Clemson Recognized for Helping Cybersecurity in S.C.

Clemson University received the first-ever academic institution award from SC Cyber for its contribution to the state’s cybersecurity initiative that was kicked off last year by former Gov. Nikki Haley.

The award was presented at the South Carolina Cybersecurity Summit in Columbia last month. It was co-hosted by SC Cyber, the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce and U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Clemson University was recognized for hosting the SC Cyber Upstate event in September 2016 at the Watt Family Innovation Center, conducting an inventory of course offerings around the state, presenting at the Palmetto Cyber Education Symposium at Claflin University in February 2017 and the continuing outstanding performance of students in the annual Palmetto Cyber Defense Competition events. Clemson also supports the SC Cyber Strategic Advisory Board and its executive committee.

The Cybersecurity Summit featured speakers and panel members from law enforcement, industry and government. Topics included the role of the Department of Homeland Security in cybersecurity, small business cybersecurity, securing the cloud, protecting the South Carolina manufacturing ecosystem, combating cyber threats to U.S. national security and critical infrastructure security. One of the highlights was a live demonstration of hacking into kitchen appliances and children’s toys that use computer chips to enable human interactions with devices.

Clemson Professor Gains Reputation as Space Weatherman

Clemson University physicist Jens Oberheide’s collaborative research on “space weather” – which was published in an international journal in 2015 – has since caught fire in the worldwide scientific community.

Oberheide recently received the “Most Accessed Paper Award 2017” in Progress in Earth and Planetary Science (PEPS), which is the journal of the Japanese Geoscience Union. Awards were presented to the top three most accessed papers during 2015-2016. Oberheide’s paper – titled “The geospace response to variable inputs from the lower atmosphere: a review of the progress made by Task Group 4 of CAWSES-II” – won first place.

From 2009-2013, Oberheide led Task Group 4, which was a Climate and Weather of the Sun-Earth System program under the umbrella of the Scientific Committee for Solar-Terrestrial Physics. Oberheide’s group studied the “geospace response to waves generated by meteorological events, their interaction with the mean flow, and their impact on the ionosphere and their relation to competing thermospheric disturbances generated by energy inputs from above, such as auroral processes at high latitudes.”

“I led a task group of more than 100 scientists from more than 20 countries with the objective of laying the scientific foundation for a better understanding of space weather – a task important for a technological society,” said Oberheide, a professor of atmospheric and space physics in the department of physics and astronomy in the College of Science. “The paper summarizes our efforts, and I am glad to see that it got quite a bit of traction.”

Space weather refers to changes in Earth’s space environment due to processes in the atmosphere and geomagnetic storms resulting from eruptions on the sun. Space weather ultimately affects human activities and technologies on Earth and in space. It can disrupt communication and GPS, overload power grids, alter weather patterns on the surface, and impact satellite operations, astronauts and air travel. Predicting space weather and enhancing the national preparedness is thus a high priority for NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense and other federal agencies.

Oberheide’s paper emphasized the “role of gravity waves, planetary waves and tides, and their ionospheric impacts” by explaining how these atmospheric phenomena connect weather on Earth’s surface with space weather. The paper’s international team of co-authors included Kazuo Shiokawa, Subramanian Gurubaran, William E Ward, Hitoshi Fujiwara, Michael J Kosch, Jonathan J Makela and Hisao Takahashi.

House Panel Asks Trump for Comey Tapes

Congressional investigators demanded Friday that the president turn over within two weeks any recordings he made of his conversations with former FBI director James B. Comey, as President Trump refused to answer questions about whether such recordings exist.

The House Intelligence Committee’s letter comes just one day after Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee about notes and memos he kept to document interactions with the president that made him uncomfortable — memos he slipped to the press, using a friend as intermediary, after Trump suggested via Twitter that he might have taped their discussions. Comey said he hoped their contents would compel the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate the administration over possible links to Russia.

