HENRY MCMASTER

Freezing rain, sleet and snow blew into coastal areas stretching from South Carolina to Virginia.

Governors and state lawmakers are prioritizing climate change as they write their state budgets, devoting money to lowering emissions and guarding against natural disasters such as flood and fire.

Forecasts of snow and ice as far south as Georgia have put much of the Southeast on an emergency preparedness footing as shoppers strip store shelves of supplies and road crews treat highways ahead of an approaching weekend storm.

Forecasters' predictions of debilitating snow and ice as far south as Georgia have shoppers scouring store shelves for storm supplies and road crews trying to prevent a repeat of past wintertime debacles.

Governors across the U.S. took sweeping action during earlier surges of the COVID-19 pandemic, but are taking a much different approach during the record-setting caseloads caused by the omicron variant.

Appellate arguments over a lawsuit challenging South Carolina’s abortion law have been pushed into the new year.

In the latest instance, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster calls on the state's department of education to look into banning a book about queer identity, saying the content is sexually explicit.

Debate over a memoir that contains explicit illustrations of sexual acts is surfacing in a handful of states where Republican governors are gearing up for reelection next year, foreshadowing a recurring theme for conservative leaders in the coming campaigns. The book in question, Maia Kobabe's “Gender Queer,” has been the focus of ire from Republican governors in various states, most recently playing a role in the Virginia governor's race. In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster on Wednesday released a letter — similar in nature to one days earlier by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — calling on Superintendent Molly Spearman to perform a systemic review of “inappropriate” materials in the state's schools.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says all domestic air travelers over age 12 will need to provide proof of full vaccination or a negative coronavirus test starting Oct. 30.

A federal judge has suspended South Carolina from enforcing a rule that banned school districts from requiring masks for students.

Officials in both the U.S. and the European Union are struggling with the same question.

In the past few weeks, South Carolina has set records for COVID-19 hospitalizations and new cases have approached peak levels of last winter.

Two dozen Republican attorneys general are warning the White House of impending legal action if a proposed coronavirus vaccine requirement for as many as 100 million Americans goes into effect.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration doesn’t make many headlines.

The plaintiffs are challenging a budget measure passed this summer that prevents South Carolina districts from using any state funding to require masks in schools. In papers filed last week, attorneys for McMaster — a Republican who has said repeatedly that parents alone should decide if children wear masks in schools — argued that the ACLU and its clients “have not alleged, and they cannot reasonably or plausibly allege, that Governor McMaster acted with bad faith or gross misconduct.”

Republicans are blasting President Joe Biden, threatening lawsuits and going as far as to call for civil disobedience to block his new vaccination mandates.

His move has unified Republicans who sometimes have taken different approaches to the pandemic.

Republicans are blasting President Joe Biden, threatening lawsuits and going as far as to call for civil disobedience to block his new vaccination mandates.

Hoping to prevent another school year from being upended by the pandemic, President Joe Biden visited a Washington middle school Friday to promote his new plan to require vaccinations for up to 100 million Americans.

President Joe Biden has gone from waging war on the virus to a war on the unvaccinated.

Twenty Democratic attorneys general have voiced their support for a lawsuit challenging South Carolina’s new abortion law.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey says President Joe Biden is overreaching with his new requirement for employees of large businesses to be vaccinated or regularly tested for COVID-19.

Almost instantly after most abortions were banned in Texas, Democrats were decrying the new law as unconstitutional, an assault on women’s health that must be challenged.

Almost instantly after most abortions were banned in Texas, Democrats were decrying the new law as unconstitutional, an assault on women’s health that must be challenged.

Almost instantly after most abortions were banned in Texas, Democrats were decrying the new law as unconstitutional, an assault on women's health that must be challenged. “I’m pro-life,” said Republican Glenn Youngkin, a GOP candidate for governor in increasingly Democratic Virginia, where the only open governor's race in the nation is coming up in November. When pressed on the Texas law by a reporter, he quickly noted that he supports exceptions in cases of rape, incest and where the mother’s life is in danger — exceptions notably not included in the new law.

