February 27 11:45 PM
Here come the tolls...
S.C. highways may be controlled by private firms in the near future
(a sidebar to this issues cover story Privatization of America’s Infrastructure)
The South Carolina Dept. of Transportation has public-private partnership (PPP) legislation in place.
Read this storyFebruary 27 11:34 PM
Regional Briefs
mmm methamphetamine…hey maybe I should drive to the police station in a stolen car to demand my evidence back?
There’s a whole bunch of dumb criminals in this issues Regional Briefs:
Read this storyFebruary 18 09:23 AM
Thalidomide is back
The drug that left thousands of newborn babies severely malformed between the late 1950s and early 1960s has been given a public relations makeover—and a new name—and is now being used to fight a certain type of blood cancer.
Read this storyFebruary 18 04:29 AM
The Story Of Stuff
International sustainability activist, Annie Leonard encourages viewers to buy local when shopping is necessary and to support businesses that seek to protect the environment and support workers rights.
Read this storyFebruary 18 04:25 AM
Runyan gains Azar endorsement
For the first time since 1992 Azar has decided to sit this one out.
Read this storyFebruary 18 04:18 AM
Regional News Briefs
By Todd Morehead
AIKEN
Ollie North to Surface in Aiken
Oliver North, a central figure in the Reagan Administration’s “Iran-Contra” weapons and drug trafficking affair and current host of “War Stories with Oliver North” on FOX News, is slated to speak at a JROTC fundraiser in Aiken on March 12. North is expected to speak about the situations in Iraq and Iran. Tickets are $50 and are available through the USCA Etherredge Center box office at 803-641-3305.
ANDERSON Man arrested for peddling Wal-Mart meat Darryl Rich, 43, of Anderson was ordered to serve 35 days in jail and pay around $1,200 in fines for shoplifting meat from an Anderson area Wal-Mart and then attempting to resell it at half-price on Clemson Blvd. Rich was said to have left the store with 17 pieces of meat and two bottles of Tylenol. Police were alerted by the manager of an O’Charley’s restaurant when Rich attempted to sell the raw meat to restaurant goers and employees.
Brawler KO’s self with mailbox
Anderson police responding to a domestic disturbance call last week found a man riddled with cuts on his face and elbow, who said his injuries were caused by a mailbox. The brawl reportedly began when Bradley Vickery, 38, allegedly struck Cornelia Burton, 37, on the lip. Burton responded by somehow biting Vickery on his tongue, sending the man into a drunken rage. “He was slinging around a mailbox,” one officer noted in a report obtained by the Anderson Independent-Mail, “[and] hit himself with the mailbox several times while trying to swing it.” Neither Burton nor Vickery pressed charges and no arrests were made.
CHARLESTON
Man robs same bank twice in one month Michael Molina Lopez, 44, of Charleston has been arrested and charged with robbing the same North Charleston Wachovia twice in less than a month. On Jan. 7 Lopez allegedly entered the bank and gave the teller a note advising her to cooperate and comply with his demands. The robber employed the same tactic during his Feb. 4 robbery and police were able to match fingerprints on both notes with Lopez.
Black hotel employee claims boss put noose around his neck A former employee of the Charleston Place Hotel claims his white supervisor slipped a noose around his neck at an October hotel function at Boone Hall Plantation near Mt. Pleasant. John Green, 62, a former event supervisor at the hotel said his boss was showing a man from another country how to tie a noose and then snuck up behind Green, put the noose around his neck and began tightening it. Green, who claims he was fired for complaining to hotel managers about the incident, says he filed a report with the Employment Opportunity Commission’s office in Savannah, Ga., though Charleston Place management says they have not heard from the commission. The hotel’s general manager says Green was fired for violating company rules, but those rules have so far not been specified.
FLORENCE / MYRTLE BEACH
Woman claims dentist accidentally pulled all her upper teeth
FLORENCE—A Sumter woman is suing the Sexton Dental Clinic in Florence, claiming dentists accidentally removed all 16 of her upper teeth during what should have been a routine procedure to fix a cracked tooth. Elizabeth Smith filed the complaint after a May 2006 visit to the clinic during which three practicing dentists at Sexton recommended extracting two teeth in addition to the cracked one. When the procedure was over Smith says all of her upper teeth were gone and the dentists, according to court documents, had “fabricated entries” in her dental chart to cover their tracks. The clinic has so far denied all charges. Smith’s attorney, Robert Ransom, submitted a sworn affidavit from a third party dentist who claims information he found in Smiths dental records didn’t match what he found in his examination of her mouth. Ransom told the Florence Morning News that potential damages awarded from the suit will hopefully help Smith replace what she lost. “She certainly wants her teeth back,” he said.
