***Palmetto Morning Presented by Jim Dyke & Associates***
THIS FIRST — Balloon Boy, enough.
HAPPY BOSS’S DAY everyone – good to have a boss these days; good to be the boss in some cases.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY — Noah Webster [noh-uh web-ster] – noun 1758–1843, U.S. lexicographer and essayist.
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NATIONAL LENS — “Congressional budget analysts have given House leaders cost estimates for two competing versions of their plan to overhaul the health-care system, concluding that one comes within striking distance of the $900 billion limit set by President Obama and the other falls below it,” reports the Washington Post. “House leaders have been working to lower the cost of the $1.2 trillion health-care package they offered in July. The report from the Congressional Budget Office, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, puts the cost of one plan at $859 billion over the next decade and the other at $905 billion.”
F-16 COLLISION — “The Air Force says crews are searching for an F-16 fighter pilot off the coast of South Carolina after two jets collided Thursday night,” according to WYFF. “The jets were based out of Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter. Shaw AFB spokesman Robert Sexton said the two planes collided at about 8:30 p.m. Thursday about 40 miles off Folly Beach, near Charleston, during night training exercises. Each plane was carrying one person. Sexton said a fighter piloted by Cpt. Lee Bryant landed safely at Charleston Air Force Base, but the location of the other fighter piloted by Cpt. Nicholas Giglio is unknown. Sexton said members of the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy and pilots from Charleston Air Force Base are currently searching for the missing pilot and the wreckage.”
DAYBOOK — The schedule for Rep. Wilson’s weekend Town Halls
$4.4 MILLION — The total raised by Wilson and Democratic Challenger Rob Miller. McClatchy’s Rosen has the deets.
RACING FOR THE CURE — “First Lady Jenny Sanford’s office today said she will take part Saturday in the 16th annual Susan G. Komen Lowcountry Race for the Cure in Charleston. The 5k run/walk will begin at 9:10 a.m. at the Family Circle Tennis Center on Daniel Island. A member of the Hollings Cancer Center Advisory Committee at the Medical University of South Carolina, Sanford will walk the race with her sister, Kathy Sullivan, and the Roper St. Francis Cancer Center Team.”
CHECK OUT THE HOOK WHILE LG REVOLVES IT — “Sen. Lindsey Graham, a longtime friend and ally of Sen. John McCain, is now going a step further, Democrats say, and actually becoming the new McCain,” writes The Hill. “Senior members of the majority party say the South Carolina Republican has displaced his Arizona mentor as the dealmaker on two big agenda items of the Obama administration: climate change and immigration. ‘I’m trying to use my time up here to solve problems,’ Graham told The Hill. ‘The Republican Party needs to be seen as a center-right party that will solve hard problems.’”
SANFORD STORMS GREENWOOD — “Gov. Mark Sanford visited Abbeville on Thursday to share his thoughts on government restructuring, excessive spending and other issues facing people across the state. He suggested tweaking the budget control board, which he said only exists in S.C. Other states’ governors administer the laws that are created by the legislative branch and interpreted by the judicial branch.” The Greenwood Index-Journal said “Sanford [heard] nothing but praise about” the Greenwood Genetic Center.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT — “A legislative audit has found no major problems in the operation of state prisons but says there is room for improvement. Still, the report released Thursday by the Legislative Audit Council didn’t satisfy some legislative critics of the Department of Corrections. State Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, said the review leaves unanswered questions about how well prisons are run.”
FLAT BROKE — The Associated Press reports “South Carolina’s unemployment fund covering benefits is broke, thousands of workers are running out of extended benefits and the state’s jobless rate remains among the nation’s highest.”
UNFAIR — “S.C. data indicate tax system to pay jobless benefits is unfair,” according to this story by The State’s John O’Connor. “Businesses that frequently lay off workers might be doing so at the expense of most other South Carolina businesses, according to an analysis of unemployment data by the S.C. Department of Commerce. The data, said Commerce researcher Rebbecca Gunnlaugsson, show a small percentage of companies account for about one-third of all unemployment benefits paid. Meanwhile, companies with steady employment are charged at a higher minimum unemployment tax rate than neighboring states, she said, and businesses that lay off employees more – often manufacturers or seasonal industries such as tourism – often are charged at a lower maximum tax rate than other states. … Gov. Mark Sanford has organized a meeting Tuesday to debate the issue. Lawmakers will have to approve any changes to unemployment taxes.”
RISKY CHOICE — “If Myrtle Beach wants to host internationally televised presidential debates before the 2012 election, it would be a ‘risky choice‘’ to elect Mark McBride as mayor, a former high-level Republican official said Thursday.” The Sun-News’ Zane Wilson has “Katon Dawson, former state GOP chairman who missed by eight votes becoming the national party’s leader, [making] the remarks while he was in town to receive an award from the Grand Strand Business Association for his work to bring the presidential candidate debates to Myrtle Beach in 2008.”
REJECTION — An Horry County Circuit Court judge rejected McBride’s lawsuit “to try to stop Myrtle Beach from collecting its new 1 percent sales tax for tourism promotion.”
JUST KINDA CREEPY — “The state’s top federal prosecutor said Thursday he won’t seek charges against Greenville County Administrator Joe Kernell because the evidence of his e-mail activity was itself obtained illegally and wouldn’t be admissible in court. U.S. District Judge Henry Floyd has said Kernell engaged in improper and possible illegal activity and criticized County Council for not punishing him more harshly … Floyd has likened Kernell’s activity to ‘cybersex.’ [U.S. Attorney Walt] Wilkins said the e-mails revealed information about Kernell ‘potentially talking with women in other states’ about ‘massages and massages without your clothes on.’”
FLORENCE — Willis named Florence chamber’s Business Person of Year
COLUMBIA — Agency veteran to be interim director
AIKEN — Polo, Lowcountry boil fundraiser for polo groups
COLUMBIA — SC disabilities agency gets permanent director
PEE DEE — Foundation gives $10,000 grant to Harvest Hope
FINALLY THIS — Man hits dog with car; man hits dog with machete and hammer; dog master hits man with hammer fracturing skull; “Dingo” the dog hanging in there.
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