HENRY MCMASTER

Freezing rain, sleet and snow blew into coastal areas stretching from South Carolina to Virginia.

Climate Change State Spending FILE - California Gov. Newsom deemed climate change one of five “existential threats" facing the nation's most populous state when he rolled out his proposed state budget this past week. Beyond increasing climate spending, states are looking to the windfall to pad their reserves, cut taxes, boost funding for education and increase affordable housing. California-based companies that work to address climate change and develop green technologies could be eligible for tax credits. Democrats who control Maryland's legislature are pushing a climate change measure that would reduce methane emissions, modernize the electric grid and invest in green technology.

Governors and state lawmakers are prioritizing climate change as they write their state budgets, devoting money to lowering emissions and guarding against natural disasters such as flood and fire.

Forecasts of snow and ice as far south as Georgia have put much of the Southeast on an emergency preparedness footing as shoppers strip store shelves of supplies and road crews treat highways ahead of an approaching weekend storm.

Forecasters' predictions of debilitating snow and ice as far south as Georgia have shoppers scouring store shelves for storm supplies and road crews trying to prevent a repeat of past wintertime debacles.

Governors across the U.S. took sweeping action during earlier surges of the COVID-19 pandemic, but are taking a much different approach during the record-setting caseloads caused by the omicron variant.

Warren Bitcoin FILE - Republican John Warren participates in a gubernatorial primary debate at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C., on June 5, 2018. The multimillionaire businessman who forced South Carolina Gov. Warren on Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2021, launched GEM Mining, to be headquartered in Greenville, S.C. (Grace Beahm Alford/The Post And Courier via AP, File) (Grace Beahm Alford)COLUMBIA, S.C. — (AP) — John Warren — the multimillionaire businessman who forced South Carolina Gov. “We saw huge opportunities with our connections to mining,” Warren told AP. Warren told AP his PAC will “play a very, very large role in next year’s elections, especially with superintendent of education and several House races."

Appellate arguments over a lawsuit challenging South Carolina’s abortion law have been pushed into the new year.

In the latest instance, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster calls on the state's department of education to look into banning a book about queer identity, saying the content is sexually explicit.

Debate over a memoir that contains explicit illustrations of sexual acts is surfacing in a handful of states where Republican governors are gearing up for reelection next year, foreshadowing a recurring theme for conservative leaders in the coming campaigns. The book in question, Maia Kobabe's “Gender Queer,” has been the focus of ire from Republican governors in various states, most recently playing a role in the Virginia governor's race. In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster on Wednesday released a letter — similar in nature to one days earlier by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — calling on Superintendent Molly Spearman to perform a systemic review of “inappropriate” materials in the state's schools.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says all domestic air travelers over age 12 will need to provide proof of full vaccination or a negative coronavirus test starting Oct. 30.

Virus Outbreak South Carolina FILE - Camden Elementary School students in masks listen as South Carolina Gov. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins, File) (Jeffrey Collins)COLUMBIA, South Carolina — School districts in South Carolina now have the authority to require masks, the state’s education chief said Wednesday. There were 14 reported deaths on Tuesday for a total of 12,620 in the nation of 5.5 million, the most since mid-June. ___MOSCOW — Russia is reporting record coronavirus deaths for the second day in a row, but authorities say they are not considering imposing nationwide restrictions. Russia’s state coronavirus task force on Wednesday registered 857 deaths, the country’s highest daily number of the pandemic.

Virus Outbreak South Carolina Two Camden Elementary School students in masks listen as South Carolina Gov. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins) (Jeffrey Collins)COLUMBIA, S.C. — (AP) — A federal judge Tuesday suspended South Carolina from enforcing a rule that banned school districts from requiring masks for students. Henry McMaster and GOP lawmakers who said parents should decide whether students wear masks, not school officials. The budget provision didn't outright ban districts from requiring masks, but said state money couldn't be used to enforce a mask requirement. “Some have also contended that the politicalization, by both opponents and proponents, of the decision to forbid local school districts from requiring students to wear a mask at school is gravely wrong.

A federal judge has suspended South Carolina from enforcing a rule that banned school districts from requiring masks for students.

Officials in both the U.S. and the European Union are struggling with the same question.

State health and education officials say the statewide mask ban in schools took away one of their best tools to stop the spread of COVID-19. The country is recording over 30,000 new COVID-19 cases a day. ___JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska — Military leaders on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson have declared a public health emergency in response to increasing COVID-19 cases in Alaska. Hospitalizations and COVID-19 cases across the state have increased as a result of the highly contagious delta variant. — A child is among the latest to die from COVID-19 in Louisiana, state health officials said Friday.

