As part of an initiative to get students off their phones, the agency is asking legislators for money to buy curriculum explaining the negative effects of screen time. The education department would partner with ScreenStrong, a North Carolina-based nonprofit that sells books and courses educating children and their parents about how screens can hinder learning and other parts of their lives.

The question of why all this happens—why the county needs a tree, why downtown needs a rink, why Rose Valley needs synchronized reindeer—is answered, in part, by the older story about God showing up as a baby in a dark world. The rest of the answer is more local and less doctrinal.

And yet, each December, the column resurfaces, undeterred by its detractors and improbably fresh for a piece written before radio.  Part of its endurance lies in its refusal to argue about the wrong thing; Church declines to litigate the logistics of rooftop access and reindeer velocity, and instead posits Santa as an index of how seriously adults are willing to take a child’s capacity for wonder.  In a culture that tends to confuse sophistication with disenchantment, the editorial offers a compact defense of believing in things that cannot be itemized in a ledger or photographed with a phone.

The backpacks, sturdier than the bargain-bin versions, will be distributed not only at Hope Missions but also through The Salvation Army of Anderson, South Main Chapel & Mercy Center, Asher House and other partner agencies in the city.

Sanders arrived in the South Carolina House already fluent in the dialect of local government, having spent four years on town council and eight as mayor in West Pelzer, but the General Assembly presented a different kind of education.  One of the first things he did, along with 18 other freshmen, was go through orientation that asked them, for a moment, to forget party labels and caucus lines and simply learn each other’s families and biographies. 

Two days before Christmas, with rain clouds stalled over the Piedmont, Anderson County Administrator Rusty Burns sat in his office and tried to explain what a 2.5 billion dollar power plant actually means to a county that still prides itself on the heritage of mill hills and Friday-night football. 

It is officially “Panic Buying Season.” The calendar insists it’s late December, but your brain is still stuck in mid-October, scrolling through an endless digital catalog, fingers twitching toward the “Add to Cart” button, eyes glazing over as you contemplate the logistics of two-day shipping. The siren song of convenience is hard to resist—especially when the alternative is leaving the house, facing the chill, and possibly having to make eye contact with another human being.

The calendar insists that Christmas is about a birth in Bethlehem; the sky, with its early darkness and low arc of light, suggests a second plot line, in which the holiday is also a yearly celebration of the sun changing its mind.

The premise is disarmingly simple.  Elementary school children eat free; their parents pay three dollars for a plate, a price that seems designed less to cover costs than to insist gently that everyone has skin in the game.  Every child gets to see Santa, every child gets a toy, and there are “other characters” roaming the room—costumed figures who add a touch of low-budget pageantry to the proceedings.

There is nothing flashy about this version of growth.  It is incremental, almost stubbornly local: one library, one meeting room, one rehabilitated building at a time.  But in a town like Iva, that is how progress announces itself—not in ribbon cuttings for multinational companies, but in the sight of people walking across the street with books, and in the knowledge that there are now more reasons to gather than to leave.

As pennies vanish from the American landscape, many businesses are clamoring for federal guidance on how to handle cash transactions in a penniless world.

Should retailers round up or down? Should they round in favor of the customer? Or in favor of the business?

The memorial exists to provide a dignified final resting place and public acknowledgment for people who died in Anderson County whose remains were unclaimed or whose families’ lacked means for burial.  Historically, indigent burials took place in a potter’s field until that space filled up; the civic center site and wall continue that function while making remembrance more visible to the community.

Anderson County Council marked a half-century of emergency medical service Tuesday, honoring Medshore founder Greg Shore for what he called “a dream” career built on partnerships, accreditation and countless lives saved. The recognition came during the county council meeting at the Anderson Civic Center, where Shore said the 50 years since he launched the private ambulance company have “gone by so fast,” crediting employees and local partners for the company’s success and its role in the county’s EMS system.

The property generated $245 in tax revenue last year and is expected to bring in between $500,000 and $1 million in the next 18 months.

Anderson County Council approved first reading of a fee-in-lieu-of taxes for an unidentified existing company promising a minimum of a new $125 million investment with at least 125 new jobs.

Burriss Nelson, director of economic development for Anderson County, said the final pieces of the agreement are in the works, but that he expects the company to far exceed the numbers in the original agreement.

County Council is recognized Mattison as she steps down from the bench, honoring more than 40 years of county service and her decades as a magistrate judge with a resolution that noted that her career has left a lasting mark on Anderson County’s judicial system and its citizens, whose lives and communities have been directly affected by her decisions, fairness and steady presence in the courtroom.

In his year-in-review interview with The Anderson Observer, Burgess speaks of the town’s progress not in the language of statistics or grand announcements, but in the measured cadence of someone who has watched Williamston grow from a place of modest means to a community with its own rhythm and identity. The year began with a renewed commitment to infrastructure, as Williamston repaired aging roads and upgraded its water and sewer systems, investments that may go unnoticed by the casual observer but are as vital.

On the incentives front, Council will weigh a fee‑in‑lieu‑of‑tax and special source credit agreement for a project identified only as “Project Next,” which would trade standard property tax payments for negotiated fee payments and credits tied to infrastructure investment.  A separate inducement resolution would designate a Duke Energy Carolinas power‑generation project as economic development property under the state’s simplified fee‑in‑lieu statute, allowing a future fee agreement, potential special source credits, and inclusion in a joint industrial park.

The icy Sunday-afternoon wind blowing into Iva did little to diminish the community turnout for the final Christmas Parade among the county’s cities and towns, with families lining the streets for a day of holiday displays and a glimpse at Santa Claus.

The Greenville & Western Railway Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western Carolina Railway Service Corporation, operates 12.74 miles of rail line in Anderson County, and CEO Steven Hawkins sees the Santa Train as a way to give back each year. “It’s about community,” Hawkins said. “It’s about making sure no one goes hungry during the holidays.”