Two popular citizens of House District 80 in Richland County square off in the Democratic Primary.
Funding cuts for AIDS meds affects wide range of citizens (AUDIO)
May 25, 2010 By
Lorinda, an adoptive child living with AIDS, dances into the picture at the bill signing
A bill signing on Statehouse grounds today was well attended by children. Foster and adoptive parents turned out to thank legislators and Gov. Mark Sanford for seeing through a bill to speed the placement of children into adoptive homes.The governor in his speech said, “Quality of life in South Carolina starts here.”
There’s more to do in that area, according to prospective parents who want to foster or adopt from the DSS or nationwide list of children who suffer from HIV or AIDS.
Joy Cameron,an adoptive parent, today celebrated the signing, then went to an adjacent rally on Statehouse grounds to bring back AIDS medication (ADAP) funding the House cut from the state budget. Her adopted child, Lorinda, has full-blown AIDS.
What dollar price do you put on that face? My daughter’s life depends on the funding. It’s like I told my parents, my roots are here but I’m going to have to move to a different state to keep my daughter alive.
Dr. Bambi Gaddist, Exec. Dir. of SC HIV/AIDS Council
Cameron says that monthly costs for AIDs drugs are in the thousands of dollars and the medications will increase as her daughter gets older.
Jonell Allen is a case manager in Beaufort for HIV-AIDS clients, who she says are mostly middle-aged African Americans who have no access to affordable health care and insurance. She talked about what she is dealing with.
Unemployment a key issue in District 62 (AUDIO)
May 25, 2010 By
The need for more employment opportunities is the important issue driving the District 62 race.
Shelter Haiti needs volunteers
May 25, 2010 By
An 8-foot by 12-foot shelter with two bunk beds will go a long way in Haiti. “There’s over a million people living outside under sheets and little makeshift tents, and they are right there on the ground. As the rainy season comes through the summer and through the fall these people will actually be in mud all the time. These shelters we’re building are four inches off the ground,” says Shelter Haiti organizer Ed Jackson.
Jackson is a volunteer and organizer for the project, known as Shelter Haiti, that provides these finished homes to the victims of the earthquake that devastated Haiti. Jackson says they could use some help.
“What all of us are needing now is volunteers. We had just gotten clear to ship our first 175 homes from the east coast. Some from Virginia and some from Myrtle Beach are going to be shipped on June 5 out of Georgetown. They’ve already shipped the first 100 out of Houston,” says Jackson.
To help meet the June 5 deadline, Jackson says they are in dire need of these volunteers to assist in the building of the shelters. Each shelter rooms between eight to 12 people.
Jackson says the first goal is to get approximately 1,000 homes down to Haiti, and build from there.
SPA cruise plan will eliminate heavy traffic
May 25, 2010 By
A new plan to ease the traffic flow around the new cruise terminal in the City of Charleston is in effect. In February, the South Carolina State Ports Authority made a routing plan for the traffic influx the new cruise terminal would bring in. The plan begins with signs from I-26 in Charleston to passenger parking. Byron Miller with the Ports Authority told WCIV the plan is better for the city’s streets.
“We have learned a lot with this traffic plan and the new terminal location will serve traffic even better, it will take those cars off the street even sooner and eliminate the need for the shuttling we do now,” says Miller.
Local business owners say the plan is working for them. In two years, a new terminal is expected to open on the north side of the port property. The South Carolina Department of Transportation, the State Ports Authority and the City of Charleston Police Department worked on the plan together.
