{"source_url": "https://www.usnews.com", "url": "https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/south-carolina/articles/2019-12-31/editorial-roundup-south-carolina", "title": "Editorial Roundup: South Carolina", "top_image": "https://www.usnews.com/static/images/favicon.ico", "meta_img": "https://www.usnews.com/static/images/favicon.ico", "images": ["https://www.usnews.com/static-atlas/assets/img/news/best-states/logos/best_states_logo_2.svg", "https://www.usnews.com/static/images/favicon.ico", "https://www.usnews.com/static/img/usn-logo-large.svg"], "movies": [], "text": "By The Associated Press\n\nRecent editorials from South Carolina newspapers:\n\n___\n\nDec. 29\n\nThe Index-Journal on what to expect from elected officials in 2020:\n\nWith Gov. Henry McMaster\u2019s call to give all teachers a pay hike this coming legislative session and our own legislative delegation touting education as a top priority when addressing Greenwood SC Chamber members earlier this month, it\u2019s a safe bet that education, in some form or another, will rank at or toward the top of the heap when lawmakers reconvene early next month.\n\nState Sen. Floyd Nicholson is a staunch advocate of education\u2019s importance. As he often points out, education is the key to anyone\u2019s genuine success in life \u2014 a message he again shared at the Chamber\u2019s gathering.\n\nState Sen. Danny Verdin, who was the meeting\u2019s keynote speaker, headed down a different path, intimating that South Carolina could step up in a leadership role with respect to medical marijuana. While he did not come out with a full endorsement of legalizing medical marijuana, he did indicate the state could set the pace for sensible legislation that does not open the door to widespread recreational use.\n\nWe shall see.\n\nHowever, the message state Rep. Anne Parks delivered was none too pleasing. She too echoed the need to focus on education issues, but she said with 2020 being an election year, she did not anticipate much being done. Sadly, there\u2019s a good chance she is correct.\n\nDo we need that, however? We elect and pay our lawmakers to actually do things, and preferably for the good of the state and its residents. We do not send them to Columbia to piddle around and go through the motions in an effort to hold onto their seats.\n\nHaving witnessed the dearth of constructive legislative work at the federal level for some time now, we\u2019d like to encourage our state\u2019s lawmakers to set a better example and not, as Orangeburg state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter often says, keep kicking the can down the road.\n\nOnline: http://www.indexjournal.com\n\n___\n\nDec. 27\n\nThe Times and Democrat on being safe while hunting:\n\nAt Thanksgiving, we wrote of the tradition of hunting and fishing that is integral to the season. Sadly, the holiday produced a tragedy, with a local young person losing his life in a hunting accident.\n\nThough tragic to the core, hunting deaths have to be put in perspective.\n\nAccording to the International Hunter Education Association, in an average year, fewer than 1,000 people in the United States and Canada are accidentally shot by hunters, and of these, fewer than 75 are fatalities. In many cases, the fatalities are self-inflicted by hunters who trip, fall or have other accidents that cause them to shoot themselves with their own weapons. Most of the other fatalities come in hunting parties, where one hunter shoots another accidentally.\n\nHunting proponents point out that the chances of a death due to a firearm accident of any kind are roughly the same as a death from falling out of a bed, chair or another piece of furniture \u2014 about 1 in 4,888.\n\nOverall accidental death statistics from the National Safety Council provide further context. Of all accidental deaths:\n\n- 1 out of every 114 is a motor vehicle crash\n\n- 1 out of every 370 is an intentional assault by a firearm\n\n- 1 out of 1,188 is an accidental drowning\n\n- 1 out of every 6,905 is an accidental firearms discharge\n\n- 1 out of every 161,856 is due to a lightning strike\n\nStill, no accidental death should be deemed acceptable. And hunting calls for vigorous attention to safety practices.\n\nSome reminders are in order:\n\n- Be sure your firearm is unloaded when you are transporting it in your vehicle or while walking to your stand. Keep the safety on for extra measure.\n\n- Leave the gun safety on until you are ready to shoot. (If you should drop your gun, the safety will offer some protection.)\n\n- It is wise to wear a visible hat, coat or vest of international-orange color while hunts for deer are in progress. Even wildlife photographers and other nature enthusiasts should use common sense and elect to wear a hat, coat or vest in hunter orange.\n\n- Don\u2019t shoot in the direction of rustling bushes or rattling leaves. Shoot only when you actually see a deer within range. Be sure of your target.