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John Moylan, who led John Edwards' S.C. presidential campaign, has announced the six S.C. delegates who have said they will support U.S. Sen. Barack Obama at the Democratic convention.
They are:
Continue reading "Six Edwards delegates confirm Obama support" »
The last of John Edwards' eight S.C. delegates said she has yet to make up her mind which candidate she will support at the Democratic convention.
Marilyn Hemingway of Georgetown said she is giving Edwards' endorsement some thought, but will not make a decision now. Hemingway and Barnwell resident Tim Moore said they will defer a decision until later.
The House delayed debate on a Senate-passed cigarette tax bill that would raise the state's lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax by 50 cents a pack.
The House passed a bill last year that would have raised the tax by 30 cents and would have spent the money on tax cuts.
The Senate wants to spend the money on health care -- between shoring up Medicaid and paying for tax credits to make group health coverage more affordable for businesses and employees.
Gov. Mark Sanford has orderd flags in S.C. lowered to half staff today for Peace Officers' Memorial Day. The day honors those law enforcement personnnel who died in the line of duty.
The head of John Edwards South Carolina presidential campaign told CNN that at least six of the eight delegates Edwards won in S.C. are ready to vote for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama at the Democratic presidential convention.
Columbia attorney John Moylan appeared on the cable news channel this morning.
Edwards endorsed the campaign of his former rival last night.
Continue reading "Six of Edwards' eight S.C. delegates back Obama" »
House Majority Whip James Clyburn has hired a former Orangeburg County Councilman who served prison time after convictions for bribery and extortion, the Associated Press is reporting.
Wednesday Clyburn, told the Times & Democrat newspaper of Orangeburg John Rickenbacker will work for him as a liaison between his office and constituents.
Rickenbacker, according to the AP report, was indicted in June 2006 on charges he took $50,000 in bribes from an agent posing as a consultant for a company interested in buying a local hospital. Rickenbacker told the agent he would work to get County Council's support for the sale and provided a confidential financial report.
Rickenbacker pleaded guilty and served a year in prison. He was released from a Columbia halfway house last month.
Rep. James Smith, a captain in the S.C. National Guard, returned to the General Assembly for the first time this year today to hugs and handshakes.
Smith, a Richland Democrat, was deployed to Afghanistan. Smith returned earlier this week along with the Guard’s 218th Brigade Combat Team. He spent a year in Afghanistan.
The S.C. Senate rejected 26-20 an illegal immigration bill that creates new rules on how S.C. employers verify the residency of employees and includes heavy for businesses that knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, said the bill heartily endorsed by the House and Gov. Mark Sanford is "unworkable." McConnell argued portions of the bill that would fine businesses and put their business licenses at stake would not withstand a court challenge.
McConnell also revived an earlier illegal immigration crackdown and offered amendments to it to send to the House.
The bill the Senate rejected would have required employers to verify the immigration status of all workers either through an electronic system or by a valid S.C. drivers license.
South Carolina will need to spend nearly $22 billion more than it plans to over the next ten years to make roads and bridges safer and adequate enough to withstand projected growth, says new report released today by TRIP, a national
nonprofit transportation research group based in Washington, D.C.
According to the TRIP report, the South Carolina
Department of Transportation estimates that from 2007 to 2016, $28.2 billion is needed to relieve congestion, improve road conditions, make needed bridge repairs and implement needed safety enhancements. But SCDOT estimates $6.3 billion will be available during that period. That leaves a shortfall of roughly $21.9 billion.
This shortfall, the report says, is exacerbated by sharply increasing highway construction costs.
South Carolina, according to Gov. Mark Sanford, took one giant step toward cleaner, shinier, healthier hair today when Sanford signed a bill removing the legal requirement for shampooers to receive the same state-mandated 1,500 hours of training that cosmetologists receive.
Unfortunately, a Sanford news release says, "the bill does nothing to address the fact that state law requires 1,500 hours of training to be a cosmetologist - almost four times the amount of state-required training to become a police officer - and just one of a number of examples of overregulation by state government."
Continue reading "Sanford: State's overregulation must stop" »
House leaders are working on a cigarette tax plan that would spend all the revenue raised on tax cuts for small businesses to purchase health insurance.
Continue reading "Cigarette tax plan would help buy health coverage" »
