Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Local and state officials are sending a lot of mixed messages about the Atlantic Beach Bikefest next year.
So far this week, Atlantic Beach Mayor Jake Evans said the town supported the Atlantic Beach Bikefest and it would continue. The next day, Governor Nikki Haley reiterated the Atlantic Beach Bikefest was bad for South Carolina and it needed to end.
Each admitted they had not talked to the other. Is picking up a phone so hard?
In town for an annual Hurricane Preparedness Conference, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, referring to the Memorial Day Weekend Black Bike Festival, “It’s time for that festival to come to an end.”
Haley said the state can let the people of Atlantic Beach know “we will help them with tourism, we will help them in any way to strengthen their community, but we are not going to promote any events going forward that do any harm to the citizens of South Carolina and that’s exactly what happened…”
Haley made her comments at a press conference held after a one hour meeting with Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes, Horry County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus and other officials from around Horry County.
The desire for casino gambling has never left the minds of certain players along the Grand Strand.
In 2009, this group put its initial support behind Gresham Barrett in the governor’s race. Remember the $85,000 funneled to Barrett that was part of Coastal Kickback?
It only takes the signature of the governor on an agreement with a Native American tribe to bring casino gambling into the state. Both state and local governments are not part of the process.
The S.C. Ethics Commission and its executive director Herb Hayden have been sued by The South Carolina Public Interest Foundation for violating the FOIA law by “responding with a falsehood.”
The foundation, a Greenville based government watchdog organization, and its founder Ned Sloan have been very successful over the years filing lawsuits against government agencies and officials for violating state law.
The lawsuit evolves from an attempt by internet media outlet TheNerve.org to obtain a copy of a letter that ethics commission attorney Cathy Hazelwood sent to Gov. Nikki Haley directing the governor to reimburse the state for travels costs associated with a fundraising event.
Sen. Vincent Sheheen, the presumptive Democratic nominee to challenge Gov. Nikki Haley for the governor’s seat in the upcoming November general election, called out New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for hypocrisy.
Sheheen sent a letter to Christie calling on the N.J. governor to explain why the Republican Governors Association, which Christie chairs, financed an ad attacking Sheheen for Sheheen’s stance on Medicaid expansion.
Sheheen’s reasoning? The ad attacks Sheheen for taking a position, regarding federal dollars for Medicaid expansion, that Christie shares and has already accomplished in New Jersey.
The move of the S.C. State Farmers Market to Lexington County in 2010 is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with S.C. politics.
The battle between Richland County and Lexington County over the new site for the market included allegations against then Rep. Nikki Haley of concealing income from a state contractor on her Statement of Economic Interests.
Haley was exonerated of ethics charges associated with that income by the S.C. House Ethics Committee in June 2012 in what can only be described by anyone who watched the proceedings as a “rigged” hearing.
New Jersey governor Chris Christie discovered the real meaning of the political microscope in the last couple of days when a scandal that had been brewing around his administration broke into the national spotlight Wednesday.
Whether Christie knew about it or not, closing a couple of traffic lanes to cause massive traffic congestion into the George Washington Bridge for a couple of days as retribution for failing to get the endorsement of a small time New Jersey mayor is peanuts as far as political scandals go.
However, when you are thought of as a leading candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, it takes over national news.
Pre-filed bills for an upcoming session of the SC General Assembly always provide interesting reading, especially in an election year.
Three definitely caught our eye in recent weeks.
Sen. Katrina Shealy is evidently trying to give her friend Gov. Nikki Haley a campaign issue by filing a bill that proposes to eliminate the state’s income tax over a five-year period.
A recent story in The Nerve detailed the internet publication’s difficulties in obtaining a letter from the SC Ethics Commission to Gov. Nikki Haley.
According to the story, a freedom of information request was sent September 5, 2013 to the commission requesting a copy of an August 28, 2013 letter commission attorney Cathy Hazelwood wrote to Gov. Nikki Haley directing the governor to reimburse the state for travel costs incurred by her and her campaign staff during a June trip to North Carolina.
Initially, commission executive director Herb Hayden responded by saying no such letter was sent.
Sen. Vincent Sheheen got in the middle of the ethics reform debate in South Carolina with a letter to Sen. Luke Rankin, chairman of the S.C. Senate Ethics Committee.
In his letter, Sheheen, a Democrat who is expected to oppose Gov. Nikki Haley next fall in a rematch of the 2010 gubernatorial election, advocates stopping “constant abuses in order to clean up our state government.”
Specifically Sheheen advocates barring the use of the state airplane, state cars or any other state vehicles from being for political purposes including carrying political staff to events or for conducting fundraising activities.
Speak Up…