Local Charleston SC News and Government News (2024)

How a threat to public health in Dorchester County has been allowed to pollute yards and open waters while the solution sits yards away.

Alarmed by a rise in drug death and addiction, South Carolina agencies are offering a new way to see what drugs are being prescribed in the state and counties.

CONWAY— The Horry County Board of Education accepted Superintendent Rick Maxey's resignation this week, allowing him to retire three years before his employment contract would have expired.

“A Tree Story: Gullah/Geechee Roots and Resilience” is a film about Gullah-Geechee communities and their historical, cultural and spiritual connection to trees.

As Charleston County looks to finalize edits to its comprehensive plan, County Council debates on whether or not it should allow for extra residential density in rural areas, or density bonuses.

Legislators ideologically opposed to transgender care in South Carolina are pushing a ban for minors while families battle back and vow to keep fighting.

A new partnership between the SC Philharmonic and the regional nonprofit Arts Capacity will conduct symphonies and workshops at a Columbia prison, all in an effort to get inmates in tune with music, and the meaning it can offer.

A federal appeals court has ruled that West Virginia's and North Carolina's refusal to cover certain health care for transgender people with government-sponsored insurance is discriminatory. The Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 8-6 in the case.

“There’s no way you can look at this and not call it abuse of the system," said Council Chairman Herb Sass, who requested the audit in March.

Authorities say one teenager has died and a police officer and an 11-year-old have been injured in shootings over four days in South Carolina's smallest county.

One person was killed by a train in the western part of Charleston County.

Man shot, killed in bedroom during unrelated armed robbery in North Charleston.

Charleston police release more details on the double fatal accident that killed two people near the entrance to the Cooper River bridge on April 28.

The Post and Courier's "Sahara Connection," "Finding the Clotilda" and "Burn Inc." investigative reporting projects win national awards.

Union Station was a center of Charleston’s transportation systems, not only providing rail support to the wharves, but also as a hub for the city’s electric trolleys which, along with its companion ferry, shuffled Charlestonians among Mount Pleasant, Sullivan’s Island and Isle of Palms. During peak summer season, it moved 7,000 travelers a day.

Police received a report of the accident between Harris and Cooper streets during the morning of April 28. The road was closed to traffic until 1 p.m. The scene is near the downtown pedestrian and cyclist entrance to the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge.

No one was injured in anApril 27 structure fire at Mount Pleasant Seafood in Shem Creek.

Even after the "constitutional carry" bill legalized several gun offenses, through a quirk in the law, thousands are still facing charges for them.

Here's everything that has happened in the year since the tragedy.

Almost every lawmaker in the South Carolina General Assembly has a job outside of the legislature. Sometimes, their votes can benefit their employers. In a part-time legislature, where do we draw a line?

A USC researcher became a viral internet darling of the anti-vax movement and right-wing legislators' favorite scientist. Experts say he got his science wrong, and he says he never intended it this way.

Charleston lost a visionary leader Saturday morning. Renowned trial lawyer Joseph H. “Peter” McGee was a preservationist whose generous donations and keen understanding of Charleston’s history and architectural gems helped shape what the city looks and feels like today.

Folly Beach Public Safety responded to a report of smoke early Friday evening. Firefighters discovered a home fire that left one man dead on 109 E. Ashley Ave.

Summer 2024 is projected to be very hot. To prepare, federal and local groups are changing policies and reminding communities about the risks heat poses to our health. A key takeaway? Don't push through when it’s too hot.

Scranton community remembered Brentlee Crump, 11, who died April 17 as the victim of an accidental shooting in Scranton.

Mount Pleasant bookstore owner Karen-Anne Pagano put out a plea asking community members to do one thing to help save her business and they rallied to support her the next morning.

Federal government settles lawsuit alleging civil rights abuses of a Charleston man with sickle cell disease who died in a federal prison in Florida.

Newly released video shows response to man who suffered a medical emergency after he was transported to the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center in North Charleston. Andrew Kluczinsky died March 10.

