TheState.com: Business

SC home sales start 2012 on a positive note

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:32 EST

Home sales in South Carolina started the year on a high note, spiking 4.3 percent to 2,811 in January, compared to the same month a year ago, a new report this morning said. With home prices also on the rise, it could mark the start of a slow turnaround for the real estate industry.

The Columbia area, which has been slow to recover even as other areas of the state have rebounded, was in the top three performers in January for home sales, with a nearly 16 percent hike to 406, according to the report from the S.C. Realtors trade group. The Midlands also saw a modest rise of 1.1 percent in the median price of homes sold during the month to $144,000. Median price increased 3.4 percent statewide in January.

The Hilton Head area led the way last month with a 20 percent hike in sales to 220, although prices in the area continued to decline 4.5 percent to $238,750.

“All in all, January’s numbers look to start off the year on the right foot,” Nick Kremydas, chief executive of the S.C. Realtors, said in a statement.

Still, some areas of the state continued to struggle in January with seven of the state’s 15 regions seeing a drop off in sales and seven seeing a decline in median price. The Orangeburg area fared worst, with a 32 percent decline to 13 sales for the month and a 47 percent plunge in median price to $59,900.

Report: More trees could be cut for biomass plants

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:51 EST

A new report says Southern forests are at risk from biomass plants that burn wood to make energy.

The report, released Tuesday by two environmental groups, says the expanding biomass industry will look at cutting trees to fuel the power plants, a departure from the current practice of using waste wood from sawmills and other sources.

The report raises questions about whether the South will have an adequate supply of waste wood, thereby increasing the need to cut trees specifically for biomass plants.

In addition to concerns about deforestation, the report says biomass plants could cause a spike in atmospheric carbon over the next 35-50 years. Carbon is a pollutant that contributes to climate change. Long-term carbon levels should drop, but researchers question whether that will be soon enough to help stop global warming.

The report was done for the Southern Environmental Law Center and the National Wildlife Federation by the Biomass Energy Resource Center and others.

Gas prices hurtling toward $4 a gallon

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:48 EST

Gasoline prices hit $3.41 Tuesday in the Palmetto State, up 22 cents a gallon from last month and 44 cents from the same time last year, according to AAA Carolinas.

And experts say gas prices might hit $4 a gallon as more motorists hit the roads for Memorial Day weekend in May — the “unofficial” start of summer — and drive up demand. It’s a threshold not flirted with since last spring.

The spike in prices could have a two-fold effect on the state’s tourism: Fewer people might travel from other states to South Carolina beaches, parks and mountains; but, more South Carolinians may stay closer to home for their spring and summer outings.

“Rising prices don’t affect travel as much as you think,” said AAA Carolinas spokeswoman Cathy Hein. “If it’s a matter of feeding your family or going on a trip, then you are going to feed your family. But if people decide to go somewhere they are going to make the trip even if gas prices are higher.”

Marion Edmonds, spokesman for the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, said in some ways, higher gas prices can benefit the state.

Ex-Charleston chefs land in Nashville, Pawleys Island

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:50 EST

CHARLESTON Two well-known chefs who whipped up meals in the same Charleston kitchen have landed new culinary gigs in their old stomping grounds.

Bob Waggoner recently returned to Nashville to work at a Watermark Restaurant. He came to Charleston in 1997 to head up Charleston Grill in the lobby of Charleston Place from the Wild Boar in Music City. He left in 2009.

Waggoner is juggling a TV career and culinary duties in Music City, where he worked before coming to the Lowcountry 15 years ago. He continues to work on “Utravel! With Chef Bob,” a TV show he started to develop while in Charleston. The program is scheduled to begin airing on Public Broadcasting Station affiliates nationwide this spring.

Meanwhile, the nomadic Louis Osteen is back on Pawleys Island. According to a statement, Osteen is launching a new venture at what is now Sanford’s Southern Fried Smokehouse. He’s calling it Louis’s at Sanford’s.

It is scheduled to open this weekend.

Cyber crooks target those looking for love

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:46 EST

It started so sweetly. She was a lonely Yuba City, Calif., widow, looking for conversation online. He was an Auburn, Calif., architect, divorced with two teenagers and a job that took him overseas.

Slowly, he reeled her in, wooing her by phone and email with endearments and romantic promises of their life together.

“He was very smooth,” said the woman, who asked that her real name not be revealed because she is embarrassed, and whose story was confirmed by the FBI. “It was ‘Honey’ this, ‘Honey’ that. ‘I love you so much.’ … He told me God meant for us to be together.”

