GOOD NEWS: Pinckney, Haley, Riley to be honored by Institute

Staff reports  |  The Riley Institute at Furman University in January will honor the late state Sen. Clementa Pinckney, the pastor slain in June with eight worshippers in Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, with the David H. Wilkins Award for Excellence in Legislative Leadership, the Institute has announced.

Pinckney

It said the posthumous recognition would be accepted by Pinckney’s widow, Jennifer, at the Institute’s annual awards dinner on Jan. 12, 2016, in Columbia.

“Senator Pinckney’s life was characterized by humility, intelligence and a commitment to those citizens left out of the economic mainstream in South Carolina,” said Riley Institute Executive Director Don Gordon.  “He worked with colleagues in the Senate and elsewhere for the common good in our state. “

Also to be recognized with the Wilkins Award for Excellence in Civic Leadership are S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley and outgoing Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, both of whom will speak at the event and discuss their collaboration during the crisis involving the deaths the Emanuel Nine.

The annual ceremony honors David Wilkins, who served as speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives and as U.S. ambassador to Canada.  Wilkins will co-host the event with former U.S. Secretary of Education and former two-term governor of South Carolina Dick Riley and Furman President Elizabeth Davis.  More.

In other Good News:

Tecklenburg inaugural committee. Charleston Mayor-elect John Tecklenburg is to hold a press conference today to announce his 2016 inaugural committee, which will be co-chaired by businesswoman Anita Zucker and attorney Wilbur E. Johnson. Richard Jerue, who is education director at the Gailliard Center, will be events coordinator. More detail will be provided at TecklenburgForMayor.com.

Qualey, McCoy say protect Spit. Charleston County Council member Joe Qualey and state Rep. Peter McCoy, both Republicans from James Island, sent a letter last week to the chair of Charleston’s state legislative delegation opposing development of Captain Sam’s Spit at the tail end of Kiawah Island. Qualey wrote that the Spit was “one of the last public access areas on Kiawah and we believe it must stay that way.” He said he would try to get council to pass a resolution to oppose a bill that weakened language on beachfront development. Read the letter.

Children’s Village is open. Magnolia Plantation and Gardens has a Children’s Village of nine child-size buildings that includes Santa’s workshop, a candy factory and elf bunk house that will be open until Dec. 31, 2015. There’s also a Christmas train that will take up to 35 passengers through the attraction, open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., on each weekend through Christmas. More: MagnoliaPlantation.com.