Rats. I forgot to mention this little bit about the raid of a night club in Hanahan, involving local police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Here’s what The Post and Courier reported:
Police arrested 42 people Saturday morning at the OK Corral nightclub in “Operation Jose Cuervo,” a focus on alcohol compliance that could become ammunition to shut down the business.
The club at 1726 1/2 Remount Road has “become somewhat of a nuisance to the city,” Detective Cassie Watson said.
Jose Cuervo? Interesting code name there.
“Operation Jose Cuervo” was no reflection on the club’s Hispanic clientele, Watson said.
“What we did had nothing to do with it being a Hispanic problem,” he said.
There’s gators in these here parts. Perhaps you didn’t know that. And did you know that gators got big mouths with lots and lots of scary scary teeth? Yeah, I reckon you knew that too. But did you know that those gators got it in for you? (I’m guessing they never really got over being flush down the toilet thing. And don’t even bring up the subject of those that we tossed in the john and wound up in a septic tank unless you want to see some crocodile tears.) WCBD-TV 2 ran a report a couple of days back on the dangers of gators in our backyard. Cue the ominous music.
You may have one of these signs in your neighborhood…Warning. Alligators. Don’t feed.
But think they aren’t where you live????
Look what we found.
An alligator swimming outside a Bluffton apartment complex.
Or an alligator so well known - neighbors on John’s Island called him Al.
Suzy Martin has one in her neighborhood pond in Hollywood.
Scary. But then again, not so much….
State officials and the men we spoke to say there hasn’t been a fatal alligator attack in the state of South Carolina in at least 100 years and there’s less than one attack per year in the state.
Now, you’d think that might put an end to this gator story, but nope. That ain’t the case. At the bottom of the page is a house ad from WCBD-TV 2 asking readers/viewers to get in touch with the station and tell them all about their gator troubles. The bait is dangling. Will you bite?
For just a moment forget about John Denver’s mellow gold ode to country roads. (That song’s going to be in your head all day now. Ha ha.) Country roads are often the most dangerous stretches of roadway in any county. You know this. I know this. No big shock. Apparently not. Consider this Live 5 report:
A new report from TRIP, a transportation research group in Washington D.C. says more drivers are dying on our rural roads than anywhere else in the nation.
Many of these roads are right here in our area.
In Charleston County 2 roads are on the top ten list: Route 54 which is Chisolm and River Road, and Route 20 which is Main, Bohicket, and Betsy Kerrison.
(Editor’s note: The wording of the report is slightly different on the video. That said, pay attention to how the anchor emphasizes the words “the deadliest.” Better than Vincent Price.)
Well, it looks like the state Senate is going to pass an immigration reform bill, and Sen. Glenn McConnell is none too happy about, according to a Post and Courier report. Why? Apparently, it’s as toothless as WCBD-TV 2’s report on the threat of alligators to Lowcountry residents. Who’s to blame for all the teeth pulling?
The real problem was political pressure from special-interest groups, McConnell and Campsen said. Still, the two said the Senate improved on the reform bill as passed by the House in late January. The next stop for the bill is a conference committee, provided the House insists on its version, which is expected. Conference is where the legislators will reach final accord.
Ah, the special interest bogeyman. Quick question: Which special interest group are we talking about here because neither McConnell or Campsen or the P&C ever says? Heck, it could be anybody, from the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce to South Carolinians Against Filling Out W2 Forms to Citizens For Lax Immigration Laws—South Carolina Branch to the men and women of the South Carolina Slumber Party, a largely mythical and entirely fictional group dedicated to bringing mandatory two-hour siestas to the workplace. (I don’t think it’s the later because, truth be told, I’m in tight with the leader, who is in all actuality, me. Wake up, America. We want you to sleep.)
Is a dog park in Mt. P a good idea? The P&C’s David Quick seems to think so.
Officials take great pride in having one of the top-ranked recreation departments in the state, but in a town with about 60,000 people and a land mass of 42 square miles, guess how many dog parks they have? None. (The Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission provides one at Palmetto Islands County Park.) Guess how many other dog parks, besides the one designated at the waterfront park, are in the works? None.
