Jeffrey Collins/Associated Press

Six of South Carolina's most influential lawmakers will get together soon to see if they can agree on a proposal to overhaul state-owned utility Santee Cooper.

South Carolina senators approved a bill Thursday allowing people with concealed weapons permits to carry their guns in the open.

The South Carolina House is insisting the state continue to accept offers to sell Santee Cooper, meaning the fate of a bill to overhaul the state-owned utility will go down to the wire at this year's session.

A committee in the South Carolina House on Tuesday rejected for a second time a proposal that would have prevented transgender students from playing on girls’ sports teams in middle and high school.

South Carolina House members may soon debate whether to restart the state's stalled death penalty with the electric chair and whether to add a firing squad to the execution methods.

The chances of South Carolina joining most other states allowing licensed people to openly carry pistols and not hide them under a jacket dimmed Tuesday as a small group of senators didn't find time to vote on a House-passed bill.

South Carolina's population grew by double-digit percentage points for the fifth decade in a row, but that wasn't enough for the state to add another U.S. House seat, according to U.S. census data for 2020 released Monday.

The South Carolina Senate approved a bill Thursday that would turn over almost the entire board of power company Santee Cooper, but it doesn't seek new bids to sell the state-owned utility.

Supporters of making South Carolina the next-to-last state in the U.S. to pass a hate crime law acknowledged Wednesday they are running out of time in this year's legislative session. A House-passed bill was sent to the full Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday after Democratic senators asked their Republican colleagues on a subcommittee to hold off on their objections at least until the next step.

The COVID-19 economic downturn was not as bad as feared in South Carolina, so lawmakers suddenly have a lot more money to spend. The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday set aside money for a 2% raise for state employees and a $1,000 raise for all teachers as the panel approved its version of the roughly $10 billion spending plan for the fiscal year that starts on July 1.