Charleston Currents

GOOD NEWS: USS Charleston to be commissioned March 2

Staff reports | The Columbus Street Terminal in Charleston will host a March 2 commissioning of the new USS Charleston (LCS 18), an Independence-class littoral combat ship built in Mobile, Ala.

The $440 million ship is a state-of-the-art trimaran designed to go into shallow waters that other ships can’t. Awarded in December 2010, the ship was named by then-Navy Secretary Ray Mabus in January 2015 with Charlotte Riley, wife of former Mayor Joe Riley, serving as the ship’s sponsor. Launched in September 2017, the 418-foot ship with a speed of 44 knots (50.6 mph) was delivered in August 2018. It will be homeported in San Diego, Calif.

by Charleston Currents · 12/31/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Good news, News briefs

MYSTERY PHOTO: Interesting skyscape

Here’s a photo of a skyscape somewhere in South Carolina. Just what is it and where is it? Send your guess to editor@charlestoncurrents.com with “Mystery Photo” in the subject line. Please make sure to include your name and contact information.

Last issue’s mystery
Several readers correctly identified the ship in the March 26 as the newly-christened USS Ralph Johnson, named for a local Marine hero who died in Vietnam. But the question wasn’t to name the ship, but to identify who named the ship.

by Charleston Currents · 04/02/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Mystery Photo, Photos

GOOD NEWS: C of C’s study abroad program ranks 4th nationally

Staff reports | The Institute of International Education (IIE) has ranked College of Charleston as the No. 4 institution in the United States among the top 40 master’s level colleges and universities for the total number of study abroad participants for the 2014-2015 academic year, according to a press release.

by Charleston Currents · 01/16/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Good news, News briefs

BRACK: Mabus winds up service as leader of America’s away team

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | For U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, presence matters for “America’s away team” – the almost 900,000 sailors and Marines who comprise the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps under his leadership.

You see #presencematters in tweets and on Facebook and Instagram. You hear about it in the hundreds of talks given by Mabus as he has traveled 1.35 million miles around the world. Since 2009 when he took office, Mabus has been to more than 150 countries and all 50 states to meet the men and women serving in the Navy and Marines and help the country reconnect with their service around the world.

by Andy Brack · 12/19/2016 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

Winter, center, at a Mississippi church service. Images courtesy of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation.

BRACK: We need more inspirational leaders like William Winter

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Whenever there’s a letter or card in the mail from Mississippi, it’s bound to be inspirational. And it’s bound to be from a guy you might not have heard of but should know more about.

Meet former Mississippi Gov. William F. Winter, a public sector healer whose decency, goodness and vision for a better South gently motivates people to be kinder and more accepting of each other.

by Andy Brack · 08/15/2016 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views

Photo: New USS Charleston

U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus signs a framed poster that shows the new USS Charleston, which he named during a Friday ceremony at the Charleston Maritime Center.

by Special to Charleston Currents · 01/12/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Photos