I just got word from my wife about two local TV stars.

Amy & Phillip of Greer, SC are on this season’s The Biggest Loser.

Congratulations and good luck guys!

Nuvera Fuel Cells of Billerica, Mass., has selected Spartanburg’s Küsters Zima as a manufacturing partner for their hydrogen generation product, PowerTapTM.

Their generators convert natural gas to hydrogen and will be used to refill forklift trucks powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Using hydrogen as a fuel source offers constant power levels, the capability to refuel quickly, and no battery changes.

The Upstate SC Chapter of the American Red Cross and the Make-A-Wish Foundation listings have been placed in their proper locations on the Charities & Non-Profits page here on site.

If you know of a local charity or non-profit that I accidentally missed, feel free to leave a comment or email me and I’ll rectify it as soon as possible.

Thank you.

South Carolina citizen’s are getting fed up with DHEC’s slack enforcement of rules and regulations. After all, it’s extremely hard to go up against a State run Agency when it’s in bed with the local businesses it’s tasked with regulating.

Here are just 4 incidents that many SC citizens aren’t even aware of:

But being soft on serious violators is part of the agency’s unspoken culture, said Jerry Paul, a retired upper level DHEC health licensing official.

1. DHEC in 1985 found dangerous amounts of lead in the drinking water of Richland County’s Franklin Park neighborhood. But it didn’t get the lead removed until 2005, when the residents already had lead in their blood.
2. Not until earlier this year did DHEC post signs at rivers to warn residents of the dangers of eating mercury-laced fish at hundreds of fishing spots across the state. DHEC knew the health threat had been expanding since the early 1990s and had put notices out to the media.
3. For years, DHEC kept records secret that showed the magnitude of a radiation leak from a lowlevel nuclear waste dump in Barnwell County. DHEC had long acknowledged a leak. But at the landfill operator’s request, it withheld details, not even telling lawmakers last year as they debated whether to close the facility to the nation. State Attorney General Henry McMaster scolded DHEC for failing to produce the records.
4. DHEC failed to closely monitor a Columbia sewer plant it knew had malfunctioned. Later, the plant was found spilling partially sewage into the popular Saluda River. Swimmers and waders complained of nausea and ear, eye, nose and throat infections. Some kayakers and canoers say they fell ill. DHEC waited six days to take water samples and seven days to notify the public. The agency says it and federal officials are investigating. Columbia environmental lawyer Bob Guild said “the community is watching” DHEC to see how much it fines the utility and how it explains what he says is a slowness to act. The agency’s water bureau chief David Wilson said last week DHEC could have been, if not faster, at least more thorough in notifying the public.

* via The State: DHEC under fire

“Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ’s Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance”

In a move that harkens back to the Middle Ages when non-followers were burnt at the stake, Rev. Jay Scott Newman of St. Mary’s Catholic Church here in Greenville issued a letter to his parishioners stating that Obama supporters are putting their souls at risk for supporting him for Presidency.

In this most conservative area of the state, there are plenty around here who feel the same way, but Steve Krueger, national director of Catholic Democrats, says “Father Newman is off base. He is acting beyond the authority of a parish priest to say what he did.”

What would Jesus do? I’m pretty sure he’d take a different tack with his followers.

Here is a video statement from Msgr Martin T. Laughlin, Administrator of the Catholic Diocese of Charleston on Voting and Holy Communion.

* Update: In an apparent disciplinary move, Rev. Newman is now saying that all future comments will be coming from South Carolina’s Roman Catholic Diocese in Charleston.

MAU Workforce Solutions, a staffing company that supplies BMW, N.A. with their temp workers, has forecast a loss of at least 500 jobs for the Upstate corporation come December. In fact, the number could be as high as 733 lost jobs.

Most layoffs are on the production line, with more coming from logistics. Affected individuals have already been notified and will be paid through the Christmas holiday. MAU promises to help individuals find new jobs, and there are high hopes many will be hired back once BMW’s current expansion project is completed.

In another sign of the bad economic times, even the behemoth BMW is experiencing a rough patch, proven by the fact that 75% of their new Z4 line is being shipped overseas.

The title should say it all, so here is the page where you can see all the Greenville County Polling Sites mapped. It took the better part of the last few days except for a few distractions, so I’m glad to be finished with it.

It also gave me a chance to use M$’s Virtual Earth for the first time (since a lot of Google’s references were off), and I must admit, their graphics are much nicer! Of course, with Google’s new satellite up there hovering around as you’re reading this, we’ll just have to wait to see what their next batch of pics looks like. Personally, I’ve got high hopes.

btw: I did my best, but if you see any errors, please leave a comment or email and let me know. I’d appreciate it.

Yes, I know Sarah’s grand-daughter has Down’s Syndrome; I’m just telling you what McCain said near the end of last night’s debate.

Can you believe he threw that below-the-belt punch? I guess that’s all you can do when you lose on every point in a debate. See ya!

The task of mapping all the Greenville County voter polling stations is moving forward with zip codes 29605, 29607, and 29611 being added to the Greenville County Voter Polls page this morning.

On a side note, I just took a short break to catch the Today Show, and it appears the talk of the day - besides the final ‘08 Presidential debate tonight - is the fact that a lot of people are showing up to Palin functions because her granddaughter has the chromosomal disorder Down Syndrome. What the heck does that have to do with her being 2nd in line to the most powerful person in the world? For some to even consider voting for Sarah Palin because of a kinship they feel with her over a disorder is absolutely ludicrous and just goes to show the complete ignorance of some people!

Think about the politics of the country and not some closet emotional attachment you think you have to somebody you’ll never meet or really even know.

I’m taking a break for the evening news right now, but the Greenville County Voter Polling Locations page should be completed tomorrow. I need to update it from the earlier Primary Election locations because there were several changes.

Even though I’m sure fellow Democrats will have no problem finding their voting station - especially with Obama’s 14% lead - I figured I’d update the page for the undecided people out there.