Thumbs up
Coal ash disposal. Hats off to the state Senate, which this week passed a House bill that would require coal ash from electric utilities to be disposed of only in commercial facilities — a move that would prevent the toxic ash from being dumped in a lower-grade landfill as planned by a company in Pickens County. The bill is headed to the House for technical amendments, which were expected to be approved quickly. More.
Beaufort, Landrum. Congratulations to the two South Carolina towns for making Southern Living magazine’s 2016 list of the South’s best small towns. More.
WestRock. The packaging company is protecting a huge, forested area of Charleston and Dorchester counties — some 53,000 acres. More.
In the middle
Beatty. President Barack Obama has nominated state Supreme Court Justice Don Beatty of Spartanburg to the federal bench. Beatty is next in line to be chief justice after Costa Pleicones retires at the end of this year, but there’s been talk recently of abandoning that custom, which could have hurt Beatty. More.
Trump. Congratulations to billionaire Donald Trump for winning the S.C. GOP presidential primary. His campaign is on a national tear, a juggernaut which scares a lot of establishment Republicans. Trump continues, however, to be hounded by Republicans like U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who Thursday said the New Yorker was a “nut job” who likely would become the GOP presidential candidate, but lose the national election.
Relics. For years, critics of a Confederate flag flying on Statehouse grounds clamored and demanded for it to be “put in a museum.” Now that it’s down, there’s controversy of which museum it should be in as two leading House lawmakers are pushing for relics to be moved to Charleston instead of Columbia. Won’t this ever go away? More.
Roads. After holding the Senate floor for days on a substantive filibuster on transportation infrastructure funding — and after pressure from the state Chamber of Commerce — state Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, ended his delay … only to be replaced by state Sen. Lee Bright, R-Spartanburg. There’s a chance the state won’t make big moves to transform transportation this year, as highlighted in today’s news analysis.
Thumbs down
Bush. It’s kind of sad to see the Bush era end with the end of presidential ambitions this year for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who dropped out of the primary process after South Carolina’s recent primary.
Number: 742,715
That’s the number of voters who turned out Saturday in the state’s Republican presidential primary. The number translates to 25.08 percent of the state’s 2.96 million voters. Eight years ago, some 19.5 percent of voters went to the polls. Ahead: More head to the polls Saturday in the state’s Democratic primary. More.
Quote: Politics and promises
“The next president of the U.S. has an absolute mess on their hands. This is not a plan to close Guantanamo Bay. This is a political exercise. … I promise you not one person will go to Charleston, South Carolina.”
— U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., after an announcement by the Obama Administration to transfer 30 to 60 detainees at Guantanamo Bay to the United States. A frequently mentioned option — though not specified in the announcement — is the Navy’s brig in Hanahan. More. Also see this story.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!