Archives for August 2015

Legislators warn DHEC not to grant permit for Lexington sewage treatment facility

August 31, 2015 By South Carolina Radio Network

In this image tweeted by the SC House GOP, State Sen. Ronnie Cromer, R-Newberry, is joined by other opponents near the Saluda River (@SCHouseGOP)

Midlands legislators are urging South Carolina’s environmental agency not to grant a critical permit for a Lexington sewage treatment facility that discharges into a river just upstream from Columbia’s riverfront.

A bipartisan group of Richland and Lexington County lawmakers held a press conference Monday against Carolina Water Services’ discharge permit. The company is seeking approval from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) to continue treated wastewater discharges into the Saluda River, but conservation groups (most notably the Congaree Riverkeeper organization) have organized public opposition to the permit, citing dozens of violations for Carolinas and its parent company Utilities, Inc., the last 20 years.

On Monday, the group of lawmakers noted DHEC had initially ordered the small facility to connect with a regional wastewater network. But negotiations between the company and the town of Lexington have not reached an agreement. CWS’s permit expired years ago, but regulators have allowed it to continue operating while they deal with a large backlog at the agency.

“What you see is both sides of the aisle, both sides of this river, coming together to speak with one voice: to say no,” State Rep. James Smith, D-Columbia, said.

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Heavy rains cause flooding in Charleston area

August 31, 2015 By Bill Dubensky

Weather conditions as of 6:00 p.m. Monday

Heavy rains caused flooding in the metro Charleston area Monday.

The National Weather Service forecasters say the worst should be over. “Nothing too heavy any time soon from what we are currently expecting,” meteorologist, Pete Mohlin told South Carolina Radio Network.

Charleston International Airport reported more than 6.4 inches of rain between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning. Mohlin said that was the fifth-wettest date on record at the airport since 1938. It was the most since 6.57 inches fell on October 24, 2008, the NWS said.

Residents were evacuated from a North Charleston mobile home park Monday afternoon and flooding closed numerous streets in downtown Charleston. An exit ramp at the Interstate 526/Paramount Drive intersection in North Charleston was closed Monday after a small mudslide washed onto the ramp.

No serious injuries were reported as of Monday evening.

“The worst of it seemed to be just north and west of downtown Charleston,” Mohlin said. “It is related to moisture that once was (Tropical Storm Erika). The official circulation with Erika, what’s left of it, will actually come up into portions of the Southeast on Wednesday.”

Logistics providers plans to hire 100 at second SC office

August 31, 2015 By South Carolina Radio Network

A third-party logistics provider is hoping to eventually create 100 new jobs in downtown Columbia when it opens this fall.

Total Quality Logistics, which partners with suppliers to match them with trucking companies, announced Monday it will open a new sales and operations office on the Capital City’s Main Street in late October. The Cincinnati, Ohio-based firm plans to hire the hundred employees over the next five years, according to a company spokesman.

Logistics providers have been a rapidly growing section of the American economy the past decade as fewer manufacturers or wholesalers continue to operate their own truck fleets, according to company spokesman Mark Motz.

“Gone are the days where people could spend the money to maintain their own fleet to get things around unless they’re really an immense company, like Wal-Mart,” Motz told South Carolina Radio Network.

TQL opened its first South Carolina office in Charleston five years ago. The company has 34 other offices nationwide, mostly in the South and West.

“We have experienced great success in South Carolina with our Charleston office,” company president Kerry Byrne said in a statement. “We’re excited to expand into Columbia, where we will have access to a deep talent pool and an opportunity to continue growing our business. Reaching into new markets like Columbia is one of the keys to our long-term success.”

Hiring for the new positions is underway. Those interested in joining the TQL team should visit the www.tqljobs.com. For more information on Total Quality Logistics, visit www.tql.com.

