Survey: 55 Percent Take Prescription Drugs Regularly

A new survey finds 55 percent of Americans regularly take a prescription medicine -- and they're taking more than ever.

Those who use a prescription drug take four, on average, and many also take over-the-counter drugs, vitamins and other dietary supplements, the survey done by Consumer Reports shows.

But many of those pills may be unnecessary and might do more harm than good, according to a special report in the September issue of Consumer Reports magazine.

Among those who take prescription drugs, 53 percent get them from more than one health care provider, which increases the risk of adverse drug effects. More than a third say no provider has reviewed their medicines to see if all are necessary.

Forty-nine percent of survey respondents who regularly take prescription medicine asked their prescribers whether they could stop taking a drug, and 71 percent were able to eliminate at least one.

Senators Offer Bill Aimed at Protecting Mueller

Two senators on Thursday introduced legislation that would allow special counsel Robert Mueller to pursue a legal challenge if President Donald Trump fires him.

Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., co-authored the Special Counsel Integrity Act, which would require judicial review of Mueller's potential termination.

Trump hasn't publicly said he's considering firing Mueller, but the president's aides said the topic has come up. He has criticized the former FBI director for his ties to James Comey, whom Trump fired as FBI director in May. Trump has also complained about Mueller's team consisting of attorneys who have contributed to Democratic candidates in the past.

The act would allow Mueller to go before a three-judge panel if he is terminated.

"A back-end judicial review process to prevent unmerited removals of special counsels not only helps to ensure their investigatory independence, but also reaffirms our nation's system of check and balances," Tillis said in a statement.

Similar legislation proposed by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., would force Justice officials to go before a panel and explain Mueller's termination beforehand.

"Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency unless Mueller did something wrong," Graham said.

S.C. Tax-Free Holiday this Weekend

South Carolina's annual Sales Tax Holidays – the state’s popular three-day sales and use tax break on traditional back-to-school purchases - begins Friday and continues through Sunday.
 
The annual event, which was implemented in 2000, will begin Aug. 4 at 12:01 a.m. and tax-exempt purchases can be made through at midnight. While providing taxpayers with an exemption on the 6 percent statewide sales tax as well as any applicable local taxes, the tax-free weekend also benefits in-state businesses by urging taxpayers to do their back-to-school shopping in South Carolina.
 
During this time, taxes will not be imposed on clothing, shoes, school supplies, book bags, computers, printers, bedspreads and linens, and more. Nonexempt items during the weekend include the sales of jewelry, cosmetics, eyewear, furniture, or items placed on layaway. Portable devices whose function is primarily used for telephone calls, listening or downloading music, watching videos, or reading books, are not exempt during the tax-free weekend. However, with the growing popularity of computer tablets, portable devices that have computing functions and allow users to access multiple software applications are considered computers and are therefore tax-exempt, provided they do not allow users to make telephone calls. More information on the exemption of computer tablets can be found at www.sctax.org.
 
The popularity of the tax-free weekend has made it the third busiest shopping period of the year, surpassed only by the weekends after Thanksgiving and before Christmas, as South Carolina shoppers save approximately $3 million during the tax-free weekend.

Click here for a list of exempt items in South Carolina.

Clemson Research to Examine Biofuels and Climate Change

Clemson University scientists have received a federal grant to evaluate the effectiveness of producing biofuels to mitigate climate change.

Quantifying the net impact that growing biomass feedstock for biofuel has on local temperature and carbon sequestration can aid the development of effective land-use policies and is the key of a new research project led by Clemson University scientist Thomas O’Halloran.

“If we incentivize the Southeast to plant switchgrass instead of loblolly pine, for example, how would that affect local climate? This study will give us some answers,” said O’Halloran, assistant professor of forestry and environmental conservation at Clemson’s Belle W. Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science in Georgetown. “Biofuels are about reducing fossil fuel use in the interest of benefitting the climate, so this research is about getting a holistic view on whether this is actually beneficial to the environment.”

