In the hopper

Editorial ideas bouncing around the office this week. Have something to add? Want to weigh in on these topics? Leave a comment below.

Legislative scorecard. It's about time for our annual scorecard of local legislators. It always takes a while to sift through all the information, so this one may be a week or two away, but it's in the works. How would you rate your own legislator?

For-profit colleges. A new Senate report out comes down hard on the business practices and ethics of for-profit colleges, a couple of which have branches in our area.  

Vision airlines and tourism. It was a bad weekend for the airport's newest airline, which left dozens of passengers stranded, some for almost two days. Not a good way to advertise our area or leave a good taste in visitor's mouths. What can local officials do, if anything, to prevent such problems in the future?

I-73. The editorial board is meeting this afternoon with Nancy Cave of the Coastal Conservation League to talk about the group's continuing opposition to I-73 and support of an alternative plan. We'll see if anything interesting or new comes out of it.

Marketplace Fairness. Amazon, which spent more than $150,000 just last year to win an exemption from sales tax collections in South Carolina, is now among those backing the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would allow sales tax collections by companies like itself. A good idea for the state?  It could be, as lax collections of these sales taxes cost S.C. around $100 million a year in uncollected taxes.

Other random ideas:
South Carolina Olympics: Sports the IOC might consider if our state had a say (cornhole, bingo, golf, bocce...)
For public, not profit: Why it's a bad idea to run government like a business
Hypocrisy in motion: Why it's frustrating for the Democrats to push so hard against disenfranchising voters with voter ID only to turn around and try to effect their own disenfranchisement by getting elected Republicans kicked off the ballot.

Vision airlines and tourism. It was a bad weekend for the airport's newest airline, which left dozens of passengers stranded, some for almost two days. Not a good way to advertise our area or leave a good taste in visitor's mouths. What can local officials do, if anything, to prevent such problems in the future?

I-73. The editorial board is meeting this afternoon with Nancy Cave of the Coastal Conservation League to talk about the group's continuing opposition to I-73 and support of an alternative plan. We'll see if anything interesting or new comes out of it.

Marketplace Fairness. Amazon, which spent more than $150,000 just last year to win an exemption from sales tax collections in South Carolina, is now among those backing the Marketplace Fairness Act, which would allow sales tax collections by companies like itself. A good idea for the state?  It could be, as lax collections of these sales taxes cost S.C. around $100 million a year in uncollected taxes.

Other random ideas:
South Carolina Olympics: Sports the IOC might consider if our state had a say (cornhole, bingo, golf, bocce...)
For public, not profit: Why it's a bad idea to run government like a business
Hypocrisy in motion: Why it's frustrating for the Democrats to push so hard against disenfranchising voters with voter ID only to turn around and try to effect their own disenfranchisement by getting elected Republicans kicked off the ballot.