In South Carolina, a push to have alcohol delivered to your door is met with resistance

COLUMBIA, SC -- For a stay-at-home mom like Barbie Fulda, modern grocery delivery services such as Shipt and Instacart can save great chunks of time she once spent winding through store aisles each week.

But customers of those burgeoning online apps in South Carolina have run into one major obstacle: The services can’t deliver beer, wine or liquor here under current state law.

That means customers like Fulda must make a separate trip to the grocery store for a case of Miller Lite or a bottle of Pinot Grigio.

“It’s very annoying,” said Fulda, a 49-year-old Columbia resident who orders about $200 in groceries through Shipt each week and has it delivered to her door — saving her time to cook, clean and ferry her two teenagers to practices.

Read more: https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article230689424.html

Ex-West Point leader who drew protests considers another shot at USC president

Retired three-star Army Gen. Robert Caslen choked up while reading a letter aloud from a University of South Carolina graduate apologizing for his treatment while interviewing for the presidency.

“We are a flagship university that doesn’t understand what the flag means,” Caslen read.

The letter ends with a request that the former West Point superintendent not judge USC by a small number of loud voices who criticized his military career, lack of a traditional university background and comments on sexual harassment that Caslen says were taken out of context.

“How much is one’s character worth?” Calsen replied when asked to assess his experience after trustees decided surprisingly to reopen the president search last month after interviewing four finalists.

Read more: https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/ex-west-point-leader-who-drew-protests-considers-another-shot/article_6c97c37e-7e23-11e9-a1dd-8fef4b517727.html

Finalist who worked at Confederate magazine not recommended for top SC college job

COLUMBIA — A panel looking for a new leader of South Carolina’s college oversight agency did not recommend giving the job to Oran Smith, a longtime limited government advocacy group leader who was criticized for working at pro-Confederate magazine.

The S.C. Commission on Higher Education director search committee instead on Thursday suggested hiring Rusty Monhollon, assistant commissioner at the Missouri Department of Higher Education, for the $176,000 a year post overseeing the state’s 33 public colleges.

The full commission will choose a director May 31.

Smith, a longtime friend of S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster who works for the limited government advocacy group Palmetto Promise Institute, was among three finalists. All finalists were deemed “highly qualified” by the search committee.

“While I believe I could have provided transformative leadership in this role, I am honored to have been considered as one of the three finalists, and look forward to continuing to work as a constructive partner to move higher education in our state forward,” he said in statement.

Read more: https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/finalist-who-worked-at-confederate-magazine-not-recommended-for-top/article_a8f19ab0-7d8e-11e9-b628-c3dc66749ed6.html
(Charleston Post and Courier)

SC Legislature sets deadline to vote on future of Santee Cooper next year

COLUMBIA — The S.C. Legislature will determine the fate of Santee Cooper and plot the future for hundreds of thousands of electric customers by the middle of next year.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate agreed Tuesday to a timeline for reviewing final purchase offers and management proposals for the state-run utility.

The agreement requires the Department of Administration — the state’s procurement agency — to solicit bids from outside companies and to present the top proposals to lawmakers between January and March of next year.

It will then be up to the state’s 170 legislators to decide if South Carolina offloads the public utility, hires another company to manage it or continues to run Santee Cooper under state control.

Read more: https://www.postandcourier.com/news/sc-legislature-sets-deadline-to-vote-on-future-of-santee/article_e2b23b72-7be2-11e9-8a95-777ae775937c.html
(Charleston Post and Courier)

14 presidential candidates (and counting) to speak at South Carolina Democratic Party convention

South Carolina Democrats announced 14 of the 23 Democratic presidential hopefuls will speak at their party convention next month in Columbia, making it the biggest assembly of the season so far.

And this could be just the start.

“I imagine that there will be more,” Tim Sullivan, communications director for the state party, said Tuesday.

The first round of candidates confirmed to appear at the June 22 convention in alphabetical order are:

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey
Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind.
U.S. Rep. John Delaney of Maryland
U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York
U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota
U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts
Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio
U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell of California
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts
Self-help guru Marianne Williamson
Technology entrepreneur Andrew Yang

Read more: https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/presidential-candidates-and-counting-to-speak-at-sc-democratic-party/article_a2960a68-7bf7-11e9-b547-c7f4507682b3.html

Greek prime minister calls for early election after EU loss

ATHENS, GREECE -- Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called for an early national election following the defeat of his party at the European Parliament elections.

