News Bites From Across South Carolina And The Nation

*17 Receive Presidential Medal of Freedom at White House Ceremony*

A reported bout with Covid kept actor Denzel Washington from attending the Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony at the White House on Thursday, but 16 others, including Olympic Champion Simone Biles, U.S. soccer player Megan Rapinoe, and Khazir Khan, joined President Joe Biden to accept their respective honors.

Washington, Khan, Rapinoe, and Sandra Lindsay each received the medals – the country’s highest civilian honor.

“The Fourth of July week reminds us of what brought us together long ago and still binds us – binds us at our best, what we strive for,” Biden remarked during the ceremony.

“We the people, doing what we can to ensure that the idea of America, the cause of freedom, shines like the sun to light up the future of the world,” Biden stated.

McCain, who served alongside Biden in the U.S. House and Senate, received his award posthumously, as did Apple Founder Steve Jobs and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

Other medal recipients were former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., an advocate of campaign finance reform and marriage equality; Sister Simone Campbell, an advocate for progressive issues; Julieta García, the first Hispanic woman to serve as President of a U.S. college; Fred Gray, one of the first Black members of the Alabama Legislature since Reconstruction; the Rev. Alexander Karloutsos, former vicar-general of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; Diane Nash, a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee who worked with Martin Luther King Jr.; Wilma Vaught, an Air Force brigadier general and one of the most decorated women in the history of the U.S. military; and Raúl Yzaguirre, a civil rights advocate who was the CEO and President of the National Council of La Raza for 30 years.

The White House said the President presents medals to individuals who have had significant cultural impacts or made significant contributions to the country or the world.

*Alex Murdaugh To Face Charges In June 2021 Shooting Deaths Of Wife And Son*

Alex Murdaugh is expected to be indicted later this week for murder in the grisly June 2021 shooting deaths of his wife and son, according to two sources with knowledge of the pending indictments. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly. Sources also said that agents with the State Law Enforcement Division paid a visit to Murdaugh’s family members Tuesday morning to inform them charges were coming. The State could not reach the family by press deadline.

It was not immediately known whether the expected murder indictment would come from the state grand jury, which has issued numerous indictments against Murdaugh for financial crimes, or from a Colleton County grand jury. Most often, murder indictments are issued in the county where the crime happened. “I have no official word from anybody about anything,” said attorney Dick Harpootlian, one of Murdaugh’s two lawyers. Any murder charge this week would be a culmination — at least for now — of more than a year of sensational news stories about Murdaugh, 54, a fourth-generation attorney in a storied Hampton County law firm and the descendant of three legendary solicitors who held sway politically, socially and legally for some 100 years in southeastern South Carolina. The Murdaughs were so powerful that corner of the state was sometimes called “Murdaugh country.” The shooting deaths of Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and her son Paul, 22, have been unsolved for more than 13 months, as law enforcement has kept mum on the investigation. Meanwhile, news stories and network true-crime stories about the killings have been aired around the nation. A half-dozen books and documentaries, including by HBO Max and Netflix, are in the works.

*Family Finds Naked Neighbor In Their Basement, He Asked For Clothes*

A family heard something in their basement and discovered it was their next door neighbor — “completely naked,” according to Ohio court documents. “We heard noise in our basement, and all of us were on the first floor,” a woman who lives in the home wrote in an affidavit filed with Hamilton County Municipal Court. “I yelled, ‘Who’s there?’ twice and he answered, ‘It’s Tommy.’” Officers with the Green Township Police Department responded to the house just before 7 p.m. on July 8, according to a police report. Green Township is a township of Cincinnati.

When family members got to the stairs, they saw their next door neighbor in the basement, “completely naked,” the woman’s husband wrote in an affidavit. “He asked if I had some clothes he could borrow.” Family members said the man was mumbling something about someone wanting to hurt him or his sister. The husband went to get some clothes for the neighbor, and when he came back, he found he already had a pair of camouflage pants on and was holding a black bag from the family’s basement, the affidavit says. He then stormed out the back door and through the backyard. The neighbor, who is 40, faces a charge of trespassing, according to the affidavit.