For far too long, cable customers fumed as they waited in vain for the cable guy to show up. When he did come, sometimes it took multiple visits to fix outages. Some customers grappled with billing mistakes that took months to resolve. And cable prices went up every year.Now it may be the cable customer's turn for revenge.Cable TV operators are trying to treat their customers better. Consumers now...

Catholic Church officials said Friday that the recently created first synthetic cell could be a positive development if correctly used, but warned scientists that only God can create life.Vatican and Italian church officials were mostly cautious in their first reaction to the announcement from the United States that researchers had produced a living cell containing manmade DNA. They warned scienti...

The case against a man accused of shooting a South Carolina police officer to death will be prosecuted in a different jurisdiction.Florence County Solicitor Ed Clements told WPDE-TV Thursday that the death of 29-year-old Florence police officer Matthew Clayton hits too close to home for his office to be objective. Clements says he has asked Horry County Solicitor Greg Hembree to try the case.Clayt...

Downtown Bangkok turned into a flaming battleground Wednesday as an army assault toppled the Red Shirt protest leadership, enraging followers who fired grenades and set numerous fires that cloaked the skyline in a black haze.Using live ammunition, troops dispersed thousands of anti-government protesters who had been camped in the capital's premier shopping and residential district for weeks. Four ...

Democrats and Republicans hoping to be South Carolina's next governor will face off for a debate in the state capital.The Palmetto Family Council event will be broadcast on Tuesday on WIS-TV in Columbia beginning at 7 p.m.The four Republican candidates will take the stage first followed by three Democrats.It's one of dozens of public debates candidates have had since the race began last year.The R...

COLUMBIA -- South Carolina's ongoing soap opera starring the state's governor and his former wife continued Thursday with Jenny Sanford's appearance on the Dr. Phil television show.The broadcast came the day after Gov. Mark Sanford told reporters that he had spent Mother's Day weekend in Florida with the Argentine woman with whom he had an affair, trying to rekindle their romance.Both Sanfords at ...

A North Carolina film studio is expanding to Georgia.The StarNews of Wilmington reported that EUE/Screen Gems has begun the process to lease the former Lakewood Fairgrounds in Atlanta for a new studio lot called the Georgia Film and Television Center.The city of Atlanta's finance committee has approved the lease, and the city council is expected to vote on the deal Monday.Studio executive vice pre...

Bob Shields, the WLTX-19 sports director, is leaving the station.And TV.Shields, who has been a Midlands broadcaster for more 30 years, will become the vice president of Life Careers, a career management firm. Shields will work as a career management counselor, according to a station press release.His last day on the air is May 28.

Sheriff's deputies say an officer has shot and killed a suspect in an earlier shooting in South Carolina.WBTW-TV reported the shooting occurred Sunday night in Lake City.Florence County Sheriff's Capt. Mike Nunn says two people were shot and wounded on a street in Lake City.Nunn says officers investigating the shooting confronted a suspect who fired at a deputy, who returned fire. Nunn says the su...

Someone has broken into 22 homes in western Lexington County in the past month, and Lexington County Sheriff’s detectives are asking the public to help find him or her.The break-ins began March 24, marked by kicked-in front doors, usually between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. The homes are in affluent subdivisions in Batesburg-Leesville, Gilbert, Hollow Creek, Lexington and Summit.The b...

The license plate had been switched and the vehicle identification number stripped from the dashboard of the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder holding a crude bomb in Times Square. Smoke from the faulty firecracker detonators might have ruined evidence.Then investigators managed to recover the VIN, hidden on the SUV's engine block - and thus began a chase that led to the arrest of the would-be bomber 53 hour...

Note: Sunday's Democratic candidate debate has concluded. You can watch ETV's recording of the debate below.Courtesy of South Carolina Educational Television, we will live stream the upcoming Republican gubernatorial primary debate. .switchOn { /*if using in fact box, change to visibility: visible; height: 100% */ display: block; } .switchOff { /* if using in fact box, change to visibility: hidde...

South Carolina's public television station is featuring the five finalists for the state Teacher of the Year award.This month's "In our Schools" television show on South Carolina ETV will include interviews with the finalists.They are Kelly Nalley of Fork Shoals School in Pelzer, Melody Johnson of Lugoff Elementary, Julia Goodman Marshall of Oakdale Elementary in Rock Hill, Samantha Maddox of Spar...

Looking for a family adventure that won't break the budget and focuses on strengthening familial relations?Search no further. Yahweh Wilderness Expeditions offers family and youth outings designed to build relationships and share adventure. The nonprofit, volunteer-operated, faith-based adventure program created by Brent McGee developed from a passion for the outdoors and a feeling of urgency for ...

