MARK SANFORD

North Dakota higher education officials are deeply worried about losing students and revenue in 2024 when neighboring Minnesota makes tuition free for thousands of its residents at public colleges and universities.

U.S. Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina has been ousted from Congress in his Republican primary after voting to impeach Donald Trump over the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Primary voters on Tuesday will decide the fate of two South Carolina Republicans who are clinging to their seats in the U.S. House after defying Donald Trump.

Two lifelong Republicans representing neighboring congressional districts in South Carolina are unlikely players in the fierce debate over the future of their party.

A shuttered bowling alley at the center of a 1968 integration protest where state police killed three Black students is being remade into a civil rights center.

A former South Carolina state lawmaker and failed congressional candidate has been placed on leave from her Pentagon job during a probe into allegations of an unauthorized release of classified information.

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

Sanford, the former South Carolina governor, congressman and one-time presidential candidate, is going to work for a lobbying firm. Shumaker Advisors announced Tuesday, March 30, 2021, that Sanford would be joining the firm, working from Charleston. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)COLUMBIA, S.C. – Mark Sanford, the former South Carolina governor, congressman and one-time presidential candidate, is going to work for a lobbying firm. Shumaker Advisors announced Tuesday that Sanford would be joining the firm as an executive vice president and principal. “What I did not anticipate is an impeachment.”AdIn his new role with Shumaker, Sanford will be based in Charleston, according to information obtained by The Associated Press.

As in most states, South Carolina's public health agency was underfunded and overworked long before it had to sustain an exhausting defense against a virus humans had never seen before. Unlike most public health agencies, South Carolina's portfolio has included environmental regulation since the 1970s. AdSenate President Harvey Peeler is ready to split DHEC apart, bundling public health duties with the state's mental health department and funneling environmental permitting operations to other state agencies. Public health resources were slashed by lawmakers during the Great Recession, and board members' terms lapsed under Gov. Simmer told lawmakers who confirmed him this month that he believes the agency’s environmental and public health halves complement each other.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., walks with fellow House Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021, following a meeting called by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON – House Republicans decided Wednesday to stand by two GOP lawmakers who have polarized the party, voting to retain Rep. Liz Cheney as their No. In a 145-61 secret-ballot vote, House Republicans overwhelmingly rebuffed a rebellion by hard-right conservatives to toss Cheney, R-Wyo., from leadership after she voted last month to impeach then-President Donald Trump. Hours earlier, after Democrats slated a House vote for Thursday that would remove Greene from her committees, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy ridiculed them for it. The decisions over Greene and Cheney have subjected the GOP to a politically agonizing test of its direction as it moves beyond the Trump presidency.

FILE - In this Dec. 18, 2019, file photo, taken from video, Rep. Tom Rice, R-S.C., speaks as the House of Representatives debates the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump at the Capitol in Washington. (House Television via AP, File)COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina Republicans on Saturday issued a formal censure to U.S. Rep. Tom Rice to show disapproval over his vote in support of the second impeachment of former President Donald Trump. AdIn his only primary since first elected in 2012, Rice won with 84% of the vote. Rice told the AP he knew he’d likely face a difficult primary and that the impeachment vote could potentially cost him his seat. These people did not vote for you to vote your conscience; these people voted for you to support us and our district and the president."

(Senate Television via AP)COLUMBIA, S.C. – Donald Trump has added two more former federal prosecutors from South Carolina to his impeachment legal team, according to one of the lawyers. Harris and Gasser join a team that includes Butch Bowers, a noted South Carolina ethics and elections lawyer called an “anchor tenant” of the team by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. It's in part on the advice of Graham that Trump is turning to the South Carolina team after other legal allies passed on the case. It’s a notable departure from his 2020 impeachment trial, when Trump had a stable of nationally known attorneys, including Alan Dershowitz, Jay Sekulow and Kenneth Starr. Bowers has years of experience representing elected officials and political candidates, including former South Carolina Gov.

