CONWAY, SC -

Authorities have captured a suspect who was sought for witness tampering after he was involved in a hit and run crash with an SC Highway Patrol car near Conway on Tuesday afternoon, officials say.

The Horry County Sheriff’s Department said that the SC trooper was taken to the ER of the Conway Medical Center just after noon after a Mercedes driven by a wanted Conway man hit the trooper’s car near SC 90 and E. Cox Ferry Road.

Marcus Dwain Wright, age 31, was out on bond for a murder charge and a warrant was issued on Tuesday for an additional charge of intimidation of court officials, jurors, or witnesses, authorities said.

An all points bulletin for Wright went out to law enforcement agencies in the area on Tuesday morning from the US Marshal’s Task Force.

An SC Trooper was monitoring traffic along SC 90 when he spotted a black Mercedes sedan approaching at a high rate of speed, officials said.

The trooper was spotted by Wright, who then ran his car into the trooper, who ended up crashing into a ditch after the initial wreck, said Sgt. Jeff Benton of the Horry County Sheriff’s Department.

The suspect then fled the scene on foot after driving for a short distance after

JONESBORO, Ga. (AP) – Former NBA All-Star guard Daron “Mookie” Blaylock was in critical condition at a hospital late Friday after his SUV crossed the center line and crashed head-on into a van in suburban Atlanta, fatally injuring a passenger in the van, police said.

Blaylock was driving in Jonesboro on Friday when he crashed and was airlifted to the Atlanta Medical Center, said Clayton County police spokesman Clarence Cox.

Jonesboro Police Chief Franklin Allen said late Friday that 43-year-old Monica Murphy, a passenger in the van, died just before 10 p.m. Allen said her husband, 41-year-old Frankie Murphy, sustained a broken ankle and was released from the hospital after undergoing treatment.

Blaylock was initially placed on life support at the hospital. But the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Blaylock’s condition improved Friday night and he was taken off of it.

Allen told WSB-TV in Atlanta that Blaylock has had “a history of seizures,” and police were trying to find out if a seizure may have led to the accident.

The 46-year-old Blaylock was a first-round draft pick by the New Jersey Nets out of Oklahoma in 1989.

He played for the Atlanta Hawks between 1992 and 1999, appeared in the 1994 NBA All-Star game and had

FLORENCE COUNTY, SC -

Florence County Coroner Keith Von Lutcken says two people were killed in a car wreck just before 11:00 p.m. Friday night in Florence County.

Lutcken says the wreck was just west of Sheminalley Road and US 378 east of Lake City in the Hanna community.

The cars hit head on and both drivers were pronounced dead at the scene.

The coroner identifies the victims as Aaron Richard Olson, 29, of Florida, and, Ell8iot Wesley Qualls, 23, of Winnsboro.

The South Carolina Highway Patrol continues its investigation.

A crash in the beachbound lanes at the Horry County line is caused a massive traffic problem on Friday night.

The crash happened at 8 pm and was just west of the Galivants Ferry Convenience Store.

At 8:45 pm, traffic was backed up all the way to Sparky’s Fireworks in Marion County, which is at 2416 S Highway 501.

The SC Highway Patrol listed the “roadway blocked” and the location as just before the Pee Dee bridge. The distance for the traffic back-up was more than 5 miles.

By 9:45 pm, the crash was no longer active, the SC Highway Patrol said, but there are likely residual traffic problems in the area.

Click here for the latest updates from the SC Highway Patrol.

KERSHAW COUNTY, SC (WIS) -

Crews are done cleaning up a gasoline spill after a crash involving a tanker truck in Kershaw County.

The South Carolina Highway Patrol says US 1 was closed at Winter Way near Lugoff. 

Troopers say a 16-year-old driver lost control of his pickup truck on US 1 Saturday morning and went into the path of a tractor-trailer hauling a tank of gasoline.  The teen overcorrected and crashed into the tank of the truck.

Investigators say the drivers of the vehicles were not injured.

About 2,400 gallons of gasoline spilled into the roadway.

Copyright 2013 WIS.  All rights reserved.

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) – Jenni Rivera, the Latin music star killed in a weekend plane crash, has made her final journey home.

Three brothers of Rivera, a Southern California native, accompanied her remains on a Thursday night flight from Mexico to the Long Beach airport.

Escorted by police, her casket was then driven to a Long Beach mortuary, where dozens of fans waited.

Other fans gathered outside her mother’s home in nearby Lakewood, where well-wishers have left a memorial of balloons, candles and flowers.