O’Halloran received a $147,744, two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to analyze how switchgrass fields and loblolly pine forests affect local temperatures through the exchange of water, energy, radiation and carbon with the atmosphere. He’ll also quantify below- and above-ground carbon fluxes in both loblolly pine and switchgrass plantations and assess the greenhouse gas emissions of the full biofuel production chain for each crop.

This will provide a comparative picture of the potential of these feedstocks to reduce carbon emissions when generating electricity by co-firing in a coal power plant. For this, O’Halloran will collaborate with Pragnya L. Eranki, deputy director of research for the Institute for Sustainability in Clemson’s Glenn Department of Civil Engineering.

“We will be able to identify greenhouse gas hotspots along the entire supply chain, including biomass cultivation and harvest in the field, intermediate storage, biomass transport to the coal-firing power plant and the actual generating of the electricity in the plant,” Eranki said.

This life-cycle assessment is unique, Eranki said, because it will utilize atmospheric field data that is often excluded or unavailable.

O’Halloran will collect atmospheric data from sensors mounted to research towers in switchgrass and pine plantations at Sweet Briar College, where he previously worked as an environmental science professor. The college is home to two land-atmosphere research stations (LARS), one that stands nearly 120 feet high in a pine forest and a 14-foot tower in a 300-acre switchgrass field.

Sensors mounted to the towers monitor the cycling of water, carbon and energy between the land and the atmosphere. Such data collection already has allowed O’Halloran and other scientists to quantify and map the cooling effect forests have on surface temperatures.

Loblolly pine can be ground into pellets that are burned for fuel. During the first half of 2016, U.S. manufacturers produced 3.3 million tons of wood pellets and the market is growing, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Switchgrass also can be burned as fuel or converted to cellulosic ethanol and has been discussed as a low-cost commodity for the agriculture industry.

S.C. High Court Rules Against Episcopal Churches in Property Dispute

South Carolina's top court has ruled that dozens of parishes that split with The Episcopal Church over theological issues including the ordination of gay priests cannot take valuable property with them.

The state Supreme Court made that decision Wednesday for 29 breakaway parishes that left the national church in 2012.

The conservative Diocese of South Carolina went to court to protect its identity, the symbols it uses such as the diocesan seal and $500 million in church property. A circuit judge sided with the diocese in 2014.

On Wednesday, justices split 2-2 on intellectual property issues like trademarks. A fifth justice opted not to rule, leaving the lower court's ruling in place.

Attorneys on both sides of the long-awaited decision were still reviewing it and did not immediately comment.

Clemson Gets $6M Grant to Help Lower Some Drug Costs

Sarah W. Harcum of Clemson University is leading a team that has received $6 million for research that could help lower the cost of several drugs that run into the thousands of dollars per treatment and fight some of the world’s most debilitating ailments.

The team brings together researchers from three states to seek better ways of engineering Chinese hamster ovary cells, which are used to manufacture more than half of biopharmaceuticals.

Sarah W. Harcum, professor of bioengineering, works in her lab at Clemson University.

The potential impact is immense. Products from these cells represent more than $70 billion in sales each year and include drugs for Crohn’s disease, severe anemia, breast cancer and multiple sclerosis.

The focus for Harcum and her team will be on the Chinese hamster ovary “cell line.”

A cell line is developed from a single cell culture and starts with uniform genetic composition that would ideally remain unchanged. But that genetic composition drifts as the cells reproduce, and they become less effective at creating the drug they have been engineered to create.

As a result, manufacturing becomes more expensive, said Harcum, a professor of bioengineering.

“We expect by the end of the study we will have identified some genes that cause the instability,” she said. “What would be even better is if we can prove by modifying those genes we can make a genome that is more stable. With success, the Chinese hamster ovary cell line will stay more stable during the manufacturing. We hope to get that drift to be reduced; that’s the ultimate goal.”

The four-year grant was among eight awards totaling $41.7 million announced Wednesday by the National Science Foundation’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, or EPSCoR.

