Magazine Names Clemson "Hip" Hot Pick

The city of Clemson and its proximity to Clemson University led the editors of ConventionSouth magazine to name it South Carolina’s hot pick in the upcoming feature, “South’s Historic College Towns With Hip Group Appeal.”

The magazine conducted an in-depth review of historic college towns across the South, choosing one town in each of 15 Southern states. 

“From preserved historic buildings and campus charm to nostalgic experiences and traditions, these college towns have a unique ability to offer groups an enriching opportunity that blends together the past, the present and the future,” said Marlane Bundock, editor and associate publisher of ConventionSouth. “Along with their historic ambiance, they provide numerous advantages to groups, such as vibrant yet retreat-like settings, walkability and access to hip entertainment and resources for education, training and charity.”

The September issue of the magazine explores what makes Clemson uniquely appealing to visiting groups, allowing meeting and event planners to learn how to best use the town to create memorable gatherings. According to Bundock, the article will reach more than 18,000 meeting professionals across the country who are interested in booking meetings in the South.

Penny Hall, marketing and special programs manager of Clemson University’s Conference Center & Inn and The Walker Golf Course, agrees that this award well reflects the city of Clemson.

“We are the perfect fit for groups looking for a location with a collegiate feel,” said Hall.  “I believe Clemson is the best of both worlds — metropolitan opportunities in a college town environment.” 

Happy Constitution Day

On Tuesday people across the United States will be observing Constitution Day. The important and influential document will be turning 226 years old this year.

The date, Sept. 17, is the anniversary of when 38 of the 41 delegates present at the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention signed the document, thus framing it.

Established in 2004 as an amendment to an omnibus spending bill, Constitution Day was created with the primary purpose of educating people about the document.

In keeping with this tradition, what follows are 10 interesting facts about the process that created the U.S. Constitution. They are presented in no particular order.

1. Originally, the Constitution lacked a Bill of Rights.

Late in the session, George Mason of Virginia introduced a measure to add a bill of rights to the document. However, for various reasons his proposal was voted down. What would become the Bill of Rights was added later in 1791.

2. Three men refused to sign the Constitution.

Edmund Randolph of Virginia, George Mason of Virginia and Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts refused to sign the Constitution in 1787. Mason himself listed 16 objections to the document on the back of a copy, among them including the lack of a bill of rights and the absence of a measure to immediately abolish the slave trade.

3. Rhode Island was not represented at the Convention.

Of the 13 original states, Rhode Island was the only one that did not have a delegation present for the Philadelphia Convention. The smallest state in the Union boycotted the Convention over its belief that the new central government formed by the proceedings would undermine its own power. In 1788, Rhode Island residents overwhelmingly voted down ratification.

4. The Constitution is a short document.

With only seven articles and 27 amendments, the U.S. Constitution is the shortest constitution of any sovereign nation in the world today. By contrast, the Constitution of India is longest in the world, with 395 articles and 94 amendments.

5. Grammatical mistakes found in the document.

No one is perfect. The original draft of the Constitution had the occasional misspelling and grammar error. Examples include Pennsylvania being rendered "Pensylvania" in the list of signatories and the word "choose" being spelled "chuse" throughout the document. The later added Bill of Rights included the British spelling of defense.

6. Many amendments have been proposed.

Since its ratification, approximately 11,000 amendments have been proposed for being added to the Constitution. This includes about 500 proposed amendments to change the current "indirect" election of the president via the Electoral College.

7. God and democracy are not mentioned.

While two words commonly spoken about by Americans, neither "God" nor "democracy" appear in the text of the Constitution. The closest instance for the former comes with Article VII's listing of the ratification date as being "in the Year of our Lord."

8. Notable people who were absent.

At the Convention, there were notable Founding Fathers absent from the proceedings. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were in Europe. Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Patrick Henry declined to attend, with Henry famously remarking that he "smelt a rat."

9. The eldest statesman to sign the Constitution.

At age 81, Benjamin Franklin was the oldest delegate at the Convention. In poor health, Franklin had to be helped to sign his name to the document. He would die three years later.

10. The oldest Constitution in existence.

At 226 years of age come Tuesday, the U.S. Constitution is widely considered to be the oldest constitution presently in existence. Ratified in 1789, its nearest competitors would be Norway (1814) and Belgium (1831).

