Opinion

To conduct business in the Panhandle, some local officials have had to play a game of musical meeting sites. But that changed recently when Merrifield Partners, the developer of 521 Commerce Center on U.S. 521, donated a 1,300-square-foot space in its Pinckney Building.

Lancaster County Economic Development Corp., Lancaster County Chamber of Commerce and the local office of the S.C. Employment Security Commission will use the space.

"Often times, all of us have had a need for office space, a place to meet” in Indian Land, said LCEDC President Keith Tunnell.

I recently noticed an obvious and hopefully, an innocent misprint in the March 9 edition of The Neighbors of York and Lancaster County in The Charlotte Observer.

The story was the coverage of S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford's support of Mick Mulvaney, a Republican candidate for the S.C. Senate 16 District.

The Lancaster News had already covered the story with the correct information. Along with the story was similar photo that was published in The Lancaster News. It was a photo of Sanford, Mulvaney and Mulvaney's wife.

As sheriff of Lancaster County, I would like to discuss an issue very close to each of us - crime prevention. My office is committed to making our neighborhoods safer places to live.

By doing so, we will improve the quality of life for individuals and families, both young and old. It is imperative that we seek progress to reduce the negative influences that crime has on our children and to help safeguard the elderly.

Critics of social networking Web sites better get used it; they're here to stay. The youth are using them to keep in touch with one another.

Telecommuters from HP are using them to connect with their development teams. Even military officers are using Facebook to organize their squadrons.

Social networks are a part of a larger schema that is oft called Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is the catalyst for the culture clash between those who embrace these tools and those who are just fine with the conventional methods.

We have asked a couple of times for our public bodies to do a little bit more to get involved in the effort to stop the interbasin transfer.

The state of North Carolina approved a request from two of its towns, Concord and Kannapolis, to withdraw up to 10 million gallons a day from the Catawba River.

That water would be returned, as sewage, to the Yadkin-Pee Dee River basin.

When this first popped up, at the end of 2005, Chester County Council approved a resolution saying it was opposed to the transfer. There wasn’t too much other action after that, for a while.

Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer answers questions about aging issues.

Question: My mother called me the other day wanting to know what I thought about a great program that an insurance agent called her about. The agent told her that they would give her either a motorized scooter or $1,000 if she completed a survey on health-related questions and provided some personal information. When she said that she would fill out a survey, an agent came by her house to notarize the survey and have her sign a release.

I enjoyed editor Barbara Rutledge's recent column "Conversations, tidbits and FYI's." I can only imagine how many complaints you must get any given day.

But I, too, harbor a list that irritates me.

I have submitted information to The Lancaster News. And because of miscommunication and inconsistent procedures my information was not published or lost. Also, I had my personal photos misplaced.

I had just lost all hope in The Lancaster News.

Recently looking over some old photographs of downtown and news of the death of an uptown guy sent me down memory lane.

The death of Frank Ghent took me back in time when downtown was a hopping place in the Red Rose City.

Mr. Ghent, who died Feb. 26, was one of the two barbers at "the hole," also known as the Friendly Barber Shop.

The place was quite friendly, but what about "the hole?"

Often when Tigers and Gamecocks meet, somebody's departing in a down mode. Such wasn't the case at the Carole Ray Dowling Health Services Center on the University of South Carolina at Lancaster campus last month.

When those who bleed garnet and those who have orange in their veins met that day, their smiles were akin to those worn when one state rival downs another.

The happy event was the check presentations following the sixth annual Big Thursday golf tournament.