This is the largest Republican club in South Carolina, and I think about half of them are probably carrying pieces.
Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Beaufort, in introducing the Sun City Republican club.
The House just had finished debate on a bill to allow concealed gun permits from other states to be accepted in South Carolina.
Today: U.S.
Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., will be at Coker College in Hartsville, 2 p.
m.; at a town hall meeting at The Skye in Bennettsville, 4 p.m.
; and at an event at the S.C. Cotton Museum in Bishopville, 6:30 p.
m.
Monday: Biden will have breakfast at the Chestnut Grill in Orangeburg, 8:30 a.m.
; will speak with students and faculty at Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College, 11 a.m.; and will speak at a Kiwanis Club meeting, 12:30 p.
m.
Friday: U.S.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., will attend a reception for his finance committee and Pee Dee Republicans at the Florence home of Dr.
Eddie and Kay Floyd.
Noon: House and Senate meet.
2 p.
m.: Senate Judiciary Committee discusses underage drinking penalties, 105 Gressette Building.
3:30 p.
m.: House Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee considers rules on importing beer, 403 Blatt Building.
9 a.
m.: House Ways and Means Committee reviews Department of Transportation reform plans, 521 Blatt Building.
10 a.
m.: Senate Fish, Game and Forestry Committee considers limits on taking elk, 308 Gressette Building.
2 p.
m.: Senate meets.
8:30 a.
m.: House Freshman Caucus meets, 318 Blatt Building.
9 a.
m.: Senate Select Committee on Early Childhood Education meets, 307 Gressette Building.
10 a.
m.: House meets.
11 a.
m.: Senate meets.
NUCLEAR WASTE LANDFILL: More than a dozen lawmakers toured a low-level radioactive waste landfill in rural Barnwell County to see the site firsthand before deciding whether to change state law and keep it open to the nation s waste.
A subcommittee is set to take up a related bill Tuesday.
KITCHEN TABLE POKER: A proposal to legalize home poker games was sent back to a House subcommittee. The bill would update South Carolina s 200-year-old gambling law, which bans any game with cards or dice.
ABORTION-ULTRASOUND: A House committee advanced a proposal requiring pregnant women seeking an abortion in South Carolina to first look at ultrasound images of their fetus. The bill was sent to the House floor.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: A proposal making illegal immigrants ineligible for food stamps advanced to the House floor.
The bill bars illegal immigrants ages 18 and older from receiving state help to buy food.
BUS STOPS: Elementary school students in second grade or below could be picked up and dropped off by school buses at their front doors under a proposal heading to the House floor.
DUI BRACELET: A bill that would give judges the option to monitor repeat drunken drivers with a bracelet was approved by a Senate subcommittee.
The bracelet must be worn always and tests the person s skin every hour and alerts a monitoring company if alcohol is detected or the bracelet is tampered with.
Strom Thurmond rides again or at least his spirit does.
When Vice President Dick Cheney s plane, Air Force II, was grounded with electrical glitches last week, he and his entourage boarded the backup plane: The Spirit of Strom Thurmond, a C-17 cargo jet from Charleston.
Comedy Central s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart had some fun with the plane swap. And while The Buzz doesn t repeat such racy talk, it certainly can guide you to it .
After that, you re on your own.
When Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, was quoted in The State on Friday complaining about the water getting muddied in South Carolina, she wasn t referring to her colleagues in the Legislative Black Caucus who are on the fence about who to invite to speak at the caucus spring gala.
There aren t many fences that Cobb-Hunter straddles and the same is true here.
She said she supported the gala committee s recommendation that U.S. Sen.
Barack Obama, D-Ill., be the keynote speaker.
But, she said, that does not mean she s endorsing Obama for president.
Nor is she endorsing U.S. Sen.
Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y. the other candidate invited to the gala.
House Republicans had a little fun with the body s rules last week during debate on a bill that would allow concealed gun permits from other states to be accepted in South Carolina.
Wednesday, the House voted to send the bill back to committee based on objections from the State Law Enforcement Division. Then Thursday, the House mysteriously voted to revive it.
House rules prevent debate during a motion to reconsider a previous vote, but Majority Leader Jim Merrill, R-Berkeley, got creative.
Merrill asked Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, if he could point out that this was the National Rifle Association s top priority this year. Harrell, noting the rule, said he could not point out it was the NRA s top priority.
The Buzz got the message, and so did the representatives.
WARMING UP TO D.C.
Gov. Mark Sanford displayed his environmental views to a national audience recently. In an op-ed piece in The Washington Post, Sanford wrote how folks on the right side of the political spectrum need to be concerned about global warming, too.
The fact is, I m a conservative and a conservationist and that s okay, he wrote.
Rep. Gloria (Arias) Haskins, R-Greenville, is trying to form a Hispanic caucus at the State House.
South Carolina s Hispanic population is exploding, and now is the time to form a caucus to look out for Hispanic interests, Haskins said.
But can there be a caucus of one?
Haskins, who is from Bogota, Colombia, is the only Hispanic legislator.
She hopes to recruit other lawmakers who are married to Hispanics but wouldn t offer names. Others interested in Hispanic issues have asked to be associate members.
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