A retired nurse whose physician husband had died three years earlier, she believed “Marcello” when he professed love. And she believed him when the stories started: when he flew to Switzerland for business and a colleague was injured, when his bank wouldn’t let him access his account, when his diabetic daughter needed a kidney transplant, when he was hospitalized for a brain injury, even when an Italian mobster kidnapped him and demanded ransom money.

Looking back, she said, it all sounds completely unbelievable. There were so many red flags, but at the time, her heart convinced her otherwise.

Lawmakers near deal on payroll tax, jobless benefits

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:47 EST

House-Senate talks on renewing President Barack Obama’s signature payroll tax cut made significant progress Tuesday.

Under the emerging pact, a 2 percentage-point cut in the Social Security payroll tax would be extended through the end of the year, with the nearly $100 billion cost added to the deficit. Jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed would be renewed as well, with the $30 billion or so cost paid for in part through auctioning broadcast spectrum to wireless companies and requiring federal workers to contribute more toward their pensions.

The payroll tax cut and renewing jobless benefits were key planks in Obama’s jobs program, which was announced in September. The payroll tax cut benefits 160 million Americans and delivers a tax cut totaling $2,000 this year for someone making a $100,000 salary and a cut of $20 a week for a typical worker making $50,000.

It’s not only a win for Obama but takes the payroll tax fight — which had Republicans on the defensive — off the table for the fall elections campaign.

The potential agreement also would avert a huge cut in Medicare payment to doctors, financed by cuts elsewhere in the federal health care budget, a Democratic aide said.

Mortgage statement may get simpler

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:48 EST

Your monthly mortgage bill soon could get easier to understand, and it wouldn’t change each time your loan is sold to a new servicer.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has developed a proposed standardized mortgage servicer statement designed to provide clear information about the loan on a single page.

The prototype released this week included a breakdown of how much of the monthly payment went to principal, interest and escrow. The form also detailed the outstanding principal, maturity date, prepayment penalty and, for adjustable-rate mortgages, the time when the interest rate could change.

“This information will help consumers stay on top of their mortgage costs and hold their mortgage servicers accountable for fixing errors that crop up,” said Richard Cordray, the agency’s director. “Given the widespread mortgage servicing problems we’ve seen over the past few years, consumers need clear disclosures they can count on.”

Although many servicers already provide such information on their monthly statements, there are no industrywide standards, the agency said.

Blurring the lines between streetwear and high fashion

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:56 EST

Oscar de la Renta, say hello to Kohl’s and QVC. Carolina Herrera, wave to Bebe and Levi’s and J.Crew if you’ve got a second during New York Fashion Week.

Like never before, mall brands and chain stores are strutting their affordable stuff alongside far pricier glitz and sought-after hipster swank, throwing parties and setting up their own catwalks and red carpets during the frenetic, twice-yearly round of fashion shows.

That, analysts and insiders said, is due to the fashion elite’s tighter embrace of top bloggers, live video streaming by a growing number of designers and the explosion of social media allowing anyone with a camera phone to tweet from the once-insular world.

“Those traditional walls have really come down,” said Mike George, who heads QVC and has been hosting unofficial New York Fashion Week events for about four years. “We saw that kind of trend in its early stages, this sort of democratization of fashion.”

Trend forecaster WGSN considers Levi’s a sound case study as the company enters the Fashion Week fray for the first time Wednesday, presenting bits of its global line as it pushes deeper into international markets.

USC, Hubbell announce team-up

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:57 EST

A Columbia-based manufacturer of electrical products has been tapped to work with USC on more reliable ways of delivering electricity.

Hubbell Power Systems said Monday that it has joined the research center for Grid-connected Advanced Power Electronic Systems at the University of South Carolina.

The center is a collaborative effort between USC and the University of Arkansas. It conducts research on electronic systems that will be components of future “smart grids.” Smart grids are delivery systems that can manage the flow of electricity so that the network doesn’t fail during times of high usage or damage to parts of the system.

One example: In the future, if electric cars become widely used, the power system will have to be able to handle millions of people plugging them in at home after work, said Tony Ambler, dean of USC’s College of Engineering and Computing.

“Developing a smarter grid for power distribution is a national priority,” he said in a release. “If we can expand the use of electrically based vehicles, there’s a tremendous potential for reducing petroleum imports. But to do that, we have to create a much better network — one that’s capable of metering out high volumes of electricity where and when it’s needed.”

