Judge Orders S.C. Attorney General to Turn Over Documents

A judge has ordered South Carolina's attorney general to turn over documents to a freelance journalist investigating the fight over the estate of soul singer James Brown.

Sue Summer wants to see the diary of the woman who said she was Brown's wife when he died in 2006, an appraisal of Brown's assets and other records she requested under the Freedom of Information Act.

Circuit Judge Eugene Griffith Jr. ruled against Attorney General Alan Wilson earlier this month. Wilson said he shouldn't be forced to release the records because they are part of different lawsuits over Brown's estate.

Wilson is asking the judge to reconsider his ruling. Summer says she wants to make sure Brown's dying wish to give scholarships to poor children is followed.

Update: Krispy Kreme Official Launch Date Aug. 21

Due to some last minute fine-tuning, Krispy Kreme now says it will officially turn on their "Hot Doughnuts Now" lights Aug. 21.

Plans are already being made by at least one group to camp out at Besto next door to get the first hot doughnuts when the doors open.

The doughnut shop will be locaed on North Main Street just passed Besto. A spokesperson for Krispy Kreme said hours for the Anderson location will be announcd before the grand opening.

Krispy Kreme's previous store in Anderson, which was on East River Street, closed in the early 1970s.

Automotive News: S.C. North America's Tire Capital

South Carolina is cementing its reputation as North America's tire capital.

Five tire plants have opened or are in the works in that state, as suppliers race to alleviate a tire shortage in North America's booming automotive market.

South Carolina became the nation's leading tire producer in the fourth quarter last year with estimated daily output of 89,000 tires, edging Oklahoma's 88,000 units, according to Tire Business, a sibling publication of Automotive News.

Ohio, home of historic tire center Akron, is No. 12 on the list at 23,900 tires per day.

The fresh wave of tire makers' investments in South Carolina:

•  In June, the Giti Tire Group of Singapore announced plans to build a $560 million plant in Chester County to make tires for original equipment and the aftermarket.

• In May, Trelleborg Wheel Systems disclosed plans to spend $50 million on an operation in Spartanburg County to produce tires for farm equipment.

• In January, Continental Tire opened a $500 million tire plant in Sumter to produce passenger vehicle tires for original equipment and the aftermarket.

• In December, Michelin dedicated a plant in Anderson County that will produce tires for earth-moving equipment. That project, along with an expansion of its Lexington tire factory, cost $750 million.

•  Bridgestone spent $1.2 billion to expand its passenger tire plant in Aiken and construct a factory to produce tires for mining vehicles.

The Giti project is the company's first North American tire plant. Although Giti is headquartered in Singapore, seven of its tire plants are in China and an eighth is in Indonesia. Tire Business ranks Giti as the world's 11th-largest tire maker.

Anderson Jobless Rate Increase "Seasonal Adjustment"

Anderson County’s unemployment rate jumped by more than half a percent in June, rising from 4.6 to 5.3 percent. Meanwhile, the overall jobless rate in South Carolina was unchanged from May, holding at 5.3 percent when adjusted, but rose to 5.7 percent statewide unadjusted. 

Anderson’ rate rose, as did that of every other county in the state except York and Aiken (Horry was unchanged), due to the greater demand in labor due to schools being out for the summer, according to Anderson County Government Affairs Liaison Steve Newton.

“This happens every year at this time because more people - students, 9-month wage employees at schools, etc. - are seeking work during the summertime,” Newton said.  He said from May to June of last year, for example, the labor force increased by 751 persons and unemployment rate went from 6.9 to 7.6 for the very same reason.  

“This year, the labor force increased by 869 from May to June, causing the unemployment rate to go from 4.6 to 5.3 even though we added 246 jobs during the month,” Newton said. “Nonetheless, Anderson County's unemployment rate is the 8th lowest in the state.”

Newton added that while the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for S.C. remained unchanged at 5.3 percent, the non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the state was 5.7 percent.

S.C. Exploring Off-Shore Wind Farms

In a matter of years, wind mills may rise out of the ocean in the horizon along South Carolina's Grand Strand, while the wind's power may generate a new industry hundreds of miles from the coastal winds.

