Beginning July 1 the College of Charleston will be a tobacco-free campus, according to The Post and Courier. This ban will not apply to public streets or sidewalks that go through the campus. Smoking is also permitted in personal vehicles on college property so long as windows and doors are closed.
The ban applies to all forms of tobacco as well as electronic cigarettes and signs are posted throughout the campus to remind the community.
The city of Charleston has already banned smoking in indoor places such as restaurants and bars and restricted outdoor smoking in workplaces. Smoking is also banned around the area of the Medical University of South Carolina.
The University of South Carolina implemented a similar tobacco ban on campus in January 2014.
Columbia VA Center ranks poor in wait time
Wait times for South Carolina Veterans Affairs hospitals have been released after the scandals surrounding the VA were brought to national attention.
Dorn VA Medical Center, located in Columbia, ranks as the sixth worst in wait times among all VA hospitals with a wait time of 76.75 days for new patients, according to The State. Dorn also ranked 10th worst among 140 facilities for returning patients wait times for primary care and 11th worst for established patients to see specialists.
Other VA Medical Centers throughout South Carolina also had long wait times. According to The Post and Courier the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center in Charleston had over 100 patients waiting more than 90 days for an appointment. The hospital did fair better in terms of scheduled appointments, in which it was found that 97 percent were scheduled within at least 30 days.
Ballot error fixed prior to primary
An error on 41 absentee ballots was discovered and fixed in Florence County by South Carolina’s Election Commission, according to The Post and Courier. The error left off the adjutant general election for the GOP primary race. The 41 voters were sent replacement ballots to account for the error.
Chris Whitmire, an agency spokesman, said the error was due to a Florence County employee entering the ballot data manually as opposed to importing it through a file. This new process is part of a new candidate tracking system.
The candidates, James Breazeale and incumbent Adjutant Gen. Robert Livingston, were entered as representing separate parties, which created the error when the computer system saw it as no primary being held.