Duke’s rate increase and worker decrease

Duke’s rate increase is for $74.1 million a year or an average of 5.2 percent to be implemented by February 1, 2010. The targeted return on common equity is 11 percent. Meanwhile, Duke will offer buyouts to workers while it consolidates corporate functions between Charlotte and its Midwest operations. Duke employs about 18,000 people, and the company does not have a specific job–reduction target in its sights. There is a move this year to shave $200 million from operating expenses.

Automotive textiles

The textile business in S.C. picks up, thanks to the automobile assembly activity. Investing $6.5 million and creating 50 jobs, Suminoe Textile of America Corp. will expand its Automotive Materials Division plant operations in Gaffney, Cherokee County. Suminoe Textile of America is a wholly–owned subsidiary of Suminoe Textile Ltd., originally of Osaka, Japan.

December house sales

Compared with December 2008 numbers, Charleston–area home sales increased almost 30 percent in December 2009. Greater Columbia home sales rose almost 7 percent in December over last year. Statewide, sales increased 16.4 percent in 2009 over 2008 and were up 28.3 percent for the last quarter in 2009.

December unemployment rates

South Carolina’s unemployment rate hit a record high of 12.6 percent in December 2009. Lexington County’s unemployment rate of 8.7 percent was the state’s lowest. Richland County had an unemployment rate of 10 percent, same as the national unemployment rate for December. Allendale County had the worst in the state at 23.6 percent. South Carolina has lost 109,000 jobs since December 2007, which was when the recession began.

Comments on December’s unemployment rates

Don Schunk, research economist at Coastal Carolina University, upon hearing the 12.6 percent unemployment rate for South Carolina in last December, said a peak between 13 percent and 14 percent was within easy reach. Said Schunk, “The light at the end of the tunnel continues to flicker.”

Handling the campaign handler

Last Thursday afternoon, January 21, inside EdVenture Children’s Museum, Lexington high school teacher Kelly Payne offered herself to the Republican Party as its candidate for state superintendent of education. Following her speech, Payne asked for questions from the press. John O’Connor of The State was particularly interested in Payne’s position on tax credits and private schools. John Temple Ligon of The Columbia Star asked Payne if she wanted to cite other schools or school districts in other cities across the country that glowed in education accomplishment like cities of light atop the hills well above the dark embarrassments in American public education. After her low–response dance, Payne was asked by Ligon how she saw her potential position on the board of trustees at the University of South Carolina, part of the job of being the state’s superintendent. Without giving Payne much of a chance to answer, her handler Larry Marchant yelled across the room, “She invited questions from the press, Temple. Let’s leave the questions to the press.” Ligon offered his high–response correction, “The weekly Columbia Star, Larry. Once a week. Is that all right?”

Medical school branches into Spartanburg

The Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) of Blacksburg, Va., has announced its new four–year branch to open in Spartanburg in the fall of 2011. Likely intentions and uncertain feasibilities were disclosed last May, but now VCOM is definite. The campus site, for now, appears to be an old Spartan Mills textile plant near downtown Spartanburg.

Attendance record

The Columbia Museum of Art set a daily attendance record of 2,006 from noon until 5 pm on Sunday, January 17, while the day was free admission and it was the last day to see Ansel Adams: Masterworks. The CMA’s previous daily attendance record was 1,590 during Turner to Cezanne, March 6–June 7. On January 17, ten percent of the visitors were from outside South Carolina, and 55 percent were from beyond Richland County.