Free Republic

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - It’s a big decision for many teenagers. By next Wednesday, 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to get vaccinated in the Carolinas. It opens up to everyone aged 16 and up in South Carolina this Wednesday. Shots open up to everyone 16 and up in North Carolina next Wednesday on April 7.

COLUMBIA — University of South Carolina students could be fined and suspended if they fail to get monthly COVID-19 tests the school is mandating in the spring semester. The state’s largest college is requiring monthly checks after it needed T-shirt giveaways and prize drawings at times to conduct nearly 50,000 student tests on campus since August. An unknown number of tests were conducted off campus.

An ice cream shop is at the center of ongoing protests in Gastonia. The ongoing protests are centered around Tony’s Ice Cream on East Franklin Boulevard. When police responded Wednesday night, they closed all roads near the business. Thursday, Tony’s Ice Cream was closed. People came by to write supportive messages on their door. Police say the protests happened following some “civil disturbances” there at Tony’s Ice Cream on Monday and Tuesday. The crowd was being dispersed by police.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster on Wednesday urged the state’s 79 school districts to reopen doors to students in-person after Labor Day, rather than hold classroom instruction online only, despite growing concern that clustering teachers and students together in classrooms will only exacerbate the state’s COVID-19 outbreak. Try as we might, virtual education is not as good for most children than face to face with an excellent qualified teacher,” McMaster said, standing next to Senate President Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, and other

ROCK HILL, S.C. (Rock Hill Herald) - Before the mural’s paint had dried Sunday afternoon, Brittany Kelly had already seen how powerful the project on White Street could be. Dozens of Rock Hill residents from all walks of life — families and individuals, people of all races — had helped paint a street mural that stretches about 100 feet in downtown Rock Hill. The design, in block letters, reads “No Room For Racism,” a city motto that dates back to the tenure of Mayor Doug Echols. The first letters are filled in with the colors in the city’s logo, and...

A York County Council member is now demanding county officials act to recommend people wear masks in public as coronavirus cases continue to soar. William “Bump” Roddey told county management and his fellow council members that county officials have been too “laid back” about the need for masks. After the cities of Columbia and Greenville passed emergency ordinances this week requiring masks in public, and Charlotte’s mayor asked North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper for a public mask requirement, Roddey said York County must act to ensure public health and safety. Roddey said the recent spike of cases in York County...

COLUMBIA, S.C. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- Seneca, faces three Republicans on June 9. They are educator and attorney Duke Buckner of Walterboro, corporate executive and businessman Michael LaPierre of Pickens and Merchant Marine Joe Reynolds of North Charleston. The State asked candidates to submit questionnaires. Here’s a look at who’s running and what they want voters to know, in their own words:

South Carolina hospitals are using a loophole in state law to scoop millions of dollars a year from the pockets of the poorest of patients. It mostly takes place outside the courts and the public eye. A law originally written to help state and local governments collect debts is being used to seize tax refunds from people with past-due medical bills. The S.C. Department of Revenue does the legwork, and the cash flows straight into the coffers of some of the region’s largest health care companies. The payoff is huge. Together, health organizations took at least $92.9 million in more...

COLUMBIA — After outrage from students and faculty over the search for a new president, the University of South Carolina board of trustees decided against choosing any of their four finalists Friday and reopened the hunt for a new campus leader. Dozens of protesters chanting, “We want answers,” came to USC’s Alumni Center in downtown Columbia where trustees deliberated for much of the afternoon after interviewing the finalists earlier Friday. Some faculty members talked about a walkout if the front runner, a former West Point superintendent, was picked. After the decision was announced, the activists cheered outside the boardroom and...

