Republicans enter a new election year Tuesday debating more than just who should be their nominee for president against Barack Obama. They're engaged in a struggle over how radically they can or should change the country's course.On one side is the tea party conservative, the kind of voter Richard Nixon once said belonged to a silent majority, who simmered as the party spent and piled up debt thr...

After weeks of bickering and doubt, Congress delivered a last-minute holiday tax cut extension to 160 million American workers Friday along with further unemployment benefits for millions laid off in the nation's fierce recession and weak economic recovery. It was a convincing victory for President Barack Obama, a humbling retreat for House Republicans.Obama quickly signed the legislation, declari...

Enjoy these images shared by our readers of holiday light and other displays around town. You also can use the form (click "Share yours!") to upload your own photos. Note: Slideshow player and form require Flash-enabled devices. Please understand our terms of service for user-submitted media. Read the document here. //jstabs.js configuration; script by Kelly Davis, Jan. 2010; kdavis@thestate....

Gov. Nikki Haley has endorsed Mitt Romney for president, according to a news release from Romney’s campaign. “He is a conservative businessman who has spent his life working in the economy, and he understands exactly how jobs are created,” Haley said in a news release. “He is not a creature of Washington, and he knows what it means to make decisions – real decisions –...

Defiant Republicans pushed legislation through the House Tuesday night that would keep alive Social Security payroll tax cuts for some 160 million Americans at President Barack Obama's request - but also would require construction of a Canada-to-Texas oil pipeline that has sparked a White House veto threat.Passage, on a largely party-line vote of 234-193, sent the measure toward its certain demise...

The Iowa political director for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign resigned Tuesday for suggesting that evangelicals stood ready to help God "expose the cult of Mormon." Craig Bergman had been with Gingrich's campaign for only a week and now he's out of a job for speaking disparagingly about former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's Mormon faith. Bergman, a "tea party...

The city of Columbia holds its final public meeting today as part of required efforts to update stormwater regulations.Local government agencies, the development community, engineering and planning firms, and environmental and conservation groups will be part of discussions, focusing on water quality. The update is being driven by federal water quality regulations that Congress approved in 1987 wh...

Conservation groups in two states have appealed South Carolina's water quality permit for the $650 million deepening of the Savannah River shipping channel.Attorneys with the Southern Environmental Law Center filed the appeal in the state's Administrative Law Court.The appeal contends the Department of Health and Environmental Control improperly approved the permit allowing deepening of the channe...

A day after Herman Cain shuttered his Republican candidacy for president, struggling GOP hopefuls looked to pick up the fallen candidate's tea party following and upset a primary dynamic that has pushed Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich to the forefront.Gingrich's campaign, ramping up its operations in early nominating states, was meeting with former Cain aides and advisers now looking for jobs. While...

Students at two South Carolina colleges can reduce their campus' carbon footprints as they sweat off those extra holiday calories.Elliptical machines in fitness centers at Furman and the University of South Carolina are connected to the power grid through a system that converts human energy into carbon-free electricity. Granted, the wattage is low. But self-powered gyms weren't the point.The syste...

Four of Gov. Nikki Haley’s staff members will testify about a state agency’s controversial decision to allow a Georgia port to expand after a state Senate panel took the unprecedented step Friday of subpoenaing them.“Yes, we will testify,” Rob Godfrey, Haley’s spokesman, said Friday. “And these senators will confirm, again, what they already know to be tru...

South Carolina senators plan to discuss a decision by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control board to grant a water quality permit Georgia needs to expand its Savannah port operations.Legislators are scheduled to hear from DHEC on Tuesday about the permits that have since been challenged by the Savannah River Maritime Commission.The board issued the permit after DHEC's staff had ...

White House hopeful Michele Bachmann is questioning GOP presidential rival Newt Gingrich's consistency on the issues as she tries to reclaim tea party support in South Carolina.Bachmann said Monday that she hasn't been a longtime Washington insider like the former House speaker and some other candidates. She notes that she founded the congressional Tea Party Caucus.Bachmann listed a group of 37 So...

Gov. Nikki Haley is planning to discuss a state agency's handling of an environmental permit for a Georgia port expansion.The Republican is scheduled to hold a news conference Monday at the Statehouse in Columbia.Haley's office says the governor is discussing the Department of Health and Environmental Control board's decision to approve a water quality permit required to expand Savannah's port ope...

Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich looked to turn an endorsement from New Hampshire's largest newspaper into momentum elsewhere, heading to South Carolina for a three-day campaign swing with tea party members.His leading rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, did not schedule campaign appearances on Monday, but his advisers were working to downplay The New Hampshire Union Leade...

