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COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - South Carolina’s economic leader said the state faces increasingly tight competition among its neighbors to persuade companies to move here.

But he added hundreds of businesses are considering calling the Palmetto State home in the future.

So far this year, South Carolina Secretary of Commerce Harry Lightsey said the state has won 93 projects of companies relocating or expanding, which he said will bring around 5,000 jobs, around half of them in rural areas.

“We actually have over 500 active projects of companies that are looking to locate somewhere in South Carolina,” he said.

Lightsey told members of the Midlands business community at a Lexington Chamber & Visitors Center “Business Over Lunch” event Monday that his department is focusing right now on how it can keep that success going into the future.

He said that includes evaluating which parts of the state could be especially attractive to growing companies and restructuring the incentives the state offers to persuade them to move to South Carolina.

“We’re going to look really hard at our incentive structure and see what we can do to support businesses — may be businesses that are just getting started or can’t make huge amounts of capital investment or create thousands of jobs but can be meaningful to the state going forward,” Lightsey said.

While manufacturing has been a key component of South Carolina’s economy over the last several decades and continues to be, Lightsey said industries like health and life sciences are where they believe the state is poised for more growth, pointing to the success of companies like West Columbia-based pharmaceutical manufacturer Nephron Pharmaceuticals.

“South Carolina has great assets in that area, and I think we can be very successful,” he said. “Just over the last few years, the fastest-growing sector in the South Carolina economy, and so we’ve had success and we intend to build on that.”

Looking to the future, Lightsey said he wants to continue developing project sites by installing infrastructure including utilities, saying when companies are thinking about relocating to South Carolina, one of the main factors under their consideration is how quickly they can get operations up and running.

The commerce secretary said he would also like to see the state and its businesses focus more on keeping graduates of South Carolina’s colleges and universities in South Carolina after they graduate.

“They don’t have to leave this state in order to work in the technology sector or to do exciting genetic research or to do work at the cutting edge of the aerospace industry or the automobile industry,” he said. “All of those types of jobs are available right here in South Carolina.”

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - Columbia Animal Services is continuing free pet adoptions.

The adoption period for September is running from Sept. 16 - Sept. 21.

Adoptions are taking place at Columbia Animal Services, 127 Humane Lane, Columbia SC, 29209.

“We are looking forward to participating in this year’s annual Clear the Shelters event. Clear the Shelters is a great opportunity for shelter pets to find homes and it also helps ease capacity issues in local shelters. All adoptions will be free for the duration of the event, September 16 – September 21, making this the perfect opportunity to adopt,” said Victoria Riles Columbia Animal Services Superintendent.

More information about pet adoptions can be found at the link here.

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Copyright 2022 WIS. All rights reserved.

School districts around the state continue to search for ways to boost student performance after the pandemic led to learning loss in key areas like reading and math

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The road to recovery will be no easy task for South Carolina schools hoping to improve student achievement in key areas like reading and math.

Recently-released data from the S.C. Department of Education (SCDE) shows scores from last school year where more than 50 percent of third through eighth graders did not meet state standards in English Language Arts (ELA) and more than 60 percent didn't meet state standards in math.

While standardized testing data shows some promise after pandemic losses with ELA scores improving five percent and math improving about two percent, a News19 investigation found students have been underperforming year-after-year as far back 2016.

Dr. Jabari Bodrick, a 15-year educator, runs a reading program through the United Way of the Midlands helping kindergarten through third graders improve scores.

"We're currently in 17 schools throughout eight school districts here in the Midlands," Dr. Bodrick said. "Our program is designed to help get students reading at grade level."

They do this by reading with students facing challenges consistently -- a strategy that has seen some success.

Other efforts are taking place at the state and district level, including tutoring and support programs.

"Our schools and school districts are filled with teachers who love to teach and children who love to learn, but there are societal factors that impact a child's ability to learn and ability to focus," Dr. Bodrick said.

At a board meeting last week, Lexington-Richland School District 5 said it joins other districts around the state nearing pre-pandemic levels of student performance, but is still working to strengthen results.

One speaker provided examples of a math support program the district is using.

"So, it takes a fourth grade skill and scaffolds it down, to help the teacher be able to pull directly from that to teach a lesson to help a child that's below grade level," the speaker said.

Meanwhile, in Richland School District 2, Superintendent Dr. Baron Davis said at a board meeting last week that they too are nearing pre-pandemic success through targeted intervention.

"The pandemic interrupted the progress, but it did not completely derail the strategies and structures we have in place," Dr. Davis said.

The SCDE says its working to provide additional resources and training to districts to help with learning loss in a statewide effort to improve scores.

For a closer look at how state schools performed on standardized tests, view our previous coverage or visit SCDE online.

