Charleston Currents

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FOCUS: Charleston Currents publishes final issue

Staff reports | Charleston Currents, a weekly publication that focuses on good news about the Lowcountry, is publishing its final issue today after more than 13 years and 650 weekly issues.

“It’s been a great run, but now that we also publish the Charleston City Paper, it’s time to focus efforts on continuing to improve its local news and feature story offerings,” said publisher Andy Brack. “Since purchase of the City Paper two years ago, many of the weekly sections in Charleston Currents have also been published in the the City Paper. Now it’s time to consolidate these efforts.”

For example, Brack’s weekly column is published every Friday in Statehouse Report and over the weekend in the City Paper. If you enjoy the Currents’ News Briefs section, you can find five stories every morning in the City Paper’s email newsletter of daily headlines. (Sign up for CP newsletters for free.)

by Charleston Currents · 12/12/2021 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

FOCUS: Legislator warns of “shell game” on education funding

By Skyler Baldwin | A Midlands state senator who is passionate about education policy warned during a Charleston panel discussion that voters would see a host of distractions from key issues in the coming legislative session.

“You’re going to see some of the shell games this year,” said Sen. Mike Fanning, a Fairfield County Democrat, during a panel discussion with legislative colleagues at a meeting of the S.C. School Boards Association. “You’ve already heard some of it — sex books in Fort Mill libraries, critical race theory — you’ll hear every single thing thrown out the one year South Carolina has more revenue than we’ve ever had in the history of the state — the one year we’ll have more additional revenue than we will ever have in the next 100 years.”

“Don’t buy it,” he said.

by Charleston Currents · 12/06/2021 · 1 comment · Focus, Good news

I-526 from North Charleston to Mount Pleasant would be widened and replaced under some SCDOT plans | Credit: Flickr user donwest48

FOCUS: Wednesday is last day for public comment on I-526 project

By Skyler Baldwin | The online public information meeting for the Interstate 526 Corridor (I-526) EAST Planning and Environmental Linkages project launched by the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) is ending Dec. 1.

“The 23-mile connection between West Ashley and Mount Pleasant, known as the I-526 Lowcountry Corridor (LCC), has been identified by SCDOT as one of the state’s most congested interstate highways — and it’s among the Department’s top priorities statewide,” reads the project website.

Potential changes could bring more lanes, new technological advancements or other strategies aimed at meeting the growing demand for more capacity on the interstate. I-526 from North Charleston to Mount Pleasant would be widened and replaced under some SCDOT plans.

by Charleston Currents · 11/29/2021 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

FOCUS: S.C.’s long ties with Barbados, a new republic

By Herb Frazier | Barbados will become a republic on Nov. 30 when it removes Queen Elizabeth as the head of state on the 55th anniversary of the nation’s independence from England.

Barbados and Charleston have a historic and cultural tie that dates back to April 1670. Settlers from Barbados established the Carolina colony which grew into modern-day Charleston.

As a parliamentary republic, Barbados will have a ceremonial elected president as head of state. The prime minister remains the head of government.

The move cuts the last vestiges of the colonial umbilical cord with England, said Charleston resident Rhoda Green, Barbados’ honorary consul to South Carolina and founder of the Barbados and the Carolina Legacy Foundation.

by Charleston Currents · 11/22/2021 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

FOCUS: Analyst says to review portfolio on proposed tax law changes

By Kyra Morris, contributing editor | Many may be concerned about the changes in the new taxes under the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act, which is President Joe Biden’s signature social safety net and climate change bill. It has received a procedural vote in the House and still needs a final vote before it heads back to the U.S. Senate.

The analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office indicating the ultimate cost of this bill will be a determining factor. This article reviews the proposals as of Nov 6, and may at least give us some guidance and potential planning ideas.

Little change for many. The first thing that needs to be remembered is that if your taxable income is below $450,000 for married filing jointly (MFJ) or $400,000 for single (S) taxpayers, the proposed new tax laws have very little changes.

by Charleston Currents · 11/15/2021 · 3 comments · Focus, Good news

Rotary International President Shekhar Mehta and his wife Rashi met Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg Saturday afternoon at the Francis Marion Hotel. Also pictured are former Rotary International Vice President Anne Matthews of Columbia and the local Rotary district's current president, Paul R. Walter of Hilton Head Island. Photo provided.

