As you’ll recall, we all looked askance, and with good reason, when a private firm paid then-Rep. Nikki Haley $40k and then couldn’t explain what they were paying her for, beyond the fact that she was “very connected.”

So how should we react when we see two lawmakers getting paid potentially more than that each by the taxpayers of Columbia?

Columbia has hired two state lawmakers to do consulting work for the city, agreeing to pay their businesses up to $49,500 each.

City Manager Teresa Wilson said the city was not trying to buy influence in the Legislature by retaining state Rep. Mia McLeod, who is running for the state Senate, and state Sen. John Scott, both Richland Democrats.

Instead, Wilson said she hired McLeod and Scott for their expertise. Scott’s work, for example, includes advising the city on its application for transportation money from a state agency, she said.

In addition, Wilson also said she decided to hire McLeod and Scott because their businesses – McLeod Butler Communications and C&S Consulting Group – are owned by minority women. Scott’s wife is the president of C&S Consulting.

“This is to the benefit of the city when we can work with minority, women-owned businesses,” Wilson said. “It just so happens that they happen to be legislators.”…

OK, um, I can see why, as a matter of policy, a public entity might choose to do business with “minority, women-owned,” even if they fit that description only technically. But, you know, I kind of want it to be for something the city needs, and I want to know that the contractor can provide the service.

For instance, I think I might have wanted to have an extended public discussion before I hired the author of such missives as this to do public relations work.

But that’s me, and since I’m in that business now, I’m hardly a disinterested observer, am I? So what do y’all think?

The Quail Hollow pool, which is right next to the Saluda River, at 5:18 p.m.

Remember this picture (shown below) from earlier in the day?

Well, the Saluda has continued to rise steadily through the day. At 5:20 (above), it only needed to rise another couple of inches before it would get into the neighborhood pool, which is right next to the river.

The same view at 1:09 p.m.

I had almost completed this post several hours ago, but got sidetracked and haven’t gotten back to it. Sorry. Here ya go:

1. Richland County prevails in Green Diamond lawsuit — Talk about a blast from the past.
2. Quidditch Cup coming to Columbia in 2016 — Yeahhh. A bunch of people running around on the ground with brooms between their legs, pretending to be flying wizards. Yeahhhh…
3. NFL ‘Deflategate’ Saga Continues With Both Sides Back In Federal Court — Speaking of people playing silly games, this is an actual federal case, in real, grownup court, about whether someone adequately inflated a ball.
4. How the Brat Pack got its name — and spoiled celebrity journalism forever — As silly as this topic may seem, it’s actually a fairly interesting pop culture piece. Reading it helped me catch up a bit on trends, since at the time we had three kids and our fourth on the way, I was starting a new job as news editor in Wichita, and I was a little too busy to concern myself with the existence of something called a “Brat Pack.”

This just in today from Children’s Trust of SC:

South Carolina Improves in Annual KIDS COUNT Rankings of Child Well-Being
Despite Jump, Persistent Poverty Remains Barrier to Child and Family Success

(Columbia, S.C.) – South Carolina was one of five states to show improvement in the annual KIDS COUNT® Data Bookranking, moving from 45 to 42 in the nation for child well-being. South Carolina has not achieved a ranking higher than 42 since the beginning of the KIDS COUNT project in 1990. The Data Book and South Carolina state profile are available.

This year, improvements in child health, including the reduction in child and teen deaths and increased access to health insurance, contributed to the improved ranking.

Children’s Trust Chief Executive Officer Sue Williams says, “We hope this is the beginning of sustained improvement for children. Investments in maternal health, access to health care and substance abuse prevention are paying off.”

Despite improvements, the sustained well-being of children and families in South Carolina is fragile, especially when it comes to economy and education. Since 2008, there are more children living in poverty, in single-parent families and in homes where a disproportionate amount of family income is spent simply keeping a roof over their heads. Economic pressures, such as low-wage jobs and lack of secure employment, are significant obstacles for opportunity and upward mobility.

South Carolina has experienced mixed results in educational outcomes. While South Carolina has made recent advances in the Read to Succeed Act, it will be several years of sustained investment before the impacts are seen within this data.

“Education is critically important for future success and family stability,” Williams said. “With education, families have more opportunity to succeed and contribute to reducing the stressors that can lead to child abuse and neglect. We applaud and encourage the continued discussion around children’s access to affordable, high quality early care and education.”

