These soldiers gave all

The oldest was 45, the youngest 19. Seventy in all.

JANUARY 29, 2010 10:09 a.m. (0)

At the start of this week, the casualty count in the nine years of war was 5,318 – 4,360 in Operation Iraqi Freedom and 958 in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

Twenty-three of them considered the Upstate home.  Continue reading...

 

Local business leaders envision 2011 recovery

The industrial market continues to show signs of strength

FEBRUARY 2, 2010 11:15 a.m. (0)

The next few months will be relatively stagnant for the Upstate real estate market as many business leaders believe 2011 – not 2010 – will bring a recovery from the latest global economic depression.

Even as news of two quarters of gross national product growth, which signals an official end to the U.S. recession, came to light Tuesday morning, the meeting of 300 area business leaders was subdued at the CBRE Furman Co. annual economic forecast.  Continue reading...

 

Bits and bytes missing from USC Upstate

Computer thefts now number 58 since August

FEBRUARY 14, 2010 12:28 p.m. (1)

University of South Carolina Upstate has two or three “persons of interest” in a string of classroom computer thefts that began in August.

USC Upstate Police Chief Klay Peterson said while authorities have identified the persons of interest, he’s not ready to name them suspects or to say arrests in the case are imminent.  Continue reading...

 

Brick and mortarboards

MAY 21, 2010 12:35 p.m. (0)

The best minds in business don’t need to be hidden in an ivory tower miles from Spartanburg’s commercial district, University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides said.

They need to be brought to Main Street – or at least in this case, St. John Street.  Continue reading...

 

He’s the man in the mirror

AUGUST 26, 2010 7:37 a.m. (0)

For Christopher Adam Turner, self-portraits are a form of therapy.

Some people may talk to friends about issues going on in their lives but Turner picks up a paint brush.  Continue reading...

 

The fine print

By Dick Hughes

AUGUST 30, 2010 9:01 a.m. (0)

ScanSource Sets Revenue Record

ScanSource, the Greenville-based international distributor and reseller of technology products, had a good year with higher sales and income, but it could have been even better if it were not for product shortages, the company reported.  Continue reading...

 

The fine print

By Dick Hughes

SEPTEMBER 9, 2010 8:53 p.m. (0)

Finding Common Ground in Development

Leaders of several organizations engaged in various ways to promote the Upstate for new businesses met Aug. 19 at the BMW Zentrum with town and county officials to update them on their activities and encourage a united front.

“Our competition is not ourselves; our competition is other regions across the globe,” said Dean Hybol, executive director of Ten at the Top, which is building a consensus for smart land-use.  Continue reading...

 

Warhol is here

Exhibitions boost city's cultural possibilities

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010 1:53 p.m. (3)

For more information, go to www.uscupstate.edu/warhol.

Jane Nodine almost threw away the University of South Carolina Upstate’s chance at owning a collection of photographs by famous pop artist Andy Warhol.

Back in 2007, Nodine was cleaning papers off her desk when a letter with the Andy Warhol Foundation’s return address caught her attention.  Continue reading...

 

Fall (ish)

It's all about the temperatures

OCTOBER 3, 2010 11:51 a.m. (8)

Want to catch the fall color at its peak? Here are telephone hotlines and Web sites pointing out the best spots.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service’s fall color hotline is 1-800-354-4595.  Continue reading...

 

He's taking it all in stride

For Gilbert Kemboi, it's an education

NOVEMBER 2, 2010 8:46 a.m. (0)

Gilbert Kemboi grew up in the Rift Valley of Kenya racing the sunset home from elementary school.

It was a long way from his school to the safety of home and he’s a long way from there today.

He grew up outside of Eldoret, Kenya. His small community was a place of subsistence farms and large families; of few paved roads and many footpaths.  Continue reading...

 

The George

It's already paying off

NOVEMBER 19, 2010 12:45 p.m. (0)

George Dean Johnson Jr. College of Business and Economics at USC Upstate is winding up its first fall semester and the impact of the school on the City of Spartanburg is already evident.

“I can’t provide numbers this early on,” says Patty Bock, the economic development director of the City of Spartanburg, “but the USC Upstate Business School has definitely made a positive economic impact on the city, and it goes beyond our downtown.”

She says between faculty, staff and students, the school known as “The George” brings in nearly 1,000 people into downtown every day.  Continue reading...

 

The Heritage Green space

County looks for ways to improve public awareness of arts area.

FEBRUARY 3, 2011 3:39 p.m. (1)

Heritage Green is having an identity crisis.

