South Carolina Focus

Forgive yourself if you can’t pronounce “polybenzimidizole,” much less know what it’s used for. But if you ever went to the moon, you were sure glad to have it on your skin. Familiarly, polybenzimidizole goes by the much more vocally friendly name of PBI. It’s a twill-like material made by, fittingly, PBI Performance Products in Rock Hill. The company makes polymers, solutions, and films for industrial purposes, but the Rock Hill plant is the only place in the world that manufactures the company

Columbia native Charles Bolden has had a remarkable career: Marine fighter pilot, commanding general in Operation Desert Thunder in Kuwait, deputy commandant of midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy. Those distinctions are impressive enough, but he is best known for his work for NASA, as both astronaut and head of the entire agency. Recently retired as administrator of NASA, he recalled his most famous flight, as pilot of the space shuttle Discovery, which in 1990 deployed the Hubble Space

With this year’s session of the state legislature now officially over, lawmakers are already turning their attention to next year’s session, and like this year the top priority will be passage of a massive School Improvement Bill.

Many remember where they were when they heard the news: nine people gunned down inside an historic African American church in Charleston at the hands of a stranger they welcomed to bible study. But few know the passage they read. Reporter Jennifer Berry Hawes does. "It's called the 'Parable of the Sower,'" she says. "It's a story where Jesus talks about what happens when you throw seeds of faith onto different types of terrain." Hawes writes about the tragedy in her first book, "Grace Will Lead

The golf industry is big business for the state of South Carolina, generating $2.59 billion in sales for the state in 2018. The sport generated 31,434 jobs, $857 million in wages and income, and $309 million in federal, state, and local taxes, according to an economic impact study created by the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism.

Until a few years ago, nobody really thought to put goats and yoga together. And yet, here we are, living in a world where the sight of downward-facing yogis and bouncing baby goats in the same place looks as natural as mac and cheese. For Jim and Terri Gustin, owners of Critter Creek Farm in Rock Hill – primarily a flower farm, but one with lots of animals around – the idea just worked itself out. “We used to have all these little programs to bring the farm off to people who didn’t have that

When a disaster strikes, communications may become spotty or even gone completely. Cell phone towers may be down, land lines even disrupted, and if the Internet is offline, there goes email. Keeping communications open for hospitals and other health care facilities during these types of crises are what amateur radio operators - or "hams" - train for once a week, as members of the South Carolina Healthcare Emergency Amateur Radio Team, or SC HEART for short. Made up of volunteers from across the

They are sure signs of Spoleto in downtown Charleston; instrument toting musicians and scorching heat. Among the jostling violin cases, is Shannon Fitzhenry. She’s back for her second year with the annual Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra, one of 92 musicians chosen to play. “The goal is to get up in time to warm up before rehearsal,” she laughs. The Charleston native grew up with Spoleto, but admits she didn't fully appreciate it until she moved away to study music at the Peabody Conservatory in

That the NFL’s Carolina Panthers would eventually move the team’s practice facility and operations out of Charlotte and south of the border to Rock Hill was really just a matter of when the South Carolina Legislature would greenlight a set of tax breaks (worth somewhere between $115 and $120 million, by most estimates) that would allow the team to set up shop in York County. And when Panthers would officially say they were coming. On June 5, the Panthers, the state, and City of Rock Hill made

75 years ago - June 6, 1944 - 156,000 Allied troops on nearly 7000 ships and landing craft and supported by 11,590 planes dropping both bombs and paratroopers, landed on the beaches of Normandy, France. The top-secret invasion of Europe was code-named Operation Overlord, but is more broadly known the world over as D-Day. That day began the battle to free the continent from the grip of Nazi Germany. 23,000 American soldiers swarmed Utah beach under German fire, and among those following the 4th