Sanders, Cruz Lead in Wisconsin Polls

Whether they represent the establishment or not, the frontrunners for the Republican and Democratic nominations are both down in the polls heading into Tuesday’s crucial Wisconsin primary.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is ahead of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 49 percent to 47 percent, according to a new CBS News/YouGov poll released on Sunday. The two-point lead for Sanders is small, but represents a dramatic turn of events for the senator, considering that he was trailing last month.

In another survey conducted by the Emerson College Polling Society, though, Sanders opened up eight-point lead against Clinton (51 percent to 43 percent) in the Badger State. Just two weeks ago, he was down six points with Clinton leading 50-44 percent.

Notably, 81 percent of Wisconsin Democrats called Sanders honest and trustworthy, while just 56 percent said the same of Clinton.

According to CBS, 54 percent Democratic voters want the next president to pursue more progressive polices than President Barack Obama, while 39 percent want similar policies to continue.

On the Republican side, Texas Senator Ted Cruz leads frontrunner Donald Trump 43 percent to 37 percent in the CBS poll. Ohio Governor John Kasich came in a distant third place with 18 percent. Meanwhile, the Emerson poll showed Cruz with a 40-35 percent lead over Trump.

Two weeks ago, Emerson’s poll had Cruz ahead of Trump by just one point.

The CBS Poll, meanwhile, shows that Wisconsin Republicans are growing more willing to oppose Trump at a contested convention. Fifty-two percent said other Republicans should try to stop him from being nominated at the convention, while 30 percent said the GOP should rally behind the real estate mogul.

Miracle Hill to Break Ground for Powdersville Thrift Store

Miracle Hill Ministries will break ground on its latest thrift store location on Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the intersection of 3 Bridges Road and Highway 153 in Powdersville. The groundbreaking ceremony will be a time of celebration as the organization expands through the opening of their ninth thrift store in Fall 2016 to help support the operations of Miracle Hill’s programs for adults and children.

This new store will affect Miracle Hill’s operations in several ways.  Net proceeds from the store will help provide shelter, food and hope to thousands of homeless children and adults.  The site is being developed by NAI Earle Furman and once completed the store will measure 22,946 gross square feet.  This will be the first thrift store built for Miracle Hill (other stores were developed using existing buildings).

The short program will include a groundbreaking blessing and words of appreciation from Miracle Hill’s CEO Bryce Norton, and project and community partners.

Additional parking is available at neighboring Pleasant View Church in Powdersville.

Reuters: Drug Companies Accelerating Price Increases

Major drug companies took hefty price increases in the U.S., in some cases more than doubling listed charges, for widely used medications over the past five years, a Reuters analysis of proprietary data found.

Prices for four of the nation's top 10 drugs increased more than 100 percent since 2011, Reuters found. Six others went up more than 50 percent. Together, the price increases on drugs for arthritis, high cholesterol, asthma and other common problems added billions in costs for consumers, employers and government health programs.

Extraordinary price hikes by two small companies, Turing Pharmaceuticals and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc, drew new attention to drug costs. Turing expected to book $200 million by raising the price of Daraprim, an antiparasitic used for a rare infection, by 5,000 percent, according to company documents released by Congressional investigators.

Routine price increases by bigger players may draw less attention, but they add up. Sales for the top 10 drugs went up 44 percent to $54 million in 2014, from 2011, even though prescriptions for the medications dropped 22 percent, according to IMS Health data.

At the top of the list was AbbVie Inc, which raised the price of arthritis drug Humira more than 126 percent, Reuters found. Next were Amgen Inc and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, which raised prices for arthritis treatment Enbrel and multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone by 118 percent.

Full List of Top Drug Price Increases Here

S.C. DOT Trims Fees for Information Requests

The South Carolina Department of Transportation is cutting fees it charges for public information requests.

The State newspaper reports Monday (http://bit.ly/1oum31U) the change means the agency won't charge for staff time for requests that take less than two hours to complete. That includes time researching, retrieving and copying information or documents.

Beyond two hours, staff time will be charged at $20 per hour flat rate for each person working on the request.

Copies of the first 25 pages from a requested document are free. Beyond that, copies cost 10 cent per page.

The agency says that, if the policy were in place, more than 75 percent of Freedom of Information Act requests filed at the Transportation Department over the past year would have been free.

More Info 

County Council to Consider 4-Year, Staggered Terms

Anderson County Council will consider an ordinance to shift the elections of council members to staggered four-year terms as part of Tuesday night's meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the historic courthouse downtown.

Currently, county council members serve two-year terms which are not staggered. A number of council members have said in the past two-year terms essentially are not long enough, suggesting that the shorter terms leave them in a state of constantly running for office.

Greenville and Greenwood County Councils currently uses the four-year, staggered terms approach, as do many other counties in the state.

