Friday 5: 1-6-2023

Happy New Year Everyone! We’ve survived through the first week back post-holiday season and made it to Friday. It’s been a chaotic news week in SC and beyond, so read on to catch up on what you may have missed.

Early South Carolina primary gets backing from former Dem presidential staffers.  Fourteen former South Carolina state directors for 2020 Democratic presidential primary candidates signed a letter affirming their support for South Carolina to make the jump into first place — arguing that the move elevates Black voters who are the “backbone of our party.” The former South Carolina state directors also argued that picking South Carolina to go first will force presidential campaign staffs to further diversify who they hire, making “our party’s talent pipeline better reflect that diversity.” They also emphasized the state’s small geographic size and less expensive media markets, ensuring that “money alone won’t decide the primary.”

Most workers’ paychecks should rise beginning January 1. Thanks to the historic income tax reduction bill passed in the summer of 2022, all employers were required to adjust their workers’ withholdings starting Jan. 1 using guidance sent out by the tax collection agency in November that reflects the first phase of a law that will eventually reduce state revenues by more than $1 billion annually. Additionally, a vast majority will either pay less or get a bigger refund from the 2022 tax returns they file in the coming months.

SC Supreme Court tosses out 6-week abortion ban. In a 3-2 decision on Thursday, the South Carolina supreme court struck down a 2021 law that would ban abortions beyond around six weeks. The decision means the General Assembly lobbyists are waking up to Groundhog Day as we prepare for 20 more weeks of abortion debates.

US House Speaker Fight Continues. At press time, the US House is set to meet for its fourth day without a speaker as it prepares to take a twelfth vote to elect one. Congressman McCarthy and his allies have been working to strike a deal with the 21 party member holdouts.

Putin orders weekend truce in Ukraine; Kyiv says it won’t take part. As Russia prepares to celebrate the Orthodox Christmas holiday this weekend, Putin called for a ceasefire, the first in the nearly 11 month war. Kyiv declined to follow suit. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had proposed a Russian troop withdrawal earlier, before Dec. 25 (the Christmas holiday as marked by the Gregorian calendar, that many Ukrainians have shifted to as a rebuke to Russia) but Putin declined.

Bonus: SC Whiskey? Charlie Byrnes Jackson was one of six people to receive a Presidential Pardon from President Biden before the New Year. Jackson was involved in a single illegal whiskey sale without a tax stamp in 1964.