Category: News

The South Carolina House of Representatives has approved a bill requiring all public school classrooms, from K-12 to colleges, to display the Ten Commandments on an 11-by-14-inch poster or frame, along with a historical context statement. The measure, which passed 84-31 largely along party lines, also permits volunteer chaplains in schools to serve as counselors with parental consent, and allows […]

The Oconee County Board of Zoning Appeals has approved a special exception and variance for applicant Umair Ali to build a service station in Fair Play, despite resident objections. The project involves constructing a 2,800-square-foot gas station with a canopy and three fuel islands at 503 E. Fairplay Blvd. The approvals provide relief from the Fair Play Village Overlay District […]

A 21-year-old Spartanburg County man, Nathan Timothy Hanna, was arrested and booked into the Oconee County Detention Center on two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor. The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation on January 21 after a family member reported that Hanna engaged in sexual intercourse with a teenage victim at the victim’s home near […]

The Pickens County Library Board voted Tuesday night to terminate Director Stephanie Howard following a closed-door meeting, one week after the county’s libraries canceled more than a dozen youth programs to review 86,000 books for content deemed inappropriate for young readers. The decision has sparked concern among some parents, who expressed sadness over the program cancellations and urged decision-makers to […]

Pamela Brooke Schronce, owner of Thomas and Turner Boutique in Anderson County and known in some reports as the “Boutique Bandit,” was arrested for the 12th time since early January when she was booked into the Pickens County Detention Center on February 25, 2026, on one count of obtaining property under false pretenses valued under $2,000; she was granted a […]

The City of Clemson has been awarded $4.3 million in federal funding via the SCDOT to upgrade the intersection of Issaqueena Trail, Cambridge Drive, and Old Shirley Road. Following multiple traffic studies, the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) concluded that the existing four-way stop no longer accommodates the community’s growth and recommended replacing it with a roundabout. Roundabouts are […]

Jim Lovinggood, president and CEO of Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative since 2018, will retire at the end of 2026 after a 44-year career with the organization that began in 1982. During his tenure, Lovinggood led the transition to digital mapping still used in engineering models today, pioneered Blue Ridge Security and Upcountry Fiber, and oversaw historic growth that nearly doubled […]

The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office arrested 33-year-old Coax Arnold Sanford, V, of Westminster, charging him with Murder and Possession of a Weapon During a Violent Crime in the December 20, 2015, fatal shooting of Jesse Eugene Mulkey on Brock Road. Deputies found Mulkey with a chest gunshot wound; the death was ruled a homicide. Both men, armed and acquainted with […]

Anderson County Sheriff’s Office led “Operation Hightower,” a four-day undercover Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force operation posing as minors online, identifying over 15 suspects and arresting 11 on more than 40 charges including solicitation of a minor, sexual exploitation of a minor, and criminal sexual conduct with a minor. Key local arrests include Karl Green, 42, of Seneca (5 […]