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- Belgrade, NATO Expansion, Color Revolutions
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State AG hires current, former lawyer-legislators in civil cases
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Since 2017, S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson has hired at least six current or former lawyer-legislators to handle certain civil cases, including the chairman of a House committee that first approves the annual state budget, which funds Wilson’s office, records show.
The outside lawyers hired to assist the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) were to be paid on a contingency basis, which means they would receive a percentage of any settlement or court award. Records provided recently by the AGO under the S.C. Freedom of Information Act didn’t indicate whether the current or ex-lawmakers have received any fees.
- Hits: 1803
What's at Stake in the California Recall Election?
- By iVoterGuide
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The California gubernatorial recall election is underway and voters across the state are eager to make their voices heard. This special election is being held to answer two important questions: Should Gavin Newsom be recalled from the office of Governor? If so, who should replace him? How voters answer these two questions could transform the political landscape of both California and the U.S. for years.
For Debbie Wuthnow, president of iVoterGuide, this recall election provides a unique opportunity. "An opportunity like this hasn't occurred in California in years. Recent polls indicate that the state is evenly split over the effort to recall Governor Newsom, with the majority of California voters still undecided. This is exactly what iVoterGuide is for— equipping voters with facts about each candidate so they can cast an informed vote."
- Hits: 1661
Santee Cooper Seeks State OK to Dive Deeper in Debt
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
State-owned utility Santee Cooper’s debt load is projected to grow by more than a half-billion dollars under a proposal that a legislative committee likely will rubber-stamp today.
The utility’s board of directors in a special meeting Thursday approved asking the state Joint Bond Review Committee (JBRC) to allow the utility to sell up to $350 million in revenue obligation bonds. Last week’s board meeting was held the same day The Nerve revealed that the Berkeley County-based utility in recent years had approved millions in economic development spending while being mired in debt.
The 10-member JBRC is scheduled to meet later this morning.
- Hits: 2248
Santee Cooper Deep in Debt, Still Spending Millions on Ecodevo Projects
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Santee Cooper’s electric customers are on the hook for billions in debt payments, but that hasn’t stopped the state-owned utility from spending millions in recent years on economic development projects.
The Nerve’s review of utility records provided recently under the state’s open-records law found that from May 2018 through May of this year, Santee Cooper approved a total of more than $28 million in economic development grants and no-interest loans. The beneficiaries included companies, county and municipal governments, and economic development groups.
- Hits: 1942
Informed Consent Action Network's Attorneys Challenge DOJ Mandatory Vaccination Opinion
- By Christian Newswire
AUSTIN, Texas -- Following a recent opinion written from the Department of Justice claiming that federal law permits mandating an emergency use vaccine, non-profit Informed Consent Action Network's attorneys issued a response disputing the conclusion in this opinion.
On July 26, 2021, at the request of the White House, the DOJ's Acting Assistant AG released an opinion claiming the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, Section 564 permits mandating an emergency use vaccine. Section 564 states that for all emergency use products, i.e. unlicensed medical products, individuals must be informed of "the option to accept or refuse administration of the product."
- Hits: 1689
Fiscal ‘21 Ends With Huge Gas-Tax-Hike Surplus Amid Unfinished Projects
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
For the fiscal year that ended June 30, a special fund created with the 2017 state gas-tax-hike law had an $896.1 million surplus – a 50% increase compared to the end of fiscal 2020, records show. Total collected revenues also grew by about the same rate over the one-year period to almost $2 billion.
But despite being flush with taxpayer money, the S.C. Department of Transportation isn’t anywhere close to fixing most of the state’s bad roads and bridges.
From July 1, 2017, when the gas-tax-hike law took effect, through June 30 this year, the total dollar value of completed “pavements” – repaving or road reconstruction – projects was $662.2 million, less than 50% of the $1.35 billion estimated cost of all such projects in the state’s 46 counties, The Nerve found in a review of recently released DOT records.