Rivera, 43, was perhaps the most successful female singer in grupero, a male-dominated Mexico regional style, and had branched out into acting and reality television. Known as the “Diva de la Banda,” she sold 15 million records and was loved on both sides of the border for her down-to-earth style and songs about heartbreak and overcoming pain.

She and six other people were killed Sunday evening when a plane she was traveling in nose-dived from 28,000 feet to the ground while flying from Monterrey in northern Mexico to the central city of Toluca.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Results of DNA tests were pending, but her family conceded Thursday that she was dead.

“We have received 100 percent confirmation that

By By TAMMY WEBBER
Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) – A medical helicopter pilot hit bad weather and was trying to return to the hospital hangar shortly before the aircraft crashed into a northern Illinois field, killing him and two nurses, authorities said Tuesday.

Pilot Andy Olesen radioed to dispatchers at Rockford Memorial Hospital that he was turning around because he had “encountered some weather” while heading to another hospital to pick up a patient Monday night, hospital spokesman Wester Wuori said.

Olesen, 65, and flight nurses Karen Hollis, 48, and Jim Dillow, 40, died when the plane crashed about 8:30 p.m. near Rochelle, about 70 miles west of Chicago. No patients were aboard at the time.

The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.

National Weather Service observations showed light snow, seven-mile visibility and light winds in the Rochelle area around the time of the crash, meteorologist Jamie Enderlen said. She said the NWS usually worries about visibility of a mile or less, “but there could have been localized” weather at the point the helicopter turned around.

Wuori said he was not sure where the helicopter was when Olesen turned. It crashed several miles south of Rochelle.

The hospital issued a statement saying it

By By SCOTT SONNER
Associated Press

RENO, Nev. (AP) – An inattentive trucker with a history of speeding violations driving a tractor-trailer with faulty brakes was the probable cause of a fatal collision with an Amtrak train that left six people dead in northern Nevada last year, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded Tuesday.

On a 5-0 vote, the panel also agreed that the weakness of passenger car walls likely contributed to the number of deaths and more than a dozen injuries after the truck skidded 300 feet into the train at a rural crossing on June 24, 2011. It recommended new strength standards be developed.

NTSB investigators said the truck driver apparently didn’t notice the train because he was fatigued as a result of inconsistent sleeping patterns, was suffering from ankle pain or possibly could have been checking messages on his cellphone. But the panel decided there wasn’t enough evidence of any of those things to include in the formal probable cause finding issued during a hearing in Washington.

Board members also ruled out the possibility the crossing guard gate or warning lights malfunctioned after time-lapsed photography showed the gate fully extended four seconds before the crash. Monitoring equipment also indicated the warning

By By E.J. TAMARA and NATALIA CANO
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Jenni Rivera launched her career hawking cassette recordings of her songs at flea markets, but a powerful voice, soulful singing style and frank discussion of personal troubles powered her to the heights of a male-dominated industry, transforming her into the one of the biggest stars of the genre known as grupero.

Her life was cut short at its peak on Sunday by an airplane crash in northern Mexico that also killed six friends and co-workers.

The 43-year-old mother of five and grandmother of two became a symbol of resilience for millions of fans on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border. Her fame grew as she branched out into acting, appearing in independent film, reality TV and the televised singing competition “La Voz Mexico.”

She had recently filed for divorce from her third husband, was once detained at a Mexico City airport with tens of thousands of dollars in cash, and publicly apologized after her brother assaulted a drunken fan who verbally attacked her in 2011.

“I am the same as the public, as my fans,” she told The Associated Press in an interview last March.

Rivera sold more than 15 million copies of

By By PORFIRO IBARRA and GALIA GARCIA-PALAFOX
Associated Press

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) – The wreckage of a small plane believed to be carrying Jenni Rivera, the U.S-born singer whose soulful voice and unfettered discussion of a series of personal travails made her a Mexican-American superstar, was found in northern Mexico on Sunday. Authorities said there were no survivors.

The singer’s father, Pedro Rivera, said he thinks his daughter was on board the plane and that her brother will travel to Mexico on Monday to identify what they presumed were her remains.

Born in Long Beach, California, Jenni Rivera was at the peak of her career as perhaps the most successful female singer in grupero, a male-dominated regional style influenced by the norteno, cumbia and ranchero styles.

A 43-year-old mother of five children and grandmother of two, the woman known as the “Diva de la Banda” was known for her frank talk about her struggles to give a good life to her children despite a series of setbacks.

She was recently divorced from her third husband, was once detained at a Mexico City airport with tens of thousands of dollars in cash, and she publicly apologized after her brother assaulted a drunken fan who verbally attacked