South Carolina’s children continue to struggle in key areas of education and economic well-being. For example:

• 59 percent are not attending preschool;
• 72 percent of fourth graders are not proficient in reading;
• 69 percent of eighth graders are not proficient in math; and
• 27 percent of children live in poverty.

For children of color, the numbers are even more disparate. Only 13 percent of African-American children are reading proficiently by fourth grade and have math proficiency by eighth grade.

Children’s Trust is the KIDS COUNT grantee for South Carolina. The KIDS COUNT Data Book features the latest data on child well-being for every state, the District of Columbia and the nation. This information is available in the KIDS COUNT Data Center, which also contains the most recent national, state and local data on hundreds of measures of child well-being. Data Center users can create rankings, maps and graphs for use in publications and on websites, and view real-time information on mobile devices.

The KIDS COUNT Data Book and South Carolina state profile is available on the Casey Foundation website at aecf.org and on the Children’s Trust website atscchildren.org/KidsCount.

I followed a link from a Tweet to this video clip, and I don’t even know its provenance.

But I was shocked by what it revealed: Bon Jovi and not Springsteen? Romney rather than McCain?

Christie is going to have to scramble to recover from this, in my estimation.

wistv.com – Columbia, South Carolina

If you haven’t seen Rep. Jenny Horne‘s speech lecturing her neoConfederate colleagues for their day-long effort to obstruct South Carolina from doing the right thing, you need to stop whatever you are doing and watch it.

NOW.

I have nothing else to say, because this Charleston Republican says it ALL.

Yesterday, Glenn McConnell chose to be the messenger for the College of Charleston’s board of trustees’ call for the flag to come down, rather than delegating it to a flack.

Today, it’s McConnell saying it himself.

This just in:

Statement from College of Charleston President Glenn McConnell:

I served with Senator Clementa Pinckney in the South Carolina Senate since he joined that body in 2001. He was a friend of mine and many other senators. His big smile lifted our spirits and his powerfully mellow voice conveyed great intelligence as well as a kind and loving heart.

During this period of grief, before Reverend Pinckney and the eight other Christian martyrs killed by a hateful terrorist have yet to be buried, I had hoped to avoid commenting on political issues. However, the rising tide of emotion over Governor Nikki Haley’s call to remove the Confederate soldier’s flag from State House grounds and numerous requests for me to comment have made a respectful period of silence on political issues impossible.

So here is where I stand: About 15 years ago, when I was a state senator, my colleagues and I forged a bipartisan and biracial compromise. We removed the Confederate soldier’s flag from atop the State House dome and relocated it behind the Confederate soldier’s monument, a place of historic – not political – context. We also erected an impressive monument celebrating the many African American contributions throughout our state’s history. And we passed the Heritage Act, to protect both Civil War and Civil Rights monuments, street names and building names all across the state. Our plan was designed to end acrimony and move our state forward with a spirit of good will and mutual respect. As imperfect as all compromises are, it lasted for 15 years.

Today is a different time. In the aftermath of the horrific tragedy that spilled the blood of nine souls within the hallowed halls of Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church, the time has come to revisit the issue of the Confederate soldier’s flag, which a number of our citizens regard as offensive.

Many other citizens regard the old soldier’s banner as a fitting memorial to the Confederate dead. However, on State House grounds, we should seek to respect the views of all citizens as best we reasonably can.

Therefore, I support Governor Haley’s call to remove the Confederate soldier’s flag from State House grounds as a visible statement of courtesy and good will to all those who may be offended by it. At the same time, I also urge all public officials and activists who are focusing on this issue to come together, the way the good people of Charleston joined hands following the terrible tragedy we suffered, and agree not to transfer the fight to other physical vestiges and memorials of our state’s past. In a spirit of good will and mutual respect, let us all agree that the monuments, cemeteries, historic street and building names shall be preserved and protected. How sad it would be to end one controversy only to trigger a thousand more.

The people of South Carolina are entitled to their complete history, the parts that give us pride as well as sadness. We learn from our past and we grow from exploring our shared history.

If we all insist on it, this experience can mark the beginning of a new era. Let us all pledge to respect each other and stand together in firm opposition to any efforts to sanitize, rewrite or bulldoze our history.

Here in South Carolina, there has never been a time when our nation’s motto was more needed than it is today: e pluribus unum: “out of many, one.” If those of us alive today can find a way to understand and respect and forgive each other, only then can we truly pay honor to the martyrs who were slain last week while they prayed together in a house of worship.

