State agency conceals climate change study
A report by state scientists outlining harmful effects of climate change in South Carolina has been concealed for more than a year by the state Department of Natural Resources, The State reported.
The study, a copy of which was recently obtained by The State, was authored in November 2011 and says global warming is a reality and the DNR should take the lead in public education and increasing scientific research, The State said.
“There were concerns about the political nature of it,” Barry Beasley, a former DNR staff member involved in initial work on the report, told The State.
Among the study’s projections are hypotheses that temperatures in the South will rise up to 9 degrees over the next 70 years, wildlife diseases will increase and non-native species such as piranha and Asian swamp eels will potentially invade.
—Sarah Ellis, Assistant News Editor
Pickens school board votes on prayer policy
Pickens County School Board members were expected to vote on a motion Monday night that, if passed, would change their policy allowing student-led sectarian prayers before board meetings.
The Greenville News reported that district administrators have worked with legal counsel to develop a policy for a nonsectarian prayer or invocation to be given at the opening of board meetings after the board received a complaint from the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The foundation described the prayers as “a serious constitutional violation.”
Hundreds of people rallied in support of the customary sectarian invocations at the recent school board meeting when the motion was passed to work on developing a new policy, according to the Greenville News.
“I think the appropriate action would be for them to drop prayers from their business,” Patrick Elliot, staff attorney for the Freedom from Religion Foundation, told the Greenville News.
—Sarah Ellis, Assistant News Editor
Drunken driver crashes into Columbia cemetery
There was no resting in peace early Saturday morning at Columbia’s Trinity Episcopal Cathedral cemetery.
Jacklyn Gary, 27, was driving intoxicated when she plowed her car into the cemetery at 1100 Sumter St., causing about $3,000 worth of damage, WLTX reported.
The crash did not damage any headstones or burial sites, WLTX said.
“When you have a large historic property like this, any number of things happen. Some of them are natural causes; some of them possibly could have been avoided by human judgment,” Doak Wolfe of Trinity Episcopal told WLTX.
Wolfe said the church was not angry with Gary and is glad she survived the crash.
“We’ve all done things we’ve hoped to be forgiven for, and so when you’re in the position of being able to offer forgiveness, you certainly want to do it,” Wolfe told WLTX.
—Sarah Ellis, Assistant News Editor