Full Agenda Here

State Dept. Asked to Suspend Clinton Email Probe by FBI

The U.S. State Department has suspended plans for an internal review of whether classified information was properly handled in former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails at the request of the FBI, a spokeswoman said on Friday.

Clinton, the front-runner in the race for the Democratic Party nomination in the Nov. 8 presidential election, has apologized for using a private email server for official business while in office from 2009 to 2013 and said she did nothing wrong. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing the arrangement.

On Jan. 29, the State Department said 22 emails sent or received by Clinton had been upgraded to top secret at the request U.S. intelligence agencies and would not be made public as part of the release of thousands of Clinton's emails. It said that none of the emails was marked classified when sent.

At the time, the department also said it would conduct an internal review on whether the information in the emails was classified at the time it passed through Clinton's private clintonemail.com account run on a server in her New York home.

The State Department consulted the FBI about this in February, and in March the law enforcement agency asked the State Department to halt its inquiry.

"The FBI communicated to us that we should follow our standard practice, which is to put our internal review on hold while there is an ongoing law enforcement investigation ," State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau told reporters. 

"The internal review is on hold, pending completion of the FBI's work," she added." We'll reassess next steps after the FBI's work is complete."

U.S. Poet Laureate Headlines Clemson Festival

Pulitzer Prize-winner Charles Simic, the 15th Poet Laureate of the Unites States, will headline the ninth annual Clemson Literary Festival. He will present a public reading at 8 pm. April 7, at the Clemson University Alumni Center.

Nationally known poets and authors, educators and community members will participate in the Clemson Literary Festival.

Many other nationally known authors of poetry and fiction will read their works and participate in panel and roundtable discussions during the April 6-8 festival. It also includes a new presence this year with The Watering Hole, an online community for writers of color dedicated to the craft of poetry.

Even campus and local residents can participate during open mic night at the Blue Heron restaurant on College Avenue Friday night.

The events of the festival will be held at various venues on and off campus in Clemson. All events are free and open to the public. For more information about the authors and a complete schedule, visit www.clemson.edu/litfest.

The festival is jointly sponsored by Clemson University and the English department. Since its inception in 2008, the Clemson Literary Festival has brought more than 100 writers to Clemson for readings, panels and discussions. The festival is organized by students with the intent to engage students, faculty and community members in appreciation of the arts.

S.C. Budget May Stall Decision on Confederate Flag

South Carolina’s budget constraints make it unlikely lawmakers will decide what to do about displaying the Confederate flag that was removed from Statehouse grounds last summer, the chairman of the museum that’s storing the flag told his board members Thursday.

“There’s so much pressure on the budget” to put additional money into roadwork and education, said George Dorn, chairman of the museum’s newly appointed governing board. “I just don’t think they’re going to discuss the plan this year.”

The Legislature voted last year to remove the rebel flag from the Statehouse’s front lawn after nine people attending a Bible study were gunned down at a historic black church in Charleston. The white man charged with the killings can be seen in photographs with the rebel flag.

The law passed by legislators specifically sent the flag to the Confederate Relic Room in Columbia, which has artifacts from every war South Carolinians fought in.

A separate measure directed  the museum’s director to estimate costs for the flag’s “appropriate, permanent, and public display.”

But House leaders balked at the $3.6 million price tag of the board’s December proposal.

That plan included $550,000 for the display itself – with electronic screens scrolling the names of 22,000 South Carolina soldiers killed in the Civil War – plus $1.1 million to expand the museum, $500,000 for a new entrance, $850,000 to conserve existing flags and supporting artifacts and $650,000 to exhibit those.

“We’re not funding it,” Rep. Chip Limehouse, R-Charleston, said last month.

The budget plan advanced by the House last week instead included Limehouse’s proposal to require an analysis of available museum space in Charleston and, if sufficient space exists, cost estimates for moving the museum’s collections there.

Dorn suggested that the board take no position on Limehouse’s proposal.

But the commander of South Carolina’s Sons of Confederate Veterans said his chapter will publicly oppose that idea. The 120-year-old museum needs to stay in the state’s central, capital city, said Leland Summers of Lancaster, who’s also a board member.

“With it being here, schools across the state that wish to visit have the same distance to come,” he said after the meeting. “This is an opportunity to make the premier Confederate museum for the country.”

The museum is located in the back of the State Museum building – via a separate door. 

Limehouse believes the museum could become self-reliant in the city where the first shots of the Civil War were fired, saving taxpayers money.\

Trump Could Be Stripped of S.C. Delegates

There are not many more important things to keep in mind when considering what might happen during the Republican National Convention than to remember that the convention voting is not a Super Bowl game, held in a neutral location with neutral judges. It is a game of Calvinball, to hearken back to the fictional, hopelessly complex game played in "Calvin & Hobbes" -- a game made up on the fly, taking place in Calvin's house and where Calvin already has a winner in mind.