The Savannah River Maritime Commission, a board created by the Legislature four years ago to deal with port issues, said Monday the state Department of Health and Environmental Control doesn’t have the sole authority to grant a water-quality permit for a proposed new Savannah port, which that agency issued last week.The maritime commission’s unanimous vote Monday sets up a legal batt...

Atlanta's mayor and the Georgia governor have announced plans to tour the Port of Savannah as state leaders continue pushing for an expansion project they say is critical to the region's economy.Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed will tour the port with Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood on Tuesday, the mayor said in a statement Friday.This week, Georgia's long-sought p...

He is the man with the mustache who takes a rebellious drag on a cigarette in the Herman Cain Internet ad gone viral."We've run a campaign like nobody's ever seen," he says before taking a puff. "But then America's never seen a candidate like Herman Cain."Meet Mark Block, Cain's unorthodox campaign manager. Perhaps no one is more responsible for the Georgia businessman's meteoric rise in the presi...

Likely GOP S.C. primary voters give the edge to Georgia businessman Herman Cain, who narrowly leads former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the Palmetto State, according to a new GOP presidential poll.Meanwhile Texas Gov. Rick Perry continues to fade into the background.Thirty percent of likely S.C. GOP primary voters would pick Cain compared to 26 percent who say they favor Romney, according to ...

Upload your pet costume photo for a chance to be among five finalists in our competition. The finalists will have their photos published in The State, and readers will get the chance to vote for their favorite. The winner will be announced on Oct. 31. We'll pick the five finalists by Wednesday, Oct. 26.Click "Share yours!" to upload your own photos to this slideshow. Note that the slideshow playe...

The producers of ABC TV’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” are looking for a deserving South Carolina family whose home deserves a major revitalization because it affects the family’s quality of life on a daily basis and the family doesn’t have the resources, ability or time to fix it. Email nominations by Friday to castingsouthcarolina@emhe.tv. Nominations must ...

Mitt Romney's campaign says New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is endorsing him for the GOP presidential nomination.Romney and Christie will hold an event Tuesday in New Hampshire ahead of the presidential debate set at Dartmouth, N.H., where Christie will announce his support, the campaign said.Christie had been considering a presidential run in 2012. He decided last week not to mount a campaign.Chri...

One of the nation’s largest homebuilders has agreed to pay a $625,000 fine for a series of storm water violations at construction sites across the country, including sites in South Carolina, the federal government said Friday.Ryland Homes failed to obtain environmental permits in some cases, while failing to follow requirements of the permits in other cases, the U.S. Department of Justice and...

Early data released by the Richland County Sheriff’s Department shows an apparent dramatic decrease in copper and air-conditioning-unit parts thefts, which the agency attributes to new laws on the books making it harder to sell the stolen goods.The August law requires anyone who wants to sell copper and other non-iron-containing metals to a recycler to obtain special permits.Because of the ...

Their chief target is Wall Street, but many of the demonstrators in New York and across the U.S. also are thoroughly disgusted with Washington, blaming politicians of both major parties for policies they say protect corporate America at the expense of the middle class."At this point I don't see any difference between George Bush and Obama. The middle class is a lot worse than when Obama was electe...

Protests against Wall Street entered their 18th day Tuesday as demonstrators across the country show their anger over the wobbly economy and what they see as corporate greed by marching on Federal Reserve banks and camping out in parks from Los Angeles to Portland, Maine.Demonstrations are expected to continue throughout the week as more groups hold organizational meetings and air their concerns o...

Live video as streamed by the White House:

Providence Hospital Northeast announced Tuesday it plans to stop delivering babies and devote more resources to orthopaedics, a change that will increase bed capacity and staffing at the hospital.The Providence Hospitals Board of Trustees voted to approve a staff recommendation to close Providence Northeast’s eight-bed labor and delivery department by Dec. 31, 2011. The department has a staff...

With the economy sputtering, the warring factions of Congress have lurched toward gridlock over the usually noncontroversial process of approving disaster aid and keeping the government from shutting down.The GOP-dominated House early Friday muscled through a $3.7 billion disaster aid measure along with a stopgap spending bill to keep the government running past next Friday. The narrow 219-203 tal...

The Tea Party movement roars into the Republican presidential spotlight tonight, as grassroots conservative-coalition members are scheduled to question GOP candidates at a Tampa, Fla., debate.The two-hour debate, co-sponsored by the Tea Party Express and CNN, promises to include some topics that rarely come up in national political forums, such as the candidates’ views of the Constitution a...