South Carolina has grown into a manufacturing powerhouse over the past three decades, since German carmaker BMW planted its flag in the Upstate, transforming the former textile region into a major automotive hub.

At the same time, rapid advancements in automation, driven by artificial intelligence, puts workers at elevated risk of losing out in favor of machines.

But walk into almost any public school in South Carolina—particularly those where over half the students qualify for free or reduced lunch—and you’ll hear a different philosophy. Teachers do not hand out fifties to reward sloth. They do it to prevent despair. A single zero can send an average plummeting beyond any mathematical recovery, no matter how much a student may improve. The grading floor keeps the door open for redemption.

The pigs are off to the races in 76 days, as part of the return of the annual Great Anderson County Fair at Anderson Sports & Entertainment Center April 30-May 10, for 11 days of family fun, rides, live entertainment, and fair food favorites to the Upstate.

As the largest fair in the Upstate, the annual event attracts more than 75,000 guests each year. Fair hours are Monday–Thursday from 4–10 p.m., Fridays from 4–11 p.m., Saturdays from 11 a.m.–11 p.m., and Sundays from 12:30–10 p.m.

The funds seed the Watts of Love Member Assistance Program, which provides two main forms of support to eligible members. Bill assistance offers short-term financial help during times of hardship. Home upgrade grants can cover improvements like programmable thermostats, new windows, mini-split units or added insulation.

For almost 90 years, the Anderson County Library, not content with providing a beacon of learning throughout the communities it serves, has taken their mission to the streets. Beginning in March, they will have a shiny new Bookmobile to make this goal even more complete.

South Carolina law enforcement chiefs are urging legislators to reject a freshman lawmaker’s proposal to regulate, not ban, intoxicating hemp products for people like his son, who uses them to treat seizures.

It’s a bad idea, according to leaders of the State Law Enforcement Division and associations representing police chiefs and sheriffs across South Carolina, whose letters to House leaders were shared Monday with all 124 members.

The Anderson County Transportation Committee is a seven-member, volunteer panel that decides how a share of the roughly $4 received from South Carolina’s gasoline-tax “C‑funds” is spent on local road and transportation work in Anderson County. It partners with the state Department of Transportation to select and prioritize projects such as paving, resurfacing, intersection and small bridge upgrades, drainage and sidewalk work, ensuring money goes to the most pressing needs on both state highways and local roads.

Rural King has added an Anderson location to its official website, a digital placeholder for a store that does not yet exist.  Job postings have begun to appear—department leads in livestock and agriculture, among others—suggesting an interior less concerned with mannequins and more with mineral blocks, gate hardware, and fifty‑pound sacks of feed.  Local commercial real‑estate notices have confirmed what the council’s vote implies: the mall’s western anchor is being drafted into a new life, with tractors where the Kenmore washing machines once rested.

Recently the community has shined a brighter light on his efforts as a businessman and community leader. Last year was a busy year for Mance, who was selected to serve on the Anderson Capital Projects Sales Tax Commission where he worked to identify and refine what efforts where most needed and where relating to Anderson County roads and bridges. The Andersonian was recognized by the Greenville Chamber of as owner of the Minority Business of the Year, and, with his father, Small Business of the Year.

Anderson City Council will meet Monday at 6 p.m. to take up a slate of land-use and software-contract decisions that collectively point to how the city is managing growth at its edges while tightening up its internal operations.  The agenda features final approval of a church-driven rezoning on McLees Road, two new annexation requests tied to commercial and residential projects on the city’s west side, a three‑year, six‑figure renewal of the city’s asset‑management software, and a resolution that would help unlock state tax credits for the redevelopment of a long‑abandoned North Main Street retail site.

Anderson is lagging behind Greenville and Spartanburg in the number of shelter beds available to people with nowhere else to go, a deficit that shows up in the small, human‑sized ways that are difficult to digest from a spreadsheet—where a person spends the night after a relapse, how far a woman fleeing violence has to travel to find a bed that isn’t already taken.  The task force estimates that Anderson needs roughly 150 additional beds just to catch up, and has coalesced around the idea of recruiting a seasoned operator rather than improvising one from scratch.

The Champions Center calls itself a therapeutic day center, but that phrase doesn’t quite capture the density of need concentrated in its classrooms. The facility is a therapeutic day center for children living with special needs, disabilities, or medically complex conditions

They not only get specialized care while they’re there, they also get their therapies, disciplines that, in other contexts, exist as separate appointments on different days in different offices—are folded into a single daily routine.

The country-music roadshow that billed itself as a small-town celebration of American grit will not be coming back to Anderson this summer.

Namely, the bipartisan legislation adds a layer of penalties when the intoxicated driver injures, rather than kills, someone to the point they lose consciousness or have to undergo anesthesia to be treated. It also toughens punishments, removes tripwires where charges get dismissed over videotaping issues and prods people to submit to breathalyzer and blood testing.

To help residents, businesses, and local governments track the work, CSX and its contractor are using a fully interactive Google map that provides daily, real-time updates on each impacted crossing.  As the project progresses, users can zoom in on Anderson or Greenville County, click any map icon, and see the latest information for that specific crossing at any time of day.

Anderson County Council on Tuesday moved forward with several measures aimed at better planning for accommodation tax funds (ATAX), protecting land development, regulating solar farms, new ethics restrictions and parental leave policies.

The bill “affirms and protects the fundamental rights of parents” by increasing the age when teens can start bypassing their supervision, Rep. Heath Sessions, who leads the panel that first voted on the proposal, said in explanation.

Existing state law sets 16 as the age when teenagers can make decisions about their health care, unless it involves a non-lifesaving surgery.

More than 200 citizens gathered Monday night at the Anderson Civic Center for a South Carolina Public Service Commission hearing on Duke Energy’s proposal to build a 1,365-megawatt natural gas power plant in Southern Anderson County. The $3.2 billion facility, sited on nearly 200 acres near Highway 81 South and True Temper Road, would be Duke’s first new generation project in South Carolina in a decade. If approved, construction would begin in summer 2027, with operations commencing by early 2031.

On April 7, two of the city’s races will be contested, and a third will be settled without a fight. A single candidate has also stepped forward to claim the council seat left vacant by Luis Gonzalez, who resigned in December, leaving District 2 temporarily without a representative and City Hall with one more empty nameplate in its chamber.

Anderson County Council is scheduled to meet Tuesday at the Historic Courthouse with a crowded agenda that includes a bond to overhaul the civic center amphitheater, development regulations, solar farm restrictions, and with decisions likely to shape growth, employee benefits and tourism spending for years to come.