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Legislative Week In Review: Black lawmakers may pursue legal action

February 28, 2009 by

Black lawmakers staged a walkout Thursday as the South Carolina House voted to approve a bill requiring state voters to show photo identification at polling places.  The bill received key approval by a 65-14 vote following hours of contentious debate. Republicans said it’s an issue of voter integrity and security. Democrats contend it’s about suppressing the vote of the elderly, disabled and minorities.

Members of the Legislative Black Caucus called it a backlash against the election of President Barack Obama.  Caucus chairman Representative David Weeks of Sumter County Republicans want to create road blocks for potential voters.  ”Now exactly who are Republican poll watchers going to challenge? They are going to challenge people they think vote Democrat and so it’s obviously a part of their agenda for the year. They’ re not trying to make the process easier, they’re trying to tighten the process up as much as they can. That’s just the reality.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: News, Politics & Government

Gang initiation leads to attack: ALIPAC message misleading

February 28, 2009 by

More details have surfaced on the shooting of a Lexington County deputy earlier this month.  Lead Investigator Major John Allard confirmed that the shooting did involve gang members.  An anti-illegal immigration group known as ALIPAC circulated an email to the media, falsely claiming the officer was targeted by a 15-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico as an initiation to a gang.  The 15-year-old is illegal and he did shoot at the officer but not as part of an initiation.  The three individuals were breaking into cars as part of the initiation when the officer responded to the call.  The 15-year-old shot at Deputy Ted Xanthakis as he(the teen) tried to escape.  The officer was not hurt.  Allard explains what happened.  “They were breaking into motor vehicles as part of a gang initiation.  A citizen saw them breaking into the vehicle (and) contacted our department.  

“We had deputies respond.  Amongst them was Deputy Xanthakis and he encountered one of them, a 15-year-old boy, and during that encounter the 15-year-old boy fired a shot gun blast at the officer’s car.”

Allard wants to set the record straight about the incorrect email reaching media outlets across the nation.  “It was partially accurate in that it was a gang initiation,” said Allard.  “But the gang initiation had nothing to do with the shooting at the law enforcement officer. The shooting happened when he (Xanthakis) interrupted the gang initiation of breaking into motor vehicles.”

The gang is a Mexican Gang founded in Southern California known as Surenos 13 or Sur 13, for short.  “Surenos” means they are descendants of residents of Southern Mexico and 13 stands for the 13th letter in the alphabet, the ‘M’, which represents Mexicans.  Allard says Sur 13 is a growing presence in Lexington County.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, News

Clemson professors receive grant to research the cleaning of contaminated water

February 28, 2009 by

Two Clemson University professors recently wrote a proposal to the Department of Energy to address the problem of contaminated waters associated with energy production.  The pair was awarded more than $800,000 to find economical and environmentally sensible ways to treat water contaminated during oil and natural gas production.  Professor Jim Castle, a geologist in the Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences and John Rodgers, professor of environmental toxicology in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources plan to create constructed wetland systems to cleanse the water for reuse.  Rodgers says the water wasted during oil and natural gas recovery is overwhelming.  According to Rodgers, “There are actually millions and millions gallons a year of what we call ‘produced waters’ that is brought to the surface as natural gas is recovered and oil is recovered from the ground.”

“Currently, there aren’t any efficient or effective ways to deal with these waters.  Quite often, these waters are returned to the geological formation.  They are pushed back into the ground.  That’s awfully expensive.”

The goal is to treat this water to reuse for many purposes such as irrigation, livestock watering, municipal use, and domestic use. Rodgers says they are taking a lesson from nature as to how to best treat the water in a low-cost method. “Wetlands have been doing this for all times,” said Rodgers.  “Actually, in the geologic record, we can go back in time and we discover in sedimentary rocks that wetlands have actually been taking metals, for example, out of water–inorganic(s) like selenium and other things like that out of water–and they’ve been degrading organic materials like oil and grease and salt for all time.”

Rodgers says the cleaner they can get the water, the more uses they can get from it saying, “The plans for reuse of this water range all the way from things like irrigation of crops to watering livestock to release to aquatic systems to support fish and other wildlife all the way through human consumption.”

“We would like to be able to clean the water up just as clean as possible so that we have any of those options available to us.”

By cleaning the water for reuse, this reduces environmental risks and saves the cost of pumping the contaminated water back into the ground.  Rodgers explains how the water can become contaminated.  “Those waters that we work on are contaminated because they come in contact with oil, so they may have organics associated with them,” Rodgers said.

“They are also contaminated from the formation.  In other words, the oil and water are down below the earth’s surface and they are in contact with elements that they put into solutions.  These can be things like copper, lead, zinc…metals of that sort.”

The funding includes $689,500 from the US Department of Energy and $120,000 From Chevron of Houston.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Environment & Conservation, News

SC Investigators hold conferences targeting gang violence

February 26, 2009 by

The South Carolina Gang Investigators Association held its second conference to take the initiative on stopping gang violence in the state, as it continues. President of the association, Phil Reta, says among those in attendance were the FBI, SLED, ATF, and other law enforcement groups. South Carolina has teamed up with North Carolina in realizing the importance of cross-the-border gangs.

“Gang violence or violence in general is not limited to jurisdictional boundaries, so what happens is South Carolina for the most part has been in a bubble and we’re not aware or we’re not acknowledging that we have a problem. So, what we’re trying to do is to get everyone the knowledge and the experience based on these cities that already have to deal with that,” says Reta.

During the meeting, a new web-based listing, SCGangNet, that lists gang crimes and associations, to better target these criminals, was unveiled. Here’s the main objective of the conference…

“We want to open the lines of communication, what happens is you’ve got so many people doing so many different things and there’s not like a written textbook, if you will. Gangs are kind of flowing just like other businesses, they adapt to the societal happenings,” says Reta.

A total of six conferences will be held in Greenville.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, News

South Carolina schoolgirl’s letter inspires the President

February 25, 2009 by

A little girl from Dillon, South Carolina gets a hero’s welcome today in her hometown—after being given a standing ovation by the nation’s political leaders. Ty-sheoma Bethea  featured prominently in President Barack Obama’s joint address to Congress.

“And I think about Ty’Sheoma Bethea, the young girl from that school I visited in Dillon, South Carolina – a place where the ceilings leak, the paint peels off the walls, and they have to stop teaching six times a day because the train barrels by their classroom.  She has been told that her school is hopeless, but the other day after class she went to the public library and typed up a letter to the people sitting in this room.  She even asked her principal for the money to buy a stamp.  The letter asks us for help, and says, ‘We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, congressmen like yourself and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina but also the world.  We are not quitters.’”

Bethea sat next to First Lady Michelle Obama during the speech and today, she returned to JV Martin Junior High School for a special welcome home celebration led by state Superintendent of Education Jim Rex.

Filed Under: Education, Human Interest, News
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