- Timmons Expresses Support for DEI’s Doppelganger for Hiring Practices in Washington
- Should the US Rethink Its Mid-East Policies?
- Is Another Child Tax Credit Expansion Really the Best Way To Help Families?
- The Two-State Solution for Israel is No Solution at All
- A New Fiscal Commission Must Heed the Lesson of '97
- The Evils of Socialism
- Biden's Corporate Tax Hike: Populism Versus Economic Literacy
- Why is Greenville County Council Pickpocketing Us Again?
- The Morgan and Timmons Firey Faceoff in SC’s 4th Congressional District Race
- Advertising Rates and Specifications
- Danger: The Proposed South Carolina "Health Czar" Legislation will be Hazardous to Your FREEDOM!
- The Tucker Carlson Interview of Russian President Vladimir Putin
- Is US Rep. William Timmons Bloating His Voting Record with Out-of-State Proxies?
- Belgrade, NATO Expansion, Color Revolutions
- Insights into the Russian View of Russian History
Top Court Rarely Disciplines Judges Despite Numerous Complaints
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Prio week, the S.C. Supreme Court suspended Oconee County probate judge Kenneth Johns for 18 months after he formally admitted – for the second time in five years – violating ethics rules for judges.
It’s not often that the state’s top court, headed by Chief Justice Donald Beatty, publicly disciplines a judge, though the court system’s recent annual disciplinary reports show that more than 200 complaints on average are filed annually against judges statewide.
According to the latest report for fiscal 2020-21, which ended June 30, out of 213 complaints received during the year and 36 complaints that were pending when the fiscal year started, just 15, or 6%, were not dismissed.
- Hits: 1443
More secrecy on tap in upcoming PSC review?
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
A powerful, legislatively controlled committee is scheduled Thursday to conduct annual reviews of the seven Public Service Commission members, though if recent history is a guide, the public won’t see any final written evaluations.
That’s because they haven’t been done in the past several years, despite being required by state law.
The written evaluations by the State Regulation of Public Utilities Review Committee (PURC) are important because state law requires that they be included in a PSC member’s record for “consideration if the member seeks reelection” by the full Legislature. The terms of three PSC members expire next year, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
- Hits: 1456
Christian Group Defeats City of Baltimore in First Amendment Ruling
- By Christian Newswire
BALTIMORE -- Church Militant / St. Michael's Media, a Detroit-based Catholic news organization, has won its first amendment case against the city of Baltimore, Maryland.
Tuesday night, Judge Ellen Hollander handed down a legal victory by granting a preliminary injunction against city officials, who had interfered to quash the group's prayer rally, scheduled for Nov. 16 at the MECU Pavilion.
"Plaintiff has demonstrated a substantial likelihood that it will prevail on the merits of its free speech (Count I) and assembly (Count IV) claims under the First and Fourteenth Amendments," wrote the judge in her order. "[T]he balance of the equities favors plaintiff; and an injunction is in the public interest."
- Hits: 1699
SC Judges Ordering Jail Time in Some Civil Cases
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
In a rare move last month, attorneys asked a judge to order the “civil” arrest of prominent Hampton County lawyer Alex Murdaugh to compel him to pay their clients – the sons of a Murdaugh family housekeeper who died in 2018 after a reported fall in his home – from a multimillion-dollar settlement stemming from the death.
State law generally bans arrests in civil actions. But under an obscure law – the origins of which date to the 1800s – cited in the Murdaugh case, an arrest can be made in a civil case for “money received or property embezzled or fraudulently misapplied” by certain public or private officials, including attorneys.
- Hits: 2243
Public Cost of Training Boeing Workers Far Higher Than Projections
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
When S.C. lawmakers in 2009 first approved massive taxpayer-backed funding for aerospace giant Boeing to build an assembly plant in North Charleston, the state estimated it would spend nearly $34 million over 15 years for worker training.
But over the past 10 fiscal years, the state has spent $58.3 million – an approximately 70% hike over original projections – to train Boeing workers through the S.C. Technical College System’s “readySC” program, according to information provided this week by the college system to The Nerve.