The project is expected to increase patient access to expensive medicines, while helping educate the professionals headed for the advanced biomanufacturing workforce.

Hot Car Act Aims to Save Lives

Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Al Franken, D-Minn., have introduced legislation aimed at saving children left in hot cars from death.

"A simple sensor could save the lives of dozens of children killed tragically in overheated cars each year, and my bill would ensure such technology is available in every car sold in the United States. It can take mere minutes on a hot day for a car to turn into a deathtrap for a small child. This basic technology, combined with public awareness and vigilance, can help prevent these catastrophes and save lives," Blumenthal said.

His bill is the Helping Overcome Trauma for Children Alone in Rear Seat Act, or the HOT CARS act. If it became law, cars would be required to have built-in sensors that alert drivers when children are in the backseat and the car is off. The bill was announced on National Heatstroke Prevention Day.

"Each summer, we hear heart-wrenching stories about children whose lives end far too early because they were accidentally trapped in the back seat of a hot car. We can do something to prevent these terrible tragedies, and that's why I've helped introduce commonsense legislation that would make sure there are measures in place to alert you if your child is left in the back seat. I want to see this life-saving technology become the standard in our cars," Franken said.

Last week in Phoenix, A.Z., a 1-year-old and a 7-month-old died of heatstroke after they were left in hot cars.

"A total of 30 children have already died this year and we expect the number of deaths to rise as temperatures climb over the next few months. These deaths are agonizing, they are completely avoidable and there is technology that should be in every car to save lives," said Jackie Gillan, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety.

Reps. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, Peter King, R-N.Y., and Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., introduced a companion bill in the House on June 7.

Anderson ComiCon Saturday 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. at Library

S.C. Farmers Can Apply to Grow Hemp

Farmers in South Carolina are now able to apply to grow industrial hemp. 

Thanks to the passing of H.3359 by the South Carolina General Assembly this year, the state's Department of Agriculture will allow up to 20 farmers to grow hemp in 2017. 

Industrial hemp is grown as an agricultural crop to be used for rope, clothing, food, paper, textiles, plastics, insulation, and biofuel, among other things. 

The number of permit holders could increase to 40 in 2018. Each applicant is also vetted by the Department of Agriculture, SLED, and the FBI. 

The permits are to be given to South Carolina residents for the purposes of a pilot program. Each permittee is permitted to grow industrial hemp on up to twenty acres of land the first year and up to forty acres the second year and third year, and every year after, the Department of Agriculture, along with the institutions of higher learning, will evaluate the program to determine the amount of acreage permitted.

When applying for a permit, each applicant, at a minimum, must submit to the department global positioning system coordinates of where the industrial hemp will be grown and must submit any and all information, including, but not limited to, fingerprints, and the appropriate fees, required by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) to perform a fingerprint-based state criminal records check and for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to perform a national fingerprint-based criminal records check.

“The industrial hemp bill adds another opportunity for South Carolina farmers to increase crop diversity,” said Hugh Weathers, South Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture in May. “SCDA is working closely with allied agencies and interested parties to ensure timely implementation of the law.”

Industrial hemp is defined as "the plant Cannabis sativa L. and any part of the plant, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dried weight basis," according to the final bill passed by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor in May. 

"Anything above that [.3 percent THC concentration] is considered marijuana and is illegal in the state," SCDA says. 

You can read the full bill here. 

The application process includes a $50 non-refundable fee. If you are approved for a permit, there is a $400 permit fee. 

The application can be found on the SCDA website here. If you have more questions, there is also an industrial hemp "frequently asked questions" section that you can read here. 

Boeing Offering Buyouts to Workers in S.C. Plant

Boeing Co. is offering voluntary buyouts to workers on the flight line at its 787 Dreamliner plant in South Carolina, following a spate of layoffs in June.

