South Carolina lawmakers are debating a roughly $40 billion fiscal 2024-25 state budget that anticipates more than $12 billion in state general funds and billions more in federal money.
Last month, the South Carolina Board of Economic Advisors voted to keep the fiscal 2023-24 revenue forecast estimate at nearly $12.9 billion and the fiscal 2024-25 revenue forecast estimate at more than $13.2 billion.
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South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed a Constitutional Carry measure, making the Palmetto State the 29th state in the nation with a law allowing residents to carry a concealed firearm without a government-issued license.
House Bill 3594, the South Carolina Constitutional Carry/Second Amendment Preservation Act, also bars anyone convicted of a “crime punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of more than one year to possess a firearm or ammunition within” South Carolina. However, there are some exceptions, including anyone convicted of a misdemeanor carrying a sentence of up to five years or expunged convictions.
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The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) is asking for the public’s support in tracking the West Nile virus.Â
South Carolinians are asked this spring and summer to submit certain species of dead birds to DEHC to test for the potentially deadly virus.
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South Carolina’s governor on Monday announced that this week, March 3 through March 9, is ‘Severe Weather and Flood Safety Week.’
“The South Carolina Emergency Management Division [SCEMD], the National Weather Service [NWS], and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources [SCDNR]Â jointly sponsor the week to remind people that severe storms, tornadoes and flash floods are significant hazards in South Carolina and people need to take proper safety precautions,” according to a release from the office of Gov. Henry McMaster (R).Â
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The South Carolina Senate is debating a bill that would make minor changes to how judges are appointed in the Palmetto State.
Currently, the state’s General Assembly, via its Judicial Merit Selection Commission, which consists of a “group of legislators and lawyers who do extensive investigations into judicial candidates, a process that entails examining everything from their finances to their temperament to their knowledge of the law,” appoints judges from the state Supreme Court, all the way down to circuit courts.
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A bill that would expand school choice options for parents has been introduced into the South Carolina House of Representatives.
H 5164 would expand the state’s Education Scholarship Trust Fund program for parents who wish to choose which schools their children attend. The bill will also add new application processes to make applying easier for students.
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South Carolina’s attorney general sent a letter to the Biden administration over the human trafficking of minor migrants and demanded answers on 85,000 missing children who are believed to be the victims of human trafficking.
“The United States needs to stop handing over children to ‘probable traffickers,'” said a letter from South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, addressed to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray. “President Biden’s border crisis has reached never-before-seen levels. Even worse, we now learn that the Department of Health and Human Services cannot find more than 85,000 migrant children who entered our country over the last two years. Reports show that many of those children have been forced into the labor market, where they work debilitating hours under dangerous conditions in violation of child-labor laws or are sex trafficked.”
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Former President Donald J. Trump is poised to win in Saturday’s Republican presidential primary in South Carolina, where he squares off against Nikki Haley, the former governor of the Palmetto State.
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A Republican presidential candidate is silent after a news report said that entities related to her campaign might be targeting Democrats to vote for her in South Carolina’s Saturday primary election.
A report by NBC News shows a mailer sent by the Stand For America PAC, a political action committee solely dedicated to getting Republican former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley elected president, soliciting the votes of Democrats who did not vote in the Democratic Presidential Primary on February 3.
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The Republican led South Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee passed hate crime legislation Wednesday, which will advance to the Senate floor for a full vote.
“When a person commits a violent crime as defined in Section 16-1-60 or commits assault by mob in the second degree as defined in Section 16-3-210(C) and the trier of fact determines beyond a reasonable doubt that the offense was committed against a victim who was intentionally selected in whole or in part because of the person’s belief or perception regarding the victim’s race, color, religion, sex, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, or physical or mental disability, whether or not the perception is correct, the person is subject to additional penalties…” says the text of S.615.Â
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