The average per-worker training cost to the state also jumped significantly, from about $8,950 as initially estimated to approximately $12,100 – a 35% increase.
- Hits: 2150
DOT’s Road-Repair Schedules Full of Potholes
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Major repaving or road reconstruction projects in South Carolina could take on average at least a year and possibly more than two years to complete, The Nerve found in a review of state Department of Transportation records.
But it’s unclear exactly how long it takes to finish road projects funded with gas-tax-hike revenues, given that DOT’s publicly available records are incomplete.
Meanwhile, DOT continues to sit on hundreds of millions of dollars generated under the gas-tax-hike law that took effect July 1, 2017. As of Aug. 31, the cash balance in a special fund created with the law was $869.7 million, or 42.4% of the $2.05 billion in revenues collected since 2017, according to DOT and state comptroller general records.
- Hits: 1575
California's New Abortion Protest Law - What Does It Do?
- By Life Legal Defense Foundation
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law that creates new crimes for intentionally electronically recording clients and/or staff within 100 feet of the entrance of an abortion clinic with the specific intent of intimidating them from going into the clinic.
This new law, which is an expansion of California's "Freedom of Access to Clinic and Church Entrances" (FACE) Act, has many pro-lifers concerned that they will no longer be allowed to record activities outside abortion mills. We have received numerous inquiries that contain inaccurate information about the law.
- Hits: 1600
Legislative Delegations Control State Grants Totaling Millions for Local Rec Projects
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Since 2017, powerful county legislative delegations have approved a total of more than $8 million in state grants for hundreds of local recreation projects in South Carolina, records show.
And as of mid-July, the delegations, made up of state House and Senate members representing a county, collectively had $5 million more available for future grant projects.
State law requires that each grant application be approved by a majority of the delegation representing the local government agency or special purpose district applying for the money. The S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism (PRT) must annually notify delegations of the available revenue in their respective counties’ Parks and Recreation Development (PARD) Fund, and provide a list of eligible government entities in their counties, as determined by PRT.
- Hits: 1462
Legislative Infighting: Inside a Dysfunctional Delegation
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
In South Carolina, county legislative delegations – made up of state House and Senate members representing a county – have considerable power on their home turfs.
As The Nerve has pointed out, delegations make appointments to various local boards and committees, including school boards in some counties and most county transportation committees, which decide which local road projects to fund with part of the state gasoline tax.
Senate delegations – sometimes just one senator – control the selection process of county magistrates, while county delegations exert nomination powers over master-in-equity judges, as The Nerve has reported.
- Hits: 1577
SC Roads Get ‘D’ Grade as Major Repair Projects Remain Unfinished
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
South Carolina will need almost $43 billion more by 2040 to fix its bad roads and handle increased traffic with projected growth, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, which gave the state’s roads a “D” grade in its annual infrastructure report card.
Meanwhile, the S.C. Department of Transportation continues to poke along in completing repaving and road reconstruction projects with $2 billion in revenues collected under the 2017 gas-tax-hike law – while sitting on a surplus that has surpassed $900 million, newly released agency records show.
The $903.5 million cash balance in a special fund created with the 2017 law was $226.3 million more than the total value of completed “pavements” projects statewide as of July 31, The Nerve found in a review of DOT records.
- Hits: 1808
Texas Ensures All People, No Matter the Size, Deserve a Shot at Life
- By Eagle Forum
Pro-life allies across the country cheered as Texas signed into law a measure that protects the rights of the preborn. The Heartbeat Act, SB 8, took effect on September 1, 2021. It requires doctors to first search for a fetal heartbeat before performing an abortion. If a heartbeat is found, an abortion cannot be performed unless it is a medical emergency. In most cases, a fetal heartbeat is detected as early as 6 weeks gestational age.
The legislation allows any person the ability to sue an abortionist who violates the law, or anyone who aids or abets in an abortion. It’s important to note that these civil-liability provisions do not apply to the mother who desires or is able to maintain an unlawful abortion.
