Monday, June 9, 2025
In consequence of the recent illegal investigations of journalists by the FBI, the question is being asked ‘is it time for Attorney General Eric Holder to go?’
The more important question is whether it is time for the FBI to go?
Through a combination of successful propaganda and sympathetic journalism, the FBI is mythologized as the world’s number one law enforcement agency.
One look at the Columbia city budget deliberations tells you it’s an election year in the city.
Council recently pledged a two percent, across the board pay raise for all city employees in next year’s budget and even more for fire and police.
The firefighters received a 3.3 percent pay raise retroactive to January 1, 2013. Approximately 400 police officers and seventy 911 dispatchers will receive an additional 3.3 percent mid-year pay raise in January 2014.
History proves there is no better way to get city employees on the side of incumbent council members than to give them a pay raise in an election year.
While the South Carolina “Business Freedom to Choose Act” (H3290) remains stalled in a Senate committee, the Horry County Solid Waste Authority is making other plans to continue its flow control monopoly on solid waste disposal generated within the county borders in case the act should eventually pass.
The SWA is going to certain private haulers offering tipping fee discounts if the haulers will sign long term contracts to bring their waste to the SWA’s Hwy 90 landfill. This new “disposal agreement” would essentially keep flow control of solid waste in place for the SWA if it is outlawed by the General Assembly.
This year’s legislative session is down to the last four days and members of the General Assembly are again making sure nothing meaningful will come out of this session.
The Senate killed any chance for ethics reform with a vote that refused to move the ethics reform bill up in the waiting queue. So legislators will maintain ethics investigations in house, actually that means there won’t be any investigations, and we will again not know what their private sources of income are.
Earlier, a bill to expand the Freedom of Information Act was buried in the House where it was recommitted to the Judiciary Committee after getting a favorable vote out earlier. We wouldn’t want the members of the General Assembly to have to divulge their e-mails and other correspondence to the general public. Better they remain secret.
It now looks virtually certain that the new fiscal year, beginning July 1, 2013, will include increased taxes on the unincorporated areas of Horry County.
County council is expected to raise taxes by 3.5 mills in the unincorporated areas to fund new fire equipment and to fill some currently vacant positions.
The increase will amount to approximately $14 per $100,000 valuation on owner occupied homes, which will provide approximately $3.5 million in new revenue.
If these upgrades are not made to county fire service, council members say the county’s ISO rating will increase, especially in the rural areas, causing homeowners to pay higher fire insurance premiums.
Treasurer Curtis Loftis In Hospital With Chest Pains
Click READ FULL STORY below to wish Treasurer Loftis a speedy recovery.
South Carolina Treasurer Curtis Loftis has checked himself into a hospital after suffering chest pains.
Spokesman Brian DeRoy says Loftis underwent tests Monday and expects to be released on Tuesday. DeRoy says the Republican treasurer has been working long days recently and suspects he suffered from exhaustion.
Loftis’ fight with the commission that oversees retirees’ pension funds in the state led to a lawsuit last month that was quickly settled.
On Memorial Day, all Americans should think about the sacrifices made by military service members, their spouses, and their children. Instead, many Americans spend it as a day off of work, having a barbeque or watching baseball games. American Thinker asked some former and current members of the military to consider what Memorial Day means to them.
Many military families talk about the importance of the day but do not reflect on the actual meaning of this holiday. As Sam, a military spouse noted, “there are a lot of Gold Star Families in our neighborhood. In seeing that, my children are reminded each and every day that their mom might not come back from Afghanistan. I don’t want the children focusing on the sadness and the specifics of that day.”
The following is a statement released by Myrtle Beach native Everett Golson, through the University of Notre Dame sports department, regarding his academic suspension from the university. Golson will be ineligible to play for Notre Dame in the 2013 football season.
“I have been informed by the University of Notre Dame that due to my poor academic judgment that I have been suspended from the University for the 2013 Fall Term,” Golson said. “I take full responsibility for my poor choices and will do all that is asked of me to regain the trust of my family, friends, teammates, coaches and the entire Notre Dame community.”
“My parents and the community I grew up in have instilled values in me that have and will continue to allow me to be successful in the future. There have been many lessons learned as I worked to become the starting quarterback at Notre Dame and each was a result of Coach (Brian) Kelly’s belief in me as an athlete and a person.
SC Treasurer Curtis Loftis told fellow members of the S.C. Retirement System Investment Commission Thursday that a lawsuit with Bank of New York Mellon Corp. regarding the SC pension fund had been settled.
The lawsuit dated back to 2009 when the state alleged the bank had lost $200 million of state pension funds through bad investments associated with the financial meltdown of 2008-09. The suit was run through the SC Treasurer’s office beginning with Loftis’ predecessor Converse Chellis.
Loftis declined to discuss details of the settlement with the commission until all settlement provisions are completed, according to provisions of the settlement.
Richland County Council voted again Tuesday night to delay payments of attorney fees associated with the November 6, 2012 election disaster that kept voters standing in line at polls for six or more hours at some locations.
The council asked its staff lawyer to audit 46 pages of attorney fees, totaling $101,675.80, looking for any charges that should not be attributed to the county. Questions about the county being charged for attorney fees associated with then election director Lillian McBride were raised during the discussion.
McBride resigned her position after catching the flak for the numerous voting regularities associated with the election, which included a referendum on a $1.07 billion capital project sales tax initiative.
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