Federal investigators visited the Al Cannon Detention Center less than a day after a homeless man attempted suicide in the jail. Forrest Kreider later died.

Police arrested Patricia Harris, 60, after an incident with a child with autism left bleeding scratches on his chin. Harris worked for Flowertown Elementary.

The county's alcohol and drug commission is rolling out an opioid strategic plan for adoption in May. The agency is one of thousands nationwide to receive funding from lawsuit settlements against three top pharmaceutical companies.

Brief news on happenings in the Charleston County School District, including one of its high schools remaining tops in state and one of the best in the country.

Deveaux Bank is one of the nation's most important way stations for migratory birds, but more intense and frequent storms have put much of it under water. The same squeeze affects other state-owned rookeries, and DNR has made them off limits during nesting season. But not Deveaux.

As a boy growing up in Charleston, Matt Burton loved finding shark teeth and Civil War buckshot in fields of tall, green grass near his home. Soon, he learned to use a battered metal detector he discovered in the garage to help him unearth artifacts. On a pecan farm overlooking the Wadmalaw River and Oyster House Creek, Burton found an adventure in the form of a gold-plated Class of 1972 St. Paul high school ring with a sapphire blue stone.

Air Force crews from Joint Base Charleston join in effort to airdrop food to people in battered Gaza Strip as part of a humanitarian missionas United Nations warns of famine.

After Police Chief Greg Gomes announced his retirement on April 19, the city began the process of finding the next top cop of the state's third-largest municipality.

An attempted break-in at chaplain Rich Robinson's house shows another face of ministry and shines a light on the unhoused community in Dorchester County.

College Lodge, built in 1964 as part of a chain of Downtowner Motor Inns and purchased about a decade later by the College of Charleston for student housing, will be torn down after a 2-1 vote by the city's Board of Architectural Review.

Kyle Rittenhouse took his national college speaking tour to Clemson University, invoking a vocal response from some student activists as he advocated for campus carry and irreverently recounted his story from the night he killed two people and wounded one.

An inmate died at the Charleston County detention center this week, the same week the sheriff's office settled on behalf of another inmate who died and federal officials visited Charleston as part of its ongoing investigation into a potential pattern of abuse.

The South Carolina Senate has approved its budget. The final vote came Wednesday after approving items like requiring school children use the bathrooms of their sex assigned at birth and whether universities can spend state money to move to another athletic conference.

This year is likely to be one of the hottest on record, according to climate researchers. Can life in South Carolina's estuaries adapt to a warming world?

Police did not report any immediate injuries or property damage in the Harleston Village neighborhood near multiple schools and the city's tourism heart.

Beach Santa, a local icon known for his dedication to litter sweeps across the Lowcountry, is preparing to collect his millionth piece of litter.

The City of Isle of Palms is looking to restore the dunes of the beach near Breach Inlet that have experienced heavy erosion.

As the effort to find Brad Solomon continues, The Post and Courier reached out to Solomon’s family and friends to spotlight a man many call one of a kind.

Norman Browne will spend life in prison after a jury found he murdered Ann Witherspoon, to whom he owed $20,000. She was found dead in her Mount Pleasant home in 2019.

The South Carolina superintendent of education told school districts to ignore new federal regulations that would expand Title IX to protect LGBT students.

A Fairfield man was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison for vulgar threats he made on social media calling for the execution and killing of FBI agents and government officials.

The ongoing search for Brad Solomon, who has been missing in Mexico since April 3, remains focused on remote areas of Cozumel, the island in the Caribbean Sea where he disembarked from a cruise ship and has not been seen since.

President Joe Biden pardoned a 54-year-old Columbia man, clearing a decades-old federal drug case from his criminal record.

The family of an inmate who died by suicide in the Charleston County jail is set to receive $400,000 from a combination of public and private money.

Newly released police documents show the felony assault and battery case against the son of a local congressional candidate almost wasn't filed because an inexperienced officer didn't see it as worth pursuing.