Latest Updates

No-car rates higher among rural SC households

By RICK BRUNDRETT Editor’s note: This story is part of a two-article package published today on rural transportation issues in South Carolina. The other story can be found here. The video component for both stories can be found here. In South Carolina in 2021, at least 10% of rural households...

Written by Rick Brundrett
September 30, 2025

Public cost of investigating disputed $1.8B grows to over $11M

Editor’s note: This story is part of a two-article package today. The other story can be found here. By RICK BRUNDRETT More than $11 million in state funds have been spent on investigations of and other matters related to the disputed $1.8 billion, The Nerve’s latest review has found. The...

Written by Rick Brundrett
August 22, 2025

State treasurer, attorney general spar over outside legal fees

Editor’s note: This story is part of a two-article package published today. The other story can be found here. By RICK BRUNDRETT S.C. Treasurer Curtis Loftis says he personally spent about $100,000 to defend himself in connection with the state Senate’s recent vote to remove him from office after the...

Written by Rick Brundrett
August 22, 2025

Lawfare is not the solution to Charleston's flooding issues

Editor’s note: This article is an opinion piece written by Michael Burris, CEO of the South Carolina Policy Council – the parent organization of The Nerve. It’s high time for Charleston’s City Council to drop its beleaguered climate lawsuit and continue to focus on the real solutions to our flooding...

Written by Michael Burris
August 20, 2025

State's top court focusing on free-market dispute over eye exams

By RICK BRUNDRETT UPDATE: 1/21/26 - By a unanimous vote, the five-member S.C. Supreme Court ruled that the "Eye Care Consumer Protection Law" is constitutional. Writing for the court, Justice John Few concluded that in "light of the speed in which artificial intelligence and other technology continues to develop, we...

Written by Rick Brundrett
July 11, 2025

SC rural transportation company seeks regulatory relief

By RICK BRUNDRETT Editor’s Note: This story is part of a two-article package published today. The other story can be found here. The video component for both stories can be found here. David Crawford will tell you he’s been an Edisto Island musician for 43 years, noting that’s how he...

Written by Rick Brundrett
July 11, 2025

Charleston’s climate lawsuit is a dead-end for South Carolina

Editor’s note: This article is an opinion piece written by Michael Burris, CEO of the South Carolina Policy Council – the parent organization of The Nerve. Later this month, a Charleston court will hear the case about whether to dismiss a climate lawsuit that never should have been filed. As...

Written by Michael Burris
May 28, 2025

Hidden costs: How state agencies quietly spend above their budgets

By RICK BRUNDRETT The adopted state budget for the current fiscal year that ends June 30 totaled more than $42 billion, though a low-key state office quietly approved an additional $858 million in collective “other” or federal fund spending requests after the fiscal year started, records show. And since the...

Written by Rick Brundrett
May 05, 2025

SC awash in multibillion-dollar surplus of 'other' funds

By RICK BRUNDRETT In South Carolina, $8.6 billion represents about $1,600 for every man, woman and child. It’s also the total amount of “other” fund surpluses that state agencies carried into the start of this fiscal year, The Nerve found in a review of records provided by the S.C. Department...

Written by Rick Brundrett
April 23, 2025

Taxpayer tab now at $8M to investigate disputed $1.8B, related matters

UPDATE: 4/21/25 - After hours of debate, the S.C. Senate voted 33-8 to remove state Treasurer Curtis Loftis from office for “willful neglect of duty” under a provision of the S.C. Constitution that requires a two-thirds vote of both chambers. The removal resolution will go to the S.C. House for...

Written by Rick Brundrett
March 31, 2025