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Occupy Columbia spokesman to run for SC Legislature

March 31, 2012 by

A man who has been a key figure in the Occupy Columbia movement is planning to run for a seat in the state House of Representatives. Walid Hakim wants to challenge incumbent Republican Mac Toole in House District 88, which represents West Columbia.

Rep. Toole has been in the House since 2003.

Hakim speaks to media after federal court case against Gov. Haley

Hakim has been a vocal member of the Occupy Columbia movement since the protests began October 15.

He was one of 19 protesters who were arrested in November after Gov. Nikki Haley placed a curfew on the demonstrations.

After a legal challenge Occupy members were allowed to return to the Statehouse grounds until temporary regulations banning camping were implemented. Hakim and a handful of other protesters briefly resumed their 24-hour demonstrations March 21…after those regulations expired.

Lawmakers have since passed a law permanently banning camping at the Statehouse.

Hakim is also a veteran of the U. S. Marine Corps.

Filed Under: Legislature, News, Politics & Government

U.S. Education Secretary visits SC Lowcountry schools

March 30, 2012 by

Scott’s Branch High School in Clarendon County has come a long way since it was the catalyst for what became the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board of Education decision which ended public school segregation in America.

The school is located in the I-95 region of South Carolina that has been dubbed “the Corridor of Shame” for its schools that still suffer disrepair and less funding because of a depressed tax base.  Now, area advocates and federal leaders want it to become a “corridor of innovation” and hope the federal education department’s $2.9 million grant will make that happen.

The school has now been rebuilt. With this money and outside expertise, local educators want to reinvent it as well.

Today Secretary of Education Arne Duncan visited the Summerton school for the first time to see its progress. He was accompanied by Congressman James Clyburn and former U.S. Education Secretary Richard Riley.

KnowledgeWorks and The Riley Institute are working with local educators and leaders to support the creation of a New Tech High School model they hope can be sustained and replicated  in high-poverty rural areas. Then the schools will be added to the New Tech Network for the 2013-14 school year.

Duncan also visited with educators at North Charleston’s James Simons Elementary School, where he discussed the need for parental involvement.

In the late afternoon, Duncan and Clyburn are hosting a college affordability town hall with students and community leaders at Allen University in Columbia. Duncan will discuss the Obama Administration’s initiatives to keep college within reach for middle-class families.

Filed Under: Education, News, Politics & Government

New nuclear reactors approved in SC for first time in 30 years.

March 30, 2012 by

Federal regulators have approved a plan to build two nuclear reactors in South Carolina– the first new reactors in over 25 years. South Carolina Electric & Gas had requested approval for the reactors at its V.C. Summer Facility in Jenkinsville, about 25 miles outside of Columbia.

Construction has been underway at the V.C. Summer site since 2009 (File)

The 4-1 vote by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to approve a Combined Construction and Operating License (COL)means SCE&G and its holding company SCANA can now finish construction at the site. Work has already been underway since 2009, but crews have not yet begun building the actual reactors.

“It’s been a long, long process,” said SCANA CEO Kevin Marsh.

The COLs are meant to streamline the process, with a utility only needing one permit, rather than separate ones to build and operate the reactor– as was previously the case before the late 2000s.

Officials say the first reactor at Summer will go online in March 2017 and both should be running by 2019.

It is only the second time the NRC has approved a nuclear project in the past 30 years. Earlier this year, Atlanta-based Southern Company was allowed to build two reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta, Georgia. No nuclear reactor has gone online in South Carolina since Duke Energy installed a second reactor at Catawba Nuclear Station in 1986.

SCE&G will have a 55 percent ownership stake in the Summer facility, with state-owned utility Santee-Cooper owning the remaining 45 percent. However, Santee-Cooper has been in negotiations with smaller companies to purchase a portion of their share.

Filed Under: Business, Energy, Featured, News

SC unemployment rate falls for seventh straight month

March 30, 2012 by

South Carolina’s unemployment rate continues to decline.

February marked the seventh consecutive month that the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped.

The jobless rate fell to 9.1 percent, down from 9.3 percent the previous month.

According to the state Department of Employment and Workforce, nearly 10,000 more people were employed in South Carolina in February.

That’s the third largest month-to-month gain in employment since 1976.

The national unemployment rate remained flat in February at 8.3 percent.

Filed Under: Business, Economy, News

Bill blocks unemployment benefits to people fired for misconduct

March 30, 2012 by

The state Senate has passed a bill to restrict some unemployed people from getting state-issued jobless benefits.

Anderson's Kevin Bryant, bill sponsor

The proposed law says anyone fired for misconduct will not be able to collect the 20 available weeks of state unemployment benefits.

The bill defines how to deal with these types of claims, making it more consistent with federal law, according to Senate sponsors.  The bill says there must be clear misconduct which shows intentional disregard or wrongful intent toward the interests of the employer.

Right now, these employees would still qualify for payouts though they may have lost their jobs for good reason.

Yet in SC, where employees can be fired at will,  this proposed measure also protects unemployment benefits for someone fired for “mere inefficiency, unsatisfactory conduct, failure in good performance as the result of inability or incapacity, inadvertencies, or ordinary negligence in isolated instances, or good-faith errors in judgment or discretion are not misconduct for the purposes of this item.”

Upstate Senators Lee Bright, Kevin Bryant, and others say that this is a move that could save the unemployment system $50 million per year.

Filed Under: Business, Legislature, News
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