Politics

Time for Horry County Sheriff Referendum

It is time for the citizens of Horry County to answer a referendum question ‘should all county law enforcement responsibility be turned back to the Horry County Sheriff?’

Unfortunately, this is something that Horry County Council must approve and, if information from a number of sources is accurate, the political will to approve a referendum vote is not a majority view of county council members at present.

Horry County Council members must answer the question, ‘are county citizens better off with the current system, which gives most law enforcement responsibilities to the Horry County Police Department?’

Considering SLED has several ongoing criminal investigations into the HCPD, especially the detective division, as well as several lawsuits already filed against HCPD with more expected to come, the obvious conclusion is a resounding NO!

Much to my surprise Sheriff Phillip Thompson said several days ago that he believed it is time to put the question of whether to recombine the HCPD with the Horry County Sheriff’s Department to the citizens of Horry County.

Thompson said he has received hundreds of calls from county residents over the last several weeks saying it was time for the sheriff’s department to run law enforcement activities within the county.

There are pros and cons to having the departments combined.

At this time, I believe the pros of having the sheriff take over the HCPD far outweigh the cons.

The sheriff is an elected official, directly answerable to the public. With HCPD under Horry County Council, through the administrator, there are too many levels of bureaucracy.

With the current situation, of a citizen has a problem with HCPD he or she inevitably calls his council member, who calls the administrator, who calls the police chief, who calls the captain of the area the complaint is about, who calls the officers involved.

With all those levels of bureaucracy to pass through, the problem often isn’t addressed and may never be solved.

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USDOJ Auditing Horry County Schools

Grand Strand Daily has learned that the US Department of Justice is sending an auditor to Horry County next week to audit the student to teacher ratios in English as a Second Language courses in Horry County Schools.

Why is the Department of Justice auditing student to teacher ratios in an education course?

This reporter spent nearly an hour on the phone with various individuals at the USDOJ headquarters trying to get an answer to that question.

I did find out that the audit is coming through the Civil Rights Division and I did briefly speak to an attorney, described to me as “on the case,” but the attorney would not answer any questions.

(How many times have you heard representatives of federal, state or local government decrying the supposed inaccuracies of stories in the media? What they never tell you is our collective governments do their very best to keep everything they are doing secret from the media.)

Failing to get an answer to my question from DOJ representatives and considering the Civil Rights Division is involved, I am going to hazard a guess the upcoming audit has more behind it than just English as a Second Language student to teacher ratios.

My guess is it also includes the fact that Horry County Schools is at least on the periphery of the transgender bathroom use issue that has the USDOJ so active in Virginia and North Carolina at this time.

Is this a warning shot across the bow that the USDOJ is looking closely at Horry County Schools?

This strikes me as a huge overreach by the federal government.

Consider this, tax dollars paid partially by citizens of Horry County are being used to audit courses in Horry County public schools, paid for by more tax dollars from citizens of Horry County, to determine whether the civil rights of illegal immigrants, many of whom pay no taxes at all, are being violated?

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David Cox in School Board District Four Race

David Cox, a veteran of two terms of service on the Horry County School Board, is seeking to represent a new district in the upcoming general election.

Cox was first elected to the school board by the citizens of District Nine in 2008 and was reelected in 2012.

Recently, however, Cox and his family moved to a new home in District Four.

“We took advantage of an opportunity to purchase property at a good price,” said Cox. “I expected to complete my second term and that would be all I would serve.”

After Kay Loftus, the school board member for District Four, passed away several months ago, Cox decided to run for the vacant seat.

“I felt I could bring my experience to the citizens as District Four goes through some significant changes in the next several years,” said Cox. “Four of the five new schools we recently contracted to build will be in District Four.”

Currently serving as Vice Chairman of the school board, Cox listed several of the initiatives he is proud of over his two terms of service:

Lowered the tax millage rate by 18 mils
Continuing improvement SAT and ACT scores among high school students
Implemented Professional Device 4 Learning for students Grade 3 and up
Continuing increase of college scholarship money earned by Horry County high school seniors ($67 million total by 2015 Horry County Schools graduates)

The Professional Device 4 Learning initiative gives each child their own I Pod linked to a central I Pod so the teacher can monitor the work of each individual child.

“I believe it gives every student a level playing field by allowing each student to learn at his or her own pace,” said Cox. “We all know that no two students learn in exactly the same way. This allows each student to learn at their own pace, yet still reach the final learning goals for the year.”

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The Social Issue of Transgender Bathrooms

Any time a controversial social issue comes to the fore, it brings along with it a variety of opinions that become so heated that rational thought becomes blurred.

The question of transgender bathrooms in Horry County schools has exploded into such an issue. The debate on this potent issue includes public fears, religious morality and political involvement.

