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Assassin bugs belong to a large family of true bugs called the Reduviidae. There are approximately 160 species in North America, and many are commonly encountered around the home. The group is exclusively predaceous and many feed on a wide variety of landscape and garden pests including the fall webworm, tent caterpillar, Mexican bean beetle, and June beetles.

For at least six hundred years, composers have been borrowing the melodies of folk songs and incorporating them into their compositions. And there’s a good reason: they’re good melodies; they’re melodies that have stood the test of time—that have never lost their hold on people.

Bernstein stopped and said, “I’ll give ten dollars to anyone who can tell me which piece this Walton Concerto is directly modeled on.”

“L” is for LeConte, Joseph (1823-1901). Geologist, educator.

“M” is for Maroons. Historically, maroons have been described as “bands of fugitive slaves living independently from society.” Maroon communities in the West Indies and Latin America are well documented. Less well-known are those in what is now South Carolina.

“P” is for Peace, Roger Craft (1899-1968). Journalist, businessman, U.S. senator.

I have an uplifting ride to work as I pass the Fort Motte Garden Club Garden Spot, the Pollinator Friendly Garden maintained by Nina Mack, Julia Wolfe and friends, and then I go down a hill to cross the Congaree River and check out its water flow.

August 2, 2022 — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Joe Cunningham announces his running mate; reporting from the Wall Street Journal on ties between relatives of two prominent South Carolina politicians and a company set to profit from a new tribal casino as it sought federal approval; the latest on monkeypox and how at-risk South Carolinians can get vaccinated; and more.

Stephen Atkins Swails is a forgotten American hero. A free Black in the North before the Civil War began, Swails exhibited such exemplary service in the 54th Massachusetts Infantry that he became the first African American commissioned as a combat officer in the United States military. After the war, Swails remained in South Carolina, where he held important positions in the Freedmen’s Bureau, helped draft a progressive state constitution, served in the state senate, and secured legislation benefiting newly liberated Black citizens. Swails remained active in South Carolina politics after Reconstruction until violent Redeemers drove him from the state.Gordon C. Rhea tells Swails' story in his new biography, Stephen A. Swails: Black Freedom Fighter in the Civil War and Reconstruction (2021, LSU Press. Rhea talks with Walter Edgar about the saga of this indomitable human being who confronted deep-seated racial prejudice in various institutions but nevertheless reached significant milestones in the fight for racial equality.

Nature’s evolutionarily perfect scavengers, our vultures, are Johnny on the spot to deal with roadkill.