Virus Outbreak South Carolina Two Camden Elementary School students in masks listen as South Carolina Gov. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins) (Jeffrey Collins)COLUMBIA, S.C. — (AP) — In the past few weeks, South Carolina has set records for COVID-19 hospitalizations and new cases have approached peak levels of last winter. Classes, schools and entire districts have gone virtual, leaving parents frustrated and teachers quitting weeks into the school year. Though not an outright ban, the proviso prevents school districts from using state money to enforce a rule requiring masks. Lawmakers stuck the proposal in the state budget two days after McMaster ended the state of emergency.

In the past few weeks, South Carolina has set records for COVID-19 hospitalizations and new cases have approached peak levels of last winter.

Biden President Joe Biden leaves after speaking about the economy in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021, in Washington. "Your plan is disastrous and counterproductive," the prosecutors, led by Attorney General Alan Wilson of South Carolina, wrote in a letter sent to President Joe Biden. The letter is the latest GOP opposition to sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for private-sector employees, health care workers and federal contractors announced by Biden earlier this month. The OSHA rule, which covers nearly two-thirds of the private sector workforce, would last six months, after which it must be replaced by a permanent measure. In lieu of vaccine or weekly testing requirements, the prosecutors proposed that some companies could have employees work remotely, rather than report in person.

Two dozen Republican attorneys general are warning the White House of impending legal action if a proposed coronavirus vaccine requirement for as many as 100 million Americans goes into effect.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration doesn’t make many headlines.

The plaintiffs are challenging a budget measure passed this summer that prevents South Carolina districts from using any state funding to require masks in schools. In papers filed last week, attorneys for McMaster — a Republican who has said repeatedly that parents alone should decide if children wear masks in schools — argued that the ACLU and its clients “have not alleged, and they cannot reasonably or plausibly allege, that Governor McMaster acted with bad faith or gross misconduct.”

Henry McMaster says he will fight “to the gates of hell to protect the liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian.” South Dakota Gov. More than 208 million Americans have received at least one vaccine dose, but some 80 million remain unvaccinated, driving infections. Vaccine mandates are supported by a small majority of Americans. Overall, 55% back vaccine mandates for government workers. And about half of working adults favor vaccine mandates at their own workplaces.

Republicans are blasting President Joe Biden, threatening lawsuits and going as far as to call for civil disobedience to block his new vaccination mandates.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis is tearing into President Biden’s strategy to mandate vaccines for millions of workers. Biden announced sweeping vaccine mandates Thursday, including requiring private businesses with 100 or more employees to have staff vaccinated or be tested weekly. Less than 24 hours after Biden’s announcement, DeSantis said the president’s actions are unconstitutional and threaten the jobs of people in his state. WATCH: Central Florida businesses face changes after Biden’s vaccine executive order“I’m standing for them, we are going to protect their jobs from federal overreach,” DeSantis said. READ: Alaska Gov: Biden’s vaccine order ‘un-American’DeSantis is not alone.

His move has unified Republicans who sometimes have taken different approaches to the pandemic.

Henry McMaster says he will fight “to the gates of hell to protect the liberty and livelihood of every South Carolinian.” South Dakota Gov. Another 17 million workers at health facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid also will have to be vaccinated. Vaccine mandates are supported by a small majority of Americans. Overall, 55% back vaccine mandates for government workers. And about half of working adults favor vaccine mandates at their workplaces.

Republicans are blasting President Joe Biden, threatening lawsuits and going as far as to call for civil disobedience to block his new vaccination mandates.

Hoping to prevent another school year from being upended by the pandemic, President Joe Biden visited a Washington middle school Friday to promote his new plan to require vaccinations for up to 100 million Americans.

President Joe Biden has gone from waging war on the virus to a war on the unvaccinated.

Twenty Democratic attorneys general have voiced their support for a lawsuit challenging South Carolina’s new abortion law.

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey says President Joe Biden is overreaching with his new requirement for employees of large businesses to be vaccinated or regularly tested for COVID-19.

Almost instantly after most abortions were banned in Texas, Democrats were decrying the new law as unconstitutional, an assault on women’s health that must be challenged.

Almost instantly after most abortions were banned in Texas, Democrats were decrying the new law as unconstitutional, an assault on women’s health that must be challenged.

Almost instantly after most abortions were banned in Texas, Democrats were decrying the new law as unconstitutional, an assault on women's health that must be challenged. “I’m pro-life,” said Republican Glenn Youngkin, a GOP candidate for governor in increasingly Democratic Virginia, where the only open governor's race in the nation is coming up in November. When pressed on the Texas law by a reporter, he quickly noted that he supports exceptions in cases of rape, incest and where the mother’s life is in danger — exceptions notably not included in the new law.

