A critical scrutiny of the State Employment Security Commission and the services they provide began Tuesday morning with a meeting of a House Ways and Means subcommittee chaired by Lexington County Representative Kenny Bingham. Testifying before the subcommittee was Dr. Rebecca Gunnlaugson, Director of Research for the South Carolina Department of Commerce. Gunnlaugson says in order for the state to better serve its unemployed, it must first get a clear focus on who the unemployed are and that is not easy because of many factors including population growth and rapid technological change in business and industry. Gunnlaugson says a clear snap shot of the unemployed cannot be obtained from the data that indicates that the state is experiencing a 12 percent unemployment rate. [Read more...]
Lowcountry swamped by heavy rains, tornado watches
Bad weather struck the state Wednesday, flooding parts of the coast. Downtown Charleston remained underwater for most of the day after heavy rains pounded the coast, but crews worked throughout Wednesday evening to clear some of the water and debris from the rain.
A tornado watch was issued for 22 of the 46 counties in South Carolina on Wednesday. The watch for eight of those counties remained until 4 a.m. Thursday morning. A high surf advisory was also in effect through Thursday morning and later released. The National Weather Service says the storms will bring in a cold front to the state. Yesterday’s storms have moved out of the area, and the sun is back to shining.
USC economic forecast predicts some recovery for SC
South Carolina can expect -some- job and income growth next year, according the annual economic forecast by University of South Carolina economists. Dr. Doug Woodward with the Moore Business School’s Division of Research addressed business and government leaders Wednesday at the school from all over the state and region.
“No doubt, 2009 was the worst year for the economy that most of us have seen in our lifetime,” said Woodward. “The good news is 2010 can only get better and it will get better. We’re looking for moderate job growth, just above zero percent, but we had negative growth in 2009, as was the case with the rest of the country.”
But Woodward says the 0.2 percent rise in job growth won?t be high enough to make a dent in the state?s historically high unemployment rate. Personal income is expected to reverse course and climb by 3.3 percent in 2010, up from minus 1.4 percent this year.
The keynote speaker for Wednesday’s event was Sonoco Products President and CEO Harris Deloach, Jr. Woodward says Sonoco is one of those South Carolina companies that’s correctly poised in difficult times, diversified across product lines and markets, with a presence in Brazil and China. [Read more...]
Supreme Court clarifies: Make Sanford documents public
The South Carolina Supreme Court has reiterated its ruling that supporting documents are to be made public in the State Ethics Commission investigation of the governor’s travel. The court agrees with the SC House that because Sanford waived his right to privacy, the public can now see all of the support materials made available to him.
The court released its opinion late Wednesday:
This Court’s opinion of November 5, 2009, unambiguously supports the Speaker’s position.1 We therefore order the Commission to immediately make public all documents provided to the Governor during the course of its investigation in the underlying matter.
House Speaker Bobby Harrell sought clarification from the state’s highest court after it ruled that the governor had authorized the release of documents in the ethics investigation. The justices were definitive in this. Harrell spoke to SCRN’s Ashley Byrd late Wednesday.
(House Speaker Bobby Harrell interview 4:40 MP3)
Interview with House Speaker Harrell
Pre-impeachment proceedings continue Thursday, December 3 for a State House subcommittee. The seven-member panel is using the Ethics Commission’s 1300-page report to determine if Gov. Mark Sanford’s personal use of state planes and campaign contributions warrant impeachment. Sanford’s attorney’s assert that none of the ethics charges amount to an impeachable offense.
