NEWS: Ervin’s song for S.C.: “We got the pothole blues”
EDITOR'S NOTE, 4/28: This story was posted earlier in the week before Wednesday's vote by the state Senate to approve a road-funding bill. You might still enjoy! Staff reports | Former S.C....
View ArticleBRIEFS: Party leadership; shorter session’s impact
Both major parties in the state will have new leaders for the 2018 elections. The Democrats elected Trav Robertson to be chair. Republicans will elect their new chair on May 13. Also, there's an early...
View ArticleBRIEFS: General Assembly to return; Unemployment drops
Staff reports | The S.C. House and Senate are scheduled to return to Columbia Tuesday to finalize a budget compromise. But they’ve got a problem: House and Senate negotiators are at an impasse over the...
View ArticleBRIEF: On state budget, breathe Chicken Little, breathe
Staff reports | There seems to be an alarmist tone in the coverage in traditional media about the state’s $8 billion annual budget on how use state tax dollars. It goes like this: The House and Senate...
View ArticleBRIEFS: Agreement on budget; Trump’s testy tweet; Pension dodge
Staff reports | House and Senate conferees finished negotiations on a compromise $8 billion budget for state taxes just an hour before June 1 arrived. Highlights are in public education, pension reform...
View ArticleBRIEFS: S.C. ranks 7th in beer taxes; Whipper to leave House
Staff reports | Here’s some fodder for conversation around the bar: For every gallon beer that South Carolinians drink (that’s about 11 beers – way more than you should have in one sitting in a bar),...
View ArticleBRIEFS: Happy Fourth; Swaimming with the current
If you’re going to be on the coast on Tuesday, look skyward for the annual Salute from the Fourth. Hundreds of thousands of people will witness an air parade of F-16s and other military aircraft as...
View ArticleBRIEFS: GOP’s McKissick criticized; Street is new correspondent
Staff reports | New S.C. GOP Chairman Drew McKissick is getting roundly criticized for cavalierly saying he would turn over voter information that a seemingly partisan presidential commission wants...
View ArticleNEWS BRIEF: Lawmakers hear two hours of testimony on opioid crisis
By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | He wasn’t the kind of person you thought would have been involved in drugs, one man testified. Funerals for overdoses less than a week apart, a woman...
View ArticleTALLY SHEET: Senators pre-file almost 300 bills to get things moving
Staff reports | State senators dropped a whopping 298 bills and resolutions into the hopper Wednesday during a one-day pre-filing period that included everything from a teacher’s bill of rights and a...
View ArticleTALLY SHEET: More than 700 bills on legislative calendar already
Staff reports | Talk about a full calendar. With Tuesday’s pre-filing of more than 440 new bills added to the 298 entered into the hopper last week by the Senate, legislators have more than 740...
View ArticleNew book highlights how S.C. can do better
Statehouse Report editor and publisher Andy Brack has a new book of selected columns since 2014 that delve into how South Carolina can do better to help people through politics and the governing...
View ArticleSPECIAL FEATURE: 2020 political overview of South Carolina
By Lou Jacobson, copyrighted material republished with permission | History is inescapable anywhere, but especially so in the South — as Americans have been reminded in recent years, when South...
View ArticleBRACK: Start acting more for the common good
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Recent legislative sessions have been wholly unspectacular in terms of lifting up South Carolinians. It’s as if the whole notion of “common good” has flown the...
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