Monthly Archives: June 2019
Woman in jail after wreck that killed sons
PICKENS — A woman charged with felony DUI and other charges in connection with a wreck that killed her 6-year-old twin sons last week was booked into the Pickens County Detention Center on Monday after being released from the hospital.
Jennifer Lynn Knox, 38, of Seneca, is charged with two counts of felony DUI resulting in death, two child restraint violations, child endangerment and a seatbelt violation. She was denied bond Tuesday after her legal counsel waived a hearing.
Knox was airlifted to Greenville Memorial Hospital after the May 26 wreck that killed her sons, Dylan and Camryn Clark.
The boys died at separate hospitals after the wreck, according to Pickens County deputy coroner Gary Duncan. Duncan said one of the twins was pronounced dead at Prisma Health–Easley and the other died at AnMed Health Cannon Hospital in Pickens.
Highway Patrol Lance Cpl. David Jones said the accident took place at around 10 p.m. May 26 when Knox’s 2005 BMW tried to pass a vehicle pulling a boat on S.C. Highway 183 near its intersection with Concord Church Road. Jones said the vehicle collided
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Easley clinic included in DOJ suit alleging kickbacks, bogus billing
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
EASLEY — A federal complaint filed under the False Claims Act alleges a Greenville-based chiropractor owned or managed pain management clinics and urine drugs testing laboratories that engaged in illegal financial relationships and provided medically unnecessary services and items.
An Easley location, Oaktree Medical Centre, is one of the pain management clinics named in the complaint filed against Daniel McCollum and announced by the Department of Justice in a news release Monday.
The entities named as defendants in the complaints are FirstChoice Healthcare P.C.; Labsource LLC, Oaktree Medical Centre P.C.; Pain Management Associates of the Carolina LLC; Pain Management Associates of North Carolina P.C.; and ProLab LLC.
FBI agents executed search warrants on the Easley location, as well as locations in Greenville and Spartanburg, in October.
The complaint alleges urine drug testing, steroid injections and prescriptions for opioids and lidocaine ointment were among the medically unnecessary services and items provided at the locations.
The complaint also names as a defendant ProCare Counseling Center LLC, a substance
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‘A little bit for everybody’
Pickens officially unveils Doodle Park
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — Kids were the first residents to explore the Pickens Doodle Park Saturday.
Officials opened the park’s playground Saturday morning ahead of the 2 p.m. ribbon-cutting and official grand opening.
“This is a great day for Pickens,” Mayor David Owens said. “This has been in the works for several years.”
The park has “a little bit for everybody,” he said.
“You’ve got cyclists here, you’ve got runners, you’ve got walkers, you’ve got people with strollers, you’ve got people with skateboards, you’ve got rollerbladers — a little bit of everybody,” Owens said. “Parents and grandparents are going to be able to come down here and watch the children play.”
The park, located at the Pickens trailhead of the Doodle Trail at 409 E. Cedar Rock St., is about 95 percent complete, he said.
“Still got a little bit to do,” Owens said, adding that more exercise equipment for adults
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Woman gets 10 years on trafficking charges
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — Judge Letitia Verdin sentenced an Easley woman to 10 years in prison for trafficking heroin and methamphetamine.
Thirteenth Circuit Solicitor Walt Wilkins said in a release last week that Pamela Snapp Richards, 59, pleaded guilty on May 23 to trafficking heroin, trafficking methamphetamine and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
Assistant solicitor Baker Cleveland presented evidence at the plea hearing establishing that Pickens County Sheriff’s Office narcotics investigators executed search and arrest
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New county jail nearly complete
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
PICKENS — Construction of Pickens County’s new jail is nearing the final details.
County attorney Ken Roper told county council members Monday that he had an opportunity to tour the new jail last week.
“During that tour, I was able to see how close they are to completion,” he said. “It’s just a matter of weeks now. This building is going
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On hamburgers and helium
Now that I have finished downing a delicious Mexican Burger from Serendipity Cafe in downtown Easley — which, by the way, was recently voted the Best Lunch in Pickens County by the readers of the Courier — I will sit back and purport to write a column for you.
