For the past two years, 14 families, most elderly and in financial strife living along Arcadia Wood Lake ( Coopers Pond), have been crippled by an emergency order instituted by Department of Health and Environmental Control ( DHEC) Bureau of Water to immediately empty their lake in an effort to prevent damage to life should there be a dam failure. […]
Education, the hope to change gang violence
Recently Columbia awoke to a harrowing story; the most senseless, but dreadful of inner city violence and mayhem- “the drive by shooting.” There is no reason, just death, permanent injury, and sometimes not requisite intent to kill or maim. Two crimes, similar in nature, only seven blocks apart spark indignation against blatant gang activities. One shooting is of a popular […]
Reader responds to Collins’s Oct. 18 commentary on Obamacare
I ask this question to you, Miss Collins: If this socalled Affordable Care Act is so good, then why did so many people and companies ask for deferment or exemption altogether? The Democratic Party alone came up with this, which most people call Obamacare. Me? I call it the largest Ponzi scheme ever placed on the American taxpayer. The system […]
Quirky Crimes in the Capital City
Forest Acres tValleybrook Road: A 46-year-old woman was arrested 8:30 a.m. Tuesday after witnesses said she laid in wait for her ex-fiancée to show up for work and then attacked him. The main witness to the assault was the 50-year-old man’s new girlfriend. She called police when the ex-fiancée attacked her boyfriend as she drove him to work. The current […]
The Columbia Curmudgeons
Saluted by Clemson fans Dear Curmudgeons, You text, you drive, you die! This bumper sticker speaks truth. I’m getting one for my car because I was nearly sideswiped twice this week by texting blonds with Clemson paws on their rear windows. I blew the horn at them, and I got the finger in return. Is this any way to treat […]
Historic Columbia Garden Spotlight
One of Columbia’s greatest assets is its canopy of urban trees. In fact, Columbia has been designated a Tree City USA community for the last 34 years by the Arbor Day Foundation—longer than any other city in South Carolina. Trees have tremendous value. Urban planners might tout the various benefits of trees from environmental and economic to social and community […]
ASK ANN…
Who are the homeless?Families represent 23 percent of the homeless. More than 3.5 million people are homeless every night, and, of these, 1.35 million are children. Out of every 50 children, one will become homeless every year. When we think of the homeless, we almost always picture a man pushing a grocery cart with all of his belongings or a man sleeping in […]
A Tour de Farce
I’m just saying...I went to Mexico this summer to attend the wedding of a woman I think of as a niece. Her mom and dad are my “inlaws” and very close friends. When the bride decided she wanted a destination wedding and picked a hotel/spa just outside of Cancun, I was elated as one of my closest friends lives near there in […]
Chain Saw Fantasies
It’s not a criticism; It’s an observationContrary to what my friends think, I do perform yard work on occasion. I don’t spend hours each day manicuring immaculate lawn lines, like my friend Cranky Frankie. I don’t plan my week around keeping two yards presentable like my friend Marc. But I do sweat and cuss and occasionally collapse into a pathetic lump of wheezing atoms. The chain […]