#PalmettoPrimary: Estimated 10,000 at ‘Stand with God’ rally in Columbia

August 31, 2015 By Matt Long

Ted Cruz speaks to the crowd at a pro-Christian family Statehouse rally on Saturday (Image: Cruz’s campaign Twitter)

A daily look at how the presidential candidates of both parties are trying to win the “First in the South” primary.

Two Republican presidential candidates spoke in front of an estimated 10,000 people during a Christian families rally at the South Carolina Statehouse this weekend.

Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and former Texas Governor Rick Perry both attended the “We Stand With God Rally” in Columbia on Saturday. Organizers are hoping the large rally will energize social conservatives frustrated with recent court rulings that effectively legalized gay marriage nationwide and what they consider a lack of action on Planned Parenthood.

“Let me say to the pastors… and faith leaders who are here: stand up and preach,” Cruz, the son of an Evangelical Christian minister, said. “Preach ‘life’ from the pulpit. Preach life to the congregation. We need to call in our leaders: no show votes, no empty votes, stand up and lead.”

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Audit questions Farmers Market land deal involving political donor

August 28, 2015 By Matt Long

Farmers sheds at the State Farmers Market (Image: SCDA)

A new audit into the State Farmers Market claims South Carolina agriculture officials did not follow good real estate practices when they purchased sections of the site from a property owner who had donated the maximum allowed towards the reelection campaign of South Carolina’s agriculture commissioner.

The report released by the Legislative Audit Council on Thursday warns an appraiser who evaluated the $7 million sale may have relied too heavily on the limited liability corporation that benefitted from selling the land. It also said Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers should have informed legislators that a political donor owned the property when he asked those legislators to set aside funds for the purchase.

But Weathers angrily accused the audit of making inappropriate insinuations of a political quid pro quo even though no laws were broken.

State Rep. Ralph Norman, R-Rock Hill, requested the audit last year after the Department of Agriculture paid $7.06 million for about nine acres of additional property at the farmer’s market in 2013. Three years earlier, the market relocated from its old downtown Columbia location to the site near Dixiana in order to provide better highway access for the larger wholesalers which operate on the property.

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Walker addresses cadets at the Citadel

August 28, 2015 By Bill Dubensky

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and GOP presidential candidate used addressed cadets at the Citadel Friday afternoon.

Walker said he would get tough on the terror group ISIS. “The policy of a Walker administration will be to confront radical Islamic terrorism using the full range of our options.”

He said the Iran nuclear agreement cannot happen. “If this deal goes forward, it will be remembered as one of the greatest foreign policy failures in U.S. history. If Congress fails to stop the nuclear deal, I will terminate it on day one,” Walker said. “I refuse to live with a deal that threatens our safety and that of our closest allies.”

Walker went after Hillary Clinton. “Her disregard for top secret, classified and sensitive information on her email server shows she cannot be trusted to be commander in chief,” Walker said.

He said now is the time for leadership and his experiences make him the right person to be president. “I have been tested like no other candidate in this race. As president I will send the following message, the retreat is over. American leadership is back,” Walker said.

SC emergency officials paying close attention to Tropical Storm Erika

August 28, 2015 By South Carolina Radio Network

Erika’s path. Click to enlarge (National Hurricane Center/NOAA)

State emergency officials say they are paying close attention to Tropical Storm Erika as the storm slugs its way through the Caribbean Sea on Friday.

Erika’s position at 2:00 p.m. Friday was over the Dominican Republic, but current forecasts models have it moving over the Florida panhandle on a path north next week. The storm is expected to weaken but could reach South Carolina by Wednesday afternoon. Forecasters warn it is still too early to know Erika’s path or strength in another five days.

But the South Carolina Emergency Management Division is partially activating the state’s Emergency Operations Center and raising its status to Operational Readiness Condition 4, which is the second-lowest of the state’s five operational conditions.

“We’re hopeful that the storm won’t affect South Carolina, but we’re making preparations in case it does,” SCEMD Director Kim Stenson said in an emailed statement. “We need to be prepared for the possibility of storm surge, heavy winds, rain and even tornadoes next week.”

