Voters will choose between two candidates whose resumes reflect different paths of local service. Julia Clanton, an English teacher and girls’ basketball coach, and Jodie Southwood, a nurse with emergency-services experience, are running for the at-large West Pelzer Town Council.

The referendum will appear as a special election on May 2, and it asks voters in Anderson School District Two to decide the fate of a plan that would address the district’s two middle schools, both of them housed in buildings built in the 1950s. Belton Middle School sits in the old Belton High School building, while Honea Path Middle School occupies the former Geer Gantt High School, and both have needs that district officials describe as extensive and costly.

The sixteenth annual South Carolina Chili Cook-Off Championship is set for Saturday, from 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. in downtown Belton. More than 30 professional chili cooks from across the United States and Canada will compete for a chance to make it to the World Championships in one of four categories: Red Chili, Chile Verde, Homestyle Chili and Salsa.

“I love city management, but I am excited for this new role,” said Miller. “I wish Pendleton the best,” adding that the town is in a great place to move forward thanks to the work of “those who have served the town and set them up to win.”

McElhannon says she came to the work through the food bank, where daily contact with residents made the town’s needs impossible to ignore. There is a plainness to that explanation that feels almost old-fashioned: she saw the problem, and then she decided to do something about it. In Pelzer, a town of small scale and large memory, the new outreach office appears to be built on that simple bargain between attention and obligation.

The ban applies to all 46 counties and bars outdoor burning in unincorporated areas, including yard debris fires, prescribed burns, campfires, bonfires and other recreational fires. The commission said the combination of dry fuels, critically low relative humidity and gusty winds has created conditions that could turn even a small spark into a dangerous fire.

But in a vote of 4-2 along party lines Wednesday, a panel advanced Sen. Richard Cash’s latest attempt to ban abortions without exceptions for rape or incest, or for fatal fetal anomalies. Four Republicans and one Democrat on the panel were absent Wednesday.

The deal brings in-house a key supplier that Vertiv has worked with for years, allowing the company to accelerate production of prefabricated systems for data centers under pressure to scale quickly, CEO Giordano Albertazzi said in a statement. BMarko, founded in 2014 and based in Williamston near Anderson County, recently expanded its plant to 560,000 square feet — a facility now folded into Vertiv’s regional operations.

Darryl Thompson, who lost to Winbush in the race, filed a protest to the results challenging the residency of his opponent. A city hearing on Tuesday determined that there was not enough evidence to verify Winbush’s residency in the district thus nullifying last week’s election results in the race. City council candidates are required to reside in the city district they are seeking at the time of filing to run for office.

Make no mistake, for app store operators like Apple and Google, this system is designed with one goal in mind: profit. It’s time to demand safeguards for our children online. For too long, we’ve let app stores run wild, allowing minors to enter contracts when they download new applications, treating kids like adults, all while keeping their parents in the dark. App stores are the gatekeepers to the digital world, and they’ve shown that with that power, they have not done their part in protecting children. 

The new agreement will allow the city to launch a new post-overdose response team soon, according to City of Anderson Fire Chief Charlie King. King told council the agreement formalizes a long-standing relationship between the city and county and gives the department a way to move forward quickly, rather than waiting about a year for a separate licensure process to be completed.

In Pendleton, the Keese Barn was more than a building. It was at the heart of Black community during segregation. The site was visible, social, and enduring. Its history, and the effort to rebuild the building as a public gathering place aim to make it one of the town’s most revealing landmarks.

The event is set for April 25 from 8 a.m.-noon with kickoff at 1428 Pearman Dairy Road. Safety vests, googles, bags, litter grabbers and gloves will be available. Last year more than 500 volunteers in the annual effort to pick up litter along many of the main roads in the county,

Those who cannot make the April 25 event can pick up free supplies to help clean up the county of litter anytime during the month of April to join in the effort in their own neighborhoods.

Honea Path’s inaugural Dancing Ghost FolkFest brought more than 3,000 to downtown on Saturday for music, art, food and of course, dancing goats.

The cooperative effort between the fire is a memorandum of agreement with Anderson County EMS to support paramedic-level response within the city limits. Under the arrangement, the city would supply personnel and equipment while the county provides physician-level medical control, training, and some supply support as Anderson works toward its own licensure. There is no funding request tied directly to the MOA since funding is primarily being provided by the South Carolina Opioid Recovery Fund.

The event will be held at 204 Keese Street, and will feature a DJ, music games, vendors, food trucks, arts & crafts, a talent show, step performances, and a 3x3 basketball tournament.

The past year has crackled with momentum, but that can change quickly.

The event is a deliberate intervention by Prisma Health’s Healthy Start initiative, which targets the disparities that shadow births in the Upstate. The Zone, its nonprofit ally, amplifies the effort with a mission to arm youth and families against scarcity through skills and sustenance.

Fishbox examined 100 large lakes using data on dissolved oxygen, ammonia, lead, sulfate, phosphorus, turbidity, and related measures collected between Jan. 1, 2020, and July 15, 2025, from the National Water Quality Monitoring Council. Nearly half of the lakes studied had at least three pollution factors, which made Hartwell’s high ranking stand out all the more.

The disagreement over which students could receive the funds pitted some of the program’s most ardent supporters against each other, as senators grilled state Superintendent Ellen Weaver, who ran a think tank that pushed for school choice programs, over giving homeschooled students the money. Hembree, who sponsored the bill, told Weaver he felt she made him a liar after he repeatedly assured senators the money did not go to homeschooled students.