South Carolina News and Sports
Newberry authorities have approved a march and rally permit for the New Black Panthers for Saturday. A planned march will end at the courthouse. A meeting will be held afterwards for local residents.
The organization has criticized authorities like Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster who did not immediately consider the Anthony Hill murder case as a racially-motivated hate crime. Reports say Hill was shot and then dragged for miles behind a truck driven by by Gregory Collins.
Several isolated but severe thunderstorms caused widespread damage in South Carolina over the past week. Portions of Lee and Sumter counties were among those areas that felt the impact during storms the first part of the week. The Sumter Fire Department responded to five homes reportedly struck by lighting on Monday. Captain Brian Horton with the Sumter County Fire Department said they were able to save the houses, but that they did experience a large amount of damage.
The Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) reports that property losses related to lightning strikes exceed $1 billion annually, according to insurance industry data. Losses can range from damage to expensive electronic equipment, to fires that destroy entire house or business.
For lightning protection, a whole-house or building surge protector is the best starting point for reducing the risk of damage. Horton agrees with the importance of being prepared for lightning strikes.
The only thing they can do is try to have their TV’s and equipment on surge protectors, and their cable lines, feed and computers and other stuff on line. That’s the best thing you can do is to make sure they’re on surge protectors and try to protect it.
As towns like Summerville try and set a precedent for the rest of the state on how to track down illegal immigrants, the Latino Association is calling it racial profiling. This week the Town of Summerville held two council meetings, discussing a proposal by councilman Walter Bailey that he claims would be one step closer to tracking down illegal immigration.
It would prohibit illegal aliens, people in the country illegally, from being employed or renting a house or apartment. The idea is that if they’ve got no place to work and no place to live, they’ve got no reason to be here and they can go somewhere else.
Diana Salazar with the South Carolina Latino Coalition says it only adds racial profiling to the area. She spoke with WCIV in Charleston and says some people are prejudice and use that to their advantage.
These are just normal people, and maybe one rotten apple might be involved. But, we have rotten apples too in our cultures, in our societies. So, don’t punish just one.
Dorchester County has had an immigration reform law on the books for three years, and according to members of town council, it seems to be working. Dorchester County does not have to enforce the law as much because there have not been any recent complaints in the area.
The Summerville Town Council will have another reading on Bailey’s proposal.
South Carolina’s U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Alvin Greene said he wanted to boost the state’s economy by creating action figures of himself. With that in mind, the Charleston Riverdogs minor league baseball team put Greene’s wish into action. They took about 1,000 gold miniature male Statue of Liberty’s and posted a printout of Greene’s face on them.
Riverdogs General Manager Dave Echols says the bobblehead doesn’t mean they are endorsing Greene’s candidacy: “We’re certainly not supporting him. It’s just current events, it’s right there in front us, it’s a pretty unique statement, a unique candidacy that we thought we would poke some fun at,” says Echols.
Greene spoke to WCIV after seeing the statue: “They could have done a better job than that. They could have just made a real characterture. A real figurine instead of something tacky like that,” says Greene.
The Riverdogs are a class A affiliate for the New York Yankees. They are known for their wacky promotions.
The I-385 construction project in the Upstate between Gray Court in Laurens County and I-26 is nearing completion. The work to rebuild the 15 mile stretch of highway is weeks ahead of schedule. South Carolina Department of Transportation Chairman Buck Limehouse says that work on the highway, which serves as a main link from Greenville to Columbia and Charleston, is expected to be completed as early as July 23. Limehouse praised the construction crews for their work on the project that improves the safety of the highway.
“We’ve raised all the bridges because it was an old design and a lot of the bridges were getting hit. Also the travel lanes are wider, the shoulders are improved so I expect immediate results as far as the safety issues of that highway is concerned.”
The crews replaced asphalt with high-strength concrete.
