COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Some traditional things about living in modern South Carolina - visits from presidential candidates, evacuations from hurricanes and lawmakers touting reform - dominated the news in 2019.
There was plenty of high-profile crime, too, including a father sent to death row for killing his five children and a college student killed by someone impersonating an Uber driver that led to cries for new laws.
Here are the biggest stories of 2019 as determine by The Associated Press
2020 VISION
Every major 2020 Democratic presidential candidate has made multiple trips to South Carolina in 2019.
The Feb. 29 primary is the third contest on the calendar behind Iowa and New Hampshire. But it is the first with a substantial number of African American voters who make up a significant core of the party.
The Democratic primary has had mixed results picking winners. Hillary Clinton won in 2016, Barack Obama in 2008 and John Edwards in 2004.
EVACUATE AGAIN
Hurricane Dorian brushed by South Carolina after spending days over the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm. Charleston and other low-lying areas flooded, but the state again missed a serious blow from a curving storm.
The storm did come close enough that Gov. Henry McMaster ordered coastal evacuations for the fourth time in four years. Hurricanes Matthew in 2016, Irma in 2017 and Florence in 2018 also forced some people inland.
DAD GETS DEATH
Timothy Jones became just the second man sent to South Carolina’s death row in the past five years by a Lexington County jury that found him guilty of murder for killing his five children.
All five were killed by Jones’ own hands. Prosecutors said Jones was a selfish, angry man who wanted revenge on his ex-wife.
Jones drove around with the bodies of his children, ages 1 to 8, for days before burying them in garbage bags on an Alabama hillside.
SHERIFFS BEHAVING BADLY
Some South Carolina sheriffs again ran afoul of the law.
Three more sheriffs were indicted in 2019 and are awaiting trial. Chester County Sheriff Alex Underwood is charged with falsifying police reports to justify an arrest. Florence County Sheriff Kenney Boone was charged with spending campaign and county money on personal purchases and Colleton County Sheriff R.A. Strickland was charged with domestic violence from a fight in his home.
Twelve South Carolina sheriffs have been charged with crimes this decade. Nine have been convicted, including Greenville County Sheriff Will Lewis, sentenced to a year in prison in October for using public resources to arrange an affair.
BUDGET WINDFALL
It’s a flush time for South Carolina government. The state had an extra $1 billion to spend this budget year and is predicted to have $1.8 billion to spend in the budget year that starts in July. Gov. McMaster has already suggested spending $211 million to give all public school teachers in the state a $3,000 a year raise.
The extra money has already meant one raise for teachers and state employees, security upgrades at prisons and relief for farmers who lost crops in floods.
The state also got an unexpected $61 million windfall from the taxes paid by the state’s 2018 $1.5 billion Mega Millions lottery jackpot winner. Lawmakers used that money to send a $50 rebate to each income tax filer.
NEW UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT
It appeared this spring that 2019 might end without a new president at the University of South Carolina. Trustees rejected four finalists and voted to re-open their search for Harris Pastides’ replacement.
But McMaster intervened in July and pressed trustees to pick one of those finalists, retired U.S. Army general Bob Caslen.
Groups of professors and students protested, saying Caslen was not qualified. But trustees voted 11-8 to hire Caslen.
UBER DEATH
The death of a 21-year-old University of South Carolina student who authorities said mistakenly got into a car she thought was her Uber ride after a night out led to a new law requiring ride-sharing vehicles to have a sign displaying the licence tag number on the front.
The fake driver had the child safety locks on in the back seat and Samantha Josephson could not escape, police said. Her body was dumped in woods about 65 miles (105 kilometers) away.
Nathaniel David Rowland, 24, is charged with kidnapping and murder in the case.
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING
Townville Elementary School Principal Denise Frederick faced a former student she knew and loved for seven years and asked the now 17-year-old be sent to prison for the rest of his life. A judge agreed.
Jesse Osborne was 14 when he came to his old school in September 2016 after killing his father. The teen opened fire on a first grade class on the playground, killing 6-year-old Jacob Hall.
Osborne’s life sentence came after a judge ruled he should be tried as an adult, and he pleaded guilty to murder.
GOODBYE FRITZ
South Carolina’s political 20th century political clout is long gone. And the era officially ended in April when Ernest “Fritz” Hollings died at age 97.
Hollings helped South Carolina through desegregation as governor and then served 38 years as a Democrat in the U.S. Senate. For almost all his time in Washington, he was the junior senator from South Carolina, serving alongside Strom Thurmond, who served 48 years in the Senate before his 2003 death.
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