Society investigates things that go bump in the night

Bobbie Ball, co-owner of Poogan's Porch, was getting ready to lock up the restaurant one December evening when a bar stool toppled and the heavy, antique wooden kitchen door flew open with a loud crack. Ball happened to be on the telephone with the restaurant's alarm company. "I think I'm being robbed. Get ready to call the police," she told the operator. "I thought maybe someone had stooped down in the bar and was hiding. I knew the kitchen was totally locked," Ball said. Read More

Park Angels help spruce up gardens

Volunteers offer helping hands in Charleston

It takes a lot of mowing, pruning, weeding, planting, fertilizing and painting for Charleston Parks Department employees to maintain about 120 pieces of property that range in size from tiny to 200-acre facilities. With a staff of about 70 people, it doesn't require a lot of math to figure out the department could use some help. Read More

Collegiate student visits inauguration

Joshua Leutz, 13, attended 2009 Presidential Youth Leadership Conf.

Joshua Leutz of West Ashley had an "inaugural ball, dinner and stuff" on his schedule the night of Jan. 20, he said by telephone from a hotel room in Washington. For Leutz, 13, the highlight of the day had passed hours earlier when he stood on the National Mall with about a million other people and watched Barack Obama take the oath of office. Read More

Police target quality of life, safety issues of squatters

It is no surprise to local police and code-enforcement inspectors that men and women are taking up residence in vacant, boarded-up houses on the Charleston peninsula or in pockets of woods near major thoroughfares in North Charleston. North Charleston officers recently arrested 10 people in a five-day period on nuisance or trespassing charges, prompted in large part by citizen complaints. Read More

Local artists quilt for Obama inauguration exhibit

Fabric artist Torreah "Cookie" Washington had only a month to complete her most recent art quilt, titled "The Rising Sun of our New Day Begun," but she was inspired. "I was quilting for my president," she said. Washington is one of four women who were invited to interpret through fabric their emotions and thoughts on the election of Barack Obama. Read More

Spirit of Christmas comes to home's mothers-to-be

It might seem as if the women who hosted a dinner and baby shower Dec. 17 at the Florence Crittenton Programs of South Carolina in Charleston have nothing in common with the unwed pregnant girls the program serves. Read More

Board agrees to sell property to continue providing services

The Florence Crittenton Programs of South Carolina on St. Margaret Street in Charleston won't have to close the doors at the end of the month, but changes are going to be made for the organization to survive. A financial crisis that threatened to close the home that has been serving young, unwed pregnant women for 111 years recently led the board to make the difficult decision to sell the property, Interim Executive Director Lisa Belton said. "The board struggled for a long time with the idea of selling the property, but we all agree the most important thing is to provide the services in the community," Belton said. Read More

Charleston landmark gets gussied up for Christmas

Christmas can't be too far away when the eggnog bottle and the white, green and red cow wearing a wreath go up on the Coburg sign on Savannah Highway. For about the past 14 years, Charles Roberts, vice president of Roberts and Sons Signs, has brought Christmas to the Charleston landmark. "Yes, I know a lot of people pay attention to it," Roberts, 32, said. Read More

Time on this couple's side

Business sells, repairs, restores clocks

James Island natives Chris and Kim Huff often talked about opening a small shop to sell, repair and restore clocks, with two stipulations. "We have to have dogs, and we have to have tea," Chris Huff said. Read More

Crisis Ministries fills a growing need in area

It's not unusual for men and women to begin lining up at the back door of Crisis Ministries an hour or more before volunteers start serving lunch at 11:30 a.m. "I think as the lines get longer, the people try to arrive earlier," said Leigh Danley, director of community relations and annual giving. The shelter's soup kitchen served an average of 180 people for lunch each day last year. On Nov. 16, it hit a peak of 273 people. Read More