South Carolina dad David Warner is afraid to tell his sixth-grade son that he will have to leave his school, teachers, and friends because the state Supreme Court struck down the Palmetto State’s school voucher program.
“Today definitely felt like a kick in the stomach,” Warner said.
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South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed a measure to extend tax credits for revitalizing abandoned buildings and South Carolina short-line railroads.
S. 1021, which the Republican governor “ceremonially” signed on Wednesday, extends the provisions of the South Carolina Abandoned Buildings Revitalization Act that were set to expire on Dec. 31, 2025. The credits now run through 2035 and increase the maximum credit a taxpayer may earn in a year from $500,000 to $700,000.
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South Carolina’s seasonally adjusted July unemployment rate increased to 3.9%, up from 3.6% in June and a revised rate of 2.8% in July 2023.
State officials say the state has “record-breaking numbers” for people in jobs. Additionally, they pointed out the rate remains lower than the national norm of 4.3%.
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South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed legislation that expands the state’s sex trafficking law to create a new felony “child luring” charge and gives trafficking victims recourse to clear their records.
S. 142, which McMaster, a Republican, “ceremonially” signed on Thursday, creates an address confidentiality program that authorizes using “designated addresses” to protect victims.
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The Federal Aviation Administration has awarded South Carolina airports more than $5.7 million in Airport Improvement Program grants.
The money is part of $636 million for 320 grants in 46 states and American Samoa to improve airport infrastructure. The feds awarded the money as part of the 2024 Airport Improvement Program’s fourth round of grants.
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South Carolina ranked seventh in a report assessing 2024’s States with the Best and Worst Early Education Systems.
In developing its ranking, personal finance site WalletHub looked at 12 key metrics across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
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Officials in Georgia and South Carolina are taking action as Tropical Storm Debby is expected to dump rain on the states after making landfall on Monday morning along the Florida coast.
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The South Carolina Supreme Court granted approval for the state Wednesday to conduct executions by firing squad and electrocution.
The state passed a law in 2021 allowing the use firing squads and electrocution as execution methods, according to The Hill. However, the approval was temporarily halted due to death row inmates suing the state, despite death by electrocution becoming a default method when the state could not provide lethal injection drugs.
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The federal government is sending more than $6.1 million in taxpayer money to four South Carolina airports as part of grants for rehabilitation and construction projects.
The latest in federal tax money is from the 2024 Airport Improvement Program’s third round of grants. The latest tranche of funding includes more than $374 million the Federal Aviation Administration announced for airfield and safety projects at 299 airports in 46 states and American Samoa.
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South Carolina transportation officials have approved updates to the state’s bridge program, deciding how to allocate $200 million in additional money state lawmakers approved.
The South Carolina Department of Transportation Commission directed half the $200 million in one-time funding to bridges on secondary roads. The remaining $100 million will go toward bridges on primary and interstate routes.
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South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster announced 21 budget vetoes totaling nearly $2.3 million from the Palmetto State’s fiscal 2024-25 budget.
The Republican governor announced his vetoes during a Wednesday media briefing, calling on state lawmakers to replace earmarks with merit-based and competitive grants. The budget includes more than 500 earmarks totaling $424.7 million.
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South Carolina’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased in May to 3.4%, and the state’s top labor official said higher interest rates may be partly to blame.
While the state’s unemployment rate increased from 3.2% last month, officials noted it is below the national rate of 4%.
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South Carolina’s attorney general called a federal judge’s decision to block part of President Joe Biden’s latest push to delay or cancel roughly half a trillion dollars in student debt “a huge win for South Carolina.”
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree in Kansas and U.S. District Judge John Ross in Missouri issued separate rulings halting Biden’s plan, dubbed the Saving on a Valuable Education — or SAVE — Plan. Republican attorneys general, including South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, filed a lawsuit challenging the plan.
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A partially federally funded South Carolina Agency is changing its name as it doubles down on its enforcement of crimes targeting the state’s vulnerable adult population.