The House Intelligence Committee also sent a second letter Friday to Comey, asking him to turn over his memos. The committee gave Comey and White House Counsel Don McGahn until June 23 to produce the requested memos and tapes.

The Senate Judiciary Committee also has requested a copy of Comey’s memos — but from the intermediary, Columbia Law professor Daniel Richman. The committee sent a letter Thursday night insisting that Richman turn the memos over to the committee by Friday in the format in which he received them.

Richman has been in touch with the committees through Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is handling the issue, said a person familiar with the matter. Richman declined to comment.

Comey on Trump's tweet: 'Lordy, I hope there are tapes'

 

Former FBI director James B. Comey said he has seen President Trump's May 12 tweet that suggested there could be "tapes" of their private conversations, saying "Lordy, I hope there are tapes." (Photo: Matt McClain / The Washington Post/Reuters)

Trump spent Friday claiming “vindication” after Comey’s testimony, while still accusing the former FBI director of lying about their interactions . At a news conference, Trump said that “some of the stuff [Comey] said just wasn’t true.”

But during his testimony, Comey invited Trump to “release all the tapes” he may have made, a sign that he believed they would corroborate his rendition of events, if such tapes exist.

Comey recalled many details of his memos in written and spoken statements he gave to the Senate Intelligence Committee, testifying as part of their investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The president has instead remained cagey about the existence of the “tapes” — he referred to them in quotes in his initial tweet — that he hinted at just days after he fired Comey.

“I’ll tell you about that maybe sometime in the very near future,” Trump said Friday, in response to a reporter’s question about whether the tapes exist.

When pressed by reporters to better specify when he intended to address the issue, Trump added: “I’m not hinting anything about it; I’ll tell you about it over a fairly short period of time.”

And then noted: “Oh, you’re going to be very disappointed when you hear the answer, don’t worry.”

The continued mystery surrounding any tapes is fueling confusion as well as Richard Nixon comparisons, as Trump rejects calls to set the record straight swiftly. It’s not just the media, however, that are wondering whether these tapes exist.

Across Capitol Hill, congressional leaders and committee members of both parties are clamoring for the president to pony up the tapes of his Feb. 14 conversation with Comey in the Oval Office, if he even made them.

The most vocal demands are being raised by Democratic leaders, such as Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark R. Warner (D-Va.), Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), all of whom have called for issuing the White House a subpoena to procure the tapes, if the administration doesn’t provide them freely — or tell the public they simply don’t exist.

Republicans have not yet joined the chorus of leading Democrats demanding stringent legal measures to unearth any recordings. But they, too, have been issuing formal and increasingly insistent requests for the recordings.

Before the House Intelligence Committee’s Friday letter giving the White House a deadline of June 23, the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote to the FBI and the White House in May, demanding documents and records related to Comey and Trump’s interactions — including any tapes or memos. The FBI and White House informed the committee recently that they would need more time to work on the request, according to a spokesman for the panel.

The House Oversight Committee also sent a letter to White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus in March requesting “all documents” and “all other components” relating to former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s contacts with Russian officials after last year’s election. A Democratic committee aide said Friday that request also would apply to any tapes of Comey and Trump’s Oval Office conversation, given that the conversations focused on Flynn. A spokeswoman for the House panel chairman, Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), did not return a request for comment.

Whether these requests for materials are eventually enforced, however, depends on a more committed bipartisan effort to force the president’s hand — something that to date, most leading Republican lawmakers have been loath to do.

A spokesman for Judiciary committee chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) stressed that the panel’s effort to procure more information about the recordings was bipartisan, adding that the senator still had no knowledge about whether the tapes existed.

A spokeswoman for Senate Intelligence Committee Richard Burr (R-N.C.), however, would not say Friday whether Burr knew that the tapes exist — or whether he felt the committee should have access to that information.

McMaster Pushes New Renewable Energy Effort

Governor Henry McMaster has announced a major new investment in renewable energy for the Palmetto State - a $100 million project to create a 74-megawatt solar panel farm near Edgefield Highway in Aiken County.

