It was standing room only at the Columbia Metro Convention Center Friday where more than 500 local officials and organizational leaders learned details about how to get federal stimulus money. The event was sponsored by the Municipal Association of South Carolina. Columbia Mayor Bob Coble and Charleston Mayor Joe Riley led the show. Riley, a Democrat, said the concern is that some smaller governments might not take advantage of the funding. “That’s why we held this. And you know, in most states, this kind of event would be held by the state’s governor, and would have been organized sooner. We realized that that wasn’t happening in South Carolina. That’s why Mayor Coble and I got together, because we wanted to make sure that smaller communities and all communities had the information they need. I’ve been to the White House a few times, and it’s a lot of information to keep up with, even for us.” [Read more...]
Legislative week: emotions rise to the surface
This week at the State House was marked by a contrast of emotions: anger and sorrow.
Governor Mark Sanford stirred up a hornets’ nest a few weeks ago when he held a press conference to say that the senate budget writers were not being straight forward about the amount of money the state had at its disposal. Sanford and his former Chief of Staff Beaufort Senator Tom Davis said that there was $578 million which Finance Chair Hugh Leatherman had not revealed was there. Leatherman said Sanford was mistaken and called the notion that he was hiding money was “bull crap.”
On Wednesday Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell took the Senate floor in Leatherman’s defense. “I have had enough of these bully politics and over the years I’ve learned when you confront a bully, sock him back!”
Pandemic Ethics Task Force to host forums statewide
The South Carolina Pandemic Influenza Ethics Task Force will host forums across the state over the next nine days that include presentations from experts and open discussions. The task force has been charged by the Center for Disease Control Prevention in Atlanta to plan for a pandemic in the Palmetto State. In the event a pandemic were to hit the state, many ethical decisions would need to be made. There are not enough supplies, medication, or health care professionals to treat everyone forcing officials to make difficult choices. Because of this, the Ethics Task Force wants to host these forums to give the public a chance to weigh in on these tough decisions. Jim Beasley, a spokesman for The Department of Health and Environmental Control, says it is important to involve the public.
“The Center for Disease Control called upon the Department of Health and Environmental Control to lead an effort to develop some ehtical guidelines,” said Beasley. ”But we also feel that the only way these ethical guidelines can truly be excepted by the people of South Carolina is if the people of South Carolina are aware of what the situations are going to be and some of the guidelines we’re going to propose for making those decisions.”
Beasley explains some of the difficult decisions that would need to be made should a pandemic strike. “During an influenza pandemic, we’re going to be facing a brand new type of virus,” he said. “Therefore, there will not be any type of vaccine available. At least that’s what we believe to be the situation.
“Therefore, it would be several months before the first batch of vaccines could ever be produced once that virus has actually emerged. We know some hard decisions will have to be made because once that first batch arrives, there is not going to be enough for everybody.”
Beasley went on to say that a pandemic is very serious and is not something to be taken lightly. According to him, “it’s a medically proven fact that pandemics occur.
“As a matter of fact, during the 20th century, there were three such pandemics that affected South Carolina and the United States. Probably the most serious occurred in 1918-1919. During that time, millions of people died around the world. As a matter of fact, it is estimated that between 50 million and 100 million people were killed by influenza in that time.”
The first forum is Monday night at Horry-Georgetown Technical College in Myrtle Beach. Greenville Technical College hosts on Wednesday. Next Monday, they go to Charleston County Council Chambers and the following Wednesday, the forum will be held at Midlands Technical College in Columbia.
Teen’s lawsuit born out of passion for education
18 year old Chapin High School senior Casey Edwards says she did not file a lawsuit before the State Supreme Court for a decision on whether the General Assembly can override Governor Sanford and appropriate $700 million in stimulus funds for publicity or for a class project. Edwards says improving public education for her has become a passion because she has seen the need after viewing the documentary “Corridor of Shame.”
“In the beginning of my senior year my student body at Chapin High School raised $10-thousand for an elementary school in Dillon County District Two and we gave the money to them for the holidays. I also joined the “Goodbye Minimally Adequate” campaign to change our state constitution so that it would read “requiring a high quality education” for all public schools in South Carolina.”
Casey says as far as her future is concerned, a career in the legal profession is a possibility but she’s considering other professions as well.
Casey’s dad, David Edwards works in commercial insurance and owns a florist in Chapin. Edwards says he’s not surprised that his daughter decided to take action on the stimulus funds issue by filing the lawsuit. “If you give Casey an argument, she’s going after it. She strongly believes that everybody deserves a good education. Chapin is a phenomenal district, a phenomenal school and she wants the rest of them to have it. When she went there (the school in Dillon) she hated that. She was talking about how they couldn’t go when it flooded, when it rained. She said I don’t see how we can say no when our school districts are so bad.”
Edwards describes himself as a political conservative. Edwards says his daughter has supported Governor Sanford in the past, she just happens to disagree with him on the issue of his turning down $700 million in stimulus funds.
DeMint: debt to China shows that the Fed is mortgaging country’s future
China now holds roughly $1 trillion of U.S. Treasury and other government backed bonds. China now owns nearly one out of every $10 in U.S. public debt which U.S. Senator Jim DeMint says puts the country squarely behind the eight ball when it comes to future dealings with the Far East nation and other countries.”They’ve expressed the fact that they are losing confidence in the dollar. If they don’t lend us money, there’s probably no where else for us to get it. They have been making us loans because we have been buying so much from them, but that trade deficit has declined because of our economy. If China could shift to another currency standard, which they are already talking about, I think we would find ourselves in trouble.”
DeMint and other critics of the Federal government’s borrowing habits say that the more China invests in U.S. debt, the harder it becomes for American companies to sell their products overseas.
DeMint says as the Fed continues to borrow from China and other countries it is not only mortgaging the future of America’s children, it is also leveraging its ability to have a significant influence on foreign policy.
“I think it has a lot to do with us not enforcing our trade agreements as aggressively as we should with China. I think it has everything to do with why we don’t have a harder line against Saudi Arabia for supporting terrorism because they’ve loaned us money. I think our hands are tied behind our back because we’re a debtor.”
DeMint’s fellow Palmetto State Republican in the Senate Lindsey Graham says despite the view of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the truth is the Chinese manipulate their currency. Graham co-sponsored a 2007 bill that would have allowed U.S. companies to ask for steeper tariffs against goods coming from countries found to have misaligned currencies. Another sponsor of the bill, Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York may reintroduce the measure.
