South Carolina Focus

The Charlotte-based Carolina Panthers could be moving their training facilities and operations south of the border, to York County. The team is looking at a former industrial park just off I-77, among other locations in Fort Mill and neighboring Chester County. To do so would require the state to pony up as much as $120 million in incentives – something not all members of the South Carolina Legislature have gotten behind – and to do that would require the State Senate to pass a bill that has

77 years ago (April 18, 1942), 80 brave men did what had never been attempted: they flew 16 army B-25B Mitchell bombers off a U.S. aircraft carrier on their way to bomb Tokyo. The attack, which has become known to history as the Doolittle Raid, was America’s first strike back at Japan after the infamous sneak attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into World War II. In this report, Mount Pleasant author James Scott talks about the significance of the raid to the war, and its great

As soldiers were fighting overseas during World War I, there was another battle going on back home: the battle for a better life for African Americans. Historian Janet Hudson, speaking at a recent symposium on the war presented by Lander University in Greenwood, said even as they chafed under segregation and Jim Crow laws designed to keep them back socially and policially, black leaders saw the war as an opportunity to earn their rights by cooperating with white leaders and supporting the war

In 1944, Columbia resident and civil rights activist Modjeska Monteith Simkins was put in charge of raising money for the construction of a new hospital to primarily serve the African American population of the Midlands. While completing this task, she wrote: “It is our grand privilege and our duty; yours and mine; to help build and equip ourselves with a modern hospital owned and operated by Negroes.” In the Midlands, before integration, black residents sought medical treatment at one of a few

Lander University recented hosted a symposium on World War I, which ended just over a century ago. The symposium drew scholars and authors primarily from the Southeast to discuss various aspects of the war, which then was known as "The Great War." One aspect covered by a panel of experts examined the role of women during the war. According to Dr. Keith Gorman of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, women were recruited by the government to fulfill multiple roles. One obvious need was

Former S.C. Governor and U.S. Senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings died on Saturday, April 6, 2019 at the age of 97. A Democrat, he held elective office for over fifty years. South Carolina Public Radio's Russ McKinney has this look back at Hollings's life and political career.

When the “light emitting diode,” or “LED” light was first developed, it was primarily used as an indicator light in lab equipment. But as the low energy consumption of LEDs was observed, and costs for manufacturing LEDs went down, the new lighting technology found its way into the hands of consumers. Users of the more modern light bulbs not only began to see lower power bills, but also noticed how rarely they needed to replace their LED bulbs. Alan Hancock, Energy and Climate Advocacy Director

For many years, jazz great Marian McPartland welcomed some of the biggest names in - and out of - jazz to her NPR program, Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz . March 20, on the 101st anniversary of her birth, an evening of McPartland's music inaugurated a new music series, Live in the Lobby, offered by Columbia's Koger Center for the Arts. Trumpeter Mark Rapp conceived of the series with the Koger to make use of the facility's beautiful lobby space for concerts that would be more intimate than would

He weighs less than five pounds, but Zazu had big belly problems when he was rescued off the Isle of Palms coast nearly three months ago. The tiny, green sea turtle had eaten plastic, all kinds of plastic; part of a balloon, clear sheets of plastic and material from a grocery bag. The juvenile turtle is the 23 rd patient admitted to the South Carolina Aquarium’s sea turtle hospital because of sea debris. He swims in a private tank next to 17 others now in recovery, including a 260 pound

A growing new website is now available that enables both scholars and the public to access photos and information about the natural history of South Carolina. The site, begun by the University of South Carolina's McKissick Museum with a grant, contains the collections of three (for the time being) historic South Carolina naturalists. Information and photos of specimens, initially of plants, but also other natural specimens. The "Southern Naturalists' Project" will allow researchers to find