Columbia's only locally owned alt weekly

By Todd Morehead

The first paragraph I ever read in Columbia City Paper was a piece on Hurricane Katrina written by Corey Hutchins:

“You’ll need gas cans,” a reporter from Florida said over the telephone when we told him we were going to New Orleans. “And all communications are down, so you’ll need a satellite phone. A chainsaw too. And a .38 Special in the glove box. Loaded.”

We’re bringing everything but the chainsaw.

It was the fall of 2005, City Paper’s second issue, and the country was steeling itself for three more years of the Bush administration. Though it was four years out from 9/11 at that point, the national press still seemed anemic and stymied –at least to me. There was a literal ban on media showing images of military caskets. The press was worse in South Carolina. Though I have a soft spot for the other papers in town, about the only political commentary from the local alternative press at that time came from conservative blowhard Michael Graham. It was refreshing to me that two doofs from Columbia crammed themselves into a Nissan Sentra and drove to New Orleans to cover Katrina first hand for the second issue of a dinky 16-page alt weekly published out of a Park Circle apartment.

The rest of that issue was a rip-roaring jamboree through a typo-ridden mess of a paper that was rough around the edges, but had more balls than any publication in the Southeast at the time, let alone locally. Even the hipsters didn’t know what to make of it. It was an unabashed experiment in absolute freedom of the press, the exact type of kick in the face that Columbia needed.  I put the issue down and contacted them immediately to sign on as a contributing writer. And it’s been a rip-roaring, typo-ridden mess of an adventure ever since.

City Paper’s early days involved dodging repo men, sleeping in the office, working day jobs to keep it afloat, and distracting the dock foreman at the printer so we could load papers in our cars and sneak away because we couldn’t pay the bill (sorry State printing company). We got into public beefs with high-ranking state officials and low-level business owners, alike, and have had a virtual revolving door of ad sales people. A lawsuit or two even flared up (a middle finger raised prominently to any plaintiffs who happen to be reading). But, we figured it out on the fly. Slowly we began to turn a profit. Like a bacterium, the paper has continued to evolve and devolve, grow and shrink, but the renegade spirit of it –its core, at the risk of sounding melodramatic– has remained intact. Just look at Paul Blake in the mustard yellow City Paper van, a sloshing 12-volt coffee maker duct taped to the dashboard, making deliveries on Thursday mornings and you can see that.

The following is a list of moments that pop out when I look back over five years. Maybe a story we broke or a particularly soul crushing bit of backlash from the community. Some of these events nudged the paper in a particular direction; others simply still give me a chuckle. To fans of the paper: we’ve got the spite and grit to keep this beast around for another five. We won’t be buying retirement homes on Lake Murray anytime soon, but we’ve got everything we need. …Well, everything except a chainsaw.

The Starr Report

In October, 2005 Paul Blake and Corey Hutchins reported on a sexual discrimination lawsuit against Harvey Starr, a department head in the USC Political Science department. The case, which alleged that female professors were paid less than equally qualified males, was settled out of court. Starr maintains his innocence and called the separate allegations of sexual harassment “all crap.” The university reportedly paid public money to the plaintiffs to settle the case. The “Harvey Starr Report” put City Paper on the map, for good or ill, as a new source for investigative journalism.

Three Rivers Throwdown

Some people in town still blame City Paper for the demise of the Three Rivers Music Festival. It all started with a March, 2006 editorial by Paul Blake entitled “Three Rivers Music Fest – The Sound of Sucking.” Blake questioned why a taxpayer-funded festival that continued to lose money could consistently retain monetary backing from city council. The answer, he asserted: Three Rivers festival director, Virginia Bedford, raised around $30,000 for councilwoman Tamieka Isaac Devine’s campaign.

A string of records requests and nasty emails followed. We published one internal letter from Bedford to a festival organizer in a subsequent piece, entitled “Virginia Bedford, Annotated” in which she speculated about City Paper staffers: “Perhaps they were abused as children,” she wrote. Classic.

The festival funding wasn’t renewed the following year.

Howie Rich

City Paper was one of the first local print publications to report on New York-based political puppet master Howard Rich. In January 2006, Hutchins wrote a great piece revealing Rich’s various LLCs and their contribution amounts to local campaigns, including Gov. Sanford’s. Unfortunately, he was unable to get a personal audience with Rich, even after he travelled to the mogul’s office in New York and banged on the door.

The Fire

In January 2006 an arsonist broke into Hutchins’ house and set it ablaze. From what the FBI and other investigators could tell, it was in reaction to the paper. The national press picked up the story, decrying it as an effort to smother free speech in the Deep South. Which it apparently was. But, the event marked a turning point for CCP, even though the paper was only a few months old. Corey temporarily resigned which shook up the editorial structure. We collectively put our guard up, armed ourselves, and were paranoid for months afterward. Definitely a low point and a learning experience about the full-contact nature of journalism in Columbia.

Zesto’s Deep Fried Fiasco

Speaking of publicity stunts, we got caught at the ass end of a collaboration between Zesto and WLTX in 2007. Expanding our distribution further into the wilds of West Columbia, we dropped an issue at the Zesto on 12th Street. The issue featured a risqué Perry Bible Fellowship comic and a rowdy ad for Five Points Tattoo. That’s when, according to WLTX, the owner of Zesto “took a stand” for decency and called a TV news network instead of simply tossing the papers or asking us to distribute elsewhere. The news report painted us like Hustler, featured a little girl eating ice cream at Zesto (a shot filmed like an advertisement, in my opinion), and actually had an American flag waving in the background of a shot at the restaurant. We’d always thought of TV newscasters as subhuman counterparts, but that hatchet job took the cake. Another important learning experience.

The Scarborough Affair

Though we’ve designed cover art with blown-apart suicide bombers, a crucified Santa Clause, and naked blood covered strippers in Obama and McCain masks, the 2006 image of two Playskool toys engaged in a sex act to depict the illicit affair between a pair of state legislators created a distribution nightmare of epic proportions. The paper was banned from dozens of locations following that cover. But, censoring ourselves was a lesson we didn’t learn. Instead of skimping on cover art, we simply added new locations.

Where the Heck is DHEC?

I first put DHEC in my sights starting in 2006 with a story on storm water runoff. Richland County had no storm water management system in place at that time and a USC student threatened to file suit against both DHEC and Richland County, citing negligence. The storm water issue came up again when DHEC awarded Wal-Mart storm water runoff permits for a questionable site in Ballentine and again in Florence. Once air quality permits were issued to the proposed Santee Cooper coal fired power plant, the battle was on. Two years after we started our ongoing DHEC reports, the State newspaper won various journalism awards for plowing much of the same ground. …But we’re not bitter.

The “Five Points Mafia”

City Paper’s ongoing investigation of the various dealings of the Five Points Association has spilled into city hall, the pages of other newspapers in town, and the annals of Five Points infamy. It has driven some to tears, others to blind rage. Paul and I have actually been physically thrown out of two separate bars following our report on the FPA’s use of hospitality tax funds for the St. Patrick’s Day Festival and the thousands of dollars in “commission” payouts to FPA members for the event.

The result of our reporting: City Paper racks were banned from FPA board member establishments and board members, at the time of publication, called our advertisers encouraging them to pull out. “No chairs have been thrown at City Paper staffers yet,” we wrote, “though [Duncan] McCrae did tell publisher, Paul Blake, to ‘buzz off’ at a recent meeting when Blake asked financial questions regarding the Five Points After Five concert series before another board member, Debbie McDaniel, told an attending police officer to ‘get him [Blake] out of here!’”

Points for creativity go to McDaniel, who later wrapped a copy of City Paper around a toilet paper roll and displayed it in her shop window. That reminds me, FPA: don’t you have an FOIA request to tend to?

Apologies, Martha Williams-Brice

We made a spectacle of the press box in your fine stadium. Though USC made some noise about revoking our press passes after a couple of incidents, we ultimately opted to cover football from the regular seats, in lieu of the bus station lobby feel of the press box. Hutchins’ first visit found him tanked and accidentally wandering into Sanford’s suite; Blake’s behavior warranted a phone call from media relations to see if I had loaned my credentials to a homeless man; and the last time I covered a game up there with former “Wanna Bet” columnist, Pat Jablonski, he went overboard at the press buffet and clogged the toilet.

Tempted to apply for baseball credentials just to see what would happen…

Lott v. Phelps

We actually cleaned our apartments in anticipation of a police raid after Paul’s editorial on Sheriff Leon Lott. The sheriff had threatened to arrest Olympic medalist, Michael Phelps, when photos of the swimmer smoking pot at a USC party surfaced online. Multiple people were arrested in connection. When several college students’ careers were being jeopardized for what Paul believed was the sheriff’s politicking, he grabbed a USC bong snapped a photo of himself with it and started typing one of the more savage editorial beat downs I’d read in a while. In the age of the blogosphere, contact journalism was still a hit even in South Carolina. And, thankfully, Paul stayed out of jail on that one.

The Running Man

For decades, independent political candidates like Joe Azar and Gary Myers have been ignored or marginalized by the mainstream local press. Last year, two candidates running for city council and mayor, respectively, were almost ignored completely. Our outside the box election coverage helped, I like to think, get them in front of constituents who not have heard about them at all otherwise. Grant Robertson actually won just under 42 percent of the vote in his bid for city council.

Carrie Allen McCray’s last interview

City Paper had the honor of conducting, if I’m not mistaken, the last interview local author Carrie Allen McCray ever gave. McCray invited me and photographer, Sean Rayford, to her house for lunch to discuss the release of her biographical (actually semi-autobiographical) work on Ota Benga, a pygmy man who actually displayed alongside monkeys in a cage at the zoo back in 1906. McCray, then in her nineties, kept us transfixed with stories about how Ota Benga lived with her family when she was a child, before he ultimately committed suicide. One of the more fascinating lunches and interviews I’ve had the pleasure to conduct.

I have to admit, the publisher balked at the idea of me revisiting some of our older stories. “It just looks like,” he said, “the middle aged frat boy that is still wearing a pink polo blathering on about his glory days and frat stunts at Snowden, while his beer gut protrudes and he sucks down frozen drinks at Dr. Roccos.”

But, I disagree. I think it’s nice to reflect on our early years. Especially since we’re hitting sort of growth spurt and moving forward as an independent voice in the region.

“Yeah,” he finally consented. “I guess it’s better to reflect once every five years on dozens of great stories, verses writing one story every five years and then yammering on about how awesome our dumb newspaper is.”   Thanks for giving me this one, Paul. See the rest of you in 2015!

talkback@columbiacitypaper.com

Previously Undisclosed Hospital Mixup Underscores Challenges on Road to Reform

By Fred Schulte and Emma Schwartz, Huffington Post Investigative Fund

FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg’s agency has been at odds with National Coordinator for Health Information Technology David Blumenthal’s office on oversight of electronic health records. (Photos: Emma Schwartz and Courtesy of US Mission Geneva via Flickr)

Computers at a major Midwest hospital chain went awry on June 29, posting some doctors’ orders to the wrong medical charts in a few cases and possibly putting patients in harm’s way.

The digital records system “would switch to another patient record without the user directing it to do so,” said Stephen Shivinsky, vice-president for corporate communications at Trinity Health System. Trinity operates 46 hospitals, most in Michigan, Iowa and Ohio.

Less than two weeks later, an unrelated glitch caused Trinity to shut down its $400 million system for four hours at 10 hospitals in the network because electronic pharmacy orders weren’t being delivered to nurses for dispensing to patients, he said.