(AP Photo/Bruce Smith, File)COLUMBIA, S.C. – Donald Trump is adding another South Carolina attorney to his impeachment legal team, according to a trial lawyer group in the state. Barbier joins Bowers, a Columbia attorney with years of experience representing elected officials and political candidates, including former South Carolina Gov. In part on the advice of Graham, the South Carolina senator, Trump is turning to Bowers and Barbier after other legal allies passed on the case. That's a notable departure from his 2020 impeachment trial, when Trump had a stable of nationally known attorneys, including Alan Dershowitz, Jay Sekulow and Kenneth Starr. If convicted, Trump could be barred from holding public office again, ending any hopes of mounting another White House bid in 2024.

Trump turned to Bowers, a familiar figure in Republican legal circles, after other legal allies passed on the case. The first impeachment trial turned on charges that Trump improperly solicited Ukraine’s help for his reelection campaign. Pat McCrory and the South Carolina Election Commission in litigation over voter ID laws, as well as a former South Carolina sheriff who pleaded guilty to embezzlement and misconduct in office. In 2018, he was attorney for University of South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley in her successful defamation suit against Missouri’s athletics director. With degrees from the University of South Carolina and College of Charleston, Bowers graduated from Tulane University School of Law in 1998.

(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)WASHINGTON – Opening arguments in the Senate impeachment trial for Donald Trump over the Capitol riot will begin the week of Feb. 8, the first time a former president will face such charges after leaving office. Trump's impeachment trial would be the first of a U.S. president no longer in office, an undertaking that his Senate Republican allies argue is pointless, and potentially even unconstitutional. "That goal has been achieved.”Pelosi said Friday the nine House impeachment managers, or prosecutors, are "ready to begin to make their case” against Trump. Trump’s team will have had the same amount of time since the House impeachment vote to prepare, Pelosi said. A handful of Senate Republicans have indicated they are open — but not committed — to conviction.

Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON – Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is proposing to push back the start of Donald Trump's impeachment trial to February to give the former president time to prepare and review his case. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is reviewing the plan and will discuss it with McConnell, a spokesperson said. Facing his second impeachment trial in two years, Trump began to assemble his defense team by hiring attorney Butch Bowers to represent him, according to an adviser. Trump is at a disadvantage compared to his first trial, in which he had the full resources of the White House counsel's office to defend him. Pelosi said she would talk to them “in the next few days” about when the Senate might be ready for a trial.

3 House Republican had already broken with the president on everything from mask-wearing during the coronavirus pandemic to pulling back American troops in Afghanistan. Now she's emerging as the most prominent Republican to back Trump's impeachment — the only member of her party's leadership doing so. The 10 Republicans who voted in favor of impeachment was small but significant — when Trump was impeached last year, no House Republicans supported it. As the only woman in House GOP leadership, Cheney has been seen as a possible candidate for House speaker should the GOP regain the majority in 2022 or beyond. This is a very, very difficult decision,” Utah Republican Rep. John Curtis said of Cheney.

FILE - In this Feb. 20, 2020, file photo, Roger Stone arrives for his sentencing at federal court in Washington. Roger Stone was targeted by an illegal Witch Hunt that never should have taken place, Trump tweeted. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump confidant, said Stone was convicted of a nonviolent, first-time offense and the president was justified in commuting the sentence. By commuting Stone's sentence, Trump evoked other controversial acts of clemency by his predecessors, though his was done in the height of an election year. Stone, a former Nixon aide, told the AP he expressed his gratitude to Trump in a phone call.

He later watched with dismay Trump's hard-line response to the police killing of George Floyd and the civil unrest that followed. Lund, who is white, now plans to vote a straight Democratic ticket and rejects any effort by Trump to put a silver lining on the nation's pain. "Even the most die-hard Trump supporters are exhausted.Trump is leading a nation grappling with unemployment rates not seen since the Great Depression. She said she wasn't going to support Trump before Floyds death but is now considering recruiting new Democratic voters. But back in Wisconsin, a state Trump narrowly carried four years ago, the restaurant worker Lund isn't so sure.

The South Carolina Republican tweeted about an upcoming trip to Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state -- but called it by a nickname for Ohio. "Will be going to Iowa next week and would love your wisdom on local perspectives if you are from the Buckeye state!" Iowa is the Hawkeye State, while Ohio is the Buckeye State. Iowa isn't the only key state that Sanford has in his sights. When asked why he is considering a run, Sanford said there is "no discussion of debt, deficit and government spending in Washington these days."