The Opinion Blog

AG McMaster bungled Five Rivers plea bargain

In today's editorial, The Sun News considers S.C. AG Henry McMaster's handling of the Five Rivers criminal case plea bargain and finds him wanting as a candidate for governor:

Attorney General Henry H. McMaster's office took over prosecution of the Five Rivers Community Development Corp. case, but the attorney general's assistants acted more like they wanted to be done with the case than to press for justice for the people of Georgetown County.

TUESDAY OPEN FORUM: What's on your mind?

Post comments below on any issue you want. The only limitations: the ground rules listed at the left and your own imagination. I'll reply when appropriate. Have fun. dc

(If you wish your comment to be considered for publication in the newspaper, copy it into an e-mail and send it to opinions@thesunnews.com. Please add your address and phone number to the e-mail so we can contact you for verification. The size limit for letters is 150 words.)

Post comments below on any issue you want. The only limitations: the ground rules listed at the left and your own imagination. I'll reply when appropriate. Have fun. dc

(If you wish your comment to be considered for publication in the newspaper, copy it into an e-mail and send it to opinions@thesunnews.com. Please add your address and phone number to the e-mail so we can contact you for verification. The size limit for letters is 150 words.)

MONDAY OPEN FORUM: What's on your mind?

Post comments below on any issue you want. The only limitations: the ground rules listed at the left and your own imagination. I'll reply when appropriate. Have fun. dc

(If you wish your comment to be considered for publication in the newspaper, copy it into an e-mail and send it to opinions@thesunnews.com. Please add your address and phone number to the e-mail so we can contact you for verification. The size limit for letters is 150 words.)

Post comments below on any issue you want. The only limitations: the ground rules listed at the left and your own imagination. I'll reply when appropriate. Have fun. dc

(If you wish your comment to be considered for publication in the newspaper, copy it into an e-mail and send it to opinions@thesunnews.com. Please add your address and phone number to the e-mail so we can contact you for verification. The size limit for letters is 150 words.)

Chief justice's bike rally memo only HER opinion

On Sunday, The Sun News said Myrtle Beach leaders should ignore the S.C. chief justice's motorcycle memo and let the courts sort out the legality of its bike rally ordinances:

It can't be good that the chief justice of the S.C. Supreme Court takes a dim view of the Myrtle Beach plan to deal with motorcycle infractions in its new administrative court. If Chief Justice Jean Toal's view that the administrative court system is unconstitutionally "repugnant" holds up in a formal court challenge, many of the motorcycle-control ordinances that the Myrtle Beach City Council adopted last year would be difficult - if not impossible - to enforce.

WEEKEND OPEN FORUM: What's on your mind?

Post comments below on any issue you want. The only limitations: the ground rules listed at the left and your own imagination. I'll reply when appropriate. Have fun. dc

(If you wish your comment to be considered for publication in the newspaper, copy it into an e-mail and send it to opinions@thesunnews.com. Please add your address and phone number to the e-mail so we can contact you for verification. The size limit for letters is 150 words.)

YOU BE THE CRITIC: Sales-tax editorial handled poorly?

Friends:

Here's a little journalism ethics challenge, should any of you care to tackle it. On Friday, I met with an aggrieved group of about 14 Myrtle Beach tourism leaders, mainly hoteliers, golf course reps, restaurant reps and real estate folks. They didn't like it that, without listening to their story first, we editorialized against the legislative proposal to allow local governments to raise the sales tax a penny for tourism marketing. (See my March 20 post Horry pockets would be picked for tourism marketing below; it's an early version of the editorial, which we published last Saturday)

FRIDAY OPEN FORUM: What's on your mind?

Post comments below on any issue you want. The only limitations: the ground rules listed at the left and your own imagination. I'll reply when appropriate. Have fun. dc

(If you wish your comment to be considered for publication in the newspaper, copy it into an e-mail and send it to opinions@thesunnews.com. Please add your address and phone number to the e-mail so we can contact you for verification. The size limit for letters is 150 words.)

Post comments below on any issue you want. The only limitations: the ground rules listed at the left and your own imagination. I'll reply when appropriate. Have fun. dc

(If you wish your comment to be considered for publication in the newspaper, copy it into an e-mail and send it to opinions@thesunnews.com. Please add your address and phone number to the e-mail so we can contact you for verification. The size limit for letters is 150 words.)

Tax 'reform' ate dozens of Horry teachers' jobs

Today's editorial notes that parents share complcity in the teacher job losses plaguing the Horry County Schools:

Horry County parents are upset - and rightly so - that 95 teachers are among the 169 employees whose jobs the Board of Education eliminated this week. But parents who live full time in their own homes have limited standing to vent their frustration to school board members.

THURSDAY OPEN FORUM: What's on your mind?

Post comments below on any issue you want. The only limitations: the ground rules listed at the left and your own imagination. I'll reply when appropriate. Have fun. dc

(If you wish your comment to be considered for publication in the newspaper, copy it into an e-mail and send it to opinions@thesunnews.com. Please add your address and phone number to the e-mail so we can contact you for verification. The size limit for letters is 150 words.)

Post comments below on any issue you want. The only limitations: the ground rules listed at the left and your own imagination. I'll reply when appropriate. Have fun. dc

(If you wish your comment to be considered for publication in the newspaper, copy it into an e-mail and send it to opinions@thesunnews.com. Please add your address and phone number to the e-mail so we can contact you for verification. The size limit for letters is 150 words.)

When the Mayo's in trouble, health care IS broken

Ripped from the wires ... In case you doubt that the U.S. health-care-delivery system needs reform, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune sets you straight:

Few commented on one chilling irony of the U.S. government's bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler. Not only are the carmakers grappling with shortsighted leadership and dated products, they've also shouldered massive costs for retiree health benefits.

The United States has the same health care problem _ only bigger. Costs for the sprawling Medicare program for seniors are already unsustainable, with the biggest demographic group of all about to enroll. The first wave of baby boomers becomes eligible for Medicare in 2011.