Today's Spotlight
Clogged and getting worse
With commuters bumper-to-bumper on I-26, riding rails gets serious look
Interstate 26 is by far our most important and heavily traveled roadway in the Charleston metropolitan area.
On a typical workday, roughly 140,000 vehicles roll through its busiest stretches — 160 a minute during the morning rush.
Most of the time, I-26 efficiently speeds motorists between downtown Charleston and Summerville in 20 to 25 minutes. But rush hour is a different story.
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Ready for rail?
Lowcountry commuters need more transportation options, as rush-hour traffic congeals and gas prices continue to rise. There's no better time to undertake a public discussion of establishing commuter rail service in the Charleston metropolitan area.
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WATCHDOG: READER REPORT UPDATE
Updated 05:45 p.m., July 3, 2008
The municipal service truck that an alert reader spotted parking in a handicapped parking space was a city of Charleston vehicle. Charleston officials confirmed for Watchdog Thursday that the truck belongs to the city.
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WATCHDOG INVESTIGATES: Dock roof permits
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WATCHDOG REPORT: Disabled group photographs parking obstacles
They don't wear badges or carry ticket books, but their tactics may be just as effective when it comes to identifying parking cheaters. For the past year, a group of area residents with spinal cord injuries has canvassed sidewalks, streets and parking lots across the Lowcountry to photograph the types of obstacles that disabled people encounter. They've documented a variety of problems such as wheelchair access issues and handicapped parking violations, said Susan Newman, a nursing student at the Medical University of South Carolina who created the project as part of her doctoral dissertation. For the project, called Photovoice, Newman teamed with the Disability Resource Center in North Charleston and distributed digital cameras to 10 participants.
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WATCHDOG REPORT: Turning out the lights
Some South Carolina residents struggle to pay their power bills
Updated 04:04 p.m., June 20, 2008
Groceries or lights?
That’s a question facing hundreds of people every day in South Carolina. Often, the choice is groceries.
In the first three months of this year, Duke Power, Progress Energy and Scana Corp., the owner of South Carolina Electric & Gas Co., pulled the plug on almost 39,000 homes for falling behind on electricity bills. That equates to 427 a day, according to a Post and Courier Watchdog analysis of state records. And those numbers don’t account for almost half of South Carolina households, which are hooked up to state-owned Santee Cooper, an electric cooperative or other public utilities — organizations that are not required to report disconnection statistics. The number of disconnections has risen only slightly in recent months. However, cutoffs typically peak in October, when months of bills boiled up by summer’s heat finally overwhelm household budgets.
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Watchdog: Louisiana environmental officials say no to Italian nuke waste; South Carolina DHEC punts
A plan to import radioactive waste from Italy through the port of New Orleans poses an unreasonable threat to the port, human health and the environment, Louisiana environmental regulators said in a recent report. EnergySolutions also wants to send the waste through Charleston. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control didn't prepare a report similar to Louisiana's and passed when given a chance to submit comments to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
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Watchdog Report: Are you getting your money's worth at the pump?
Updated 01:52 p.m., June 9, 2008
A few weeks ago, Thomas Taylor went to a gas station in North Charleston to refuel his motorcycle. He topped off the 1.7-gallon tank and stopped the pump. But when he looked at the pump’s display, the dollar total kept spinning higher. “It lasted about 15 seconds, and I held the gas pump in the air to show the clerk that I was being charged for air,” said Taylor, a local bartender. “But he told me I had to pay. It makes me wonder who out there is cheating.” In the tri-county area, state inspectors in the past two years found that 225 pumps, about 2.1 percent, were “out of tolerance.” That means they were giving or short-changing customers more than 3.3 fluid ounces for every five gallons, a Post and Courier Watchdog analysis of inspection records shows.
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Watchdog report: Hot fuel not good for your pocketbook or your car
Thanks to rules set up decades ago by the petroleum industry, you’re probably not getting your money’s worth when you fill your gas tank on hot days like today. Unlike milk, kerosene and even beer, gasoline is measured as though it’s always 60 degrees outside. At that temperature, a gallon takes up 231 cubic inches. But at 90 degrees, today’s expected high, it takes up about 235 cubic inches.
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WATCHDOG UPDATE: The cost of procrastination
Want to fight city hall? Pay your parking ticket on time.Every year, the city's coffers get an extra boost from people who pay their tickets late. In fact, the city makes more money from the procrastinators than the punctual. In 2007, the city collected $887,485 from those who paid their parking meter tickets on time but collected $1.2 million from those who paid their tickets late. A meter violation costs $8. If you wait 10 days, it goes up to $12. Wait 20 days, and you're out $17.