Speaking of burgers, here’s some more news from across the pond that you may not have heard about. McDonald’s UK has just 
introduced the South Carolina Stack: “Two 100 percent British and Irish beef burgers with bacon, smoky cheese, a Carolina Gold BBQ sauce, onions and lettuce in a cornbread-style bun.”
Now if that doesn’t start your lips to smacking, I don’t know what to do for you.
What I’m wondering, though, is why McDonald’s is selling the South Carolina Stack in the United Kingdom but not in the United States — not even in the sandwich’s namesake state.
And I’m wondering if we South Carolinians ought to be getting some royalties or something out of the use of our state’s name and sauce to sell hamburgers overseas. Perhaps this is something our burger-loving commander-in-chief ought to look into. Forget tariffs — give us royalties.
While we’re at it, I think the Brits still owe us a lot for the grief they gave us back in the Revolution and the War of 1812, not to mention how we saved their royal hind ends in World War I and World War II.
But, blimey, all they want to talk about is breaking away from the European Union. Meanwhile, they’re gobbling up a variety of wonderful burgers from McDonald’s “Great Tastes of America” specialty line.
We’ve already missed out on the New York Stack, which was available from May 1-14. It was two beef burgers, bacon and chunky coleslaw on a sesame seed bagel. The Mississippi Stack, which featured bacon, onion relish and a “rich and sticky BBQ sauce,” and
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Honoring Their Service escort to start at Southern Wesleyan
CENTRAL — Southern Wesleyan University will once again serve as the starting point for a motorcade carrying U.S. Special Operations Command Marines to Keowee Key for a week of rest and relaxation.
SWU officials invite the public to join them in welcoming the Marines on the Central campus June 17.
Each year, the service personnel, who have been deployed overseas one or more times, travel by motorcycle and Jeep escort to Lake
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Life jacket loaner station unveiled at Mile Creek Park
By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
SIX MILE — It didn’t take long for visitors to begin using the latest amenity at Mile Creek Park.
Even before last week’s official unveiling of the new life jacket loaner station at the park, boaters and swimmers were borrowing the life jackets to help keep them safe on and in the water on Memorial Day.
Stocked with life jackets ranging in sizes from infant to extra-large adult, the station is available for park visitors to use free of charge.
The station at Mile Creek Park is Pickens County’s first, according to park superintendent Tyler Merck..
“This just showcases the need for this type of program in our area,” he said. “They’re already being used real heavily today.”
The station, located between the park’s boat docks, is the result of a partnership between Mile Creek Park, Prisma Health Children’s
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How the Doodle got its name
I think most folks know that the Pickens Doodle was named for some insect known as a “Doodlebug,” but I can find no record of anyone having ever specified just exactly which insect that was and why it would be associated with the train.
Well, I have done a fair amount of research on the subject, and I can say with some confidence that in the 1890s, when the Pickens Doodle made its historic maiden voyage down the tracks, it came to be known for its similarity to the larval stage of the antlion.
The larva of the antlion, known to generations of children, is a little bug that feeds on ants and captures them by making a conical tunnel in sandy soils. The tunnel is rimmed with a mound of loose sand, and when an ant approaches, the doodlebug waits in the bottom of the hole for the ant to lose its footing on the edge of the sand trap. The antlion, with its wicked-looking mandible claws, clamps down and then pulls the hapless ant into its lair.
Children (including myself) have for time immemorial obtained some amusement by taking a blade of grass, a small twig or a pine needle, and sticking it down in the doodlebug’s tunnel, which the bug grabs and holds on tight. The child then pulls out his catch and
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Who do we stand up for?
Americans fought, died, were wounded and were captured in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953.
The North Korean ruler, Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of the current dictator, secured supplies and training from the Soviet Union and a steady supply of soldiers from communist China. Grandpa had been a major in the Soviet army during World War II and 
joined the Communist Party.
Korea had been ruled by the Japanese since 1910. After the war ended, America and the Soviet Union agreed to divide the country at the 38th parallel, forming North and South Korea.
Kim Il Sung, an ambitious dictator, wanted to unite the country under his dictatorship.
With help from the Soviet Union and China, he fought against the United States and other United Nations forces for three years. At the end, more than 1 million people were killed, and the country was still divided.
Approximately 36,000 American soldiers died in Korea during the war, and about 100,000 were wounded. As of April of last year, according to data from the Pentagon,
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