Those interested in volunteering as a reader with the United Way can learn more information at UWay.org.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A study of the football human condition took place Saturday in the giant football lab of Williams-Brice Stadium, revealing how some people go ahead and exit home stadiums when it’s 24-0 at halftime, while others choose 31-0 at 13:21 of the third quarter, while still others reckon it’s enough at 38-0 six minutes later, while still others wait for an interception at 38-0, while still others wait for 45-0. That last group may or may not include the guy 20 rows up behind the end zone who remained lonely and supine on the metal bleacher, his knees bent upward and a small towel mercifully covering his face in the heat.

Were they connoisseurs, they would have stayed to witness some of the smartest, most beautiful college football played anyplace in any year: that of the moment of No. 1 Georgia, whose apparent 48-0 win became officially 48-7 with 53 seconds left on a South Carolina touchdown the conference should overrule on review — not because it wasn’t legit but because it didn’t fit.

Eight months after the proud program got its first national title in 41 years, and five months after it sent a 15-man drove toward the NFL on draft weekend, the Bulldogs stand 3-0 and look really, really, really-really-really good. They’ve outscored Oregon, Samford and South Carolina 130-10. In an alleged road SEC game, the customary rooster call from the Gamecocks’ stadium public address on third down began to sound like a cry for help on the verge of strangulation.

Roger Goodell called names of five Georgia defenders in the first round in April, and Coach Kirby Smart frets a bit about the green defensive line that needs time and practice reps, and Smart guarantees there won’t be 15 draftees this time, but the defense still reserves the right to keep your offense from running free or to chase you down and foil your giddiness if you do.

And the offense. Gracious. Smart called it “explosive,” a word not overused in his seven-season tenure. They’ve got the ball going all over the lot and they’ve got coordinator Todd Monken calling reverses and flea flickers, which must delight fans who want every other play to be a reverse or a flea flicker.

They’ve got a sophomore tight end from Napa who not only got to grow up in Napa but also runs around looking not completely unlike Hercules. Said this Brock Bowers, “It’s always hard matching up with some tight ends,” as tight ends can be both “big” (6-foot-4, 230 pounds, like Bowers) and “fast” (4.5 seconds in the 40-yard dash, like Bowers). Said wide receiver Ladd McConkey, “Just whenever he gets the ball in his hands, people are bouncing off of him.”

Said Smart: “I don’t even know his numbers. I know he looked fast running down that field” — not to mention “the amount of attention that he draws.”

Here were those numbers: one rush for five yards and a touchdown on a reverse; five catches for 121 yards and two touchdowns, one in a wrestling-match catch in the corner of the end zone, one on a 78-yard score on a short toss to an empty middle. For that one, Georgia’s selfless attention to detail shone in Darnell Washington’s downfield block, which Smart extolled and said, “Holes are created through displacement, not just blocking.”

They’ve got a national champion starting quarterback, Stetson Bennett, once so-so like all of us yet getting better and better and better. He’s flipping a pass over a guessing defender to McConkey to roam in a space as wide as the beach at Kiawah Island for a 28-yard gain on the opening march. He’s dodging two defenders and running for chunks. He’s vomiting from over-hydration while continuing a drive, even insisting upon holding for the extra point, a full-time job for Georgia these days. Said Smart, “It’s hard to defend a quarterback that can check things, make throws, has weapons, and then he can run on top of it.”

Then they’re all going around talking about practice — practice this and practice that. “Every single week, that’s our goal: to make practice harder than the game,” said defensive back Kelee Ringo, eternally famous for the 79-yard interception return that clinched the championship in January. He pegged Georgia’s wildly detailed practices as where they’re “put in every situation” and “always get somebody’s best,” where the somebodys are mighty. He spoke of the evident horror of feeling “complacent,” and Smart spoke of “the standard created last year and the legacy,” which “lingers around our building — not the championship but the way they practiced.”

So the home fans fled early, a scene Ringo said would count among Georgia’s goals because of what it meant, rather like Smart saying, “I thought we challenged our guys to come on the road in the SEC and play really physical, attack from the get-go, and not be treading water.” He called the trip a chance to flex Georgia’s composure muscle, such as after the successful fake punt South Carolina Coach Shane Beamer ordered in the first quarter, something you might even call “Beamerball.”

“Gave up a fake punt,” Smart said, “[and] nobody panics; everybody’s happy they get to go out and play some more.” Soon came a fourth and nine when an open Jalen Brooks caught a short pass and Ringo chased him down from behind.

Then the halftime exit came in thin but steady streams of Gamecocks garnet, out through the nearby parking lot past the tailgate porta-potties and over toward the RVs, out through the crosswalks and down the street near the BP and the sprawling building marked “Budweiser of Columbia,” out the other way toward Bojangles and Waffle House — out, out, out. The home majority of the 78,212 proved more football fans than football aesthetes, and by the third quarter, the six sections of bleachers behind the end zone, filled at the outset, had rough fan counts of 16, 40, 76, about 96, 46 and 17, while the sections around the bend from there boasted three, 17, 17, 24 and 51.

South Carolina Coach Shane Beamer apologized Sunday for shouting “get off the field” at female athletes who were honored during the football game Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium.

