| Lawmaker wants background checks CHARLESTON, S.C. -- A lawmaker wants all large companies that sell to children to conduct background checks of potential employees. Rep. Chip Limehouse, R-Charleston, says he's drafted a bill - which comes after two South Carolina Wal-Mart workers who were convicted sex offenders were charged with fondling children in stores - for the next Statehouse session in January. It would require all retailers of toys and children's clothes that have multiple stores and annual gross sales of more than $15 million to perform the background checks. The checks, which cost about $25 each, would be done by the State Law Enforcement Division and paid for by the retailers, under the proposal. Limehouse said most employees at large stores are above reproach. But "clearly there is a problem," he said. "These stores have a heavy volume of children and people coming and going through." At an Orangeburg Wal-Mart, a convicted sex offender was charged with fondling a child in the store. At a Columbia store where a similar incident occured in 2000, the employee pleaded guilty to molesting a 10-year-old girl. Wal-Mart spokesman Gus Whitcomb said the company continually evaluates its security precautions but wasn't ready to commit to installing a program of background checks on its own. Whitcomb said the company employs more than 25,000 people in South Carolina and that the two incidents took place four years apart.
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