Experts have identified the best locations for offshore wind power, and maps show the wind is the strongest off the coast of Myrtle Beach. The likeliest place to locate wind mills may lie in the distant sightlines miles off the popular beach.

While the wind mills may not interfere with beachgoers' ocean views, the structures may be visible in the horizon as they rise from the ocean floor about 10 miles off the coast, said Marc Johnson, president and CEO of the North Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce.

"You might be able to figure out on a clear day that it's out there," Johnson said, "but it's not the kind of thing that you're going to open your window up and say 'Gosh, it's right there.'"

Johnson said the reaction to the idea of offshore wind mills along the coast has been positive. Many people like the idea as long as they don't have to look at it, he said.

If South Carolina chooses to pursue wind power – a move being studied now – the coastal waters would likely be the best resource, experts say.

The state's wind speed onshore is tepid at times and unreliable at best.

South Carolina just doesn't have a lot of consistent wind velocity on land low to the ground where it can be captured by the spinning three-pronged giant windmills that have popped up across the nation's Midwest and Plains states, experts say.

So the state's best wind potential lies just offshore, along the Grand Strand, and much of South Carolina's research and development muscle is focused on making renewable wind energy a reality in the horizon off Myrtle Beach and elsewhere along the Atlantic Coast.

South Carolina has established a task force to study offshore wind energy, and the Legislature passed a resolution recently to recognize the state's offshore wind resource.

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The State: S.C. High Court Says Autopsy Reports not Public

The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that autopsy reports are not public records, dealing another blow to traditional practices under the state's Freedom of Information law.

The justices ruled 4-1 that autopsies are medical records and fall under privacy provisions of the open records law. The ruling came just four weeks after the justices ruled that public meetings don't have to have a list of topics to be discussed, and if they do have an agenda, it can be changed in the middle of the meeting.

The justices ruled in a lawsuit against the Sumter County Coroner Harvin Bullock by The Sumter Item. The newspaper sued because the coroner refused to release the autopsy report of 25-year-old Aaron Jacobs, who was shot by police in 2010.

Police initially said Jacobs fired on officers, but the autopsy report, obtained from a different source by the newspaper, said there was no gunshot residue on Jacobs' hands and he was shot in the back. 

Associate Justice Costa Pleicones dissented, suggesting a coroner could black out medical information that was not relevant to the case. Pleicones said autopsy reports are not one of the things specifically excluded from being released under the open records law.

The newspaper was disappointed with the ruling, pointing out the public might never have learned what really happened in the police shooting without the autopsy report. It also said the justices' assertion that autopsy reports are medical records makes no sense.

"There has never been an autopsy that has ever been performed that improved someone's health," said Braden Bunch, senior news editor for The Sumter Item. 

In the majority opinion, Associate Justice Kaye Hearn wrote that while an autopsy report contains relevant information on how someone died in an examination paid for by taxpayers and supervised by an elected official, it also contains all of the dead person's medical history, which is not relevant to the person's death.

The ruling leaves little guidance on what, if anything, coroners release to the public about suspicious deaths in their counties.

Dist. 5 Renews Contract of Superintendent Wilson

The Anderson School District Five Board of Trustees renewed the contract of Superintendent Tom Wilson through the 2017-2018 school year. 

After an extensive oral evaluation, Board Chairman Rick Bradshaw said Wilson had received an excellent rating, the highest rating possible. “We are proud of Mr. Wilson’s hard work and dedication to District Five, and the Board appreciates his honesty and integrity as he leads our school system,” Brandshaw said. 

“I am excited to have the opportunity to continue working with the great educators and staff members we have in District Five," Wilson said.  "I am particularly excited about the possibilities we have ahead regarding some major initiatives such as partnering with Districts Three and Four to build a new College and Career Center.”

Clemson Gets $11 Million Grant for Biomedical Research

Clemson University will use an $11 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to grow a research program that hopes to find treatments for a variety of conditions that plague humankind, from heart disease to spinal cord injuries.

The money will be used to expand a bioengineering center where research will be conducted into laboratory-grown tissue that could one day become organs that could be used for transplants — a field known as regenerative medicine, officials said.

And much of the work will be done in Greenville at CUBEInc, the Clemson University Biomedical Engineering Campus, which is located at Greenville Health System’s Patewood Medical Campus.

