Today 
Tuesday, August 14, 2018 at 4:33PM The Anderson Institute of Technology, scheduled to open in the Fall of 2019, got a boost from Michelin on Tuesday.
The AIT, which will serve as a career center for Anderson County School District Three, Four and Five, received an $75,000 and a pledge of future support from Michelin to create targeted job training at the facility.
Tuesday, August 14, 2018 at 1:38PM CLEMSON — Clemson University has received a funding commitment from the Universal Service Administration Company Rural Health Care Program to bring high-speed broadband technology to 102 health care sites across South Carolina to improve the efficiency of rural health outreach efforts. The three-year funding commitment amounts to $5.24 million, with the possibility of renewal at the end of the term.
Clemson’s Joseph F. Sullivan Center began pursuing the funding in 2015 to improve telecommunication capability at health care sites frequented by its mobile clinic and those from other health care organizations. The funding will provide wireless broadband technology to stationary health sites and mobile clinics that will allow both entities easy, secure and reliable access to electronic health records and telemedicine for patients in rural, remote areas.
Paula Watt, director of the Clemson’s Sullivan Center, said it will streamline the way mobile clinics can operate in rural areas and provide an economic boost to South Carolina companies tasked with hardwiring sites and mobile clinics. However, the real beneficiaries will be the people in underserved communities who stand to gain the most from this infusion of technology.
“The Sullivan Center has spent decades bringing health care to communities that face an absence or limited amount of services,” Watt said. “Hardwiring these health care sites will increase the amount of people our mobile clinic and these sites can serve and improve every service we offer.”
Watt said the enhanced technology should make a night-and-day difference in the way Clemson’s mobile clinic can serve its patients. The clinic’s staff often waits up to five minutes per patient to connect to a health record that is protected through private networks. This process repeats each time service drops off, which is a regular occurrence.
The delay in service is part of the reason the clinic has gotten creative over the years. It moves patients through three or four different programs to provide comprehensive care and buy itself time lost by spotty connections. In the more remote locations, clinic staff resorts to paper documentation, which has to be transcribed later to add to the electronic health record.
An improved, stable connection takes away the need for paper documentation and the extra staff hours and risk of mistakes that come along with it. It also means the clinic can see more patients.
Clemson’s work on this project has required cooperation with other South Carolina health care systems and the patience to contend with the unknown. DeLorenzo said Watt and the Sullivan Center team have played a vital role in helping to write the “how-to manual” on acquiring the type of funding that will serve to expand access to health care for underserved rural populations throughout the state and across the nation.
Considering the future benefits, Watt is happy to be the model for something new.
“Clemson and many other mobile clinics will see the benefits of this funding at every stop we make across the state,” Watt said. “We’re going to bring an even better experience to more of the patients who need us most.”
Tuesday, August 14, 2018 at 1:11PM COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Four Republicans and three Democrats are seeking their parties' nomination for a vacant state Senate seat in South Carolina.
Republican Columbia Sen. John Courson resigned in June after pleading guilty to misconduct in office related to his use of campaign funds. The district covers parts of Richland and Lexington counties.
If no candidate gets a majority in Tuesday's voting, a runoff will be held Aug. 28. The special election to fill the seat is set for Nov. 6.
Former South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian is one of the candidates. He faces Kyle Lacio and Dayna Alane Smith, who would be the first openly transgender member of the General Assembly.
The Republicans are former U.S. Senate candidate Benjamin Dunn, Christian Stegmaier, John Holler and Bill Turbeville.
Tuesday, August 14, 2018 at 1:24AM The Anderson Institute of Technology, the future career center for Anderson County School Districts three, four and five, will announce a new partnership with Michelin today at 2 p.m. across from the site of the new faciliity at Oakwood Baptist Church.
The new facility is scheduled to open for the fall 2019 school year, and will partner with the adjacent Tri-County Technical College Anderson campus to prepare students, and provide targeted trainging, for the jobs of the future.
Monday, August 13, 2018 at 8:31PM MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (AP) - Google plans a $600 million expansion of its data center in South Carolina.
The Post and Courier of Charleston reports records regarding the expansion were filed with Berkeley County, which will consider a property tax break for the unit of California-based Alphabet Inc.
Under terms of the incentives, Google will have until the early 2030s to complete the expansion.
Google has already invested $1.8 billion since it opened the data center a decade ago.
