Property Rights

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

By RICK BRUNDRETT Editor’s Note: This story is part of a two-article package published today. The other story can be found here. Although eye exam businesses and rural transportation companies are clearly different from each other, an eye-exam case before the S.C. Supreme Court might ultimately affect the regulation of...

Rick Brundrett

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July 11, 2025

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

    By RICK BRUNDRETT Editor’s Note: This story is part of a two-article package published today. The other story can be found here. Although eye exam businesses and rural transportation companies are clearly different from each other, an eye-exam case before the S.C. Supreme Court might ultimately affect the regulation of...
    Rick Brundrett

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    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. David Crawford will tell you he’s been an Edisto Island musician for 43 years, noting that’s how he met his wife. For the past 10 years, he’s also...
    Rick Brundrett

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    July 11, 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

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    February 26, 2025

  • Small business owner wins zoning battle, but legal issues still loom

    By RICK BRUNDRETT Jeremy Sark says he’s no longer worried about Mauldin officials closing his longtime U-Haul dealership, though the Upstate city hasn’t abandoned a controversial zoning practice at the center of his case. The Mauldin City Council without comment during a meeting last month reversed a zoning change that...
    Rick Brundrett

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    January 10, 2023

  • House bill would protect short-term rentals in SC

    By RICK BRUNDRETT S.C. municipalities and counties that ban short-term rentals would face the loss of state aid and property taxes under a House bill filed for the second time since last year. Contacted this week by The Nerve, Rep. Lee Hewitt, R-Georgetown, who is the bill’s main sponsor, said his...
    Rick Brundrett

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    December 15, 2022

  • Zoned out: Why a small SC business might be forced to close

    By RICK BRUNDRETT In less than three months, Jeremy Sark’s U-Haul dealership on North Main Street in the city of Mauldin could close after nine years in operation. But it’s not by choice. Although his automotive repair shop, called Sarks Automotive, can stay open at the same location, a city...
    Rick Brundrett

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    October 05, 2022

  • Short-term rental owners, managers worry about discrimination

    By RICK BRUNDRETT Editor’s note: Today’s story is the second of two initial articles on short-term rentals in South Carolina. The other story can be found here. Update: The city of Columbia’s ad hoc committee on short-term rentals is set to meet again on Sept. 29, according to city clerk Erika Hammond. Meanwhile,...
    Rick Brundrett

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    July 27, 2022

  • Property rights at center of battles over short-term rentals

    By RICK BRUNDRETT Editor’s note: The Nerve today is featuring the first of two initial stories on short-term rentals in South Carolina. With South Carolina’s tourism season in full swing, many summer visitors are looking for short-term rentals through popular sites such as Airbnb and Vrbo. As of May, there were...
    Rick Brundrett

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    July 26, 2022