Columbia City Paper

BENNETTSVILLE

Deputy accused of beating girlfriend

Deputy Robert Paul Grimsley has been accused of domestic violence

A Dillon County Sheriff’s deputy has been accused of beating his girlfriend and trying to coerce a Dillon police officer to cover up evidence in the case.

Cpl. Randy Grimsley, 38, of Latta, is charged with stalking, obstruction of justice, malicious injury to property, criminal domestic violence, and violating a protection order. A circuit court judge denied bond for Grimsley.

Investigators said Grimsley grabbed his live-in girlfriend by the throat and kicked her at his home. A month later, they said, he violated an order of protection against him, when he was arrested for slashing her tires in front of her home. That day, prosecutors say, he tried to convince a Dillon officer to destroy evidence taken in the case. According to the Florence Morning News, the alleged victim told the court Grimsley drove by her home 18 to 20 times a day.

“I really loved that girl, but I’m not in love with her,” Grimsley said during the hearing. “She ain’t got to worry about me … I just want to tend to my children.”

MYRTLE BEACH

Woman slapped with taco, multiple arrests follow

A man, his girlfriend and their friend were arrested at a Myrtle Beach motel after police responded to a disturbance call.
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By Judit Trunkos

Jonathan Brilliant with his coffee object installations

Photo By Kati Szollossy

McMaster Gallery opens the new year with Jonathan Brilliant’s coffee object installations.  The temporary pieces of art are built exclusively for each hosting gallery. Brilliant uses unaltered everyday objects from coffee shops, such as sticks, straws, and sleeves to install his work. “Sticks, Straws, Sleeves and Lids” is part of Brilliant’s nationwide “Have Sticks Will Travel Tour” which takes him to various galleries to build massive, suspended sculptures from coffee stirrer sticks.

Brilliant is inspired by natural, everyday objects and sees coffee shops as a natural environment for modern urban dwellers. He ultimately finds art in objects most of us would use and throw away.

“Running through my work is a genuine interest in the inherent qualities of a material and the extent to which I can exploit it for making art,” he says.
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By Baynard Woods

Jim DeMint recently criticized President Obama saying that “there is no question that the president has downplayed the risk of terror since he took office.”

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By Andy Brack

A slogan from an old Virginia Slims cigarette ad – “You’ve come a long way, baby – just doesn’t apply to the South Carolina General Assembly.

But, the legislature took a few positive, progressive baby steps toward dealing with generational problems identified last year in Statehouse Report’s “Palmetto Priorities” list.

A year ago this week as the General Assembly prepared to open its annual session, we offered an agenda of “11 broad, continuing objectives for state legislators to consider and use as a bipartisan guide to creating a better South Carolina.” Why? Because lawmakers often seem to act independently and without a good look at the state’s big picture.

So today, it’s time to look at where they are. You might be surprised. Below is a short description of each objective, followed by a review of progress.

JOBS: Develop a Cabinet-level post dedicated to adding and retaining 10,000 small business jobs per year. Result? No action: Even though the state’s unemployment rate has rocketed to more than 12 percent, there seems to be little consensus or strategizing on how to get more jobs for South Carolina. This needs to be Job Number One in 2010. [Forget Gov. Mark Sanford’s embarrassing woes; work on more jobs.]

EDUCATION: Cut the state’s dropout rate in half by 2015. State Education Department spokesman Jim Foster says these days, educators focus more on graduation rates than dropout rates. (This appears as the flip side of the same coin to us). Interestingly, past policy actions are having incremental progress. According to Education Week magazine’s latest study, South Carolina had the top progress in increasing graduation rates over the last 10 years. Instead of being last in the nation in 1996 with 53.2 percent of students graduating, in 2006, we were 37th in the nation with 66.3 percent graduating. Congratulations.

HEALTH CARE: Increase the cigarette tax to $1 per pack and use revenues to maximize federal health care matching funds. No action. Again. This is a no-brainer. The legislature needs to pass this proposal this year to nab more federal matching health care dollars.

