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When a disaster strikes, communications may become spotty or even gone completely.  Cell phone towers may be down, land lines even disrupted, and if the Internet is offline, there goes email.  Keeping communications open for hospitals and other health care facilities during these types of crises are what amateur radio operators - or "hams" - train for once a week, as members of the South Carolina Healthcare Emergency Amateur Radio Team, or SC HEART for short.

That the NFL’s Carolina Panthers would eventually move the team’s practice facility and operations out of Charlotte and south of the border to Rock Hill was really just a matter of when the South Carolina Legislature would greenlight a set of tax breaks (worth somewhere between $115 and $120 million, by most estimates) that would allow the team to set up shop in York County. And when Panthers would officially say they were coming.

On June 5, the Panthers, the state, and City of Rock Hill made the official announcement that the team will be moving in over the next couple years.

When Rock Hill set out to launch its first full-scale bus system, it wanted to try something different. Well, all the rides on the MyRide system will be free and all seven buses in the fleet will be 100 percent electric. The really different part, though, is that no one’s ever started out this way before.

75 years ago - June 6, 1944 - 156,000 Allied troops on nearly 7000 ships and landing craft and supported by 11,590 planes dropping both bombs and paratroopers, landed on the beaches of Normandy, France.  The top-secret invasion of Europe was code-named Operation Overlord, but is more broadly known the world over as D-Day.  That day began the battle to free the continent from the grip of Nazi Germany.  

Scribbling notes on a dry erase board just won't do.  So David Virelles plays them instead, on a piano.  The Cuban composer and pianist is teaching a masters class at the Charleston Jazz Academy in North Charleston, as part of the Spoleto arts festival's community outreach program.

In just a couple of hours, he's performing too.

"I hope the students walk away with what it takes to play music," Virelles says.  "It takes a lot of discipline, perseverance and love.  You have to be passionate about it and really spend time to be any good."

Emergency management coordinators in South Carolina have a lot to think about. A lot to think about.

On any given day, a normally quiet command center, like the one deep in the ground below Greenville City Hall, could fill up with representatives from a whole pile of agencies in a matter of minutes.

“County Public Works, the American Red Cross, the Department of Social Services, DHEC, law

Paul Wiancko started playing cello at age five. By age eight, he had composed his first piece of music.

“If you can call it a piece,” Wiancko says. “I think it was maybe a thirty-two measure little tune, mostly in C major, mostly consisting of a couple of triads. And I believe it was called “Breeze.” I had one of my parents’ friends print out the sheet music for it."

But for a long time following that early effort, Wiancko would shift his musical talents elsewhere.

It’s loud in here. That’s unusual, given that ‘here’ is a self-storage facility. Those are usually quiet; somber, even.

This afternoon, though, a riot of pulsing music, random mwa-ha-haaaas, and various sci-fi bleeps and bloops make this place sound like a really fun vacation spot.

And, for the most part, these cacophonous machines will end up someplace people will go to just have fun. Some will end up in basements or dens or man caves, but most will land at a seaside arcade or a retail restaurant like Dave & Busters.

It’ll just be a minute before they get there. Hunter Lawrence needs to fix them first.

South Carolina is famous for many of its structures, especially the houses of worship that dot the varied landscape of the Palmetto State. The existence of many of these structures go back over a hundred years or more. But, whether grand and ornate, or small and simple, they all require a regular amount of maintenance. However, some of those houses of worship have fallen into disrepair due to dwindling membership, or a lack of finances, causing those structures to become at risk of possibly being lost and forgotten forever.

The Marlboro County Courthouse is a pretty unique place. The building itself is essentially a replica of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, right down to the clock tower.

The courthouse grounds are also host to a stalwart set of palm trees – and to the flags of six nations, former and current, that have had a major influence on South Carolina. Listen to a conversation with Jeff Dudley, past president of the Marlboro County Historical Society (and member of several other area historical organizations) and learn how and why Marlboro County’s six flags came to be.

For most people, social media is hardly a darling of the digital age.

The deaf would like to respectfully disagree.

The past few years of historic floods and hurricanes has amply demonstrated how subject South Carolina can be to severe weather emergencies.  To help the public better understand how the state reacts to and deals with these situations, the S.C. Emergency Management Division has created a new program, the Citizens' Academy.