The developers of a proposed casino and resort in Jasper County say it would create 4,700 jobs statewide and draw millions of visitors a year. 

The casino near Hardeeville would be operated by the Cherokee Indian Tribe.

The Island Packet reports the developers say construction on the project could begin within two years.

They say the casino would attract 4.3 million visitors and bring $92 million annually into the Jasper County economy.

Consultant Bob McAlister says the developers aren’t seeking any tax incentives.

He says he doesn’t know of any other project in the state where so many jobs would be created without asking for any money.

However, the casino needs state approval to be built.

Governor Nikki Haley has said she is opposed to the project. Her spokesman says there are better ways to create jobs.

The state Board of Education has approved a plan to adopt new math and reading tests for the 2014-15 school year.

The Board of Education voted 10-3 Wednesday to adopt tests being developed by the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium.

The consortium is a collection of educators, researchers, policymakers and community groups from across the county.

The Charleston Post and Courier reports the new math and reading exams could replace the Palmetto Assessment of State Standards test, which serves as an exit exam for high school students.

The move is intended to bring South Carolina in line with new requirements for what students must learn in math and reading every year.

Students would still be required to take existing tests for science and social studies.

The new tests must be approved by the General Assembly.

Cocky’s Super Ad Poll ranks the commercials based on likeability, persuasiveness and brand identification.

USC Professor Bonnie Drewniany teaches a class of 100 students devoted to Super Bowl advertising.

“The Super Bowl is really such a part of our popular culture and in the course we actually look at the evolution of the ads and how they reflect society,” she said.

Drewniany said the course is one of the most popular in the School of Journalism.

“I think they gain a greater appreciation of the advertising process and really understand how it really is a part of our culture.”

The winning commercial will receive the Cocky Award, which Drewniany said is well-known in the advertising industry.

“If you were to pay a surprise visit to any of these ad agencies (that won), you actually see the Cocky Award front and center.”

Drewniany said people enjoy the Super Bowl commercials because they’re the best ads of the year.

“The average person knows that they’re going to be entertained in the evening by watching the ads,” she said. “People are expecting to laugh and cry as they watch the commercials.

“They’re often new product introductions or new campaign introductions. A lot of money is put behind them to make sure that they stand out from the regular commercials.”

Interest in the commercials increased after Apple released its Orwellian themed ad for the Macintosh Computer during the 1984 Super Bowl.

“This was the first time the media treated it as a news item,” she said. “All three networks at that time in 1984 stopped what they were doing and covered the commercial because it was so different.”

The public can also vote in Cocky’s Super Ad Poll on the USC Website.

The 15-acre Army Reserve Center is expected to cost nearly $12 million.

The Orangeburg Times and Democrat reports the training center will be built on Cook Road, near Interstate 26, on the city’s northeast side.

Program Manager Dale Polston says the site will include a 34,000 square-foot training building and a 5,000 square-foot maintenance shop.

The site will provide reserve units with space to assemble, perform weapons simulations and train physically.

Polston says the new center will also feature a library and learning center.

Eight Army Reserve units will use the site. Construction could begin as early as this summer.

Woodward meets the press to discuss his research

The two highlighted some bright spots for the state. A few are:

-Charleston, the home of the largest increase in population with four-year degrees of anywhere in the country, is creating what Woodward calls a “stable creative class” that draws and keeps higher-qualified workers, especially in information technology.  Woodward calls this region the “hottest” for economic growth in the state.

-Aiken’s landing of Bridgestone tire manufacturer will offset a depletion of jobs caused by Savannah River Site’s gear-down of stimulus funded projects. That money will run out as Bridgestone gets online.

-Myrtle Beach enjoyed a good year according to employment numbers, despite the problems with second-home sales and construction. “But something’s generating jobs down there, ” says Woodward,”because they did have a strong jobs profile. I think that tourism is still a strong cluster.”

-The Palmetto State’s  job training programs work, even though the average overall education attainment of South Carolina is not, says Woodward.  Woodward says industries are going to look at Boeing and BMW success in hiring large amounts of skilled workers.

Woodward and Von Nessen’s South Carolina regions at a glance:

• In 2011 total employment growth was positive throughout most of the state (through October 2011, compared with employment activity through October 2010). The biggest gains came in Myrtle Beach (+2.6 percent), Anderson (+2.3 percent), Columbia (+1.6 percent) and Florence (+1.2 percent). Greenville (+0.9 percent), Charleston (+0.9 percent), and Spartanburg (+0.7 percent) had smaller gains and Sumter (-0.3 percent) had virtually no change in total employment over the last year.

