News

Flu season runs approximately from October to May, so it's in full swing, with more cases being reported as the weather gets colder.  Health agencies statewide are urging people to get their flu shots.  One reason some people don't, according to DHEC's Dr. Theresa Foo, is an old belief that flu shots actually give people a mild case of the flu.  Not true, she says.

Charleston artist Mary Whyte secretly scoured the country painting portraits for seven years as part of her latest project, "We the People".  Her ambition is as extraordinary as her subjects; our nation's veterans.

"I really believe our truest Americans really are our veterans," says Whyte.

Known for her watercolor paintings depicting American life, Whyte became part journalist part historian for her latest venture.  She knew she wanted to depict a variety of veterans from each of the 50 states.  But she wasn't exactly sure where to find them.

Every fall, fans of the University of South Carolina and Clemson University square up and begin preparing for one of the oldest rivalry games in southeast college football. For some, it means a bit of good old-fashioned ribbing and jokes that cast the other team in a not-so-flattering light; but for others, the football rivalry goes deeper, sometimes even going as far as dividing family members at the Thanksgiving Day dinner table. But have you ever wondered when, and why this legendary rivalry took root?

Charleston's first poet laureate has been called a Renaissance man.  Marcus Amaker boasts many talents.  He's a poet, a musician, a videographer, as well as a graphics and web designer.

But perhaps it's not what he does; instead how he does it, that distinguishes him.

The 43 year-old takes the mic at the Free Verse Poetry Festival he conceived three years ago.  Applause fills the halls of the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, mixed with the hypnotizing beat of drums. Behind the sticks is Quentin Baxter of the chart breaking group Ranky Tanky.

On this Veterans Days, students at the University of South Carolina are celebrating a national award they received for recorded conversations they conducted with veterans. The project is called The South Carolina Veterans Oral History Project.  It is a 2019 Oral History Association Elizabeth B. Mason Award winner.

"You get fit, but you don't get hit."  That's the way David Rispress of 9 Rounds Gym in Forest Acres describes the workout plan for Rock Steady Boxing.  It's a non-contact program of boxing exercises for people with Parkinson's Disease that has seen steady growth since its introduction around 2006. 

America's oldest gardens will blossom this winter with an ancient Chinese tradition; a lantern festival.

A glowing 20 foot dragon will greet visitors as Magnolia Plantations and Gardens opens at night for the first time since becoming a Charleston tourist attraction in 1870.  The Zigong Lantern Group of China has been busy building more than 20 displays that will illuminate nine acres.

Jasmine Road. Think of it as a path towards healing for women who once thought their lives of prostitution and other sex work were normal.

The women who come to Jasmine Road – a Greenville nonprofit that serves as a kind of rehab for mostly city women caught up in the revolving door of the criminal justice system – have had lives that are anything but normal. Most, says founder Beth Messick, began their lives in the sex trade when they were children; often sold in exchange for drugs when they were still single-digit ages.

Often by their mothers.

Six people across South Carolina recently joined the ranks of recipients of two prestigious state awards; the SC Governor’s Awards in the Humanities and the Fresh Voices in the Humanities Award.

In 1991, SC Humanities started honoring people who have made a career working in the humanities with the Governor’s award. In 2018, the organization started honoring those, just starting to make an impact in the field, with its Fresh Voices award. Executive Director Randy Akers shares what the organization looks for in each year’s winners.

Doug O'Neal spent 24 years in prison for the murder of a woman police still can't identify. But the evidence against him was so questionable that even the man who helped put him away says he's innocent.

90 years ago, panic gripped the New York Stock Exchange as the stock market crashed on "Black Tuesday," Oct. 29, 1929.  In four days, the market plummeted 25 percent, and investors lost $30 billion - 10 times the federal budget, and more than the United States spent on World War I.  

Despite recent rain across the state the drought continues.  The U.S. Drought Monitor says that almost half of the state is in what it calls a "severe drought."

Leonard Vaughan of the National Weather Service in Columbia says with the exception of coastal counties the rest of the state continues to be very dry. 

Vaughan says the problem is not just this year’s dry summer and fall, but the repeated cycles of drought South Carolina has been experiencing.  Over the past twenty years drought in the state has been significant.