Author: Dick Mangrum

With only a few days left, Oconee County continues to trail both the state and the nation in responding to the 2020 Census.  By mid afternoon yesterday, Oconeeans’ response rate stood at 58.4%– behind both the state (60.2%) and the country (66.3%).  County leaders are worried that a severe undercount will cost the county valuable monies when it comes to […]

An appeals court has reversed an earlier ruling and now South Carolinians who qualify to vote absentee by mail must now have their signatures witnessed.  Chris Whitmire, director of public information for the state Election Commission, made that announcement yesterday and said his office will continue to notify the public of any changes to the witness requirement through the media […]

South Carolina DHEC announced 664 new confirmed cases and 16 additional confirmed deaths.  There were five new Oconee County cases. This brings the total number of South Carolina confirmed cases to 139,021 and confirmed deaths to 3,097. The total number of individual test results reported to DHEC yesterday statewide was 6,995 (not including antibody tests) and the percent positive was 9.5%.

Seneca’s popular Jazz on the Alley is on a hiatus for tonight.  Riley Johnson, event coordinator, says the forecast of rain in our area the next few hours is enough to cancel tonight’s social activity.  The hope is for better weather to allow Jazz to return on Thursday next week.

A rural Oconee County school has recorded its first COVID-19 case.  A student enrolled at Keowee Elementary School is listed as a positive case–the first recorded this year at that school.  Another new Oconee case is that of a student at the Walhalla Middle School.  Both are recorded on the district’s tracking list on Wednesday.

At the top, there’s a change in the membership of South Carolina public service commissioners.  Randy Randall, the Clinton resident who chaired the PSC, pulled out of a re-election bid at the state legislature and the Third District seat he held now goes to a Clemson resident, Mike Caston.  In all, there were three candidates deemed qualified candidates by a […]

As far as re-uniting workers displaced during the pandemic, there’s encouraging news today for the economies of Oconee, Anderson, and Pickens counties.  The chairmen of the county councils in the three counties were told by a jobs’ official that first-time claims for unemployment benefits are dropping substantially and, correspondingly, the jobless percentages are among the lowest in the state.  (On […]

Free STD/HIV testing and educational webinars are part of PrEP Awareness Week initiatives aimed at increasing awareness about pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a pill that can help greatly reduce HIV infection if an individual is exposed to the virus. Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2012, PrEP is a daily pill for use by people who don’t already […]