FOCUS: Area Rotarians celebrate $2 million of charitable giving

By Andy Brack | South Carolina’s generosity was on full display Saturday night as about 50 big-donor Rotarians celebrated at a gala in Charleston’s Francis Marion Hotel — the very place their predecessors helped to build 97 years ago.

In attendance to pat them on the back was the most prominent Rotarian in the world — Rotary International President Shekhar Mehta of West Bengal, India. Mehta, an accountant by profession, visited the Holy City to thank Rotarians from the eastern half of the state for raising more than $2 million in new gifts of $10,000 or more over the last 18 months to help Rotary International’s philanthropic projects around the world. Among its top efforts are global projects to eradicate polio and provide clean drinking water to third-world countries.

“There are super-generous people in your area,” Mehta said in an exclusive interview. “They’re doing amazing things in the world. …

by Andy Brack · 11/08/2021 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

FOCUS: Battle for state’s top education job getting started now

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | State Superintendent Molly Spearman’s announcement last week that she wouldn’t seek reelection was an early surprise, but not particularly unexpected.

She’s made progress in upgrading the state’s perennially limp education system the last few years by helping to provide much-needed boosts to teacher pay, update the school bus fleet and consolidate some small districts, which should lead to better education in those areas.

But in the recent months of the pandemic, she struggled with her own Republican Party in efforts to keep students and teachers safe. Whether it was about mask mandates or virtual schools, the General Assembly and Gov. Henry McMaster always seemed to be poking their fingers in school business that should have been left to the state’s constitutional officer elected to deal with schools.

by Andy Brack · 11/01/2021 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

James Island resident Rose Ann Boxx mourns the death of her brother from cancer almost 40 years ago. Photo by Andy Brack.

FOCUS: Lejeune’s toxic water haunts James Island survivor

Staff reports | When James Island resident Rose Ann Boxx’s brother turned 32 in the late 1970s, he was diagnosed with colon cancer.

The diagnosis for Robert Thomas, came as a surprise — because of his age and also because there was no history of cancer of any kind on either side of the family. But another surprise loomed for kids like Rose Ann and Robert who spent formative years in the late 1950s at Camp Lejeune where their father was a Marine — the water was toxic, poisoned for more than three decades by chemicals that leaked into the water supply. Thousands — including Robert and, eventually, Rose Ann — got cancer.

She recalled last week how her older brother Robert went through several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatment to try to reverse the disease’s spread. In the throes of the disease, he managed to make jokes, she said, likening himself to a large Pac-Man, his body being slowly gnawed away by a foreign, floating enemy.

by Charleston Currents · 10/24/2021 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, News

Students received free glasses from a California nonprofit. Photos provided.

FOCUS: Sanders-Clyde students are 1st in state to get group’s glasses

Staff reports | More than 80 students at Sanders-Clyde Elementary School in Charleston are the first in South Carolina to get new prescription glasses thanks to a nonprofit called Vision to Learn, according to the Charleston County School District. The organization offers screenings, exams, and glasses to children in need in Title 1 schools at no charge to the students or their families.

“The younger ones wanted to pick out glasses in their favorite color and the older students were excited to actually be able to see,” said Allison Wukovits, nurse liaison for the school district. “We’re confident that we’re going to see improved behavior and grades as a result of this program. You can’t learn if you can’t see.”

Of the students screened, about one in three needed an exam and 80 percent of those students needed glasses, the district said.

by Charleston Currents · 10/18/2021 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

FOCUS: Bedshred’s recycling keeps mattresses out of landfill

By Skyler Baldwin | A local mattress manufacturer and retailer has helped to keep more than 125,000 mattresses out of landfills through aggressive recycling and disposal procedures.

K.C. Rennie told the Charleston City Paper last week that his company, The Charleston Mattress, started Bedshred six years ago after seeing the impact that discarded mattresses had on landfills. It now works with Nine Lives Recycling in Pamplico, S.C., where the materials are stored and processed.

“We started BedShred mainly as a way to dispose of old mattresses whenever we delivered new ones through The Charleston Mattress, just because we didn’t want to keep taking them to the landfill,” Rennie said. “They’re torn down, destroyed and never used in new mattresses — the foam becomes carpet padding and the metal goes to the scrapyard and the wood disappears real quick.”

by Charleston Currents · 10/11/2021 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news