Governors to Join Savannah River Basin Summit Tomorrow

The inaugural Joint State Savannah River Basin Caucus Summit is scheduled for Wednesday at Big Oaks Recreation Center, 5625 Anderson Highway, Hartwell.  Governor Nathan Deal of Georgia and Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina have agreed to attend this historic occasion.  The Lieutenant Governors of both states will also be in attendance.  

The event is hosted by Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and Representative Alan Powell of the Georgia General Assembly with the assistance of South Carolina Representative Don Bowen of Anderson County and the South Carolina Caucus.

Drawn together by the commonality of water issues throughout the Savannah River Basin region, the Savannah River Basin Caucus is comprised of legislators from both Georgia and South Carolina Assemblies whose districts touch the Savannah River Basin. The South Carolina General Assembly hosted the Georgia General Assembly members this past Spring at the South Carolina State House.

Another highlight of the September 18^th Summit will be the signing of the $1,000,000 Savannah River Comprehensive Study. Colonel Tickner, the new Colonel of the Savannah District of the United States Army Corps of Engineers will officially sign the Study. 

Organizers hope to obtain a productive dialogue between both states’ General Assemblies and the new Colonel.  Both Georgia DNR and South Carolina DNR Directors will also participate in the signing of the agreement.  Also in attendance will be rangers that work the Basin. Local Chambers of Commerce, county officials and economic experts representing any of the respective Senators and Representatives are invited to speak from their areas of expertise. 

There will be a closed meeting of members of the Caucus from 10:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M.  The Governors will speak during the ceremony, which begins at 11:00 A.M. and is open to the public.

CDC: Antibiotics Overuse Creates 3 Super Bacteria Strains

The overuse of antibiotics has caused three kinds of bacteria, including one that causes life-threatening diarrhea, one that causes bloodstream infections and one that transmits sexually, to become urgent threats to human health in the United States, federal health officials say in a landmark report out Monday.

The report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the first to categorize the threats posed by such germs in order of immediate importance, from "urgent," to "serious," to "concerning." It is also the first to quantify the toll of such so-called superbugs, saying they cause 2 million infections and 23,000 deaths each year.

"It's not too late," for the nation to respond, rein in the infections and keep antibiotics working — by reserving them for when they are truly needed — but several steps are needed right away, CDC director Tom Frieden said in a telephone news conference. "If we are not careful and we don't take urgent action, the medicine cabinet may be empty for patients with life-threatening infections in the coming months and years."

On the urgent list:

• Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), bacteria that cause 9,000 infections in hospitals and other health-care facilities each year. The CDC says nearly half of hospital patients who get CRE bloodstream infections die from them. It's a "nightmare infection," Frieden says.
• Drug-resistant gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted infection that now resists several antibiotics that used to cure it. CDC estimates 30% of the 800,000 cases in the United States each year fit that description.
• Clostridium difficile, a serious diarrhea-causing infection that is not highly resistant to antibiotics but does thrive when antibiotics are over-used. The bacteria cause 250,000 infections and 14,000 deaths each year.

Full Story at USA Today

Roll Call: Is Haley In Trouble in 2014?

If you listen to South Carolina Democrats, you are pretty certain that Republican Gov. Nikki R. Haley is in deep trouble next year. Not so, says Haley’s top strategist, Jon Lerner, arguing she is very likely to win re-election. Both assessments can’t be correct, can they?

“Despite bringing in 3 big-name out-of-state governors to help her build a crowd, Nikki Haley barely turned out more supporters than protesters for her big re-election announcement in deep-red Greenville County yesterday,” wrote South Carolina Democratic Party Communications Director Kristin Sosanie just after Haley announced her bid for a second term last month.

The Democratic state party’s press release went on to describe Haley’s crowd as “anemic” and to list her “failures,” including “making South Carolina one of the hardest places to earn a living” and “hiding a TB outbreak at a public school.” The release also noted that state “tax information was hacked and stolen” under Haley’s watch.

In a lengthy memo dated a few days before the Democratic press release, GOP consultant Lerner cited a number of reasons Haley is “likely to win the 2014 election comfortably.” Among other things, he noted her stronger financial position than in 2010, a unified Republican Party and her accomplishments and incumbency.

Haley, 41, will almost certainly face the same opponent she beat last time, Democratic state Sen. Vincent Sheheen, 42.

In 2010, she won by just 4.5 points (51.4 percent to 46.9 percent). Democrats note the narrow margin, while Republicans argue that Haley had to overcome many disadvantages to get elected as the state’s first female and first minority governor.

