SC News

  Ten people drown every day in the United States. Many of them thought they could swim, but according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 37 percent of American adults can’t swim the length of a pool. The U.S. Masters swimming organization has begun a national campaign to teach adults to swim. The program has come to Charleston, where aquatics manager Jennifer Ayers-Millar says that while adults are more fearful of water if they don’t learn to swim as children, the program is teaching adults to manage their fear.

  In a vault at the University of South Carolina’s Thomas Cooper Library reside numerous collections of rare books and papers from some of the world’s great writers – F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Robert Burns, to name a few. Elizabeth Suddeth, director of Rare Books and Special Collections, takes us to the vault and talks about how the library attracted these collections, and its growing reputation as a destination for researchers and a magnet for prestigious literary collections.

In 2015, hunters killed 7,922 deer less than the year before.  The deer season fell short for several reasons -- from August to December, South Carolina saw flooding, unseasonably warm temperatures, season closings, and inaccessible roads. Cooper McKim speaks with experts to learn what made 2015's deer season so unique.

  Hailing from New York City, Melissa Stern has brought her traveling exhibition, The Talking Cure to Redux Contemporary Art Center in Charleston SC. The show is a multi-media project featuring clay sculpture and a drawing blend with creative writing, the spoken word and mobile technology. Viewers are encouraged to look, listen and read while considering their own interpretations of the work.

The Talking Cure is on exhibit at Redux Contemporary Art Center ,136 St Philip St, Charleston, through August 6, 20016.

South Carolinians celebrate elements of the state’s culture in festivals all over the state, and especially its foodstuffs, from peaches to peanuts.  So it’s natural that they would establish a festival to proclaim their love for another traditional culinary favorite – cornbread.  In today’s report, a visit to the South Carolina Cornbread Festival  reveals that there’s more to it than the traditional buttered variety found in many homes.  Festival organizer Sabrina Odom tells us that people make cornbread in a large variety of styles and flavors, from pineapple cornbread to sweet potato cor

On October 3, 2015, the Pavlovich Ballet School in Columbia was enjoying its newly-renovated facility, including state-of-the-art sound equipment and a new dance floor completed just two months earlier.  The next day owner Radenko Pavlovich watched eight feet of water send the piano floating through the studio, destroying it and everything else. On the first of April, the dance studio finally re-opened. Tut Underwood reports on its process of recovery.

  A familiar sight on Southern country roads, and sometimes in towns, is kudzu.  The ubiquitous and fast-growing vine was imported from Asia as a decorative plant in the late 19th century, and promoted during the 1930s and 40s as forage for livestock and control for erosion.  According to Clemson Extension agent Dr. Tim Davis, it didn’t quite work out that way.  The plant, which can grow up to a foot a day, spread rapidly throughout the South.  But Davis and Dr.

  On select weekend nights throughout the year, Congaree National Park in Richland County offers the public a glimpse – or, more accurately, usually an earful – of nature when it conducts its popular Owl Prowls.

    Wildlife does not recognize borders, and so in 1978, a non-native species, welcomed or not, moved into the Palmetto State – the coyote. It has not only caused problems for hunters (where it has affected the deer population) and livestock farmers (where it preys on cattle, goats and more), but also has moved into cities, causing concerns among people not used to seeing these wild predators. 

This year’s session of the S.C. General Assembly has come to an end.  In the final days state lawmakers finally passed a major roads funding bill.  Russ McKinney has this round up of the week of this year's session.

With one week remaining in the 2016 legislative session, many priority matters for this year remain un-settled.  Russ McKinney gives us the rundown on this week in South Carolina politics and what to expect in the final week of the legislative session.  

With only a few weeks left in this legislative session, this week has seen a flurry of action on various gun bills in the South Carolina General Assembly.  Host Russ McKinney has this look back on the week in the South Carolina Legislature.

A white former North Charleston police officer has been charged with federal civil rights violations for shooting and killing an unarmed black man last year. 

Michael Slager has been indicted with violating Walter Scott’s civil rights. He’s also charged with obstruction of justice for knowingly misleading authorities investigating the incident.

Slager was charged with unlawful use of weapon during the commission of a crime. He also faces a state murder trial scheduled for October. Last fall, North Charleston approved a $6.5 million civil settlement with Scott's family.

Next years' $7.5 Billion state budget has now passed the House and the Senate, and final passage of a farm aid bill could set-up a veto fight between the legislature and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.

Russ McKinney reports on the week in the South Carolina Legislature.

After four years, the South Carolina Senate passes a legislative ethics reform package, and there's new hope for a roads funding bill for this year’s session.  Host Russ McKinney gives us an update on happenings in the South Carolina Legislature.