• South Carolina total employment in retail trade was slightly down overall (-0.9 percent through October 2011, compared with October 2010), though retail sales activity varied significantly in the metropolitan areas over the first 9 months of 2011 in comparison with the first nine months of 2010. The biggest gains came from Columbia (+7 percent), Spartanburg (+4.4 percent), and Charleston (+3.2 percent). The largest declines occurred in Sumter (-14.8 percent), Greenville (-7.5 percent) and Florence (-6.8 percent). Smaller changes occurred in Anderson (+2.6 percent) and Myrtle Beach (-2.9 percent).

• Several regions of South Carolina experienced increases in residential building permit activity last year. Comparing single family building permits issued through September 2011 with permits issued through September 2010, Sumter (+20.9 percent) and Greenville (+12.3 percent) show the greatest gains, while Anderson (-12 percent) and Columbia (-10.4 percent) show the sharpest drops. Other areas of the state showed more modest changes: Myrtle Beach (+5.6 percent), Florence (-6.5 percent), Charleston (-4.4 percent) and Spartanburg (-2.7 percent).

• In October 2011 unemployment rates had only minor changes in the various metropolitan areas compared with October 2010. The biggest drops were in Greenville (-0.6 percent) and Anderson (-0.5 percent), followed by Spartanburg (-0.2 percent), Charleston (-0.1 percent) and Myrtle Beach (-0.1 percent). Sumter had no change (0.0 percent), while Florence (+0.2 percent) and Columbia (+0.1 percent) had small gains.

Now researchers led by Ralph Nichols of the Savannah River National Laboratory have a $700,000 Department of Energy grant to measure and predict the forces on offshore wind turbines that will result from breaking waves.

Specifically, they will look at waves created by cyclones and hurricanes on the East Coast and how that may affect turbine tower design.

Nichols says this is a somewhat new area for offshore wind energy because  of South Carolina’s shallow shoreline that takes the brunt of waves at cyclone or hurricane force.

SRNL setting up a SODAR study off of the coast last year

Another study shows that the energy transmission grid along the coast can take early input from offshore wind farms without major upgrades.

“So we are ready to take the energy source if it’s built, so that’s an encouraging thing,” Nichols says.

SRNL will also be helped in the three-year project by Coastal Carolina University.

In a statement today after the vote for passage of the bill in the house, introduced by 1st District Rep. Tim Scott, Clyburn said the board is charged with protecting workers’ rights.

“As the former director of an independent agency — the South Carolina Human Affairs Commission – I know firsthand that such agencies come under fire when decisions they make are not popular. I don’t agree with the NLRB’s case against Boeing, but I believe in the purpose of the agency and its independence from political influence.” Clyburn said. “The current House action is an attempt to meddle in work of this independent agency in order to gain political points. I don’t support the NLRB’s Boeing complaint, and I don’t support this political gamesmanship. That is why I voted against the legislation.”

PTSD is a psychiatric condition and symptoms can occur after being exposed to extremely stressful life events. Researchers say that patients with PTSD are six times more at risk of committing suicide.

Investigators at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine and Arnold School of Public Health and the Dorn VA Medical Center are conducting research on PTSD. The lead reasearcher and associate dean at the USC medical school, Dr. Prakash Nagarkatti says preliminary results of the study show a link between PTSD and the compromised immune system in war veterans diagnosed with the disorder.

Nagarkatti says the results are significant because they could lead to new methods for diagnosis and treatment of PTSD. The findings are also the basis for a $1.72 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to Nagarkatti and his team. The grant will intensify the team’s research on the pathological basis of immune dysfunction in war veterans with PTSD.

Attorney General Alan Wilson

The city of North Charleston sent a letter of intent last month to sue several state agencies in federal court. North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey says the state went against its agreement signed in 2002 that places rail on the southern end of the Port of Charleston. The state wants to place rail now on the northern end–a community Summey has worked at redeveloping.