It's the third South Carolina installation for a company called Adger Solar.

Solar energy and the rapidly improving technology for gathering it has created rapid growth for companies like Sunrun near I-20 and Monticello Road.

“It's kind of a way to save money, go green and take something back from the utility companies,” Chris Fitzsimmons, Sunrun's construction supervisor says.

Sunrun is among at least a dozen solar panel businesses operating in the Midlands offering customers lighter, higher performance panels.

“When I first started we were only using 175-watt panels,” Fitzsimmons said.

“The ones we're installing now are 300-watt panels each. So they've become way more efficient. At the same time, the 300-watt panels are probably cheaper to produce than the 175 watts that we were using six years ago,"  Fitzsimmons said. 

This week one big utility, SCE&G, rolled out a new option for customers interested in solar, but not willing or unable to install their own rooftop systems. The Community Solar program lets customers subscribe to or buy panels in a remotely located solar farm.

“Some customers don't own the roof. They're renters,” says SCE&G’s John Raftery. “Some customers, the age of the roof would require them to replace the roof before they put solar on top of the roof. Some customers don't have the ability to buy the panels upfront or outright. In our Community Solar program they can subscribe to the power production. There are certain homeowners association covenant restrictions that would limit the customer from putting rooftop solar in place.”

SCE&G is adding solar panels to its own campus off Saxe Gotha Road near I-77 in Cayce. The 1.6-megawatt solar array is supposed to be completed by the end of the year.

The governor’s office says the Adger Solar project in Aiken County will be operational by 2019 and will provide clean energy to 15,000 homes.

The company also has two solar generating facilities in Jasper County.

S.C. Considers Germany a Good Trade Partner

President Donald Trump has objected to Germany's trade surplus with the United States, reportedly singling out its auto industry success for criticism. But in South Carolina, an early primary state that helped propel him to the Republican nomination, the Germans aren't seen as an overseas rival but as a valued economic partner.

Trump tweeted on May 30 about the U.S. trade deficit with Germany: "Very bad for U.S. This will change." In meetings during his recent trip to Europe, he criticized Germany's success in selling automobiles in the United States, according to German media reports that the White House has disputed.

In South Carolina, German manufacturing growth is linked directly to the state's economic success of the past 25 years. The hard-won 1992 deal that spurred BMW to put its first U.S. plant in South Carolina's Upstate region is considered a watershed moment for the state's economy, economic and political observers agree.

With all the success of BMW and other German investments by such companies as Robert Bosch Corp. and ZF Transmissions in South Carolina, it would be a major political mistake for Trump and his allies to endanger that with a trade war, according to Bob McAlister, a Columbia public relations consultant who remains well-connected in GOP circles after serving as chief of staff to Gov. Carroll Campbell, who made the deal that brought BMW to the state.

"It would be a blunder of the first order," McAlister says. "It would be funny if it were not so serious."

Trump's talk on German trade might well just be late-night Twitter bluster or posturing, McAlister says. But if his trade stance hurts what Germany has helped South Carolina build, "he won't be any more popular here than he is in Massachusetts."

"This is one of those cases where the president should have gotten his facts first before he went on attack because it's just wrong," Ted Pitts, CEO of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, recently told CBS News.

First opened in 1994 and since expanded, the BMW plant employs more than 8,000 and has spurred numerous parts suppliers and other German manufacturers to launch operations in South Carolina. The state features more than 160 German companies doing business in more than 200 locations, according to its Commerce Department.

"It's been a game-changer," says economist Doug Woodward of the University of South Carolina, who has studied BMW's economic impact on the state.

Woodward's 2014 study put the plant's share of the gross state product at $2.8 billion and said the company supported 30,777 jobs in the state, directly or indirectly. He currently is updating his study at the behest of BMW and says that the economic impact of the company has grown since the earlier version was published.

