Columbia officials say prison inmates are flushing handmade weapons, underwear and various other debris down their toilets, causing a nearby sewer pump to break and costing taxpayers millions. WJBF News Channel 6’s SC Capitol reporter, Robert Kittle, has more.

An update on a story we brought you Monday…DHEC had an investigator at the site Monday and will have someone back Tuesday. The agency will need to decide if Edgefield County Schools can continue to use some of the land on district property to dump and burn trash. UPDATE: DHEC has told the Edgefield County to stop dumping and clean up the trash, immediately. It’s not a landfill with permits, so they can’t do what they’re doing.

A local school district is defending itself after our news partners at EdgefieldDaily.com got a tip about possible illegal dumping behind J.E.T. Middle School. WJBF News Channel 6’s Paige Tucker looked into the complaints. UPDATE: DHEC has told the Edgefield County to stop dumping and clean up the trash, immediately. It’s not a landfill with permits, so they can’t do what they’re doing.

An American colonel says two ships searching for the black boxes of Air France Flight 447 are ending their hunt. A French nuclear submarine is continuing to look.

Experts say autopsies on victims of the Air France disaster suggest the plane broke up in the air. A spokesman for Brazilian medical examiners says they had multiple fractures of legs, hips and arms.

A French nuclear submarine has arrived in the crash zone of Air France Flight 447. It’s there to trawl the depths of the Atlantic Ocean for the plane’s black boxes. Those could be the key to learning what brought down the Airbus off the coast of Brazil with 228 people aboard.

More than a week after Air France Flight 447 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, remnants of the doomed flight are slowly turning up. Investigators hope they hold some clue about how the plane plunged from the sky with 228 people aboard. The main goal is still to find the flight recorders. ABC News’ Gloria Riveria has more.

Wednesday, the first ships are set to arrive at the Atlantic Ocean debris field believed to be the remains of Air France Flight 447. Investigators are hoping to find clues in the wreckage, but say recovering the plane’s flight recorders is a long shot. ABC News’ Gloria Riviera has more.

Storm clean-up continued in Augusta, on Saturday. Over on Bungalow Road, neighbors spent time helping out in yards. There are still trees that need to be removed, and houses that need to be repaired…but residents here tell us things are going smoothly because of everybody lending a hand.

According to Aiken County Sheriff’s Office Captain Troy Elwell, there are several places that storm debris from last weekend’s storms can be disposed of.

Richmond County took a hit from the storms, as well as Aiken County. Many homes along Barton Chapel Road and Bungalow Road were damaged or destroyed. Count on WJBF News Channel 6’s Fraendy Clervaud for the story.

In Beech Island, SC Highway 278 has been opened back up, but crews continue to make repairs to power lines and clear debris. The South Carolina Highway Patrol is asking drivers to avoid Highway 278, if possible, so that utility crews can get the work done sooner, and for the safety of workers.

A federal official says space junk from a Russian rocket most likely caused residents across the Southeast to report “great balls of fire” in the night sky. Geoff Chester of the U.S. Naval Observatory, which provides a wide range of astronomical data, said Monday the brilliant, streaking lights were either space junk or a super bright meteor known as a bolide.

In Houston, residents are having a hard time removing debris from their yards, after Hurricane Ike. So, some animals from the Houston Zoo are giving them a hand…a trunk, rather. The 2,600 pound elephant, named ‘Tucker,‘ is moving tree limbs.