The school had invited all female athletes to participate in a ceremony honoring the 50th anniversary of Title IX during a TV timeout between the first and second quarters of the game against Georgia in Columbia, S.C. The group did not quickly leave the Gamecocks’ end zone, and ESPN’s broadcast caught Beamer’s outburst.

Beamer said he had not been informed about the ceremony and was told by officials to have players ready to go when the TV timeout was over. South Carolina decided to try to convert on fourth and nine on the ensuing play.

“We send our offense out there to go for it,” Beamer said. “They’re on the line of scrimmage. Georgia is able to see the formation that we’re in. We did what we were asked to do, and we were not able to snap the football. I look down in the end zone, and I see why. My first initial reaction was to yell, ‘Get off the field.’ I had no idea who was down there.”

The defending national champion Bulldogs went on to win, 48-7, but led only 14-0 at the time, and Beamer said he was “worried about what was going on in our own offensive huddle. I apologize to anyone that I offended. That was just my initial reaction.”

The Gamecocks turned the ball over on the play, and the clip of Beamer’s response drew viral attention when Jyllissa Harris, a member of the soccer team, tweeted about it.

“All female student-athletes were ~asked~ to come to the game to recognize 50 years of Title IX,” she tweeted. “We were on the field for maybe 15 seconds, then screamed at to get off. If you want to honor female student-athletes, then do that, not this.”

She was not critical of Beamer, tweeting Sunday evening that he “was coaching in the heat of the game and has been nothing but supportive of female sports.”

The 45-year-old coach pointed out he is a supporter of women’s sports.

“I hope people know me well enough to know what an advocate I am for women’s sports,” Beamer said. “I’ve got two daughters of my own that play sports. I’m at as many women’s athletic events here at Carolina as I possibly can be because I believe in them and support them. Anyone who thinks otherwise surely doesn’t know me.”

The nine-month slide in home sales across South Carolina from rising lending rates has slowed the rapid pace of price increases and slightly boosted inventory amid emerging signs that sellers may no longer be driving the market.

“We are seeing a turn from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market,” said Cindy Creamer, president of the Columbia-based S.C. Realtors Association and an agent with Dunes Real Estate on Hilton Head Island. “Houses are on the market longer, and we are seeing price reductions.”

Residential transactions dipped about 11 percent in August compared to the same month a year ago, according to data from the statewide trade group.

In August, 9,511 homes changed hands at a median price of $317,517, up nearly $38,000, or 13.4 percent, from a year earlier. The median price is also down about $11,500 from the record high set across the Palmetto State in June of $329,000.

So far this year through August, 75,542 residences have sold across the state at a median price of $314,233. Volume is down 7.6 percent while the price is up 17.5 percent compared to the same period last year.

Even though volume is down, residential sales are still more than 13,500 higher than in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic changed living patterns and led to record sales for the housing industry.

The Lowcountry and Midlands housing markets reported double-digit percentage sales declines last month while the Greenville-based Upstate region showed a slight uptick.

Charleston, the state’s largest market by volume, posted a 24.7 percent drop in closings while Columbia registered an 11.0 percent decline.

Myrtle Beach, the second-largest market in terms of sales, saw a pullback of 8.5 percent. Greenville saw a slight gain of less than 1 percent.

Almost all other regions in the state reported declines, except for markets based in Greenwood, Orangeburg and Sumter.

“We still have supply and demand,” Creamer said. “What we are seeing is more normalizing of the market.”

Pricewise, every metro market in South Carolina posted double-digit percentage increases.

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Hilton Head Island continued to lead the state with the highest median price of $459,500. Rock Hill, in the growing suburbs of Charlotte, came in second at $408,745.

Charleston slipped to third place with a median price of almost $390,000 with Beaufort not far behind at $366,500.

Myrtle Beach and Greenville also posted prices in the low $300,000s.

Several areas reported median prices above $200,000, including Aiken, Anderson, Columbia, Greenwood, Florence, North Augusta, Orangeburg, Spartanburg and Sumter.

The Upstate county of Cherokee between Spartanburg and Rock Hill posted the only rate below $200,000.

Would-be buyers not only are contending with higher home prices but also higher borrowing costs than they did one year ago.

Mortgage interest rates have more than doubled from this time last year, and they “will definitely affect first-time homebuyers,” Creamer said.

Home loan financier Freddie Mac reported Sept. 15 the average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage climbed to 6.02 percent, the highest rate since 2008. The average rate on a 15-year note, popular for refinancing homes, jumped to 5.21 percent. Both rates were below 3 percent at the same time last year.

“Mortgage rates continued to rise alongside hotter-than-expected inflation numbers,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Although the increase in rates will continue to dampen demand and put downward pressure on home prices, inventory remains inadequate. This indicates that while home price declines will likely continue, they should not be large.”

Creamer, too, noted housing stock is thin but pointed to more homes coming on the market

“Just not enough of them,” she said.