An Associated Press investigation has found that more than $500 million in K-12 pandemic aid allocated by Congress went to privately operated schools that were entirely virtual even before the COVID-19 outbreak.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal lawsuit over a South Carolina law that bans school districts from imposing mask mandates.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona has sent a letter to South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and Department of Education Superintendent Molly Spearman, warning against policies that prevent school districts from requiring masks.

Some Republican governors are using federal pandemic assistance to promote school choice programs, including charter schools and vouchers for private schools.

Anyone who has to get an injection in the U.S. probably has horseshoe crabs to thank for keeping the needle clean.

The summer surge of the highly infectious delta variant of the coronavirus made for a disruptive start of the school year in many parts of the country Monday.

Top Republicans are battling school districts in their own states’ urban, heavily Democratic areas over whether students should be required to mask up as they head back to school.

The highly contagious delta variant is fueling a surge in coronavirus cases as students return to classrooms.

A leading anti-abortion group has picked South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster as its first state-level endorsement in next year’s elections.

At this point, it feels like governors McMaster and Ivey are preaching to the choir, our opinion editor writes.

“If (people) have questions they can get answers and they need to talk to the people they trust. Whether it’s a preacher, a doctor, neighbors or friends, and make a decision. We made what I think is the right decision,” said Gov. Henry McMaster who has been vaccinated.

Twenty states are supporting South Carolina’s defense of a new abortion law.

Twenty states are supporting South Carolina's defense of a new abortion law, arguing in an amicus brief that a federal judge was wrong to pause the entire measure instead of just the provision facing a court challenge. In a filing Tuesday with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of the states, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall argued that U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis overstepped her authority when she put the entire abortion law on hold, rather than just the portion being challenged. The judge's ruling, Marshall wrote, “treads on South Carolina’s sovereign ability to decide for itself the purposes of its legislation” and “aggrandizes the judicial power by treating the court’s injunction of the challenged provision as erasing it entirely so the whole Act collapses.”

McMaster’s statements came a day after one of his Democratic challengers, Joe Cunningham, said he is in favor of legalizing both recreational and medicinal cannabis.

‘Think about the mechanisms they would have to build to be able to actually execute that massive of a thing,’ Cawthorn says

The Biden White House is no longer refraining from criticizing Republican officials who play down the importance of coronavirus vaccinations or seek to make political hay of the federal government’s all-out effort to drive shots into arms.

Jen Psaki’s comments come as Republicans criticise White House’s ‘door-to-door’ efforts on vaccination.

“Enticing, coercing, intimidating, mandating, or pressuring anyone to take the vaccine is a bad policy which will deteriorate the public’s trust and confidence in the State’s vaccination efforts,” McMaster wrote in a letter to DHEC’s board chairman.

“Enticing, coercing, intimidating, mandating, or pressuring anyone to take the vaccine is a bad policy which will deteriorate the public’s trust and confidence in the State’s vaccination efforts,” McMaster wrote in a letter to DHEC’s board chairman.

The state’s legal brief requests that a federal district judge’s order be reversed and asks the appeals court to dismiss the case on the grounds that the plaintiffs lack standing to bring suit against the law.

South Carolina's governor wants a new abortion law to take effect, arguing Wednesday that a judge's decision to put the whole measure — and not just the parts being challenged in court — on hold during a lawsuit “oversteps the bounds of federal judicial power.” Gov. Henry McMaster's brief with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asks appellate judges to lift a lower court's injunction on the “ South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act. ” The Republican signed the measure into law earlier this year. Planned Parenthood attorneys sued immediately, and the entire law has been blocked from going into effect during the litigation.

Gov. Henry McMaster said South Carolina residents should finalize their storm preparations ahead of Tropical Storm Elsa.

It’s hard to justify such exorbitant increases, writes The State Editorial Board. These are government jobs, publicly-funded jobs. The men and women earning the statewide median salary of $53,199 are paying these salaries.

More than $800,000 that is set to go toward a sprawling road and pedestrian safety overhaul in the shopping and nightlife district has been reinstated. It had been vetoed by Gov. Henry McMaster.

The governor had called for more transparency and project descriptions for the earmarks.

Harry Lightsey will succeed Secretary Bobby Hitt, who led the Cabinet agency since 2011 when he was first appointed by former Gov. Nikki Haley.

