Thanks to the pandemic and social distancing, this year’s Fourth of July celebration was a bit subdued. Because local officials wanted the public to maintain proper social distancing guidelines, massive displays of fireworks where crowds usually gather to celebrate the Fourth, were canceled. But if you looked up in the Columbia sky on the Fourth of July, you probably saw […]
WWII hero still giving back
“There are heroes all around us. We just need to look and see the good news happening in our community.” “Hero,” an apt description of 97-year-old Columbia resident David Hubbard, a WWII and Battle of the Bulge Veteran. Chaplain, Lt. Col. Brian Bohlman of the NSA GA/Georgia ANG delivered those words to a small crowd of family, friends, and service […]
Changing the Narrative: Resources for a more inclusive curriculum from Historic Columbia
For the last 15 years, Historic Columbia has intentionally worked to address the stories of all residents of our community, while highlighting stories of triumph and struggle of African American residents. All too often, African American experiences and perspectives are omitted in the classroom, sometimes resulting in the perpetuation of lost cause mythology. The result of this exclusion is vividly […]
Quirky Crimes in the Capital City
West Columbia Charleston Highway: A woman was arrested at 12:30 a.m. Friday after an officer spotted her loitering in a motel parking lot. When the officer approached the woman to see if she was OK, she got out of the car and told him she had a room at the motel and was just getting her “stuff” out of the […]
COVID-19 is serious
The COVID-19 crisis is serious. No rational person questions that fact. However, if you look at the numbers, you’ll see a declining death rate across the entire country. If, as DHEC suggests, cases of coronavirus are ten times higher than reported, it would indicate mortality is an order of magnitude lower than what is being reported. In South Carolina, the […]
Amid pandemic, pet adoptions are on the rise, teaching children lessons for life
ASK US AT THE STARHow do children benefit from having a pet? Animal lovers have long known pets bring immense happiness, an experience many are having for the first time as more time at home these days has encouraged the adoption of dogs and cats. Although the benefits of having a pet have been well documented, recently there have been reports that children learn […]
Down Memory Lane
It’s not a criticism; It’s an observationLate last Friday afternoon, my mind began rerunning old memories of my childhood. I was walking with my brother in downtown Tuscaloosa in 1961. We were both barefoot and penniless, but heading for an old department store that likely sold nothing we were interested in. What we were interested in was cool air. Hard to consider such a thing nowadays, […]
Definitely not a yacht
I’m just saying...Last week I told you the story of a trip my husband Marty and I took to Florida where we mistakenly ended up in the prison town of Starke, Florida. We ended up in motel hell, but we made the best of it, and the next morning we were thankful to survive the night without contracting anything fatal. Or at […]
Rejected by God
50–SomethingOK, so maybe saying we were rejected by God is a bit harsh, but my family and I were definitely rejected by our church this past Sunday…another symptom of this stupid pandemic. In fairness to our church leaders and staff, they’re doing a phenomenal job providing in-person services. These days, we’re lucky to have church at all. Our leaders have […]
Richland County Council discusses mask enforcement
The Tuesday, July 14 Richland County Council meeting opened with a missing agenda item that was eventually found—a divide the question vote on whether to go into executive session and a lengthy executive session period. After the session ended, the council voted to reject the settlement proposal by the South Carolina Board of Revenue, opening further negotiations, but to address […]
