Carolina Politics Online

Gov. Mark Sanford today endorsed Charleston County Council Chairman Tim Scott in the race for state treasurer, a position that carries high stakes for the governor.

If elected, Scott — a financial services professional — would become the state’s first black constitutional office holder since Reconstruction. In addition, Gov. Sanford said that if the General Assembly opts to choose a new treasurer from within its own ranks, his endorsement would go to Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken.

The Post and Courier

Former state House Speaker Jim Black was ordered Tuesday to pay a $1 million fine on a state political corruption charge, with the judge giving the disgraced politician less than five months to pay.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens also sentenced Black to serve up to 10 months in prison, with the term to run concurrently with a federal five-year sentence Black received earlier this year. Black began serving that sentence Monday.

Fayetteville Observer

I hope Black enjoys showering with Bubba. It couldn’t happen to a better guy.

House Republicans filed a complaint Monday with the Federal Election Commission against the Biscoe school teacher who came close to unseating Rep. Robin Hayes, R-N.C.

The National Republican Campaign Committee said Larry Kissell’s campaign filings “show a pattern of inaccuracies and misrepresentations.”

“Kissell’s debt magically disappears, then reappears with no rhyme or reason as to how debt was paid or created,” according to the complaint, signed by Elizabeth Beacham, chief counsel to the House GOP’s political arm. “At a time when voters demand transparency of elected officials, Kissell’s reports reflect a candidate who either a) is hiding something from the public, or b) is clearly incapable of filing accurate FEC reports.”

Charlotte Observer

I don’t know much about Kissell, but he was supported by the Progressive Patriots Fund, which is chaired by Russ Feingold, so that pretty much tells you all you need to know.

Morrison announced his intentions to withdraw his name Friday after the Observer reported on 17 lawsuits he filed in 2004. Court documents allege the suits were part of a scheme to extort money from creditors and debt collection agencies. Morrison said he sued to correct problems created when his credit file was merged with someone else’s of the same name.

In an e-mail, Morrison told the Observer: “I am withdrawing from the school board race. This smear story has made it impossible for the campaign to continue.”

Charlotte Observer

This guy just seemed shady to me from the get go. They have been talking about him on the radio a lot, being involved in the Transit Tax repeal campaign, and I’ve heard some strange things.

The public will have a chance to vote on whether political parties should be involved in the City Council elections.

That news comes at 5:15 p.m. after elections officials said petitioners had gathered enough signatures to force a referendum on whether to have partisan or nonpartisan council elections.

Asheville Citizen-Times

Flashback: Too Close To Call

Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, voted with a majority of his colleagues for an ethics reform bill Tuesday that requires lawmakers to disclose their pet projects and bars all gifts from lobbyists.

Asheville Citizen-Times

Big step in the right direction. I think Shuler is going to be a good representative for his district.

Clemson City Council took a wait-and-see stance Monday on a proposed law to curb illegal immigration after a federal court struck down a similar law in a Pennsylvania city.

The recent federal court decision “trumps” any local or state decision, city attorney Kay Barrett told the council at a meeting to discuss Councilwoman Margaret Thompson’s proposal to prohibit the city from doing business with companies which employ illegal immigrants.

The Greenville News

I call bullshit. The Hazelton ordinance would have fined businesses that employ illegals and landlords that knowingly rented to them. I don’t see how Clemson writing a law to not do city business with a firm that employs illegals follows under the same ruling.

Edgefield citizen and Aiken attorney Shane Massey brought his announcement of candidacy to the square in Edgefield on Tuesday morning. In sight of the Edgefield County Courthouse and in the company of his family, members of his church, members of his law office (Nance, McCants & Massey) and members of the local press and Channel 26 TV cameras, Massey began his run for former Sen. Tommy Moore’s seat.

William Milton (Bill) Hixon dropped by the Advertiser office Tuesday mid-morning to announce that he is running for the seat vacated recently by Senator Tommy Moore, who is leaving for Virginia where he will be working for Community Financial Services of America.

Hixon presented himself as a Republican and one who supported Sen. Moore throughout his career. He clarified that he was a “Republican for Moore” who has always been in the Republican party. “I was Tommy Moore’s Republican.” He iterates that he was a “vice chairman in charge of helping George Bush get elected a few years ago.”

Edgefield Advertiser

Gov. Mark Sanford nominated Buck Limehouse Monday as the secretary of transportation, a new at-will position created by the Legislature as part of a package aimed at reforming the state Department of Transportation.

The Post and Courier

A Denver resident has been named acting county manager until an interim manager is named by the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners.

Martha Lide, who has more than 24 years of professional management experience in local governments and not-for-profit organizations, was appointed by commissioners Friday night as the board began the process to select a fulltime county manager.

News@Norman

When he was a child, James Clyburn’s father would require him and his siblings to recite a Bible verse in the morning and a current event each night before bedtime.