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WATCHDOG REPORT: Counties have trouble catching property tax cheaters
MONCKS CORNER — Some tax cheaters are slipping through the cracks because many counties don't have the ability to verify homeowners' addresses with the state. The problem involves the way homes are assessed for taxes. A homeowner's primary residence is assessed at a rate of 4 percent. But second homes, such as those leased to tenants or used as vacation homes, are assessed at 6 percent. That extra two percent can tempt some to try and beat the system by applying for the lower rate.
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WATCHDOG REPORT: Parking cheaters hurt city coffers, records show
New parking revenue figures from the city of Charleston suggest that people who misuse handicap placards and jam meters may be taking a toll on city finances. Collections from parking meters have dropped from about $1 million six years ago to roughly $936,000 last year. The number of parking meters has remained stable over the past decade, but some neighborhood activists say they've seen an explosion in the misuse of handicap placards in the past few years. This has a direct impact on city coffers because people who use handicap placards are allowed to park for free at metered spots and in public garages. A recent Watchdog investigation found widespread misuse of handicap placards in areas of the city where parking is at a premium, especially around the City Market and the Medical University of South Carolina.
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Watchdog reports: Utility customer wants to conserve more than water
Charleston Water System encourages conservation of its precious liquid resource. But customer Greg Yancey was surprised to learn that the utility doesn't offer electronic billing, an environmentally friendly service that not only saves paper but also reduces costs and pollution associated with preparing and sending bills through the mail. "They ask their customers to conserve water," Yancey said. "So doesn't it make sense for a public utility to do the same with trees?" When Yancey recently contacted a utility representative to suggest the paperless service, he received a polite but noncommittal answer. So Yancey contacted The Post and Courier's Watchdog, and we got an answer for him.
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Wanna eat, drink and be careful?
Restaurant inspections on Watchdog
If you're eating out, there's a good chance your restaurant did fine in its latest health inspection. Of more than 4,200 restaurant inspections, about 3,600, or 5 out of every 6, yielded scores above 88 points, a Post and Courier Watchdog analysis found.
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WATCHDOG REPORT: Eat, Drink and Be Careful
Some restaurants do well in health inspections; others don't
Every year, state health inspectors conduct more than 4,000 inspections of restaurants, school cafeterias, bars and grocery stores in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties. Restaurants typically get high grades during most inspections. Roughly 3,500 or five out of six establishments during the past year yielded scores above 88 points or As, according to a Watchdog analysis of 4,200 inspection reports. Getting hungry? Hold the mustard. That means restaurants scored Bs or worse in nearly 700 inspections.
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Watchdog Video
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Tony Bartelme
Parking Privileges: The Post and Courier Watchdog team recently hit the streets of Charleston to gauge the abuse of handicapped parking system.
Post and Courier Investigations
A collection of award-winning Post and Courier special reports
Day Care Roulette Weak laws, poor enforcement and lack of ratings leave parents guessing in their search for quality child care
The Mercury Connection - Is mercury pollution poisoning you? The Post and Courier tests people to find out.
The Sofa Super Store Fire - A special section with every story, photo galleries and audio & video clips from the fire that killed nine fire fighters.
A three-day series of articles on why South Carolina's public school buses are the nation's oldest, most polluting and least safe.
Under Fire - An ecological jewel north of Charleston, the Francis Marion National Forest faces unprecedented pressure from developers, road-builders and other forces. The Post and Courier's award-winning series, "Under Fire," examines and exposes these and other threats.
Cops who commit crimes can remain on patrol across South Carolina because the system to stop them is broken at every stage.
The nation's volunteer firefighting system is collapsing because it can no longer keep up with demands for service, training and manpower.
GRACE BEAHM/The Post and Courier
What's Wrong In This Picture: A Post and Courier photographer recently captured this image ofCharleston firefighters responding to a car fire next to Roper Hospital,triggering an internal investigation in the department. The problem: Twofirefighters weren't wearing air packs -- despite being trained to do so inthe wake of the Sofa Super Store Fire. A captain was given a two-weeksuspension without pay, and the second firefighter received a writtenwarning.If you have your own "Smoking Gun" photo, video or document, send it to Watchdog.
