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Another GOP candidate announces he will run for governor

May 13, 2009 By

Berkeley Senator Larry Grooms joins U.S. Representative Gresham Barrett and Furman University political scientist Brent Nelson in a run for the 2010 GOP gubernatorial race. Grooms says he received nothing but positive feedback from his exploratory committee he formed weeks ago.

“After meeting with many interesting folks across the state, the message is coming back the same. We’re worried, and they said ‘ya know what, you should run, I’ll be with you,’” says Grooms.

Grooms says he supports Governor Sanford for his fiscal conservatism, and he wants to “set the wheels in motion” that the governor has already started rolling. He says although some may fault the governor, Grooms commends Sanford’s leadership.

“I think they are looking for a governor that will lead, someone that will get out of their comfort zone and not buckle under pressure. Governor Sanford is absolutely correct on many issues and he hasn’t buckled under pressure, and I think that’s what the folks in the state are looking for, someone who’s not going to buckle under pressure,” says Grooms.

Grooms is expected to make the announcement formal in the near future. Lt. Governor Andre Bauer and Attorney General Henry McMaster are also expected to run for governor.

Filed Under: News, Politics & Government

Lexington County Republican enters race for Lt. Governor

May 13, 2009 By

Lexington County Representative Ted Pitts has officially announced Wednesday morning that he’s running for Lieutenant Governor in 2010. Pitts joins Orangeburg attorney Bill Connor in the GOP race to replace Andre Bauer. The 37 year old lawmaker has served in the House for seven years. Pitts says as Lt. Governor he would continue to follow his philosophy of fiscal conservatism.

“We need to continue our efforts to restructure government to make it more efficient and more accountable. We need to implement spending limitation that limits the amount of new revenue that state government can spend in any given year. There is no doubt that we’re in different times as a country and as a state and now more than ever leadership to not only move our state forward, but also keep us from following the federal government in the wrong direction is needed.”

Pitts says government cannot continue to mortgage our children’s future by borrowing and overspending. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Politics & Government

EPA analysis takes seven years for public access

May 13, 2009 By

The Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) and Earthjustice recently released analysis of a risk assessment performed by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2002 showing high cancer risks for people living near coal waste storage sites in South Carolina. The EIP has been seeking access to the study through the Freedom of Information Act but was unsuccessful. Ben Moore of The Coastal Conservation League says the Bush Administration would not release this information to the public and, only now, under the Obama Administration has it been made available. Moore says South Carolina was well documented in the analysis.

“These coal waste sites dramatically increase the risk of these kinds of illnesses for folks that live near by coal waste sites or are drinking the water,” said Moore.

“More specifically to South Carolina what was found was that this risk analysis examined seven sites in South Carolina and that South Carolina had more sites than the average state in the risk analysis.”

This information has become relative to the state because Santee Cooper is proposing two new coal ash ponds and a coal waste landfill in Florence County. According to Moore, “We have the EPA warning people about the risks of cancer and other illnesses from living near these things and, at the same time the EPA and other are showing signs that thy are going to more strongly limit or regulate these waste facilities, we’ve got a utility that wants to add to the problem and build coal ash ponds and landfills based on technologies and safeguards that this risk analysis suggests are not adequate.”

In a statement, the Environmental Protection Agency says it is “quickly moving forward to develop regulations to address the management of coal combustion residuals. The EPA anticipates having a proposed rule ready for public comment by the end of the year.”

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation, News, Politics & Government

The Gullah/Geechee people look to preserve their culture

May 13, 2009 By

In 2006, Congress established a Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor that stretches from Wilmington, NC to Jacksonville, FL encompassing 12,000 square miles that includes the entire coast of South Carolina. With a history that spans over three centuries in the state, the Gullah/Geechee people look to preserve their culture along the corridor. There is a meeting tomorrow night from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Bethel AME Church in Georgetown, which was established by First Lady Michelle Obama’s grandparents, and the public is encouraged to attend and be heard. Michael Allen with the National Park Service and Coordinator for the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor says that public involvement is essential.

“When you have public engagement meetings , that’s usually the central place and time that you are able to capture the voices of the people who have a concern,” said Allen. “What I have shared with people, if people have thoughts, desires, beliefs, feelings, about preservation, protections, sustainability…It’s incumbent upon them to find their ways to one of these public engagement meetings and to talk about it. It becomes a part of the public dialogue. It becomes part of the record.”

Allen says the culture spawned from the Africans enslaved in South Carolina because of their knowledge to grow rice.   “So out of that transformation of Africans from West Africa to Colonial South Carolina grew what we call the Gullah and Geechee history which, simply put; is a lifeway, is a culture, is a language, it’s food ways, it’s burial practices, it’s wedding practices. It’s living practices that became a part of the landscape because of the majority of the people of African descent that lived in coastal, historic South Carolina,” according to Allen.

He says the purpose of the Heritage Corridor is to educate the public on the impact the Gullah/Geechee people have had on the history of the state and the nation.

“The work that we do is to, one, make people of aware of what you just asked,” he said. “Many people may see Gullah and Geechee written in a book or a magazine, see a billboard or a commercial but do not understand the genesis of Gullah and Geechee and the impact that Gullah/Geechee folk have in the development of our state, of our region, and of our nation.”

The purpose of the meeting is to help in the development of the management plan of the corridor for the next ten years.

Filed Under: Human Interest, News, Politics & Government
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