South Carolina Afternoon Headlines

This is South Carolina Public Radio. Good afternoon. I'm Lois Alfredo Garcia with your statewide afternoon headlines. Alec Murdaugh appeared on shackled and in civilian clothing today as he appeared in his first pretrial hearing on Friday. South Carolina Public Radio's Victoria Hanson reports. The 58-year-old sported a dark blazer and a blue tie as he appeared before Judge Deborah McCasteland for nearly three and a half hours. The judge considered several motions and ruled the defense can't obtain evidence from beneath the fingernails of Murdoch's murdered wife, but they cannot fully test without her consent. She also said Murdoch's testimony during his 2023 trial may be used depending upon the circumstances. That's when he admitted he lied about his alibi. As for a change of venue, the judge said, I was in hopes that the two of y'all could agree. on a destination. But since that's not happening, I will decide and I will let y'all know. The next pretrial hearing is scheduled for Friday, November 13th. Senator Darlene Graham picked up another key endorsement Friday ahead of the U.S. Senate runoff to succeed her late brother. Myon Schechter reports. Congressman Russell Fry says he will back Graham in the August 25th GOP runoff over House colleague 5th District Congressman Ralph Norman. The 7th District U.S. House Representative said in a statement he is asking his supporters to vote for Graham because President Trump needs fighters and allies in the upper chamber. And he says Graham will be exactly that. Fry came in third in Tuesday's 10 candidate primary, winning his home base in the Grand Strand and PD to South Carolina regions, rich in Republican. Republican voters. The winner will face Democrat Annie Andrews. Early voting runs from August 19th to August 21st. For South Carolina Public Radio, I'm Myon Schechter in Columbia. And SCETV and Public Radio will partner with the South Carolina Republican Party to provide access for the upcoming U.S. Senate special GOP primary runoff debate. The runoff candidates are U.S. Senator Darlene Graham and U.S. Representative Ralph Norman. The debate will be held at the Newberry Opera House August 18th at 7 p.m. SCETV's Gavin Jackson will serve as one of the panelists. The state GOP is also partnering with Newsmax for national exposure, but South Carolinians can watch on television broadcast and on SCETV.org, the SCETV YouTube channel and on South Carolina Public Radio. The city of Myrtle Beach announced a new police chief Friday morning, about four months since its previous chief retired. Frederick Chambers is the pick to lead the department. He has 26 years of experience in law enforcement. Right now, he's deputy chief of police for the Fairfax County Police Department in northern Virginia. Fairfax County is the most populated county in Virginia. He led three of the county's district stations. That's about 350 people on staff.

And according to the Myrtle Beach Police Department's website, it has more than 300 people on staff. The city received more than 100 applications and then narrowed that down to eight semifinalists. Some of those candidates, including Chambers, had public meeting greets as part of the city's selection process. Chambers says in a statement that effective policing is built on communication, partnership, and trust. His first day is expected to be in late September or early October. Data centers continue to be on the minds of local governments all over South Carolina as officials navigate the growing pressure to get ahead of development issues. Scott Morgan has this look at some conversations happening around the PD and upstate this week. As QTS ramps up its construction of a 400-acre data center on Lake Wiley in York County, other nearby counties are trying to figure out the best way to answer the question, should we or should we not even have data centers? In Spartanburg County this week, state and county officials met to gather up info on what kinds of financial and environmental impacts that data center could have. Conversations in Spartanburg have grown increasingly tense surrounding the proposed $3 billion dollar Valara project, which could involve Valara building its own power plant, but which also is under scrutiny by the Southern Environmental Law Center over transparency issues. Also this week, officials in Kershaw County took their first steps towards a 12-month data center moratorium and spent much of Tuesday night's council meeting navigating heavy questions about how federal and state policies to come will echo back to communities like Kershaw County. Our data is being stored for large corporations, federal government military. Councilman Russell Brazel. And some people would say, well, would we rather the United States store our data or are we afraid that it could be in the hands of someone else in the globe? Those are all questions that are way above our pay grade here in Kirshall County. But as Congress, as state officials, work through these problems, they will then come home to roost. Kershaw County officials say they're especially keen to get data center questions square in the weeks following a decision to Greenlight incentives for a controversial $900 million natural gas plant in Bethune. And in Fairfield County, officials also took several steps towards regulating data centers, including a resolution to put a one-year ban on data center development on county land. Fairfield County officials recently resolved to not even sell county land to data center developers. A public hearing on Next Steps in Fairfield County is scheduled for August 31st. Scott Morgan, South Carolina Public Radio. And those were your statewide afternoon headlines from South Carolina Public Radio. I'm Louis Alfredo Garcia.