SC News

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.

The US House of Representatives voted last week to formalize its impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. On this episode of the South Carolina Lede, host Gavin Jackson is joined by the Post and Courier's Jamie Lovegrove, fresh off a reporting trip to Washington, to discuss the latest on the inquiry.

 Leading up to the 2020 election, South Carolina Lede is keeping you up to speed on what the candidates are saying on the campaign trail in the Palmetto State with these "Trail Bites" mini-episodes.

On this edition for the week of October 31, 2019, we hear remarks from President Donald Trump from his speech at Benedict College, a historically black college, about criminal justice reform.

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.  

On this episode of the South Carolina Lede, host Gavin Jackson is joined by Maayan Schechter, of The State newspaper, and Meg Kinnard, of the Associated Press, to talk about the criminal justice reform summit held at Benedict College that was attended by 10 Democratic candidates as well as President Donald Trump.

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. 

Each October and early Novemeber a series of walks called "Out of the Darkness" call attention to the problem of suicide in South Carolina.  Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the state and the nation, but among South Carolina residents aged 15-34, it's the second.  

Helen Pridgen, statewide director of A.F.S.P., the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said 838 South Carolinians were lost to suicide in 2017, the most recent year from which statistics are available.  She said the most common method of suicide is, as one would suspect, firearms.

  Leading up to the 2020 election, South Carolina Lede is keeping you up to speed on what the candidates are saying on the campaign trail in the Palmetto State with these "Trail Bites" mini-episodes.

On this edition for the week of October 24, 2019, host Gavin Jackson speaks with Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) during her visit to Orangeburg, SC on October 18.

On this episode of the South Carolina Lede, host Gavin Jackson is joined by The State's Maayan Schechter to look at Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D-Mass.) campaign approach to South Carolina and her popularity in the state which remains a stronghold for rival 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden.

On this edition of the South Carolina Lede, host Gavin Jackson speaks with South Carolina-based photojournalist Callie Shell about her new book, "Hope, Never Fear: A Personal Portrait of the Obamas." They discuss her years documenting the lives of Barack and Michelle Obama, her work covering seven presidential campaigns, and what goes into telling the news of the day visually.

In an interview with South Carolina Public Radio’s Thelisha Eaddy, Meghna Chakrabarti, host and editor of On Point, discusses how words from her father helped guided her to a professional career in public radio and what she hopes the national program can accomplish next. This interview has been edited and condensed.

Thelisha Eaddy: How did you navigate your way into the world of public media?

As the state’s seven U.S. Congressmen return to Washington this week, it’s no secret where each stands on the House impeachment inquiry.  The five Republican members are firmly behind President Donald Trump.  Sixth District Congressman Jim Clyburn, the third ranking Democrat in the House strongly supports the inquiry.  Freshman Democrat Joe Cunningham has yet to take a position.