WCBD-TV 2’s Jenny Fisher reports on the arrest of a Hollywood man accused of molesting three girls and abusing a boy. It’s pretty grim:
Social workers found the boy underfed, with burns on his body. News 2 stood in front of the home and said, “Court documents show that between the ages of 5 and 10 the little boy lived in a closet inside this home. Police say the child had a bucket to use the restroom. As punishment, police say Cobbs hung the child upside down in the closet.”
News 2 talked with the current renter of the home, Judie Cabarrus, who says she does not know Cobbs. When asked about her closets she said, “All the closets here are very small.” Jenny asked, “Can you imagine a child living in one?” Uh uh. No, I can’t.” News 2 showed Cabarrus the police report with her address and the alleged horrors that took place inside more than eight years ago. Cabarrus said, “I don’t have any words, no words that somebody would do that to a child.” Jenny asked, “Does it floor you that it supposedly happened in the home you now live in?” Cabarrus said, “Yes it does, it really does.”
The not-so-subtle racism that seems to pervade all of life in Charleston pops in the latest Ask Elsa in The Post and Courier.
Q I thought the definition of a massacre was the act or an instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty.
It would appear that the crowd in Orangeburg was unruly. Was this really a massacre? Excessive use of force, perhaps. But a massacre? Henry.
A You are not the only person to say the name is an exaggeration of the events, but that is, in fact, the name of the event. The authorities at the time were calling it “an incident.” Blacks, shocked and angry following the killings thought that was minimizing the brutality and began referring to it as the Orangeburg Massacre. Subsequently, Jack Bass named his book “The Orangeburg Massacre.”
Some stories in The Post and Courier have included a phrase that disarms the argument. For example, Adam Parker said, “…the 1968 Orangeburg Massacre, as it has come to be called…”
Hmm. Now, let’s apply those standards to most well known massacre in American history — the Boston Massacre. (Which by the way, is memorialized with a more or less a marker the size of a man hole cover in the middle of the street.) Unruly mob? Check. Decidedly unmassacre-like deathtoll (five people)? Check. So is the Boston Massacre, as it as come to be called, really a massacre. They report, we deride.
Speaking of derision, may we please bring your attention to this “Special Report” from Live 5 News: Fighting the Bags under Your Eyes.
Hitting the hay and getting a good night’s sleep is one way to fight bags under your eyes. But do you ever wake up looking tired, even if you’re rested? In this Live 5 Special Report, what causes bags under your eyes, plus secrets to fight them.
Chief Jon. Say it isn’t so. Just a few months back you were all kinds of bothered about a report naming North Chuck the 7th most dangerous city in America, and now …. well, see for yourself.
“We get labeled the seventh-most-dangerous city in America, and my take is: It runs a lot deeper than North Charleston,” Zumalt said. “We are the most violent state in the nation. It’s just that simple. And we need help.” (P&C)
OK. It’s not quite an admission. But still, for a ranking that Chief Zumalt once protested, he sure has embraced it, like a plague covered blanket perhaps, but he is cuddled up with it. (That said, I wonder if Gov. Mark Sanford will now protest the Palmetto State’s Zumalt determined ranking as the No. 1 most violent state in the nation?)
Former Sanford spokesman Will Folks weighs in on the latest campaign controversy — the whole “pimping out” Chelsea thing.
Hillary knows this guy wasn’t implying that her daugher was out working a Vegas streetcorner for campaign funds, and she knows most of you know that, too.
But there are plenty of stupid people out there, and plenty more people who aren’t stupid but for whatever reason seem to enjoy being treated that way.
And so we end up with yet another manufactured scandal built around calculated contempt and poll-driven outrage - all of it based on a remark that when you get right down to it is only offensive because we live in a country that’s so desperate to be offended.
Folk’s intro to that post is pretty hilarious, so be sure to visit FITSNews.com.