“As soon as it was brought to our attention, we moved to fix the problem,” Shivinsky said of Trinity’s system, one of the hospital industry’s largest digital medical record repositories with more than seven million patient files. He said nobody was injured in either event, the Cerner Corp. system now works properly, and the hospital chain determined that “technician error” led to the system shutdown and that the mixing up of patients was the result of a “Cerner coding issue” involving software that occurred after an upgrade.

Even absent any harm to patients, such incidents underscore possible risks faced by even large health organizations that have eagerly embraced new medical software to track patient records and treatment. As the Obama administration ramps up plans to create a digital medical file for every American by 2014 – at an anticipated tab to taxpayers of up to $27 billion – technology’s boosters tend to tout its potential benefits to patients and ability to slow runaway medical costs.

Yet despite the high political and financial stakes, the administration has established no national mandatory monitoring procedure for the new devices and software. That no process exists to report and track errors, pinpoint their causes and prevent them from recurring is largely the result of two decades of resistance by the technology industry, a review of government records and interviews by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund shows. The industry argues that even with flaws, digital systems are an improvement over current paper records.

“There’s an assumption that just because you have an electronic system, it’s going to be safer, so people let down their guards,” said Vimla Patel, who directs research on the topic at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.

Monitoring could help others learn from problems faced by early users of the technology, which is being sold nationally, or how they were remedied. Shivinsky said he wasn’t sure if federal officials had been notified of the difficulties at Trinity — or would be. No rule requires it.

Almost a month after the first event at Trinity, David Blumenthal, the government’s top medical health information technology official, didn’t know about it. “First I’ve heard about it,” Blumenthal said when told by a reporter July 20, as he left a Capitol Hill hearing.

Since then, Blumenthal has declined to discuss the incident or its implications.

Kelli Christman, a spokesman for Cerner, the manufacturer of the software used at Trinity, did not respond to repeated emails and phone calls over the past week seeking comment.

Detailed government regulations announced July 13, three days before the four-hour shutdown at Trinity, spell out how doctors and hospitals can collect stimulus money to help defray the costs of buying digital systems. But safety and quality standards – which Food and Drug Administration officials had suggested earlier this year could be in the offing – weren’t included.

The safety debate has long pitted the FDA, with the duty to make sure medical devices are safe and effective, against the Office of National Coordinator, whose central task is to promote the technology’s swift adoption. Under Blumenthal, a Harvard physician, the office has campaigned tirelessly since last April to sell the medical community and the public on the wisdom of spending billions of tax dollars for digital records.

Many industry groups contend that FDA regulation would “stifle innovation” and stall the national drive to wire up American medicine. That view resonates among the dozens of health information technology experts serving as consultants to Blumenthal’s office and on advisory groups. Blumenthal also has been skeptical of the need for regulation and argued that even if some miscues occur, digital systems are far less prone to error than paper ones.

“We know that every study and every professional consensus process has concluded that electronic health systems strongly and materially improve patient safety. And we believe that in spreading electronic health records we are going to avoid many types of errors that currently plague the healthcare system,” Blumenthal said when unveiling new regulations in Washington on July 13.

In public remarks that day, Blumenthal said he “expects” an eventual certification process for the digital systems to “collect information about the problems that occur with the implementation of electronic health records, if any.” He did not say when that would happen. In a later interview, Blumenthal said “safety concerns are not being ignored,” but wouldn’t comment further.

Blumenthal declined to answer questions from the Investigative Fund about the status of negotiations with the FDA over these and other safety issues.

In answering a question at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on July 27, Blumenthal said that he was not aware of any plans by FDA to “do anything further than what they’ve already done.”

An FDA spokesman on Aug. 3 referred all questions on its regulatory strategy on digital records to Blumenthal’s office, which declined to answer specific questions. A spokesman for Blumenthal described enhancing safety as a “continual process,” noting that Blumenthal’s team is “working with a number of organizations throughout the health care industry” to make systems safer. As for the Food and Drug Administration, which is moving towards even tighter regulation of other medical technology such as X-ray machines and drug pumps, “FDA is one agency that we are working with,” the spokesman added.

‘Glossing over’ Problems?

Critics argue that both industry and government should work more closely to improve both safety and the efficiency of digital systems. Some doctors and hospitals have shunned electronic records because they remain clunky and unwieldy for many medical professionals to use—despite years on the market—and that these deficiencies can pose risks.

“The industry is glossing over these problems,” said Robert B. Elson, a Cleveland consultant and former medical director for a digital records manufacturer. “It’s mind-boggling how little innovation there has been over the last ten to fifteen years.”

Dozens of other health information technology insiders, from academics to front-line users who believe digital medical records can promote better and cheaper health care, told the Investigative Fund in interviews that they nonetheless fear safety issues will mount as doctors and hospitals move quickly to install the systems and collect stimulus checks.

“People just assume that computers will make things safer,” said Nancy Leveson, a safety engineering expert at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “While they can be designed to eliminate certain kinds of hazards, they increase others and sometimes they introduce new types of hazards.”

Some experts are calling for closer government monitoring of the systems to protect the public. “We need to have some scrutiny at the front end and have an approval process to make sure they are safe before they’re deployed,” said Sharona Hoffman, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University, who has written about the issue in academic journals.

Through the years, the industry has been largely left to police itself.  The FDA has wrestled with how to oversee medical software since the mid-1980s. The agency has published several such proposals and held discussions with industry leaders, but not taken any final action on a regulation.

In 2004, digital record keeping got a boost when President George Bush signed an executive order to create a digital medical file for every American within a decade, a goal officials said at the time they could reach “without substantial regulation.”

“The time wasn’t right at that time to move forward or the support wasn’t there (for safety regulations),” said Robert Kolodner, who ran the national coordinator’s office during some of the Bush years.

Edward H. Shortliffe, president of the American Medical Informatics Association and a longtime industry figure, agreed that safety issues weren’t a “primary concern” as tech companies began to expand their offerings.

Earlier this year, the trade group convened an expert panel to study the issues for the first time, but its findings have yet to be made public. Shortliffe said he didn’t think the organization would take a stand on government regulation of the industry, but said: “We recognize that there are significant challenges that the field as a whole is facing.”

Concern Within the FDA

The FDA’s interest in the issue picked up after Congress decided in February 2009 to spend billions of dollars making digital medical records a cornerstone of the health care reform campaign.

The FDA’s top brass heard those concerns last fall, records show. In a 45-minute meeting on Sept. 22, 2009 at FDA headquarters in White Oak, Md., staff briefed Commissioner Margaret Hamburg on regulatory strategy, including “possible risk implications.” That day, Hamburg “stated that FDA needs to be involved in the White House initiative,” according to minutes of the meeting obtained by the Investigative Fund.

In backing her staff, Hamburg, a physician, risked a collision with a top White House goal to roll out the electronic health records plan and begin paying hospitals to adopt them starting as early as this fall.

The clash of priorities became public in late February when FDA official Jeffrey Shuren tied 6 deaths and more than 200 injuries to health information technology and said these were likely the “tip of the iceberg.” The data review, based on mostly voluntary reports to the FDA, suggested “significant clinical implications and public safety issues surrounding health information technology,” according to an agency report.

Shuren laid out three possible options for regulations, none of which have happened. They range from mandatory reporting of “adverse events” to a full blown regulatory structure that would require all digital records system to be approved by the agency prior to marketing.

ONC director Blumenthal, the point man for the administration, has called the FDA’s injury findings “anecdotal and fragmentary.” He told the Investigative Fund that he believed nothing in the report indicated a need for regulation. Yet others see anecdotes as a starting point for a more methodical look at problems that arise.

Both FDA and the ONC are branches of the Department of Health and Human Services. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is a key player in the administration’s health reform agenda.

The same day that Blumenthal, Sebelius and other federal health officials unveiled their digital records plan in Washington, an obscure government agency held a conference less than 20 miles away in suburban Maryland to discuss the state of quality controls.

Ben-Tzion Karsh, an engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison who attended the National Institute of Standards and Technology conference said he heard a “broad consensus” among experts that electronic medical records need to function better and safer. “The truth is that we do not at this time know what would make an EHR (electronic health record) safe,” he said.

Others said that despite the rosy view taken by many political figures in Washington, many systems on the market today aren’t designed in ways that prevent and limit new errors—and that nobody is holding the industry accountable.

Sometimes poor designs lead to inconvenience and frustration. It can take numerous clicks for a doctor to order a prescription that seems more easily accomplished with pad and pen. Some systems issue so many alerts that doctors ignore them or turn off built-in alarms. Experts say not enough is done to test for so-called “usability,” even when such issues can impair safety.

Systems that are not “user friendly” can generate errors, said Patel, the University of Texas researcher in the field, who with her team has a $15 million grant to study the topic for the federal government.

Others experts are asking how well the systems do at preventing potentially disastrous mistakes, such as sending doctors’ orders to wrong patient’s treatment file. Nothing in the current law, experts say, requires manufacturers to focus on these issues, though other sectors such as aviation have done so for years.

Officials at Trinity Health said the malfunctions in both events were rare occurrences, and that overall their “major investment” in the Cerner system has paid big dividends by improved the quality of medical care.

Trinity Health has noted improved care for patients from its use of electronic records.

More than 1,200 doctors and staff use the system at any given time and more than 600,000 medical treatment orders are processed daily through the networks. Spokesman Shivinsky said that when the system slowed down July 16, technicians shut it down for about four hours. During that period, he said, doctors and nurses were able to rely on backup systems.

“We are not aware of any patient safety or quality of care issues caused by this event,” he said. Still, he said: “There’s a lot of potential for improvement in all of our systems.”

While doctors were concerned about the problems, Shivinsky said that most are happy with the system and would “never go back to paper.” Meanwhile technicians are still trying to figure out the root cause. “We’ll get to the bottom of it and fix it,” he said.

Originally published by the Huffington Post Investigative Fund

CHARLESTON

Charleston sailor on trial in Bermuda for drug running

A Charleston sailor on trial in Bermuda for allegedly smuggling around $30 million worth of marijuana says he was held without arraignment, not given access to a lawyer and subjected to a questionable search when he was arrested onboard his boat while out at sea last fall.

Andrew “Steve” Blatchley, a well-known and well-liked figure in the Lowcountry sailing community, and his Canadian co-defendant are facing a three-week trial before Bermuda’s Supreme Court.

“In America, any one of these would get the case thrown out,” Blatchley said in a letter from Bermuda’s Westgate Prison, according to the Charleston Post and Courier. “Not Here.”

Blatchley and two passengers were leaving Bermuda on a course toward Jamaica after docking the 36-foot sailboat “Bomba Shack” for repairs. The group was boarded by Bermuda law enforcement 14 miles off the island’s coast, Blatchley says.

Blatchley’s wife, Sandi, who lives in the Charleston area, says she believes her husband will be acquitted and freed, calling her husband’s arrest an error.

FLORENCE

Rabid fox ruins Darlington man’s morning

A Darlington man is recovering from multiple rabies shots after being bitten by a rabid fox while walking outside to get the morning paper.

Roy Martin told the Florence Morning News he felt something nipping at his ankle and at first thought it was his cat. When he turned to look, a red fox leapt at him and bit him on his inner thigh. He whacked it with his newspaper, he said, and the fox fled toward the tree line.

“It was acting crazy, like it was messed up in the head,” Martin told the Morning News.

Martin took 10 rounds of rabies shots and was later cleared by a doctor. The ex-postal carrier, who said he has been bitten by dogs at least 13 times, said he’s had enough and now walks to get the paper in the morning armed with a golf club.