The license fee increase will go into effect July 1. This is the first time it has been changed in two decades.

The license fee increase will go into effect July 1. This is the first time it has been changed in two decades.

“Our goal is to see that the people of South Carolina have ample medical care and attention. MUSC is confident that this will do that,” Gov. Henry McMaster said.

The head of the World Health Organization lamented the lack of COVID-19 vaccines being immediately donated by rich countries to the developing world, saying that the global community is failing and that the mistakes of the AIDS pandemic are being repeated.

The CEO’s extra pay must be OK’d by a state salary commission but won’t be subject to approval from lawmakers.

Tens of thousands of new, environmentally friendly mail delivery vehicles will soon be coming out of South Carolina. Here’s where the investment is headed.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has become the latest former Trump administration official to launch a political action committee.

The state Supreme Court issued its decision just two days before death row inmate Brad Sigmon was scheduled to die.

About $8.9 billion is slated to come into South Carolina from the federal American Rescue Plan. Local governments will get $1.6 billion of that to spend.

South Carolina can't electrocute death row inmates who opt for nonexistent firing squad, court rules

The South Carolina Supreme Court has blocked two upcoming executions, saying those inmates cannot be put to death until they truly have a choice of a newly established firing squad option.

The largest family-owned winery in the United States is coming to Chester. Construction starts Wednesday.

The two South Carolina inmates scheduled to die this month want an appellate court to halt their deaths by electrocution.

The South Carolina athletic department says it will end its academic year with a $27 million deficit.

Dustin Johnson got off to a fast start Thursday at Congaree in his home-state Palmetto Championship, shooting a 6-under 65 that left him a shot behind leader Wes Roach.

A South Carolina judge is refusing to block two executions set for later this month.

South Carolina’s state-owned utility appears to have survived four years of turmoil to remain public.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster on Monday announced the state’s state of emergency order because of COVID-19 is no longer in place, though most of the state’s virus-related restrictions had already been rescinded.

A South Carolina judge should block the executions of two men scheduled to die later this month so the court can evaluate a new law that effectively forces death row prisoners to choose to die by either electric chair or firing squad, prisoners’ attorneys argued Monday. Attorneys for Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens, two men set to die later this month, said the law is unconstitutional because their clients were sentenced under an older iteration of the statute that made lethal injection the default execution method. If South Carolina carries out the executions as scheduled, both men would likely die in the state's 109-year-old electric chair because prison officials have not yet put together a firing squad.

The Charleston metropolitan area continues to grow, as Century Aluminum announces a $60 million expansion that will create new 100 jobs.

South Carolina state Sen. Mia McLeod says she's the person who can become the United States' first Black female governor.

The South Carolina Supreme Court on Tuesday issued an execution date for the second of two men on death row suing the state over a new law forcing inmates to choose between dying by firing squad or the electric chair. Owens and another man on death row, Brad Sigmon, sued South Carolina earlier this month, arguing that they can’t be electrocuted or shot since they were sentenced under a prior law that made lethal injection the default execution method. The state Department of Corrections has previously said the electric chair is ready to use.

Text messages show the trustee, now overseeing the search, sought to involve more politicians in the 2019 presidential search.

Ending unemployment benefits isn’t fair to those who can’t find equivalent jobs to what they lost during pandemic (Letters to the Editor).

Mayor Jimmy Carroll said the resolution was drafted to express the barrier island’s opposition to the beach parking legislation “by all lawful means necessary.”

A lack of drugs used in lethal injections has stalled three executions in South Carolina over the past six months.

Gov. Henry McMaster said Monday he signed into law a bill allowing people with concealed weapons permits from the state to carry their guns in the open. McMaster posted on Twitter that he was keeping his promise to sign any bill that protects or expands gun rights. The proposal allows so-called open carry of guns for people who undergo training and background checks so they can keep guns hidden under a jacket or other clothing or in their vehicle anywhere there isn't a sign prohibiting it.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed this new death penalty bill into law quietly on Friday.

Despite the governor’s signature, the law will not take effect until 90 days from May 17 — a measure added by lawmakers to give the State Law Enforcement Division and police agencies more time to educate police and the public on the new law.