“We’re on the right track,” Clemson University President James P. Clements said. “The NIH has invested more than $20 million in Clemson’s program since 2009. This level of funding is a great vote of confidence in our bioengineering faculty and their research.”

Journalists Edge Up on Endangered Jobs List

An American recruitment website has put newspaper reporters on its list of endangered jobs.

According to CareerCast's latest forecast, reporting jobs in the US are expected to drop 13% by 2022. Here's the dismissive statement of doom:

"Declining subscription and dwindling advertising sales have negatively impacted the hiring power of some newspapers, while others have ceased operations altogether.

Online outlets continue to replace traditional newspapers, and the long-term outlook for newspaper reporters reflects the change."

CareerCast notes that redundancies in the newspaper industry are commonplace because advertisers have slashed their print budgets by nearly 30% since 2009, citing a NewspaperDeathWatch.com report.

One other obvious casualty of newspaper decline are printing workers. They are on the endangered jobs list with an expected 5% decline in positions by 2022.

Fewer newspapers means less demand for newsprint, of course. So the contraction of the press as people move from print to digital is also having an impact on the logging industry.

It means that lumberjacks are also an endangered species with an expected 9% decline in logging industry employment.

S.C. Owns 7,815 Buildings, 2,526 Parcels of Land

The state of South Carolina finally knows how many buildings and how much land it owns, after years of no one having any idea. Gov. Nikki Haley had issued an executive order for state agencies to compile the list, and it's finally finished.

She had been asking for an inventory of state property since she took office, and Gov. Mark Sanford, her predecessor, tried for eight years to get it. The list is now available on the state Budget and Control Board's website.

The state owns 7,815 buildings and 2,526 pieces of land.

Gov. Haley says, "We need to look and see how much of that we need to get rid of. How much of that can we consolidate? What do we have that the taxpayers are paying for that's not even being used? So our hope is that we're going to start to clean all of this stuff up, make sure that we're being as efficient as possible and as smart as possible with the properties that we have."

State treasurer Curtis Loftis, who's also a member of the Budget and Control Board along with Gov. Haley, says, "We've got to know what we own and we've got to know how to best use it. Some of it we might want to sell. Some we might need to raise the rent on. It just depends. But, as a landlord, if you want to be prudent, you've got to know what you own."

Most of the buildings are being used, but some are being only partially used, some are being held for future use, and some are considered surplus because they're not being used now and won't be for the next three years.

The list does not include how much the buildings or land are worth. Loftis says, "We're going to have to have some professionals help us with this. We'll get local realtors and maybe even national and international realtors, 'cause we've got a lot of valuable land. Some of this is big plantations. Some of it's waterfront property, some of it's downtown property, buildings, all sorts of things."

You can see the lists at http://www.gs.sc.gov/sb-ps/parcels/RPS-parcels.phtm

Council Advances Rezoning of Reed Road for Grocery Store

Anderson County Council approved on first reading the rezoning of a parcel of land on Reed Road near Greenville Street, to potentially allow for the reported construction of a Walmart Neighborhood Market.

Some residents of the area spoke out in support of the development.

"These are responsible developers, they sought out our input," said Bill Trent, a long-time resident of the area near the proposed grocery store. "I would like to see this happen. This could be a model for the development of 81. Something is going to be built, 81 will be developed, let’s not have another Clemson Boulevard."

Joe Davenport agreed.

“I have never seen anyone cooperate with us the way these people have, and I am completely satisfied with what they have done,” said Davenport, who lives in Cardinal Park, adjacent to the the rear of the proposed grocer. “I appreciate the courtesy they have shown. Frankly I don’t think you should turn it down. I ask you to vote for this for our community.”

Anderson County Councilman Francis Crowder, who also lives in Cardinal Park behind the site, agreed that the developers did a good job planning the site.

Crowder said Reed Road would be able to handle the traffic.

"I want to see planned development, not like what we see on Clemson Boulevard," Crowder said. "People comnig from the Greenville-Spartanburt airport come into town on 81."

Crowder also said a project is in the works to improve the intersection of the other end of Reed Road at Concord Road.

Anderson County Councilwoman Cindy Wilson asked that the county consider the traffic patterns and possibly sidewalks in the area. Wilson also asked developers to consider a frontage road which would connect the grocery store parking lot with the red light in front of AnMed near Churchill's Pub. 

