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Jeffrey Collins/AP/APIn the past few weeks, South Carolina has set records for COVID-19 hospitalizations and new cases have approached peak levels of last winter. Classes, schools and entire districts have gone virtual, leaving parents frustrated and teachers quitting weeks into the school year. Republicans backed a provision to ban masks in schools in June when cases were low and have not budged. Now teachers, students and parents are struggling with the fallout as more young people contract the delta variant, forcing nearly two dozen schools and two entire districts back to online learning within a month of returning in person. -
Nick Youngson/Alpha Stock ImagesSome of the biggest names in South Carolina agriculture were on the guest list last Sunday evening in Saluda County, with Aiken-based Jason Tufts putting his culinary creativity into action as a participant in the South Carolina Chef Ambassadors program.Tufts, largely known for his work at downtown Aiken restaurant Malia's, was in gear in the Ward-Nicholson-Asbill House's kitchen, surrounded by thousands of acres of Titan Farms peach territory, with the assistance of fellow chefs Josh Cureton and Brandon Velie.The event, Dinner in the Orchard, featured creations from around South Carolina, starting with pecans and goat cheese and wrapping up, about an hour later, with local peaches (the last of the season), buttermilk ice cream and goat's milk caramel sauce.
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A brief tropical depression or named storm is still likely east of the North Carolina Outer Banks to start this upcoming weekend. -
Upstate hospitals are past capacity as more COVID-19 patients strain resources. Their frustration over what they see as a preventable catastrophe is weighing on them.
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Festival's General Director designate brings extensive musical experience and scholarship to role—and a firm belief in art's potential to bridge differences
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South Carolina senators plan to return to the Statehouse next month for a special session on spending federal COVID-19 relief money and redistricting.
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A prominent South Carolina lawyer surrendered on Thursday to face insurance fraud and other charges in a failed plot to arrange his own death. Alex Murdaugh turned himself at the Hampton County jail ahead of a bond hearing. State police say Murdaugh tried to arrange his death Sept. 4 so his surviving son could collect a $10 million life insurance policy. The State Law Enforcement Division has now been asked to open six investigations involving the Murdaugh family, including the unsolved killings of Murdaugh's wife and son and now the previous death of their housekeeper.
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South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster says Kershaw County schools are a model in the state for fighting COVID-19 without requiring students to wear masks. The governor toured Camden Elementary School on Wednesday. He saw the thermal scanner that takes the temperature of every student as they walk in without them having to stop. The school also puts a lot of effort into contact tracing, only quarantining people who are within 3 feet of an infected person for more than 15 minutes. McMaster and Republican legislators back a one-year ban on school mask mandates put in the budget. State health officials have asked them to remove it.
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South Carolina officials who have been sued over a law banning school districts from issuing face mask mandates say that they should be removed from pending litigation. That's the argument made in recent court filings from Gov. Henry McMaster, Attorney General Alan Wilson and others being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU is suing on behalf of disability rights groups and parents of South Carolina children with disabilities. The plaintiffs are challenging a budget measure passed this summer that prevents South Carolina districts from using any state funding to require masks in schools.
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A GOP lawyer who advised former President Donald Trump in his campaign to overturn the 2020 election results is among speakers planned for a South Carolina gathering billed as a must-stop on the road to the state's primary. The state GOP announced Wednesday that longtime Republican lawyer Cleta Mitchell was scheduled to participate in next month's First in the South Republican Action Conference.
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In every age group, the number of men vaccinated against COVID-19 lags far behind the number of women.
