Newsroom
State employee issued cell phones costs millions
Nine months of records show state government employees spent nearly $5 million on cell phone calls with a state issued phone. The Department of Health and Environmental Control has the most cell phone usage in the state with 1,560 phones. The Post and Courier reports Daniel Island Representative Jim Merrill says House budget writers are [...]
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley: Newt’s Time Has Passed
When speaking about potential Republican Presidential nominees,Nikki Haley had kind words for Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney and Haley Barbour, but the South Carolina Governor thinks that Newt Gingrich's time has passed.
Attacks on Obama Show Christie is Keeping His Options Open
When asked the question, Chris Christie is adamant; he will not run for President in 2012, but everything else that the New jersey Governor does suggests that he may be planning a national campaign.
Madison Wisconsin: Just What Are the Demonstrators Demonstrating
It was like a root canal without the benefit of Novocain, watching and listening to the harangue on RT (Russia Today) about how the protests in Madison Wisconsin, Cairo, Libya, Bahrain, and Tunis are all one in the same, that is, the people revolting against dictators who want to bring back feudalism. The protests in [...]
Obama: Flexibility OK, but health care law remains
Anxious to ease deepening political tensions with the states, President Barack Obama on Monday told governors he wants to speed up their ability to enforce his signature health care law on their own terms. But his concession goes only so far: He warned he won't allow states to weaken the law.He also told them not to vilify their own states' public workers while struggling with spending cuts.Hosting governors of both parties on his own turf, Obama offered them what they often request: more flexibility as they cope with painful budget dilemmas. Declaring that he would "go to bat for whatever works," Obama supported letting states propose their own health care plans by 2014 - three years faster than the current law allows.Yet this would be no change to the fundamental requirements of a federal law that has divided the nation and prompted about half the states to try to overturn it through lawsuits. To gain new powers, states would first have to convince Washington that their plans would cover as many people, provide equally affordable and comprehensive care and not add to the federal deficit.More broadly, Obama sought to send a message - both cooperative and pointed - as leaders at all levels of government grapple with huge economic pressures. The yearly gathering of the president and the state chief executives came as budget disputes are roiling, most notably in Wisconsin, where dramatic protests have raged for days.
Lawyer wants racketeering added to SC camera lawsuit
An attorney suing the town of Ridgeland over its use of cameras to catch speeders on Interstate 95 wants racketeering and mail fraud added to the complaint.The Beaufort Gazette reports attorney Pete Strom has asked to amend the lawsuit complaint and add more plaintiffs. The suit filed last year on behalf of three drivers contends using cameras to ticket speeders is unconstitutional.Speeders caught on camera are mailed a ticket along with a letter saying if the fine isn't paid, the town will contact authorities recommending their driver's licenses be suspended.Strom says false statements are used on the tickets and letters to induce paying the fines, qualifying as racketeering under federal law.The town earlier asked that the suit be dismissed.
SC cell phone tab: $5 million in 9 months
South Carolina state workers seem to be talking a lot, with records indicating state government spent nearly $5 million on cell phone bills for the first nine months of last year.The Post and Courier of Charleston reported Monday that South Carolina pays for almost 15,500 cell phones and about a quarter of the state's 67,000 workers have access to one.In California, new Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown recently ordered workers to turn in about half the 96,000 cell phones that state workers there use.That's expected to save California $20 million and South Carolina leaders are also looking at phone expenses as they wrestle with their own $700 million budget shortfall."Absolutely it's a place to look," said Daniel Island Republican Rep. Jim Merrill.
Pro-Gadhafi forces try to retake strategic city
Government opponents in rebel-held Zawiya repelled an attempt by forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi to retake the city closest to the capital in six hours of fighting overnight, witnesses said Tuesday.The rebels, who include mutinous army forces, are armed with tanks, machine guns and anti-aircraft guns. They fought back pro-Gadhafi troops, armed with the same weapons, who attacked from six directions. There was no word on casualties in Zawiya, 30 miles (50 kilometers) west of Tripoli.A similar attempt was made by pro-Gadhafi forces Monday night to retake the city of Misrata, Libya's third-largest city 125 miles (200 kilometers) east of Tripoli. Rebel forces there repelled the attackers."We will not give up Zawiya at any price," said one witness. "We know it is significant strategically. They will fight to get it, but we will not give up. We managed to defeat them because our spirits are high and their spirits are zero."Gadhafi, Libya's ruler of 41 years, has already lost control of the eastern half of the country since protests demanding his ouster began two weeks ago. He still holds the capital Tripoli and nearby cities.