In 2014, BMW announced a further $1 billion investment and 800 additional jobs at the plant, which is where BMW makes its X series of sport utility vehicles. About 70 percent of the SUVs made at the plant in Greer, South Carolina, are exported from the U.S., with many headed to Germany itself or to emerging markets such as China.

How integral has BMW become to the South Carolina economy? The state's Commerce secretary previously served as a top executive at the BMW plant. "South Carolina works hard to provide industries, from every corner of the globe like BMW – which was also the single biggest exporter of vehicles from the U.S., producing more than 400,000 vehicles in its South Carolina plant – with the resources they need to succeed," Robert M. Hitt III said in a statement.

An auto manufacturing plant such as BMW, with a campus of 5 million square feet, is huge enough. But such plants also attract parts suppliers to locate nearby so their goods can be available quickly. Forty BMW suppliers also operate in the state, adding to the economic impact.

When the company was persuaded to come to South Carolina in the mid-1990s, other industries such as textiles were retrenching and laying off workers, Woodward says. That made BMW vital to keeping the state's economy afloat, and it has continued to do that with hardly a hiccup even during the Great Recession, Woodward says. Its wages are about 40 percent above the state's average for manufacturing, amplifying its economic impact, he estimates.

BMW's investment has helped the state build its own version of an auto industry in South Carolina, with other companies also locating plants here. In the past five years, other German investments in the state include $500 million projects by Mercedes-Benz and Continental Tire, according to the South Carolina Commerce Department.

"It really is the architect of our automotive cluster," Woodward says about BMW.

The growth of the Germany-South Carolina link continues. From 2011 to 2016, direct German investment of $4.6 billion created more than 10,000 new jobs in the state, according to the state's Commerce Department. More than 25,000 South Carolinians work at jobs created by German-owned companies, according to the Representative of German Industry and Trade group.

Beyond the jobs that BMW and other German companies have created, the German projects changed the narrative about what was possible in the state, McAlister says. When the deal was made, South Carolina had to persuade convince BMW that it was the right place for its planned U.S. plant, including a deal that offered aggressive incentives if employment numbers were met – and those have been far exceeded.

"BMW was South Carolina's entrée onto the international stage," McAlister says. "Governor Campbell thought it was absolutely critical to the state's economic future."

This growth in the state's manufacturing base has helped Charleston's port rank as one of the most active on the East Coast, with almost all of the 287,700 BMWs exported in 2016 being shipped out there.

Given the state's deep ties to BMW and other German companies, McAlister expects the state's top political leadership to take united action to head off any trade dispute. The state is well-connected to the administration, McAlister said, noting U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and her successor as South Carolina governor, Henry McMaster, who was a key early supporter of Trump in the state's primary.

With the imprimatur of BMW, the state has attracted other major manufacturers including Volvo and Boeing. Before Boeing agreed to build fuselages for its 787 jet in the Charleston area, it was in contact with BMW to learn more about South Carolina, Woodward says.

It's hard to imagine those international companies taking a chance on South Carolina if BMW had not made the leap in the 1990s.

"There's no question that BMW set the stage for what was to come," McAlister says. "Without them I don't know where the state would be." 

Sheriff Thanks Community for Support During Recent Tragedy

Dear Citizens of Anderson County, 

On June 1, 2017 we lost a brother, a friend and a coworker to a tragic accident on Lake Hartwell during a training exercise. The loss of a team member is never easy, but as is the case with Master Deputy Devin Hodges, our loss is much greater because he was loved by so many in our department and in our law enforcement community. 

As your Sheriff’s Office, this has been the most difficult time we have faced as a team since coming into office in January of this year. On Tuesday June 6, 2017 we laid Devin to rest after a very moving, respectful and honoring memorial service.