Lerner actually argues in his memo that the ’10 race was “not close.” He cites nine gubernatorial contests that were closer that year and points out that Barack Obama’s margin in the 2012 presidential race was closer than Haley’s was in her first race.

That’s true, of course, but all of the other close gubernatorial races that Lerner cites occurred in Democratic states or competitive ones. The huge anti-Obama wave of 2010 helped Republicans get close or win narrowly in difficult states, and all things being equal, it should have helped Haley in reliably Republican South Carolina. But of course, all things weren’t equal in the state at the time, given then-Gov. Mark Sanford’s problems, which could have muted the national wave.

But in other ways, Lerner’s argument is stronger and difficult to dismiss. Haley will have better funding and the state Chamber of Commerce will not be against her this time, as it was in 2010 when it endorsed Sheheen. And while 2014 isn’t likely to be as good a year nationally for her party as 2010 was, a second midterm election with Obama in the White House should still favor the GOP.

Full Story Here

Patti LuPone to Perform at Clemson Oct. 8

Broadway legend Patti LuPone will appear in a one-woman show at Clemson University's Brooks Center for the Performing Arts at 8 p.m. Oct. 8.

Her concert, “Coulda’, Woulda’, Shoulda’,” features songs from musicals that she could have performed, should have performed, did perform and will perform. They include music from such shows as "Hair," "Peter Pan," "Funny Girl," "West Side Story," "Bye, Bye Birdie" and from her performances in "Evita" and "Gypsy."

LuPone most recently starred on Broadway in the musical "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown." She won Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for “Best Actress in a Musical” and the Drama League Award for “Distinguished Performance” for her turn as Rose in the critically acclaimed Broadway production of "Gypsy."

Tickets are $35 for adults and $20 for students and are available online at www.clemson.edu/Brooks or by calling the box office at 864-656-7787 from 1 to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday.

Forestry Growing as State's Top Manufacturing Industry

Timber!

South Carolina’s forests are fuller than at any time in the past 100 years, just as demand for wood is very slowly on the rise and prices also are creeping up.

That could portend a pine harvest boom in the next seven years and trigger the most significant seedling replant of the 21st century in the state, forestry experts say – depending upon how fast the U.S. housing market comes back.

A new study, set to be released next month, predicts the 20 million-ton annual wood harvest rate in the Palmetto State will increase by between 4 million and 8 million more tons by 2020, a 20 percent to 40 percent increase.

That, of course, is good news for tree growers, who have been sitting on a couple of decades or more worth of harvest-ready softwoods, as they rode out the Great Recession and the struggle to begin recovery from it.

“We are excited to see that the study shows increased total wood availability for many years to come,” said state forester Henry Kodama, of the South Carolina Forestry Commission. “South Carolina’s forest industry and forests are critical to the state’s economic and environmental health.”

The new study, a nine-month undertaking known as the “20/15 Project,” is the work of the Forestry Commission, the South Carolina Forestry Association – which represents landowners, tree growers, conservationists and others – and their partners, including regional timber market specialist Bob Abt, of North Carolina State University, who conducted the study.

The study, initiated in 2009 – after the recession, which officially ran from December 2007 to June 2009 – was designed to help the South Carolina forestry industry recover from the recession and have a greater economic impact on the state.

Forestry products in the state include sawtimber – which is a mature, large-diameter pine – and pulp, paper and pellets made from small, roundwood pine.

Forestry is the No. 1 manufacturing industry in South Carolina in terms of jobs, at 90,624 employed, and payroll, at $4.1 billion annually, according to state and federal statistics.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/09/15/4316614/sc-forestry-industry-making-a.html#storylink=cpy

S.C. Launches "Healthy Outcomes" for Some Uninsured

Thousands of unhealthy South Carolinians without insurance could soon get a phone call or a knock on their door.

Under the state’s “healthy outcomes initiative” launching Oct. 1, hospitals will be reaching out to their most frequent emergency room visitors and collaborating with area nonprofits to help solve their health issues rather than waiting for them to walk into the ER again and again.

The goal is to figure out how to help South Carolina’s most vulnerable residents live healthier while lowering the state’s health care costs. That involves evaluating patients’ medical and social needs, coordinating with existing safety net programs offering free- or low-cost care, and checking back to ensure patients are following doctors’ advice.

