By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The flu that you prepare for every winter kills about 100 South Carolinians every year, according to state health data.
To make sure you don’t get it, you do common-sense things: Get a flu shot, wash your hands more, cover your mouth or nose when you cough or sneeze, and stay at home when you’re sick.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Halfway through the nationally-aired South Carolina presidential debate on Feb. 25, the television got turned off. Too much bickering. Too little substance. Too much crosstalk.
There’s got to be a better way for voters to get information than big spectacles where candidates have 75 seconds to answer direct questions and challengers can pipe in for only a few seconds. More serious discussion is needed.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Now is the perfect time to go on a media diet of one of our U.S. senators, Lindsey Graham.
Graham’s sycophantic bad karma isn’t needed these days. For the next six months, I’m taking a vacation from Graham and his increasingly irrelevant rhetoric.
:IN THIS EDITION
TODAY’S FOCUS: Political world to descend this week on South Carolina
COMMENTARY, Brack: Graham to get mute button for 6 months
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: S.C. Ports Authority
NEWS BRIEFS: One80 Place meets $24 million goal for affordable housing campaign
FEEDBACK: Pettigru quote is very familiar
MYSTERY PHOTO: Water tower
CALENDAR: Jazz standards set for March 9 at College of Charleston
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | For the presidential candidates, staffers, reporters and hangers-on starting to descend like locusts into South Carolina for its national debate and the Feb. 29 presidential primary, remember what native son James L. Pettigru wrote just after the state seceded in December 1860:
“South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum.”
In a lot of ways, that one sentence still rings true.
A reader from Alaska sent along this tranquil South Carolina scene. It looked familiar to us, but does it to you? Where is it? Send your best guess to editor@charlestoncurrents.com. And don’t forget to include your name and the town in which you live.
Our last Mystery Photo, “The sea life,” was kind of tough because fishing piers along the coast look similar. It wasn’t at Folly Beach, Cherry Point, Pawleys Island, Garden City or Surfside Beach. But several people correctly identified this pier at Myrtle Beach State Park.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | With all of the confusion after the Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses and creeping nastiness seeming to shape the party’s New Hampshire primary, look for South Carolina to come to the rescue to former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said something a couple of weeks back that’s been circling through my brain:
“Look, I have this firm belief that if America hasn’t broken your heart, you don’t love her enough.”
My heart is breaking as our nation is being torn apart in ways never imagined by founding fathers and leaders of the country for 200 years.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | There’s a backlog of untested rape kits in South Carolina because there’s more evidence coming in than authorized labs have the capacity to process.
One estimate is there are 1,800 evidence parcels that are waiting to be processed before cases can move forward. As of Dec. 31, the State Law Enforcement Division’s forensics lab had 1,333 untested rape kits waiting for processing, according to spokesman Tommy Crosby. Another 148 are being processed now.
Staff reports | Charleston-area residents will have multiple opportunities over the next week to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the region remembers his sacrifices and leadership in the days leading up to next week’s federal holiday.
The YMCA of Greater Charleston is coordinating most of the events, including these highlights:
MLK Ecumenical Service, 4 p.m. Jan. 19, Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, North Charleston. More than 1,000 people are expected to attend the event, which will feature a keynote address by Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, presiding prelate of the Tenth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church.
MLK Breakfast, 7:30 a.m., Jan 21, Charleston Gaillard Center (tickets). The keynote speaker will be entrepreneur and philanthropist Sheila C. Johnson, founder and CEO of Salamander Hotels & Resorts, co-founder of the Black Entertainment Television (BET) network, producer of the critically acclaimed film “The Butler,” and the first African American woman to achieve a billion-dollar net worth.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina! (2019) by editor and publisher Andy Brack offers incisive commentaries on the American South, politics, the common good and interesting South Carolina leaders. Available exclusively for Kindle for $7.99. A paperback version will be ready soon. Learn more.
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