The Post and Courier of Charleston reports workers at the North Charleston plant, including flight readiness technicians and inspectors, have until Aug. 4 to take buyout offers. Boeing South Carolina spokeswoman Lori Gunter says it's too early to tell if more layoffs are forthcoming.

June's layoffs of fewer than 200 workers included managers and salaried workers. The buyoffs are the first since workers rejected union membership earlier this year.

Gunter says it's possible that some employees could be reassigned to other jobs or locations.

The reductions come after President Donald Trump visited the Dreamliner assembly plant in February to tout a coming American manufacturing renaissance.

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Information from: The Post and Courier, http://www.postandcourier.com

Candidate Templeton to Hold Easley Town Hall

Catherine Templeton will hold a town hall meeting in Easley tonight from 6-8 p.m. at Mutt's BBQ. Templeton announced in April that she was entering the South Carolina governor’s race for the 2016 election.

Templeton has previously served as South Carolina’s Secretary of Labor and most recently as director of the Department of Health and Environmental Control. She resigned from her post at DHEC in January 2015.

Princeton Review: Clemson Career Services Best in U.S.

Clemson University has the best student career services among colleges ranked by The Princeton Review and its students love their school and sports, according to the rankings released Monday.

In “The Best 382 Colleges, 2018 Edition,” this is how Clemson ranks:

• Best Career Services: 1
• Their Students Love These Colleges: 2
• Students Pack the Stadiums: 2
• Everyone Plays Intramural Sports: 2
• Town-Gown Relations are Great: 5
• Best Alumni Network: 6
• Happiest Students: 10
• Best Schools for Internships: 10

It is the second time The Princeton Review ranked Clemson’s career services No. 1; it did so in the 2016 edition as well.

“We want our students to experience unparalleled success, so we equip them with a world-class education, charge them to make a difference in the world, help them surmount the challenges they encounter and celebrate their triumphs regardless of how recently or long ago they graduated,” said Neil Burton, executive director of Clemson’s Center for Career and Professional Development.

Nearly three-fourths of recent graduates had an internship or co-op experience while at Clemson, according to a recent survey, Burton said. More than half had more than one such work experience.

The Princeton Review tallied the rankings for the 2018 edition based on its surveys of 137,000 students (average 358 per campus) attending the 382 colleges in the book in 2016-17 and/or the previous two school years.

The ranking lists will also be published in the 2018 edition of The Princeton Review’s annual “Best Colleges” guidebook, “The Best 382 Colleges” (Penguin Random House / Princeton Review Books, $24.99). It will be on sale Tuesday in print and available Sept. 26 in an e-book edition.

Study: Drug-Related Car Deaths Up Sevenfold Since 1991

In yet another sign of just how deadly the U.S. opioid epidemic has become, researchers report a sevenfold increase in the number of drivers killed in car crashes while under the influence of prescription painkillers.

Prescriptions for drugs such as oxycodone, or OxyContin, hydrocodone, or Vicoprofen, and morphine have quadrupled, from 76 million in 1991 to nearly 300 million in 2014, so it's no surprise these medications are playing a growing role in highway deaths, the Columbia University researchers said.

"The significant incrUease in proportion of drivers who test positive for prescription pain medications is an urgent public health concern," said lead researcher Stanford Chihuri.

Prescription drugs can cause drowsiness, impaired thinking and slowed reaction times, which can interfere with driving skills, Chihuri said.

"Prescription pain medications use and abuse may play a role in motor vehicle crashes," he said. "Additional research is urgently needed to assess its role."

Chihuri is a staff associate in the department of anesthesiology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

He isn't the only one worried about the trend.

"MADD [Mothers Against Drunk Driving] is concerned about the rising use of opioids across the nation and the effect these drugs have on the safety of our roadways," said J.T. Griffin, chief government affairs officer at the nonprofit organization.

Unlike alcohol, there is no reliable test for impairment by other drugs, Griffin explained.

"MADD has always served victims of all substance-impaired driving and remains committed to eliminating drunk driving and fighting drugged driving," Griffin said.

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