“I got me a good chipping wedge,” he told the Morning News. “I don’t play much golf anymore, but if I ever run into another rabid fox, he’s going to think he’s being hit out of a bunker.”

Cops cracking down on pets left unattended in cars

Florence County Councilman, Dr. Morris Anderson, a retired veterinarian, is backing a move by Florence police to crack down on pet owners who leave their animals locked in cars during the summer heat.

“If you leave an animal in a car with the windows and doors shut, it’s like putting the animal in an oven, cutting it on and leaving him there,” Anderson told the Florence Morning News.

Since June, Florence police have arrested five people for leaving animals in extreme heat.

Last week police responded to a call about a dog locked in a vehicle around 1:20 p.m. at a Wal-Mart Supercenter. Officers ran the tag number and had management page the owner. Police said the dog, which had been in the car for over an hour, was so overheated when it was finally freed that it attempted to lick condensation off the bottom of other vehicles and guzzled several bottles of water. The owner was charged with ill treatment of animals.

“The high temperatures we have here are almost unbearable for animals,” Anderson said. “Leaving animals in these situations is punishment beyond belief. It’s torture, plain and simple.”

GASTONIA

Toddler recovering after shooting self in liquor store parking lot

A 3-year-old boy who shot himself in the thumb while playing with a gun he found in his family’s car is recovering from his injuries.

The incident happened in the parking lot of an ABC liquor store. According to authorities, a man, who may have been the boy’s father or stepfather, left the child and the boy’s mother in the car while he went inside to make a purchase. Witnesses said moments later they heard a gunshot and saw the mother carrying the boy into the store. He was rushed to a nearby hospital.

Police said the boy found the gun in the car and picked it up. So far no charges have been filed.

GREER

Argument leads to stabbing, more arguing

Greer police have arrested a man after he allegedly argued with a woman, stabbed her and then continued arguing with her.

Police said Clarence Brookshire, 58, argued with an unidentified woman, told her “I will kill you,” and then stabbed her in the chest with a knife. When police arrived on the scene they said the couple was arguing about who stabbed who first.

Clarence Brookshire has been charged with attempted murder.

SPARTANBURG

Robber targeted man’s KKK collectible, police say

A 32-year-old Boiling Springs man called police when he noticed the storage area of his home had been burglarized. Among the items missing was a Ku Klux Klan Case knife. The man, who said he owns a set of 100 Klan knives, told police that the stolen piece was engraved with “The White Brotherhood,” the three Klan crosses and the number 66.

Other items stolen included six Zippo lighters, some engraved with “Daddy.”

So, you’ve made it through move-in day as part of the largest freshmen class in University of South Carolina history. Understandably, you’re filled with mixed emotions as you stand on the sidewalk and wave to the fading taillights of your parents’ mini van. So…what happens next?

Let’s face it, at this point in your college career you don’t need to worry with a Columbia guide that lists phone numbers for the DMV or SCE&G.  You probably won’t need the services of your state senator, either.  (And even if you did, they slashed your university’s budget by 50% and don’t give a rat’s ass about your educational future.)

What you do need, however, is a guide that blazes you a trail through the complexities of fake IDs or how to get laid in a dorm room.

Today’s your lucky day!  You have picked up a copy of Columbia City Paper. Some CCP staffers spent the better part of a decade in the USC undergrad program.  And some even graduated.  Today we pass down to you–note, free of charge!–some choice morsels of wisdom.

Pay attention, Class of ‘14!  (If your parents had known we existed, they would have shipped you off to USC-Aiken.)

MAKING THE GRADE

Pass/Fail Classes: Unsung Heroes of Undergrads

If you’re doing college right, your GPA will be a distant afterthought until spring semester of your Sophomore year at the earliest. Unfortunately, if you’re doing college right, by that point your GPA is probably in a nosedive that will put a real damper on midweek boozing during your Junior and Senior years. The key? A brilliant gift from the administrative gods called the Pass/Fail option. You don’t get a grade and it won’t show up on your GPA –it’s only listed as pass or fail—but you do get credit for the course hours.

You should never take a class that will go toward your major as pass/fail, but it’s a perfect tool to pad your hours for financial aid or to keep the parents happy that you’re technically “full time.” Just show up enough to squeak by with a D- and you’re gold. The extra class that would’ve pulled down your GPA just became a freebie. Talk to your advisor for further details.

Peace Out! : Develop a Sixth Sense for Dropping Classes

First and foremost: Try to sit as close to the door as possible. Your gut will speak to you after the first 10 to 15 minutes of your first day of class.

If the professor seems particularly grumpy on the first day, your alarm bells should be ringing. More than likely, he or she will remain that way for the majority of the semester. Also, avoid the young professors, if at all possible. They are still institutionalized and seem to have chips on their shoulders. More often than not, the old, wrinkled suit-wearing guy is going to be more hungover than you are, will be a whole lot easier on your GPA, and will often impart grizzled worldly wisdom through his rants while simultaneously teaching the subject.

Also, immediately scour the syllabus. They are often misleading. Phrases like “25 page essay and Power Point presentation” are snuck into seemingly innocuous lines around the mid-term point on the syllabus, often only noticed with horror three days before they are due. If there are too many projects, journals, or an abundance of mindless busywork, go with your gut and drop the class. If it’s a small class, at least wait for the class to end. If it’s a larger class, slip out the door the minute you decide to drop, go home, and hop on V.I.P. to find a replacement. Be patient at this point if everything else is full: lots of students drop and add and if you keep trying, you’ll get another class you want.

Plus, ride the “override” for all it’s worth. This often requires a bit of professorial butt-kissing, but it can pay dividends.

If you have to change around three times, do it. The key is to search out the classes and professors who will best fulfill your needs (i.e. sleeping in and applying as little actual brain power as possible).

Parking Secret: Secret Parking

Want to feel truly alienated by your university? Live off campus. Commuter students have gotten the shaft at USC for years, paying $70 for a parking decal that doesn’t even guarantee a space. Well, forget that. All you need is a little gumption and creativity and you can find a plethora of free parking around campus, often within yards of the building to which you are headed.

Over the weekend, cruise the neighborhoods that surround campus. The City of Columbia has long called dibs on the street parking, so don’t even bother with that. What you need to do is check the myriad back alleys, side yards, and dumpster areas behind buildings, et cetera –basically, the underbelly of the campus outskirts.

There are very small pockets of spaces behind certain individually owned apartment buildings on Greene, Barnwell, Henderson and Pickens streets. We’ll let you find those yourselves; just know they’re there. Also, know that most commercial apartment complexes don’t actually have a guy who checks cars for stickers in the lot. (Except for Cornell Arms: they will tow your ass in seconds.)

With some careful recon and some skillful shimmying, you can wiggle into a comfy, convenient, and free space. The key is to adopt the air that you are supposed to be parking there. Make up an elaborate story to go along with your parking space and stick to it.  Challenge anyone who disagrees. If you hesitate for a moment, you risk a $60 towing fee. Often these secret spaces are passed down through generations, but if you find your own space, guard it viciously. Often competing parkers will pose as landlords, leaving threatening notes on your windshield. Sometimes they will threaten to vandalize your car. But, stick to your guns! Remember: you can leave notes, too.

Don’t let stage fright put a damper on your Economics presentation. After a couple of shots of vodka before class, you’ll nail the presentation and impress your classmates with your casual delivery.

The key is to use vodka, as it gives off less –or at least a different—odor than other liquors. It’s also imperative to announce that you have a cold. This will serve two functions. One, the vodka smell could still be noticeable, but a Hall’s cough drop in your mouth at all times will blend with and mask the smell (plus, if people think you’re sick, they’ll keep their distance). Also you don’t want to drink enough to get drunk, just relaxed, but the head cold story will explain your “loopiness” if you accidentally have one too many.

Presentations are all about smoke and mirrors.  Our publisher Paul Blake made a presentation for an advertising campaign class in which, while leaving for class, he grabbed three random overhead slides and his stoned roommate’s guitar.  He dragged his roommate to class and presented a campaign on Swiffer which was completely improvised; during the song, whilst his Phish-loving roommate played softly in the background, he turned into a spider and danced on desks.  He received another well earned C with little to no effort.  C’mon:  “It picks up your pubes” deserves at least a C+!

How to Stay Awake in Class

How to stay awake in class? Don’t. You should be worn out from ladies night and/or sneaking in a power nap for the evening to come.

There are a few resources online that offer advice on training yourself to sleep with your eyes open, but often just knowing how position your body can do the trick. The generally accepted rule is to shield your eyes with your free hand –like a visor—as you cock your elbow on the desk and rest your head in your hand. The other hand will be scribbling in your notebook. The overall effect should look like you are staring down at your notebook with unwavering concentration. When you master this technique, you’ll be able to sleep while your pen hand is still moving.

If you tend to drool or snore, don’t risk it. You may as well just stay awake and tough it out. Two Red Bulls and an Adderall will work wonders in cases of extreme fatigue, but don’t make it a habit of it –especially, if you mix it with other medications or drugs. You don’t want to go out like Belushi during a Shakespeare lecture.

Excuses: Don’t Use Dead Grandmas

Even if Gran Gran really did give up the ghost, you’re better off telling your professor you’re missing the midterm because of car trouble or even a hostage crisis. The dead grandmother excuse has long been compromised and is a running joke among the profs. If you use it with a straight face, they take it as an insult. They’ll at least respect the creativity and balls it takes to call in a bomb scare.

Best Professors

The best college Web site known to man is RateMyProfessor.com. Use it.

How to BS on an English exam

If you’re sitting there reading the essay question over and over and you still can’t even recognize where the passage came from, just write about how the whole thing makes you feel. Wow them with flowery language. A former City Paper sportswriter once worked this Jerky Boy’s line into an Art History exam: “ …the women in the painting looked like they could do a side of beef and make it more tender than a damn wet pillow.” He got a C.

How to cure a hangover

It takes years of trial and error to perfect the ultimate hangover cure. Most of you youngsters out there still have the luxury of sleeping for 14 hours to knock a hangover out. The rest of us have to be at work at 9 a.m. on weekdays. That being the case, necessity has forced us to develop effective cures. And, simplicity is the key. Set the alarm clock to 6:30 a.m. before you go out. Just trust us on this one. The next time you hear that horrible sound, the sun will be rising and you will wake up in a sober shock. Ignore the chirping of the birds, the light streaming in through the window and the fact that you slept in your shoes again. You only have to do five simple things at this point.

1. Fill a glass of water and put in a dash of orange juice to flavor it.  Room tempature beverages are best on the stomach so try to remember to leave out the Brita pitcher the night before.

2. Optional: Force down a piece of toast, some cereal, crackers, whatever.

3. Take a packet of headache powder. If you have to, take two tablets, but the powder, while near vomit inducing, is quicker to dissolve. Drink the whole glass of water and oj. (Our publisher swears by Alka Seltzer.) If possible, drink two or three glasses of water. The first priority is to hydrate your system.

4. Pee, go back to bed, and sleep for at least 2 more hours. When you next wake, you will feel close to 45 percent. Drink a couple of large glasses of iced tea. Take a shower, then have something greasy for breakfast if you can take it.

The real hangover starts around mid afternoon. You’ll wake strong, but crash later. Be prepared. If you feel ill, splash cold water on your face. If you are in class, just use your fingers to dab it on your face from a water bottle. The sickness will pass. The key is to shoulder through it. Go home and take a long nap. If you follow these steps, you’ll feel so good by Happy Hour that you’ll want to go out for a drink to celebrate.