He urged residents in potentially vulnerable areas to review their plans now in order to prepare for any actions they would need to take next week if the storm threatens South Carolina.

#PalmettoPrimary Four candidates in the state on Friday

August 28, 2015 By Matt Long

Rick Perry spoke to about 200 people at a Columbia town hall hosted by U.S. Sen. Tim Scott

A daily look at how the presidential candidates of both parties are trying to win the “First in the South” primary.

Four Republican candidates will be in South Carolina on Friday, hoping to gain momentum in a race that’s been dominated by Donald Trump.

The most high-profile event will likely be Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker giving a speech at The Citadel laying out his foreign policy plan. The 12:15 speech is expected to lay out an aggressive, give-no-ground strategy to confront ISIS, Iran, and other groups working against American interests.

“As president, I will send the following message: the retreat is over,” Walker said in an excerpt released to news outlets on Friday morning. “American leadership is back and, together with our allies, we will not surrender another inch of ground to terrorists or any other power that threatens our safety.”

Walker is scheduled to begin speaking at the Mark Clark Hall at The Citadel around 12:15 p.m.

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Rubio emphasizes future in town hall with USC students

August 27, 2015 By Bill Dubensky

Florida U.S. Senator and GOP presidential candidate Marco Rubio focused on the future during a town hall stop on the campus of the University of South Carolina in Columbia on Thursday.

Rubio said it’s time the federal government moves into the 21st Century. “We have government policies from the past that just don’t work anymore.” He told the crowd of roughly 1,000 attendees that the economy is very different than it was 15-30 years ago and the U.S. must change to move forward.

Marco Rubio speaking to a crowd of mainly college students on the campus of USC Thursday. South Carolina Radio Network photo.

He said America must do more to keep companies inside its borders. “If we keep the highest combined corporate tax rate, more companies are going to keep moving to other countries,” he said. “That’s why they move to Canada.”

Rubio is hoping to kickstart his campaign. He currently sits among the half-dozen Republican candidates whose support varies from 4 percent to 8 percent in the polls — far behind frontrunner Donald Trump. The most recent poll of South Carolina voters found just 6 percent supported the junior Florida senator.

Rubio told the crowd of mainly college students that he supports a student investment plan where private companies help pay for students to attend college, rather than taking out student loans. In return, a small percentage of the student’s income will go to the private company for the first ten years the student is employed.

He said many Americans are disillusioned with the future of the country. “They call it ‘The American Dream’ because it happened for so many people in this country and it’s been so rare everywhere else. And so it should trouble us, it should concern us that there are now millions of people who think that ‘The American Dream’ is no longer possible. And there are a lot of reasons why people feel that way,” Rubio said.

Rubio was one three GOP presidential candidates in South Carolina Thursday. Rick Perry at different event, also spoke in Columbia. Primary frontrunner, Donald Trump, spoke in Greenville.

Trump won’t say if he’ll sign party pledge: ‘Plenty of time to think about it’

August 27, 2015 By Matt Long

Trump speaks in Greenville on Thursday (Image posted to Twitter by Trump adviser Daniel Scavino, Jr.,)

Real estate mogul Donald Trump dodged a question Thursday about a potential independent run for president next November. He noted instead that he has more than a month before a September 30 deadline to formally file for next year’s South Carolina Republican primary.

“We have plenty of time to think about it because… there’s a lot of time,” Trump told reporters after a campaign speech in Greenville. “We’ll be making announcements on different things over the next couple of weeks.”

The South Carolina GOP is requiring all candidates who are seeking to be listed on the ballot next year to sign a pledge promising to support the party’s eventual nominee — meaning no third-party or independent runs. Earlier this week, state party chairman Matt Moore said the pledge was not specifically aimed at Trump (who had previously threatened to run as an independent if party leaders “interfered” with his campaign), but is required of candidates who run for statewide office.

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