Thumbs up
Lourie, Kimpson. Hats off to Democratic state Sens. Joel Lourie and Marlon Kimpson for vowing to do everything possible to deep-six a dumb “bathroom bill” by radical GOP Sen. Lee Bright of Spartanburg County. Let’s show North Carolina the real stuff that South Carolina’s made of — to not do something stupid. More. Thank goodness the bill seems to be dead.
State Senate. Action this week on roads, ethics reform, alimony reform and more. What’s gotten into the Senate?
In the middle
Race relations. A new Winthrop Poll has a lot of encouraging things to say about the state of race relations in South Carolina, but there is definitely a lot of work that needs to be done. More | Read the full poll.
Thumbs down
Beatty. Thumbs down to Supreme Court Associate Justice Don Beatty for flashing his temper during a hearing before a judicial merit screening committee. Bad form. Perhaps this highlights the need for more than one candidate to be running for the top job.
Smelter. It is a shame that state lawmakers can’t make enough headway to keep from losing Century Aluminum in Berkeley County. More.
Quote: Tit for tat
“How do you know what I had a problem with?”
— A testy state Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, responding to a similarly testy comment by state Supreme Court Associate Justice Don Beatty, who suggested that critics of comments he made questioning state prosecutors in 2013 were little different than those made by Chief Justice Jean Toal. Beatty, who was appearing in a public hearing as the only candidate to become chief justice next year, quickly apologized and asked that his remarks be stricken from the record. More.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!