Charleston Currents

Good news

FOCUS: Charleston, N. Charleston to honor King over next week

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.

by Andy Brack · 01/12/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

NEWS BRIEFS: General Assembly to reconvene Tuesday

Staff reports | State lawmakers are expected to buckle down to work when the General Assembly reconvenes for its 2020 session Tuesday. The House likely will start on a bill related to Daylight Savings Time, while the state Senate could head straight into debate on the House-passed large education package.

by Charleston Currents · 01/12/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Good news, News briefs

FOCUS: Justify spending $1.1 billion on Interstate 526 widening

By Fred Palm, contributing editor | The S.C. Department of Transportation (SCDOT) proposes to widen Interstate 526 and redo the Interstate 26 intersection. This will be a massive redo of a major travel vector. The cost: at least $1.1 billion. The I-526 Corridor Analysis shows minor shifts in congestion or capacity improvement. The SCDOT website is open to the end of January for our comments.

SCDOT builds highways and wants us to focus on the four alternative highway routes. We are putting down our future regional investments and growth. Highway investment drives other future investments. Businesses use interstate distribution of their goods that grows our economy. Build it and they will come or follow. In a similar vein, railroad spines drove our country’s western development.

Transportation, flooding and economic factors drive the following decisions: Where homes get put; where business expands; and how long the commute follows. These are supporting, opposing, or conflicting factors.

* CLICK into the story to find how too take part in the SCDOT virtual public meeting and share your voice.

by Fred Palm · 01/06/2020 · 2 comments · Common Good, Focus, Views

Photo by Ruta Smith, Charleston City Paper.

ICYMI: Charleston celebrates “Nathalie Dupree Day”

Staff reports | Raise a glass and send wishes of tasty sugarplums, flaky biscuits, creamy grits, fresh shrimp and dessert delights to Charleston’s doyenne of Southern cooking, Nathalie Dupree, who turned 80 just before Christmas.

by Charleston Currents · 01/06/2020 · Comments are Disabled · Good news, News briefs

FOCUS: Plastic straws, bags, clamshells, more to go away in Charleston

Staff reports | New single-use plastic regulations that eliminate the use of single-use plastic carryout and merchandise bags, as well as some plastic carryout and food packaging items, start Jan. 1 in the city of Charleston.

The new requirements were enacted to maintain cleaner streets and waterways and preserve the beauty and livability of the Charleston area for generations to come, the city of Charleston said.

Among the items that no longer will be allowed are:

* Polystyrene (also known as plastic foam or StyrofoamTM) and other non-recyclable and non-compostable food service ware, carryout containers and food packaging materials such as bowls, boxes, clamshells, cups, plates, stirrers and straws.

* The selling or renting of polystyrene bowls, cups, plates, coolers, containers, ice chests, shipping boxes and packing material.

by Charleston Currents · 12/23/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news

GOOD NEWS: Port grows, Green’s mural, holiday safety, more

The S.C. Ports Authority says it is a good position for continued growth after a 2019 that has already seen handling of nearly 2.25 million twenty-foot equivalent container units (TEUs) since January. “Looking ahead to 2020, we expect to continue weathering uncertainty in the world economy, but our strong position in the Southeast and proximity to a booming consumer market will drive growth,” SCPA President and CEO Jim Newsome said in a press release.

by Charleston Currents · 12/23/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Good news, News briefs

Conservationist Charles Lane discusses 30 years of work to protect 300,000 acres of majestic Lowcountry lands and marshes. Photos by 'Andy Brack.

FOCUS: Conservationists celebrate protecting ACE Basin

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | More than 400 people Sunday celebrated the protection of 300,000 acres of majestic Lowcountry landscapes over the last 30 years on a balmy Sunday straight out of central casting.

The 30th anniversary of protecting the ACE Basin, the confluence of the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto rivers stretching from southern Charleston County through Beaufort County, attracted private landowners and the federal government as well as conservation organizations ranging from Ducks Unlimited to the Nature Conservancy.

“More ducks, fewer people” was the translation of a Latin phrase on commemorative glasses given to guests at the ceremony west of Adams Run on Yonge’s Island at historic Willtown Bluff Plantation, first settled in 1714. Now owned by the Lane family of Charleston and Savannah, it is an epicenter for collaborative conservation effort championed for three decades to safeguard the land and marshes of the Lowcountry. Thes areas often are considered the last wild places along the Eastern seaboard.

by Andy Brack · 12/09/2019 · 1 comment · Focus, Good news

Federal officials work to disentangle a northern right whale from fishing gear off the Florida coast. NOAA photo, 2008.

NEWS BRIEFS: Clock ticking for northern right whale

By Lindsay Street, Statehouse Report | A migrating whale that cruises through South Carolina waters is being killed at 10 times the rate its population can sustain, largely due to vessel-strikes and commercial fishery entanglements, experts say.

by Charleston Currents · 12/09/2019 · Comments are Disabled · News briefs

PHOTO FOCUS: “Lights of Magnolia” explodes with color, thrills, sounds

By Rob Byko, contributing photographer | Approaching Magnolia Plantation at night through the gates along a winding drive, you can tell you’re in for a treat. Over the treetops and through the underbrush, you see your first glimpse of the brilliant lights in colors too numerous to mention.

Entering the festival grounds, the evening explodes in color and sound. The lights’ reflections wash over joyful faces of patrons walking the garden paths. The light dances along ponds and through the eyes of children who seem lost in the fantasy.

An easy walking trail guides you first along a fairy tale of characters, followed by flowers and fauna taller than your head. Then you meet huge butterflies and ladybugs, pandas and peacocks. Turn a corner and you find a kaleidoscope from the animal kingdom featuring playful lions, stoic zebras and tigers so vivid they seem real.

Finally, the tour returns to fantasy, placing you face-to-face with a 200-foot-long dragon whose majestic head soars more than 45 feet in the air. …

by Rob Byko · 12/02/2019 · 1 comment · Focus, Good news, Photo Essay

GOOD NEWS: 33 schools take part in Giant Greeting Card Competition

Staff reports | First Baptist School in Charleston, Summerville Catholic School and Orange Grove Charter School in West Ashley won top awards in their divisions in the annual Giant Greeting Card Competition at the Holiday Festival of Lights.

by Charleston Currents · 12/02/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Good news, News briefs