A daily glance at the top 10 Charleston stories of 2008. Look for the entire list in this week’s Charleston City Paper.
7. Complete This Sentence
Former State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel, caught in a drug sting in 2007 and convicted of handing out cocaine to his friends, began serving 10 months in a federal prison in Georgia in May. Interviews released after his conviction revealed that Ravenel had sung like a canary, pointing out a wide array of locals with whom he shared his stash — though the names have been kept from the press. By the end of the year, he’d been transferred to a halfway house in North Charleston, where he could transition back into the community. Meanwhile, fallen economic guru Al Parish was sentenced in June to 24 years in federal prison for bilking investors out of more than $66 million. Pleas from his defense attorneys for lenience due to the fact that Parish is fat and has a history of heart issues were unsuccessful.
In 2009: Ravenel will be back on the streets on March 27 while we wait, likely in vain, for the rest of his well-placed cocaine posse to get theirs. Parish will start on his second year in prison, hopefully by fulfilling a resolution to eat from the heart-friendly menu.
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