South Carolina’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit is changing its name to the Vulnerable Adults and Medicaid Provider Fraud Unit. State officials said the agency experienced a 30% increase in reports from law enforcement thanks to an outreach effort targeting local agencies over the past two years.
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South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster ceremonially signed a pair of “child safety” measures on Wednesday, including one mandating age verification on websites with sexually explicit content.
H. 3424, the Child Online Safety Act, mandates that sites with at least one-third of their content being “obscene material” enforce an age verification system starting Jan. 1, 2025. This would ostensibly bar users under 18 from accessing the site’s material.
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South Carolina lawmakers passed several small business-focused bills before skipping town last week but didn’t pass a high-profile measure business groups hoped they would.
Palmetto State legislators passed H. 4832, the “Paid Family Leave Insurance Act,” to create private insurance covering paid family leave and H. 3992 to allow employers to establish a payment plan for paying delinquent unemployment insurance taxes and allow them to potentially pay at a reduced rate.
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A legislative conference committee will soon hash out differences in a measure to reform South Carolina’s Judicial Merit Selection Commission.
Last week, the South Carolina House passed S. 1046, a bill reforming the JMSC, following the state Senate’s passage.
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The South Carolina House passed a bill to reform the state’s Judicial Merit Selection Commission, changes that stem from the Ad Hoc Committee to Examine the Judicial Selection and Retention Process House Speaker Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, assembled.
Proponents say S. 1046 increases transparency and accountability and gives elected officials a greater say in selecting judges.
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The South Carolina Senate passed a measure to exempt feminine care products from the state’s sales tax, a move that could cost the state and local governments millions in tax revenue.
The Senate voted unanimously in favor of H.3563, which now heads to Republican Gov. Henry McMaster for consideration. The state House unanimously passed the bill last year.
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South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed a measure that aims to help landowners use voluntary conservation easements to preserve working agricultural lands.
H. 3951, the Working Agricultural Lands Preservation Act, creates the Working Farmland Protection Fund within the South Carolina Conservation Bank. The measure ostensibly complements the agricultural projects the bank funds by establishing a matching grant payment for qualified projects.
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South Carolina state officials are determining how to proceed with a $1.8 billion balance discovered in a state account and Republican Gov. Henry McMaster has given leaders a July 1 deadline to chart a course forward.
On Oct. 31, 2023, South Carolina Comptroller General Brian Gaines sent a letter to South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis, directing Loftis to research the account’s origins. It marked the start of a months-long Senate investigation that exposed what a Senate Finance Committee Constitutional Subcommittee report dubbed “financial irregularities” in the state treasurer’s office.
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South Carolina senators will soon consider a fiscal 2024-25 budget for the state, a plan that includes nearly $100 million to speed up a personal income tax reduction.
Last week, the Senate Finance Committee gave the thumbs up to its version of a state budget, H.5100, and a Capital Reserve Fund, H.5101, sending both to the full Senate for consideration.
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The federal government has awarded a $1.2 million grant to a three-county planning council in the Charleston area to study transit-oriented development tied to a bus rapid transit line slated to open in five years.
The Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments will use the federal tax dollars for the third phase of a TOD study. The study will focus on implementing affordable housing strategies along the proposed 21.3-mile-long Lowcountry Rapid Transit line.
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While the discussion continues following the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, several opportunities to improve operations and processes have emerged.
Officials at Georgia’s and South Carolina’s ports have vowed to help however they can.
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The South Carolina Senate did not pass a measure aimed at stemming lawsuit abuse, likely killing the push for the legislative session.
Senate Bill 533, the South Carolina Justice Act, would have amended the South Carolina Contribution Among Tortfeasors Act and moved the state toward a model in which a defendant is financially liable based on their percentage of fault. Proponents say this would reduce excessive damage awards in civil cases.
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South Carolina Lt. Governor Pamela Evette is chairing the Republican Lieutenant Governors Association’s 2024 Executive Committee.
