Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken, launched his second bid for state treasurer Wednesday with stops around the state.

Ryberg says restoring the state’s AAA credit rating with Standard & Poor’s and instilling greater fiscal responsibility are his top priorities.

Ryberg faces Rick Quinn, a former House majority leader, and Easley developer Jeff Willis in the GOP primary and hopes for a rematch against state Treasurer Grady Patterson.

In 2002, Patterson won 52 percent of the vote to Ryberg’s 48 percent.

• Man arrested in slaying of former beauty queen

NAPA, Calif. — A 26-year-old man was arrested Wednesday on murder charges in the stabbing deaths of a former South Carolina beauty queen and her roommate nearly a year ago, police said.

Eric Matthew Copple of Napa was booked on two counts of murder in the deaths of Leslie Ann Mazzara and Adrienne Insogna, both 26.

The women were fatally stabbed early the morning of Nov. 1 in a bedroom in the house they rented in this wine-country town. A third roommate called police when she heard a struggle and then ran to safety.

Authorities did not immediately disclose what led to the arrests.

Mazzara, a former Miss South Carolina contestant, worked for the Niebaum-Coppola Winery.

CHESNEE

• Parents offer reward in unsolved killings

Nearly two years after four people were found shot to death in a bike shop, the parents of one victim have offered a $100,000 reward for information.

Tom and Lorraine Lucas, the parents of Brian Lucas, have distributed fliers offering the money for information on the unsolved killing.

The couple, who have relocated from Kentucky to Spartanburg, have promised to produce the money if an informant comes forward, says Joe Mammana, a Philadelphia philanthropist who has put up rewards in missing-persons cases.

Brian Lucas, 29, was the service manager for Superbike Motorsports in this town 15 miles north of Spartanburg. Shop owner Scott Dean Ponder, 30; his mother and bookkeeper Beverly Guy, 52; and mechanic Chris Sherbert, 26, were also found dead Nov. 6, 2003, from multiple gunshot wounds.

FLORENCE

• Johnsonville city clerk charged with embezzling

The clerk and treasurer in Johnsonville has been arrested and accused of taking more than $75,000 of the city’s money.

Marti Cox Powell, 32, was arrested Monday on charges of embezzlement of $5,000 or more in public funds and misconduct in office, according to Florence County jail reports.

Powell took “public funds in the amount of about $78,722” between June 2004 and August 2005, according to arrest warrants issued by the State Law Enforcement Division.

The arrest was the result of an investigation that began about two weeks ago after outside auditors found discrepancies in the town’s finances, said Carl Skinner, Johnsonville city councilman and acting administrator.

Contributing: The Associated Press