Now, the state has filed a petition to question the constitutionality of North Charleston’s intent. Attorney General Alan Wilson–

We’re not seeking to undo the MOU, the Memorandum of Understanding. It will be in its entirety, fully maintained, this will not affect the integrity of that agreement betweent he city of North Charleston and the State Ports Authority. This is a constitutional issue. Can a sub-agency in executive branch of government without legislative authority bind the entire state? Our answer to that is it cannot.

The attorney general says the court’s decision in this case will help or harm future business for South Carolina.

This is going to affect how the state does business and how state agencies under state government do business in the future, forevermore. So, if the answer is going to be yes, a sub part of state government, an independent agency in state government can bind the whole state, we need to have an answer to that so that in the future we can conduct business accordingly.

Wilson says his office is involved because any time the state is going to be sued or engaged in litigation, the state needs to have its legal officer speak up. He says the petition really isn’t about the city of North Charleston.

It really doesn’t have anything to do with the city of North Charleston. They have every right, in our opinion, to seek an answer in the question being asked. The issue for us is two-fold: First, this case involves a state constitutional law, the operation of state government and any legal case deciding those types of issues we believe should be heard in front of a state court, our state’s highest court-the State Supreme Court.

Wilson says the petition has already been filed and he has no predictions on how long it will take to hear back from the court.

He says if the court decides that North Charleston is not violating the constitution in its federal lawsuit–then they will abide by the court’s ruling.

Chapman was arrested May 25 after people reported differences in the woman’s story about her 15-year-old daughter needing treatment for cancer at St. Jude Children’s Hospital.

Newberry Sheriff Lee Foster says an investigation found her story to be a scam and says Chapman had even gone so far as to drive her daughter to Memphis, Tennessee to take pictures of her outside the facility in order to perpetuate the fraud. The sheriff says that $1,500 in donations were cash, thus making it difficult to return the money to individual donors. He says that if restitution is made, the money will be donated to St. Jude Children’s Hospital.

Today, ground-level ozone has become elevated all around South Carolina. The state Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) released an “Orange Ozone Action Day” for several counties, which insists on higher levels of caution for this invisible health problem.

DHEC defines ground-level ozone as “bad ozone” that pollutes the air we breathe. It can be created from vehicle exhaust, gasoline vapor, chemical solvents, and any kind of gas-powered lawn tools. It also can be caused when weather conditions are hot and dry.

The spokesman for DHEC, Adam Myrick, explains the heightened orange level and its safety precautions:

The orange level’s reached and that’s when we put out the information to say… try to remain indoors as much as you can…carpool if you’re able to do that. That of course will cut down on the number cars on the road.

Myrick also warns that everyone is at risk to the dangers of high ground-level ozone, but some will feel it more than others.

People with the breathing problems and the respiratory diseases, those are the people who are probably going to feel the ozone more than anyone else, but we do remind people during these ozone action days, those who are active, those who are outside and otherwise healthy to also be mindful that they may experience some breathing problems.

DHEC confirms that elevated ground-level ozone is common in South Carolina and people should continue to be cautious throughout the remainder of the summer. They warn people to not stay outside for long periods of time, and try to walk, not drive, to create safer conditions during these days.

He is asking them to add the bill to the Sine Die agenda, but that will take a two-thirds vote in the Senate. After the conflict that came from the governor’s failed attempt to call them back into session, some senators have said they are hesitant to add that issue to an already-crowded calendar for the next two weeks.

View the letter here.

In his letter, McConnell says:

It is my hope that the Senate will put the events of last week regarding this bill and the governor’s attempt to violate separation of powers behind us and allow an opportunity to include the Department of Administration bill as an amendment to the Sine Die resolution.

Court ruling that stopped the governor from calling the Legislature back in this week to consider the bill or three others that deal with restructuring state government.

In his letter to fellow Senators, the Charleston Republican says that in spite of disagreements with the governor on the Constitution, he agrees with her on the need to make government more efficient.

He adds, “As we move to reform government, it is important that we also keep in place the important checks and balances so that the public is protected from over-zealous politicians and bureaucrats in the long-term.”

He says he believes the bill can pass the Senate,

…but the Senate must be willing to let the bill be debated for a reasonable amount of time and allow amendments to be properly considered.

He recounts lasts week’s cloture motion that stopped such debate. There were about 70 amendments waiting on the desk.

“This premature attempt at cloture, in my opinion, had the effect of wrecking the atmosphere of good will…and made it impossible for that bill to pass,” he says.