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Like most presidential budgets before it, President Biden’s fiscal 2025 tax and spending blueprint is more of a political statement than an actual legislative proposal. Basically, it’s a reelection pitch straight from the “Middle Class Joe” playbook he ran on in 2020: raise taxes on the rich…
The date: Sept. 7, 1892. The place: New Orleans. The event: the World Heavy Weight title battle, featuring challenger John J. Corbett taking on champ John L. Sullivan.
The Community Resource Connection, a USDA grant, awarded Aiken Senior Life Services $10,000 to install an edible community garden. The 20-by-30-foot space, named the Grateful Garden, contains six raised beds, six planters, a hanging strawberry trough and a vertical pallet planter. Thus far, …
Today marks the end of Sunshine Week.
Nestled along I-20 between the Palmetto State’s Capital City in Columbia and Augusta, Georgia, where the Masters will be played in April, is South Carolina’s Thoroughbred Country.
If little Debbie’s parents prefer for her to dine on wagyu beef instead of mystery meat, should the taxpayers have to pay for her to have lunch delivered daily from Circa 1886 instead of standing in line in the school cafeteria?
My wife and I live out in a seriously rural area near Williston. I come into town every Wednesday to shop in Aiken's fine stores and eat breakfast. Which I was doing recently when I picked up a copy of the paper. At which point, I made the mistake of reading a column by Kathleen Parker about…
What will be in the labs? On Feb. 28, the Aiken Standard shared two articles that again caught my attention. A report on the progress on the front page was of the construction of a “mixed-use building” downtown Aiken. The Aiken City Council voted unanimously to approve a framework agreement …
It’s becoming dangerous to drive around Aiken because there are no lines or very few intermittent lines painted on the roads. Federal roads, state roads, county roads and city roads have no demarcations. There is no discrimination.
In the midst of the vibrant debate on various policy issues within our great state of South Carolina, there's an emerging consensus on one that unites us across party lines: the pressing need for effective Cost of Care (COC) legislation. As a captain in the Horry County Police Department wit…
Editor’s Note: Sunshine Week is set for March 10-16, 2024. Sunshine Week is a nonpartisan collaboration among groups in the journalism, civic, education, government and private sectors that shines a light on the importance of public records and open government.
The name Einstein has long been synonymous with genius, but it goes back to a man and his equation, E = mc². In his lifetime, Albert Einstein was the world’s most famous man and most famous Jew and most famous refugee (the last two being connected, as he had to flee his native Germany when t…
Among the most absurd election pitches ever is the Democrats’ bleak warning — pushed ceaselessly by President Joe Biden himself — that Trump and his “MAGA Republicans” pose an existential threat to American democracy.
This is a short letter to the editor to recognize a small business in Aiken and North Augusta that goes above and beyond in providing service to their customers.
Welcome to the best time of the year.
There was a lively debate at the Statehouse Wednesday about House leaders’ plan to strip all the limits from South Carolina’s pilot voucher program before the first “education scholarship” check is even cut.
Another disastrous collision occurred a few days ago at the intersection of Eagle Road and Whiskey Road. It looked like the aftermath of a demolition derby at the state fair. Crashed cars everywhere, first responders directing traffic, lights flashing on fire trucks and ambulances, cars back…
Robert Hysner, Veteran U.S. Army – Korea
You could almost hear palms smacking onto foreheads all over the techier corners of the internet this week, after a Google artificial intelligence program began generating pictures of Black founding fathers, a female Pope and other notions that would exist only in the most fringe-progressive…
The earworm “1-8-7-7 Kars 4 Kids” always struck me as a stellar example of how insufferable advertising can be when its creators really put their minds to it. The organization behind the long-running ad boasts that the jingle “has quickly become one of the most memorable and catchy radio ads…
It’s a new day for business in Aiken.
Helping stranded motorists on the side of the road should not be one of America’s most lethal jobs, but it is.
The S.C. Senate was about to vote on a muscular update to South Carolina’s Read to Succeed law, with a heavy emphasis on what’s being called “the science of reading,” and Senate Education Chairman Greg Hembree was explaining the bill and the background.
South Carolina is a top destination for those moving from other states. The state's business and taxpayer-friendly policies make the Palmetto State a great place to live and do business. As a result, our economy is thriving, and state services must increase to match growth.
I have had to take my wife to dialysis three times a week since October 2023. We have to leave at 4:30 a.m. Her scheduled time is 5:15 a.m. As I travel back home after dropping her off, I run into SRS traffic on highway 125. The posted speed limit is 55 mph. If you run 55 mph you will be pas…
Agriculture and aviation are key drivers of South Carolina’s economy. With the right strategy, South Carolina’s agriculture sector can power American aviation, too.
