South Carolina News and Sports
A growing number of older adults are living without health insurance these days. The Obama Administration met with leaders of the health care and drug industries Monday about the issue.
A-A-R-P officials say those aged 50 to 64 are taking a hard hit due to shrinking employer-sponsored health coverage. They’re now the fastest growing group of uninsured. Thirty-six percent of that age group lost coverage between 2000 and 2007. [Read more...]
Saturday’s Southern 500 in Darlington turned out to be a full crowd, even in the depth of a recession. For the first time in five years, the event was not a sell out, but there were less than 2000 tickets left four hours before the starting flag fell. The Darlington stands hold 62-thousand spectators.
Apparently, it’s an annual tradition for many race fans and they were willing to make the sacrifice if it were at all possible to attend.
But Tom Nicks of North Carolina sells racing caps and t-shirts at the so-called “NASCAR City” surrounding the track. He travels to approximately five races a year but says this year he’ll be lucky to break even. He says people are attending the races but not spending any extra cash . “People like Darlington. It’s a nice track and always has been. So they come down here but they can’t afford to spend no money. They’re just glad to be able to make it to the races, is what they tell me. I say God bless ‘em. I’m just glad they’re able to have a good time, you know?”
AleJandro Ramos(AH-lee-han-dro RHA-mos) of Gainesville, Florida, originally from Venezuela, is one of the entrepreneurs who transported up to six patrons at a time around the outside of the giant track from the parking areas, driving a bicycle-powered rickshaw–at a cost of up to $30 a ride. He said HIS business was great. “It is very good. I hear from some other guys that it’s a little slower than usual. But any business that doesn’t involve gas, like this one, is ok right now.”
There were race fans like Kim Ultradime of Lumberton, North Carolina, who says he and his wife would not have been able to attend the race without free tickets given to him at his workplace. ”No, I ain’t got no money. But we rode with the neig hbors and that didn’t cost us anything either.”
Jeff Tims from Coorsville, California said that his wife allows him a trip to an out-of-state NASCAR race every year, and this year he chose the historic track in South Carolina. “This is it this year. I picked Darlington, the classic, old fashion NASCAR track.”
But Tims, who works with the California Department of Corrections, says his job is secure, and he actually received a cheaper ticket package because of the economy.
A recent small earthquake in the Lowcountry shook houses in the Summerville area. College of Charleston Geology professor Dr. Erin Beutel (byoo-tel), said the tremor that occurred last Wednesday registered about a two on the Richter scale. Beutel says a tremor of that magnitude would feel like an 18 wheel truck passing by your home rattling your coffee cup. Beutel says the Summerville area and other parts of the state typically gets several tremors a year.”We have averages just like with floods that happen sometimes more years than not. We have two to seven reported felt earthquakes {annually). That doesn’t mean that there are not more that are happening or people felt and didn’t report. We are talking about just the ones that are reported.”
Beutel says a 2.5 quake was recorded in the Summerville area in January. Beutel Says South Carolina experiences quite a few seismic episodes annually, but it does not compare with the tremendous amount of seismic activity that occurs in states like California, Washington, and Alaska.
Beutel says the strongest earthquake in the state occurred in and around the Charleston area on August 31, 1886, and is considered in historical times as the greatest earthquake on the U.S. east coast. Beutel says the earthquake is estimated to have been around a magnitude seven. Beutel says since their was no seismometers around at the time the magnitude was estimated using reports of the damages that occurred at the time. Beutel says scientists are studying the geological history of a region by digging trenches and studying how the earth well below the surface has been affected by a process known as liquefaction.
“Liquefaction is where the ground saturated in water basically turns into a slurry and you only have that with magnitude six and above earthquakes. You see that in a geologic record (of an area) about every 500 years. We see on average, once again we get nervous as scientists because mother nature doesn’t like to be predictable, we see large earthquakes of that size (the 1886 quake) around every 500 years.”
Beutel says according to historical documentation, the 1886 quake was felt over a vast area from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
Beutel says the study of a region’s seismic history can help architects determine how buildings are constructed to withstand frequent seismic activity. Beutel says the information also helps in determining where nuclear facilities are located.
“I believe that nuclear facilities have a certain size earthquake that they have to be able to withstand and they try to locate those as far away from active areas as possible.”
Governor Mark Sanford finds fault with many parts of the state budget, which is now in conference committee. At a Monday morning press conference, he said the state is missing out on a chance to reform government spending, by planning to take federal stimulus money instead.
Sanford highlighted what he says are “wasteful and inefficient proposals,” including travel reimbursements being made at the full level, state-run golf courses, taxpayer-funded game-day traffic control, and three quartes of a million dollars for hydrogen research.
Federal funding for some forms of hydrogen research has shifted, leaving an area recently endorsed by the legislature in question.
The governor also took issue with a plan to move the state Division of Aeronautics to the Budget and Control Board–an agency he called “the least accountable in all of state government.”
Sanford asked South Carolinians to speak out now — while the House and Senate are now conferring on a final version of the budget to send to him.
The cost to mail a letter just went up again.
The United States Postal Service has increased the price per stamp from 42 cents to 44 cents. Although 2 cents may not seem like much, when you send out mail in bulks, like most businesses, it is. Harry Spratlin with the United States Postal Service in South Carolina says because the effect the economy is having on businesses, for the postal service, it’s a domino effect. Spratlin says all of their revenue comes from postage, and the recession is not helping. In South Carolina last year, mail volume was down by 19%.
“That’s bad for revenue. People are not mailing because of the recession. I’m not talking about just your everyday ma’ and pop, I’m talking about the people who send business mail by large quantities,” says Spratlin.
The postal service has recently had to make cut backs in its infrastructure as well.
“Right now, we are in a state of flux and our mail volumes are continuing to go down because of the recession and we are looking for every way we can to work that out and Post Master General has asked to cut back on one way day of delivery and to set aside a situation for employee health benefits to be stretched out over a few more years so it wouldn’t take so much out of the budget right now,” says Spratlin.
Spratlin says they have also cut over 100 million work hours in the last few years. As for the price of stamps, he says it’s possible for another increase, but they have to keep up with the rate of inflation.
“We look at it every year and if the consumer price index goes up, then whatever the amount of inflation is, that’s the amount of postage rate increase we’ll see,” says Spratlin.
The Liberty Bell stamp is the only stamp that can still be used without the additional charge.
