MORNING NEWSBREAK | From the Lowcountry and Charleston across the Midlands and through the Upstate, South Carolinians caught a glimpse of a rare sight in the weekend night skies: the aurora borealis, or northern lights.
Caused by an unusually strong solar storm over the weekend, the beautiful, ethereal greens, pinks and lavenders lit up the night skies in many areas of the Palmetto State. While clouds on Friday and Saturday nights got in the way for some residents, others got quite a light show, according to media reports.
WSCS TV weatherman Bill Walsh admitted he was doubtful the lights could be seen as far south as Charleston, particularly with cloud cover. But he shared a beautiful fuchsia picture that got more than 14,000 views on X. One viewer on WLTV TV in Columbia shared that he saw the lights as God painting a show in the sky.
In other recent headlines:
CP OPINION, Brack: The most regressive legislative session in decades. “The most regressive legislative session in a century just ended. On one hand, thank goodness. The amount of damage that state lawmakers can keep doing is now limited. All they’ve got left to do is deal with the $13 billion state budget in a conference committee plus some other matters.
“But on the other hand, they proved this year they are hellbent on pushing us back to times when things were not too great for everyone in South Carolina.”
CP NEWS: Session ends with lots of unfinished business. Among the major bills that didn’t pass this year: medical marijuana, health care restructuring, energy and hate crimes. Here are other takeaways from the 2024 session and seven bills that didn’t make it.
CP NEWS: Smith lives, works, plays with traditional architecture. South Carolina native Phillip Smith remembers exactly what sparked his love of architecture, classical design, traditional building and historic preservation.
GUN VIOLENCE: Man found dead in car outside Summerville apartment. Police are investigating the death of a man found shot inside a vehicle Friday night. Elsewhere recently across the state, an Aiken man died in a Thursday night shooting. A Greenwood teen died Saturday in a Ware Shoals racetrack shooting. One died and two were hurt in a Marion County shooting. And a mother and her child were hurt in a Lee County drive-by shooting.
Defense secretary delivers S.C. State graduation speech. U.S. Secretary of Defense Llooyd Austin spoke Friday at commencement ceremonies for S.C. State University and later met with soldiers at Fort Jackson.
Mysterious lightning bugs face dwindling habitat. A look at South Carolina’s lightning bugs — shrouded in mystery with dwindling habitat.
SC-1: Outside groups pumping money into congressional race. A study shows outside spending by conservative groups in the competitive First District Congressional primary is nearly $3 million.
$2B Magnolia project chugs along. The long-planned $2 billion Magnolia real estate development planned for the Charleston Neck area is still chugging along, developers say.
Mount Pleasant again debating cruise ship question. After considering — and rejecting — acceptance of cruise ships 20 years ago and in 2017, the town is looking again at whether to be a cruise ship terminal.
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