I am in DC right now with the family. Not my choice of vacations as I detest the federal government. Personally I’d rather be drinking near the ocean instead of walking miles standing in lines and dodging thousands of tourists. Anyways, we went to the air and space museum and the holocaust museum. The nazi exhibit were the security guards that scanned you. What else is a good experience? We are here just two more days. I would never live here, prices are high, woman are ugly and evidently it is a bastion for gay men.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The body of University of South Carolina student Samantha Josephson, who was reported missing Friday, was found in a field by hunters and a suspect was arrested, Columbia Police said in a news conference Saturday night. Police said Samantha Josephson, 21, was reported missing by her friends Friday around 1:30 p.m. when she wasn't responding to calls and never returned home after going out Thursday night in 5 points. Video surveillance footage circulating on social media showed Josephson getting into a black Chevy Impala around 2 a.m. on Harden Street outside of the Bird Dog bar. Police...

For the first time ever, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has more than 20,000 immigrant students who need help learning English. The 21,145 English learners in CMS are by far the largest concentration in North Carolina. Wake County, the state’s biggest district, has only 14,540, and most of the state’s districts don’t even have 20,000 students. The growing numbers come with costs: CMS is spending more than $30 million this year on the department that serves those students, compared with just over $20 million five years ago. In June Mecklenburg County commissioners approved $1.4 million to add 20 teachers who specialize in English...

If President Donald Trump reneges on his demand for funding for his border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, it will likely spell “the end of his presidency,” U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday on Fox News.

T.M. Landry College Preparatory School in Lousiana made headlines with a series of viral videos showing their students reacting to news that they’d been accepted to Ivy League Universities. But a new report from The New York Times has exposed the dark underbelly of the school that once boasted “a 100-percent college acceptance rate.” According to the report, transcripts were doctored and extracurricular activities were invented. Students were encouraged to lie about their family situations in order to make their successes appear even more dramatic. And students and teachers alike described a “culture of abuse” that was widespread.

I object to the reference in a recent Joe Cunningham article that Archie Parnell had “no credible opposition” in his primary for the fifth congressional district seat in South Carolina. I was his opponent. I graduated from Dartmouth. I’m good on the stump. I know what the hell I am talking about. Parnell spread the rumor that I was a Republican plant. (S.C. Democratic Party chairman) Trav Robertson told me everyone was saying that (there was only one place that rumor could have come from). Parnell stared so menacingly at my wife that she was upset and told me about...

“Multiple people down!” Bubba Hinson exclaimed as he live-streamed a video of what started as a mob stalling traffic, but turned into a mass shooting on Ocean Boulevard early Sunday morning. Eight people were injured in three shootings that erupted this weekend around heavily trafficked tourist areas in Myrtle Beach. At least one of the shootings was caught on the camera of a visitor, who streamed it live on Facebook. The video went viral with over 1 million views by Sunday afternoon. Some tourists say they won’t return to Myrtle Beach anytime soon.

<p>At least one business on Ocean Boulevard was closed throughout much of Memorial Day weekend, prompting a complaint to the NAACP.</p> <p>That business, the restaurant and bar at the Second Avenue Pier, was shut down from at least Friday through Sunday, The Sun News found. Anson Asaka, associate general counsel for the NAACP, confirmed they received a complaint.</p>

A small but growing group of congressmen and women have announced they will not attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, breaking with generations of past precedent. In statements explaining their decisions, the members of Congress, who have all been Democrats thus far, cited Trump’s rhetoric on women, Muslims and immigrants, as well as concerns about the role Russian hacking may have played in the

The presidential race may be tightening, but Democrats are convinced they have an Election Day ace-in-the-hole: Hillary Clinton's ground game. They're confident it will withstand Donald Trump’s late surge in key battleground states. That’s according to The POLITICO Caucus — a panel of activists, strategists and operatives in 11 swing states, seven of which are seeing significant early- and absentee-voting operations. In those seven states where large numbers of voters are expected to cast their ballots before Election Day — Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin — more than three-quarters of Democrats think their party has done...

After facing backlash for an earlier tweet, Donald Trump reacted by writing, “My condolences to Dwyane Wade and his family, on the loss of Nykea Aldridge. They are in my thoughts and prayers.” Don Cheadle blasted Donald Trump on Saturday after the presidential candidate politicized the death of Nykea Aldridge, the cousin of NBA playing Dwyane Wade.