An Associated Press investigation has found that more than $500 million in K-12 pandemic aid allocated by Congress went to privately operated schools that were entirely virtual even before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Henry McMaster talks about the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic at a news conference in Columbia, S.C. Public health officials have pleaded with the governor and legislators to lift the ban on mask mandates. The deal was reached Monday with a union coalition, shortly after the Pfizer vaccine earned full Food and Drug Administration approval. ___WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci says he’s hoping for an uptick in the administration of COVID-19 vaccinations following U.S. government approval of the Pfizer vaccine. ___WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden is celebrating the full FDA approval of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine and is urging the unvaccinated to go get their inoculations.

But some school districts and cities have disregarded the ban and gone forward with implementing a school mask mandate. The ban on mask mandates is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, the plaintiffs allege in the lawsuit. The lawsuit from the ACLU is not the first time South Carolina's ban on mask mandates has ended up in court. Public health officials have pleaded with the governor and legislators to lift the ban on mask mandates. South Carolina is one of seven states that have implemented a ban on mask mandates.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal lawsuit over a South Carolina law that bans school districts from imposing mask mandates.

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona has sent a letter to South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and Department of Education Superintendent Molly Spearman, warning against policies that prevent school districts from requiring masks.

Some Republican governors are using federal pandemic assistance to promote school choice programs, including charter schools and vouchers for private schools.

Vaccine Safety-Horseshoe Crabs South Carolina Gov. Many of these crabs are harvested along the coast of South Carolina, where Gov. Their value to avoiding infection emerged after scientists researching their immune response injected bacteria into horseshoe crabs in the 1950s. During a year, Jordan said his harvesters can bring in 100,000 to 150,000 horseshoe crabs, and still can't satisfy the growing demand. “We need more, though,” Jordan told McMaster, adding that his company is working with the state to open up more harvesting areas.

Anyone who has to get an injection in the U.S. probably has horseshoe crabs to thank for keeping the needle clean.

The summer surge of the highly infectious delta variant of the coronavirus made for a disruptive start of the school year in many parts of the country Monday.

Ron DeSantis of Florida has issued an executive order threatening to cut funding from school districts that defy a statewide ban on classroom mask mandates. Even the Republican gubernatorial candidate in the purple state of Virginia has decried school mask mandates in the name of parental rights. In Florida, which has seen cases and hospitalizations rise sharply, some school districts are suing to oppose DeSantis' order. U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said he opposes DeSantis’ orders against school mask mandates, saying on CNN Sunday, “The local official should have control here.”One Republican governor has backtracked. But not all school districts are pushing mask mandates, either.

Top Republicans are battling school districts in their own states’ urban, heavily Democratic areas over whether students should be required to mask up as they head back to school.

The highly contagious delta variant is fueling a surge in coronavirus cases as students return to classrooms.

Pharmaceutical Expansion South Carolina Gov. The state's sole abortion clinic is challenging the measure's legality, arguing that it unconstitutionally restricts access to abortion. Mississippi’s Republican attorney general, in turn, has asked the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Last month, McMaster led a coalition of a dozen Republican governors submitting an amicus brief supporting Mississippi's law. “The right to life is the most precious of rights and the most fragile,” McMaster said then, in a statement.

A leading anti-abortion group has picked South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster as its first state-level endorsement in next year’s elections.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed on Thursday to a brief that calls for the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the landmark Roe v. Wade decision and...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has joined other governors asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion nationwide.

At this point, it feels like governors McMaster and Ivey are preaching to the choir, our opinion editor writes.

“If (people) have questions they can get answers and they need to talk to the people they trust. Whether it’s a preacher, a doctor, neighbors or friends, and make a decision. We made what I think is the right decision,” said Gov. Henry McMaster who has been vaccinated.

Twenty states are supporting South Carolina’s defense of a new abortion law.

Twenty states are supporting South Carolina's defense of a new abortion law, arguing in an amicus brief that a federal judge was wrong to pause the entire measure instead of just the provision facing a court challenge. In a filing Tuesday with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of the states, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall argued that U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis overstepped her authority when she put the entire abortion law on hold, rather than just the portion being challenged. The judge's ruling, Marshall wrote, “treads on South Carolina’s sovereign ability to decide for itself the purposes of its legislation” and “aggrandizes the judicial power by treating the court’s injunction of the challenged provision as erasing it entirely so the whole Act collapses.”