\n\n- When hunting with a club or group, stay on your stand until a previously agreed upon time. Don\u2019t lose patience and wander around \u2013 you may be mistaken for a deer.- Remember, rifle bullets, buck shot and arrows travel a long distance through a field or in the forest. So, you need to know the territory and know if there are homes, schools or businesses that could possibly be struck by ammunition that misses its intended target.\n\nThis holiday season, the outdoors again will be a popular place for many locals. Hunting, in particular, will be on the to-do list with the nation's longest deer season counting down to a New Year's Day conclusion.\n\nEnjoy the outdoors experience and make it a safe one.\n\nOnline: https://thetandd.com/\n\n___\n\nDec. 26\n\nThe Post and Courier on a plastic bag ban:\n\nThere\u2019s power in breaking little habits. It helps you struggle against bigger ones.\n\nGiving up flimsy single-use plastic bags \u2014 the regional ban takes effect New Year\u2019s Day and also includes foam takeout containers, plastic straws and coffee stirrers \u2014 should be relatively easy. People in dozens of countries worldwide and in hundreds of cities across the United States have done it. And we seemed to get along OK before the bag industry starting giving away plastic in the 1980s.\n\nOne way to break the single-use habit is to put a few canvas or reusable plastic bags in your car. They\u2019re hands-down better for groceries. Collectively, we\u2019ll be helping keep plastic out of the ocean, where plastic entanglement and ingestion plagues everything from plankton to whales.\n\nCharleston Harbor alone has about 7.5 tons of plastic in it at any given time, according to a 2014 study done at The Citadel.\n\nWith the city of Charleston and Charleston County bans taking effect Jan. 1, joining the beach and island muncipalities, single-use plastics will be banned along most of the state\u2019s coast. Stores won\u2019t be able to give them away, and you could be ticketed for bringing them onto beaches.\n\nSingle-use plastics may not be our biggest environmental threat \u2014 think oil exploration and climate change \u2014 but plastic bags and other unnecessary conveniences represent a solvable problem. It\u2019s also a great first step in telling the plastics industry to quit foisting so much junk on us. Plastic should be anything but single-use.\n\nSmart merchants will be giving away reusable bags or selling them cheaply. Many Lowcountry residents have kicked the plastic-bag habit already, as have many big grocery chains.\n\nThe Legislature has thankfully failed to pass bills that would have stopped local governments from enacting bag bans. But that doesn\u2019t mean some lawmakers won\u2019t try again. Such efforts are an affront to home rule, essentially telling coastal residents they don\u2019t know what\u2019s best for themselves.\n\nAnd the idea that banning single-use plastic bags is somehow a burden on businesses is dubious, as if the margin on single-use plastics figured prominently in profits. And there are exceptions for items like egg cartons, produce bags, dry-cleaning bags and, yes, newspaper bags.\n\nWe clearly have a long way to go in protecting the environment. But quitting single-use plastics is a significant step in that direction.\n\nOnline: https://www.postandcourier.com", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": ["Associated Press", "South Carolina", "South Carolina News"], "tags": [], "authors": [], "publish_date": "Tue Dec 31 00:00:00 2019", "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "Recent editorials from South Carolina newspapers:", "meta_lang": "en", "meta_favicon": "/static/images/favicon.ico", "meta_data": {"viewport": "width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=0", "description": "Recent editorials from South Carolina newspapers:", "keywords": "Associated Press,South Carolina,South Carolina News", "site": "beststates", "zone": "statenews/articles", "fb": {"pages": 5834919267, "app_id": 130063997038366}, "og": {"title": "Editorial Roundup: South Carolina", "description": "Recent editorials from South Carolina newspapers:", "type": "article", "site_name": "US News & World Report", "url": "https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/south-carolina/articles/2019-12-31/editorial-roundup-south-carolina"}, "twitter": {"card": "summary_large_image", "site": "@USNews", "title": "Editorial Roundup: South Carolina", "description": "Recent editorials from South Carolina newspapers:"}, "google-site-verification": "owJBuFHD3VHcTSsnPSOYizmUcs3GSBjbx09vBbBi1MM", "msvalidate.01": "A8E47FA91124063A4A9C78AD5273DC0F", "optimizely": "Optimizely is supported by this application but is not enabled for this page."}, "canonical_link": "https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/south-carolina/articles/2019-12-31/editorial-roundup-south-carolina"}