As the funeral procession traveled through our county and on to the burial site we were overwhelmed by the gracious outpouring of love and admiration for our fallen hero. It seemed that at every intersection and open space on the funeral route we observed people standing along the roadside to pay their respects to Devin. Your presence was felt not only by Devin’s family, but also by the Anderson Sheriff’s Office staff as well as the many Law Enforcement agencies that participated in the funeral and procession.

Citizens; I have never been more grateful and honored to be your Sheriff. Your display of support of our agency and our law enforcement family here in Anderson during this time has been overwhelming. Your calls, texts, messages, emails and written condolences have touched our team more than you can imagine. We are very honored to serve you, but feel during this time our community has gathered around us in an offering of support that we cannot adequately describe in words. We have been truly blessed by your support. 

Thank you for being there and supporting the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office. It is our honor to serve you, and we are extremely thankful for how we feel Anderson County has served us during this time.

Forever grateful,

Chad McBride

Conservative Senators Ready to Rebel on Obamacare Repeal Bill

Conservative senators and allied outside groups are on the verge of rebellion against the Senate’s Obamacare repeal effort, potentially derailing delicate negotiations to overhaul the nation’s health care system.

As Obamacare repeal talks enter crunch time with a vote as soon as this month, the Senate bill continues to tilt toward more moderate members of the GOP on keeping some of Obamacare’s regulatory structure and providing a more generous wind-down of the law’s Medicaid expansion. The movement has made Republicans increasingly pessimistic that two critical conservative senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky, will be able to vote for the GOP’s ultimate agreement on health care, according to senators and aides.

“I think [Lee is a no]. And Rand will be a no," said a Republican senator granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal conference matters.

Losing those two senators would be a major blow that would allow Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell no further defections in his 52-senator majority and make Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska the key swing votes, further imperiling conservatives’ negotiating position in a Senate in which McConnell needs 50 votes at a minimum.

Worry is increasing among conservatives inside and outside the Capitol that the bill is “tipping toward the moderates," said a Republican working on the repeal effort. And after weeks of sparring, the tug-of-war between conservatives and more centrist Republicans is finally reaching its climax.

“I don’t think it’s insurmountable. But I think the passion’s going up on each side,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who is pushing for more robust Medicaid benefits against conservative opposition. “The heat’s definitely rising." On the right, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has also voiced skepticism with the party’s description, saying the party has a “long way to go” on the repeal effort, and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) is also said to be growing wary of the party’s direction, GOP insiders said. But both are currently viewed as more gettable than Lee and Paul, two senators who have shown a consistent proclivity for bucking McConnell.

Since there is no bill text yet, both Lee and Cruz have declined to take an official position on the emerging proposal. Lee declined to comment for this story, while Paul said he’s still attempting to push the bill to the right. The Kentucky Republican, however, has been on a warpath in the GOP Conference lunches over the past week and Republicans do not believe he will vote with them.

In an interview this week, he charged that the House bill is bad enough because it keeps “90 percent” of Obamacare, said he opposes the creation of high-risk pools favored by many Republicans, and urged Republicans to abandon attempts to save the individual marketplace with an infusion of cash.

“We promised the voters that we’d repeal Obamacare,” Paul said. “Instead, we want to repeal sort of a tiny bit of it and replace it with something that looks a lot like Obamacare.”

Gowdy Named to Oversight Reform Committee

Congressman Trey Gowdy has been tapped to lead the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee after Chairman Jason Chaffetz leaves Congress at the end of month.

The House Republican Steering Committee recommended the South Carolina lawmaker for the post Thursday, choosing him over Oklahoman Steve Russell. The full House Republican conference is expected to confirm the choice next week.

Gowdy is a former federal prosecutor who led a two-year inquiry into the deadly attacks in Benghazi, Libya, and was an outspoken critic of the Obama administration. As the new chairman, he will lead oversight of the Trump administration, including a nascent investigation of possible ties between Russia and President Donald Trump's campaign.

Chaffetz is a Utah Republican who's stepping down June 30 to pursue a privatesector career.