- Hits: 1822
Lawmaker: Little Vetting of Governor’s Pick for DOT Commission
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Gov. Henry McMaster quietly appointed the owner of a well-known Columbia restaurant – and generous campaign donor – to a vacant state Department of Transportation Commission seat, but a lawmaker is questioning the selection process.
The 2nd Congressional District Legislative Delegation is scheduled this morning to vote whether to confirm McMaster’s appointment of Bill Dukes, owner of the Blue Marlin restaurant in Columbia’s popular Vista district, to the DOT Commission seat representing the 2nd Congressional District, which covers all or parts of Richland, Lexington, Orangeburg, Aiken and Barnwell counties.
Contacted Monday by The Nerve, state Rep. Leon Howard, D-Richland, who is chairman of the 17-member Richland County legislative delegation, said he wasn’t aware of Dukes’ appointment until notified of today’s meeting. The 2nd Congressional delegation is made up of the legislative delegations representing counties within the district.
- Hits: 1574
Counties Still Paying Lawmakers for ‘Phantom’ Delegation Offices
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Last year, S.C. Sen. Kent Williams of Marion County reported receiving a collective $17,060 in legislative delegation payments from neighboring Dillon and Florence counties, parts of which are in his Senate district.
Another longtime lawmaker, Rep. Jackie Hayes of Dillon County, received $12,500 in 2020 – the same amount paid to Williams by Dillon County, records show.
For years, Williams and Hayes have been among a group of lawmakers getting payments from counties that don’t provide legislative delegation offices.
- Hits: 1687
House Member Quit Suddenly Last Year; Now a Judicial Candidate. Coincidence?
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
What a difference a year can make – especially if you’re a state lawmaker.
In unexpectedly resigning his longtime House seat last July after winning the Republican primary, Alan Clemmons, a Myrtle Beach attorney, said in an affidavit to the State Election Commission that he was withdrawing from the general election because he was representing new legal clients who will “require a large investment of my time and focus.”
Clemmons, who was first elected to the House in 2002, officially resigned his House seat on July 17, 2020. As of last Wednesday – slightly more than a year later – he became a candidate for the Horry County master-in-equity judge’s seat, state Judicial Merit Selection Commission (JMSC) records show.
- Hits: 1564
Lawmakers to Spend Millions on Incumbency-Protection Maps
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
The S.C. House and Senate plan to spend millions creating new legislative and congressional district maps based on the latest U.S. Census – a convoluted process that lawmakers undertake every 10 years.
Historically, the “reapportionment” or “redistricting” process has been aimed at keeping incumbent legislators in office, though it’s not the official line from politicians.
“I look forward to our working together on a redistricting process that is fair and equitable to all South Carolinians,” longtime Sen. Luke Rankin, R-Horry, who is the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, said in a press release last week in announcing the members of a redistricting subcommittee chaired by him.
- Hits: 1605
State, County Websites Offer Scant Information on Legislative Delegations
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
If you want to learn what your county legislative delegation is up to, you likely won’t find much – if any – information on county government websites or the state Legislature’s website.
The state Supreme Court in 1996 ruled that legislative delegations, made up of senators and House members representing a county, are considered public bodies under the state’s open-meetings law, which requires them to give advance notice of their meetings, cast votes during open session, and make meeting minutes available to citizens.
The Nerve on Wednesday revealed that some delegations have met in legislative buildings on the State House grounds in downtown Columbia far away from their home counties – skirting the intent of the Freedom of Information Act that public meetings be held at a “minimum cost or delay” to citizens.
- Hits: 1627
Legislative Delegations Skirting State Open-meetings Law
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
One day last month, state lawmakers representing Greenville County held separate meetings in a legislative building on the State House grounds in downtown Columbia – about 103 miles from Greenville – to discuss certain county board appointments that they control, as well as rules governing their delegation meetings.
In the smaller Darlington County, the county legislative delegation doesn’t meet as a group on county matters, according to a delegation member.
