Special coverage
As difficult as it is to imagine, some people in downtown Charleston don’t know that “demolish” is a bad word — and usually a futile concept.
The Charleston County Council is set to vote Tuesday on an agreement to cut the property taxes for a Mercedes-Benz Vans supplier by 43 percent. There’s nothing extraordinary about the proposal. S.C. counties hand out fee-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements to manufacturers like politicians throwing out candy in a parade.
It’s important to keep South Carolina's expensive recent history in mind as Dominion Energy, the S.C. Chamber of Commerce and the S.C. Manufacturers Alliance start laying the groundwork to argue that we have to have another natural-gas pipeline extended through South Carolina to meet our future energy needs.
The most logical and least environmentally damaging way to get more electricity to northern Charleston County is to run a high-voltage line through an existing right of way that cuts through the Francis Marion National Forest.
The House of Representatives is going about the proposed impeachment of Donald Trump the wrong way by failing to vote to authorize a formal inquiry and by receiving evidence that the American people cannot see from sources that remain secret.
Such an ordinance can help confirm or disprove what we think we know about the past, and illuminate long-buried parts of our storied history.
All wars have casualties, and President Donald Trump’s trade war with China is no exception.
Vaping is having its moment. It’s never been more popular — or risky.
It’s hard to keep up with all the studies touting South Carolina as a great place to do business. The latest, from Area Development magazine, ranked South Carolina third-best overall in its 2019 Top States for Doing Business, behind only Georgia and Tennessee.
President Trump signed two executive orders last week designed to bring accountability to the practice of administrative agencies when issuing “guidance” on how to interpret federal laws and regulations. The welcome move draws attention to how deeply the federal government can reach into ordinary lives and how the public needs better protection from such invasions
A big part of why tourists come to Charleston – to walk the streets South of Broad, wander through churches and graveyards and eat and drink with the locals – is because they want to live like Charlestonians live.
Under South Carolina's new paper ballot system, the quarter of absentee ballots cast in teh 2020 election will have to removed from sealed envelopes and scanned on Election Day, potential delaying results by hours or days. The Legislature can easily correct this problem before it occurs.
A federal court rightly rebuked the FBI last year for breaking the law and violating the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches in its use of government records of communications collected without a court warrant.
Like it or not, Charleston is an international tourist destination. As such, it ought to be the best one it can be.
We always knew the S.C. Commerce Department was secretive about the economic incentives it doles out to lure companies to our state, but we didn’t realize how much so until last week, when a state senator went to court to challenge that secrecy.
Officially discouraging, limiting or banning the “fill and build” homebuilding model in Charleston will be an uphill battle, but City Councilman Harry Griffin has the right idea.
S.C. Agriculture Department officials probably should have gone easier on a permitted hemp farmer near Harleyville before unleashing law enforcement on him, resulting in 10 acres of his crop being destroyed.
We can appreciate the State Ports Authority’s need to diversify and expand its exports, and we understand that, yes, there’s still apparently a big future in plastics.
The main reason we need those counselors isn’t to prevent mass shootings. It’s to help the children who are more disruptive than dangerous, and the ones who might not make it in school without help.
Maybe it’s time for Mount Pleasant to hire its own town lawyer.
A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contains the alarming news that maternal deaths associated with pregnancy, childbirth and its aftermath up to one year later have been rising over the past decade in the United States.
It’s easy to understand why the tiny Pee Dee communities of Nichols and Rosewood are trying so hard to recover after being flooded out twice in three years by monster storms. But as sea level rise and an evolving global climate promise bigger and more frequent storms, rebuilding on flood-prone property becomes ever more dangerous — and expensive.
The only people who dread report cards more than less-than-superior students are teachers, principals and other school officials. For two decades now, they’ve decried the annual school and district report cards, which have been used by school critics to exaggerate our deficiencies, by real e…
Ebony Clare’s shooting death was tragic. That it was her husband who allegedly pulled the trigger and shot her in the back at their North Charleston home is doubly tragic.
As you drive along the Ashley River on scenic S.C. Highway 61, suburbia fades in the rearview mirror.
When someone’s been stealing your paycheck every month, and the thefts stop, that’s good news. But it doesn’t fix the problem: You’re still out of months' or even years' worth of stolen income. And even if the thief is prosecuted and convicted, you’ll probably never get much, if any, of your money back.
Jane Lucas Thornhill loved Charleston. She loved its architectural heritage and devoted her time and talents to preserving it. She loved telling visitors about the city’s history and its fine old buildings.