At one time, this type of dilemma would not have been on anyone’s agenda as to many it is a non-issue. However, right now it is a hot topic as the controversial transgender bathroom is getting public and media attention no one thought possible.

Two days ago the Horry County School Board passed a resolution to say the administration would follow the law as it now stands (allowing transgender students to use the bathroom of the gender with which they identify or a private bathroom, whichever they prefer).

The school board also passed a motion to file an amicus curiae brief in support of the Gloucester (VA) County School Board, the agency in the middle of a lawsuit on transgender bathroom use.

Parents of non-transgender students continue to question the morality and safety of the decision. Parents of transgender students worry about the safety and stigmatization of their children.

For the reader…If you want to be a compassionate individual, try having a person’s anxiety who has a transgender body and their torment. Imagine the turmoil of how they feel trapped within a body they don’t want to have, but are not able to fully be the one they want to be. It is a self-torturing conundrum to have, trying to break loose from a feeling of frustration to one of freedom. For them it must be a joy to be able to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with.

On the other side of the coin, is the moral consciousness of people who believe such a decision is immoral and sacrilegious to the core of morality. To them, crossing over from one gender to another is blasphemous.

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Donald Trump Runs Cruz Out of Race – Update

Kasich to Suspend Campaign

A senior campaign official for John Kasich said the Ohio governor plans to announcee he is suspending his presidential primary campaign today.

It appears reality has finally sunk in to the final Republican candidate left standing against Donald Trump. Reality says the Kasich campaign was over whether he suspended it or not.

Trump will have locked up the nomination by the time the Republicans gather in Cleveland for their national convention in July.

Now it will be interesting to see the developing strategy for winning the general election in November.

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Donald Trump burned down the Ted Cruz firewall in Indiana and Cruz suspended his campaign for the presidency after getting clobbered by Hoosier voters.

The victory for Trump is not only over Cruz and the other candidates who started in the race, but over the Republican Party itself.

I don’t know if the party leaders get it, but, this year at least, the voters have demonstrated over and over they don’t want an establishment politician in the presidency.

This is a populist election year. Voters are tired of the political polarization the two parties have fed us for over 30 years while the middle class contracts and more good jobs disappear to foreign countries every year.

It’s not completely over because Trump does not have the 1,237 delegates needed to sew up the nomination yet. But he will by first ballot time because nothing of consequence stands in his way.

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Robert Seth Rabon Withdraws Candidacy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Aynor – May 2, 2016

Robert Seth Rabon announced today that he is withdrawing his candidacy for the Republican nomination for Horry County Auditor.

The decision to withdraw was made because of deteriorating medical conditions of family members.

Rabon said the decision to withdraw from the Auditor’s race was extremely difficult. It came after much consideration, prayerful thought and discussion with family members.

“Some health problems with family members have recently become much more serious,” said Rabon. “As much as I would like to serve the citizens of Horry County, responding to the needs of my family must be my first consideration.”

“I would like to thank all of my supporters, especially those who have been working so diligently for my election,” Rabon said. “I am sorry I have to take this step, but it is the right thing for me to do at this time.”

Rabon was challenging six term incumbent Lois Eargle for the Republican nomination.

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In the Center of the Transgender Storm – Update

The Horry County School Board is trying to work its way out of the center of a transgender storm regarding bathroom usage in schools.

After the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals recorded a 2-1 decision in the case of G.G. v. Gloucester (VA) County recently, a student who had been suspended for one day for using a school bathroom not of the student’s “birth-assigned sex” threatened to sue Horry County Schools.

The student is represented by the Transgender Law Center of California, which sent a letter to the school district threatening the law suit.

Just in the last several days, Horry County School Board members and Superintendent Rick Maxey received an email with two attachments from an attorney of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Scottsdale, Arizona headquartered organization with a branch in Georgia.

The subject of the email is: “Schools Are Not Legally Required to Allow Students to Use Opposite-Sex Restrooms, Showers, and Changing Rooms.”

One of the email attachments “explains the recent decision in the case of G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board and dispels the myth that, following the decision, schools are required to allow students to use the restrooms of the opposite sex,” according to the email.

My first thought was why do a law center based in California and a non-profit organization headquartered in Arizona want to get involved in Horry County?

My second thought, an answer to the first, was so that these two organizations can bring their causes into the national spotlight, using Horry County to test the Fourth Circuit ruling. You know, the old 15 minutes of fame or, in this case, maybe 15 years of fame for these organizations.

Do we want our school board to get in the middle of a national legal fight over transgender rights, equal protection, Title IX, discrimination and the like or do we want them concentrating on educating our children?