Tsipras said from the Syriza party offices that "the result does not rise to our expectations ... I will not ignore it or quit."

Tsipras credited his government for pulling the country out of the austerity imposed by Greece's creditors and said that voting for Sunday's winner, the conservative New Democracy, would be turning back to "the darkness of austerity, the darkness off crisis, the oligarchs, the International Monetary Fund."

The government's term expires in October and before Sunday night's announcement, government officials insisted that elections would be held at the end of the term. But a long and, it is said, contentious meeting of government ministers and party officials, ended with the announcement of the early election.

Read more: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/national-business/article230861769.html

Kirk Kovach: Keep legislative antics out of abortion bill vote (aka GOP A**holery 103)

North Carolina 20-week abortion limit formally struck down

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A federal judge has formally issued his decision striking down North Carolina's ban on abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy, except in a medical emergency.

U.S. District Judge William Osteen signed his judgment dated Friday — 60 days after issuing a memorandum explaining why he declared the law unconstitutional. He wrote in March the 20-week limit prohibited some abortions before a fetus could live outside the womb. The judgment means some women could now obtain abortions later but prior to viability.

Osteen wrote the 60-day delay was designed in part to give legislators time to replace the law. That hasn't occurred.

The state now has 30 days to appeal the ruling. The state Department of Justice says it's reviewing the case and will confer with legislative leaders before deciding.

Read more: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article230814299.html
(Raleigh News & Observer)

Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson sued for slander over human trafficking accusations

A couple once charged over enrolling an ineligible student athlete and publicly implicated in larger human-trafficking allegations is suing Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson, former sheriff's spokesman Randy Jones and 10 unnamed deputies in federal court.

More than two years after filing them, the Alamance County District Attorney's Office dismissed charges of common law obstruction of justice and obtaining property by false pretense against Aris Lamont Hines, 40, and Brandi Kauilani Thomason, 36, formerly of Mebane, on July 6, according to court records, because the state could not "prove every element of the crimes charged beyond a reasonable doubt."

The couple's claims against the sheriff and his deputies include slander, malicious prosecution and violating their civil rights. They filed their suit Wednesday.

In May 2016, during the investigation into the enrollment of Kingsley Johnathan — known as Johnathan Kingsley while enrolled in Alamance-Burlington Schools — the sheriff held press conferences, made public statements and commented to news organizations voicing his suspicions that Hines and Thomason were involved in a larger, multi-state human-trafficking ring, that children were living in deplorable conditions in their Mebane home, and that investigators were searching for three girls it was alleged the couple tried unsuccessfully to enroll in ABSS.

Read more: https://www.journalnow.com/news/state/alamance-county-sheriff-terry-johnson-sued-for-slander-over-human/article_65c2ec3d-70cb-5c83-b26e-e1c6a7b21c0f.html
(Winston-Salem Journal)

Gov. Cooper issues paid parental leave order for state workers

RALEIGH — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Thursday announced that his state agencies will begin offering employees paid leave for births, a move he says will improve health for mothers and children and reduce inequities in the workplace.

Cooper signed an executive order that will provide eight weeks of full paid parental leave for those who give birth as of Sept. 1 and four weeks to their spouses or partners. Four weeks also would be provided for adoptions or receiving foster children.

"When you're a parent, you never forget what it's like to welcome a new baby into the family. Everything in your life changes in an instant," Cooper said at the Executive Mansion event, with an audience that included mothers holding their cooing small children. "Parents deserve this time to care for their kids, and kids deserve healthy beginnings."

Such paid leave is already offered by many private-sector companies. More than a dozen states mandate it for state employees or both private and public employees, according to Cooper's office. North Carolina state employees affected by the order can use their regular earned vacation or sick leave when a child is born, as well as three months of unpaid leave, as federal law requires.

Read more: https://www.journalnow.com/news/state/gov-cooper-issues-paid-parental-leave-order-for-state-workers/article_57fd7ab8-9904-5941-8048-5ead9ee8c39b.html