The home of four museums, a community theater and the county’s main library is just three blocks from Main Street, yet is not widely thought of as a part of Greenville’s burgeoning downtown.

Some say that’s because of Academy Street, one of Greenville’s main central city thoroughfares that dissects Heritage Green from the rest of downtown and a more pedestrian-friendly Main Street.  Continue reading...

 

To save and protect

A historic property, conserved for the future

FEBRUARY 24, 2011 11:19 a.m. (1)

One by one, many of Greenville’s great estates have been subdivided and developed.

A couple of wooded tracts in the North Main area. The Williams-Earle property on Grove Road.

“Year by year, another site is torn down or subdivided,” said Brad Wyche, executive director of Upstate Forever.  Continue reading...

 

Greenville's gang of 13

Proterra finds new life thanks to a group of hometown investors

AUGUST 11, 2011 10:34 a.m. (0)

With Proterra out of cash to pay workers building battery-powered buses, a group of Greenville residents quietly raised the money to keep the company alive when no one else could or would.

They acted to keep Proterra viable not only for its jobs but also for its potential to attract a cluster of green energy transportation research and development to Upstate.

It is the untold story of how local investors gave Proterra a lifeline when its funding was lost and its credibility at risk, however innocently, with a federal fraud indictment of its main investor, a man no one here had ever met.  Continue reading...

 

100 words, 1 illustration

Upstate Book Project seeks local artists to write, illustrate group project

AUGUST 18, 2011 11:20 a.m. (0)

Artist Chuck Bailie has written the first 100 words and completed the first illustration of a book about a girl who lives in a world without color.

He’s looking for 29 adult artists from the Upstate to finish it.

“Artists, even the most nonchalant, are control freaks up to a point,” Bailie said. “This project is all about giving up comfort and security. It’s out of control and awesome.”  Continue reading...

 

Upstate Visual Arts starts fresh

New executive director Katie Screven wants to elevate understanding of visual arts in the community

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011 11:40 a.m. (0)

Upstate Visual Arts has had three executive directors in the past two years and three locations since April.

But the nonprofit arts organization’s newest executive director Katie Screven says there’s no doubt UVA should – and will – play an important part in elevating the stature and understanding of visual arts in the Upstate.

“There’s definitely a place for UVA in the arts community in the Upstate,” she said.  Continue reading...

 

BMW pro-am enlists help from local college students

BMW tournament organizers hope to broaden event's appeal with a little help from college students here

OCTOBER 7, 2011 10:35 a.m. (0)

When Tom Holgate attended the BMW Charity Pro-Am last year he saw a flourishing tournament, but also realized how much more of an impact the event could have on Spartanburg.

“This needs to become a more prominent event for everybody,” said Holgate, president of American Credit Acceptance, who organized a program to bring the heft of four Spartanburg colleges to increase interest in the Pro-Am in Spartanburg, which tournament organizers said has remained stagnant.

The tournament is held at Carolina Country Club in Spartanburg, Thornblade Club in Greenville and this year, the Greenville Country Club’s Chanticleer Course has been added.  Continue reading...

 

Upstate Forever event to feature arctic explorer

Eric Larsen is among the few who have visited the North and South poles and climbed Mt. Everest.

JANUARY 26, 2012 5:04 p.m. (4)

Overcoming the things that dwarf human strength and ingenuity are the biggest part of what keeps drawing Eric Larsen back to places like both poles and the top of the world.

“The thing that surprises people the most about the Antarctic is the sheer size of the place – the emptiness of it,” Larsen said from his home near Boulder Colo., after completing his second trip to Antarctica.

Antarctica has a permanent population of zero and at any given time between 1,000 and 5,000 people man scientific stations scattered across 5.4 million square miles.  Continue reading...

 

USC Upstate makes another try for a Greenville campus

School learned lessons from protests, questions that doomed 2005 attempt

MARCH 29, 2012 11:27 a.m. (1)

A firestorm of political protest erupted in 2005 when the University of South Carolina Upstate proposed building a campus in Greenville adjacent to Greenville Tech.

Then-Chancellor John Stockwell’s plan was dropped just a few months later after lawmakers expressed concern over what would happen to the University Center – a consortium of colleges that offer classes in part of the old McAlister Square on Pleasantburg Drive – without the school that offered the lion’s share of undergraduate classes at the facility and how the school proposed to pay for it.

Now, six years later, there’s once again talk of USC Upstate about building a campus in Greenville.  Continue reading...