Wow. Sure, it’s full of words expressing McConnell’s own obsession with things Confederate, but that only underlines the fact that for him to say “remove the flag” is the most miraculous thing we’ve seen this week.

Check it out:

Take down the #ConfederateFlag at the SC Capitol. To many, it is a symbol of racial hatred. Remove it now to honor #Charleston victims.

— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) June 20, 2015

Now, there’s an example of somebody we need speaking at a State House rally!

So, the last GOP nominee for president has taken the leap. Where are you, Lindsey Graham? It’s time to lead, not to mouth excuses that you know are all about dodging the truth!

Burl Burlingame posted this on Facebook, with the caption, “TBT: That time we captured the Opera House from the entire Royal Hawaiian Army.”

Burl is the officer on the left, with drawn sword.

My reaction: You mean, there are re-enactors who DON’T wear Confederate uniforms?

I was glad to see this well-deserved plaudit for my old colleague Doug Pardue:

SC AAUW Recognizes Douglas Pardue for his contribution to increasing awareness of Domestic Abuse

CHARLESTON, SC.  MAY 13, 2015 – For the past few months, the SC American Association of University Women in collaboration with other interested groups have mounted a campaign to get a domestic violence bill passed through the house and senate for the governor to sign this year. SC American Association is proud to honor Douglas Pardue for his award winning series of articles that has raised awareness throughout our state on the seriousness of domestic violence in the Post and Courier, “Till Death Do Us Part”.  The Pullitzer prize recognizes the quality of the reporting and we want to commend meaningfulness of this work for our state. We are donating a $500 gift to AAUW Funds in his name.  The money will be used to fund graduate fellowships for women. We appreciate the work of Mr. Pardue and other reporters at the Post and Courier who write wrote about the disgraceful level of domestic violence in South Carolina. Over the past few years our State has become the spouse murder capital of the country. We have high hopes that legislation will be passed that will reduce these appalling statistics. In fact our organization has circulated an action letter for several weeks yielding over 500 legislator-specific emails along with letters and postcards to reach every legislator. The domestic violence bills are stalled in SC legislature. We are continuing to encourage citizens for justice on the issue of domestic violence to write a letter to the editor and contact their legislator through an action letter: http://salsa4.salsalabs.com/o/50796/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=13498&killorg=True Since the study and series in the Post and Courier on domestic violence began last August, 18 women and 12 men have been murdered due to domestic violence. We challenge Mr. Pardue to continue to report on this situation until the legislature responds to the people.  If the legislature fails, we want you to publish the names of those who obstructed this effort!

I had the sense that, in the coverage of Charleston’s Pulitzer, Doug’s role was perhaps downplayed a bit. He was mentioned as one of those responsible, and listed first. But I suspected he led the effort that led to the prize, since that’s a role he has so often played — he used to be the investigative editor at The State. Doug is next-to-last on the left-hand side of the table (next to Mike Fitts) in this photo from after Lee Bandy’s funeral.

Maybe he didn’t play that key a role, but the AAUW seems to think so.

Way to go, Doug!

A few topics to chew on:

1. Midlands Gives — First, a reminder that today is a great day to give to local charities. If you can’t think of one, try this one. For many, the gifts will be matched by donors who have committed in advance. Learn more here.
2. Milliken endorses free trade — OK, so maybe this isn’t a big deal to you. But that’s because you haven’t sat through lengthy editorial meetings in which the late Roger Milliken extolled the virtues of protectionism. This is kind of a big deal, which is why it made The Wall Street Journal‘s front page.
3. ICYMI: Texas governor assigns State Guard to keep eye on U.S. military — Once, Southern states welcomed military operations. Now that paranoid, anti-government, nullification-loving lunatics frequently hold public office, we get this kind of nonsense. And yeah, this story’s been out there for several days, but I just saw it this morning.
4. Report: Islamic State claims credit for Texas attack — Deliberately provocative foolishness on one side, dependable evil on the other. We’ll have another round of “Je suis Charlie” in response, but this stuff is inexcusable. You’re just not going to convince me that the right and true and “courageous” way to stand up to terrorism is to go out of your way to offend hundreds of millions of Muslims who are NOT terrorists, and mean you no harm.