Legislature examining possible new agency to target agribusiness needs (AUDIO)
South Carolina legislators are working to create an agency that would try to grow South Carolina’s agriculture industry through tax incentives, loans, and other methods. However, that agency also faces a hazy future even if approved by lawmakers. A bill in the House would create a new board, called the Agribusiness Economic Development Authority. The Authority [...]
BMW Invests $100M In Spartanburg Factory
BMW Manufacturing President Josef Kerscher, in a speech at Sunday's Spartanburg Chamber of Commerce annual meeting, says the company will be investing an additional $100 million in the factory based in the city.
Montana Republicans to the Federal Government: ‘Don’t Tread on Me’
Although last year’s midterm elections dealt Democrats a devastating blow at the federal level, what has liberals reeling now are the ramifications of power Republicans accumulated on the state level as well. Just consider their reaction to the union-adjusting policies of the newly elected governors in Ohio and Wisconsin (John Kasich and Scott Walker), and [...]
The Value-Added Tax Must Be Stopped-Unless We Want America to Become Greece
Sooner or later, there will be a giant battle in Washington over the value-added tax. The people who want bigger government (and the people who are willing to surrender to big government) understand that a new source of tax revenue is needed to turn the United States into a European-style social welfare state. But that’s [...]
AAA spokesman: International events affecting Americans at the pump
Over the weekend, gas prices continued to rise. Triple A Carolinas spokesman Tom Crosby says gas went up on average about 20 cents in South Carolina just over the weekend. It really soared over the weekend because of the stuff in Lybia. We are seeing international events affect us at the pump–painful. Crosby says he expects the [...]
Nancy Pelosi Wants a Government Shutdown
Breaking from Harry Reid and Senate Democrats, Nancy Pelosi is saying that she would rather shut down the federal government than agree to the Republican's $4 billion in spending cuts.
Is the President Backpedaling on the Obamacare Mandate?
Using the mental judo techniques of a true political grand master, President Obama is tempting Republican governors to drop challenges in his precious Obamacare just long enough for it to adhere itself to our government and society.
Loving Palin, but not for president, part 927
We observed a striking trend back at last year's Southern Republican Leadership Conference: Any number of Republican activists really, sincerely adore Sarah Palin without thinking she can be president.
McClatchy's Steven Thomma sees something similar in South Carolina today:
ROCK HILL -- As Sarah Palin wonders whether to run for president, she might want to talk to people in places such as South Carolina.
She would find her star fading, and her prospects daunting.
Republicans still like her, but now they openly question whether she could or should be nominated for president, let alone elected....
"Her major weakness is that she needs to bone up on how the government works," said Don Long, a retiree from Lake Wylie. "I don't know if she's done as much of that as she needs to."
Beyond the Left’s Talking Points: WI Protests Are About Union Politics, Power & Money
It’s nearing two weeks since unions and their cohorts on the Left have thrown a nationwide fit over Scott Walker’s solution to what is ailing Wisconsin. Unions and Democrats have made Wisconsin their cause célèbre by deploying OFA astroturf, the big talking heads, as well as recruiting just about every known Grateful Dead concert attendee on their mailing lists into [...]
Rove's Party
Joe Hagan writes on Karl Rove's comeback (not that he ever really went away):
He’s just getting started. As he positions himself as Republican kingmaker in 2012, Rove is trying to make sense of a post-Bush party, one riven by ideological schisms and splintered into a dozen or more potential Republican nominees. To take back power and reestablish his dream of a permanent Republican majority (“Durable,” he now corrects. “I never said permanent”), Rove must carefully negotiate a new media world revolutionized by Sarah Palin and bring order to a restive party upended and realigned by tea-party populists, who view Rove as the elitist Machiavellian who once played them like a Stradivarius for George W. Bush. But with W. down on his ranch in Texas, the Brain needs a new body to inhabit. And that body, he’s decided, is the Republican Party itself.
Rolling Stone’s shot at General Caldwell misfires
The only victim of "PsyOps" was Michael Hastings.
State likely won't deliver tax break for Amazon
The big Amazon. com distribution center that became one of former Gov. Mark Sanford's last big economic development deals has become a headache for Gov. Nikki Haley, legislators and possibly South Carolina's economic development image.
Greenville officials working on green deal with GE
The city of Greenville is hoping to become a model of energy efficiency.
Obama is AWOL in Oil Crisis
We have a major oil crisis unfolding now and where’s Obama? He was last spotted giving aid and comfort to public union thugs in their battle against the taxpayers of Wisconsin. We now, this week, have oil prices busting through $100 a barrel. This will create major havoc to our already anemic economy. How did we [...]
SC government spends $5 million on cell phones
State records indicate that South Carolina government spent nearly $5 million on cell phone calls in the first nine months of last year.
EU approves sanctions against Libya
The European Union has agreed sanctions against Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi, including an arms embargo, asset freeze and visa ban.