How to pull an all-nighter

First, find the kid on your hall that has a prescription for Ritalin, buy two pills from him, and take one. Then, have an in-depth conversation with your roommate for at least three hours. You won’t be able to begin studying until you’ve thoroughly cleaned your entire room and organized the cereal boxes by the Dewey Decimal System.

By four in the morning you should have finally buckled down to study and the first pill will be wearing off. Crush up the other one, snort it, and remember to e-mail the assignment to your professor before you come down hard and sleep through your classes for the entire day.

Never, ever sign up for an 8 a.m. class

Ever. It’s an abomination.

“Thank you, Sir! May I Have Another?” : How to survive Rush Week

The one stipulation for Mom and Dad paying for college is that junior will join pop’s old frat or daughter will join mom’s old sorority. It’ll come in handy later, they say, when you enter the business world or if you transfer to the Citadel. For now, though, the frat and sorority have their present-day perks: a sense of community within your flip-flop wearing mob of homies; reputation; and, most importantly, the key to some of the best booty on campus. But, it won’t come free. First you have to survive Rush Week.

You will have to wear diapers in class, shoot down a Slip-n-Slide greased by beer vomit, or worse… much, much worse. The key is to be physically prepared. Make sure to get plenty of sleep, by any means necessary. Studies show that lack of sleep will cause forgetfulness, mood swings, and will hamper the immune system. You will need your immune system in prime order after some of the disgusting things you’ll be forced to ingest.

To combat the mental and physical fatigue, study a British SAS or Army Special Forces survival manual. They often teach basic techniques for surviving in a high-stress captor-and-captive situation. This will come in handy after a night of vodka enemas and ice baths when you awaken blindfolded and naked in the middle of the horseshoe on Sunday morning.

Most importantly, try to be mindful around alcohol, the cornerstone of all hazing activities. Alcohol poisoning is the bane of the frat existence, but it is a real threat. Too many shots of spiced rum– no matter how high Jimmy Buffett is cranked– will cause you to pass out and can depress the nerves that are responsible for involuntary functions like breathing or the gag reflex, which will cause you to choke, Bon Scott style, on your own puke. (Which is better than someone else’s vomit.) In addition, your heart rate can drop and lead to hypothermia or you could suffer brain damage from dehydration. If the guy beside you shows any signs of alcohol poisoning while you are being hazed, stop the challenge, remove the broom handle from your rectum, and call the paramedics immediately.

CAMPUS LIFE:

Benefits Of Condom Use

Maybe you’ve had University 101 and seen the slideshow. Maybe your first drunken sexual encounter said she was on birth control but then you had to drop out of school and work a $10 an hour job to give her three quarters of everything you make just because you thought it “didn’t feel as good.” Keep in mind, condoms are significantly cheaper than (a) a wedding, (b) child support, or (c) an abortion, so use them (unless you are a devout Catholic, in which case, swing away).

And remember, free Lifestyles tuxedos are available at the Thompson Student Health Center.

Using a fake ID in Five Points

Though we at City Paper in no way condone it, there is a simple process for using a fake ID in Five Points. If you’re a girl and have boobs then congratulations—you’re in. And if you hook up with the bouncer then your friends are in too. If you are a guy though, you have a only a few options: (a) Drive to Atlanta or New York and buy a good fake, but don’t spend more than $50, (b) Purchase some holograms off the internet, (c) Make a friend at the DMV, (d) Use your brothers’, or (e) Use that scanner your parents bought you accordingly.

As for using that fake, walk in behind someone of age—they won’t scrutinize your ID as hard. Also, wait about a month after school starts to head downtown to avoid SLED. Make sure you dress down like you’ve been doing it for a while and, last but not least, if you see a cop act normal—otherwise he’s going to beeline for you when you drop that cup and bolt.

Remember, the ID doesn’t really have to look like you and if all else fails you can always use “the pass-back” option. But, we think you should wait until you’re legal to go boozing at the bars.

Don’t let a T-shirt or free pizza induce you to sign up for a credit card

They look friendly enough, beckoning from the foldout table near the Russell House. And, wow, you can get a free generic Carolina shirt for just filling out that form? The credit card lady says, “Haaay, how are yeeewww!” like she’s a long-lost relative, and, oh, the whole experience just seems so genuine…

Nope. Fight it! Run away shrieking if you have to. There’s no shame in it. Just run. The minute the credit card lady’s talons close around your form, consider yourself financially ruined before you even graduate. Next thing you know, you’ll have an apartment full of non-returnable NASCAR furniture that you bought while tripping and a massive monthly bill that it will take decades to crawl away from. Plus that executive job you think you are going to get the day you graduate just simply doesn’t exist.  Chances are you will be begging for your waitstaff job back that you blew off during finals and will remain there for the following 10 years.

Intricacies of Communal Showers

There is but one essential to surviving communal showers. Cheap sandals. Platforms if you can get them. The only place you will wear them is in the shower—and with good reason.

Foot fungus runs rampant. If the powders and itch creams aren’t working and it still feels like a lit match is resting between your toes, try slathering your feet with yogurt. No joke, it’s supposed to work wonders. Itchy feet are the least of your worries, though. Those chunks clogging the drain are last night’s pasta from the Bates House Cafeteria after the kid two doors down slammed a six-pack of Hard-Core Apple Cider. We don’t even need to get started on what the guy is doing in the corner stall and if an athlete is on the toilet, breathe through your mouth.

(If only someone told us this sex advice when we were entering college!)

1.  Guys, don’t go sticking your tongue in college gals’ mouths. You’re not under the bleachers anymore. Women of all ages like a little bit of romance. What’s more, let them initiate.  Start out with soft romantic kisses that your grandparents would approve of (think “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “Roman Holiday”) and skip any moves that turn your disgusting, un-brushed slab of spit meat into an orthodontic weapon.  Don’t worry, there is a time and place, but just go easy at first and let her guide.

2.  The difference between “lie” and “lay.”  Bet you ignored that grammar lesson in grade school.  Now it’s time to pay attention.  If you want to get laid, don’t lie!  Women and men both love sex, so just be honest about playing the field.  If you are a flake and coke head, be up front about it. There is someone for everyone—remember, even Michael Jackson convinced someone to have children with him.

If you actually convince someone to crawl in bed with you, don’t be afraid to share that you fantasize about sticking a cucumber up your bunghole (so long as it’s an imported cuke and not Certified S.C. Grown). Don’t be afraid to put stuff out there like, “Hey, your friend Sally or Roger should join us” or “Do you want me to use my vibrating toothbrush on you?” If you’re in the middle of the act, listen for subtle moans: if he or she gets louder, odds are you are doing something right—either that or your partner is really trying to communicate through the tennis ball gag you placed over his or her mouth. If your partner goes limp, you may be overdoing it—either that or it’s time to remove the tennis ball to give them oxygen.

Don’t be afraid to introduce toys into the equation.  There are many sexual wonders to discover when Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head meet up with your roommate’s My Pretty Pony collection. Many women need vibrators to achieve climax, so swallow your pride and ask her if she owns one, then offer to bring it into the equation. And remember: BYOB stands for bring your own batteries.

Again, the key is to be honest and open, and, ladies, this especially applies to orgasms.  NO FAKING! Men will never learn to please you if you just pretend that you’re satisfied with his Gatling gun approach.  Brutally honest partners make for better relationships and fantastic lovers.

3. Life doesn’t always imitate art. Fellas, keep in mind that all those ladies you watched in all those porn videos in high school were getting paid. Real world women are not jackrabbits, and most women only like facials at the spa. Be a gentleman at first. Then, after about two months of steady dating, pretend to accidentally insert “Cornhole Coeds 15” into the DVD player when you really meant to put in “Aladdin.”  If she seems intrigued, you might just be in for one helluva magic carpet ride.

4. Avoid buying drinks for strangers. You’ll need that money for a gym membership when you hit 35 and your body starts to turn into a zeppelin because it can no longer process those late night combos from McDonalds that you’ll grab on the drive home from yet another unsuccessful singles mixer. Alone and defeated, you will eat from the combo bag and weep softly while you trudge around your sparse one-bedroom apartment in your underwear and turn the photos of your mother toward the wall to spare her likeness the sight when you finally, begrudgingly, take yourself into your own hand, yet again, by the cold, indifferent glow of discount Euro porn on your computer screen; so mother’s eyes can’t see when you groan tearfully –almost angrily—to the sounds coming from your headphones, the knick-knacks on your desk rattling violently, bits of chewed burger and mustard spilling out of your mouth onto your pale, flabby chest. …Sorry. Where was I?

5. Don’t be selfish in bed. Men are probably worse than women when it comes to not reciprocating slob jobs. Male undergrads: your top priority should not be your lab assignment but the ability to please a lady with at least two different parts of your body (nose, toes, etc.).  Don’t be afraid to ask questions. “Do you like that?  More pressure?  Would it help if I bought you a new Louis Vuitton bag?” And ladies, there is no such thing as a bad BJ, so just go with it and have fun.

6. Don’t try too hard. Desperation is like that chicken plant in West Columbia; you can smell it three miles away.  Ladies, go easy on the excessive make up and slutty dress (but definitely show enough to keep us interested). Men, stop showing off, kill the tacky sexual innuendo and, for Christ’s sake, don’t tell fart jokes. Crass humor might be funny in this newspaper (and even that’s debatable), but when it comes to wooing a lady, that type of stuff will send you straight to the locker room. Game over.

As for pick up lines, don’t use them.  The only one phrase you’ll ever need:  “Hi, my name is…” Guys, unless you have a two-foot dong, we highly recommend that you ask a young lady about her background and her interests. There are a slew of books on this subject from the famous Dale Carnegie to the infamous Ron Jeremy. (Come to think of it, I’m not sure Ron Jeremy ever wrote a book on picking up women because if you have a two foot dong you can pretty much skip all of these tips.)

Sex In A Dorm Room

Things haven’t changed much since Gilbert and company went on their legendary panty raid in Revenge of the Nerds: the girl’s dorms will forever be the promised land for the undergrad male. Buxom young vixens stroll the halls in bath towels on their way to experimental make-out sessions, stopping occasionally to giggle through scantily clad pillow fights. To actually score in this frilly heaven, with the teddy bears looking on, is a scene to rival any story in Hustler.

Conversely, sex at the guy’s sparse, armpit-reeking dorm has always seemed pathetic and, well, kind of creepy. Funny how that works. No matter if you choose top bunk or bottom, space will always be an issue; lighting, too, will be a problem. But, you’ve got to run with what you bring to the track. The one element you can control is privacy.

The whole necktie on the doorknob bit was antiquated back when your parents used it in the Shag days. Nowadays the norm is to cover your doorknob with a thick glob of Vaseline. The door is virtually impenetrable, gives your roommate a moment to realize why you’re blaring Eddie Money, followed by the image of what is transpiring on the other side of the door. He will then look at himself grabbing the lubed doorknob, be overcome with a pang of disgust and will hurry back to the coffee shop for another latte.

But, don’t abuse your roommate’s kindness: you should only commandeer the dorm for an hour or so at a time. And remember: free Jimmies at Thompson Student Health Center.

talkback@columbiacitypaper.com

BEAUFORT

Black-clad night cyclist struck by car

Authorities say a man who had been previously warned for riding his bicycle in the middle of the road at night has died after being hit by a car.

A Beaufort County sheriff’s deputy warned Detron Jenkins, 21, after he was seen peddling down the middle of a road late at night in all black clothes and with no reflectors on his bicycle. According to the S.C. Highway Patrol, Jenkins was struck by a car around 1:00 a.m. the following morning while riding down the road under the same conditions.

