Articles Posted in In The News

When you travel down Richland Street in Columbia, you might notice a stately brick building with tall columns and an American flag flying out front. It’s the Matthew J. Perry Jr. Courthouse, named for the first African American lawyer from the Deep South to be appointed to the federal judiciary.

Judge Perry was born in Columbia in 1921, a time when Jim Crow attitudes prevailed. He saw and experienced firsthand racial and economic discrimination. “I accepted our plight as a fact of life,” he is reported to have said, “and yet I was sure that it wasn’t right.

January 17 kicks off a week-long celebration of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Events include volunteers in action, a blood drive, speeches and workshops promoting diversity. Get more details.

Clemson will also be honoring the memory and work of Dr. King through a series of events from January 20 to 23, including volunteer opportunities and a blood drive. Civil rights activist and former freedom rider Bob Zellner will deliver the keynote speech at a Commemorative Service at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 21, in Tillman Hall auditorium. Zellner was the first white Southerner to serve as field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. All Clemson events are free and open to the public. Event Details

My family attends Downtown Church in Columbia. One of the many things we like about it is the outreach programs to help the community. The latest of these projects is called Rerun, and I’m excited about the possibilities it holds for providing affordable transportation for folks who need it – they need a way to get to job interviews, or to work, or to the store.

This is truly a joint effort by several facets of the community to help individuals in our city. The bikes are donated by Columbia residents; repairs are done by Downtown Church members with special assistance from the Cycle Center; and the refurbished bikes will be re-donated to Transitions, a downtown transitional center for the homeless. A helmet is included with each bike. If and when our financial resources allow, we would like to provide them with a light and lock as well. Our hope is that a bicycle, coupled with the bus system, will enable these folks to get anywhere they need to and help them to ultimately become independent.

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According to a report recently released by the non-profit Trust for America’s Health – aptly titled “F as in Fat” – South Carolina has the seventh-highest adult obesity rate in the country (31.6 percent). South Carolina also ranks seventh in the country for adults with diabetes (11.6 percent) and seventh for adults with hypertension (36.4 percent).

The F as in Fat rate does not include the percentage of adults who are simply overweight, a lower threshold than obesity. The percentage of adults in South Carolina who are either overweight or obese is 66.2 percent, according to an August 20 article in the Charleston Post and Courier.

The Introduction to the TFAH report warns, “If we fail to reverse our nation’s obesity epidemic, the current generation of young people may be the first in American history to live sicker and die younger than their parents’ generation.” [You can read the entire report here.] They’re likely to be poorer as well. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the U.S. was $147 billion in 2008 U.S. dollars; the medical costs for people who are obese were $1,429 higher than those of normal weight.

QUIET ON THE SET! If you’ve gone to the Louthian Law website lately, you may have seen our new videos. If you haven’t seen them, we hope you will visit our site and check them out. We had a great time during the filming, and I give a ton of credit to the guys at Lunch & Recess for making the whole process easy and producing such high quality work.