Comey Calls Trump Conversations "Very Disturbing"

James Comey on Thursday said he was blindsided when President Donald Trump fired him as FBI director, adding he was confused by the administration's explanations, which he characterized as "lies -- plain and simple."

Comey testified Thursday before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, where he faced questioning about his termination, the investigation into Russia's meddling in the U.S. election and encounters he had with Trump.

Comey did not read his lengthy prepared remarks, which were released on Wednesday, and instead gave a brief and direct statement in which he discussed the circumstances prior to and after his termination.

"When I was appointed FBI director in 2013, I understood that I served at the pleasure of the president. Even though I was appointed to a 10-year term, which Congress created in order to underscore the importance of the FBI being outside of politics and independent, I understood that I could be fired by a president for any reason or for no reason at all," Comey told the committee. "And on May the 9th when I learned that I had been fired, for that reason I immediately came home as a private citizen. But then the explanations, the shifting explanations, confused me and increasingly concerned me."

Trump initially said he fired Comey following "clear" advice from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, who, among other reasons, cited Comey's handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails as the reason he should be dismissed.

Comey said that Trump assured him he was serving well as the FBI director, suggesting the termination blindsided him and the following explanations confused him.

"They confused me because the president and I had had multiple conversations about my job, both before and after he took office, and he had repeatedly told me I was doing a great job and he hoped I would stay," Comey told the committee. "He told me repeatedly that he had talked to lots of people about me, including our current Attorney General, and had learned that I was doing a great job, and that I was extremely well-liked by the FBI workforce. So it confused me when I saw on television the president saying that he actually fired me because of the Russia investigation, and learned again from the media, that he was telling privately other parties that my firing had relieved great pressure on the Russia investigation."

Comey agreed to testify before the Senate panel, which is conducting one of three U.S. investigations related to Russia, last week after receiving clearance from special investigator Robert Mueller.

Responding to a question from panel chairman Richard Burr, Comey said there was no doubt Russia interfered in the U.S. presidential election.

"No doubt," Comey said.

Although a memo written by Comey indicated that Trump had expressed hope that former national security adviser Michael Flynn would be cleared as part of the probe, Comey said Thursday the president hadn't explicitly asked him to stop investigating.

"Did the president at any time ask you to stop the FBI investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. Elections?" Burr continued.

"Not to my understanding, no," Comey answered.

Regarding potential ramifications for Trump's "hope" that Flynn would be cleared, though, Comey said it was not for him to decide.

"When the president requested that you, 'let Flynn go,' ... In your estimation, was Gen. Flynn at that time in serious legal jeopardy, and in addition to that, do you sense that the president was trying to obstruct justice or just seek for a way for Mike Flynn to save face?" Burr asked.

"Gen. Flynn at that point in time was in legal jeopardy. There was an open FBI criminal investigation of his statements in connection with the Russian contacts ... so that was my assessment at the time," Comey replied. "I don't think it's for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an effort to obstruct. I took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning, but that's a conclusion I'm sure the special counsel will work towards to try and understand what the intention was there, and whether that's an offense."

Sen. Mark Warner, the panel's vice chairman, asked Comey whether it was true that he'd assured Trump at one time that he wasn't personally under investigation. Comey said, technically, that had been true.

"There was not a counter-intelligence investigation of Mr. Trump, and I decided in the moment to say it, given the nature of our conversation," Comey answered.

He added, however, that some in FBI leadership worried that such a statement might be misleading given the possibility that an investigation of Trump was still possible.

"The nature of the investigation was such that it might touch, obviously it would touch, the campaign, -- and the person that headed the campaign would be the candidate," Comey said.

Following Comey's testimony, Trump attorney Marc Kasowitz said the former FBI chief had validated what the president has previously said.

"Mr. Comey has now finally confirmed publicly what he repeatedly told the president privately -- the president was not under investigation as part of any probe into Russian interference," he said. "He also admitted that there is no evidence that a single vote changed as a result of any Russian interference.

