Author: Dick Mangrum

Five Upstate South Carolina hospital systems took part in a news conference today to demonstrate the worsening rate of COVID-19 infection, and the need for the unvaccinated to take advantage of the shots that can protect individuals and all with whom they are in close contact.  The news conference started with remarks by Dr. Surabhi Gaur, chief medical officer of […]

RELEASE DATE: August 26, 2021   Masks Will Be Required on all SDOC Buses Per new requirements by the SC Department of Education The School District of Oconee County received notification earlier today from the SC State Department of Education that re-institutes the requirement of face masks for students and drivers** on buses. The memo states: “Throughout the pandemic, the […]

Within a few minutes, announcement expected from Oconee public schools that the state will now require all aboard South Carolina school buses to be masked–in the face of rising COVID cases.  The latest numbers from Oconee schools are 275 total cases–64 employees and 211 students.  In the last seven days, there were 200 cases alone.

Figures from the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce indicate Oconee County finished the month of July with an unemployment rate of 4.5%, or 1,542 members of the county workforce out of work but actively looking to be re-employed.  At the same time, the county’s labor force for July numbered 34,546.  As is often the case, Oconee’s two South […]

Fire took a toll Tuesday evening in downtown Royston, Georgia to a former theatre building and an adjoining structure.  After surveying the damage yesterday, investigators say the fire that destroyed the former Royston Theatre building and damaged the Old Corner Hardware is undetermined.  Royston Fire Department received help from 17 volunteer departments in five counties, some of it from the […]

Senator Tim Scott, South Carolina Republican, says he has joined 11 of his Senate colleagues and 57 in the House in a letter to President Biden raising alarm about the consequences of the Afghanistan withdrawal and asking questions about what America does now.  Scott and the others want action on a new strategy while managing the repercussions of what they […]

A state lawmaker, a civic leader, and a university official were among those who filled the ears yesterday of NRC workers involved in determining whether Oconee Nuclear Station receives a second, extended license.  It’s a multi-year process to decide whether Duke Energy’s three-unit power maker in Oconee is deserving of an additional 20 years of life.  Going to bat for […]

Authorities say a 45-year old driver of a tractor-trailer truck met his death late yesterday afternoon on I-85 north, not far from mile marker 31 in Anderson County.  Coroner Greg Shore identified the deceased as Gilbert Ray Bennett Jr. of Vancouver, Washington.  According to Shore and the state patrol, Bennett apparently lost control of his rig in a tire blow-out […]

A 39-year old Seneca man sat in jail today charged, among other offenses, with attempted murder Monday at a home on the Mormon Church Road.  The Oconee Sheriff’s Office lists the following charges against Darrell Earl Maxwell Jr. of Brentwood Drive:  attempted murder; first degree burglary; petty larceny;  possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime; and […]

Here are numbers from this afternoon’s COVID-19 numbers from South Carolina DHEC: New cases across the state:  2,659 (37 in Oconee County) New confirmed deaths:  27 including two in Anderson County Of 18,736 test results received, the positivity was 18.6%.