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July 06, 2008
Author, attorney remembers his Florence roots
J. Michael Martinez apparently is one person who has not forgotten where he came from.
June 29, 2008
Emotional ending at FLT’s Cashua Street house
Before the final Florence Little Theatre performance at its Cashua Street house last weekend, they said, only half jokingly, perhaps they should pass out Kleenex instead of champagne for the farewell toast to their 40-year home.
Notes from Cuba: Day One of the visit
We arrived at Havana’s Jose Marti Airport around 2:30 p.m., having departed from Miami on a chartered flight just over an hour before. We deplaned at a small terminal removed from the large national and international terminal that serves the world’s visitors.
A one-term pledge by McCain?
How bad is it for John McCain? Some of his supporters keep suggesting he would have a better shot at the White House if he promised to serve only one term.
June 23, 2008
Air quality, quality of life need to be priorities
When we err as a community, and know we have erred, should we correct the problem or maintain the status quo? When our local government decided to support Santee Cooper’s plan to build a pulverized coal plant, it did not know that the EPA was going to change the air quality standards. But it knows now.
June 22, 2008
Remembering Florence the way it used to be
Thom Anderson remembers how things used to be in Florence.
Forgotten but not gone, president gets to be himself
As gigs go in this troubled economy, it’s not so bad being a profoundly unpopular lame-duck president.
June 17, 2008
Creation of Personal Pathways to Success helps education quality
We are proud South Carolina is leading the nation in a cutting-edge approach to connect academic studies with preparation for the work force. Gov. Mark Sanford and members of the South Carolina General Assembly passed the Education and Economic Development Act (EEDA) of 2005 as a long-term plan that ensures South Carolina students are educated and competitive in a global economy.
June 15, 2008
Balanced budget with balanced priorities
Americans are calling for a new direction, and Democrats in Congress are delivering. This month, we passed a plan to balance the budget by 2012.
South Carolina needs to amend state constitution
A state’s constitution is a covenant between the government and the people. Since most of us haven’t read the South Carolina Constitution, we don’t know what it says about education nor understand why the education clause needs to be amended. But if we want to move from the bottom of the educational rankings and have South Carolina students prepared to compete in a global economy, we need to make a change in our state constitution. Here’s why.
Jinxing the Triple Crown winner one more time
Belmont Park is a beautiful place on New York’s Long Island with a mile-and-a-half dirt track surrounding a shorter turf track. The infield includes a couple of lakes and very green grass that from the stands looks perfect.
Race runs through presidential campaign
Who are you? And how can you write such crap?”
June 08, 2008
Opinions coming between Obama, Clinton
Nobody listens to Jimmy Carter anymore, but once in a while, they should.
Looking back can get you reflecting on past, present life
It is hard to explain why, but I occasionally like to look back at columns I churned out years ago, and last week I ran across one from Nov. 28, 1984.
June 01, 2008
S.C. Medicaid reform aims for healthier future
The current national dialogue concerning access to health care is a welcome development. But one question that rarely gets asked is whether those who do have health insurance are using the system of health care wisely. For physicians who treat a large number of Medicaid patients, the answer to that question is often as resounding “no.”
Spoleto Festival still provides great entertainment
It was not exactly on the same level of hostility as the Civil War that started in Charleston in 1861, but the divorce of the Spoleto Festival USA and the Festival of Two Worlds, however they say that in Italian, seemed just as unnecessary.
McClellan book shows conflicted author
Near the end of “What Happened,” Scott McClellan’s tough-love critique of President George Bush and his failed presidency, he recounts a bizarre and telling moment in the Oval Office.
May 25, 2008
Old railroad station holds lots of memories
Shortly before American involvement in World War II, a big crowd turned out at Florence’s Atlantic Coast Line railroad station.
Annexation opportunities important to Hartsville’s future
Cities and towns are the core of the state’s economic success and competitiveness and are critical in our ability to attract innovative companies that produce higher wage jobs and opportunities for South Carolinians. New companies that locate in our cities and towns, as well as businesses that have operated in our city for decades, sustain our local economic development and positive quality of life.
By focusing on Twin Cities, GOP risks losing sight of South
WASHINGTON—Nothing says capital-D Democrat like the lions of the left from Minnesota — Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy and Walter Mondale.