HEALTH CARE: Ensure affordable and accessible health care that optimizes preventive care for every South Carolinian by 2015. No action: While this is more of a federal government issue, the state could start to take more steps, instead of waiting in the wings.

ENVIRONMENT: Adopt a state energy policy that requires energy producers to generate 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. Some action: In 2009, Santee Cooper backed off plans to build a new coal-fired plant. Duke and SCANA are moving toward building four more nuclear reactors. The state amended its state energy policy to promote clean energy, which now is defined to include nuclear. More work needs to be done to set measurable goals.

TAXES: By 2012, remove special interest sales tax exemptions that are outdated for the state’s 21st Century economy. Some action: A special legislative committee has been working on this throughout the summer. Look for some action this year.

TAXES: Reform and stabilize the tax structure by 2012 after following an overall nonpartisan review that seriously considers reimplementation of reasonable property taxes. Unfortunately, the committee (above) can’t consider property tax reform from three years ago that caused more harm than good.

ELECTIONS: Increase voter registration to 75 percent by 2015. No action.

CORRECTIONS: Reduce the prison population by 25 percent by 2020 through creative alternative sentencing programs for non-violent offenders. A little action: State Attorney General Henry McMaster’s “middle courts” program is still in legislative committee. It likely would impact prison populations significantly. More work can be done.

ROADS: Strengthen all bridges and upgrade all state roads by 2015 through creative highway financing and maintenance programs. No major action. Mostly, it was business as usual.

POLITICS: Have a vigorous two- or multi-party political system of governance. No action: State Democrats don’t even have candidates in six of the nine statewide constitutional races at this point. Other bills are in the hopper that would increase partisanship, not foster bipartisanship.

Bottom line: South Carolina still has a long way to go, baby – but encouraging signs abound.

Andy Brack, publisher of Statehouse Report, can be reached at: brack@statehousereport.com.

Now Showing: “Crowns,” February 12 – March 6, Trustus Theatre, 254-9732. “Cinderella,” February 12-21, Columbia Children’s Theatre, 691-4548. “Cheaper by the Dozen,” February 18 – March 6, Chapin Community Theatre, 345-6181. “Always… Patsy Cline,” February 19 – March 6,
Upcoming:
Town Theatre 799-2510. “The Writings of A.A. Milne,” February 20-21, Ritz Theatre of Newberry, 276-1963. “The Sound of Music,” March 5-24, Village Square Theatre, 359-1436. “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story,” March 17-21, Town Theatre, 799-2510. “The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon,” March 18-28, Sumter Little Theatre, 775-2150. “Love! Valor! And Compassion!” March 19 – April 3, Workshop Theatre, 799-6551. “The Last Five Years,” March 26 – April 17, Trustus Theatre, 254-9732. “Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train,” March 25-27, NiA Company at USC Black Box. “Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business,” April 9-18, Columbia Children’s Theatre, 691-4548. “Always… Patsy Cline,” April 30 – May 9, Ritz Theatre of Newberry, 276-1963. “Southern Hospitality,” May 6-24, Chapin Community Theatre, 345-6181. “Last Summer at Bluefish Cove,” May 7-29, Trustus Theatre, 254-9732. “Annie Get Your Gun,” May 7-29, Town Theatre, 799-2510. “Forbidden Broadway!” May 7-22, Workshop Theatre, 799-6551. “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe,” May 7-16, Village Square Theatre, 359-1436. “Arsenic and Old Lace,” May 13-23, Sumter Little Theatre, 775-2150.

Theater links: Camden Community Theatre Chapin Community Theatre Columbia Children’s Theatre NiA Company SC Shakespeare Company Stage 5 Theatre Sumter Little Theatre Ritz Theatre of Newberry Town Theatre Trustus Theatre Village Square Theatre Workshop Theatre