Officials say the woman driving the car will not be charged.

CHARLESTON

Intoxicated man leaps into Wappoo Creek, goes missing

Police and rescue personnel have not yet found a man who reportedly jumped from the Wappoo Bridge and went missing.

A group of people aboard a boat told Charleston police they initially found an intoxicated man floating in the middle of the creek about 10 p.m. When the boaters offered their assistance, the man, who was wearing nothing but a pair of pants held up by a rope, said he needed “a tow.”

The boaters reportedly dropped the man off at the Crab House Restaurant, where he proclaimed that he was going to jump from the Wappoo Bridge back into the creek. Witnesses said they later saw the man on the bridge, then moments later saw him floating in the water again. When authorities arrived, the man was nowhere to be found.

LANCASTER

Meat thief sentenced to nine years in prison

Steve McFarland has been sentenced to nine years for stealing around $220 worth of meat, cheese, and pecans from a Lancaster area Wal-Mart. The theft marked his 13th property crime conviction.

McFarland’s girlfriend, Cynthia Gaston, was also charged after admitting to aiding McFarland in the crime. Gaston reportedly tried to convince the jury that she had stolen the food, according to the Rock Hill Herald.

Lancaster police told a different story. Officer Rickey Funderburk testified that he saw McFarland stuff a rib roast into his pants, gave chase, and eventually Tased him as he threw meat from his clothes.

“[The officer] had the guy and the meat. Beef – even though it was Thanksgiving time, no turkeys,” said prosecutor Trey Cook. “Might be tough to hide turkeys.”

MOUNT PLEASANT

Cop disciplined for helping drunk family member home in cruiser

Mount Pleasant police issued a reprimand to one of their officers for reportedly using his patrol car while off duty to give a drunk family member a ride home from a bar.

Police Captain Stan Gragg said the officer, Paul Russell, was home on a recent Friday night when he received a call from an intoxicated relative requesting a ride home from a North Charleston bar. The officer’s personal vehicle was in use by someone else, so he used his patrol car in plain clothes. Russell’s blood-alcohol level was zero when he was tested later that night as part of a preliminary internal investigation.

ROCK HILL

Fight escalates when man pours gasoline on opponent, attempts to light on fire

Two York men are in jail following a fight in which police say one threw gasoline on the other and attempted to light him on fire.

According to officers responding to the scene, James Miller, 43, and Alfonzo Douglas, 56, were covered in blood. Douglas was reportedly barefoot. Douglas told police that Miller had been “picking on” him. The altercation escalated, he said, after Miller threw gasoline on him and struck a match. When Douglas failed to ignite, he said, Miller then attacked him with a sling blade. Douglas fought back with a large kitchen knife.

Miller claims Douglas was the aggressor as evinced by his multiple slash wounds. Douglas was charged with assault and battery; Miller with attempted murder.

SPARTANBURG

Misguided bomb threat blows up in woman’s face

Spartanburg police arrested a woman for making a bomb threat against a downtown attorneys office.

According to police, Deshavon Renee McKinney had an appointment at the offices of Harrison, White, Smith & Coggins. McKinney reportedly called in the bomb threat so she didn’t have to explain the reason for the meeting to her husband… thus making her meeting regional news.

Police blocked off parts of Morgan Square, but no explosive device was located. Officers traced the call to the College Motor Inn. McKinney later turned herself in.

By David Axe

They came in broad daylight. Four men in a white hatchback, rolling into the village of Laken in eastern Afghanistan’s Khowst district. It was just before noon on October 23 last year. The men piled out of the hatchback, surprising two villagers. One they shot dead. Another they grabbed and tossed into the vehicle. As startled villagers looked on, the abductors sped away. A villager called the Afghan police. The police called the U.S. Army then set out to investigate.

The kidnappers’ identities and motive are unclear, but the Taliban are known to target interpreters, government officials and everyday Afghans who work with occupying NATO forces. The fate of the abducted individual is equally murky. Many kidnapping cases in Afghanistan are resolved when a body washes up in the local river or turns up by the side of the road. In a war that has claimed the lives of 2,000 NATO troops and at least 10,000 Afghans, October’s abduction might seem like a footnote.

In fact, it represented just one in a wave of kidnappings in the country’s embattled east, where a small number of NATO troops are fighting a holding action against emboldened extremists. NATO’s focus is on southern Afghanistan, particularly Kandahar, the traditional home of the Taliban. For months NATO has promised a renewed offensive in the south, but has repeatedly delayed the attack, citing an absence of popular support.

Injured Dutch troops at a memorial service for Dutch army Private 1st Class Timo Smeehuyzen, who died in a suicide bombing in June 2007 in Tarin Kowt, southern Afghanistan. Photo by David Axe

As reinforcements including 30,000 fresh American troops authorized by President Barack Obama pour into the south, forces in the east must hold the line. “I don’t have enough troops to cover every square inch,” U.S. Army Lt. Col. Thomas Gukeisen told City Paper in October as he outlined complex ideas for making better use of the soldiers he does have, including a heavier reliance on Afghan security forces and even enlisting local civilians as informants. But in the absence of U.S. protection, this strategy places Afghans in danger from the seemingly omnipresent Taliban.

NATO is caught in a tightening feedback loop of the bloodiest kind. Poor security has resulted in declining Afghan confidence in the alliance, further worsening the security picture and thus accelerating NATO’s de-legitimization. For many Afghans, this alarming trend means a constant, grating fear ultimately followed by the noisy rush of a vehicle, hands and guns reaching out, then the awful restraint. Terror. Pain. Darkness.

One by one, hundreds if not thousands of pro-alliance Afghans have disappeared, shoved at gunpoint into vehicles and spirited away. On November 13, a retired resistance fighter from the ‘80s named Tafsir –an apparent honorary Afghan police general, according to the U.S. Army—was abducted from his home in Behsood district. On February 4 this year, gunmen grabbed Baraki Barak district sub-governor Mohamed Yasin Ludin, whom U.S. State Department official Ron Barkley had described to City Paper as “one of the good guys,” meaning he had dared to accompany U.S. troops on their patrols.

“The biggest side effect of the deteriorating security situation is kidnapping,” said Mohammed Farid Hamidi, an Afghan human-rights advocate. “And Afghans are most at risk.” One abduction at a time, the Taliban is chipping away at the weakening foundation of local consent that allows NATO to function in this land-locked, mountainous country far from the borders of any NATO state.

And most voters in NATO countries don’t even realize it. The Laken abduction and Tafsir’s kidnapping were not mentioned in international new reports. Instead, they were documented by U.S. Army soldiers in classified reports filed on the hard-drives of top commanders and intelligence agents. Earlier this year, an undisclosed Army source leaked more than 100,000 of the situation reports to the Swedish non-profit group Wikileaks. In late July, Wikileaks made 90,000 of the reports, mostly dating from 2006 to late 2009, publicly available.

“Lasting reforms that tend to push human rights come about as a result of finding material that is being kept secret by organizations, because they fear exposure,” the group’s founder Julian Assange said while defending the data dump on CNN.

The Pentagon was displeased, to say the least. Some officers even claimed the leak would endanger Afghans who have helped NATO forces and are mentioned in the reports. “Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing,” U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, a top American military officer, told reporters. “But the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family.”

Indeed, the Taliban has deliberately reinforced that fear. “We will investigate through our own secret service whether the people mentioned are really spies working for the U.S.,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. “If they are U.S. spies, then we know how to punish them.”

But Afghans cooperating with NATO have long been in danger –a truth the leaked reports underscore. In failing to protect Afghan civilians, the alliance, too, has blood on its hands. Voters can understand that better, thanks to Wikileaks. “These documents provide a fuller picture of what we have long known about Afghanistan: The war is going badly,” Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said.

Corruptistan

A curfew was in force. Roadblocks manned by armored soldiers and blue-clad policemen were everywhere. Afghan army helicopters circled overhead. NATO quick-reaction squads waited in idling vehicles. The last week of July, just days before Wikileaks dropped its information bomb, Kabul was on security lock-down as envoys from some 70 countries converged on the muddy, shabby capital city for a donors conference hosted by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

For Karzai, the assembled envoys and their entourages were surely an edifying spectacle. Less than a year prior, the U.N. had all but accused him of stealing the recent presidential election through massive voter fraud and intimidation. When he took the podium at the donors conference, Karzai gave no indication of his wobbling legitimacy. Instead, he praised the very electorate he had cheated. “I … want to highlight the patience and dignity with which our civilian population has borne the brunt of the conflict and the attacks of our common enemies,” he said. “But do not mistake our will to overcome them. Let our friends and partners be assured of the justness of our cause.”

In the days leading up to Karzai’s impressive performance, NATO ambassador to Afghanistan Mark Sedwill took the opportunity to address select publications in an Internet forum. City Paper managed to get on the list to hear the ambassador’s hard sell. “In certain, more difficult, outlying areas of the country, where the government does not have a strong presence, people are afraid and intimidated by the Taliban and maintain a quiet sitting on the fence posture –they are waiting to see what security, development and governance is provided,” Sedwill began.

“One figure sticks in my mind on the Taliban: According to ISAF figures, from 1 January to 10 April 2010, the insurgency caused 243 fatalities and 534 injuries, a total of 777 civilian casualties. This is around 50 percent higher than the same period in 2009. On a daily basis they target government workers, threaten teachers and girls going to school and regularly carry out assassinations, abductions and executions of government officials who are trying to improve the lives of all Afghans. This is not what people – in Afghanistan and anywhere else — want for themselves and their children.

“To the contrary, a number of polls show that the vast majority of Afghans do not want the Taliban regime back in power and have ever-increasing confidence in their government institutions.”

On that last point, one might wonder which polls Sedwill was citing. According to a survey of 6,500 Afghans in 32 of the country’s 34 provinces, published this year by the non-profit Integrity Watch Afghanistan, a full quarter of Afghans “felt deprived of access to the provision of justice and security” by their government. Corruption was the major reason they gave. “In 2007, the amount of bribes paid by the adult population was estimated at $466 million, while the current survey indicates that it is close to $1 billion.”

Perhaps most damningly, more than a third of those polled said corruption “was helping the expansion of the Taliban” by alienating Afghans from their (unfairly) elected government.

“There is always room for criticism and skepticism, simply because there is no quick fix to Afghanistan and the country will clearly be a work in progress for many years,” Sedwill said, in closing. “The greatest achievement of all is that there is now a better-off alternative to the Taliban regime, one that offers opportunities for the future.”

Not according to the IWA, there isn’t. “Corruption is rampant and has become more entrenched in all areas of life in Afghanistan,” the pollsters reported. “Corruption threatens the legitimacy of state-building, badly affects state-society relations, feeds frustration and the support for the insurgency, leads to increasing inequality (which spurs social conflict), violates basic human rights on a daily basis and impedes the rule of law according to Afghan standards, hinders access to basic public services, which impacts the poor most severely, and has a major negative effect on economic development.”

A few tens of thousands of American reinforcements, cooling their heels in and around Kandahar, won’t change that. Nor will they prevent the inexorable spread of the Taliban’s terror state and the abduction and murder of pro-NATO Afghans. Insecure and weakly governed by corrupt thugs, Afghanistan is getting worse, not better. In the classified reports published by Wikileaks, we have ample evidence of that. Now the Swedish group is promising to drop another 15,000 reports. Does anyone doubt they’re all bad news?

talkback@columbiacitypaper.com

By Todd Morehead

Spartanburg Police say Lori Turner stuffed a McDonalds sandwich in her pants in a ruse to get free food

AIKEN

Convenience stores targeted by con man impersonating a cop

No one has fallen for the scam yet, says the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office, but they still want to catch the person who is calling and threatening area convenience stores, claiming to be a police officer.