So keep that context in mind as we consider this report from Time magazine. It suggests that the 50 delegates won by Donald Trump in South Carolina's primary earlier this year may suddenly no longer be bound to support him at the convention. Why not? Because he broke his promise to support the Republican nominee, if it's not him, during an interview earlier this week.

South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Matt Moore gave credence to the anti-Trump claims.

“Breaking South Carolina’s presidential primary ballot pledge raises some unanswered legal questions that no one person can answer,” he told TIME. “However, a court or national convention Committee on Contests could resolve them. It could put delegates in jeopardy.”

The pledge states that the candidate "affirm[s] that I generally believe in and intend to support the nominees and platform of the Republican Party in the November 8, 2016 general election." Trump told CNN's Anderson Cooper that he might not. Ergo: Maybe those 50 delegates should be loosed to the winds, since Trump backtracked.

Full Story Here

Myrtle Beach Fights Rumors on Closed Beaches

Myrtle Beach tourism officials have started an ad campaign to debunk a report started by an Internet blogger that area beaches are closed because of water quality issues.

Local media outlets report the ads assuring visitors the beaches are open were distributed Wednesday. Businesses are being asked to post the ads on social media and the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce plans to run them nationally.

Following the reports on social media, the state tested water along the beach earlier this month and tests at all 44 locations found the water fine for swimming.

Chamber president Brad Dean says Internet rumors travel fast and have hurt tourism and the chamber had to respond.

Myrtle Beach is the heart of South Carolina's $19 billion tourism industry.

Pro-Life Groups Slam Trump on Abortion Comments

Pro-life groups are denouncing Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump for saying mothers who get an abortion should be punished.

At a town hall event hosted by MSNBC, Trump stated that pregnant women seeking an abortion should have "some form of punishment" for doing so.

Family Research Council Action President Tony Perkins released a statement saying that Trump's opinions on who should be punished shows he "is ill informed in this vital issue."

"The pro-life movement values both mother and child and seeks to uphold the dignity of both by seeking to protect both from the damage of abortion and the predatory abortion industry," stated Perkins.

"While Trump has since 'clarified' his position on punishing women, his statements suggest he should spend more time with pro-life conservatives to gain a better appreciation of what their goals and objectives really are."

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, said in a statement that she and her organization "have never advocated, in any context, for the punishment of women who undergo abortion."

"As a convert to the pro-life movement, Mr. Trump sees the reality of the horror of abortion – the destruction of an innocent human life – which is legal in our country up until the moment of birth," said Dannenfelser.

"But let us be clear: punishment is solely for the abortionist who profits off of the destruction of one life and the grave wounding of another."

In a televised town hall Wednesday evening, Trump was interviewed by MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews about his stance on punishment for women who get an abortion if it were made illegal.

Trump initially appeared to misrepresent the view of most pro-lifers, saying, "Well people in certain parts of the Republican party and conservatives Republicans would say, yes they should be punished."

Full Story Here

S.C. Farmers Face New Planting Challenges After Floods

South Carolina's farmers who lost $375 million worth of crops during last fall's historic floods are facing new challenges in replanting.

Clemson University Cooperative Extension agent David DeWitt says farm budgets will be tight but farmers need to resist the temptation to save by using less fertilizer this spring.

The university said in a release that the heavy rains washed nutrients from the soil so growers need to use more fertilizer than in the past. Some growers are saving money by using less seed.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says a third of the state's cotton, soybean and peanut crops were left to rot in the fields last fall.

It was the worst ratio in state history of crops planted to crops harvested.

April 19 BBQ Event to Benefit Golden Harvest Food Bank

On April 19, from 6-9 p.m., Golden Harvest Food Bank is presenting the "Electric City Throwdown," a barbecue and live music event to raise awareness of the 1 in 7 people in Anderson and Pickens Counties who struggle with hunger. The event is scheduled s on the grounds of The Smokin’ Pig in Pendleton.

Headlining the event is The Eric Scott Band, a country-rock band hailing from Anderson with a “rowdy, rockin’ country sound that turns heads and wins hearts.” The event will also feature a tug-of-war competition and cornhole tournament.

Tickets are available for $30 if purchased in advance, or $35 at the door. Tickets include a dinner plate and non-alcoholic beverage from The Smokin’ Pig, and may be purchased at either Smokin’ Pig location or on Golden Harvest’s website under the “Events” tab: www.goldenharvest.org.

The Electric City Throwdown is made possible by partnership with The Smokin’ Pig, Electric City Printing, and Chomarat. If your business would like to sponsor event and help end hunger in South Carolina, please contact Nirmala Bruce at nbruce@goldenharvest.org.