I’m not sure how this would work, but Rep. Chip Limehouse is proposing that a state run Bureau of Consumer Safety would search shipments coming into the state. Are drugs the target? Radioactive materials? Bootleg DVDs of Song of the South? Nope. Instead, the BCS will search for things like tainted toothpaste and lead-paint covered children’s toys. (Seriously how do you determine that? Do you hand a suspicious brand of toothpaste to, let’s say, a group of Ron Paul supporters to brush their teeth and see if one of them starts, you know, spewing blood. Do you hand a bunch of Transfarmers to a pair of two-year-old twins, let’em gnaw a bit, and then run an IQ test to see if their scores drop? I just don’t get it. That said, Limehouse has high hopes for his bill, and apparently, a high opinion of himself:
“Hopefully, my legislation is going to raise eyebrows in Beijing and Washington, and they are going to realize we are not going to sit back and take what comes our way,” he said.
Once again, The Post and Courier unleashes a stellar Sunday cover story. This time on two Wando students who have been sentenced to prison for 10 years for armed robbery. An intriguing read. Here’s an excerpt:
Shari relates to Mike. She is from an interracial marriage and struggled growing up in two cultures. She also was a victim of sexual abuse as a child, trauma that comes rushing back one evening when she dozes off while Jim runs an errand. When he returns, she is frantic. She tells him she awoke to see a figure standing over her. It was Mike, she tells him, looming over her naked. He tried to pry her legs apart. She struggled until he gave up, she explains.
They immediately place Mike in counseling. A therapist says Mike is confused about his sexuality because of what he’d seen as a child.
The counseling seems to help. Mike graduates from eighth grade. He plays soccer and his grades improve.
But in 2005, as therapists delve deeper into the underlying issues behind his behavior, Mike acts out.
He runs away from home, skips practice and is caught drinking and smoking marijuana.
He disappears for days at a time. After one long search, police find Mike in the garage asleep in the back seat of the family car.
As Mike’s behavior worsens, the therapist tells Jim and Shari to hide all their kitchen knives. They sleep with a bat under the bed.
The Greenville News has a report on Lindsey Graham and his opponents in the 2008 Senate. As usual, no mention is made of Graham opponent Buddy Witherspoon’s previous membership in the Council of Conservative Citizens.
WCBD-TV 2 reports that with the FBI may still be investigating the Orangeburg Massacre, which took place 40 years ago, and the source is none other than FBI chief Robert Mueller himself.
But when Mueller was asked Friday about the FBI’s reasons for not reopening the investigation, he said, “I do know that this is the anniversary, the 40th anniversary, of that tremendously tragic, horrible incident. It was looked at some time ago by the Bureau and federal authorities here, as I’m sure you’re well aware. And it has not been totally resolved. My understanding is that (the) Justice (Department) is still looking at what possibilities may remain for bringing additional persons to justice.”
While the recent sugar refinery blast in Savannah is surely of significance for many in the Charleston area —there’s no doubt that some folks have friends and family in that town or perhaps know one of the deceased or injured — there’s a right way to localize the tragedy and a wrong way.
ABC News 4 opts to take a broad look at similar facilities in the Lowcountry. It’s strictly informative.
Last nights explosion near Savannah serves as a reminder of just how dangerous industrial properties can be. Charleston County is home to many properties considered to have hazardous materials on site. Manufacturers like Rhodia, a chemical plant, take safety very seriously.
In Charleston County alone several industrial sites are so close to neighborhoods and other populated areas, the companies often work with the communities to make sure everyone knows what to do when something goes wrong.
WCBD-TV 2 opts for a tackier approach, exploiting the pain of a mother who still grieves over the loss of her son in a similar explosion 16 years ago.
The explosion hundreds of miles away in Georgia has some local residents reliving a local blast from their past.
For Barbara Chubb, a grave site is the closest she can get to her son Timmy.
“’That’s my job, that was his favorite song,” she explained.
But, it was his job which cost him his life.
“He was a hard worker, a good boy,” Chubb said. “He was just doing his job. It is not fair to go and do the best they can do, all they know to do, and get killed like that….”
[Later in the report]
“The pain is still there it doesn’t go away. It gets easier to bear but it doesn’t go away,” said Chubb, who still thinks about the last time she saw her 22-year-old, when she served him dinner and told him good night. “I relieve that night over and over again: what I could have done. I could have grabbed him and hugged him and told him how much I loved him.”
In other localization news, Live 5 does a commendable job, as well as, of taking a recent tragedy — in this case the city council shooting in St. Louis — and using it, in a tasteful way, to address the security at Charleston City Council meetings.