According to the Aiken Standard, an unidentified male has phoned at least one convenience store claiming that he is a police officer with evidence of a store employee who sold either alcohol or cigarettes to a minor. The caller then offers to destroy the evidence if money is wired to him. The caller has identified himself as both a S.C. Law Enforcement Division (SLED) officer and as a homicide detective with the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office.

“Neither of those is true,” Capt. Troy Elwell told the Standard.

The caller has given numerous names and has asked that the money be wired to a number of different addresses in the Columbia area.

CHARLESTON

Casino boats may be coming to North Charleston

North Charleston Mayor, Keith Summey, says he has the necessary votes to remove a city law banning casino boats. The boats, which currently only operate out of Myrtle Beach, sail out into international waters to host casino style gambling out of the reach of state law.

City officials believe the boats could bring the city as much as $1.5 million a year.

MYRTLE BEACH

Boy suffers nasty run-in with shark

Myrtle Beach officials report that a 10-year-old boy has been bitten by a shark while swimming off the South Carolina coast.

The boy suffered a bite wound on his leg and was treated at a local hospital. The attack is the second this year in South Carolina waters. The other attack occurred off Fripp Island in June.

NEWBERRY

New Black Panthers hold rally in Newberry

Around a hundred demonstrators, some pumping their fists or holding signs that read “Black Power”, recently marched from a Newberry park to the steps of the Newberry County Courthouse, calling for improved race relations in South Carolina.

Some demonstrators said they were upset because they believe local police pull over black motorists without proper cause and hassle black youths. Others cited a number of injustices ranging from poor housing conditions to racism in public schools. The crux rally centered around the June murder of a local black man named Anthony Hill by his white co-worker, Gregory Collins. Collins has been charged with killing Hill and then dragging his body behind a pickup truck.

Malik Zulu Shabazz, president of the New Black Panther Party, addressing the crowd through a megaphone on the courthouse steps, said he believes Collins did not act alone and accused Newberry authorities of not doing enough to investigate a hate crime.

Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster says it is up to the U.S. Justice Dept. to rule the case a hate crime, since South Carolina currently has no hate crime laws on the books. Foster said he has so far seen no indication that Collins acted with others.

“[Shabazz] has obviously got information that we don’t have,” Foster said.

SPARTANBURG

Woman arrested at McDonalds for stuffing sandwich down pants

Spartanburg police say an area woman is facing charges after she allegedly stuffed a sandwich down her pants at a McDonald’s restaurant.

Responding officers said Lori Turner, 39, was screaming at employees about being cheated out of a second sandwich she had ordered. What really happened, police say, was that Turner ordered two sandwiches and two coffees and while the drinks were being made she stuffed one of the sandwiches in her pants, claimed she never received it, and demanded a replacement. Officers were alerted to the ruse when they noticed a grease stain spreading on her pants.

Turner was charged with public disorderly conduct and was later released on bond.

SUMMERVILLE

Intoxicated man dies after trying to “slap the train”

A Summerville man celebrating his 23rd birthday died last week after trying to touch a passing train outside a local bar.

Witnesses told Summerville police that Justin Helton had been drinking at the Ice House Bar & Grill and had, at one point in the evening, argued with his ex-girlfriend. Around 1:45 a.m., reports say, Helton told someone at the bar that he was going to “slap the train” as it passed on a nearby track. One witness, who watched from the front porch of the bar, said Helton walked up to the train with his arms outstretched as the wind whipped his shirt. The Dorchester County coroner believes Helton’s foot got caught in the track before he was struck by the train. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

The incident marks the second time an intoxicated Ice House patron has been struck by a train. Two months ago, Christopher Ryan Coleman told police he was walking the tracks home from the bar while texting his wife when he said he was “sucked under” a train. Coleman sustained no serious injuries and was later arrested for trespassing on a train right of way.

talkback@columbiacitypaper.com

Hundreds of state agencies nationwide have never told the federal government about health professionals they disciplined, undermining a central database meant to weed out dangerous caregivers.

The federal database is supposed to contain disciplinary actions taken against doctors, nurses, therapists and other health practitioners around the country so that hospitals and select others can run background checks before they hire new employees.

Federal officials discovered the missing reports after a Pro Publica investigation in February found widespread gaps in the data, including hundreds of nurses and pharmacists who had been sanctioned for serious wrongdoing.

Since then, regulators nationwide –prodded by federal health officials—have submitted 72,000 new records to the database, nearly double the total submitted for all of 2009.

All states are required by law to report the licensed health workers they’ve sanctioned to databases run by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). But ProPublica found that many state agencies either didn’t know about the requirement or simply weren’t complying.

The failure to report means frontline health workers who have a record of on-the-job misconduct, incompetence or criminal acts aren’t flagged to hospitals or other potential employers, who pay a fee to run checks on job applicants.

Wisconsin, for example, has not reported sanctions against emergency medical technicians. The state’s Department of Health Services website, however, shows that more than two dozen EMTs have been disciplined, including several for criminal convictions and one for stealing drugs from an ambulance.

An agency spokeswoman said officials are working to submit the missing information.

HRSA’s analysis of 13 nursing boards flagged by ProPublica as missing records shows the depth of the problem. Since being contacted by HRSA, those boards collectively have reported more than 2,000 missing cases, including 147 in California and 66 in Illinois. Florida alone had 972.

Despite the important public safety role of the database, federal officials have little power to enforce compliance. Earlier this month, they took what they said is the strongest action allowed against scofflaws: They put a checkmark next to state names indicating they were “noncompliant” and posted the information on the HRSA website.

“That’s the tool we’ve been given by Congress,” said Mary Wakefield, administrator of HRSA, noting that no prior administration had even used that before.

Twenty-one states and Puerto Rico were thus chastised for not reporting on at least one category of health professional or ignoring the government’s requests for information. Kentucky was flagged for 10 professions; Louisiana, six; and Alabama and New Mexico, five each.

Many states were listed as “working toward compliance,” meaning they were in the process of submitting missing information, or “under review” by the federal government.

Congress ordered the government to create a database of disciplinary actions against all health providers more than two decades ago; information about doctors and dentists was first made available in the National Practitioner Data Bank in 1990. But hospitals could begin searching other professions only in March of this year. The database is not open to the public.

The completeness of the database is important because health professionals often have licenses in multiple states. If a hospital checks just one state’s oversight board, disciplinary actions elsewhere may not turn up.

California, for example, recently discovered that 3,500 registered nurses with clean records there had been disciplined in other states.

HRSA is still trying to sort out the compliance status of 450 licensing boards and agencies that appear to never have reported discipline for some of the professions they oversee. The agency plans to report additional information in October.

Officials are in the process of comparing disciplinary actions reported to the federal database to what states have listed on the states’ own public websites. “This is a work in progress,” Wakefield said.

The review did not examine state agencies overseeing doctors and dentists because they have been reporting actions for nearly a decade more than others.

Some state officials said they were surprised to be labeled noncompliant.

David Potters, executive director and general counsel of West Virginia’s pharmacy board, acknowledged that his board had not submitted all of its disciplinary actions, but said he had turned in a plan to catch up.

Consumer advocate Dr. Sidney Wolfe, who has pushed for a more accurate databank, said the agency’s work in recent months is a huge step forward.

“HRSA is at least making some moves in directions that it hasn’t made for a while — and hopefully there will be many more moves,” said Wolfe, of Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that advocates for patient safety.

How did South Carolina medical professionals fare?

The Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank (HIPDB) and the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) are supposed to contain disciplinary actions taken against doctors, nurses, therapists and other health practitioners around the country so that hospitals and select others can run background checks before they hire new employees.

South Carolina was one of the states chastised for not reporting on at least one category of health professional. While S.C. has provided disciplinary actions against most medical professionals to the public, the NPDB reports that the state has not yet compiled or posted disciplinary actions against athletic directors, message therapists, or special purpose EMTs and is pending review on podiatrists and physician’s assistants.

South Carolina is also a member of a 24-state coalition created to help get good nurses to areas where they are needed most. Under the decade-old partnership, a license obtained in a nurse’s home state allows access to work in the other compact states. In some cases, nurses have retained clean multistate licenses after at least one compact state had banned them.

Luckily, the Palmetto State has a surprisingly accessible database of disciplinary actions against nurses in certain medical disciplines. The S.C. Board of Nursing disciplinary action information is available to the public, free of charge, at the S.C. Dept. of Labor Licensing and Regulation.

Troubled Nurses Skip from State to State Under Compact

Nurse Craig Peske was fired from a hospital in Wausau, Wis., in 2007 after stealing the powerful painkiller Dilaudid “whenever the opportunity arose,” state records say. In one three-month period, he signed out 245 syringes full of the drug — nine times the average of his fellow nurses.

Hospital officials reported him to Wisconsin nursing regulators and alerted police.

Six months later, Peske was charged with six felony counts of narcotic possession. But by that time, he had used a special “multistate” license to get a job as a traveling nurse at a hospital 1,200 miles away in New Bern, N.C.

“When I went to go for the job in North Carolina, I looked at the status of my license and it was still active,” said Peske, 36, who was later convicted of two felony drug charges. “That kind of surprised me, so I figured I would take it.”

The ease of Peske’s move illustrates significant gaps in regulatory efforts nationwide to keep nurses from avoiding the consequences of misconduct by hopping across state lines.

The two states in which Peske worked are part of a 24-state compact created to help get good nurses to areas where they are needed most. Under the decade-old partnership, a license obtained in a nurse’s home state allows access to work in the other compact states.

But an investigation by ProPublica found that the pact also has allowed nurses with records of misconduct to put patients in jeopardy.

In some cases, nurses have retained clean multistate licenses after at least one compact state had banned them. They have ignored their patients’ needs, stolen their pain medication, forgotten crucial tests or missed changes in their condition, records show.

Critics say the compact may actually multiply the risk to patients. There is no central licensing for the compact, so policing nurses is left to the vigilance of member states.

Outside the compact, each state licenses and disciplines its own nurses. But within it, states effectively agree to allow in nurses they have never reviewed.

“While any state can make mistakes, in a single-state license system, the errors impact one state,” said Genell Lee, head of Alabama’s nursing board, which is not part of the compact.

By comparison, when a compact state is slow to act or fails to share information, nurses suspected of negligence or misconduct remain free to work across nearly half the country, Lee said.

Joey Ridenour, chairwoman of the compact’s national board, said she believes the compact has promoted more and faster communication among states. She also said the number of compact nurses disciplined outside of their home states is very small.

But compact officials do not track how many nurses are sanctioned by their primary state for misconduct elsewhere. They also don’t question whether states are adequately policing visiting nurses: 10 states have disciplined three or fewer such nurses in the past decade, compact records show.

Ridenour acknowledged that the pact is only as good as the performance of its individual members. If a state has been historically lax, she said, joining the compact will not change that.

“I am very careful to say that this is not a cure-all,” said Ridenour, who also is executive director of Arizona’s nursing board. “I just believe it’s better than what we had before.”

A lack of screening

Weaknesses in the state-based system for disciplining problem nurses have surfaced as a public health issue during the past year. California, for example, revamped its nursing board and its executive officer resigned following reports of ineffective oversight that put patients at risk. The state recently discovered that 3,500 of its nurses had been disciplined by other states but had kept clean California licenses. With no federal licensing system, the compact has been seen as at least a partial solution for policing nurses who work in different states. To test its effectiveness, ProPublica examined the disciplinary actions taken by five compact states — Arizona, Virginia, Texas, Kentucky and North Carolina — in recent years.