Utah Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson will serve as the vice chair, while Nevada Lt. Governor Stavros Anthony will serve as the group’s finance chair. Florida’s Jeanette Nuñez, Indiana’s Suzanne Crouch, Iowa’s Adam Gregg, Ohio’s Jon Husted and Oklahoma’s Matt Pinnell will also serve on the committee.
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Gov. Henry McMaster signed a measure to help ensure students read at their appropriate grade levels.
S. 418 builds on the Read to Succeed measure lawmakers passed a decade ago and requires the South Carolina Department of Education to implement a “scientifically based reading instruction” approach to reading education. The program includes professional development, administering universal screeners and summer reading camps.
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The South Carolina House of Representatives signed off on a measure to expand the Education Scholarship Trust Fund.
Lawmakers voted 69-32 in favor of H.5164 on its second reading.
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A new report shows that schools nationwide, including in South Carolina, are having trouble filling teacher positions, with salaries being a primary cause.
An analysis from MyElearningWorld.com found that new teachers nationwide earn nearly 20% less than they did about two decades ago, taking inflation into account. South Carolina’s findings align with the national findings, with Palmetto State teachers earning 22% less.
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More than 5,000 families from all 46 South Carolina counties have submitted applications for the state’s Education Scholarship Trust Fund.
The state is accepting applications until Friday.
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South Carolina lawmakers are debating a roughly $40 billion fiscal 2024-25 state budget that anticipates more than $12 billion in state general funds and billions more in federal money.
Last month, the South Carolina Board of Economic Advisors voted to keep the fiscal 2023-24 revenue forecast estimate at nearly $12.9 billion and the fiscal 2024-25 revenue forecast estimate at more than $13.2 billion.
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South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed a Constitutional Carry measure, making the Palmetto State the 29th state in the nation with a law allowing residents to carry a concealed firearm without a government-issued license.
House Bill 3594, the South Carolina Constitutional Carry/Second Amendment Preservation Act, also bars anyone convicted of a “crime punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of more than one year to possess a firearm or ammunition within” South Carolina. However, there are some exceptions, including anyone convicted of a misdemeanor carrying a sentence of up to five years or expunged convictions.
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The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) is asking for the public’s support in tracking the West Nile virus.
South Carolinians are asked this spring and summer to submit certain species of dead birds to DEHC to test for the potentially deadly virus.
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South Carolina’s governor on Monday announced that this week, March 3 through March 9, is ‘Severe Weather and Flood Safety Week.’
“The South Carolina Emergency Management Division [SCEMD], the National Weather Service [NWS], and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources [SCDNR] jointly sponsor the week to remind people that severe storms, tornadoes and flash floods are significant hazards in South Carolina and people need to take proper safety precautions,” according to a release from the office of Gov. Henry McMaster (R).
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The South Carolina Senate is debating a bill that would make minor changes to how judges are appointed in the Palmetto State.
Currently, the state’s General Assembly, via its Judicial Merit Selection Commission, which consists of a “group of legislators and lawyers who do extensive investigations into judicial candidates, a process that entails examining everything from their finances to their temperament to their knowledge of the law,” appoints judges from the state Supreme Court, all the way down to circuit courts.
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A bill that would expand school choice options for parents has been introduced into the South Carolina House of Representatives.
H 5164 would expand the state’s Education Scholarship Trust Fund program for parents who wish to choose which schools their children attend. The bill will also add new application processes to make applying easier for students.
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South Carolina’s attorney general sent a letter to the Biden administration over the human trafficking of minor migrants and demanded answers on 85,000 missing children who are believed to be the victims of human trafficking.
“The United States needs to stop handing over children to ‘probable traffickers,'” said a letter from South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, addressed to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray. “President Biden’s border crisis has reached never-before-seen levels. Even worse, we now learn that the Department of Health and Human Services cannot find more than 85,000 migrant children who entered our country over the last two years. Reports show that many of those children have been forced into the labor market, where they work debilitating hours under dangerous conditions in violation of child-labor laws or are sex trafficked.”
