South Carolina

The governors of Virginia, West Virginia and South Carolina are joining the growing list of Republican-led states sending soldiers or other state law enforcement officers to the U.S. border with Mexico.

A judge has put a temporary halt to South Carolina's new law banning most abortions around six weeks of pregnancy until the state Supreme Court can review the measure. The ruling Friday by Judge Clifton Newman came just about 24 hours after Gov. Henry McMaster signed the bill. The decision means South Carolina reverts back to a ban around 20 weeks. The new law is similar to a ban on abortion once cardiac activity can be detected that lawmakers passed in 2021.

By 2030, the federal government wants infant mortality to fall to 5 or fewer deaths per 1,000 live births. According to annual data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 states have already met or surpassed that goal, including Nevada, New York, and California. But none of those states are in the South, where infant mortality is by far the highest in the country, with Mississippi’s rate of 8.12 deaths per 1,000 live births ranking worst.

A U.S. agency is agreeing to participate in an in-depth study on whether dredging a Georgia shipping channel in the spring and summer would pose threats to rare sea turtles. The Army Corps of Engineers' announcement prompted a conservation group to dismiss a federal lawsuit that asked a judge to order such a study.

A Volkswagen Group-backed automotive company announced plans this week to open a $2 billion electric truck and SUV manufacturing plant just outside of Columbia, South Carolina. Scout Motors Inc. and South Carolina officials said Friday that the company would be establishing its first manufacturing plant in Blythewood at an industrial site. Gov. Henry McMaster's office said in a news release that at full capacity, more than 200,000 vehicles may be produced annually at the facility. The project is expected to create 4,000 or more permanent jobs.

South Carolina is accustomed to increased attention in the years leading up to presidential elections, given that the state has hosted the South's first voting contests for several of the last cycles. Yet the 2024 campaign season is starting to feel different. For one, Democrats have elevated South Carolina to the top of their presidential primary calendar, leapfrogging Iowa and New Hampshire. On the Republican side, there could potentially be two homegrown South Carolina presidential candidates in the race.

A Nevada company that recycles batteries for electric vehicles has won a $2 billion green energy loan from the Biden administration. Redwood Materials, a recycling venture founded by the former chief technology officer at Tesla, secured a conditional loan from the Energy Department's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program, which helped Tesla more than a decade ago. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm was set to tour Redwood's facility in Nevada with Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo on Thursday. Redwood recently announced plans to build a new $3.5 billion battery manufacturing and recycling factory in South Carolina.

A federal appeals court has denied South Carolina Republicans' motion for a stay in the ongoing challenge over the state's congressional district map. Leading GOP lawmakers will now take their case to the U.S. Supreme Court in attempt to avoid redrawing the map that a three-judge federal panel last month deemed unconstitutional. According to an early January ruling, the boundaries passed last year by the Republican-dominated state Legislature mark an intentional splitting of Black voters in South Carolina's 1st District. In their Feb. 4 order, the judges postponed the date by which new maps may be presented.

Former President Donald Trump is planning to hold the first public campaign event of his 2024 White House bid in the early-voting state of South Carolina. Campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung tells The Associated Press that Trump will visit South Carolina later this month. No other details of the visit have been announced. Since announcing his latest presidential run in November, Trump has limited his public campaign appearances to events at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida before an invited crowd or in a virtual setting.

"N" is for Nicholson, Francis [1655-1728]. Governor. Before he made his career as a colonial administrator, Nicholson was a soldier. He served as…