Or… whatever y’all want to talk about…

just so I’m not outdone by Bryan on my own blog, before I hit the sack tonight, I’ll post this:

If only we had representation in the Legislature… "Most in S.C. support raising gas tax, poll says" http://t.co/XWGumeW3zM

— Brad Warthen (@BradWarthen) March 5, 2015

I had just finished writing a lengthy, complex post with all sorts of links and such in it, and before looking for a video clip to add to it, decided to save as a draft, upon which I got one of those “retry” error messages. Which usually means I have to hit “back” a couple of times to get to my work before I can copy and paste it somewhere to save it from this technological hiccup.

But I went back, and back, and my work wasn’t there any more.

I haven’t had this happen in years.

Anyway, I blame WordPress. It recently upgraded, and I think this is a glitch of the upgrade. And I’m really, really ticked about it…

File photo — Colbert in Columbia in 2007

A couple of weeks ago, I ran across something that made me want to look further. It was about John McCain’s appearance on one of the last shows of “The Colbert Report”:

He also forgot that Colbert teaches Sunday School, and got schooled on Bible verse.

I vaguely knew that Colbert was a fellow South Carolina Catholic, but I didn’t realize how involved he was with his faith. So I did some Googling, and among other things, I found this item cataloging six times when the real Colbert broke through the character and talked about his faith:

1. The Time He Talked about Faith and Tragedy with The New York Times
2. The Time He Explained Hell on NPR
3. The Time He Embarrassed a Guy that Suggested God Caused Evil
4. The Time He Argued for Christ’s Divinity
5. The Time He Discussed the Importance of Humor in Faith
6. The Time He Used the Bible to Advocate for Immigration Reform at Congress

As an example, here is one of those items:

Stephen Colbert is not a fan of Bart Ehrman. The religious scholar came on The Colbert Report to promote his book Jesus, Interrupted which questions the credibility of the Gospel and the divinity of Christ Himself. It got brutal. For nearly 7 minutes, Colbert deftly explained seeming contradictions in the New Testament, showed how Scripture supports Christ’s divinity and intellectually embarrassed the scholar in Zimbardo fashion. You can watch the entire exchange here.

I had no idea that Colbert was so serious about his faith, or indeed such a defender of Catholic orthodoxy. I thought his fans among you would be interested. And so, during this Advent season, when people of faith are supposed to be reflecting on such things, I share this.

Or, to put it another way, should every county and municipality in South Carolina have to pay to buy and maintain body cameras for every cop in the state?

Two lawmakers think so:

South Carolina Senators Malloy and Kimpson File Body Camera Legislation

Senators Malloy and Kimpson will pre-file legislation tomorrow requiring all law enforcement officers in the State of South Carolina to wear body cameras that can record any and all contact with persons in the performance of the law enforcement officers’ official duties.

“As chair of the Criminal Task Force, Sentence Reform Commission, Sentencing Oversight Commission and author of numerous bills in the criminal arena, my experience informs me that police officers should be collecting more evidence all the time,” stated Senator Malloy.  “History has demonstrated that eyewitnesses are not always the most reliable form of evidence.  It is time for South Carolina to invest in common sense technology.  This investment is critical to preserving the integrity of our system of justice.”

“Disputed facts are often an issue in encounters with law enforcement as we’ve seen with the incident between Michael Brown and Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri,” stated Senator Kimpson.  “Right here in Charleston, there remains a dispute about what happened to Denzel Currnell.  It is important to note that while a dashboard camera did not stop South Carolina highway trooper Sean Groubert from shooting Levar Jones, it did lead to the officer’s firing and arrest.  Body cameras would provide everyone a clearer picture of the facts,” continued Kimpson.

Representative Wendell Gilliard plans to introduce a similar bill in the House when pre-filing opens on December 11th.  “I applaud Senators Malloy and Kimpson for filing this legislation.  Over the summer, I met with many representatives of the law enforcement community and neighborhood leaders who indicated that they would welcome this legislation.  Statistics confirm increased use of body cameras tend to reduce the number of confrontations,” said Representative Gilliard.

I suppose as reactions to Ferguson go, this is preferable to chaos in the streets. And indeed, we’ve had our share of problematic uses of force right here at home in the past year.

But I have to wonder whether this is overdoing it…

I found this piece, end of last week, intriguing:

It sounds like a radical idea: Stop incarcerating women, and close down women’s prisons. But in Britain, there is a growing movement, sponsored by a peer in the House of Lords, to do just that.

The argument is actually quite straightforward: There are far fewer women in prison than men to start with — women make up just 7 percent of the prison population. This means that these women are disproportionately affected by a system designed for men….

