South Carolina Political News
S.C.'s most essential job is boosting employment numbers
A job is a very personal thing, especially if you don`t have one or you`re worried about the one you have. And in South Carolina, too many are unemployed and under-employed and anxiously employed.
Sunday February 5, 2012 5:00AM | charleston.net
The debacle that binds
The state Senate voted 37-0 to reject an ill-considered and precipitate decision by the board of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control to support Georgia`s plan to dredge the Savannah River. The House voted 110-0. That bipartisan legislative sentiment reflects th...
Sunday February 5, 2012 5:00AM | charleston.net
College plan needs public input
Every time the College of Charleston alters or expands its campus, the whole peninsula feels the effects. Beyond appearances, traffic patterns change, parking issues arise, and the intimate relationship between the historic city and the historic college is recast. An ambitious plan to upd...
Sunday February 5, 2012 5:00AM | charleston.net
Nursing shortage demands action
The state of South Carolina is facing a health care crisis. The current nursing shortage is at the center of this crisis. It is estimated by 2020 there will be approximately 12,000 registered nurse vacancies in our state. Without state legislation to address this matter, citizens of South Carolina will suffer as a consequence.
Sunday February 5, 2012 5:00AM | charleston.net
Longtime Sumter senator won’t seek re-election
Longtime state Sen. Phil Leventis, a Sumter Democrat, said Friday he will not run for re-election in November.“I’m 66 – time to look for what else I can do while I still have time to do it,” said Leventis, who has been in the Senate since 1981. “My wife and I decided it. Thirty-two years is a long time.”Leventis, a retired fighter pilot who flew combat missions over Iraq and Kuwait aft ...
Saturday February 4, 2012 5:36AM | thestate.com
State investment panel squabbles intensify
Oversight of the state’s pension system is teetering on dysfunction, hobbled by a feud between state Treasurer Curtis Loftis and other members of the S.C. Retirement Investment Commission that has raised questions about how and by whom the $25 billion fund should be overseen. The vice chairman of the five-member S.C. Retirement Investment Commission called Friday for Loftis to be removed from th ...
Saturday February 4, 2012 5:05AM | thestate.com
'F' for college rankings cheating
College rankings, though informative, shouldn`t be taken as definitive measures of schools` merits. And they certainly shouldn`t be based on falsified data. But given the overemphasis on such ratings in recent years, it`s no surprise that some administrators are cooking the books. Claremo...
Saturday February 4, 2012 5:00AM | charleston.net
Don't starve Conservation Bank
The South Carolina Conservation Bank won`t get the greatest number of dollars from the state`s rising revenue stream, but it will be its biggest beneficiary. If the state`s revenue projections are correct for next budget year, the bank won`t be subject to an unfair legislative provision that peri...
Saturday February 4, 2012 5:00AM | charleston.net
Jam illegal cell phones in prison
A recent riot at Lieber prison demonstrates how dangerous it is for the guards responsible for maintaining security. Two were overpowered by inmates in lockdown and were beaten with a pipe. And while working with hard-core criminals will never be without risk, there is a simple measure th...
Saturday February 4, 2012 5:00AM | charleston.net
Reacting to sheriff’s ‘slap in the face’
Saturday February 4, 2012 5:00AM | charleston.net
S.C. Politics
ETV closes Beaufort studio S.C. Educational Television has closed its Beaufort studio because of budget cuts.The Beaufort Gazette reports WJWJ-TV will continue to transmit state ETV programming but will no longer produce any local shows.ETV President Linda O’Bryon said Thursday was the last day for the station’s remaining two employees. The Beaufort station had operated for about 40 years and ...
Saturday February 4, 2012 1:43AM | thestate.com
Who is Mallory Factor?
A Charleston businessman connected to a SLED investigation into an alleged pay-to-play scheme involving the states $25 billion pension system said Thursday that he was acting as an unpaid adviser to State Treasurer Curtis Loftis.But Mallory Factor said he did not tell Loftis who to hire to help manage the retirement fund.Curtis needed a few people that could analyze some of the stuff going ...
Friday February 3, 2012 5:23AM | thestate.com
Facing up to max profits
Facebook`s 2011 revenues weren`t as high as most analysts anticipated. The final figure, revealed in a federal filing required as the company goes public, was emonly em$3.7 billion. The profit was a scant $1 billion. Yet the expert consensus is that Facebook will be valued somewhere ...
Friday February 3, 2012 5:00AM | charleston.net
Tightening squeeze on Syria
Russia reiterated its resolve Thursday to keep selling arms to Syria, defying a rising international chorus of condemnation. But the United States seems just as determined, and rightly so, to keep building the pressure on Russia to end its support of a repressive Syrian regime that should be boun...
Friday February 3, 2012 5:00AM | charleston.net
Sheriffs are people, too
A long, very high-speed chase in which people`s lives are endangered, shots fired and finally a suspect is captured. He then reportedly resists the arresting officers and tries to spit on them. It`s enough to make a lawman lose his cool, and that`s what apparently happened to Charleston S...
Friday February 3, 2012 5:00AM | charleston.net
Haley signs law creating state inspector general
South Carolina now has a top official responsible for investigating fraud and abuse across state government.Gov. Nikki Haley signed into law a bill Thursday creating an Inspector General’s Office, empowered with subpoena power, to investigate fraud, waste and abuse in all state agencies.“This is hugely important at a time where we’re looking to clean up government and see what we can do to m ...
Friday February 3, 2012 2:41AM | thestate.com
Pay-for-play scheme probed at states $25 billion retirement system
View case documents at the bottom of the pageSLED has launched an investigation into allegations of a pay-for-play scheme involving South Carolinas $25 billion retirement fund for state workers.The investigation was started after at least two financial management firms said they were promised they could manage a piece of the retirement fund, earning lucrative fees, if they paid money to a fr ...
Thursday February 2, 2012 7:01AM | thestate.com
Probe of SC Lt. Gov. enters 7th month
A confidential state grand jury probe into possible illegal campaign activities by Lt. Gov. Ken Ard is droning into its seventh month, and no one is saying anything about when or if the grand jury might act.“State law prohibits us from saying anything about an ongoing state grand jury investigation,” said Attorney General Alan Wilson spokesman Mark Plowden.But that hasn’t stopped others from ...
Thursday February 2, 2012 5:05AM | thestate.com
No speed camera reprieve
A high-tech speed trap on I-95 in Ridgeland was finally terminated by the Legislature last year, and its bad example should mean that similar ventures won’t be undertaken elsewhere in South Carolina. Certainly, that was the general recommendation of a legislative commission that looked into using traffic cameras for traffic enforcement.
Thursday February 2, 2012 5:00AM | charleston.net
Europe’s alarming example
Warnings, when relentlessly repeated, tend to draw diminishing notice. Thus, alarms sounded about Europe’s ongoing debt mess, due to their near-monotonous familiarity, rank low on many Americans’ worry lists. Yet the steady worsening of that continental financial crisis — and its global consequences — rate serious concern in our nation.
Thursday February 2, 2012 5:00AM | charleston.net
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