ORANGEBURG
Man plans to give wife potato for Valentine’s Day
The Orangeburg Times and Democrat reported Sunday that Orangeburg resident, John Gaskin, plans to give his wife of 20 years a heart shaped potato he found at an area supermarket for Valentine’s Day. “I intended to eat it,” Gaskin told the newspaper, but then decided to give it to his wife, Martha, he said, “to show my love for her.”
-Todd Morehead
February 14 12:35 PM
Is Public TV In Peril?
The first in a two-part “Goin’ Digital” series
Read this storyJanuary 30 01:59 PM
Baby-sitting Plutonium
The second part in a two-part series on the Savannah River Site
Read this storyJanuary 30 01:37 PM
I got the fever!
Political Fever in South Carolina by Judit Trunkos…
Read this storyJanuary 18 12:57 PM
Atomic Highway
More nuclear waste highway bound for Savannah River Site
Read this storyJanuary 18 12:43 PM
Conservation Hot List: Jan. 16
The Conservation Hot List will be updated each issue and will follow environmental legislation from its inception through the entire legislative process.
Read this storyJanuary 18 12:32 PM
Not the Next President?
Opinion: Why neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama will become the next president of the United States
Read this story
December 20 03:33 PM
Poison In The Pee Dee
DHEC makes no move to test residents for mercury
If high levels of mercury are already present in the residents, will the department give a green light to a Santee Cooper coal plant that could dump tons more particulate matter and mercury into the water?
Read this storyDecember 20 03:02 PM
A Scary Little Christmas
Adopt a grave
The collapsed, most unkempt plots, often with only tin or red brick markers, date from as recently as 1999.
Read this storyNovember 26 02:59 PM
Bank of America Coal-cocked
Read this story”Let’s find energy alternatives so that we’re not sending men and women to Iraq to die for oil”
November 09 07:07 PM
To Hell And Back
Sen. John McCain stopped in for a short visit at Hot Dog Heaven in Irmo on Nov. 3.
Read this storyOctober 26 07:33 PM
ADIEU M' ARMOIRE
Whit-Ash Co. linked to bizarre divorce case, other prominent figures implicated
Read this storyOctober 10 11:51 PM
One Marine's Story
Over 20,000 U.S. soldiers have been injured in Iraq and this brave local marine tells his story.
Read this storyOctober 10 11:18 PM
Community Health Centers
South Carolina’s best kept secret
Read this storyAccording to Warner, CHCs have saved the national health care system between $9.9 and $17.6 million a year.
September 29 07:19 PM
Moral Vacuum
Read this story“The moral vacuum of Iraq [where legitimized mercenaries] can kill 10 or 20 Iraqis on a whim and never be prosecuted for it, did not happen by accident,”
September 28 12:38 PM
Midlands Moonshine
If you think white lightning was only made in the mountains, think again…
Read this storySeptember 12 09:15 PM
Queer analysis of the S.C. Gay Rights Movement
“I don’t mind faggots as long as they don’t throw it in my face” has become an unspoken truth of South Carolina Gay organizations.
Read this storySeptember 12 08:51 PM
Happy trails Red Tub
Red Tub screwed, “slumlord” owns building
Read this story
September 12 07:40 PM
The alleged 9/11 conspiracy
These experts argue that rapid and symmetrical collapses at free fall speed are consistent with a controlled demolition
Read this storyAugust 29 05:16 PM
The politics of radio
How advertising on AM radio contributes to political stereotypes
Read this storyAugust 29 06:02 AM
August 29 News in Brief
Displacement of merchants continues in Five Points
Feds to cut funding for low-income college bound students
An all-black Google page could save energy
Read this storyAugust 21 10:44 AM
August 21 Headlines
Big box retailers sneaking into Five Points through the back door
Read more…
Read this storyAugust 20 11:52 AM
August 20: Headlines
Lexington, S.C. company charges U.S. government $1 million for two 19-cent washers Read more…
Read this storyAugust 19 05:19 PM
Alternative journalism in hostile environments
“If history repeats itself,” George Bernard Shaw once said, “and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must (humans) be of learning from experience.” This edition of the Columbia City Paper coincides with our second birthday. It is, also, the second time around for me on a fledgling alternative newspaper under conditions that are less than perfect…
Read this storyAugust 19 05:08 PM
War Is Boring: Dutch Wimp Out in Afghanistan
The Tarin Kowt battle represented the first major fighting for the Dutch army in decades. And while the Dutch soldiers emerged victorious, the Dutch government nevertheless ordered an eventual retreat from the battlefield.
