COLUMBIA — Republican candidates for governor will face off in at least three debates hosted by the state GOP before voters choose a nominee in the June primaries, South Carolina’s dominating party announced Monday. Next year represents the “first truly open” governor’s race in 16 years, said state GOP Chairman Drew McKissick. “We’re looking forward […]
COLUMBIA — Voters in parts of Lexington, Greenville, and Spartanburg counties will fill three vacancies in the Statehouse on Tuesday. But ballots for only one of the three special elections indicate an actual contest. In an email blast last week, state Democratic Party Chair Christale Spain called the upcoming Statehouse elections — three on Tuesday […]
Still in its infancy, the Columbia Area Development Partnership — or CADP — officially launched in July, yet we are finding our stride as Richland County’s leading economic development entity utilizing the public-private partnership model. CADP is the latest former government agency to adopt this model that has been deployed successfully around the state by […]
WALTERBORO — An 860-acre data center campus proposed for South Carolina’s Lowcountry, if approved and built, would mark the first gigawatt center in the Palmetto State. Colleton County residents and other opponents of the $6 billion project packed the auditorium of the county civic center Thursday, voicing their concerns and seeking more information on the […]
COLUMBIA — More than 220 people in South Carolina are in quarantine for measles heading into Christmas week, after the number of cases in a monthslong outbreak hit 144, the state health department said Friday. All the exposures so far have come from Spartanburg County, primarily through schools and a church in Inman, according to […]
COLUMBIA — Bryan Stirling is officially the state’s U.S. attorney after a vote to confirm him succeeded Thursday evening. The U.S. Senate voted 53-43 along party lines to make Stirling, who started the job on an interim basis in April, the state’s top federal prosecutor. South Carolina’s senators, Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott, both Republicans, […]
The U.S. Department of Justice has sent a confidential draft agreement to more than a dozen states that would require election officials to remove any alleged ineligible voters identified during a federal review of their voter rolls. The agreement — called a memorandum of understanding, or MOU — would hand the federal government a major […]
State Sen. Josh Kimbrell says voters should not to count him out, even as a lawsuit from a former business partner has overshadowed his run for the South Carolina Governor’s Mansion. Kimbrell, in a 21-minute Facebook video, called the months of legal drama that have dogged him since the start of his campaign “the roughest […]
COLUMBIA — South Carolina agreed to bolster programs that help people with severe mental illness live on their own as part of a settlement agreement with the federal Department of Justice. The federal agency sued the state last December, claiming South Carolina’s agencies kept people in restrictive residential housing longer than necessary. People in the […]
Twenty South Carolina sheriff’s departments have standing agreements to aid federal immigration officials. A House GOP proposal could take that to all but one of the state’s 46 counties. A bill filed ahead of the legislative session that begins in January would require all law enforcement agencies that operate a jail to sign agreements with […]
COLUMBIA — One thing the Gamecocks women’s basketball coach and a former prosecutor have in common is a deep knowledge of true crime. Dawn Staley professed her love of the genre to former Sen. Dick Harpootlian in Columbia on Tuesday, as the two discussed Harpootlian’s newly released book, “Dig Me A Grave.” The 225-page book […]
COLUMBIA — The popular gaming platform Roblox already faces lawsuits from at least five states alleging it doesn’t protect children from sexual predators — and now South Carolina’s chief prosecutor is pursuing his own investigation. Attorney General Alan Wilson announced Tuesday he’s seeking answers from California-based Roblox Corp. ahead of potentially adding South Carolina to […]
COLUMBIA — The head of South Carolina’s affordable housing agency is retiring after more than 30 years on the job. Richard Hutto’s last day in office will be Jan. 2, 2026, the agency announced. Hutto has led SC Housing as executive director since 2023, taking over after the previous director, Bonita Shopshire, resigned, according to […]
WEST PELZER — The U.S. secretary of education pointed to South Carolina education programs as a reason to give control of public schools to states while vowing not to cut certain federal funds during a visit Tuesday celebrating the state’s outsized role in the Revolutionary War. Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s afternoon stop at West Pelzer […]
A data center supplier has begun operations in rural Orangeburg County with a new, $7.4 million factory. Dallas-headquartered Mission Critical Interior Solutions Inc. makes raised flooring used to help keep computer equipment cool, security cages and cabinets needed to hold the vast number of servers housed in the high-tech centers that are popping up across […]
President Donald Trump recently issued an executive order to preempt states from passing new legislation or having laws on the books that regulate artificial intelligence, with some exceptions. The president believes that the United States should dominate AI for the purposes of “national and economic security.” He calls for Congress to pass federal law to […]
COLUMBIA — At the annual Statehouse menorah lighting, members of South Carolina’s Jewish community paid tribute to the victims of an antisemitic mass shooting on a popular Australian beach, saying hate cannot extinguish the light of unity. About 200 people gathered in freezing temperatures Monday evening to celebrate the Jewish Festival of Lights, a day […]
As notices go to consumers informing them of what the price will be without the effect of the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced tax credits, Americans are experiencing sticker shock. For those with disabilities, it is a sticker shock that ripples through every other aspect of their life. Will they be able to work, afford the […]
COLUMBIA — A nature preserve near Columbia could more than triple in size under a proposal that received initial approval from the state’s financial oversight committee. An expansion of 480 acres at the Congaree Bluffs Heritage Preserve was one of several conservation projects the State Fiscal Accountability Authority signed off on pursuing last week. The […]
COLUMBIA — Authorities seized more than 30,000 pounds of marijuana joints, edibles and various other THC products sold illegally in South Carolina stores as part of a drug trafficking investigation resulting in 12 arrests, law enforcement officials announced Friday. The 15 tons of products seized in the investigation, nicknamed “Ganjapreneur,” involved the search of six […]