Charleston Currents

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FOCUS, Palm: I-526 Extension is a huge boondoggle

By Fred Palm, contributing editor | The S.C. Joint Bond Review Committee last week sent Charleston County’s funding application to extend Interstate 526 to a four-person subcommittee to provide the due diligence of the facts of the financing. Why? Because years of skittish details about the project just do not fly.

Core issue: The basic problem that caused the delay by the Joint Bond Review Committee is found in the half-truths, equivocations, shell games, bait and switch, balderdash and peekaboo funding sources draped with inchoate statements about other displaced projects from the majority of Charleston County Council that backs the I-526 extension (I-526X). Through proposed no-see-em fiscal sleights of hand, the council’s Majority of Five offers to push through this incredibly expensive highway with zero contingency built off of a well-founded cost estimate because at its root, the extension is unjustifiable.

by Fred Palm · 02/25/2019 · 1 comment · Common Good, Focus, Good news, Views

ERA advocates in Tennessee in the late 1970s. Via Wikipedia.

BRACK: When being last can do the nation some real good

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Here’s a way that by being last, South Carolina lawmakers could do something really good: Pass the Equal Rights Amendment. Only one more state legislature has to approve it for it to become part of our nation’s basic protections.

You might have forgotten about the amendment, first approved by Congress in 1972, following the rise of the women’s movement in the 1960s. After approval, the amendment went to the states for ratification. Thirty-eight states are needed for ratification.

by Andy Brack · 02/25/2019 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views

S.C. House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington.

BRACK: Don’t miss the opportunity for education reform

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | House Speaker Jay Lucas is a man on a mission to reform South Carolina’s failing education system for the first time in more than 30 years.

“We have left generations of children in poverty behind in this state and every year that we don’t act [on education], we’ll continue to do that,” said Lucas, a powerfully built Hartsville Republican whose tired eyes mask a palpable intensity.

by Andy Brack · 02/18/2019 · 2 comments · Andy Brack, Views

FOCUS: How to cut your home’s carbon footprint, home decor tips

From Digit Matheny, contributing editor | You may work to reduce your personal carbon footprint by driving less and recycling, but do you consider the footprint of your home? Here are some tips to make your home and your wallet a little greener.

Buy efficient appliances. Appliances are getting more efficient every year, and some have better energy and water-use ratings than others. The energy rating of an appliance is easy to find and can be a great guide for those looking to reduce their electricity and water consumption.

Install low-use fixtures. Shower heads, toilets, faucets and other fixtures now come in models that use less water than others. These fixtures can lower a home’s utility bill as well as reduce the amount of water a home uses.

by Charleston Currents · 02/11/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Focus, Good news, Real estate

BRACK: Let’s confront the ghosts of our past and calm things down

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The ghosts of our past are boiling in a cauldron that is spewing fury and distress across America like lava jolting from a volcano.

And just like climate change, many deny or ignore how different segments of our society are colliding, getting hotter and hotter week after week. There’s an increasing sense that America is out of control, preferring dysfunction and confrontation to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

by Andy Brack · 02/11/2019 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Early books are first step to education reform success

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | If you want real education reform, give a free book a month to every child under five in South Carolina.

It’s a common-sense, quick, practical, affordable and proven investment that can make more of a difference than most of the fiddle-faddle in thick policy papers. It’s low-hanging fruit. And it’s easily achievable because there’s a delivery network already in place. It’s something Gov. Henry McMaster and legislators like GOP House Speaker Jay Lucas and Democratic Sen. Vincent Sheheen should embrace now.

by Andy Brack · 01/28/2019 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views

View of a 2016 caucus in Alaska. Via Wikipedia.

BRACK: S.C.’s role in 2020 presidential process is big, really big

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | South Carolina will again play an outsized role in picking the next presidential candidates for U.S. voters. It’s where the political rubber hits the road.

In large part, the story is told by the numbers …

by Andy Brack · 01/21/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

Scene from Bowen's Island looking toward Folly Beach, S.C.

BRACK: New “Beach” read offers critical conservation, political insights

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Conservationist Dana Beach years ago described how to keep development from mauling everything into a mess of sprawl.

Don’t, he said, talk or write about merely “protecting land.” Instead, use words to conceptualize protecting “special places” in South Carolina. The first approach is kind of clinical and vanilla. It outlines what one wants, but doesn’t link to what someone else may really care about. But the second method connects conservation with a reader’s innate definition of keeping safe …

by Andy Brack · 01/14/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Don’t play verbal shell games with tax reform

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Two people can look at a painting or watch the same football game and see two completely different things.

One person, for example, might see little more than an abstracted bull, horse and people in Picasso’s Guernica. Another might be moved to tears over human suffering.

by Andy Brack · 01/07/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views