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Legislature adjourns…for now

May 21, 2009 By

The South Carolina adjourned at 8:30 Thursday evening, but plans to join the House in coming back the week of June 16th to deal with remaining issues, says President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell. Listen to Senate leaders’ parting shots

McConnell says legislative leadership is still trying to determine how they should respond to Governor Mark Sanford’s federal lawsuit against the state, and why Sanford named Attorney General Henry McMaster as the defendant.

Lexington’s Jake Knotts says that he finds it ironic that the very issue that divided the Senate over the past few days was the idea of preserving a state’s rights to stand against federal government intervention [10 Amendment State Sovereignty bill- sponsored by Spartanburg's Lee Bright].

Now, says Knotts, “The governor  is trying to get the federal government to do what he’s been asking them not to do—to intervene on a state issue.”

“Doesn’t it all seem ironic?” says Knotts.

Filed Under: Legislature, News, Politics & Government

Stimulus/budget battle back to federal level

May 21, 2009 By

The war between two of the state’s branches of government over whether to take or not take federal stimulus funds has reached a new level, a federal level. In a suit filed in federal district court, the Governor Mark Sanford argues that the General Assembly’s attempt to legislate its way around policy decisions made by the Executive Branch sets a dangerous precedent for future South Carolina governors and governors across the country.

“What you’re really talking about is arbitrarily allowing a state legislative body to change federal law,” said Sanford. “I think that that has a real consequence for 49 other governors in the United States of America if for political reasons–blue states, red states, all the states that you can draw–where you could have a legislative body come in and arbitrarily change the law that a governor would be administering…maybe of a different party (and) maybe for political reasons. There are a lot of bad scenarios that could be drawn in that instance.”

He says that begs a greater question, “Why have a governor?’. Within the federal code itself, there are four requirements basically in terms of assurances or accountability by which you draw down these funds. What the provision said last night was, ‘no, none of that matters. You just except the money, period.’ ”

Read Sanford’s lawsuit vs. State

Filed Under: Economy, News, Politics & Government

SCHP urges drivers to be safe this weekend

May 21, 2009 By

With the Memorial Day weekend getting started for people all across the United States, the South Carolina Highway Patrol is stepping up their efforts to keep people safe. Highway Patrol Lance Corporal Jeff Gaskin looks back on Memorial Weekend 2008.

“We had 879 accidents just over the weekend last over Memorial Day,” said Gaskin. “We had 11 mortalities. So that gives you any clue how dangerous a time this is just over one weekend. When you start looking at Memorial Day as a whole just last year during Memorial Day weekend, those 11 mortalities, 2 were motorcycles, so that means nine actually had access to a seat belt–not counting the motorcycles–and of those nine victims, only one was actually wearing a seat belt.”

The 100 Deadly Days of Summer starts this weekend in the Palmetto State. The campaign is designed by the Highway Patrol to try and protect the citizens and guest of the Palmetto State during the peak driving season. Gaskin talks about the numbers from the 100 Deadly Days of Summer in 2008.

“241 people were killed from Memorial Day to Labor Day last year,” he said. “Over two people a day dying on our highways and, in South Carolina. over half of our mortalities are alcohol related.”

Gaskin says how they decide where they will beef up their patrol. According to Gaskin, “We use a lot stats to determine where the collisions are occurring. We try to be proactive but also they go where the traffic is going to go. Most of these troopers are working close with other law enforcement agencies, they are very seasoned, they know where the hot spots are at. (they know)

where people are going to be doing the most drinking at. They know the roads that lead to and from (those places).

“It’s important that we patrol those areas.”

The 100 days runs till the Labor Day Holiday.
Special thanks to Bobby Rosinski of affiliate AM 1340 WRHI/FM 94.3, Rock Hill.

Filed Under: Accidents & Disasters, News

McMaster not worried about Craigslist lawsuit

May 21, 2009 By

Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster is going on the offensive by filing a lawsuit in federal court in Charleston against South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster in an attempt to stop McMaster from threatening to prosecute executives of the internet site on prostitution or obscenity charges.   McMaster says several ads appearing in the erotic section of the South Carolina portion of the website are blatant advertisements from prostitutes. McMaster called the lawsuit good news because it shows that Craigslist is taking the matter seriously for the first time.

“He doesn’t want to get prosecuted and we’ve told him as long as you obey the laws just like everybody else you want get prosecuted,” says McMaster.

Craigslist contends that under the federal 1996 Communications Decency Act, the company cannot be be held liable for content posted by users of the site, even if the ads are illegal.

McMaster says on November 2008,  Craigslist entered in an agreement with 40 state attorneys general including him stating that they would clean up the ads on its website. McMaster says after pressing the issue, officials with Craigslist on May 12th, promised to clean up the ads on its sites here in South Carolina.

“I told them we appreciate that promise but we’ve had promises before and so we were proceeding on and we would have an open investigation on it. As of this past Tuesday night at midnight all the ads were gone.”

The suit also names the state’s 16 solicitors as defendants.

McMaster says he wanted to make it clear to Craigslist that they needed to follow up on the agreement they struck with him and other attorneys general back in November. They had hundreds if not thousands of them (ads) on in South Carolina and the rest of the country. 40 Attorneys general back in November of ’08 told them to take those things off and they didn’t do it so I told them again in May that they are still on in South Carolina. Get’em off!

The website shut down its “erotic services” section nationwide Tuesday and replaced it with an “adult services” section.

McMaster says it was clear that the website was being used by prostitutes in South Carolina and in other states. McMaster says a number of prostitutes were using the website as their traveling billboard. “There are some that follow the NASCAR races that were arrested just last week in Rock hill across from Carowinds. They said that yes we follow the NASCAR races and when the races move to another town we move to that town and we change our ad on Craigslist because it’s done by state, by regions, and even by towns.”

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, News

S.C. highways in for busy weekend

May 21, 2009 By

AAA Carolinas is projecting that 369-thousand motorists in South Carolina are expected to take to the highways headed for a little “R and R” this Memorial Day Weekend. AAA Carolinas spokesman Tom Crosby says the number of projected holiday travelers represents a five percent increase from the 2008 Memorial day Weekend. Crosby says motorists will notice a slight increase in the price of gasoline.”Unfortunately the price has gone up more than 25 cents a gallon in the past month. That’s still pretty good compared to last year, the price is anywhere from a $1.40 to a $1.50 a gallon less. The fact that it has risen in anticipation of the Memorial Day holiday means it’s going to cost a little more to travel this weekend.”

Crosby says the highest price for unleaded regular gasoline can be found in Myrtle Beach at $2.21 a gallon. Crosby says the lowest price gas is in Spartanburg at $2.13 a gallon.

Crosby says the good news for drivers across the state is that gasoline prices should not increase appreciably  over the next several weeks after this holiday weekend. “Generally speaking they either stabilize or go down a little bit after the Memorial day weekend unless there are some sort of other conditions driving them up. But as far as demand and travel, there is a little lull between Memorial day and July Fourth.”

Friday marks the start of what the South Carolina Highway Patrol calls “The One Hundred Deadly Days of Summer.” Highway Patrol Lance Corporal Paul Brouthers says there is a clear reason for the name.”Last year we had 241 people killed in South Carolina during that span of time. It’s the likeliest time for an increase in fatalities.”

Filed Under: News, Recreation & Entertainment, Transportation
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