Reporters found four dozen examples of nurses whose primary licenses remained clean for months or longer after another compact state barred them from working there.

Among the cases detailed in nursing board records:

Therese Morgan, who now goes by Therese Holmes, retains a multistate license in Maryland. Arizone banned her in January 2009 after incidents at five hospitals in the Phoenix area, including failing to show up for work, flunking orientation and frightening a patient whose catheter she removed. Doctors and staff asked that she not be assigned to certain patients. Holmes could not be reached for comment, and officials from the Maryland board would not discuss the case.

Stephen Woodfin, a nurse anesthetist, surrendered his right to practice in North Carolina in January 2006 because of substance abuse. Even so, he was able to keep a clean multistate license in Texas. Nearly two years later at an Amarillo, Texas, hospital, he passed out during a surgery, bleeding from a vein in his arm. The Texas Board of Nursing found he had abused the narcotic Fentanyl. In September 2008, the board suspended him. He now is on probation and is limited to working in Texas. Kathy Thomas, executive director of Texas’ nursing board, said she could not comment on Woodfin, who did not return calls. But Thomas noted that in some cases involving substance abuse, one of the most common reasons nurses get in trouble, discipline might not begin until after a nurse has flunked out of a confidential recovery program.

Dayna Hickman was suspended from practicing in Texas in September 2006, after she administered undiluted vitamin K too quickly to a patient at a Dallas hospital. The patient died a short time later. The next year, Hickman was placed on probation in California because of the Texas discipline. But her multistate license in Iowa remains clear.

Hickman, who now works as a critical care nurse in Mason City, Iowa, said she notified the Iowa nursing board about the incident in Texas. “I have an exemplary record outside of this as a nurse, so Iowa chose to not do anything,” Hickman said.

The Iowa board would not comment, citing privacy restrictions.

Allegations about nurse Craig Peske’s drug use did not stop once he reached North Carolina.

Within days of his arrival, a parent complained that Peske was falling asleep while attempting to insert an IV in her child. A hospital review found that he signed out the painkiller Demerol on dozens of occasions without a physician’s order. When he refused a drug test, he was fired in April 2008, nursing board records show.

Six months later, North Carolina banned him from working there. But Peske’s home state of Wisconsin did not revoke his multistate license until January 2009, giving him the ability to work in any of the other states until then.

Even Peske, who said recently he was sober and had a job as a home inspector in Wisconsin, questions why he wasn’t stopped sooner.

“Should I have been allowed to work in North Carolina? Probably not,” Peske said, then added more firmly, “No, I shouldn’t have been.”

Concern about gaps in licensing

Nationwide, nursing shortages have forced hospitals to rely on traveling or temporary nurses. Nurses working in one state now take medical-advice phone calls or use teleconferencing to see patients in another.

The compact is routinely touted as a success. Just last year, compact administrators said there was “no evidence” the compact compromised public protection, as the American Nurses Association asserted. But officials in nonparticipating states say they worry that the compact gives its members a false sense of security.

Differing laws, standards and staffing levels at state agencies, they said, make cooperation difficult. Even within the compact, state standards vary. Most states have the ability to immediately suspend a nurse’s license, but some can’t — even when the allegations are severe.

Likewise, some states require criminal background checks as a condition of getting a license, while others don’t.

That is one reason the Ohio Board of Nursing elected not to join.

“If an applicant has been convicted of certain crimes such as murder and rape, among others, the applicant cannot be considered for licensure in Ohio,” the board wrote. The majority of compact states, it noted, does not have the same tough standard.

Kansas’ attorney general in 1999 wrote that the state could not legally join. If one compact state, for example, decided that “a correspondence course in aroma therapy” was all that was needed to be licensed, Kansas would be required to let those nurses in.

Two national databases — one run by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, the second by the federal government — are supposed to alert regulators and employers to disciplined nurses. But that doesn’t always happen.

Amid such confusion, nurses accused of wrongdoing or incompetence keep working.

Alma Rice, 40, was able to work as a nurse in several states for seven years after she first got in trouble. Tennessee revoked her license in mid-2008 — only after she’d been accused of stealing drugs at four hospitals in three states and had racked up criminal convictions in each state.

Rice had been high on the job, tried to shred patient records to conceal her thefts and hid bottles of urine in her clothes in case she was drug-tested, nursing board and court records from several states show.

A forensic psychologist in Texas wrote in 2006: “It is still doubtful that (Rice) will be able to consistently behave in accordance…with generally accepted nursing standards.”

Rice also had been indicted for alleged child abuse by a Dyer County, Tenn. grand jury in February 2008 after her 18-month-old son was found with needle marks on his arm and tested positive for a powerful anesthetic, court records and newspaper reports said. Rice called police after she forgot where she left him, a report said. She later was convicted of misdemeanor assault in the case. Neither Rice nor her attorney returned calls and e-mails.

Shelley Walker, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Health, defended the process in Rice’s case. Three states took action against her within eight months of each other, she said.

Walker and other compact officials noted that nurses cannot be disciplined before they’ve had a chance to defend themselves.

But records show that while Tennessee and Texas were investigating, Rice was accused of stealing drugs from a hospital in Raleigh, NC.

Nurse Krystal Bauer, like Rice, moved so fast she amassed allegations in multiple states before her home state caught up. Bauer, 37, was accused of stealing drugs in October and November 2007 while working at a Glendale, Ariz., hospital, in December 2007 while at a Weston, Wis. hospital and in June 2008 at a Greenville, N.C. hospital.

She finally surrendered her license in her home state of Iowa in November 2008 after the other three states banned her.

Ridenour, head of the compact, said even the best communication can’t stop nurses when they are intent on manipulating the system. But she said the compact strives to elevate the licensing standards across state lines by, among other things, encouraging states to require criminal background checks.

Nurse Bauer, who said in an interview that she is sober, said the various boards’ obligations to give her due process allowed her to keep moving.

“Until an investigation is closed,” she said, “it’s not going to look like there’s anything going on.”

A rundown of conservation victories and defeats at the State House

By Todd Morehead

Mother Nature has had a rough year, particularly in the Southeast. Though South Carolinians can count our blessings that we aren’t dealing with the mess our Gulf Coast neighbors are enduring, we’re still staring down the barrel of the nuclear waste industry, polluted waterways, and the specter of offshore drilling, just to name a few concerns. To compound the problem, key environmental issues continue to play out under the gaze of an anemic Dept. of Health and Environmental Control or are swept aside altogether in the wake of political scandal and budget vetoes.

Just last week in Columbia, DHEC continued a swimming ban in the Congaree River near the Gervais Street Bridge, due to a coal tar-based goo that had coagulated on the riverbed. A few blocks up Gervais from the Congaree site, the legislative session at the State House recently drew to a close. Hard line conservationists would probably consider the 2009-2010 session a wash, though some important environmental legislation was actually able to squeak through. As the General Assembly cycled through bills in its usual Darwinian fashion, some key ideas and proposals actually fared well; in other areas, it seemed to be survival of the richest…

Waste Management

A bill that would have increased particulate ash waste from burned garbage was put on hold for another year. The Senate Medical Affairs subcommittee voted unanimously to carry the legislation over, effectively killing it for the time being. Introduced by Sen. Creighton Coleman, S.1325 would have subverted the states solid waste management plan by exempting large trash incinerators that generate small amounts of power, designating them as “waste to energy” facilities. The Covanta incinerator in Chester County –Coleman’s district—would be allowed to exceed its 600 ton per day limit by purchasing unused capacity from existing landfills. Covanta would then burn over half a million tons of trash annually, leaving behind tens of thousands of tons of ash waste and more mercury per unit of electricity than would be produced by a coal-fired power plant. In addition, the net effect of purchasing unused capacity, according to the ConservationVoters of S.C (CVSC), would have “swapped South Carolina’s future capacity with imported trash from northeastern states.”

On the flip side of that coin, Rep. Dwight Loftis helped pass an E-Waste Recycling bill (H.4093) that will help keep toxic heavy metals out of landfills and waterways. The bill requires electronics manufacturers to establish recovery programs for unused electronics at no cost to consumers.

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee killed a second recycling bill (S.173), that would have required beverage permit holders to recycle beer, wine, and liquor bottles. The subcommittee said it feared the law would put economic stress on small bars.

Clean Waterways

Following the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the House and Senate adopted S.1478, a joint resolution that calls for an Oil Spill Contingency Plan. Under the resolution, DHEC, the Dept. of Natural Resources, and the Governor’s Office must develop a plan to protect the state’s coastline if spilled oil from the Gulf makes its way around Florida, up the eastern seaboard, and onto South Carolina shores.

Further inland, a key first step was passed in the regulation and management of water resources South Carolina shares with other states, like the Savannah, Catawba-Wateree, and Pee Dee rivers. The water withdrawal permitting bill (S.452) passed both the House and the Senate and was signed into law after it was amended to maintain natural seasonal flows to protect wildlife and natural wetlands. The passage marks the end of four years of negotiations between manufacturers, utilities, water suppliers, farmers, conservation groups, and DHEC.

While water usage faired well, a number of water quality bills were ultimately killed. A bill requiring DHEC to create a standard emergency notification procedure about spills in public waters (H. 3606) passed in the House but didn’t make it through the Senate. The Senate also killed a House bill (H.4503) that sought to place restrictions on dishwashing detergents containing phosphates that are known to pollute state waters. The House Environmental Affairs Subcommittee killed a bill (H.4500) at the behest of the Realtors Association, according to the CVSC. H. 4500 would have required the inspection of septic tanks upon the sale of a home.

Despite two raw sewage spills in the Broad River in December 2009 alone, the Senate Medical Affairs Committee killed a “Three Strikes” bill (S.1170) that would require a mandated DHEC review of operations at sewage treatment facilities with three or more spills in any 12-month period.

Natural Resources Preservation

The Conservation Bank is a state funded effort to maintain and preserve wildlife habitats, natural areas, historical sites, watersheds, urban parks and other natural areas in the face of increasing land development. Though the Bank narrowly survived this legislative session, it ultimately came out battered, but intact. The Bank’s agency was cut more than any other state agency last year. Currently a “death clause” exists which zeroes the Bank’s budget when there are across-the-board cuts to state agencies. Language in H.4269 sought to remove the death clause but it was ultimate struck by the House Ways and Means Committee. The House struck attempts to direct $2 million to the Conservation Bank, as well, but later provided $207,000 to keep the doors open. The Senate added $1.5 million toward the $4.5 million in commitments the Bank had already made prior to this year’s budget cuts. Conservationists are pushing for the General Assembly to eventually designate the Bank as an official state agency.

Energy Efficiency

A bright spot in the legislative session came with the near unanimous passage of the Energy Efficiency Financing Bill (S.1096). The bill, introduced by Sen. Glenn McConnell, will ultimately save money for ratepayers, reduce energy use and create local, green jobs. Under the new legislation, municipal electric systems and electric cooperatives can reduce energy waste by offering voluntary financing and loans to residential customers to subsidize insulation, weatherization, and upgrades to more efficient heating and cooling systems. Loans would be liens tied to the electric meters rather than the properties and the homeowner would repay the loan over time on the utility bill.

A House bill aimed at encouraging energy efficiency (H.4683) was put on the backburner and is awaiting a rewrite so that it can be introduced next session. The bill seeks to allow counties and municipalities to issue bonds for energy improvement loans to residents and businesses. Those loans would be repaid as a special line item on property tax bills.