Every city worth a damn has panhandlers. Tourist cities even more. It’s just the way it works. But sometimes panhandling can go from a minor pain to the populus, both native and tourist, and become real problem, one that drives costumers away from a city’s retail and restaurant core. How do you know when you have a problem? For ABC News 4, it’s simple. You interview two people who work downtown (and toss in a city council man for good measure). Anecdotal evidence away.
Live 5 has an interesting report on improving your cell phone reception inside your home or office.
[MUSC student Stephanie] Horton tried zBoost, a $300 product that claims to pump up your cell phone reception.
Horton gave it a try and set it up in five to ten minutes. Before hooking it up, her phone barely had two bars. After the set-up, she got a boost, up to four to five bars.
Yeah, it’s filler, but, more importantly, it’s useful filler.
Gov. Mark Sanford’s office weighs in on Rep. Fletcher Smith’s proposal to lower to the drinking age to 18 for military folk, thanks to this Post and Courier report.
“There are responsible and irresponsible people at all ages,” Sanford press secretary Joel Sawyer said. “To us, the bill highlights the problem of Congress using federal dollars to blackmail states into adopting policies.”
At risk is 10 percent of the annual federal highway funds the state receives, which is expected to be about $300 million this year.
The governor supports Smith’s bill and would fight for the state to keep its highway money if the bill becomes law, Sawyer said.
Ken Burger takes a look at the recent round of reports on the rising graduation rates of college football players in the Palmetto State and offers a bit of the tell-it-like-it-really-is.
When the NCAA tightened the screws on academics, college football factories responded by raising huge amounts of money to create monstrous academic support facilities that hand-carry some players through college.
Full-time academic support staffs and small armies of student tutors are employed with one simple goal — keep players eligible to play and on track to graduate.
Clemson’s Tommy Bowden already has a multi-million-dollar academic support center for student-athletes only. USC’s Steve Spurrier says he has to have one to be competitive.
Meanwhile, Basket Weaving has been replaced with majors like Retailing, Sport Management, African-American Studies, Sociology and Recreation Management.
Basket Weaving, I’m with you there, Ken, but African-American Studies and Sociology. Holy Shih Tzu, dude, that’s a total red rocket move. Don’t be surprised when an letter to the editor calls for your kibbles and bits.
Yeah, it’s a crying shame that Cumberlands is gone, Grannie’s Goodies too. Want to know what might be taking their place? The Post and Courier has a pretty good idea.
Speaking of the above mentioned store, here’s a funny tale involving a disgruntled sales clerk, a woman who wouldn’t take no shiznit, and some much needed ice cream.
Finally somebody speaks a little truth about MRSA, that nasty ole antibiotic resistant bug that it seems like every school kid is catching these days. Here’s what DHEC’s Robert Ball told the P&C:
With an average daily population of 300 inmates, eight cases would not be unusual, said Dr. Robert Ball, an infectious disease expert with DHEC’s Charleston office. An outbreak is when the infection spreads from one person to another, and there was no evidence of that, he said.
“People have just gone crazy trying to make a big deal out of MRSA,” Ball said.
ABC News 4 gets on the Heath Ledger exploitation wagon with this report.
A tale of two reports: Both WCBD-TV 2 and ABC 4 ran reports on the new Mt. Pleasant initiative to bring down car break-ins by 80 percent.
ABC 4 treats the MPD’s new effort in all of its overly dramatic press conference glory with a rather appropriate amount of humor — after all, were dealing an initiative to encourage folks to lock their car doors and to not leave their keys in the ignition. (Seriously, that’s all.) Kudos to ABC 4 reporter Dave Williams for having the comedic courage to come forward and admit that somebody stole an estimated $3.50 in change from his car.
As for WCBD-TV 2, well, they take a far more straight faced approach. Why so serious?
Bonus points for spotting the little exchange between the MT. P resident and the cop that’s in both segments. It’s deja vu all over again.
It’s sweeps month, so it should come as no surprise that nightly newscasts are practically bursting at the seams with salacious stories. The folks at WYFF, the leading news station in the Upstate, have decided that now is the time to inform parents about online sexual predators. And that’s well and good. But it’s kind of like being stopped by a religious pamphleteer who wants to if you’ve heard of Jesus. Well, of course you have.