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A Republican presidential candidate is silent after a news report said that entities related to her campaign might be targeting Democrats to vote for her in South Carolina’s Saturday primary election.
A report by NBC News shows a mailer sent by the Stand For America PAC, a political action committee solely dedicated to getting Republican former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley elected president, soliciting the votes of Democrats who did not vote in the Democratic Presidential Primary on February 3.
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The Republican led South Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee passed hate crime legislation Wednesday, which will advance to the Senate floor for a full vote.
“When a person commits a violent crime as defined in Section 16-1-60 or commits assault by mob in the second degree as defined in Section 16-3-210(C) and the trier of fact determines beyond a reasonable doubt that the offense was committed against a victim who was intentionally selected in whole or in part because of the person’s belief or perception regarding the victim’s race, color, religion, sex, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, or physical or mental disability, whether or not the perception is correct, the person is subject to additional penalties…” says the text of S.615.
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The lone remaining Republican challenger to former President Donald J. Trump in the 2024 presidential primary says she will not drop out of the race even if she loses the Saturday primary in her home state of South Carolina.
“Some of you — perhaps a few of you in the media — came here today to see if I’m dropping out of the race. Well, I’m not. Far from it, and I’m here to tell you why,” Nimrata “Nikki” Haley said at a campaign stop in Greenville. “I’m running for President because we have a country to save. Since the star of my campaign, I’ve been focused on the real issues our country faces. The ones that determine whether America with thrive or spiral out.”
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Republican presidential primary voters will head to the polls in South Carolina on Saturday to choose their pick for president.
Former president Donald Trump holds a commanding lead in polls over Nikki Haley, the state’s former governor who later served as a United Nations ambassador.
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The Greenville County Sheriff’s Office Friday morning announced arrests in two cold case killings that had gone unsolved.
The first solved case was that of Charity Sutherland.
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South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster ceremonially signed a measure mandating the state’s retirement system to consider only “pecuniary factors” when making investment decisions.
H.3690, the ESG Pension Protection Act, effectively bans the South Carolina Retirement System Investment Commission from weighing environmental, social and governance factors and orders the system to maximize the highest rate of return for beneficiaries. The state House passed the measure by a 103-5 margin, while the state Senate passed it 45-0.
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The South Carolina Senate passed a bill to legalize marijuana for medical purposes.
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The South Carolina House advanced a clean Constitutional Carry bill, returning the measure to the state Senate and potentially setting up another showdown.
The state House rejected a Senate-amended version of H.3594, the South Carolina Constitutional Carry/Second Amendment Preservation Act of 2023. In a letter, the head of a pro-gun rights group said Senate-introduced amendments violate the Second Amendment.
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Former President Donald Trump has been endorsed by more than 100 faith leaders in South Carolina ahead of the state’s Republican presidential primary on February 24.
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Former President Donald Trump will hold a Get Out the Vote Rally Wednesday in North Charleston.
The event will be held at the Charleston Area Convention Center, and attendees are encouraged to register for the event on Trump’s campaign website.
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As the February 24 Republican primary elections approach in South Carolina, former President Donald J. Trump has a commanding lead in the polls against his only challenger, former South Carolina Governor Nimrata “Nikki” Haley.
According to the poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight, Trump is dominating Haley on her own home turf by a margin of about 65 percent to Haley’s 32 percent.
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Former President Donald Trump hosted a rally in Conway, South Carolina, Saturday as the state’s primary is just days away.
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The South Carolina House Republicans plan to introduce a clean “Constitutional Carry” measure after declining to proceed with an amended version the state Senate passed, exposing a rift within Republican ranks over one of the party’s top priorities.
The state House rejected H.3594, the South Carolina Constitutional Carry/Second Amendment Preservation Act of 2023, which the Senate passed last week. However, the head of a pro-gun rights group sent a letter to House members saying the Senate’s amended version violates the Second Amendment
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