Associated Press

If the old book is true, if all one really needs to know is learned in kindergarten, then Gloria Gainey celebrated more than a birthday recently. She celebrated generations of Fort Mill children turning adults, who know plenty due to her.Gainey is a kindergarten assistant at Fort Mill Elementary School. She turned 80 on Sept. 8. She started her role as a kindergarten teacher back in 1975."I just love it," she said. "I love 5-year-olds and everything. I enjoy doing the work. It's just a fun job. I've always felt like Fort Mill was my school family."

South Carolina senators plan to return to the Statehouse next month for a special session on spending federal COVID-19 relief money and redistricting.

Dedicated in 1841, Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim's synagogue was built by enslaved Blacks. The congregation is making an effort to formally acknowledge this painful past with a plaque recently installed outside the house of worship. The inscription on the new monument also speaks to KKBE's commitment to equality for all people.

A special House committee working on drawing new districts based on the 2020 U.S. Census is crisscrossing South Carolina this week.

A grower-owned peanut shelling company said it plans to set up operations in South Carolina's Orangeburg County. Premium Peanut said it plans a $64.3 million investment that will create 130 new jobs. News outlets report the new facility will provide more capacity and allow South Carolina peanut growers the chance to be a part of a cooperative model. Portions of the new facility are expected to be operational by spring 2022. The company's customers consist of major snack, candy and peanut butter manufacturers.

Tropical depression Mindy has dumped rain along the Georgia and South Carolina seacoasts during its trek over land and is now moving well offshore into the Atlantic Ocean. Mindy was a brief-lived tropical storm that formed Wednesday in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico and then made landfall Wednesday night in St. Vincent Island in the Florida Panhandle. Downgraded to a tropical depression over land, the storm dumped rain across the Panhandle and parts of Geogia and South Carolina in crossing a small part of the U.S. Southeast. The storm on Thursday evening was offshore about 110 miles east-southeast of Charleston, South Carolina. Forecasters say it will become a remnant low on Friday.

Three new historical markers have been unveiled in a South Carolina community to commemorate two of the state's early legal battles against segregated schools. WIS-TV reports the Summerton Community Action Group placed two markers at local sites with ties to the Briggs vs. Elliott case in 1950 that demanded equal access to buses for children attending all-Black schools. The third marker recalls the 1948 Levi Pearson v. County Board of Education case in which the NAACP attempted an earlier challenge against inequalities in busing. The Briggs case went on to become part of the litigation that resulted in the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown vs. Board of Education that found racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional.

Charleston Mayor John Tecklenberg announced Friday that all workers in the state's largest city must be fully vaccinated by Nov. 22, though people can still opt out for medical “and other limited” reasons.

A business executive charged in the aftermath of a failed multibillion-dollar project to build two nuclear reactors in South Carolina has pleaded not guilty. Jeffrey A. Benjamin entered the plea in federal court Tuesday. Benjamin is a former executive at Westinghouse Electric Co., the lead contractor to build two new reactors at the V.C. Summer plant. Two utilities spent nearly $10 billion on the project before halting construction in 2017 after Westinghouse's bankruptcy.

Small towns in South Carolina are one step closer to getting $435 million in pandemic relief money. The state Department of Administration requested the funds from the federal government last week after a directive from Gov. Henry McMaster. The money is part of the nearly $8.9 billion flowing into the state through the federal American Rescue Plan Act.