The Friday Five 3.22.19

It’s officially Spring! But more importantly, it’s finally Friday. Before you head into your weekend, here are five articles you may have missed this week.

First, congrats to the Wofford Terriers for advancing in the NCAA Tournament. Now, we know what’s on your mind this week, so we’ll start with a few things:

• No, the Mueller Report has not been issued,
• No, Joe Biden has not announced his candidacy for President, and
• No, the S.C. House has not released a tax reform bill yet.

So, with that out of the way…

1. VP Mike Pence to help Lindsey Graham kickoff reelection campaign in the Upstate next week. Vice President Mike Pence will make two campaign stops in South Carolina on March 30th to kickoff Lindsey Graham’s reelection campaign for the United States Senate – one in Greenville and the other in Myrtle Beach. Currently, Graham is facing democratic opposition from Jamie Harrison, an associate chairman of the Democratic National Committee. If you are interested in attending either event, click here.
2. SC Ports reports strongest February in history & nearly 12 percent fiscal year-over-year growth. Earlier this week, the South Carolina Ports Authority reported the strongest February container volume in its history, moving a total of 100,794 pier containers –  11, 245 of those were handled by the Inland Port in Greer. While this is good news, Jim Newsome, SCPA’s President projects containers between March through May to decrease by approximately 35,000-45,000 as the “boom” driving the threat of higher tariffs on Chinese goods begins to diminish.
3. If sale is approved, Greenville’s Lockheed Martin could soon begin Taiwan’s request for 60+ F-16 fighter jets. According to sources, the Trump Administration has approved Taiwan’s formal request to purchase sixty plus F-16 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin Corp. If the President did in fact approve Taiwan’s request, the Defense Department and the State department will then convert the request into a formal proposal and Congress would have thirty days to decide whether or not to block the sale. With congressional approval, these F-16 fighter sets will begin rolling off the production line in 2021 in Greenville, South Carolina.
4. Upstate BMW plant may seek Laurens County supplier for its X-model transmissions. ZF Friedrichshafen AG (or ZF), a global supplier of car parts headquartered in Germany, has a major transmissions plant in Laurens County. The ZF plant in Laurens currently serves only non-BMW customers, however, could be a likely choice for the BMW plant in Spartanburg for transmissions moving forward pending on whether or not tariffs are implemented between the U.S. and Europe. BMW’s board chairman, Harald Kruger, does not forsee such implementations, however, added, “we are prepared, and we are flexible” if that were the case.
5. $2M Powerball lottery ticket sold in Mauldin. After no ticket was able to clinch the $550 million prize on Wednesday night, the Powerball jackpot grew to an estimated $625 million. Though there was no outright winner, three South Carolina ticket holders beg to differ after becoming at least a million dollars richer. Two $2 million tickets were sold – one from a Publix in Mauldin and the other from a QuikTrip in Indian Land after both customers matched all five white ball numbers and purchased PowerPlay. A customer at a QuikTrip in Goose Creek also matched all five white ball numbers but did not purchase the PowerPlay, totaling the payout to just a $1 million.

Bonus: Bloomberg Brackets for a Cause. A group of business and finance leaders are aiming to fill out a perfect 2019 March Madness Bracket just like the rest of us. Each participant pays a $10,000 fee and plays for a charity of their choice. The total pot will be allocated to the charities of the three participants with the most accurate brackets.

(As more and more legitimate news sites charge for their content, we apologize if many of these articles are behind paywalls. You have to pay for good journalism.)