Latest Updates

  • State agencies reveal hiring outside lawyers after initial denials

    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...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    March 31, 2025

  • Turf War: How a liquor-liability reform bill died in the S.C. Senate

    By RICK BRUNDRETT In South Carolina, lawyers represent far less than 1% of the state’s total workforce, but they make up nearly 30% of the 170-member S.C. Legislature. And in the club of 50 lawyer-legislators, those who practice personal injury law or whose law firm colleagues handle those types of...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    February 26, 2025

  • McMaster's priorities: Reduced taxes, school choice, civil liability reform

    By RICK BRUNDRETT In his eighth State of the State Address on Wednesday before the S.C. General Assembly, Gov. Henry McMaster outlined his priorities as South Carolina’s longest-serving governor, including lowering the income tax rate further, reforming civil liability laws and improving school choice opportunities. The Republican governor, who took...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    January 31, 2025

  • State treasurer dodges key questions on $1.8B controversy

    By RICK BRUNDRETT Under questioning last April at a state legislative hearing, longtime S.C. Treasurer Curtis Loftis answered “yes” when asked by then-Sen. Mike Fanning if the mystery $1.8 billion was “real money that I can touch,” and if it could be withdrawn “today.” Loftis, a Republican who was first...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    January 29, 2025

  • Cost of investigating mystery $1.8B already overbudget

    UPDATE: 1/15/25 - In a 65-page report released late this afternoon, AlixPartners, a New York-based global consulting firm, determined that about $1.6 billion of the mystery $1.8 billion "did not represent real cash." Instead, the approximately $1.6 billion was "incorrectly recorded" to a bank fund as part of a transition years...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    January 15, 2025

  • Most S.C. municipalities don't livestream regular meetings

    Editor’s note: This is another story in a planned series of stories on livestreaming and other transparency issues affecting local or state government in South Carolina. By RICK BRUNDRETT More than two-thirds of the 271 incorporated towns and cities in South Carolina do not livestream their regular council meetings, The...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    December 17, 2024

  • Citizens can now see salaries of higher-paid S.C. judges

    Update: 3/17/25: The S.C. Department of Administration, without giving a specific reason, informed The Nerve that Judicial Department salaries are no longer included in the state salary database. But the salaries of judges and court staff making at least $50,000 annually can now be found here on the Judicial Department's...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    November 19, 2024

  • Plenty of SC school districts don't livestream official meetings

    UPDATE 5/7/25: The S.C. Legislature passed a bill requiring public school boards to “make reasonable efforts” to livestream board meetings, except for legal executive sessions. If a school board can’t "restore livestream access" during a meeting, it must make a “clear audio and video recording of the meeting in its...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    October 28, 2024

  • Ethics Commission order reveals new details about Scout Motors project

    By RICK BRUNDRETT The $1 billion subsidy to Scout Motors is about $300 million to $500 million more than what states normally would have to offer in grants for comparable projects, The Nerve found in a review of a newly released State Ethics Commission order. After learning in late January...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    October 01, 2024

  • Low bidders bypassed for state contract to probe mystery $1.8B

    By RICK BRUNDRETT A global consulting firm hired by the state to investigate the mystery $1.8 billion and related financial questions was not the low bidder for the “potential” $3 million contract, records obtained by The Nerve show. But under state law, procurement officials don’t have to accept the lowest...
    Rick Brundrett

    Written by
    September 19, 2024