Understand SC

It’s back-to-school week in the Charleston area. A few months ago, many were hoping this week would go a little differently than it is now. People were hopeful that the return to school would also be a kind of return to normalcy, that COVID cases would be on the decline and the risks for health risks for students would be low. But instead, the leadup to the school year has been stressful cases sur...

There are plenty of numbers available that show the troubling point that South Carolina has reached in the COVID-19 pandemic.  On Aug. 11, the state surpassed 10,000 deaths from the virus. Case numbers are high, and data from the Medical University of South Carolina show the aggressive and more highly transmissible Delta strain now accounts for more than 92 percent of positive tests.  But sometime...

North Charleston residents have been calling for a racial bias audit of their police department for years.  Community members and activists have said for a long time that officers overpolice Black residents in their city, which is the third-largest in South Carolina. It's also the community where Walter Scott, a 50-year-old Black man, was gunned down while trying to flee a police officer.  That wa...

Back-to-school time is nearing, and as students and parents stock up on supplies and squeeze in that last bit of summer fun, South Carolina's school districts are facing one of the biggest assignments they have ever been given.   They have a potentially game-changing opportunity: Local school boards have received a total of $3 billion in federal COVID-19 relief money to help students catch up.  Th...

South Carolina is about a year out from the primary for its next governor’s race and 16 months from the general election, but the contest has already generated a lot of conversation. Democratic Party chairman Trav Robertson even said he predicts it will be “one of the most exciting gubernatorial primaries that the state of South Carolina has ever seen.” So far, the Democratic contenders who have a...

In South Carolina, judges can face allegations of misconduct, conflicts of interest or criminal activity in secret.  The Disciplinary Counsel’s office, an investigative arm of the state Supreme Court, receives more than 200 complaints against the state’s judges each year, but rarely do the office's investigations lead to the removal of judges or even to public reprimands.  As we’ve discussed on ou...

It’s been more than three weeks since two members of the prominent  South Carolina Murdaugh family were shot dead at their hunting lodge along the border of Colleton and Hampton counties. But, despite the amount of time that has gone by and the high-profile nature of their deaths, which are being investigated as murders, police have offered few details about the case. With little official informat...

Corruption is common,  but why does it happen?  Since 2018, more than 1,100 public servants in South Carolina have clearly crossed ethical lines, the Post and Courier found.  The latest installment of our ongoing "Uncovered" series about unreported corruption investigates those ethical breaches and looks at why public officials often face little or no consequences when they're caught doing the wro...

Last week, The Post and Courier was named a finalist in the local reporting category of the Pulitzer Prizes for Rising Waters, our ongoing series about flooding, sea level rise and the accelerating effects of climate change in the Lowcountry.  The weekend after that announcement, Charleston got a lot of rain.  It was a familiar scene: People wading through knee-deep floodwaters in city streets, ca...

South Carolina's largest university is again on the search for a new leader. After then-University of South Carolina President Bob Caslen lifted lines of a speech without attributing them, the retired three-star general resigned, marking the end of his two-year tenure. Caslen admitted to lifting lines for his commencement comments without giving credit. He was also criticized for mistakenly referr...

The question is one that propelled a lengthy reporting process and led a pair of journalists from South Carolina across the Atlantic Ocean to Senegal: Who was Omar ibn Said, really? When two Post and Courier journalists started pursuing that question, they knew Omar was a Muslim scholar who, at age 37, was captured from his home in Futa Toro and forced onto a slave ship bound for Charleston. Omar...

This month, South Carolina’s regular legislative session came to a close.  This latest lawmaking period followed an election that strengthened GOP majorities in both the House and the Senate, and it showed.  The session started with a law banning most abortions and ended with passage of bills expanding gun rights and resuming the death penalty. The session's theme, for either side of the political...

It’s taken months for details about Jamal Sutherland’s death to be released. Only in the last couple of weeks has there been a better understanding of what happened on Jan. 5 at the Al Cannon Detention Center in North Charleston.  Late last Thursday, the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office released videos of two deputies using pepper spray, stun guns and other force against Sutherland, a Black ment...

