The Nerve

By RICK BRUNDRETT All we wanted was the truth. Over the past several decades, South Carolina legislators and governors, as well as local governments, collectively have given away billions in incentives to countless corporations. Cash, land, tax breaks and free job training have been thrown at companies in exchange for the promise of jobs. Taxpayers […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT Gov. Henry McMaster last December quietly hired a large law firm to lobby the federal government under an open-ended, “emergency procurement” contract that is costing taxpayers $15,000 a month, according to records released to The Nerve by the Governor’s Office. Ironically, then-Gov. Mark Sanford in 2003 issued an executive order banning the […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT In 2015 and 2016, S.C. lawmakers approved spending a total of nearly $4 million for a “Sports Development Marketing Program,” $150,000 of which was used for the Carolina Panthers’ summer training camp, records released Friday to The Nerve show. In an email response, Dawn Dawson-House, spokeswoman for the S.C. Department of Parks, […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT At the end of the 2014 regular legislative session, lawmakers slipped in a budget proviso funneling $75,000 through the state tourism agency for the Carolina Panthers’ summer training camp at Wofford College in Spartanburg. Then-Gov. Nikki Haley vetoed the proviso, writing in her June 11, 2014, veto message, “The National Football League […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT For 10 years, a proviso tucked away in the state budget has given lawmakers and multiple S.C. agencies access to a massive “data warehouse” containing personal medical records of many South Carolinians. Now, lawmakers want to launch a similar database that would track sensitive education and workforce information on children and adults […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT Beverly Buscemi didn’t publicly – and apparently neither privately to key people – reveal specifics about her new job with her resignation at the end of last year as the longtime director of the S.C. Department of Disabilities and Special Needs. “At this time, I feel it is important to move onto […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT For years, S.C. officials have repeatedly tried – and failed – to convince the federal government to allow jamming of signals in prisons from contraband cell phones routinely used by inmates. But officials haven’t worked nearly as hard to try to persuade wireless carriers to voluntarily block their own signals in prisons, […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT During the years-long V.C. Summer nuclear project, a little-known committee including the governor and four other elected statewide officials never met once to discuss the now-abandoned project. And despite all the controversy surrounding the $9 billion debacle, the Santee Cooper advisory board – made up of the governor, attorney general, comptroller general, […]