State Superintendent Inez Tenenbaum will send Gov. Mark Sanford a budget outline this fall seeking $589.3 million in additional money to operate public schools a year from now.

That's the price tag on what Tenenbaum says is needed to restore money legislators couldn't provide this year, plus pay for textbooks, remedial instruction and buses.

Sanford, meanwhile, thinks the state could save money if it didn't operate a statewide school-bus system. The Department of Education is the lone state agency in the nation that owns and maintains a fleet of 5,600 buses, an agency spokesman said.

Tenenbaum and Sanford held a cordial meeting Wednesday to discuss the Education Department's finances and what it needs for the 2004-05 academic year.

Of 923 full-time employees on the state agency's payroll, 464 work in transportation as mechanics, supervisors and related jobs. Sanford believes "market demand" could lure entrepreneurs to provide bus service and save the state millions of dollars.

Tenenbaum said studies she's seen predict business people are primarily interested in contracts for profitable routes in metropolitan areas only.

Aerosol can was cause of Holopack blast

Last week's explosion at a Blythewood pharmaceutical packaging plant was an accident caused by an aerosol can that was ground in a shredder, investigators said Wednesday.

But the probe did not determine who put the can of lubricant on a conveyor to the shredder, said George Rice, spokesman for the Richland County fire marshal's office.

Seven Holopack International Corp. workers were hurt in the July 22 explosion in a warehouse where plastic was being ground.

None of the injuries were life-threatening, Rice said.

The state workplace safety agency continues to investigate whether safety standards were violated.

Man Died Of Broken Neck In Auto Crash

A Richland County man died of a broken neck when his car hit a tree on Wilson Boulevard near Blythewood, the coroner's office said Wednesday.

Charles Edward Edwards Jr., 43, crashed his 2002 Ford Focus at Jenkins Brothers Road about 10 a.m. Tuesday, Deputy Coroner Ted Kennedy said.

An autopsy Wednesday determined the cause of his death. But the state Highway Patrol continues to investigate why Edwards' car crossed the center line, patrol spokesman Josef Robinson said.

Girl improving 3 months after surgery

CAMDEN, N.J. A two-year-old S.C. girl is showing signs of improvement after undergoing genetic brain surgery.

Lana Swancey of Columbia underwent the operation three months ago at Cooper University Hospital. Doctors hoped it would slow the effects of Canavan disease, an affliction that affects the nervous system and causes blindness, hearing loss and mental retardation.

At her three-month checkup Tuesday, Swancey showed improvements in alertness and motor skills.

Two men sentenced on federal gun charges

A Columbia man has been sentenced to about eight years, and a Hopkins resident has pleaded guilty in unrelated federal gun violations.

Kenneth Payne Bush Jr., 28, was sentenced Monday to eight years and four months for having a stolen gun, U.S. prosecutors said.

Bush was arrested March 3, 2002, at Columbiana Ridge Apartments, after a woman complained that he had a gun and had assaulted her, federal prosecutors said.

Columbia police found a stolen Glock 9 mm in Bush's jacket, the government said.

Kenya Jermaine Thompson, 29, of Hopkins, admitted Monday to being a career criminal and pleaded guilty to having two guns, crack cocaine and digital scales in a Columbia motel room on Aug. 22, 2002.

He was arrested by Richland County deputies who got a tip that Thompson was selling drugs from a room at the InTown Suites motel at 8310 Two Notch Road.

Thompson faces from five years to life in prison, prosecutors said.