The company runs eight data centers in the U.S. and 15 worldwide.
Monday, August 13, 2018 at 3:21PM The City of Anderson will close a portion of Simpson Road Tuesday for storm drainage work.
Between 7 a.m.-5 p.m., the closure will be between Annandale Drive and Laurel Creek Drive.
Monday, August 13, 2018 at 3:19PM The runways at Anderson Regional Airport are closed for temporary repar work through Aug. 20. Runways are expected to reopen no later than 8 a.m. on Aug. 20. All air traffic operations, including takeoffs and landings, will be suspended at the airport during the closure period.
The temporary closure is due to the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Runway 5-23. During the closure, work will be performed in and around the intersection on Runways 5-23 and 17-35.
“The closure is absolutely necessary as our contractors require enough time to repair degradation found at the intersection of runway 5-23 and runway 17-35, which has proven to be much more extensive than originally thought,” said Anderson Regional Airport Manager Justin Julian.
The closure dates and times could be modified due to weather conditions or other factors. Contact the Anderson Regional Airport administration office at (864) 260-4163 or the airport’s Fixed Base Operations staff at (864) 964-5656 for more information.
Monday, August 13, 2018 at 1:08PM CLEMSON – Clemson University’s academic year will officially begin at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 20, during the University Convocation in Littlejohn Coliseum. Freshman, transfer and graduate students, faculty and staff and community members are invited to the ceremony and to hear remarks from Thomas (Tom) F. Chapman (‘65), retired chairman and chief executive officer of Equifax Inc., and Clemson President James P. Clements.
This is the second year the university is taking a revised approach to convocation, bringing the campus together in one location. Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Robert Jones and Almeda Jacks, vice president of Student Affairs, will also give remarks during the ceremony.
Chapman holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Clemson and is also a graduate of the Advanced Management Program in Harvard University’s Graduate School of Business. He and his family have a long history of giving back to the community and have greatly impacted many organizations.
At Clemson, Chapman was a two-time All-Atlantic Coast Conference pitcher and a member of Tiger Brotherhood and the Block C Club. Upon graduation, Chapman played professional baseball in the Philadelphia Phillies organization until April 1968, when his Army Reserve unit was activated and deployed to Vietnam, where he served with distinction. Over the past four decades, Chapman has served as both a business and community leader.
Students will begin convocation day at 8:30 a.m. with orientation events across campus. Faculty are invited to a General Faculty meeting at 9 a.m. at Littlejohn Coliseum followed by a faculty reception at the Coliseum Club prior to the start of convocation.
Monday, August 13, 2018 at 6:40AM COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Some South Carolina residents will have a new area code in less than two years.
The North American Numbering Plan Administration has announced the new area code of 839 to overlay the existing 803 area code which covers the central part of the state. It will take effect in 2020.
A news release by the administration said the South Carolina Public Service Commission approved the area code overlay to ensure the availability of telephone numbering that's most efficient and least confusing, while keeping possible disruption to a minimum.
The new 839 area code will cover the same geographic area as 803. All existing customers will retain 803 and will not need to change their telephone numbers. Ten-digit dialing will be required by all customers in both area codes.
Sunday, August 12, 2018 at 6:30PM WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A white nationalist rally in the heart of Washington drew two dozen demonstrators and thousands of chanting counterprotesters on Sunday, the one-year anniversary of racially charged violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. 
A large police presence kept the two sides separated in Lafayette Square, in front of the White House. After two hours and a few speeches, the “Unite the Right 2” rally ended early when it began to rain and two police vans took the demonstrators back to Virginia.
Sunday’s events, while tense at times, were a far cry from the street brawls that broke out in downtown Charlottesville a year ago, when a local woman was killed by a man who drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters.
“Unite the Right 2” had been denied a permit in Charlottesville this year, but did secure one for Washington. Organizers had planned for up to 400 protesters.
At the head of the white nationalist group was Virginia activist Jason Kessler, who helped organize last year’s event in Charlottesville. He emerged with a handful of fellow demonstrators from a subway station holding an American flag and walked toward the White House ringed by police, while counterprotesters taunted the group and called them Nazis.
Dan Haught, a 54-year-old computer programmer from Washington, was attending his first protest at the White House holding a sign that said “Back under your rocks you Nazi clowns.”
“We wanted to send a message to the world that we vastly outnumber them,” Haught said.
