Columns

By now, most folks know that President Barack Obama – actually the secretary of Homeland Security – issued certain orders in November of last year that allowed about 5 million people who were in the country illegally to stay here.

If he had stopped there, then this column might have been about the relative merits (or demerits) of doing that. However, he also did several other things, including giving those same people the right to work. That is something else entirely.

A 9-foot-wide, bright red windmill will greet visitors to the Bradley Arts and Sciences building at University of South Carolina Lancaster this week.

To give it its French name, the “Moulin Rouge” forms the centerpiece of the flamboyant and colorful décor which will be the setting for this year’s Art and Soul Gala on Saturday, Feb. 7.

With a new session that began Jan. 13, the opportunities for positive reforms to our system of governance, tax structure and personal freedoms should be plentiful.

And while there are some strong reforms on the table this year, it’s the weak refoms – and even some measures that would take us backward – that will likely take center stage if citizens don’t keep a watchful eye on their lawmakers.

I read with interest the story in the The Lancaster News about Sheriff Barry Faile’s proposal for a fee district for Indian Land to fund more deputies here.

I have some questions:

Why would we levy a fee on just Indian Land, and not shift the existing deputies more? The article states that the city of Lancaster has “a little over 10,000 people over six miles, with more than 38 sworn officers.”