Charleston port project gets boost from Obama

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:58 EST

President Barack Obama asked lawmakers Monday to spend $3.5 million to explore deepening the Charleston port as part of a $3.8 trillion budget proposal that he sent to Congress for the 2013 fiscal year.

The new money for the Charleston port study by the Army Corps of Engineers would come on top of $2.5 million the Corps allocated last week for the project.

Deepening the port to 50 feet from 45 feet is necessary to accommodate giant cargo ships that will arrive along the Atlantic seaboard after the widening of the Panama Canal is completed in 2014.

“We are incredibly grateful to the (Obama) administration for recognizing the importance of the port of Charleston in the national economic strategy,” said Bill Stern, chairman of the S.C. Ports Authority.

While President Obama’s budget proposal is unlikely to pass Congress in an election year, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said Obama’s “presidential earmark” will make it easier to get federal money to expand the port-deepening study.

S.C. Farm Bureau chief touts corn-based ethanol

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:59 EST

Fourteen-year South Carolina Farm Bureau President David Winkles says despite the food-vs.-fuel controversy raging globally and nationally, he remains bullish on corn-based ethanol.

“Is there plenty of corn? Yes, when the critics base their criteria on 100 bushels per acre of corn and we are now producing about 300 bushels per acre,” Winkles said.

Winkles, who was re-elected to his eighth two-year term in December at the organization’s annual business meeting in Myrtle Beach, has been a strong proponent of biotechnology on the farm. One of the advances to which he points is corn ethanol.

“I feel firmly that biofuels have a strong role to play in economic development in rural South Carolina and in rural America,” Winkles said. “If our government will ever focus on a consistent energy policy, it would be most helpful.”

“I think we all see the benefits of not having the reliance on foreign oil than we have,” he said.

Obama adviser praises Blythewood plant as forward-thinking ‘green’ company

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 20:01 EST

A Blythewood manufacturing plant drew praise Monday from one of President Barack Obama’s top advisers, who said Navistar Inc. is both providing jobs and protecting the environment at its northern Richland County factory.

Nancy Sutley, who chairs the White House Council on Environmental Quality, toured the Navistar plant with U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., as part of a look at “green” manufacturing plants, biofuel programs and energy efficiency in the Palmetto State.

Sutley came away from Navistar impressed, saying the factory fits with the president’s goals. Navistar is “a company that is really thinking about the future, making investments for the future.”

While Obama has been criticized by Republicans over federal subsidies for renewable energy, Sutley said Navistar’s facility is the type of business the administration wants “to see replicated across the country.’’ The company has received $300,000 in federal stimulus funds through the S.C. Energy Office.

Navistar’s Pure Power plant manufactures high-efficiency fuel injectors and emission controls for large trucks. Diesel-powered trucks are historically among the nation’s leading sources of air pollution from vehicles. Obama has overseen tougher rules on air pollution since taking office.

Clyburn: Charleston port deepening gets $3.5 million boost in Obama’s budget

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:00 EST

U.S. Rep. James Clyburn said Monday that South Carolina will get an additional $3.5 million toward deepening the harbor at Charleston.

During a tour of an industrial plant in Blythewood, Clyburn said President Barack Obama included the money through an earmark in next year’s budget. The $3.5 million is in addition to $2.5 million announced several weeks ago for the harbor project, the South Carolina Democrat said.

“That deepening will be on track and the products being made here will be able to be shipped out of South Carolina through the Charleston port,” Clyburn said on a visit to the Navistar plant in Richland County.

South Carolina officials have been scrambling to move forward with the Charleston dredging to accommodate bigger ships expected to come through the Panama Canal in the next two years. Savannah’s port, a major competitor to Charleston, recently received key approvals to deepen the harbor for bigger ships.

West Columbia looks at face-lift

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:57 EST

West Columbia is looking at a face-lift for its oldest commercial corridor.

City officials are preparing a redevelopment plan for Meeting Street and surrounding neighborhoods, an area they call a gateway from the Congaree River.

The 129.5-acre area contains about 150 stores and offices and about 50 homes, many of them up to a century old.

It needs “some sprucing up,” Mayor Joe Owens said.

The T-shaped area extends along Meeting Street west from the river for a mile, with arms along State Street and Sunset Boulevard.

NHTSA: BMW fined $3M for untimely 2010 recalls

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:52 EST

German automaker BMW has agreed to pay $3 million for delays in reporting safety defects and recalls to the federal regulators, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Friday.

