South Carolina

88-year-old Rock Hill resident Wali Cathcart’s family story stretches across generations of Black struggle in America, from slavery to integration. For Cathcart, many of those challenges and triumphs played out through his love of baseball, a sport that didn’t fully integrate for Black players until the late 1950s. As part of Black History Month, WFAE explores Cathcart’s journey from living under Jim Crow segregation to being honored for promoting equality.

The State Law Enforcement Division says an 18-year-old man has been charged with murder in a shooting that left two people dead last week at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg. Khamanti Kennedy is accused of shooting and killing two men in a room at a university housing complex, neither of whom was a student at the school. One student at the school was wounded but survived. Investigators said the shooting stemmed from a drug deal to buy marijuana.

A measles outbreak centered in Spartanburg County has grown to nearly 790 cases, making it the largest in the nation in more than two decades. State Sen. Josh Kimbrell tells WFAE unvaccinated students may need to learn remotely to protect others.

When a trio of Republican state lawmakers introduced a bill last year that would subject women who obtain abortions to decades in prison, some reproductive rights advocates feared South Carolina might pass the “most extreme” abortion ban in the United States.

Soon South Carolina SNAP recipients will be unable to use their benefits to buy candy, soft drinks, energy drinks of other sweetened beverages. The change follows federal approval of a waiver requested by Gov. Henry McMaster.

Republican South Carolina Senator Tim Scott said federally funded programs people in his state count on are at risk because of the government shutdown.

While no cases have been reported in Western North Carolina, health departments across the state have been monitoring the outbreak and urging residents to check their vaccination status.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed an executive order directing the state Department of Social Services to seek federal approval to block food stamp purchases of candy, energy drinks, soda and other sugary drinks.

South Carolina is experiencing another wave of small earthquakes. Three more earthquakes, on Sunday night and Monday, in Greenwood County were confirmed by the U.S. Geological Survey.

A South Carolina Republican lawmaker arrested on charges of distributing child sexual abuse material has resigned from the state House.