The 27-year-old man was shot once in the chest early Saturday morning and was pronounced dead at the scene, Berkeley County deputies said. The man's name would not be released until his family in El Salvador was notified, Coroner Glenn Rhoad said.

Markel Bailey, 17, of Goose Creek, is charged with murder and armed robbery in connection with the case, sheriff's Detective Jerry Merrithew said. Investigators say the teen was one of two armed men who threatened two Hispanic men as they returned home from a night out. A third Hispanic man joined the pair, and that is when the fatal shot was fired.

An audit looking at the spending practices of one of the state's largest agencies has been delayed so some portions of it could be rewritten, the head of the government's watchdog agency says.

The audit of the state Transportation Department was requested last year for a detailed explanation of agency expenses for the past three years, the amounts spent on roads and a review of the agency's methods for measuring the results of its expenditures.

The delay means the audit likely won't be released until November, said Legislative Audit Council director George Schroeder. The report was scheduled to be released Oct. 12.

Agency director Elizabeth Mabry denied criticism by her agency's Chairman Tee Hooper that funds had been mismanaged. In June, Mabry said the agency was in a "funding crisis" and asked lawmakers to increase the agency's annual funding by more than $1 billion over the next decade. The agency's annual budget is now $1 billion.

Paul Joseph Sloan, 25, of Hanahan and Courtney Michelle King, 20, of Summerville were charged with breaking into a home under construction and having sex there Aug. 22.

The charges came after investigators questioned Sloan, who told police he was in the neighborhood when he saw a fire in the home's attic on Aug. 24. When investigators told Sloan they planned to look for DNA evidence in the home, Sloan told them about the incident two days before the fire.

The cause of the fire at the three-story home is still under investigation. The house was 70 percent complete at the time of the fire, which was confined to the attic.

Four Nobel Prize winners and other top scientists from across the country will gather at Duke University this week to discuss how to arrive at science's "next great idea."

A part of Duke Medicine's 75th anniversary celebration, the Science Symposium aims to inspire young researchers, encourage innovation and show a link between basic scientific discoveries and medical breakthroughs.

The conference's theme, "Science's Next Great Idea: Where will it come from? What will it be?" will help people see the big picture, said Dr. Victor Dzau, chancellor of health affairs at Duke.

"Whenever you get people of this caliber together, and particularly in front of young people, that kind of combustion is very exciting," Dzau said.

Bruce Alberts, the former president of the National Academy of Sciences, said his talk will focus on how to educate people to understand the role science can play in the world and scientists' roles in making that happen.

In Wake County, the median new-home size has shot up 50 percent since 1980 to 2,380 square feet. Even Habitat for Humanity of Wake County has started giving the working poor two bathrooms instead of one.

Bigger homes are a result of more affluent customers. Builders meet their tastes with more bedrooms and home offices. Low interest rates on home loans also have fueled the increase.

A middle-of-the-road ranch house with three bathrooms, two baths and 1,600 square feet has been replaced by a two- or three-story, four-bedroom home that's more than 2,000 square feet.

In Johnston County, the median new home now comes with a half-acre of land, according to tax records. In 1980, the median was an acre and a half.

"People aren't paying to live out in the grass," said Tim Minton, executive director of the Home Builders Association of Raleigh-Wake County. "They're paying to live in the structure."

In the coming few years, architects and housing industry observers predict the graying populace, a softer real estate market, will result in a slowdown in the demand for larger homes.

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