An examination of 16 recalls issued by BMW of North America LLC in 2010 found a pattern in which the automaker failed to meet federal requirements that known defects be reported within five days, the safety agency said in a statement.

As part of the settlement, BMW and its parent company, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, agreed to make internal changes to its recall process, NHTSA said

"It's critical to the safety of the driving public that defects and recalls are reported in short order," NHTSA Administrator David Strickland said. "NHTSA expects all manufacturers to address automotive safety issues quickly and in a forthright manner."

Despite the safety agency's claim that some recall filings were late, "in every case where a defect was identified by the company a voluntary recall had been conducted," BMW said in a statement.

Scorned Lancaster reclaims passion, pride

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:09 EST

Educators call it the “teachable moment,” the time when students not only learn but also act.

For the young and old of Lancaster, a brush with the national limelight has given them that moment, a time to respond with passion and authority to shout pridefully, “We are Lancaster.”

It was CNN that turned its spotlight on Lancaster, arriving in the city just days before the state’s first-in-the-South GOP primary. CNN crews traveled the town and talked with residents, spending at least five hours recording interviews at Ken Killingsworth’s downtown restaurant, Charley’s Cafe.

CNN’s report, in many locals’ opinion, was too negative with too much hyperbole, painting Lancaster as a one-stoplight town with nothing shining.

Lines about “Southern drawls so strong they might need subtitling,” or about the parking lots at the Dollar General and the credit union repo lot “brimming with cars” because the town is struggling in the wake of a bad economy and the closing the major employer – Springs Industries in 2007 – upset residents.

Myrtle Beach Bi-Lo Marathon drawing a big field of runners

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:44 EST

More people than ever before will run through town in the annual Bi-Lo Myrtle Beach Marathon this weekend.

Organizers expanded their capacity this year allowing more runners to enter in each of the three running distances. Despite record turnout, all races have space open for the first time in years.

But, Shaun Walsh, president of the Myrtle Beach Marathon, isn’t upset the race hasn’t sold out.

“I’m definitely not disappointed at all because we have increased substantially anyways,” Walsh said. He said registration for the half marathon, the most popular distance, is up 25 percent this year.

The 5K, which will be raced Friday, has 934 registered racers. The half marathon boasts the largest group with 4,122 entered. The marathon has 2,200.

Shelling it out for the ones we love

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:25 EST

Valentine’s Day gift-giving is projected to hit a record-setting pace this year, whether the means of expression is clothing, jewelry or a more novel approach to saying “I love you.”

Flowers – roses especially – and dinner at some point over the course of the four-day weekend are ‘givens’ for the Valentine’s Day observance, but indications are that shoppers plan to go further.

The average person in the U.S. plans to spend $126.03 this year celebrating Valentine’s Day, according to the National Retail Federation’s 2012 Valentine’s Day survey.

That would be an 8.5 percent increase over last year’s $116.21 in spending and the highest in the 10-year history of the survey. Overall spending for the holiday is expected be $17.6 billion.

“Valentine’s Day is the biggest one-day holiday of the year, and it takes us a lot of preparation to be ready for it,” said David Edwards, owner of Chapin Flowers and Gifts. Based on increased economic optimism in the past few months, “I expect it to be good, with sales up over the past few years.”

Bernanke: Housing woes hurt spending

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:57 EST

Ben Bernanke says declines in home prices have forced many Americans to cut back sharply on spending and warns that the trend could continue to weigh on the economy for years.

The Federal Reserve chairman drew the connection between home values and consumer spending, which fuels 70 percent of economic activity, last week during a speech to the National Association of Home Builders in Orlando.

Bernanke says the broader economy won’t fully recover until the depressed housing market turns around. People are spending less because they are stuck in “underwater” homes, which are worth less than what is owed on the mortgage. And home values are falling because of foreclosures and tight credit – even in areas with lower unemployment.

“Recent declines in housing wealth may be reducing consumer spending between $200 billion and $375 billion per year. That reduction corresponds to lower living standards for many Americans,” Bernanke said.

The Fed chairman said there’s no “silver bullet” to rescue the housing market. Renting out foreclosed homes and reducing or modifying mortgages are among steps that could help.

People & achievements

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:59 EST

GOVERNMENT

S.C. Rep. Joan Brady has been named to the Women In Government board of directors.

Randy Mitchell has been appointed to the Federal Communications Commission’s State Joint Board on Universal Service.

HEALTH CARE

Caris Healthcare, a 24-hour hospice care business based in Knoxville, has acquired Solaris Hospice, which includes eight offices in South Carolina.