One of the more colorful races in the South Carolina House is District 69 in Lexington County, which involves five candidates including Rick Quinn.
Four vie for Haley’s seat in GOP primary (AUDIO)
May 31, 2010 By
Nikki Haley is leaving her Lexington County District 87 seat in the South Carolina House as she runs for governor. Four people are running for that seat in the June 8 Republican primary.
SLED releases details, photo in Attorney General threat case
May 28, 2010 By
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) confirms that it is investigating a death threat made against South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster.
SLED reports that on May 18, 2010 at approximately 10:56 a.m., a person placed a threatening note in the deposit drop box of Heritage Trust Federal Credit Union located on Dorchester Road in North Charleston. The note contained a reference to “Jesuits.”
SLED is now looking for the only unidentified person from bank security camera photos, asking anyone who has information regarding any individual who has made any direct or implied threat regarding Attorney General McMaster, or any other SC official, or who can identify the person in the photographs, to contact the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division at 803 896-7133.
Officials say they have made the decision to take appropriate measures regarding the safety of the Attorney General.
Clemson receives NRC grant to develop nuclear engineering faculty
May 28, 2010 By
Clemson recently received a grant from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to develop the careers of junior faculty. The three-year, $400,000 grant has been received by Clemson University’s environmental engineering and Earth sciences department to help recruit and retain younger faculty in nuclear science. The grant was given by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to boost nuclear education and expand the work force in nuclear safety and nuclear-related disciplines.
The timing of the grant is particularly important to South Carolina where nuclear energy is growing. A $4 billion facility at the Savannah River Site is scheduled to be completed by 2014, and the NRC recently granted a license extension of 20 years to the commercial nuclear reactors in and around South Carolina.
The NRC grant is devoted to developing the careers of junior faculty who are in the first six years of tenure-track jobs in nuclear environmental engineering and science.
Emergency Management plans hurricane, terrorist simulation
May 28, 2010 By
Reported by Marissa Manning, SCRN
The state’s Emergency Management Division will gear up for this year’s hurricane season by having a week-long simulation starting on June 14.
SC Emergency Operations Center
Joe Farmer, EMD spokesman says factors such as the size of the storm and the number of people living on the coast are what can determine a hurricane evacuation: “We have a very good estimate from the department of transportation and the highway patrol in regard in how many people can be evacuated given the highway infrastructure for the area under consideration and the amount of time it will take.”
The time of day is also a big factor the evacuation decision. Farmer says,” We like to do evacuation during the hours of daylight, so they try to timeline all that out so major evacuations occur when people can see without having head lights on their cars going, it lessens the possibility of having a lot of accidents during the evacuation”
Emergency Management officials also plan to include a terrorist attack scenario in this year’s simulation. Spokesman Derrec Becker says the first part of the week will focus on a hurricane event and they will transition to a hypothetical terrorist attack in the Upstate.
That will enable us to test the entire state of South Carolina and all of the counties. Anderson County will have an Army Reserve unit that will be drilling that weekend and testing their ability to respond. I think it’s a chemical response team and so we are going to be looking at a terrorist attack and a hurricane at the same time.
Becker explains that the state is vulnerable after a natural disaster and EMD needs to be prepared for terrorists who might exploit that.