Read this storyAugust 01 07:14 AM
Obama silent on Lohan DUI
Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Barack Obama addresses college Democrats at USC the day before Lindsay Lohan’s latest film was released.
Read this storyAugust 01 05:28 AM
The true cost of urban renewal
Greene St. businesses continue to fight possible eviction
Read this storyAugust 01 05:27 AM
The Clyburn question
Everybody loves Jim. Should they?
By Corey Hutchins
August 01 04:03 AM
Lebowski Fest is searching and strange
A tale of debauchery and bowling in Louisville, Kentucky
July 24 10:43 PM
Wednesday's headlines
Father sentenced for sex with daughter
Bush still campaigning and lying in South Carolina
Councilwoman Anne Sinclair leads charge against bottled water
Read this storyJuly 24 09:06 PM
Green vs. Black
Environmental groups take on Santee Cooper’s new coal plant proposal in the Pee Dee
By Corey Hutchins
Read this storyJuly 24 12:40 AM
Tuesday's headlines
Minimum wage increase
Another shooting at a club you never heard of
Drew Cary to replace Bob Barker and more
Read this storyJuly 23 03:21 PM
Impeachment of President Bush
The legal case for impeachment of President Bush and his ruling cabal
By Ismail Lagardien
July 22 08:53 PM
Today's top stories
Man shot at residence by police
Children sprayed with chemicals by Lexington company
Tammy Faye Messner dies & other headlines
Read this storyJuly 18 08:42 AM
Assault on Five Points Nightlife
The continued assault on Five Points small businesses
By Paul Blake
Read this storyJuly 18 08:36 AM
Hungary for health care
A Central European’s perspective on Hungary’s health care system vs. the United States’
July 18 05:42 AM
Conservation Hot List: year in review
Provided by the Conservation Voters of South Carolina (CVSC)
As a legislative watchdog, CVSC works in concert with South Carolina’s conservation community to identify and highlight important bills impacting local air and water quality, wildlife, natural areas and public health.
Read this storyJuly 11 11:49 AM
Will The State Newspaper outsource their design?
According to two current employees at The State newspaper, the company plans to cut back its design staff in order to outsource the work, presumably through another McClatchy-owned newspaper.
Read this storyJuly 03 02:47 PM
Iraq Veterans Against the War detained at Fort Jackson
Five members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) were detained at Fort Jackson on June 29th.
Read this storyJuly 03 02:47 PM
S.C. joins 21st century
S.C. Democratic Party to send gay delegates to national convention
July 03 01:58 PM
The swarm is coming
Editorial duty in a post-9/11 world
By Corey Hutchins
Read this storyJune 25 08:41 PM
Landmark Resources attempts to shut down block of Five Points nightlife
By Paul Blake
Landmark Resources threatens the small businesses in the letter with fines of $100 a day if businesses don’t comply within the first 30 days and $200 a day thereafter.
Read this storyJune 20 06:00 PM
Kipp Shives buys shopping mall
Shives marketing video
Earlier this month, Columbia personality Kip Shives purchased a virtual shopping mall in the online role playing game, Entropia Universe, for over $30,000.
Read this storyJune 20 05:42 PM
Our Five Points Group hopes for funding
The city hospitality tax funding board plans to recommend that Columbia City Council deny funding for the merchants group Our Five Points
By Paul Blake
Read this storyJune 20 05:07 AM
The street preacher
Maybe you’ve gotten one of Hallman’s yellow fliers stuck in the door handle of your car. Maybe you threw it out without thinking about it. It’s OK because the man prints thousands– thousands– of them and all the money he makes that he doesn’t use for food, gas, living and his light bill go directly toward getting out his message.
June 20 04:58 AM
Sausage biscuit sonata
Confessions of a reformed vegetarian
By Todd Morehead
June 20 03:33 AM
New president, old problems
The more things change, the more they stay the same
By Ismail Lagardien
Read this storyJune 09 04:21 AM
Sheep in sheep’s clothing
Giuliani too left for the right, too disillusioned for the rest of us
By Jonathan Butler
This must surely be a time of tribulation for religious conservatives.
Read this storyJune 08 05:08 PM
War Is Boring: A Better Future for Beirut?
In light of Lebanon’s past, it would be easy to diagnose the latest round of fighting as just another symptom of a hopelessly screwed-up country. But easy answers aren’t always right, and in this case Beirut’s campaign against Fatah Al-Islam is actually good news.