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster has signed into law a bill that aims to restart executions after an involuntary 10-year pause.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed into law a bill that forces death row inmates to choose between the electric chair or a newly formed firing squad in hopes the state can restart executions after an involuntary 10-year pause.

South Carolina will need to create a new policy for how an execution by firing squad would be carried out, a Department of Corrections spokesperson said.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster defended Bob Caslen, who resigned as University of South Carolina president after he wrongly named the state’s flagship college and plagiarized part of his commencement speech.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster defended Bob Caslen, who resigned as University of South Carolina president after he wrongly named the state’s flagship college and plagiarized part of his commencement speech.

South Carolina’s elected constitutional officers, including the governor, treasurer and superintendent, have not had a raise since 1994.

Legislation adding a firing squad to South Carolina's execution methods amid a lack of lethal-injection drugs is headed to the desk of Gov. Henry McMaster. On a routine vote Wednesday, the state Senate concurred with a version of the legislation, approved last week by House lawmakers. McMaster has not yet said when he will sign the bill into law, although his office said it would happen as soon as the bill was ratified, which could happen in a matter of days.

The governor’s comments come as the U.S. Energy Department secretary said Wednesday that the Colonial Pipeline would be restarting operations around 5 p.m.

The governor’s comments come as the U.S. Energy Department secretary said Wednesday that the Colonial Pipeline would be restarting operations around 5 p.m.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster issued a coronavirus mandate preventing schools and local governments from creating mask mandates and requiring proof of vaccination.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster issued a coronavirus mandate preventing schools and local governments from creating mask mandates and requiring proof of vaccination.

Children as young as 12 can expect to start getting Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine Thursday in Louisiana.

The South Carolina House has voted to add the firing squad to the state's execution methods amid a lack of lethal-injection drugs.

Former Vice President Mike Pence is positioning himself for a possible return to elected office.

In his first public address since the end of the Trump administration, former Vice President Mike Pence put down a marker for a potential return to elected office, telling an audience in early-voting South Carolina that he plans to use the coming months “pushing back on the liberal agenda” he says is wrong for the country.

For the first time in a year, Mexican school children have returned to classrooms — at least in the southern state of Campeche.

That increased the state’s totals to 839,334 confirmed cases and 16,912 confirmed deaths. Ad___RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil accounts for a quarter of the daily coronavirus global deaths, more than any other nation. AdThere have been 12.4 million confirmed cases and more than 307,000 confirmed deaths in Brazil, second only to the United States. AdPakistan has reported 649,824 total confirmed cases and 14,158 confirmed deaths. The nation of 10.7 million had 1.5 million confirmed cases with 25,639 deaths.

Henry McMaster remains firmly opposed to the Medicaid expansion. The bump in federal funding would last two years for the states that join the Medicaid expansion. Laura Kelley this year called for legalizing medical use of marijuana and using the tax revenue to pay for expanding Medicaid. "It’s a nonstarter, and we will continue to oppose the liberal wish list item of Medicaid expansion,” he said. Kay Ivey left open the possibility of expanding Medicaid at some point in the future, but there are no plans to do so.

Next month, Pence will keynote a dinner hosted by the Palmetto Family Council, a Pence aide told The Associated Press on Sunday. AdAs vice president, Pence made numerous trips to South Carolina, meeting several times with Gov. The speech to Palmetto Family is advantageous for Pence in a state that Republican candidates use as a proving ground to test their “pro-life” mettle. AdAccording to Dave Wilson, president of Palmetto Family, Pence will speak to between 450 and 600 guests at a ticketed, sponsored dinner at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center on April 29. Wilson told AP that he considered Pence a “prime person” to address the organization due to the “level of faith” the former vice president embodied while in office.

(AP Photo/Christophe Ena)LONDON — Ireland has given out half a million coronavirus vaccinations about two months after the first inoculation. Evidence suggests this variant can spread more easily than most currently circulating strains of the coronavirus, health officials say. State health officials urge people to maintain precautions, particularly during spring break and Easter gatherings, as the state tries to ramp up vaccinations. Sri Lanka has so far received 1 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured in neighboring India, which donated half of the doses. The Missoulian reported Friday that in Missoula County, Granite Pharmacy has enough vaccine doses to vaccinate all 2,000 county teachers.