McMaster’s statements came a day after one of his Democratic challengers, Joe Cunningham, said he is in favor of legalizing both recreational and medicinal cannabis.

‘Think about the mechanisms they would have to build to be able to actually execute that massive of a thing,’ Cawthorn says

With the COVID-19 vaccination rate plateauing across the country, the White House is returning fire at those they see as spreading harmful misinformation or fear about the shots. Henry McMaster tried this week to block door-to-door efforts to drive up the vaccination rate in his state, White House press secretary Jen Psaki did not mince words in her reaction. “Now we need to go to community-by-community, neighborhood-by-neighborhood, and oftentimes, door-to-door — literally knocking on doors — to get help to the remaining people" who need to be vaccinated, Biden said Tuesday. Months ago, the Biden White House refrained from responding when officials criticized its vaccine allocation strategy of sending more doses directly to pharmacies instead of through state health departments after the former strategy proved more effective. White House officials are quick to point out that their criticism is not related to the officials' political affiliation but to their rhetoric.

The Biden White House is no longer refraining from criticizing Republican officials who play down the importance of coronavirus vaccinations or seek to make political hay of the federal government’s all-out effort to drive shots into arms.

With the COVID-19 vaccination rate plateauing across the country, the White House is returning fire at those they see as spreading harmful misinformation or fear about the shots. Henry McMaster tried this week to block door-to-door efforts to drive up the vaccination rate in his state, White House press secretary Jen Psaki did not mince words in her reaction. “Now we need to go to community-by-community, neighborhood-by-neighborhood, and oftentimes, door-to-door — literally knocking on doors — to get help to the remaining people" who need to be vaccinated, Biden said Tuesday. Months ago, the Biden White House refrained from responding when officials criticized its vaccine allocation strategy of sending more doses directly to pharmacies instead of through state health departments after the former strategy proved more effective. White House officials are quick to point out that their criticism is not related to the officials' political affiliation but to their rhetoric.

Jen Psaki’s comments come as Republicans criticise White House’s ‘door-to-door’ efforts on vaccination.

“Enticing, coercing, intimidating, mandating, or pressuring anyone to take the vaccine is a bad policy which will deteriorate the public’s trust and confidence in the State’s vaccination efforts,” McMaster wrote in a letter to DHEC’s board chairman.

“Enticing, coercing, intimidating, mandating, or pressuring anyone to take the vaccine is a bad policy which will deteriorate the public’s trust and confidence in the State’s vaccination efforts,” McMaster wrote in a letter to DHEC’s board chairman.

The state’s legal brief requests that a federal district judge’s order be reversed and asks the appeals court to dismiss the case on the grounds that the plaintiffs lack standing to bring suit against the law.

South Carolina's governor wants a new abortion law to take effect, arguing Wednesday that a judge's decision to put the whole measure — and not just the parts being challenged in court — on hold during a lawsuit “oversteps the bounds of federal judicial power.” Gov. Henry McMaster's brief with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asks appellate judges to lift a lower court's injunction on the “ South Carolina Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act. ” The Republican signed the measure into law earlier this year. Planned Parenthood attorneys sued immediately, and the entire law has been blocked from going into effect during the litigation.

Gov. Henry McMaster said South Carolina residents should finalize their storm preparations ahead of Tropical Storm Elsa.

It’s hard to justify such exorbitant increases, writes The State Editorial Board. These are government jobs, publicly-funded jobs. The men and women earning the statewide median salary of $53,199 are paying these salaries.

More than $800,000 that is set to go toward a sprawling road and pedestrian safety overhaul in the shopping and nightlife district has been reinstated. It had been vetoed by Gov. Henry McMaster.

The governor had called for more transparency and project descriptions for the earmarks.

Harry Lightsey will succeed Secretary Bobby Hitt, who led the Cabinet agency since 2011 when he was first appointed by former Gov. Nikki Haley.

The license fee increase will go into effect July 1. This is the first time it has been changed in two decades.

The license fee increase will go into effect July 1. This is the first time it has been changed in two decades.

“Our goal is to see that the people of South Carolina have ample medical care and attention. MUSC is confident that this will do that,” Gov. Henry McMaster said.

Maine is approaching getting 70% of its eligible residents fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, and the director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention says he sees that figure as more of a floor than a ceiling.

The CEO’s extra pay must be OK’d by a state salary commission but won’t be subject to approval from lawmakers.

Tens of thousands of new, environmentally friendly mail delivery vehicles will soon be coming out of South Carolina. Here’s where the investment is headed.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has become the latest former Trump administration official to launch a political action committee.