"The Aiken City Council could give final approvals to a development to be built off the yet-to-be-built Powderhouse Connector." This is the opening of an article on page 3A in the Aiken Standard edition of Saturday, Feb. 10, 2024.
Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide and mob boss Whitey Bulger’s murder both made headlines as shocking failures of the federal prison system. But the shortcomings that led to these famous men’s deaths weren’t the exception — they were the rule.
Here’s an idea. Instead of hanging on every word from young whippersnapper political pundits about whether or not Joe Biden’s age-related deterioration is a disqualifier for another presidential term, why not ask some real octogenarians — folks who have actually been there?
Well, today’s the big day. South Carolina is holding its Republican presidential primary, and all eyes are on the Palmetto State.
Is the current national debt total just a myth? Do the new economists have a way to eliminate the U.S. national debt with little or no problems for the country? Listening to the latest news from the presidential advisers, they are sending up trial balloons to test this new theory.
This is the day that God almighty has made. He is mighty. He is holy, holy, holy and so should we since we are his representation on the earth.
I have a bone to pick with former Governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley.
Is Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. the worst president in American history? For nearly a century that distinction went to Warren Harding, but a recent biography indicates that he was better than history has judged him. If Biden is indeed the worst, he has had plenty of help from his cabinet. Let’…
I understand as a community we love our pets. Some, including myself, go as far as to call our pets our children, but they in fact are not children and therefore unless they are a service animal with the appropriate visible documentation, should not be allowed in a grocery store.
My friend Dana Foster was murdered on Feb. 16, 2022. Since that time, there has been an arrest in her case but there has been no mention of a trial. Did her life have no meaning? Doesn’t her family deserve some closure? Dana was very well-loved in her community, in her school and in her chur…
The federal government had supposedly made it much easier to apply for college financial aid. Except there was a glitch and students could not access the new online tool they needed. Applications were delayed by months and the numbers of students seeking aid plunged.
If the Greatest Generation had not had the courage and fortitude to come to Europe’s aid in World War II, we might well be speaking German today. If we abandon Ukraine as Trump proposes, we may well be learning to speak Russian in the near future.
Contrary to the popular refrain, video never really did kill the radio star. Electric vehicles, however, might do the job. The question is whether Congress should accelerate the process.
My guess is that right now whoever came up with the idea of sending 30 armed FBI agents to conduct an unannounced raid on a former president’s home would probably welcome a do-over.
My hat is off to Joshua Weber who has had the courage to share his horrible experiences with light pollution in his Letter to The Editor on Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024. I can empathize more than you would ever know.
The glimmer of hope that Congress might pass a bipartisan border-security bill has been extinguished, at least for now. In killing immigration reforms that their party has long supported — and that are now far less likely to become law — Republicans have demonstrated their lack of interest i…
There's a special class of political opportunists who believe they can sell people any sort of nonsense just by adorning a "conservative" label or invoking the name of the defeated former president, and the other day they put on an exhibition leading up to a House subcommittee meeting.
While work on Hitchcock Parkway has gone well past the original deadline and is probably costing more than originally budgeted, it appears it will be a major improvement once completed. I do have one question — with all the work at widening, putting in needed traffic lights and even adding a…
I frequently encounter people in the Aiken area who don’t know about upcoming local activities and events. They aren’t aware of any of the local elections, i.e. recent Democratic and Republican primaries. They don’t know where to vote, or how to find out if they do get a hint there is some e…
Voters in South Carolina have a unique opportunity to send a message to the Republican Party and the rest of the nation that Nikki Haley is the best choice for the Republican Party’s nomination for president.
Generosity throughout Aiken contributed to a successful shoebox gift collection season at drop-off locations for the Samaritan’s Purse project Operation Christmas Child. Across the U.S., the project collected 10 million shoebox gifts in 2023. Combined with those collected from partnerin…
If Democrats believe Donald Trump is an existential threat to American democracy, why do they insist on sending a weakened 81-year-old Joe Biden into battle against him? That question became a bit more urgent last week.
I've owned my home in Aiken County since 2003. My neighborhood was a good place to live until roughly three years ago. My next door neighbor was unhappy when his unchained dog was aggressive with my 11-year-old son and his friend, and a call was placed because this neighbor was not home. Sho…
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last week took responsibility for not notifying the White House when he was hospitalized at the beginning of January, an important first step in rebuilding trust with President Joe Biden, Congress and the American people.
The monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics report should be called the original “fake news.”
There’s a thin line between love and hate.
Whether you consider South Carolina’s abortion law too restrictive or too liberal, it’s tempting to roll your eyes over yet another lawsuit challenging it.
U.S. elections have become flashpoints of controversy, particularly at the presidential level involving the Electoral College. An AP poll in December revealed two-thirds of Americans believe our democracy is in peril.