The Nerve

Either the city or the county or the state. Or no one. In November of 2015 we presented the communication below that we received from a reader. It seems sadly not only still timely but perhaps timeless. Certainly now, as we anticipate another legislative session in which there will be much talk of the need […]

By TALBERT BLACK ‘Just thought I’d let you know, I am pursuing a restraining order and a harassment suit’ As the president of an activist organization in South Carolina, it’s not uncommon for me to receive threats from politicians. Usually they’re indirect threats and insinuations of trouble to come. No big deal. Recently, however, we […]

By NICHOLA RUSSELL If this is ‘business-friendly,’ we’re in trouble If you want to open a typical online business – let’s say, monogramming things for friends and family and selling items online – be prepared get a crash course in taxes, zoning regulations. Recently I tried to do just this. The paperwork has been a […]

By DEBBIE WISE Welcome to South Carolina – even though you crossed the border two hours ago Over the summer I went to visit a friend who lives on Lake Marion in Santee, South Carolina. For those of you who don’t know the town, Santee is just off I-95, roughly half way between Columbia and Charleston. […]

By MARGARET BRANDT We appreciate the diligence, but please, let us do our job. My husband owns a small business, and from time to time I’ve heard him say, “You can’t take a pee anymore without a government permission slip.” Please excuse the slight vulgarity. I bring it up because, in my line of work, it’s […]

By DEBBIE WISE Outlawing the practice of taking money from citizens for no good reason . . . What a great idea. Over the weekend – yes, our weekends are just that pathetic – my husband and I were going over some new laws passed by the General Assembly in 2016. (Thanks, by the way, […]

If you pay taxes, you’re buying a lot of lunches for a lot of public officials Here at The Nerve, we don’t often have lunch on the company credit card. In fact, and without expressing any ingratitude to the higher-ups, we’re not even sure if there is a company credit card. Anyhow, on the subject […]

Sometimes you have to pay for the privilege of thinking ahead. Recently we spoke to an old friend, Bronson, a longtime resident of Columbia. The subject turned to regulations on businesses, and Bronnie (as we know him) told us a story that made us roar with laughter. It also made us a littles sad, though – […]

One tiny exemption seems to cover just about every public document you could ask for. South Carolina’s Freedom of Information law contains two significant and frequently used exemptions. The first is for lawmakers. Having written the FOIA law, they have exempted themselves, as have lawmakers in many other states. The other exemption is the attorney-client privilege. […]

Roads are being repaired, all right. Just not the right ones. Perhaps owing to The Nerve’s frequent coverage of the debate over road funding, we receive a lot of emails about specific roads and intersections. Mainly these are citizens asking why the Department of Transportation has ignored one deplorably time-worn road but repaved a nearby […]