The state Supreme Court issued its decision just two days before death row inmate Brad Sigmon was scheduled to die.

About $8.9 billion is slated to come into South Carolina from the federal American Rescue Plan. Local governments will get $1.6 billion of that to spend.

South Carolina can't electrocute death row inmates who opt for nonexistent firing squad, court rules

South Carolina-Execution FILE - This March 2019, file photo, provided by the South Carolina Department of Corrections shows the state's electric chair in Columbia, S.C. South Carolina Gov. The new law would let condemned inmates choose between the electric chair or a newly formed firing squad. “The department is moving ahead with creating policies and procedures for a firing squad,” Chrysti Shain, a spokeswoman for the South Carolina Department of Corrections, said in a statement Wednesday. They have also said the men have the right to die by lethal injection and the state hasn’t exhausted all methods to procure lethal injection drugs. South Carolina is one of eight states to still use the electric chair and four to allow a firing squad, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Henry McMaster and the state General Assembly calling for a halt to two upcoming executions and the repeal of the state's death penalty law. Their group, South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, was formed in light of two upcoming executions this month. "We don't expect that we're going to stop an execution," said Abraham Bonowitz, director of Death Penalty Action, a national anti-death penalty group that helps local organizations oppose capital punishment. "What we do expect is that we're going to create the organization that's going to abolish the death penalty in this state. But South Carolina is now at a crossroads, said Bonowitz of Death Penalty Action.

The South Carolina Supreme Court has blocked two upcoming executions, saying those inmates cannot be put to death until they truly have a choice of a newly established firing squad option.

The largest family-owned winery in the United States is coming to Chester. Construction starts Wednesday.

The two South Carolina inmates scheduled to die this month want an appellate court to halt their deaths by electrocution.

The South Carolina athletic department says it will end its academic year with a $27 million deficit.

Dustin Johnson got off to a fast start Thursday at Congaree in his home-state Palmetto Championship, shooting a 6-under 65 that left him a shot behind leader Wes Roach.

A South Carolina judge is refusing to block two executions set for later this month.

South Carolina’s state-owned utility appears to have survived four years of turmoil to remain public.

South Carolina state Sen. Mia McLeod says she's the person who can become the United States' first Black female governor.

A lack of drugs used in lethal injections has stalled three executions in South Carolina over the past six months.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed into law a bill that forces death row inmates to choose between the electric chair or a newly formed firing squad in hopes the state can restart executions after an involuntary 10-year pause.

Children as young as 12 can expect to start getting Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine Thursday in Louisiana.

The South Carolina House has voted to add the firing squad to the state's execution methods amid a lack of lethal-injection drugs.

Former Vice President Mike Pence is positioning himself for a possible return to elected office.

In his first public address since the end of the Trump administration, former Vice President Mike Pence put down a marker for a potential return to elected office, telling an audience in early-voting South Carolina that he plans to use the coming months “pushing back on the liberal agenda” he says is wrong for the country.

For the first time in a year, Mexican school children have returned to classrooms — at least in the southern state of Campeche.

That increased the state’s totals to 839,334 confirmed cases and 16,912 confirmed deaths. Ad___RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil accounts for a quarter of the daily coronavirus global deaths, more than any other nation. AdThere have been 12.4 million confirmed cases and more than 307,000 confirmed deaths in Brazil, second only to the United States. AdPakistan has reported 649,824 total confirmed cases and 14,158 confirmed deaths. The nation of 10.7 million had 1.5 million confirmed cases with 25,639 deaths.

Henry McMaster remains firmly opposed to the Medicaid expansion. The bump in federal funding would last two years for the states that join the Medicaid expansion. Laura Kelley this year called for legalizing medical use of marijuana and using the tax revenue to pay for expanding Medicaid. "It’s a nonstarter, and we will continue to oppose the liberal wish list item of Medicaid expansion,” he said. Kay Ivey left open the possibility of expanding Medicaid at some point in the future, but there are no plans to do so.

Next month, Pence will keynote a dinner hosted by the Palmetto Family Council, a Pence aide told The Associated Press on Sunday. AdAs vice president, Pence made numerous trips to South Carolina, meeting several times with Gov. The speech to Palmetto Family is advantageous for Pence in a state that Republican candidates use as a proving ground to test their “pro-life” mettle. AdAccording to Dave Wilson, president of Palmetto Family, Pence will speak to between 450 and 600 guests at a ticketed, sponsored dinner at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center on April 29. Wilson told AP that he considered Pence a “prime person” to address the organization due to the “level of faith” the former vice president embodied while in office.