Bad news travels fast and far.

For example, one drunk driver story always trumps a dozen professions of faith in a revival.

So it is that Columbia made a national newspaper’s news briefs. USA Today on August 24 carried this sentence:

“NORTH CAROLINA Columbia: Christy L. Edwards, 39, has been arrested after authorities say they found 75 malnourished animals in her backyard.”

The story broke at 11:28 a.m. on August 20 when Tyrrell Sheriff Darryl Liverman notified area news media that his deputies and Tyrrell animal control officer Cecil Lilley, following up a complaint of possible animal cruelty at a residence on Rabbit Run Lane south of Columbia, had arrested Edwards.

The sheriff stated that “the animals included cows, horses, goats, a pig, chickens, a turkey, a rabbit, donkeys and other animals.”

A veterinarian checked the animals at the scene, and they were removed from the property, the sheriff reported.

Edwards, released on bond, has a court date on September 12.