Police said that as of 6 p.m. ET (2200 GMT) they had made no arrests and would not give a crowd estimate. Late in the day, a small group of counterprotesters clashed with police in downtown Washington.
The violence last year in Charlottesville, sparked by white nationalists’ outrage over a plan to remove a Confederate general’s statue, convulsed the nation and sparked condemnation across the political spectrum. It also was one of the lowest moments of President Donald Trump’s first year in office.
At the time, Trump said there were “very fine people” on both sides, spurring criticism that he was equating the counterprotesters with the rally attendees, who included neo-Nazis and other white supremacists.
On Saturday, Trump condemned “all types of racism” in a Twitter post marking the anniversary.
ANTI-FASCISTS AND FAMILIES
Kessler said Sunday’s rally was aimed at advocating for “free speech for everybody,” and he blamed last year’s violence in Charlottesville on other groups and the media.
He thought Sunday’s rally went well in comparison.
“Everybody got the ability to speak and I think that was a major improvement over Charlottesville,” Kessler told Reuters. “It was a precedent that had to be set. It was more important than anything.”
The counterprotest which began earlier in the day was a smattering of diverse groups - from black-clad anti-fascists, to supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement to families who brought children in strollers. Tourists took pictures and both protesters and observers zoomed around on electric scooters.
Sean Kratouil, a 17-year-old who lives in Maryland, was wearing a vest with “Antifa” on the back and said he was there to help start a movement of peaceful anti-fascists. He said he was concerned that when rallies turn violent, it makes his side look bad. “Public perception is key,” he said.
In the picturesque college town of Charlottesville, hundreds of police officers had maintained a security perimeter around the normally bustling downtown district throughout the day on Saturday. Vehicular traffic was barred from an area of more than 15 city blocks, while pedestrians were allowed access at two checkpoints where officers examined bags for weapons.
Saturday, August 11, 2018 at 2:09PM One of the most popular meteor showers of the year is expected to peak this weekend. The Perseids will light up the sky with dozens of meteors an hour on today through Monday, setting up a spectacular show for stargazers.
The Perseids appear at about this time every year when Earth ventures through pieces of debris left behind by the ancient comet Swift-Tuttle. Dr. Bill Cooke with NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office tells CBS News that this year, spectators will be in store for a better watching experience due to diminished moonlight –– or in his words: "We won't have any moon messing it up."
"The moon will be setting early so there won't be much moonlight that will be interfering at night," Cooke said. "Peak rates will be just before dawn."
While meteors from the Perseids have passed over Earth since the end of July and are expected to continue until late August, the ideal dates for viewing are between today and Monday, with the latter being the best of the three, Cooke says.
As the night nears dawn, Cooke says viewers can expect to see a meteor every minute or so, which is about standard for the Perseids.
As long as you're in the Northern Hemisphere, the Perseid meteor shower will be right overhead. Americans from coast to coast will have a chance to enjoy the cosmic show as long as the local weather cooperates. But Accuweather warns that in parts of the West, smoke from massive wildfires will create hazy conditions, limiting visibility.
Cooke recommends steering clear of bright city lights in order to get the best view.
"You'll get a decent show as long as you're north of the equator," he said. "As long as you have clear skies and you're away from the city, you should have a good show."
Saturday, August 11, 2018 at 11:01AM CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) - The former police chief in Charleston is now the new police chief for Clemson University.
The school announced Friday that Greg Mullen is its new police chief and associate vice president for public safety.
Clemson says Mullen had been interim chief since May and was the best candidate after a nationwide search.
Mullen spent 11 years as Charleston's police chief and was running the police force when nine black church members were killed in a racist attack during Bible study at Emmanuel AME Church in 2015. The suspect in that case was sentenced to death.
Mullen said in a news release that he understands he has to balance public safety with an environment where people can enjoy themselves with a full college experience.
Saturday, August 11, 2018 at 12:45AM CLEMSON – More than 1,000 students graduated from Clemson University Friday, in a ceremony at Littlejohn Coliseum.
Families and friends watched and cheered as the summer semester 2018 graduates were asked to stand by President James P. Clements. The graduates included 382 receiving bachelor’s degrees, 552 receiving master’s and 86 earning doctorates.
“Graduation is one of the most special days in the life of a university,” Clements told the graduates. “This is a day when we celebrate your hard work and your achievements and imagine all of the possibilities that lie ahead for you.”