By David Axe
June 08 04:56 PM
The most war-like country in the world
Based on the amount of times the United States has gone to war in its brief history, and on the level of its global military presence, new research, complemented by City Paper inquiries, suggests that the country is the most war-like, militarized and possibly the most dangerous in the world.
Read this storyJune 06 11:00 PM
Their highway, my brains
A look at S.C.’s no-helmet law for motorcyclists
By Todd Morehead
Read this storyJune 06 10:16 PM
Olympia’s sun god and other news
Resurrecting Olympia’s sun god By Todd Morehead
In other news….S.C. Attorney General says it’s raining perverts but still won’t open his umbrella in the house & Sanford back pedals on pre-school funding.
Read this storyJune 01 03:48 PM
Budweiser still has stranglehold on Five Points Association
The final Five After Five concert series wrapped up on Thursday at the fountain in Five Points. When City Paper publisher Paul Blake approached Budweiser Marketing Director Donna Rodgers to chat about Budweiser’s sponsorship of the event, Rodgers said, “I am not shaking your hand.”
Read more at the City Paper blog
May 30 03:39 PM
Why the FairTax army grows
Why the FairTax Army Grows
by
Ken Hoagland
May 28 05:47 PM
Bill Clinton's visit to Columbia
By Judit Trunkos
Columbia is definitely on the political map these days. Aside from the recent presidential debates, former President Bill Clinton made an appearance at the 29th Annual Freedom Fund Celebration hosted and organized by the NAACP last Friday. read more at City Paper’s blog
May 24 01:49 PM
Spectre of total militarization of society haunts U.S.
At every turn in the America there is evidence of a previous, present or putative military campaign. In terms of public spaces and institutions research shows that today the United States has more police, prisons, spies and soldiers than any other country.
Read this storyMay 23 05:36 PM
Fair tax & other news
Fair Tax: the ‘other’ campaign, Columbia’s Don, and more
Read this storyMay 23 03:03 PM
A tribute to absent friends
Five Points Confidential remembers Jeff Whitt and Eddie Lee
Read this storyMay 23 12:41 PM
U.S. to the world: we're not happy campers
The Associated Press reported last weekend that the current glumness in America was widely blamed on public discontent with the war in Iraq and with President Bush in particular.
Read this storyMay 16 01:56 PM
David Axe is back
A year after getting booted out of Iraq by the U.S. Army for his investigative reporting, including stories published right here in Columbia City Paper, David Axe is back.
Read this storyMay 09 12:45 PM
Done with Dixie
By Corey Hutchins
Columbia attorney and vocal civil rights and political activist Tom Turnipseed, the self-styled “agitator” planning to run for Lindsay Graham’s U.S. Senate seat in 2008, is a living paradox. Currently the most pacifistic progressive in the Seersucker South, he has no qualms about his racist past.
May 09 09:50 AM
Heroes and villains in Lexington
Heroes and villains in Lexington, Misdemeanors in the Mansion, and more
Read this storyMay 09 01:40 AM
Sacrificing soldiers for a failed strategy in a hopeless war
By Ismail Lagardien
More and more coalition soldiers are being killed, almost daily, in a war that may already have been lost for reasons not unlike those that resulted in U.S. defeat in Vietnam, Somalia and Kosovo.
Read this storyMay 01 05:03 PM
USC president Andrew Sorensen cited for driving too fast for conditions
USC president Andrew Sorensen left the scene of an accident and was cited for driving too fast for conditions on April 25, according to a report obtained by Columbia City Paper
By Corey Hutchins
Read this storyApril 26 12:07 PM
The best democracy money can buy
Ismail Lagardien looks at the financial influence over democracy
Read this storyApril 25 10:27 PM
The mayor's 'No' man
By Corey Hutchins
Councilman Finlay says the city has Champagne tastes and a beer budget
Read this storyApril 25 02:07 AM
April 25 News Briefs
Columbia’s Cocaine problem
Also…
Salman Rushdie to speak at USC
A $5,000 chicken salad
City of Columbia funding private development like it’s goin’ out of style
Read this storyApril 13 02:55 PM
City Paper writers: a hot commodity for corporate weeklies
The editor of a Columbia free weekly contacted at least two City Paper contributing writers last week and offered them jobs. Possibly responding to a public or internal outcry against said corporate weekly’s dependence on pre-written press releases, advertisements masked as news and its seeming obsession with ballet cover stories, the beleaguered editor tried to reach a City Paper contributor as far away as Greenville.