Remember, any public money spent on fighting lawsuits is money taken away from our children’s education. And we certainly don’t want to have to raise taxes just to be the center of national media attention.

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Transgender Bathroom Issues Hit Horry County Schools

(Above Shanda Allen with husband Al Allen)

Over the past 48 hours, Horry County has literally exploded in comments about transgender bathroom usage in Horry County Schools.

The Horry County School Board has been the focus of this deluge of communications, mostly by parents opposing transgender students being allowed to use the bathroom of their choice.

Last week, a three judge panel at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 decision, in G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board, that a Virginia school discriminated “on the basis of sex” in violation of Title IX when it barred “G.G.,” a “transgender boy” (a girl who identifies as a boy) from using the boys’ restroom.

Previously, the school had allowed the student to use either the girls’ bathroom or one of the school’s single stall bathroom units created by the school to accommodate transgender students, but open to usage by all students.

Forcing the student to use a common area bathroom with a gender she didn’t identify with or to use a special single stall bathroom was determined discriminatory by the panel of judges.

The Horry County School Board faces the same type of situation with a transgender boy who was suspended from school for using the boys’ bathroom.

After the suspension, Horry County Schools was notified in a letter from the Transgender Law Center that it faced a lawsuit if students were denied usage of the bathroom of the gender with which they identify and live as on a daily basis.

Earlier this week, Horry County Schools released a statement, “The District maintains the privacy of all of its students. The District seeks to accommodate the individual needs of its transgender students in compliance with the law, including Title IX. We will continue our efforts to ensure a welcoming school environment for all students.”

That statement opened a deluge of communications from parents concerned with the idea of students of one gender using the bathroom of the opposite gender regardless of the gender with which the individual identifies himself or herself.

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Press Release: American Execs Tried To Cut Off Al Qaeda Funding Pre 9/11

The news media is filled with reports that the “Saudi kingdom’s involvement was deliberately covered up at the highest levels of our government. And the cover-up goes beyond locking up 28 pages of the Saudi report in a vault in the US Capitol basement. Investigations were throttled. Co-conspirators were let off the hook.” Fox News, Huffington Post, Miami Herald, New York Post, Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

Beyond the contents of the 9/11 report allegedly implicating Saudi involvement in the funding of al Qaeda, is the documented information on how the United States Justice Department’s vaunted NCIC system was used in the attempted murder of United States business executives who were unwittingly shutting off Saudi funding to al Qaeda. For the past fifteen years, the surviving business executives have spent their lives to get to the truth of why they were targeted and why the United States Justice Department was actively involved in protecting the perpetrators.

During the fifteen years, they have uncovered links and concrete irrefutable documentation of the involvement of an Assistant Director of the FBI, the office of United States Senator Lindsey Graham, the United States Justice Department, the head of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) and a Director in the Office of Homeland Security. The internal documents from the individuals and/or the agencies involved detail how these individuals’ lives were destroyed by illegal actions of the government under the guise of National Security to keep the secret of the Saudi financial involvement in 9/11 from the American public.

Millions of dollars of government funds were used and are still being used to stop this action from reaching a truly independent review in Federal District Court. The local political and geopolitical interest supersedes the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution because of the perceived impact of exposing documentation of both our governments’ actions against the public to protect Saudi interests tied to the funding of the attack on the United States on September 11, 2001 and the Saudis funding 9/11.

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Potential Buyer Looking at PTR Industries

(Above Gov. Nikki Haley with a special edition assault rifle presented to her by PTR Industries}

A firm from New York state is reportedly looking at the possibility of buying PTR Industries, a deal that could save the company’s operations at Horry County’s Cool Springs Business Park.

PTR Industries was recruited to relocate from Connecticut to Horry County in 2013 by the Myrtle Beach Regional Development Corporation. This was touted as a major coup by MBREDC as Horry County was a successful bidder over several other states in landing PTR Industries.

A package that included an approximately $1 million upgrade of a county spec building at Cool Springs Business Park and incentive based job creation credits was put together by MBREDC and the SC Department of Commerce for PTR Industries.

The company brought approximately 21 workers with it from Connecticut and promised to create an additional 145 jobs in Horry County within three years.

PTR Industries commenced operations in Horry County in January 2014 and hired approximately 28 additional employees in the first months of its operations.

However, it quickly fell behind in its rent payments to Horry County for the Cool Springs Business Park building that is its headquarters and manufacturing location. One week after a Grand Opening celebration, in July 2014, that included appearances by Gov. Nikki Haley and local Congressman Tom Rice, PTR Industries laid off some workers and instituted a 10% across the board pay cut to those remaining.

Since then, PTR Industries has struggled. According to several sources, Horry County Council restructured its rent deal with PTR Industries last fall in order to help the company become current.

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