viehman could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

State health officials have turned their evidence over to the Food and Drug Administration.

Johnson said there is no indication the rodent was in the restaurant’s salad until after Viehman put the spring mix on his plate.

The restaurant receives its salad in large bags from outside producers. Lab results indicate it is unlikely the mouse was accidentally packed into the salad bag at a processing plant.

According to a company report, examinations by two labs found no traces of salad in the rodent’s stomach and no traces of the rodent in the spring mix salad bag.

The restaurant also maintains that surveillance camera footage of the salad bar and kitchen indicates that no one added a foreign object to the salad while it sat on the bar.

• GREENWOODMan charged in shooting death

A 23-year-old Greenwood man has been arrested and charged with killing a Greenville pawnshop owner and stealing more than 100 guns from his store.

Benjamin Erik Case, 23, was taken into custody Tuesday afternoon in Laurens County after a police chase that ended in a gunfight, authorities said.

Case led officers on a 15-mile chase in a stolen Chevrolet Corvette before his tires were flattened, police said.

Case then tried to steal another vehicle from a woman at gunpoint, but police blocked him in. He pointed a gun at officers who fired back, but no one was injured, authorities said.

Police say Case went into the Fast Cash Pawn Shop on Saturday, killing the owner, 53-year-old Tim Henson. An employee was injured, but called 911 after the suspect left and was able to describe the shooter.

Contributing: Staff writer John O’Connor, The Associated Press and The (Spartanburg) Herald-Journal