Charleston Currents – 2016

PHOTO ESSAY: Cynthia’s Italian vacation

You’ve got to love this colorful, watermelon-themed bicycle parked on a street in Florence, Italy. How Italian! How uplifting!

This photo and others below are by Charleston’s Cynthia Bledsoe, who has a photographic eye we’ve long admired. When we learned she was headed to Italy recently for a vacation, we asked her to share some of her favorite travel pictures with us to give us a taste and feel of Italy. You won’t be disappointed starting with some photos from Tuscany and Umbria in the north and followed by images from the Sorrento area south of Naples. Thanks, Cynthia!

by Charleston Currents · 04/27/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Photos

CALENDAR, April 25+: From art to a run to your skin

On the calendar for the week of April 25: Art in the Barn, Law Day Community Run, free skin cancer screening, Lowcountry Giving Day, more.

by Charleston Currents · 04/25/2016 · Comments are Disabled · calendar

REVIEW: When Crickets Cry

A novel by Charles Martin: This book looks at how different people react to tragedies in their lives, yet it is very uplifting. A man who has an unexplained tragedy in his past meets a 7-year-old girl who is living a tragedy in her life now. However, the author makes us love these characters and ultimately come to root for them.

by Charleston Currents · 04/25/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Features, Reviews

HISTORY: Yellow fever

S.C. Encyclopedia | Yellow fever was one of the most dreaded diseases in South Carolina during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Along with malaria, it helped establish the reputation of the South Carolina Lowcountry as a dangerously unhealthy place for whites and was used to justify African slavery. Like malaria, yellow fever is transmitted by mosquitoes and strikes in warm weather. Unlike malaria, which spread over most of the state, yellow fever was largely restricted to seaports by the habits of the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 04/25/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Features, S.C. Encyclopedia

PHOTO: Whaddya lookin’ at, buddy?

If you’ve been a longtime reader of Charleston Currents, you’ve seen this incline from Magnolia Plantation and Gardens before. In the past, though, contributing photographer Michael Kaynard snapped photos of alligators or turtles — or both — sunning in a swampy area around the attraction. This time, he found a duck and her seven — or eight — ducklings. How many do you see?

by Michael Kaynard · 04/25/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Photos

FOCUS: Time for another look at the “new reverse mortgage?”

By David Heilman, guest contributor | Once viewed as a last resort financial option advertised by aging celebrities on late-night television, reverse mortgages have long suffered from a bad reputation. Now thanks to new qualifications and needed program changes by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the “new reverse mortgage” is getting more attention from many and is seen as a viable retirement option.

These changes are beneficial to the industry and will help expand the conversation around how best to use home equity in retirement planning.

by Charleston Currents · 04/25/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

BRACK: The problem with big money in S.C. politics

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The amount of money spent in politics these days is obscene.

But even we were flabbergasted — and kind of sickened — when one New Jersey man gave $250,000 on March 31 to Gov. Nikki Haley’s new political advocacy organization known as A Great Day SC. But he wasn’t alone. The new group collected only six donations, five from out of state, for a grand total of $515,000.

by Andy Brack · 04/25/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Views

MYSTERY: Old South-themed photo

This photo might be a little tough, but if you’ve traveled around Charleston County, you might have seen it. (That’s about as much of a hint as we’ll give.) First to correctly guess the location of this Michael Kaynard photo gets a pair of ticket vouchers for box seats at a Charleston RiverDogs’ game. Send your best guess to: editor@charlestoncurrents.com — and make sure to include the name of the town in which you live.

by Charleston Currents · 04/25/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Mystery Photo, Photos

GOOD NEWS: 34th North Charleston Arts Fes starts April 29

Staff reports | The North Charleston Arts Fest, started 34 years ago as a half-day community celebration, kicks off nine days of free and ticketed activities on April 29 with a bevy of activities.

by Charleston Currents · 04/25/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Good news, News briefs