Just over 1 in 3 South Carolinians have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Almost 44 percent have received at least one shot.  That’s good news, but health experts have been concerned about slowing demand for the vaccine. Earlier this year, it was difficult to get a vaccine appointment. Demand far outpaced supply. Now, that’s switched. South Carolina could be vaccinating many more people a da...

The debate over what to do with South Carolina's embattled state-owned utility Santee Cooper has dragged on for years.  Lawmakers knew they had to do something with it — whether that be sell the utility, reform it or turn over its management — after it lost more than $4 billion in the failed expansion of the V.C. Summer nuclear power plant, which is widely considered to be the biggest business fai...

As the Lowcountry region has grown, so has its issues with traffic and the strain on its roadways.  One of the solutions proposed to ease that strain is a high-capacity mass transit system, something that doesn't exist yet in the state.  That system is in the works for the Charleston area, and it has been for years. It’s called Lowcountry Rapid Transit, and this week residents got the closest look...

Chief Harold "Buster" Hatcher of the Waccamaw Indian People has been fighting for his tribe to be justly acknowledged. That effort started about 30 years ago, and it’s far from over.  His tribe is one of nine that are recognized by the state of South Carolina. What Hatcher is still working for, though, is federal recognition, which comes with significant benefits. Federally-recognized tribes can b...

South Carolina is one of three states that doesn’t have a hate crimes law. But earlier this month, a bill that would remove the state from that short list passed easily through the House. There have been attempts to pass this kind of legislation before, but the April 7 vote was a big step: The House had not passed a hate crimes bill before.  This time around, the legislation has been boosted by th...

Charleston-area restaurants are bustling again.  COVID-19 vaccinations started to become more widely available right around the time when business typically picks up for the local hospitality industry at the beginning of March, and bars and restaurants started to fill up again at a rapid pace.  But, while tables may be full, that doesn't mean kitchens are.  Charleston-area restaurants are again fa...

Instead of touting old buildings or artifacts, the historic Phillips Community points to its people.  The families who inhabit the small community today are descendants of the formerly enslaved freedmen who founded Phillips in 1875 where a plantation of the same name had been. They themselves are “living history” one resident said, passing down common values through generations.  Family. Working t...

South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn has for years been one of the most influential Democrats in Washington.  He’s the House Majority Whip, the highest-ranking Black member of Congress and the only Democrat in South Carolina’s delegation. And, right now, he’s in the midst of what’s likely to be one of his most significant terms in Congress since coming to Washington in 1993. Clyburn has a wishli...

North Charleston resident Mike Winkelmann made history.  Better known as Beeple, on March 11, he fetched a record-breaking $69.3 million for a single digital artwork through the art auction house Christie's. That winning bid is the third-highest price paid at auction for a work by a living artist. While the image of the work, which is titled " Everydays: The First 5,000 Days ," can be easily viewe...

Becoming a first-time homebuyer in the Charleston area isn't easy.  And, thanks to surging home prices that brought the median cost in the tri-county area over $300,000, buying a home in the Charleston region didn't get any easier during the COVID-19 pandemic.   In addition to the price tag, there are other barriers keeping some would-be homebuyers from making that purchase. Today on the podcast,...

Last week, Gov. Henry McMaster announced an expansion of coronavirus vaccine eligibility, making an estimated 2.7 million more residents qualify for appointments.  That includes essential workers, those 55 and older and people with certain underlying health conditions. The news came as South Carolina reached the milestone of administering more than one million vaccines and the one-year mark from t...

The name "Bi-Lo" has been disappearing from storefronts across the state, and it's only a matter of time before all of them are gone. Last year, it was announced the brand is being retired.  But Bi-Lo was once a thriving chain in the Southeast, one that got its start as a locally-owned company in South Carolina's Upstate, known for having a familial atmosphere and decorative fiberglass bulls.  Und...