A North Carolina town that the mayor called "Mayberry with a beach" has banned swimmers from wearing thongs.Kure (kyoor-EE) Beach Mayor Dean Lambeth says "we're going to keep this as close to Mayberry with a beach as you can keep it," referring to the idyllic Southern community portrayed on the 1960s TV series "The Andy Griffith Show."The Star-News of Wilmington reports that the town council voted...

A series of strong earthquakes struck a far western Tibetan area of China on Wednesday, killing at least 400 people and injuring more than 10,000 as houses made of mud and wood collapsed, trapping many more, officials said.The largest quake was recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey as magnitude 6.9. In the aftermath, panicked people, many bleeding from their wounds, flooded the streets of a Qingh...

A South Carolina family spotlighted Sunday on the television show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" say they are trying to cope with the bigger bills that came with their big new house.Amanda and Derrick Suggs told The Sun News of Myrtle Beach that their new house, built by the show in January, is about three times larger than their old one. That means higher taxes, insurance and utility bills."The...

"Big Brother," the CBS reality show that locks up disparate types in a house, challenges them to games and kicks the losers out one at a time, is holding auditions in Spartanburg Friday, April 16.The auditions start at noon at Dave Edwards Toyota, 2450 Reidville Road, in Spartanburg. Be in line before then.Bring an application (you can get one from wspa.com, the CBS affilliate co-sponsoring the au...

A 72-year-old South Carolina man who had just been released from the hospital after suffering a possible stroke died in a fire that destroyed a Pickens County mobile home.Pickens County Coroner Kandy Kelley said Melvin Pope Isbell was found dead after firefighters put out the blaze that started about 1:45 a.m. Tuesday.Isbell's son, William Sparrow, told WYFF-TV he woke up and escaped through a win...

More than 100 Chinese miners were pulled out alive Monday after being trapped for over a week in a flooded coal mine, where some ate sawdust and strapped themselves to the shafts' walls with their belts to avoid drowning while they slept.Rescued miners wrapped in blankets, some with their light-sensitive eyes covered but their feet bare, were hurried to waiting ambulances that sped wailing to near...

A South Carolina family made up of four generations living under one roof is being featured on national television.The segment on NBC's "Today Show" was to air Tuesday but was postponed to Wednesday because of a slightly higher-profile guest: President Barack Obama. The family is that of Troy Hall, who is from Hanahan and is the chief operating officer of the South Carolina Federal Credit Union.Th...

A handful of people were reported injured by violent storms that ripped the metal roof off at least one building, damaged dozens of homes and knocked down countless trees in central North Carolina Sunday night, officials said.National Weather Service meteorologist Gail Hartfield from the Raleigh office said there are initial reports of several injuries from the storms that blew through the Linwood...

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden threatened in a new audio recording released Thursday to kill any captured Americans if the U.S. executes the self-professed mastermind of the Sept.11 attacks or any other al-Qaida suspects.The U.S. is still considering whether to put Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four of his fellow plotters on military tribunal for their role in the Sept. 11 attacks. The Obama administ...

A South Carolina television station says its chief meteorologist is OK after a small plane in which she was taking flying lessons crashed in a field during an emergency landing.A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration said the two people on board were uninjured when the plane landed in a field Wednesday morning near Moore in southern Spartanburg County. The pilot had reported engine t...

A filmmaker and former state lawmaker said he is suing two cable channels after they mixed up his comedic film with a smutty flick with the same name.James "Bubba" Cromer, who works as the state House of Representatives' reading clerk, said he was thrilled when TV listings and promos began airing on Showtime's The Movie Channel earlier this month for his film, "The Hills Have Thighs."His 2008 come...

Authorities say a fire that destroyed an unmarked police car in a small South Carolina town was intentionally set.Lynchburg Police Chief Charles Lewis told WIS-TV that someone stuffed paper in the gas tank of the cruiser last Saturday night, then set the fire that also damaged a second marked cruiser in the Lee County town.Lewis says the damage to the two police cars is a big blow to the cash-stra...

For Tiger Woods, this figures to be a Masters like no other. Woods said Tuesday he will end more than four months of seclusion and play at Augusta National in three weeks, shielded by the most secure environment in golf as he competes for the first time since a sex scandal shattered his image."The Masters is where I won my first major and I view this tournament with great respect," Woods said in a...

The Los Angeles coroner's office says "The Lost Boys" actor Corey Haim is dead at 38.Coroner's Lt. Cheryl MacWillie said Wednesday that Haim died at 2:15 a.m. at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. She said an autopsy will determine the cause of death and there are no other details.Canadian-born Haim became a teen heartthrob with the 1986 film "Lucas" and 1987's "The Lost Boys."His fi...