“If we can get them successfully in a medical home to provide them routine care, we can avoid very costly ER services,” said Brenda Williams, a vice president of Orangeburg’s hospital, which is partnering with health clinics throughout Orangeburg, Bamberg and Calhoun counties.

The state’s Medicaid agency gave each of the roughly 60 hospitals in South Carolina a target number of uninsured patients to help over the next year, ranging from 50 at some small, rural hospitals, to 750 each at the state’s two biggest hospitals in Greenville and Charleston.

In all, the hospitals are expected to find health care solutions for at least 8,511 people.

Critics of the state’s opposition to the federal health care overhaul note that’s a far cry from the hundreds of thousands of additional poor residents that could have been added to the state’s Medicaid rolls by expanding eligibility – something the Republican leadership refused to do after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling made it an option rather than a mandate. Legislators approved the “healthy outcomes” initiative as part of the 2013-14 state budget, though Democratic legislators blasted it as not doing nearly enough.

Director Tony Keck views the initiative as a critical first step.

“There are some who continue to believe that the path to good health is simply to give a Medicaid card. We’re saying the path to good health is prevention, aggressive screening, finding people at risk, understanding their barriers and putting together comprehensive plans,” he said. “This does it in way that focuses on results first. Let’s focus on the 8,500 sickest and most needy, because if we can’t do it for 8,500, how do we do it for 350,000?”

Technically, the program is voluntary. But the price for saying no was steep.

Full Story Here

Pepsi to Sponsor Winter Jam Tour

Winter Jam Tour Spectacular and Pepsi MidAmerica are teaming up for one of the biggest Christian music marketing campaigns in history.

Pepsi is the official soft drink of Winter Jam, and is the sponsor for the Winter Jam 2014 Tour Spectacular. They will distribute 13 million Winter Jam-branded cans in a 13-state region beginning later this fall.

The beverage giant will run radio campaigns and detailed social media strategies, along with Pepsi/Winter Jam displays in 120 Casey's General Stores in the Midwest.

"Aligning one of the world's most beloved brands with one of the biggest tours around is a great honor for us," said Lee Crisp, president and chief operating officer, Pepsi MidAmerica in a press release. "We believe in the artists and message Winter Jam represents, so Pepsi MidAmerica is proud to showcase the tour on cans and through key product displays."

"Winter Jam's pioneering '$10 at the door/no ticket required' model has always been dependent on strategic, like-minded partners," said Eddie Carswell, Winter Jam creator and NewSong founding member in a release. "In our 19-year history we have been blessed with tremendous sponsors to help us grow the Winter Jam brand. Our partnership with Pepsi is yet another first for our industry and we are grateful for Lee Crisp and Pepsi MidAmerica's investment in Christian music."

The Winter Jam Tour Spectacular began in 1995, when Christian group NewSong came up with a new way for Christian's to experience a high quality music event.

Council to Hear Reports on Animals, Airport, Finance

Anderson County Council will hear reports from two Ad Hoc Committees - animal welfare and the airport - and review a report from the finance committee as part of Tuesday night's meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the historic courthouse downtown. 

A link to the full agenda will be posted when available.

East-West Parkway Opening Now Pushed to November

The East-West Parkway, the wide four-lane road connecting Highway 81 North with Clemson Boulevard, is facing more delays and is likely to open by the first week of November, according to one official.

The company in charge of the parkway, Thrift Development, are blamed for the delays of the road which was orignally scheduled for late Spring. Currently permanent signs and thermo work are scheduled for the week of Sept. 23, and final inspecition of the portion of the road from 81 North to Oak Hill Drive should be completed by the end of September. The final stage, from Oak Hill Drive to Clemson Boulevard, will be finished with inspection by the first week of November.

All dates are subject to weather permitting hitting those targets.

Observer Server Error Corrected

As pointed out by many readers over the past few days, we have had problems with updates. A server error which removed updates to the Anderson Observer less than one hour after posting has been corrected. The stories, which began disappearing Thursday, are being reposted. The glitch has been taken care of and should not effect the newpaper again. Please be patient as these stories will be reappearing throughout the day Sunday. Thank you for reading the Anderson Observer.

Council Animal Ad Hoc Committee to Meet Monday

The Anderson County Counci Animal Welfare Ad Hoc Committee will meet Monday at 6 p.m. in the council chambers of the historic courthouse downtown to discuss details of a proposed ordinance to stop puppy mills in the county.