(Rock Hill) Rock Hill should hire 21 more police officers, close the city-run jail and consider building a new law enforcement center, a consultant recommended to city leaders Thursday night. According to our news partner The Herald, in a long-awaited report delivered at City Hall, national police consultant Carroll Buracker pointed to slow response times as evidence that Rock Hill needs more officers.Officers take an average of 12 minutes to respond to high-priority calls, a figure well above the recommended time of five minutes.

(York County) Local students might have another school option in 2009.  York Preparatory Academy is right now in the process of acquiring there charter from the state which could open the school in August of next year.  The school would start off as K-8th grade before moving on to K-12. Planning Committee chair Craig Craze says the school would focus on parental involvement, academic excellence and character building.

(Fort Mill) Citibank announced Monday that it plans to cut 50,000 jobs, the largest layoff announcement since 1993.  According to our news partner The Herald, Citi spokeswoman Shannon Bell declined to say whether the company's 165,000-square-foot Fort Mill operations center will be affected by the corporation's cutbacks.When the building opened in Kingsley Industrial Park off Munn Road in November 2005, it housed 800 employees and the company talked of plans to expand to 1,600 by this year. The center currently has 1,480 employees.

(Charlotte, NC) New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo issued a subpoena to Bank of America Corp. this week demanding a list of every executive who received a bonus of more than $250,000 over the past two years. The subpoena marked an escalation of Cuomo's investigation of the hefty bonuses paid out to banking executives during the run-up to the industry's meltdown this fall. A person familiar with the investigation said Cuomo's office sent the subpoena after being disappointed with Bank of America's initial response to a letter asking for similar information.

(Charlotte, NC) Wells Fargo's chief executive is praising the legacy Wachovia workers established in Winston-Salem before the regional bank merged with Charlotte-based First Union in 2001. According to our television partner Channel 9 Eyewitness News CEO John Stumpf offered no promises about job security and little other information about Wells Fargo's plans in his speech to Wachovia employees on Wednesday. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo said it plans to maintain an East Coast headquarters in Charlotte after it completes the merger by the end of the year.

(Rock Hill) York Technical College students can expect larger classes and longer waits in campus offices as the school looks to mitigate a loss of more than $1 million from the state. As enrollment grows, the college likely won't hire staff and faculty to keep pace. But, college President Greg Rutherford said, that should help prevent layoffs and tuition increases. York Tech is one of nearly 100 state-funded agencies whose budgets were slashed to make up for a $488 million shortfall.

(Lancaster) A Lancaster High School student is dead after a wreck Friday night. 16-year-old LaKendra  Dye was returning to Lancaster from Great Falls Friday around 4:45 pm when the SC Highway Patrol says her car went off the right shoulder of the road on SC 97. She reportedly overcorrected and crossed the center line, striking a pick up. The driver of the pickup, who was wearing a seatbelt, was taken to Chester Regional Center, where he was treated and released, according to the Highway Patrol.

(Charlotte, NC) Wachovia is in for steep cuts when Wells Fargo takes it over later this year.  The "Charlotte Observer" is reporting that Wells Fargo's finance chief announced the downsizing to analysts Wednesday.  On the chopping block are Wachovia's commercial and investment banking arms and its risky Pick-a-Payment home loans.  Wells Fargo says it's being forced to trim more than the five-billion it originally estimated.

Election Results

State House:
District 49 John King defeated Marvin Rogers.

District 46 Gary Simril defeated Herb Crump 65 percent to 35.

SC Senate:
Mick Mulvaney won a narrow victory Mandy Powers Norrell.

York County

South Carolina

National