Thumbs up
Post and Courier. Congratulations for winning the Pulitzer Prize. Now let’s get the legislature to pass meaningful legislation to curb the tragedy of domestic violence.
Boeing. The jet maker’s chief executive says he’d be winning to sit down and work with a union in South Carolina if workers wanted one. Hear that, South Carolina politicians who have been trying to portray unions as monsters? [Of course, the executive’s announcement is pretty convenient after the union withdrew a vote recently.] More.
Sonoco. Kudos also to the head of South Carolina’s largest home-based company for calling for an increase to the gas tax to fix state roads so that the Palmetto State remains competitive. Hmmm … seems like a trend here — corporate America calling for reasonable solutions when politicians can’t get to them. More.
In the middle
Body cameras. We know politicians are hellbent on getting a body camera bill passed this year to assure the public that police will be watched — as well as people intercepted by police — but technology isn’t going to solve problems that many South Carolinians have with excess force. Only building bridges in communities will do that.
Tempting fate? It’s good news to hear that forecasters are predicting no hurricanes to make landfall on the East or Gulf coasts this summer, but it feels awfully eerie — as if they’re tempting fate. More.
Thumbs down
Putnam. A bill introduced by novice Rep. Josh Putnam, R-Piedmont, to provide death by firing squad as a way to pursue state-ordered executions of criminals sentenced to death sounds like the kind of political Pablum that suckles politicians wanting to make headlines, not headway. Bad idea. Makes us look like a banana republic.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!