Bill West, director of Planning/Community Development, said the dialog could be had on Wilson's idea, but that all the surrounding property is in the city.

Council also gave approval on first reading to rezoning for a new grocery store proposed for the corner of Belton Honea Path Highway at Johnson Road just outside of Honea Path.

On Tuesday night, council also:

Approved an ordinance calling for Anderson County Council will have a published agenda no more than 24 hours before a meeting, except in cases of emergencies determined by a super majority vote of council. Anderson County Council Chairmas Tommy Dunn said that there is already an ordinance on the books requiring an agenda. Councilman Tom Allen said the ordinance needs to be clearly defined to avoid what's happened in the past. 

Approved tax incentives for Project Duo, which will bring a $6.5 investment and 14 new jobs with an average wage of $17.54 per hour.

Agreed to on first reading to prohibit through-truck traffic in Nevitt Forest Subdivision. 

Approved first reading of a wastewater/sewer agreement with Pendleton.

Approved on third reading, an agreement on the revenues of the Joint Industrial Park.

Approved on third reading the acceptance of certain right of way propery on Marina Road.

Harper Lee Says She Did Not Endorse Neighbor's Book

According to its publisher, Marja Mills's new book about Harper Lee is a chronicle of her friendship with the reclusive author of To Kill a Mockingbird and her older sister, telling of coffees shared at McDonalds and trips to the laundromat in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, catfish suppers and feeding the ducks. But Lee, in a strongly-worded letter she released on Monday, says she would "leav[e] town whenever [Mills] headed this way", and "as long as I am alive any book purporting to be with my cooperation is a falsehood".

Mills's The Mockingbird Next Door, which is published in the US this week, details how, in 2004, the Chicago Tribune journalist moved into the house next door to Harper Lee, who is known by her first name, Nelle, and her sister Alice. Mills lived there for 18 months, writes Penguin Press, "with the Lees' blessing". The publisher says that "Nelle shared her love of history, literature, and the Southern way of life with Mills, as well as her keen sense of how journalism should be practised", and "as the sisters decided to let Mills tell their story, Nelle helped make sure she was getting the story – and the South – right. Alice, the keeper of the Lee family history, shared the stories of their family."

Lee first made her objections to the book clear in 2011, when she issued a statement via the Monroeville law firm Barnett, Bugg, Lee and Carter where Alice works, saying that she had "not willingly participated in any book written or to be written by Marja Mills". "Neither have I authorised such a book. Any claims otherwise are false," wrote the Pulitzer prize-winning author at the time.

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White House Told to Stay Away from School Nutrition Summit

Michelle Obama’s food policy czar, celebrity chef Sam Kass, was once so in with the lunch lady crowd that he landed a guest judge spot on a tearful school lunch episode of Food Network’s “Chopped” and handed out awards at the School Nutrition Association’s convention in Denver.

Two years later, when he asked to speak at the group’s annual convention this week in Boston, the answer: “No.”

The rebuke shows how ugly the fight has become between the first lady and her supporters, who want kids to eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains in their school lunches, and the organization that represents cafeteria workers and their allies who argue that the federal government is going too far in its push for healthier meals.

At stake is the health of millions of kids, an $11 billion school lunch program dominated by big food companies that want to build brand loyalty early and even the legacy of the first lady — who has made combating the childhood obesity epidemic her primary cause.

So while the specifics might look like a food fight, behind the clash are all the big forces that shape major political battles — money, lobbying muscle, big personalities — and an ideological split over the size and role of the federal government, especially when it comes to kids.

“Our members are very frustrated,” said Patricia Montague, SNA’s CEO.

“Everybody is feeling a little bit stretched and stressed by what they’re facing,” she said, citing an onslaught of policy memos and regulations.

Montague acknowledged that Kass, through the Department of Agriculture, asked to speak at SNA’s conference this week “to rally the troops” on the nutrition standards. This year, roughly 6,500 school nutrition professionals are attending the conference, which runs through Wednesday in Boston.

“We didn’t feel [our members] wanted to hear the rallying call,” she said. “We felt it was best he not come.”

The first lady’s office declined to comment on Kass’ request to speak.

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