"It is overwhelmingly clear that there have been and continue to be those in government who are actively attempting to undermine this administration with selective and illegal leaks of classified information and privileged communications."

Kasowitz also said Trump never demanded loyalty from Comey, a claim the former FBI director reemphasized in his remarks Thursday.

"The dinner [in January] was an effort to build a relationship. In fact, he asked specifically, of loyalty in the context of asking me to stay," Comey told the committee. "My common sense told me what's going on here is he's looking to get something in exchange for granting my request to stay in the job."

Comey said he was uneasy about the loyalty remarks because the FBI director serves at 10-year terms specifically to avoid politicizing the position with parallel terms for U.S. presidents.

"The statue of justice has a blindfolds on. You're not supposed to peek out to see there if your patron was pleased with what you're doing," he said.

Comey said the president made his remarks about Flynn during a February 14 meeting after he'd asked everyone else in the room -- including Sessions -- to leave.

"My impression was something big is about to happen," Comey said, noting that he was already preparing mentally to write a memo on the discussion. "I need to remember every single word that is spoken. ... I knew something was about to happen that I needed to pay very close attention to."

School District Five to Offer Summer Food Program

Anderson School District Five will offer free meals to all kids age 18 and younger in the district this summer, providing free breakfasts and lunches at community partner sites from Monday through August 4.

Click here to see a list of participating sites and meal times. Times and meals vary by location. Some sites require children to enroll in their programs in order to receive free meal.

Anderson School District Five Food and Nutrition Services will provide an average of 1,200 meals per day as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Summer Feeding Program.

Bi-Lo Recalls Frozen Lima Beans

Southeastern Grocers has issued a voluntary recall for Southern Home brand frozen baby lima beans and other vegetable blends sold at Bi-Lo and Harveys stores in the Southeast.

The company said 12, 16, and 32-ounce packages may contain foreign objects. 

These Southern Home frozen products were sold in BI-LO stores in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina and in Harveys supermarkets in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.  

The affected products and corresponding UPC codes are:

• Southern Home Baby Lima Beans - 60788001195 (16 oz. package)
• Southern Home Baby Lima Beans - 60788001215 (32 oz. package)
• Southern Home Steamable Mixed Vegetables – 60788002193 (12 oz. package)
• Southern Home Mixed Vegetables – 60788001209 (32 oz. package)
• Southern Home Frozen Mixed Vegetables – 60788001173 (16 oz. package)
• Southern Home Soup Vegetables – 60788001201 (16 oz. package) 

The packages have a "best by" date of 2019. If you have any of these products, you are asked to either throw away or return the items to any Bi-Lo or Harveys store.

Highly Contagious Dog Flu Reported in S.C.

A vet school tracking cases of the highly contagious dog flu reported it has spread to South Carolina, and officials are urging dog owners to stay vigilant.

The University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine reported South Carolina was one of eight states with confirmed cases of H3N2 canine influenza.

Health officials believe the flu was spread at two dog shows, including one in Perry, Ga., and another in Deland, Fla.

Symptoms begin to show two to four days after exposure, including fever, coughing, sneezing and lethargy, according to the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine.

UGACVM reported vaccines for H3N2 and H3N8, another strain of the dog flu, have recently come on the market and is recommended for “socially active” dogs.

The Charleston Animal Society urged pet owners to look for signs of the flu and talk to their veterinarians.

“People should be in touch with their personal veterinarian on whether a flu shot is a good idea for their pet,” said Lucy Fuller, Charleston Animal Society senior director of veterinary care. “Situations like this really highlight why it’s important to have a veterinarian in your pet’s life.”

Officials do not believe the virus infects people, though it does spread to cats. It is typically not fatal in dogs and most can recover without complications at home, but it can progress to pneumonia if left untreated. 

UGACVM reported 1-5 percent of dogs inflected with the dog flu will die.

