GOOD NEWS: Big-time country star, prominent author celebrate America

Staff reports  |  Grammy Award-winning Tim McGraw and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham will explore American history through music at a special 7:30 p.m. June 11 performance at Charleston Gaillard Center that promises to be a high point of the summer.

As they publish their new joint book, Songs of America, Meacham and McGraw are giving an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at what went into creating this book and their friendship as they combine their individual perspectives as writer and artist to create a unique view of the role music has played in uniting and shaping our nation.

Whether you are a Republican, a Democrat, conservative or liberal, the Songs of America Book Tour will be both illuminating and entertaining. To add to the evening, the audience will get some special musical performances of songs from the book by McGraw. Every ticket includes a copy of Songs of America: Patriotism, Protest, and the Music That Made a Nation (a $30 value).  Tickets cost $65 to $350.  Learn more.

In other Good News:

Summer reading.  Charleston County Public Library again offers a rich summer reading program for children, teens and adults now through Aug. 17.  All can win prizes in the program.  Students in Charleston County public schools has been automatically registered.  Kids ages 11 and younger earn prizes for reading or listening to stories. Rewards are distributed to kids who complete five, 15 and 30 hours of reading, and prizes include the S.C. Reading Medal, a RiverDogs game pass, vouchers for local attractions, and more.  Students entering grades 6 to 12 can win cool prizes for reading whatever they like. Prizes include free food, passes to local attractions, and gift cards.  Participants ages 18 and older are eligible for bi-monthly gift card prizes and a grand prize drawing.  “Studies show that students who don’t read during the summer will be less prepared when school resumes,” said CCPL Executive Director Angela Craig. “The school district and CCPL are proud to work together to keep children engaged and fight the summer slide.”

Learn more:  Visit ccpl.org/summeronline to view the children’s Summer Reading program guide, which lists all the free and fun events scheduled throughout the summer or pick one up at our local branch. 

Outdoor classroom.  On each Saturday in June, the Children’s Garden at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens will become a hands-on outdoor classroom where children can experience science and nature. Saturday activity will include a Bird Day  on June 15; Prehistoric Jam, June 22; and Kidz Karnival with magician John Tudor, June 29. Activities will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Free with paid garden admission.

Congratulations.  A hat tip to the Sea Islands Chamber of Commerce, which turns nine years old on June 18.  To celebrate, the chamber is hosting an after-hours event at its office from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. June 18 with beer, wine, food and drawings for prizes.  RSVP to:  info@seaislandchamber.org.  Location: 2817 Maybank Highway, Unit 1, Johns Island, S.C.

Another big hat tip.  Congratulations to the Charleston Beer Fest , which was attended May 18 in Riverfront Park in North Charleston by more than 4,100 people.  This year’s festival, presented by Tabor Mortgage Group, generated more than $140,000 for the nonprofit Palmetto Community Care to fund its work in providing complete compassionate HIV care and prevention education awareness across the tri-county area.  More.

Updated website.  The City of Charleston has a new website designed to make city services and information more accessible and mobile-friendly, particularly for tablets, smartphones and other electronic devices.  “With the launch of the redesigned, mobile-friendly website this morning, we are continuing our commitment to communicate more effectively with our citizens,” Mayor John Tecklenburg said last week.  “The new website, new Citizen Services Desk, new city app and more new technologies on the way also provide citizens more efficient and responsive access to city services and representatives.”

Back to Columbia.  State legislators will head back to Columbia at the end of the month to deal with a handful of gubernatorial budget vetoes, but it’s still not clear why they are doing this now, instead of doing what they recently did — wait until the traditional start of the session in January.  Read more.

Unaffordable housing.  The state House of Representatives is taking a look this summer at how the state agency that deals with affordable housing is actually doing.  It’s also been more than 15 years since an assessment has been done (the agency is working on that now).  According to this story by sister publication correspondent Lindsay Street, “S.C. Rep. Mandy Powers Norrell, D-Lancaster, who serves on the subcommittee told Statehouse Report  she is “reserving judgment” about SC Housing, but added there were “some concerns” without elaborating.’