Briefs

City of Columbia is not alone

The Legislative Audit Council has audited the Employment Security Commission to find out how the agency went from a surplus of $800 million in 2000 to a deficit that should hit $1 billion sometime in 2010. Among many shortcomings, over the past three years, the agency paid $171 million to those who were fired for cause, as in misconduct, not just laid off due to economic pressures. The ESC’s interim executive director, Samuel Foster, reported at least 40 states are expected to have insolvent unemployment funds by the end of this year.

Schedule revisions

SCANA’s S.C. Electric & Gas Co. has won approval from the S.C. Public Service Commission for a revised production schedule in its completion of two new nuclear reactors in Jenkinsville. The final target dates for completion, April 2016 and January 2019, remain unchanged. The reactors are designed by Westinghouse.

Small business can take a shot

Savannah River Nuclear Solutions is fielding lunchtime questions from small businesses interested in landing contracts connected to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. For more information, go to http://www.savannahrivernuclearsolutions. com/ or call 800.888.7986. The dates and locations are Feb. 18 (1750 Jackson St., Barnwell), March 18 (City Club, 724 Broad St., Augusta), and April 15 (Newberry Hall, 117 Newberry St., Aiken). All lunch meetings are scheduled for 11:30 am–1:30 pm.

Agriculture money funds schools

The Dillon County School Facilities Corporation, part of the Corridor of Shame, has been selected for a $35.8 million loan and a $4 million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture with federal funds provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Moore School

The University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business ranks as the best business school in the world for “international experience” in the newly published Global MBA Rankings by the

Financial Times newspaper.

TSFG

The holding company of Carolina First Bank and Mercantile Bank, The South Financial Group reported its eighth consecutive quarterly loss last week. Since early 2008, Greenville–based TSFG has lost almost $1.3 billion. As of Monday’s close, a share of TSFG stock was worth $0.45. The share price needs to rise above $1 and stay there for TSFG to remain listed on Nasdaq. For most of 2005, the value of a TSFG share hovered around $30.

Kindle

Fast Forward, 3223 Devine St., is holding a free Kindle2 class from 10 am until noon on Saturday, February 6. Learn the special features, how the Kindle works and how to make the Kindle work for you. Call 343.2577.

Charleston bus ridership tops 4 million

Bus ridership on the Charleston area public transit system (CARTA) for 2009 was 4,039,773. In greater Columbia, public transit system (CMRTA) bus ridership came to 2,335,000 for 2009, about what it’s been since SCANA pushed down ridership by 50 percent between 1982 and 1992. SCANA’s last payment in support of the bus system was October 2009. Before SCANA’s 900 employees left Main Street’s Palmetto Center for its new $142 million headquarters in Cayce, SCANA negotiated its way out of its obligation to run Columbia’s transit system, and it gained a 30–year extension to its Columbia utility monopoly.

Garvin Design makes Peace

Greenville’s Peace Center for the Performing Arts is about to undergo a $21.5 million capital improvement project designed by Columbia’s Garvin Design Group. Built the same time as Columbia’s Koger Center in the late 1980s, the Peace Center originally cost about $15,000 a seat, while the Koger Center came in for a little less than $7,500 a seat, a relative bargain. Roughly on the same schedule, the Blumenthal in Charlotte cost $20,000 a seat. Houston built its Wortham Opera House and Dallas, Myerson Symphony Hall, both for about $40,000 a seat, also in the late 1980s. Koger Center upgrades are on hold while Taylor Street’s Township Auditorium takes $12 million in improvements.

Faster trains

North Carolina is in line for $520 million in stimulus funds to improve the passenger train route between Charlotte and Raleigh, increasing average speeds to 90 mph and doubling the number of round trips per day. South Carolina elected officials are yet to openly discuss intrastate passenger rail connections.