A USC study says the cost of medical care for state prison inmates could be lowered by hiring a private company to provide the service, said state Sen. Mike Fair, R-Greenville.

Fair said he would urge Gov. Mark Sanford and Department of Corrections director Jon Ozmint to continue considering ways to privatize all or part of the prison health care system.

Fair is chairman of the Senate Corrections and Penology Committee. The State Budget and Control Board authorized $20,000 for the USC study.

Corrections officials had explored hiring a private group to offer medical care in the prison, Fair said, but they abandoned their efforts when the benefits seemed questionable.

SUMMERVILLE

• Small earthquake shakes some

An earthquake too small to accurately measure was felt by some in the Summerville area on Thanksgiving Day, officials said.

The tremor prompted reports to local police and fire departments just after 5 p.m. Thursday.

Tiny earthquakes are common in the Summerville area, said John Bellini, a geophysicist at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. Bellini said the tremor is not a prelude to something bigger.

CHARLESTON

• Black workers allege bias at health center

Black employees at a McClellanville health center have filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying they are not respected by the center’s black director.

Officials with the EEOC district office in Charlotte plan to visit St. James-Santee Family Health Center in December, said agency spokesman Billy Sanders.

Former and current black employees claim the center discriminates against blacks. Among the complaints are that the center’s trustees don’t listen to employee grievances and that the center’s black director hires whites to replace blacks.

Roberta Pinckney, the center’s executive director, denies the accusations.

GREENVILLE

• Finnish court sends boys back to father

HELSINKI, Finland — The Finnish Supreme Court on Friday overturned a decision by a regional court that two boys be allowed to stay with their mother in Finland, ordering that the ruling not be carried out.

Earlier Friday, the East Finland Court of Appeal, in a surprise ruling, said the boys, ages 10 and 13, who have dual citizenship and have been living in Finland with their mother, Outi Koski, should immediately be returned to her.

But the Supreme Court, which twice before had ruled that the boys be returned to Greenville where their American father lives, annulled the ruling later in the day. A message left for the father, John Rogers, was not immediately returned Friday.

Police took the boys, Jacob and Alexander Rogers, from Koski last month when they found her hiding with them in a farmhouse near Kajaani, 360 miles north of Helsinki. Koski had fled to the farmhouse in September after the Supreme Court ruled the children be returned to Greenville.

Contributing: Staff writer Roddie Burris and The Associated Press.