Even though anyone with children has certainly heard the warnings about sexual predators on the Internet, convincing parents in the WYFF News 4 viewing area to believe their children are in danger has been difficult, according to Greenville Police Detective Rick Floyd.
“A lot of them do want to live in denial. They think, well, if I don’t know about it, it’s not happening. But it is, and that’s why I want to get the word out. You know, it’s not something that’s happening across the United States. It’s right here. It’s in our community. It’s in our neighborhoods,” Floyd said.
However, when WYFF went looking for a flesh and blood predator to interview for a follow up report they had to travel all the way to Augusta, Ga., well outside of the WYFF viewing area.
All right. So the Daily Dog Bowl ain’t so daily. In my defense, it was press day and, well, I was pressed for time. I’m sure this will happen again. I’m a slacker at heart.
ABC News reports that some residents of Folly Beach are reporting strange encounters with homeless people. No, not romantic liaisons behind the dumpster for a bottle of Mad Dog. Nope. Although there was at least one a scrub-a-dub-dub time encounter in the shower of an occupied house and, get this, a so-strange-it-must-be-true confrontation with a homeless vagrant who had set up camp on the top steps on another unoccupied unit. Scary.
Perhaps you didn’t know this: Even if you get a flu vaccine, you still might get the flu. Live 5 drops the science.
How do you spot a gang member? Sheriff deputies in Georgetown are teaching teachers on how to spot this elusive species. WCBD-TV 2 reports.
Is drug testing state legislators a good idea? Sure, at the very least to make them suffer the indignity of being forced to piss in a cup while Nurse Ratchet watches. (Can we throw in a prostate exam in there too?) For Sen. Harvey Peeler it’s a swell idea, according to the AP report. (Swell? Prostate? How did that happen?)
Look, we know why kids are so cute. No need to explain that. But, goshdarnit, why is it that some of them go all Lou Ferigno from time to time. The P&C has the answers in this hard-hitting investigative report — if by hard-hitting investigative report you mean a research paper that any downtown Chucktown 10th grader could have written after watching episodes of The Wire, listening to NWA, and, well, walking around the neighborhood. There’s nothing to see here, folks. Move along. Move along. (Amazingly, a heated discussion about NASCAR jackets erupts on the message board for this story.)
Did you know that there may be a sex offender within ONE MILE of a bus stop? Yes, as close as a ONE MILE radius? Thanks, Live 5 for further encouraging parents to shackle their children inside to their home to their Wiis and DVD players out of fear that swarms of pedophiles are hiding behind every bush. (In unrelated news, did you know that there may be as many as three or four churches within ONE MILE of your house? Yes, as close as a ONE MILE radius? Actually, I just pulled that figure out of my ass, but you get my point, yeah.)
Monday mornings generally offer pretty insubstantial fare for news junkies. And based on absolutely nothing more than a single one-time occurrence, I feel pretty confident to say that the Monday after Super Bowl Sunday has to be the worst. There’s nothing out there today. (And I checked The State, The Greenville News, and The Herald-Tribune. Nada. That is except for one report after another on post-Super Bowl hangover.)
On page 1B of the P&C there’s a pretty nifty map which breaks down the Lowcountry into Democratic and GOP voters during the most recent primaries. It sweet for sure, but more importantly it fills up a huge chunk of space.
P&C sports ace Ken Burger is undergoing treatment for prostate cancer again. We wish him the best.
As for the TV stations, it’s all pretty much old news or national stories … and the latest development in the Natalee Holloway case, if that sort of thing interests you.
U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis of the Upstate went on The Colbert Report last week. The AP reports.
Each day City Paper managing editor Chris Haire takes a hard look at the source of all ill in modern society — the media — in all of its diabolical forms. (Cue the menacing music. Fire up the lightning strikes. Where's a werewolf when you need a good howl? Hungover from a bender, perhaps.) This site is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended, especially those well-coiffed guys and gals on the tellie. (Truth be told, the site is actually a love letter to local media, but we've only adopted a down-with-the-MSM approach to appeal to talk radio tin-foil-hatters out there. Ruff ruff.)