Germs from coughing and sneezing dogs can reach up to 20 feet away and can stay on human clothing for up to 24 hours, according to Charleston Animal Society.

Dogs diagnosed with the flu should be quarantined for at least four weeks.

Poll: Chattanooga Most "Churched" Area in America

As trends show that church attendance is decreasing in the United States, the evangelical polling organization Barna Group recently released data revealing which of America's cities are the most "churched," "unchurched," "dechurched" and "post-Christian."

Using data compiled through telephone and online interviews with 76,505 randomly sampled adults over a seven-year period that ended in April 2016, Barna claims that it was able to break down American cities, metropolitan areas and its respondents into three different metrics related to church attendance.

Those who have attended a regular church service (excluding events like wedding or funeral) in the past seven days were categorized as "churched," while those who said that they have not attended a regular church service in the past six months were classified as "unchurched."

Thirdly, those who said they used to be somewhat or very active churchgoers but have not attended a church service in the past six months were identified as "dechurched."

Based on the data, about 38 percent of respondents reported to be active churchgoers. Forty-three percent of respondents were classified as "unchurched" and 34 percent were classified as "dechurched."

Barna analyzed the data based on the Designated Market Area of the respondents. The research has a maximum margin of sampling error of ±0.4 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

According to the data, the two most "churched" areas in the United States are Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Salt Lake City, Utah, which are both 59 percent churched. The areas of Augusta-Aiken, Georgia, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, ranked as the third and fourth most churched cities, being 57 percent churched. The area of Birmingham-Anniston-Tuscaloosa, Alabama, ranked as the fifth most churched area at 56 percent churched.

Topping Barna's list of "unchurched" cities is the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose area in California at 60 percent unchurched. Two areas in Nevada — Reno (59 percent) and Las Vegas (55 percent) — ranked as the second and fifth most unchurched cities in the U.S. Meanwhile, two Massachusetts areas — Springfield-Holyoke (57 percent) and Boston, Massachusetts-Manchester, New Hampshire (56 percent) — were ranked as the third and fourth most unchurched areas in the country.

Three of the areas that ranked in the top five for most unchurched cities also ranked in the top five most "dechurched" cities.

Just as it ranked as the nation's top unchurched city, the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose area ranked as America's most dechurched. According to Barna, the metropolitan area is 47 percent dechurched.

The Boston-Manchester area (46 percent) is the second most dechurched area in the U.S., followed by the Seattle-Tacoma area of Washington (45 percent) and the Portland-Auburn area of Maine (45 percent). Springfield-Holyoke is the fifth most dechurched area in the U.S.

image: http://d.christianpost.com/full/111148/590-305/barna-survey.jpg

(Photo: Barna Group)

Using data from the same sample of 76,505 randomly sampled adults over a seven-year period that ended in April 2016, Barna also claims to have pinpointed the most "post-Christian" cities in America.

"Barna has developed a metric to measure the changing religious landscape of American culture. We call this the 'post-Christian' metric," a Barna report reads. "To qualify as 'post-Christian,' individuals must meet nine or more of our 16 criteria, which identify a lack of Christian identity, belief and practice. These factors include whether individuals identify as atheist, have never made a commitment to Jesus, have not attended church in the last year or have not read the Bible in the last week."

Those 16 criteria can be found here.

The research discovered that eight of the top 10 "post-Christian" cities in America are all in the Northeastern United States.

Portland-Auburn, Maine, ranked as the most post-Christian city, being 57-percent post-Christian. It was followed by the Boston-Manchester area (56 percent); the Albany-Schenectady-Troy area of New York (54 percent); the Providence, Rhode Island-Bedford, Massachusetts area (53 percent); and the Burlington, Vermont-Plattsburgh, New York area (53 percent).

New York City (51 percent) is the seventh most post-Christian city in the U.S., while San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose (50 percent) ranked as the eighth most post-Christian area in the country. The research found that the Seattle-Tacoma area and Buffalo, New York, were also 50 percent post-Christian.