Friday, January 30, 2009

Game Time Update: 10 a.m. Sunday on ABC

Posted by Greg Hambrick on Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 12:42 PM

Sen. Jim DeMint vs. House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney Frank on "This Week" on ABC.

We knew we could find a good reason to start drinking early.

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Thursday, January 29, 2009

Horse Damages Police Cruiser

Posted by Greg Hambrick on Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 1:46 PM

A horse carriage hit the rear bumper of a police car last week. The officer was conducting a traffic stop at the time.

The carriage driver, Paul Meeks of the Palmetto Carriage Company, told police he thought the horse was “spooked” by a puddle of water as it approached the police car.

There were no injuries. Highway patrol responded to the scene but did not file a report because the horse carriage was not a motor vehicle.

Press Time reported on an incident involving a different carriage company in October that caused injury to a carriage driver. This time last year, we covered some horse scares that happened within a few weeks of each other, leading to several injuries.

In better carriage news, Palmetto Carriage's recent free ride day looks to have been a big success, particularly for the City Market community. More than 1,000 locals toured the area and spent some time and money down on the Market as well, according to operator Tom Doyle.

Topics: City Hall

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South Carolinians Lazily Thumping Their Bibles

Posted by Greg Hambrick on Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 10:45 AM

Gallup has a new poll out on the most religious states and South Carolina is way up there, but can't compete with two other Southern states.

Respondents were asked whether religion played an important part in their daily lives. While it is unclear if praying that your car would start every morning counts (since that would certainly skew the vote in my home), 80 percent of South Carolinians said religion did play an important part. Alabama came in at 82 percent and Mississippi had 85 percent.

Other interesting notes: Alaska was one of the unholiest states, while all ten of the states that faithed (is that a word) the most were in the South.

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Charleston Introduces Economic Initatives

Posted by Greg Hambrick on Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 5:27 PM

Anyone (well, anyone in a thriving coastal community) can scrounge up new business in the middle of an economic boom.

The real talent is finding the small handful of businesses still growing in a recession and convincing them that Charleston is the place to settle among all the water-adjacent East Coast spots (and they're more plentiful now than ever).

This morning, Mayor Joe Riley expanded on some of the business-friendly initiatives the city will be implementing over the next few weeks. Riley likened the city's response to what it would do for a hurricane.

"We want to make sure no one is injured and the recovery is quick," he says.

First, for the businesses already here, the city will be hosting "Weathering the Economy" forums in different business districts. The forums could include information to help business owners with things like renegotiating a lease or bank loan, among other things.

"We want to make sure local businesses have all the resources they need," Riley says. "There are small businesses without the (internal) capacity for this kind of help."

The city will also be opening a business resource center this spring that will give the city's new business development office some breathing room and provide a storefront for business owners and entrepreneurs to use when they need assistance.

"This will take economic development to a retail level," says Ernest Andrade, the city's business development chief.

A new website will aggregate business news stories relating to the Charleston market while providing an online resource for prospective businesses looking to locate in the area.

"The key is what we're doing is tangible and proactive," Andrade says.

Finally, the nonprofit Charleston Digital Corridor Foundation, an independent organization tied to the city's digital corridor venture, has offered to pay the business license fees for start-up companies with a focus in computer software, life sciences, and medical devices for up to two years.

Riley stressed that this is the beginning of the city's business development push, not the end.

"We want to challenge ourselves everyday," Riley says, noting there may be as many as a dozen individual programs, depending on what the business market needs to thrive.

Topics: City Hall

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City Suspends Sidewalk Cafe Fee

Posted by Greg Hambrick on Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 4:19 PM

As if avoiding some of the restaurants downtown wasn't hard enough already.

We'll be posting shortly about a broader bunch of initatives the city has put forth in the tough economic times, but the cherry on top is the elminiation of sidwalk dining fees. Personaly, I can only think of a few restaurants that currently have sidewalk tables (Basil and the Francis Marion Starbucks come to mind) but Mayor Joe Riley considered it important enough to include in his rundown with reporters of measures the city is taking to help business owners.

Topics: City Hall

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