Essentially, the case for closing women’s prisons is the same as the case for imprisoning fewer men. It is the case against the prison industrial complex and for community-based treatment where it works better than incarceration. But there is evidence that prison harms women more than men, so why not start there?

Any examination of the women who are in U.S. prisons reveals that the majority are nonviolent offenders with poor education, little employment experience and multiple histories of abuse from childhood through adulthood. Women are also more likely than men to have children who rely on them for support — 147,000 American children have mothers in prison….

I don’t know how practical the idea is, but I like that somebody’s thinking about it. We lock up way too many people in this country, period. I don’t think anyone who is not a danger to others needs to be incarcerated; it serves little useful purpose.

Of course, a certain percentage of male inmates are a danger; but very, very few women are. They’re more likely to be in for writing bad checks than for armed robbery.

So, let’s explore this…

Another thing I talked about on the radio last night was my increasing peevishness that we call these “mid-term elections,” which underlines our unhealthy national obsession with national politics over local, and presidential politics über alles.

And this morning, I was treated to another bit of evidence of the problem:

John Oliver revealed on Sunday’s “Last Week Tonight” just how much power state representatives wield while Americans aren’t watching.

“Look, state legislatures are hilarious. There’s only one problem,” the HBO host began. “Increasingly, they’re the places where most legislation is actually taking place.”

While the U.S. Congress has only passed 185 laws this session, the satirist pointed out that state houses have passed over 24,000 bills.

Oliver then launched into an extended lecture on the influence of the local lawmakers on issues from abortion rights to environmental policy to gun control.

One additional player is the notorious “conservative bill mill,” the American Legislative Exchange Council….

Notice anything odd about that piece? Yeah, it’s the implied presumption that government should not be going on on the state level, that there’s something sneaky and nefarious about that.

I’ll set aside the considerations of ALEC for another time. My point here is to say that yes, we do have local and state governments, and guess what? We’re supposed to.

But Mr. Oliver is right about one thing. Too often, “Americans aren’t watching.” That’s because we allow our views of politics to be formed by Mr. Oliver, and Jon Stewart, and CNN and MSNBC and the rest, and all they tell us about is national politics. Obsessively and excessively.

This has been a problem my whole life. I can still remember when I came out of college believing that national politics was what was important, and the rest was a distraction. It took me awhile — and some time covering state and local governments — to be disabused of that simplistic notion.

Unfortunately, I worry that too many still see the national as all that matters. And they’re wrong.

Oh, and it’s not state governments’ fault that you’re not watching. That’s your fault.

Here I am at a Barnes and Noble where I came to do a little blogging, and… my laptop won’t turn on. (I’m typing this on my iPad.)

I turned it off fully charged and put it in my bag two days ago, so the battery can’t be dead. And even if it IS, it’s plugged in to the wall. So the battery’s status shouldn’t matter. But it’s cold, and dead. No lights come on. No sound. No response whatsoever.

Allow me to indulge in a bit of British-style understatement: This is distressing.

I wrote about this and posted it four years ago, and referred back to it yesterday.

But today, when the Sheheen campaign sent it out for the benefit of those who previously missed it or have forgotten, it occurred to me that they have a point: For the sake of clear comparison to Sheheen’s stand, it’s probably worth posting again.

Aside from her meek assurances that no, she won’t try to get the flag down, and no, she won’t succumb to “pressure” to change her mind, there are a number of bits that sort of make the flesh crawl — such as when her questioner (in a voice that even Hollywood might think sounded TOO stereotypical; it’s in the Strother Martin range) asks whether she realizes that “we do have the power to oust someone” if she misleads them, and that David Beasley “learned that the hard way.” Whatever the issue, you will seldom hear a political threat uttered in such naked terms. That part starts at 6:15.

Almost everything objectionable about flag defenders is on display here, such as the laughable conceit that they somehow have the monopoly on true knowledge of history. Hear the voice ask Rep. Haley (at 5:44) whether she understands that the Emancipation Proclamation, which “is supposed to be such a great document,” only freed slaves in states in a state of rebellion. It’s apparent that this guy thinks this is not only some great revelation (as though any student of history wouldn’t know it), but that he thinks it somehow delegitimizes the Union cause, and excuses the Southern one.

Nikki nods and smiles through all that. To her credit, I think I sense a little bit of, “Oh my God, what have I let myself in for here?” in her eyes.

But then she humbly assures these folks that she will do their bidding in office. And that’s the point here.