Rep. Eric Bedingfield Introduces the “South Carolina Educational Opportunity Act”

Mark Cothran: Upstate business community and legislators work together

When the South Carolina 118th General Assembly embarked upon its legislative year in January, it faced a daunting task: advancing the state and addressing some unavoidable issues, despite being overwhelmed with a rising statewide unemployment rate, an over $500 million dollar budget shortfall, highly publicized investigations into the travel of Gov. Mark Sanford, and an upcoming election season, including that for a new governor. One would expect that given this political environment, 2010 could have resulted in less-than-a-banner-year for the government and citizens of our state.

State legislators, activists seek new safeguards for workplace voting privacy

State legislators and citizen activists who have joined forces to safeguard secret ballots in union elections have rediscovered an old constitutional tool that could be used to trump action on Capitol Hill. The tool is federalism. Former Rep. Ernst Istook, R-OK, is now chairman of Save our Secret Ballot (SOS) and is orchestrating a push for state constitutional amendments to counter the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA, or Card Check) if Congress approves it at the federal level.