The true value of putting nearly 14,000 acres of private land along the Savannah River under a conservation easement probably won’t be fully realized for generations. But it’s already clear that the effort has made a major contribution to protecting South Carolina’s environment.
Outdoor activities and the industries that support them are a big business in South Carolina. The news is a cause for both a celebration and a warning. We need to protect the state’s outdoor environment.
We don’t hate potholes just because they’re jarring. Or because they provide too-frequent reminders of government not doing the job we want it to do. We also hate them because they’re expensive.
The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control wants to cut by more than half the amount of water Mount Pleasant Waterworks can pump from deep underground to help protect an important aquifer that serves the entire region. It’s reasonable for a state agency to be a good steward of a…
South Carolina’s 31-year struggle to comply with a federal mandate for how it collects child support from deadbeat parents has become a Rorschach test on government.
Children who aren't vaccinated for measles, mumps, rubella and other deadly childhood diseases endanger the rest of us. The number is growing as more anti-vaxers claim they have 'religious' objections. The SC Legislature should not allow those with religious waivers to enroll in public schools or colleges.
SC pets and other animals can be tied up just about any way the owner sees fit, even without access to food, water or shelter, under state law. The Legislature needs to outlaw such abuse.
Led by Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the nation faces a call to raise Social Security payments by soaking the rich. The two senators obviously are fishing for senior votes, but we don’t yet know what their ideas would cost. It is likely to be trillio…
The SC Department of Disabilities and Special Needs has a tough time serving people with intellectual disabilities, autism and brain and spinal injuries. But it's on auto-pilot after three departures left its part-time governing board unable to conduct business. It's an extreme example of what can go wrong when we ask the governor to fill 6,600 state and local boards.
Is the United States losing its managerial and technical ability to build big, complex projects? Both the scuttled mixed-oxide fuel plant at the Savannah River Site near Aiken and the abandoned V.C. Summer nuclear reactors beg the question.
SC electric utility Santee Cooper hopes to convince the Legislature not to sell it by assembling a plan to keep ratepayers' power bills down, with more solar energy and less coal. But there's no way to enforce its promises unless it convinces lawmakers to reform its governing system.
In a welcome development of major international significance, three leading European nations that still adhere to the 2015 Obama-era pact setting limits on Iran’s nuclear programs called Wednesday for negotiations to reopen the agreement and broaden its coverage. It is encouraging to see the…
You don’t have to be an ornithologist — or even an avid bird watcher — to have been unsurprised by a recent report on the dramatically diminishing bird populations in North America. Alarmed by the numbers, yes. Understandably so. But not surprised by the trend.
It’s no surprise a posh tennis club is planned along U.S. Highway 17 in Mount Pleasant on 14 acres across from the Charleston Fun Park and a KOA campground. It’s prime property ripe for development. What’s remarkable is that 144 heirs to the property were able to come together, clear the dee…
Columbia City Council has approved a red-flag ordinance to take guns from people judged to be a threat to themselves or others, bans on bump stocks and ghost guns and an extension of state gun-free zones near schools, challenging a SC ban on local gun restrictions.
All that’s left of the historic school building that collapsed at 11½ St. Philip St. in the spring of 2017 are a couple of partial brick walls braced with lumber. So the Preservation Society of Charleston won’t oppose a demolition permit when it comes before the city’s Board of Architectural…
In nature, everything comes in due season, and wishing won’t speed it up. But economics is different.
Two downtown homeowners will test the limits of what can and cannot be done to Charleston piazzas when the Board of Architectural Review meets Thursday.
Members of the commission that oversees the Columbia Metropolitan Airport don't just get trips to Hawaii, Las Vegas and other junket sites, the best seats and liquor-stocked hospitality suites as local sporting events, $35 and mileage every time they represent CAE and unlimited airport parking. They also can't be fired unless they break the law. So it's no surprise that ticket prices are high and the airport can't attract airlines or customers.
Growth and development help fuel the Charleston area’s booming economy, but it’s important that we balance those economic successes with safeguards against the potential perils of all that progress.
A North Carolina court is set to review the Republican-led legislature’s revised plan for new legislative and congressional district lines, and its response could reshape the state’s political landscape.
Charleston’s long commitment to preserving important buildings and streetscapes has paid off. People around the world admire the city for its beauty and visitors leave with an appreciation of its history. Or part of it.
School officials across South Carolina are watching the turmoil engulfing the Aiken County Schools following the sudden departure of Superintendent Sean Alford and the resignation of three school board members.