Wednesday, April 18, 2012
The plan would encourage parents to get their middle school children vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that can cause cancer.
A House panel has OK'd a plan to encourage South Carolina parents to get their middle school children vaccinated against a sexually transmitted virus that causes cancer. The State newspaper reports that the House’s full Medical, Military and Municipal Affairs Committee approved a bill, which requires the Department of Health and Environmental Control to provide information about the human papillomavirus, known as HPV, to parents of students entering the seventh grade. The article says that HPV is the nation’s most common sexually transmitted infection, which most sexually active people will get at some time in their lives, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vaccination would be encouraged, but not …
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Democrat Beth Bernstein makes a big splash in week one
A challenger in the race for House District 78 raised more than $25,000 in the first week of her campaign, setting the stage for an expensive battle for the northeast Richland County seat. "A lot of people feel like I do and don’t like the direction our state is moving in," Columbia attorney Beth Bernstein said. "When I called for some support, people stepped up immediately." Bernstein said she raised about $26,000 and that it included $5,000 of her own money. "I can't ask somebody to support me if I won't support myself," she said. Republican Rep. Joan Brady, Bernstein's opponent, has already spent $30,000 during this election cycle, according to the the Palmetto Public Record. Bernstein said she thought the General Assembly prioritized …
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Fifth Circuit judge dismisses John Rainey's lawsuit
A South Carolina judge dismissed a lawsuit filed against Gov. Nikki Haley Wednesday, removing the case from the court system but not clearing Haley of wrongdoing. Fifth Circuit Judge Casey Manning ruled that his court was not the proper venue to decide a case involving alleged ethics violations that occurred while Haley served in the House of Representatives. John Rainey's lawsuit alleged that Haley violated multiple ethics laws, including illegally lobbying for her former employer, Lexington Medical Center, while she was a state representative. Haley's lawyers attempted to have the lawsuit thrown out by the S.C. Supreme Court in January, but the justices upheld the circuit court's right to hear it. With the ruling dismissed from circuit …
Monday, March 19, 2012
South Carolina near the bottom for corruption risk
South Carolina ranks among the states most likely to suffer from government corruption, according to a study released Monday. The Palmetto State earned an "F" in the study, conducted by the Center for Public Integrity, because it lacked accountability, its ethics commission was deemed inadequate and campaign finance laws were not strict enough. "An undercurrent of fear and political interference bubbles throughout the state’s civil service, one that is shot through with cronyism and patronage," Corey Hutchins, the State Integrity Investigation reporter for South Carolina, wrote in his report. The report graded states on 14 categories from the public's ability to access information to internal auditing to legislative accountability. South …
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
New alert system tells public if police officer is shot, kidnapped
Gov. Nikki Haley signed a bill into law Tuesday that will create a public alert system when a suspect seriously injures, kills or kidnaps a police officer. The Blue Alert program requires the State Law Enforcement Division to define the instances that call for emergency alerts and develop a system of informing the public about those instances using television, radio and Department of Transportation highway signs. Haley credited Rep. Eddie Tallon (R-Spartanburg) as an important force behind the bill's passage. South Carolina is the 14th state to enact such a law, Haley said. “Since July 2011, we have lost three officers in the line of duty in the state of South Carolina,” Tallon said. "An assailant who flees after killing, seriously …
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Summerville representative sponsors Freedom of Information Act amendment, which expands exemptions for law enforcement supplying information to the public.
SUMMERVILLE — Raising the hackles of watchdogs throughout the state, Rep. Chris Murphy of Summerville has proposed amendments to the state's Freedom of Information Act statute "to protect the integrity of the criminal trial process" and to bring it in line with federal and neighboring state laws. The amendment, concerned primarily with law enforcement, was introduced Feb. 7 and currently sits in the House judiciary committee. The original law was passed in 1976. Here is what the amendment does: According to Murphy, editorial boards throughout the state are throwing his amendment, H 4740, in line with President Barack Obama's healthcare reform as the worst legislation ever. "I'm getting many from press saying this is a police state etc…
Mimi
5:38 pm on Thursday, April 19, 2012
I wonder how many jobs that creates??? more ›