- Hits: 1737
The $5 Billion Surplus Officials Don’t Talk About
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Out of this fiscal year’s $32.5 billion state budget, more than a third of it – nearly $12.3 billion – is made up of “other” funds.
“Other” funds include such things as fees and fines, college tuition, lottery proceeds, state gasoline taxes, and part of the state sales tax earmarked for K-12 education. Many state agencies don’t spend all of their other funds in a fiscal year, with some of them amassing huge year-end surpluses.
- Hits: 1500
Millions Flow through SCDOT to Company with Ties to Sen. Leatherman
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
The S.C. Department of Transportation since 2016 has awarded 56 bridge contracts totaling $8.4 million to a company with ties to Sen. Hugh Leatherman – one of the state’s most powerful lawmakers, records provided to The Nerve show.
The contracts with Florence Concrete Products, Inc. ranged from $50,164 for a bridge near the town of Lodge in Colleton County to $564,400 for four bridges in DOT’s District 1, which covers Richland, Lexington, Kershaw, Sumter and Lee counties, according to DOT records provided under the state Freedom of Information Act.
State comptroller general records show that DOT paid Florence Concrete a total of nearly $7 million from fiscal 2017 into this fiscal year, which started July 1.
- Hits: 4558
Gallo Winery Project: No Cheap Buzz for SC Taxpayers
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
E.&J. Gallo Winery, a multibillion-dollar global corporation, will get at least $25 million in assistance from the state of South Carolina to locate a plant in Chester County – plus could receive tens of millions more in taxpayer-backed incentives over decades, records released to The Nerve show.
And the California-based wine and spirits giant would face relatively light financial penalties if it doesn’t fully live up to its end of the deal, according to records recently provided by the state Department of Commerce under the S.C. Freedom of Information Act.
In fact, the performance agreement for a $16 million state grant would allow state and county officials to lower job creation and investment requirements for the company to receive incentives.
It’s more than just words on paper: The Nerve in 2018, for example, revealed that officials sharply lowered required job and investment targets to keep the Element TV assembly plant in Fairfield County.
- Hits: 1747
State surpluses keep growing. Taxpayers likely won’t get any of it back
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Lawmakers have far more state tax dollars to play with this fiscal year, though there has been no serious interest in returning any of it to taxpayers.
In an annual report released earlier this month, S.C. comptroller general Richard Eckstrom – the state’s top accountant – said the state had a $1.024 billion general-fund surplus for fiscal 2020-21, which ended June 30.
That works out to be about $200 for every man, woman and child living in South Carolina. A press release that accompanied Eckstrom’s report described the windfall as “unprecedented.”
Lawmakers earlier this year appropriated $1.8 billion more in actual and projected state funds for fiscal 2021-22, including an estimated $646.7 million general-fund surplus for the fiscal year that just ended.
The $1 billion surplus identified in Eckstrom’s report – $377 million more than the earlier estimate in the current budget – doesn’t include a collective general-fund surplus of about $640 million that state agencies had at the start of this fiscal year, according to the report.
- Hits: 1864
VoterGA Files Suit to Ban Illegal Dominion Voting System
- By VoterGA
ATLANTA -- VoterGA today announced joining with State Rep. Philip Singleton in a legal petition to ban Georgia's Dominion Democracy Suite 5.5 voting system. The voting system has already been declared in violation of Georgia law by the U.S. District Court of Northern Georgia [Pg. 81-82].
Georgia law requires a voting system to "print an elector verifiable paper ballot;" and "...produce paper ballots which are marked with the elector's choices in a format readable by the elector." After reviewing extensive evidence in the Curling V. Raffensperger case, Judge Amy Totenberg concluded: "Plaintiffs and other voters who wish to vote in-person are required to vote on a system that does none of those things." [O.C.G.A. § 21-2-2(7.1); O.C.G.A. § 21-2-300(a)(2)]
- Hits: 1967
- State AG hires current, former lawyer-legislators in civil cases
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