-by Todd Morehead
Read this storyApril 11 11:03 PM
Kissing a Soldier in the Foxhole
Now We Know Why Gays Aren’t Allowed in the Military By Ismail Lagardien
Read this storyApril 11 09:01 PM
Vet to face disciplinary hearing for alleged negligence
Vet to face disciplinary hearing for alleged negligence
By Todd Morehead
Read this storyApril 11 07:06 PM
More News 4/11: Google gets tax incentives
More news… THREAT ON SHERIFF’S LIFE: NO APRIL FOOL’S JOKE
S.C. COMPANY CHARGED WITH WEAPONS SHIPPING SCHEME
Google gets tax incentives from S.C.
FPA board member has sense of humor
Read this storyApril 11 08:00 AM
More People Are Turning Against The President’s War
More People Are Turning Against The President’s War And Friends at Home Continue to Make Life Difficult for the Presidency
By Ismail Lagardien
Read this storyMarch 28 10:00 AM
March 28 NEWS
City Paper exclusive: USC set to ask Workshop Theatre to relocate
Senator Anderson tells us to holla
Students would get access to spray-on condoms
Mystery medicaid madness
The last laugh: Columbia’s Comedy House to close in April
March 28 06:53 AM
The First Four Years of Oil
“An Historic, Strategic and Moral Calamity Undertaken Under False Assumptions”
By Ismail Lagardien
Read this storyMarch 14 02:30 PM
Under Pressure: The Myth of Independence and Freedom
Under Pressure: The Myth of Independence and Freedom An Occasional Column on the Media By Ismail Lagardien
Read this storyMarch 14 01:56 AM
Columbia News Briefs
Discrepancies in the timing of school zone lights lead to speed traps and illegal tickets being issued.
Read this storyFebruary 17 01:09 AM
Presidential Canidate Eats Breakfast
City Paper’s Todd Morehead has breakfast with Sen. Chris Dodd. Lifted from the Columbia City Paper Blog.
Read this storyFebruary 14 10:37 PM
Project Goes South on North Main
by Todd Morehead
The Elmwood, Cottontown, and Earlewood communities of North Main St. house one of the greatest concentrations of middle class residents in Columbia alongside Shandon and Rosewood. Many feel the historic area should be a feather in the cap of city officials who have invested themselves so heavily in the revitalization of downtown. Yet some homeowners in the North Main area worry that City Council may welsh on a streetscaping project they’ve been promising for years.
Read this storyFebruary 14 05:17 PM
REBUILDING WHAT WE’VE WRECKED
U.S. aid agencies struggle to rebuild countries ravaged by U.S.-backed wars
Columbia’s David Axe Investigates
February 14 05:02 PM
WHY OUR TROOPS WANT TO COME HOME
Only one in three U.S. service members approve of the president’s handling of the war in Iraq
Other news….
BROWNBACK SPEAKS, pounds pulpit in Columbia
Carrying knives in Columbia is illegal
CRACKHEADS ARE SELLING EBT CARDS FOR DRUG MONEY
Read this storyJanuary 31 11:00 PM
Cola Licks White Lesbian Mafia
By Todd Morehead
Unsubstantiated reports to City Paper warning of an extremely violent local street gang known as the White Lesbian Mafia have so far proven to be false. The street gang was rumored to be a separate entity from the New York based S & M club, the Lesbian Sex Mafia, which claims to simply promote healthy sexual experimentation.
Read this storyJanuary 31 12:21 PM
Where The Heck Is DHEC?
News Briefs 1/31 Wal-Mart to destroy wetlands habitat in Florence, Ballentine next
Also in Briefs… Viva La (Republican?) Revolution
Is the ‘Guv confused on conservative thinking?
City bartender: “I can’t wait” Longtime bartender, smoker, says ban won’t snuff out his bank account
Meteor or UFO over Carolinas?
Read this storyJanuary 03 07:21 PM
Holiday Blues
High holiday suicide rates are a myth but not for this City Paper staffer…
Read this storyNovember 24 06:29 PM
The Holiday Monster
I remember the first time Victor beat my my sister. (Victor Parente has a history of domestic violence and now goes by the name “Victor Blake”)
By Paul Blake
Read this storyNovember 11 02:10 PM
City Paper interviews coke dealer at Ravenel's victory party
“I go where the cash is at.” That’s what a 25-year-old cocaine dealer said at a Republican victory party shortly before midnight on Election Day in Columbia’s Congaree Vista.
Read this story
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