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New program seeks healthy, healing dialogue between juvenile offenders and victims

April 23, 2009 By

The South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice unveiled Thursday a new initiative that pairs victims and offenders for face-to-face meetings. The DJJ’s new Victim Offender Dialogue Program has been conducted on a pilot basis for two years until more facilitators were trained in order to properly and effectively conduct these often intense face-to-face meetings. The program began with 6 facilitators. DJJ Restorative Justice Coordinator Ginny Barr says the department has over the years conducted programs where first time nonviolent offenders meet with their victims, but the new initiative is unique in that it brings perpetrators and victims together who have been involved in crimes of a very egregious nature.

“We’ve done cases of murder, sex offending, robbery, assault and battery with intent to kill. The cases brought into this specific program are of a violent and serious nature.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Human Interest, News, Uncategorized

Senator says 12 state lawmakers not filing taxes

April 23, 2009 By

If you don’t file state income tax, you cannot hold state office according to three bills introduced on Tuesday by Aiken Senator Greg Ryberg.

On the floor of the Senate, Ryberg introduced the bills by saying he had requested records from the South Carolina Department of Revenue, “The Department of Revenue reported that it’s records showed no filing…NO FILING…at all for 12 house members in one of more years between the years of 1999 and 2007!”

Ryberg explains his new bill by saying, “It prohibits anyone who has either failed to file an income tax return or failed to pay their income taxes, liability in full from holding office, in either the house or the senate. For that matter, from serving in any other elected office in the state or serving as a gubernatorial appointment.”

Sumter Senator Phil Leventis says while he supports the premise of the bills, but the list that Ryberg mentions casts a dark cloud over the legislature. “I won’t go too far,” he said, “sound a little bit like, ‘I have in my pocket a list…I have in my pocket a list of people who are trying to subvert the government of the United States’.

“Senator McCarthy never made that list public. I’m not going to object to this bill or hold it up, unless, I don’t get a list, by names, of the people involved in this matter.”

Ryberg says he does not have a list of names from the state Department of Revenue, only numbers. The bills are now in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Filed Under: Economy, Legislature, News, Politics & Government

Statewide burning ban caused by limited resources

April 23, 2009 By

Dry weather and dry ground in many parts of the state could set the stage for another fire like the blazes that have swept the Myrtle Beach area since Wednesday.

That, along with limited fire-fighting forces, have prompted  state emergency management and forestry officials to impose a statewide burning ban.

South Carolina Forestry Commission State Forester Gene Kodama says, “You have to dedicate so much resources to that fire, that if you had another fire –and we do have others going on—other fires, we would not have the resources that we would be able to respond.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Accidents & Disasters, News

Air quality permit appealed to special court

April 23, 2009 By

While the Santee Cooper coal-fired plant planned for the Pee Dee is being debated in the court of public opinions, the official legal challenge is on its way to the state administrative law courts. A coalition of environmental and civic groups is appealing an air quality permit issued by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.

The administrative law court is where vast amount of state agency “contested cases are heard,”said State Administrative Law Judge Carolyn Cason Matthews.

“The only state agencies we do not hear contested cases from are the public service commission, the employment security commission, the workers’ compensation commission, and procurement review panel,” she said. “Every other state agency; whether it’s DHEC, the Department of Revenue, DNR (Department of Natural Resources), DSS (Department of Social Services). We hear appeal cases of some sort from them.”

There are only six state administrative law judges and their growing case loads include appeals from the state’s 49 different licensing boards, public hearings on new regulations and criminal jurisdiction in some department of corrections issues. “We hear it as a normal trial with witnesses, exhibits, the full panoply of rules. The rules of evidence apply. The rules of procedure apply. It’s just like a regular trial in circuit court only there is no jury.”

While she cannot speak to this case, Judge Matthews explains they are the only court that is part of the executive branch. Their cases, is appealed, go straight to the South Carolina Court of Appeals, bypassing circuit courts.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Environment & Conservation, News

State senators talk about Grand Strand wildfires

April 23, 2009 By

On the floor of the state Senate today, Grand Strand lawmakers rose to address their colleagues about the status of the wildfire emergency. The Governor has declared a state of emergency and a statewide burning ban as a result of the fires that began Wednesday night. The fires have burned approximately 15,000 acres.Horry County Senator Luke Rankin explained that the blaze began as a brush fire along Highway 90 and spread to a devastating inferno that destroyed houses in the Grand Dunes development.  “My secretary, who lives at Barefoot, was displaced and had to move out at 3:00 this morning.  Lots of property interests there are being affected.  We want to ask for thoughts and prayers, and for rainin Horry County.”

Horry County Senator Dick Elliot says close to 100 homes have been severely damaged or lost in his district, many in the Grand Dunes community, where homes are valued at between 400,000 and $600,000 each.   “The people are gathering anywhere they can, sharing with each other, giving help to each other, because when you loose a home, it’s a drastic situation in the lives of any person, any family.” 

Georgetown Senator Raymond Clearly said the seriousness of the emergency is evident.   “Twenty-five-hundred people have been evacuated.  There’s a lot of concern about death because there’s a lot of tourists and they don’t  know how to reach them when they’re at home in their sleep.  My brother-in-law, one of the fire chiefs told me that for every home they saved, they might have lost 50.  It is serious.  Even parts of Sandy Island in Georgetown have been on fire.”

At least 250 residents are now in shelters.

Filed Under: Accidents & Disasters, Legislature, News
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