In neighboring Florence County, delegation meetings for years have been held in Columbia – about 83 miles from Florence – organized by a Senate employee who works for arguably the state’s most-powerful lawmaker.
- Hits: 2013
Could Greenville GOP Delegation be Removed from SC State GOP Club?
- By James Spurck
South Carolina Democrats May Have A Long Sought-after Opportunity
On July 11, 1804, longstanding political rivals and personal enemies, former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and Vice President Aaron Burr raised their dueling pistols and took aim. Due to political upsets by Hamilton, Burr retaliated by challenging Hamilton to a duel in which Hamilton was killed.
Politics has always been an ugly business. Relationships get soured and emotions boil out of control. The ramifications can be long-lasting.
Unfortunately, South Carolina’s Grand Old Party is currently in the middle of such turmoil.
This current dueling all started with the largest county delegation of the South Carolina Republican Party. Any state-wide candidate knows that to win a state-wide election requires a healthy relationship with the Greenville County Republican Party.
- Hits: 3703
Few S.C. Bridges Fixed With Gas-Tax-Hike Money
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Only three bridge projects have been completed in South Carolina with the nearly $2 billion in revenues collected under the 2017 state gas-tax-hike law, recently released transportation department records show.
And although the S.C. Department of Transportation has identified 465 out of 750 “structurally deficient” bridges statewide to be replaced, other agency records reviewed by The Nerve show that the vast majority of 66 “priority” projects in that category remain unfinished.
In passing the gas-tax-hike law, which raised the state gasoline tax by 12 cents per gallon over six years and increased other vehicle taxes and fees, lawmakers promised that the money would be used to fix the state’s crumbling roads and bridges. The latest 2-cent-per-gallon increase took effect July 1.
- Hits: 1450
Some State Agency Heads Start New Fiscal Year With Big Pay Raises
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
A legislatively controlled committee has given five-figure pay hikes to a group of state agency heads, and a new law empowers the panel to recommend raises next fiscal year for certain statewide elected officials.
The Agency Head Salary Commission (AHSC) on Thursday– the start of the new fiscal year – approved the following annual salaries for agency heads, with the amount and percentage of the raises in parentheses, according to commission and Department of Administration records:
- Christy Hall, Department of Transportation secretary: $298,000 ($46,768, 18.6%)
- Marcia Adams, Department of Administration executive director: $284,679 ($60,637, 27%)
- Nanette Edwards, Office of Regulatory Staff executive director: $265,000 ($86,381, 48.3%)
- Bryan Stirling, Department of Corrections director: $250,000 ($50,143, 25%)
- Grant Gillespie, State Fiscal Accountability Authority executive director: $245,000 ($44,438, 22.1%)
In addition, the commission set newly confirmed Commerce secretary Harry Lightsey’s annual salary at $252,000. His predecessor, Bobby Hitt, who retired, was making $199,857 as of April 9, according to an online database of state workers earning at least $50,000 yearly.
- Hits: 1276
Earmark Secrecy Continues as State Budget Goes into Effect
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
In vetoing 226 budget earmarks totaling $152.5 million, Gov. Henry McMaster last week wrote that the “bulk of these earmarked appropriations still lack sufficient context, description, explanation of merit, or justification as to how the recipient intends to spend the funds.”
That might be one of the biggest understatements on how lawmakers funnel surplus tax dollars to their pet projects.
Under House and Senate rules, earmarks are funding requests by legislators for specific programs or projects that didn’t originate with a written agency budget request, or weren’t included in the prior fiscal year’s state appropriations.
- Hits: 1357
- State Agencies Claim Taxpayers’ Refunds to Collect Debts
- Lawmakers Approve Massive State Budget Stuffed with Pork Projects
- Santee Cooper Board Still Has Expired, Vacant Seats Despite ‘Reform’ Law
- Lawmakers Bypassing Normal Budget Process to Spend $600M Settlement
- Holes Still Exist In DOT’s Pothole Numbers