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SC Chamber puts Washington lawmakers on hot seat (Audio)

April 7, 2010 By

The state’s business leaders each year have a rare opportunity to grill the SC Congressional Delegation. This year’s SC Chamber of Commerce Washington Night panel faced questions about the impact of the new health care law. As expected, their views differed. Even without firebrand Lindsey Graham and stalwart Republicans Henry Brown and Gresham Barrett, there were plenty of sparks.

Congressmen Jim Clyburn and Joe Wilson, when asked if they had read the bill, demonstrated the post-passage frustration that remains on both sides.

(Clyburn and Wilson on reading the health care bill MP3)
Clyburn and Wilson on reading the health care bill MP3

At the State Chamber event, the congressional delegation took questions from the audience of more than 400 business participants. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business, News, Politics & Government

Columbia mayor’s race to be decided in April 20 runoff

April 7, 2010 By

by David Waterman, WVOC in Columbia

Columbia residents have to make a second trip to the voting booth before they’ll know who will be their first new mayor in 20 years. With seven candidates vying for the office, it was almost expected no one would get more than 50 percent of the vote.

Sure enough, that’s what happened.

So the top two vote-getters are in a runoff election April 2o – lawyer and lobbyist Steve Benjamin and current city councilman Kirkman Finlay III.

It gives the 40-year-old Benjamin another shot at becoming Columbia’s first black mayor, and the 40-year-old Finlay gets a second chance to follow in the footsteps of his father, Kirkman Finlay Jr., who was Columbia’s mayor from 1978 to ’86.

The current mayor, 56-year-old Bob Coble, decided not to seek a sixth term so he could spend more time with his family and concentrate on his law practice.

Filed Under: News, Politics & Government

State budget cuts would be felt in school administration (Audio)

April 7, 2010 By

Until South Carolina lawmakers finalize a budget plan, state agencies are bracing for drastic cuts. One measure of just how drastic they might be is the House proposal, approved in March.

The Department of Education budget is divided into two distinct sections: Administration and local districts. Department spokesman Jim Foster says only two percent of the education budget is used in administration and the rest goes to local districts. But while local districts are expecting a cumulative cut of 25 percent over the last two years, according to the House proposal, the administration is expecting a cumulative 45 percent cut.

Foster says there is no doubt that the effects of the budget will be felt in the classrooms.

(Foster on cuts  MP3  1:09)
Foster on cuts

Foster says the Education Department has already lost 110 positions out of administration and if the House budget proposal becomes law, 150 additional positions would be cut.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Education, News

Forestry Commission: The color of money is yellow (Audio)

April 7, 2010 By

It has increased business for car wash operations exponentially, and given allergy sufferers a nightmare. Pollen is everywhere. You may even see large yellow clouds blowing down the road.

But Scott Hawkins, spokesman for the South Carolina Forestry Commission, says that yellow is the color of money for the state.

Hawkins says forestry and timber-related businesses constitute the number one manufacturing industry in the state in terms of jobs and payroll– with a $17.45 billion impact on the state’s economy.

But if you’re not as excited about the reproduction of trees as Hawkins is, he points out that the pollen should be gone statewide by the end of the month.

(Hawkins on pollen  MP3  2:200
Hawkins on pollen

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Agriculture, Economy, Human Interest, News

Brothers convicted in Mendoza drug operation in Richland County

April 7, 2010 By

Two brothers have been convicted for their role in their father’s drug organization in Richland County.   Twenty-year-old Martin Mendez of Smyrna, Georgia and 32-year-old Elver Diaz-Vega of Atlanta were convicted by a federal jury in Columbia for conspiracy to distribute kilograms of cocaine and crack in South Carolina.

The two also were convicted on weapons charges. The men will be sentenced later this summer. They face minimum sentences of 20 years, and up to life in prison.

They are sons of Juan Mendoza, who was sentenced last year to 30 years imprisonment for leading the drug trafficking organization, which bought and sold more than 100 kilograms of cocaine since 2002. More than 20 firearms were seized from the operation and $600,000 in cash.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, News
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