By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Getting immunized with a COVID-19 vaccine is a huge act of kindness to your community.
While being vaccinated will give one a high level of personal protection against the highly infectious disease, it also helps to dampen its spread around the state.
By Andy Brack | Normalcy is slowly approaching after the lost year of COVID-19. As of Thursday, the state had received 2.5 million doses of vaccine. Medical professionals so far have administered 1.8 million doses, which means the state has used 72 percent of the on-hand supply that is continuing to come into the Palmetto State.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Different day, same story: Man buys a handgun and goes on a same-day rampage, killing several people. Everyday citizens say they’re shocked, but how can they be? This is the umpteenth time this narrative has played out.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Media have gotten so streamlined that only one newspaper wrote a story earlier this month when the S.C. House Ways and Means Committee approved a $9.8 billion budget.
That’s billion with a “B.” And that “B” means that it matters. But without reporters meticulously covering what’s going on with your state tax dollars throughout the whole process — and not just at the end when all of the deals have been cut — then there’s a better likelihood that someone will stick a pet project or two in the budget.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Our roadways are busy. Traffic is back. If you walk on downtown streets, there are more people than in a long time. Tourists are returning. Restaurants are opening. Airports are picking up steam.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | If you’re feeling stir crazy because of months of pandemic-related confinement to your home or hometown, there will be a day soon when travel will feel safe and comfortable again.
For most of us, it can’t come soon enough. For many, it may not matter exactly where the destination is. It’s just important that it not be at home.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The S.C. Election Commission is facing the possibility of a governing board that’s more partisan and beholden to the legislature after its director suggested pandemic changes to expand access to absentee voting in the November election.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Former S.C. Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth of Mount Pleasant and Grammy Award-winning trumpet player Charlton Singleton of Charleston have received the state’s highest award for 2021 for arts achievement from the S.C. Arts Commission.
““It means a lot to me that Charlton and I are getting this honor at the same time,” Wentworth said today about the S.C. Governor’s Awards for the Arts. “We used to teach together at [Charleston County] School of the Arts. We’ve improved together. It’s been so much fun to watch his trajectory. Because he got it too, It just means so much more. It’s just sweeter.”
Singleton received the award for Artist of the Year, while Wentworth received a special award.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The relative quiet on social media over the last month has been so loud that it’s still a shock.
Ever since Twitter cut off former President Donald Trump’s daily outlet of rage, there’s been a noticeable chilling of fractiousness in the country. Add to that a new president who is taking bold action on several long-ignored fronts and we find an America that is turning its back on constant confrontation and the politics of petty personalism.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Embarrassed by creating a controversial law that allowed utility companies to charge customers for projects that were not complete, the General Assembly wants to make it all go away.
So they essentially got rid of the 2007 Base Load Review Act after two power companies, the private SCE&G and the public Santee Cooper, suffered the humiliating failure in 2017 of a $9 billion project to build a nuclear plant in Fairfield County. Since then, a Virginia company swept in to take over SCE&G and its parent, SCANA, and Santee Cooper became the legislature’s favorite whipping boy.
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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