May 18, 2008
Painting nominees as elitists great sales pitch
One of the all time great sales jobs has been GOP success in recent elections, painting Democratic presidential nominees as “elitists,” out of touch with the good ol’ boys and girls while the Republican candidate is one of the boys.
Obama, Clinton fight over working man credibility
Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are fighting over working men and women through a fog of retro racial politics.
Remembering ‘The Class That Never Was’
The Citadel class of 1944 is indebted to President Rosa, the Board of Visitors and the Provost for the opportunity to make a brief comment about our class of ’44 on the occasion of our classmate Bob Adden’s receiving an honorary degree.
Today, we have a unique opportunity to address an important part of The Citadel’s history, which, over the years, has not been well explained or publicized.
May 11, 2008
Florence County Councilman Schofield’s responds to petition
Submitting an ordinance by petition is a serious matter and goes way beyond merely making comments at a public hearing.
Hillary Clinton and the Golden Handshake
WASHINGTON—What will it take to get Hillary Clinton to quit?
Oh, that’s right, quit isn’t in the Clintons’ vocabulary, and she insists she’s staying on the campaign trail “until there’s a nominee.” Hello? Apparently, presidential campaigns on Planet Hillary work differently than those here on Earth.
Most presidential candidates quit when the money runs out. Clinton continues to raise money — just not enough to keep up with Barack Obama — but then there’s that commodious handbag of hers. She’s OK about dipping into it again, her campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, said after news broke of her $11.5 million in personal loans to her campaign
SCMA misses chance to fight for uninsured
This is a column I’d rather not write because it is critical of one of my favorite organizations. But I believe in the organization too much not to write it. Recently, the South Carolina Medical Association (SCMA) missed an opportunity to stand up for those it was created 160 years ago to serve: the people of South Carolina.
Last year, the SCMA joined with the South Carolina Hospital Association (SCHA), the S.C. Chamber of Commerce and the insurance lobby (the South Carolina Alliance of Health Plans) to form the Covering Carolina Collaborative (CCC). The CCC set an ambitious goal, namely that “every South Carolinian (would) have access to affordable, quality health care by the year 2010.” But when their plan was revealed in January 2008, estimates of the CCC’s impact showed that it would cover only one-quarter of South Carolina’s uninsured. Some of the money would go to Medicaid expansion, which makes sense, but part of the plan simply subsidizes the purchase of high-cost private insurance.
S.C. needs additional base load energy
I read with great interest the article in the Morning News on April 12 about the new independent study done by Moore Data in response to the impact study by FMU of the proposed Santee Cooper power plant.
There were a few comments made in the article that seemed to be based just on opinion. Everybody has their own opinion, I know, but when it comes to an issue as important as additional needed electricity for our state, I think any opinions need to be based on facts and not just emotions.
I am going to try to rebut a few of the points in the article and offer a different view based on facts and let the readers decide where the truth lies.
Story tells about life in Florence during Civil War
In 1939, about the time of the 50th anniversary of the creation of Florence County, the Morning News published a special section and carried some articles by old-time local residents, looking back at 19th and early 20th century Florence.
One of them was by Mrs. C.D. Bristow and was written about 1904 for the Florence Daily Times and reprinted by the Morning News in 1939.
Bristow said her father, J.H. Husbands, was the second man with a family to move into the settlement soon after the railroad junction was established here. She was a little girl in the early 1860s but remembered Civil War activity.
She wrote that the original Presbyterian Church was completed during the war. It was located on the east side of Church Street, just south of the railroad. That site now is beside the Church Street bridge.
May 07, 2008
Enjoying music, theater, the arts in Florence, Lake City
Seasons are coming to a close all around us, and last week the Florence Symphony Orchestra gave its last concert of the season, featuring American composers, including Copeland and Gershwin. It’s not often that the composer is on hand for a concert in Florence, but it happened that night.
Cue the panda bear
A year ago last March, the Republican National Committee had fun sending someone in a “pander bear” suit to crash a Hillary Clinton fundraiser at a Washington hotel. Democrat Clinton, Republicans said, was pandering to voters. Horrors!
