Staff reports | South Carolina’s highest court on Thursday tossed out a school mask mandate in the state’s capital city, saying it contradicts a state budget measure aimed at preventing face covering requirements.
According to the Associated Press, the court ruled unanimously that “the Columbia ordinance is written so that the burden of enforcing the mask rule falls on school employees, ‘all of whom have an obvious connection to state-appropriated funds.’”
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin reacted strongly: “This is a sad day for children in South Carolina. What is even sadder is the people who have been elected to protect them, who should always and only act to keep them healthy, educated and alive, won’t fight for them. With record numbers of our children falling ill to this deadly virus, we pray for our children.”
In other recent news:
COVID-19 still rages. S.C. health officials reported 5,229 total cases of COVID-19 Sept. 2, with 3,572 confirmed. A total of 60 new deaths, with 44 confirmed, were reported Thursday, a dramatic increase compared to days prior. With 32,408 tests reported, 14.5% were confirmed positive. Meanwhile, North Charleston became the first local government in the state to mandate vaccines for city employees. Charleston County also is mandating vaccines.
Charleston remembers former S.C. Rep. Lucille Whipper. Whipper, a longtime community advocate, died Aug. 27. She pushed for social and economic change.
Battle over spit near Kiawah is over. In a big win for the conservation community, a dispute over whether Kiawah Development Partners can build on a sand spit appears to be over after the state’s Supreme Court sided with environmentalists who argued against building in the ecologically sensitive area and then refused to revisit the case on Wednesday.
Lawsuit challenges gag orders imposed on S.C. ethics whistleblowers. In South Carolina, whistleblowers who want to file an ethics complaint against a public official are first sworn to secrecy, The Post and Courier reported this week.
Contractor at failed nuke project agrees to pay $21 million. Westinghouse Electric Co. has agreed to pay more than $21 million as part of an agreement with federal officials probing a failed multi-billion dollar project to build two nuclear reactors in Fairfield County.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!