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Mt. Pleasant shooting leaves one dead, two injured (Audio)

March 12, 2010 By

Three nearby schools were on lockdown yesterday in a usually quiet bedroom community near Charleston.  Thursday afternoon Mt. Pleasant Police Captain Stan Gragg says they received a call reporting gun shots heard in the area of a Mt. Pleasant apartment complex going toward Sullivans Island. Three victims were involved in the shooting. One person is dead and two are injured.

“The continued investigation revealed the third victim in condo 1511 and he was in fact deceased. The female had suffered a gun shot wound also and she was transported to MUSC and the other Hispanic male victim was sustained injuries in reference to an assault and he was transported to East Cooper where he was treated and released,” says Gragg. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Accidents & Disasters, Crime & Courts, News

First black woman elected to SC Statehouse to be laid to rest (Audio)

March 12, 2010 By

Funeral services will be held in Rock Hill today for Juanita Goggins, the first black woman elected to the South Carolina Legislature, in 1974.

The 75-year-old froze to death living alone in a rented house just a few miles from the Statehouse where she made history. Her body wasn’t found for a week after her death and authorities believe she had dementia.

Orangeburg Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter, former House Minority Leader and a leading voice in the House Black Caucus since she began serving in the House in 1992, says Goggins helped with essential legislation that boosted public education and kindergarten programs.  Cobb-Hunter says the challenges are great enough for herself, and the two other black women who currently serve in the Statehouse, but she says when Goggins arrived in the Statehouse in 1974, it was a very different time politically, and the racial understanding present today was not present. Cobb-Hunter says the state of South Carolina owes Goggins a debt for her sacrifice that began 36 years ago.

(Cobb-Hunter on Rep. Goggins  MP3  4:47)
Cobb-Hunter on Rep Coggins

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Legislature, News, Politics & Government

Committee On Aging says it will protect home care (Audio) (UPDATED FRI.)

March 12, 2010 By

The Joint Legislative Committee On Aging voted unanimously Thursday to protect a program that supplies food and home care for more than 5,000 home-bound elderly South Carolinians.

Horry County Senator Yancey McGill says the Committee wants the Community-Based Care program budget to remain at $2.9 million, even though the House budget proposal has cut it almost in half, to $1.6 million.

Senator McGill says last year Lt. Governor André Bauer, who is over the Office on Aging, fought against similar reductions and won, and he believes the same can make a difference this year, when lawmakers are energized to stand behind the elderly.  McGill says committee members will plead with budget leaders in the House and Senate to restore the funding.  McGill says the program is a really good investment because it allows seniors to live independently and not have to leave their home for institutionalized care.  Bauer’s office said that nursing home beds are $40,000 a year.

(McGill on elderly funding MP3 1:57)
McGill on elderly funding

 

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, Legislature, News, Politics & Government

SC Senate debates tax breaks for retail (Audio)

March 12, 2010 By

Sen. Pinckney in Q & A with Sen. Leatherman

Debate in the Senate this week centered around a new shopping center. Jasper County wants to offer state tax breaks for the Sembler Company to build a retail mall. Read bill

Jasper Senator Clementa Pinckney’s argument: what’s good for Boeing and other manufacturing companies is good for large scale commercial development. His area needs the jobs, he says, even if they are entry-level jobs.
(Sen.Pinkney on Sembler incentives MP3 1:25)
Senator Pinckney on Sembler incentives MP3 1:25

Sen. Davis had charts of his own to argue that incentives for Sembler have no return on investment

The larger issue, whether retail development should get large scale tax breaks — and what kind of retail stores should qualify. Finance Committee chair Hugh Leatherman of Florence says, “Should we look at only giving incentives for the high-end [retailers] which will attract people and not give incentives, and I tell you I am opposed to giving incentives to run-of-the-mill retail? If we open that door, Senator, then there’s not enough money in the state treasury to fill that gap.”

Senator Tom Davis of nearby Beaufort County opposes tax breaks for the Sembler retail mall development.

(Sen. Davis on return on investment MP3 2:23)
Senator Davis on return on tax investment MP3 2:23 [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business, Legislature, News, Taxes
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