The 67-year-old third-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives said those simple requirements each day helped bring a much-needed balance to his life.

It’s something, he told a crowd at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Mothers Conference on Saturday night at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, that is missing in American households these days.

The Sun News

There is no doubt that American society has been suffering from a moral decay for decades now. Clyburn is correct in that it starts at home with good parenting. So many parents don’t seem to be taking the time today to actually raise their children.

If convicted on a federal drug charge, former State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel could receive as little as six months’ house arrest and probation, according to an analysis of federal sentencing guidelines by The (Columbia) State newspaper.

The Island Packet

Eager shoppers looking to save some money for back-to-school items and other purchases are anxiously awaiting South Carolina’s annual three-day Sales Tax Holiday.

The third biggest shopping weekend of the year will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday and ends at midnight Sunday.
The 6-percent state sales and use tax, and any applicable local sales and use tax, will not be imposed on such items as clothing, footwear, school supplies and computers.

Morning News

House and Senate Democratic leaders talked about the record $20.7 billion state budget they tentatively approved Saturday as a “Renaissance” plan to put North Carolina among the nation’s elite in education, economic development and health care. They talked about hundreds of millions of dollars dedicated to research centers, water and sewer projects and relief for poor counties struggling with Medicaid bills.

News & Observer

In other they increased the budget by 10% over last year to throw money at more useless social programs that will eventually put the state in debt and cause further tax increases down the road.

In recent months, Lenoir County Republicans have become more visible in terms of public affairs, particularly in Kinston. However, the GOP really missed its chance last week to put the party in a position to become a real player in city government.When Friday’s deadline for filing election petitions came and went, the Republicans were nowhere to be found. The three Democratic incumbents up for election this year — Will Barker, Alice Tingle and Joe Tyson — will have a smooth ride because they won’t face any opposition.

The Free Press

Elections should always be contested no matter what the odds. When an incumbent cruises right back into office with the voters having no choice it’s a travesty to democracy.

Welcome to the blood-stained world of dogfighting, an underground culture where innocent animals are transformed into killers. The recent indictment of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick in Virginia has focused attention on the practice, but law-enforcement officers and animal-rights experts say it’s been an under-the-radar problem in the Tar Heel state for years.

News-Record

The sadistic mind someone must have to do something like this to an animal is simply unfathomable to me.

North Carolina is one of 18 states in which government is the only legal seller of liquor, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. State government regulates sales and supplies liquor to the stores, and local governments run them.

Asheville Citizen-Times

At least in NC you can buy wine and beer outside the state stores. In Pennsylvania you have to go to a state store for all alcohol, period.

WASHINGTON — The Senate overwhelmingly passed Sen. Lindsey Graham’s legislation Thursday to spend $3 billion in emergency funds on fortifying the U.S.-Mexico border.

The Senate voted 89-1 for Graham’s amendment to a $37.6 billion appropriations bill for the Homeland Security Department.

“Three billion dollars is serious money to be used in a serious way to regain operational control of the border,” Graham said in an interview after the vote. “The vote was overwhelming because everybody agrees that the broken borders we have today are not in our national security interests.”

Graham’s amendment would provide full funding for 700 miles of fencing on the southern border, hiring 23,000 more Customs and Border Patrol agents and building detention facilities to hold an additional 45,000 illegal immigrants.

The Graham provisions also would fund four aerial drones to spot border trespassers, 105 radar and camera towers and 300 miles of permanent vehicle barriers.

The State

Perhaps Grahamnesty is finally feeling the heat from the folks back home. It might be too little, too late, though.

A key U.S. House committee voted early yesterday to raise the cigarette tax by 45 cents a pack to help pay for a $50 billion increase in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP.

Rep. Mike McIntyre, a Democrat who represents North Carolina’s 7th District, said that when the bill comes up for a full vote in the House, he won’t vote for it.

“It’s a no-go with me,” McIntyre said. “We have to represent the concerns of our district and our state and we have been put in a box.… Tobacco has long been a whipping boy up here.”

Winston-Salem Journal

There is absolutely no reason for this tax increase and the southern Democrats certainly shouldn’t be voting for it. The SCHIP program is nothing more than another government entitlement that takes peoples’ liberty away from them by making them dependent on government for their livelihood instead of themselves. If the southern Dems truly represent their constituencies, they will vote against this.

“I have three shots a day and enough pills to make me rattle when I walk, and I’m still opposed to this form of research,” Avila said. She said embryonic stem cell research had not shown enough results to merit state funding.

Rep. Laura Wiley, a High Point Republican, echoed Avila’s point, alluding to her husband’s recent battle with cancer and saying that research on nonembryonic stem cells had produced more promising results.

“We don’t need to go here,” Wiley said.

News-Record

Exactly. If embryonic stem cell research has such promise then the private sector would be falling all over itself to invest in the research. The fact of the matter is nothing has come out of it. It’s just another phony issue for the left to extort votes from vulnerable people.