DHEC

Many conservationists believe the Dept. of Heath and Environmental Control (DHEC) would operate more productively and with more accountability as a cabinet agency. In 2009, Senators Phil Leventis and John Courson introduced S.384 to do just that. The bill made it through the Medical Affairs Subcommittee, but cabinet status was ultimately rejected by the full Committee. To keep the issue at the forefront, the conservation community offered amendments that would improve the management of DHEC and make its permitting process more transparent. DHEC has come under fire in recent years for appearing to “rubber stamp” air and water quality permits to large-scale waste producing industries and utility companies. The Senate never voted on the amendments or the bill after several senators raised objections.

Special thanks to the Conservation Voters of S.C. –Ann Timberlake and Debbie Parker, in particular—for compiling and providing the information and inspiration that shaped this legislative rundown.

For more information on environmental activism in the political arena, please visit CVSC at www.conservationvotersofsc.org.

Companies with a financial interest in a weed-killer sometimes found in drinking water paid for thousands of studies federal regulators are using to assess the herbicide’s health risks, records of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency show. Many of these industry-funded studies, which largely support atrazine’s safety, have never been published or subjected to an independent scientific peer review.

Meanwhile, some independent studies documenting potentially harmful effects on animals and humans are not included in the body of research the EPA deems relevant to its safety review, the Huffington Post Investigative Fund has found. These studies include many that have been published in respected scientific journals.

Even so, the EPA says that it would be “very difficult for someone to put a thumb on the scale” to slant the outcome.

Atrazine is one of the most widely used herbicides in the U.S. An estimated 76 million pounds of the chemical are sprayed on corn and other fields in the U.S. each year, sometimes ending up in rivers, streams, and drinking water supplies. It has been the focus of intense scientific debate over its potential to cause cancer, birth defects, and hormonal and reproductive problems. As the Huffington Post Investigative Fund reported in a series of articles last fall, the EPA failed to warn the public that the weed-killer had been found at levels above federal safety limits in drinking water in at least four states. Some water utilities are suing Syngenta to have it pay their costs of filtering the chemical.

Now the EPA is re-evaluating the health risks of atrazine, which was banned in the European Union in 2004 due to a lack of evidence to support its safe use. That ban includes Switzerland, where atrazine’s manufacturer, Syngenta, is headquartered. The EPA expects to announce results of its re-examination of the herbicide in September 2010. It could take action ranging from restrictions on its use on crops to an outright ban. Or it could permit continued use without additional restrictions.

The company, one of the world’s largest agribusinesses, says the chemical has been used safely for decades and restrictions could prove devastating to farmers who are heavily dependent on the inexpensive herbicide. Atrazine poses “no harm” to the general population or to drinking water supplies, said company spokesman Steven Goldsmith.

EPA records obtained by The Huffington Post Investigative Fund show that at least half of the 6,611 studies the agency is reviewing to help make its decision were conducted by scientists and organizations with a financial stake in atrazine, including Syngenta or its affiliated companies and research contractors.

More than 80 percent of studies on which the EPA are relying have never been published. This means that they have not undergone rigorous “peer review” by independent scientists, a customary method to ensure studies are credible and scientifically sound before they can be published in major journals.

At the same time several prominent studies by independent academic scientists in well-respected scientific journals – showing negative reproductive effects of atrazine in animals and humans – are absent from the EPA’s list.

That finding may raise concerns about how the agency is doing its work. Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees environmental regulators, told the Investigative Fund, “it’s critically important that EPA use all of the information at its disposal.”

Agency scientists may review studies not on the list, but EPA senior policy analyst William Jordan said that the 6,611 studies are those considered “relevant to the assessment of atrazine.”

‘Not Just Atrazine’

EPA spokeswoman Betsaida Alcantara said the list was not exhaustive and that some studies may not be on the list because they were not given an eight-digit “master record identification number,” which the agency uses to keep track of studies. There is “no uniform practice” for assigning numbers to studies submitted by people other than those working for herbicide, fungicide or pesticide manufacturers, she added.

EPA officials said that with a limited budget the agency must rely heavily on research sponsored by parties with a stake in the outcome. The agency’s “test guidelines” governing how experiments are conducted – the types and number of lab animals to be used, for instance. These provide sufficient safeguards against skewed results, officials said.

“Companies have a very strong incentive to follow the guidelines,” said EPA senior analyst Jordan. “We hope and think that we have written the guidelines with enough detail that it would be very difficult for someone to put a thumb on the scale, as it were, to slant the outcome, [or] to make something look safer than it is.”

Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist specializing in health issues at the Natural Resources Defense Council, argues that relying on a company to test the safety of its own product – an “inherent conflict” of interest – is part of a larger pattern at the EPA. “It’s not just happening with atrazine,” she said.

Hundreds of herbicides, pesticides, and other chemicals are regulated by the EPA, whose decisions can have significant implications for public health and on the abilities of an array of multinational companies to earn billions of dollars in the U.S.

By law, industry influence often is built into the regulatory process of the federal government. At the Food and Drug Administration, for instance, clinical trials conducted by pharmaceutical companies are used to determine whether pills and devices work and are safe. Makers of pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides also must pay for studies on their products. If they meet agency rules for conducting the testing, the EPA must accept them.

The ‘Funding Effect’

But is industry-funded research always reliable? A pair of scientists funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the EPA scrutinized a  Syngenta-funded Canadian study – one that is not on the EPA’s list. The scientists said they found numerous inaccuracies and misleading statements.

The scientists who questioned the study, University of South Florida biologists Jason Rohr and Krista McCoy, published  their critique in the March 2010 issue of the journal Conservation Letters. In all, they tallied what they said were 122 inaccurate and 22 misleading statements, of which 96.5 percent appeared to support atrazine’s safety. The widely cited study focused on the herbicide’s effects on fish and other aquatic creatures.

Rohr and McCoy also asserted that the Canadian study, which was done in 2008, misrepresented more than 50 other studies. For example, it incorrectly suggested that only one scientist had demonstrated the chemical’s gender-altering effects on frogs. In fact, several other scientists demonstrated such effects.

The study dismissed one of Rohr’s papers as invalid, noting wrongly that the researcher had filtered atrazine out of a water tank while trying to assess the chemical’s effect on the aquatic organisms in the tank.

The Canadian study also misrepresented results, figures, and conclusions of other studies, according to the University of South Florida biologists.

Rohr, who served on an EPA advisory panel examining atrazine last year, told the Investigative Fund that he felt compelled “to set the record straight given the potential policy and environmental implications of these misconceptions and inaccuracies.”

The author of the Canadian study, University of Guelph (Ontario) biologist Keith Solomon, declined to respond to questions from the Investigative Fund about his financial ties to Syngenta, the company’s influence, or the inaccuracies and mischaracterizations the South Florida biologists said they had uncovered. Solomon noted that other scientists had come to similar conclusions, and that governments in the U.S. and Australia had not found any significant risk to creatures living in water.

While the critiqued study is not on the EPA’s list, several other studies by Solomon are.

Wendy Wagner, an expert in environmental policy at the University of Texas law school, said that the criticism of the Canadian study demonstrates a phenomenon sometimes referred to as “the funding effect.”

“It is next to impossible to squeeze all of the discretion out of a researcher, and when he has a strong incentive to find a particular result, the result can be unreliable and badly biased research,” said Wagner, an authority on the influence of politics and special interests on science. “There is compelling evidence that bias still pervades sponsored pesticide research – research that presumably is done in accord with EPA’s guidelines.”

Meanwhile, some independently-funded academic research published in major scientific journals is missing from the list of papers the EPA is using to make its decisions on atrazine. Absent are studies published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Environmental Health Perspectives, and Nature. Many works by independent academic scientists such as Tyrone Hayes and Rohr – who have demonstrated a range of potential reproductive and hormonal effects of the chemical – are not on the list.

Some peer-reviewed studies from prestigious journals fail to meet the agency’s standards, said EPA analyst Jordan, citing as an example work by scientists such as Hayes, who recently found that low doses of atrazine could turn male frogs into female frogs.

Jordan explained that the agency couldn’t rely on Hayes’ and the other scientists’ research in part because the government lacked protocols for testing chemicals on frogs. So the EPA developed those guidelines and asked Syngenta to study the issue. The company’s researchers reported that they were unable to replicate Hayes’ findings. Jordan said the Syngenta study “superceded” Hayes’ and the other scientists’ studies. The EPA, on its Website,  currently states that atrazine causes no such adverse effects on frogs and that “no additional testing is warranted” to address the issue.

Environmental groups have in the past criticized the EPA for allowing chemical companies to wield disproportionate influence over regulatory decisions. While evaluating the safety of atrazine in 2003, the EPA allowed representatives from Syngenta to participate in closed-door negotiations with the agency, according to documents obtained by the NRDC in 2004.

Missing Evidence

Dale Kemery, an EPA spokesman, defended the practice of omitting some studies. The agency’s safety “review may not include every study that has been conducted, since some may not meet the standards that are appropriate for a regulatory setting or they may not be on target for the issues to be assessed.”

The EPA considers industry-sponsored studies “scientifically more robust than are the studies generated by people in academia,” said Jordan, the agency’s senior policy analyst. “That’s generally because companies spend more money on their studies and can attend to details that are potentially important that people in academia just can’t afford to do.”

Jordan added that agency oversight of the thousands of unpublished studies on the list is just as rigorous as a peer-review by scientists prior to publication in a scientific journal. “I know that people might not agree with this proposition, but I believe that the scientists at EPA constitute a peer-review,” he said. “Our scientists go over the studies with a fine tooth comb.”

EPA officials said they were not able to provide a list of all omitted research.

A spokeswoman for CropLife America, the Washington D.C.-based trade association that represents pesticide and herbicide manufacturers, said EPA oversight is thorough, regardless of whether studies have appeared in peer-reviewed journals.

“Whether or not they have been published, the studies submitted to EPA for registration support of pesticide products are subject to scientific review by EPA scientists that is equally, if not more, rigorous and demanding than the pre-publication peer review conducted by any scientific journal,” said spokeswoman Mary Emma Young.

Some people are skeptical about the rigor of the EPA’s scrutiny. “What worries me,” said the University of Texas’ Wagner, “is the possibility that there isn’t time or energy within EPA to give a lot of oversight to this unpublished, industry-funded research, especially when the number of unpublished studies for a chemical like atrazine are in the thousands.”

A former EPA official, epidemiologist Lynn Goldman, said it is normal and necessary for the agency to accept unpublished and industry-funded studies, most of which would not be interesting enough to publish in scientific journals.

“This is the way that the system was built by Congress.  It could be changed but the EPA does not have the authority to turn the system upside down,” said Goldman, a former assistant administrator for toxic substances during the Clinton administration.

The existence of a list of relevant research for EPA review has played a prominent role in public arguments for the herbicide’s safety. Journalists, scientists, and advocates for atrazine have frequently cited the “6,000” studies.

In 2005, Anne Lindsay, then a top official in the EPA’s Office of Pesticide Programs, brought up the number of studies during congressional testimony. “Atrazine is one of the most well-examined pesticides in the marketplace,” she said, noting that “there are nearly 6,000 studies in EPA files on the human health and environmental effect of atrazine.”

Syngenta now cites the number in its press materials and on its website – not merely as a tally of studies but as proof of its safety. “Atrazine passes the most stringent, up-to-date safety requirements in the world,” said spokesman Paul Minehart. “In 2006, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) re-registered atrazine in 2006 based on the overwhelming evidence of safety from nearly 6,000 studies.”

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