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Crude oil set a record for the sixth day in a row - this time closing above $117 a barrel - after an attack on a Japanese oil tanker in the Middle East rattled investors.

"It's killing us," said Jean Beuns, a New York cab driver who estimated he now makes $125 to $150 less per month than in the fall because of costlier gas. "And it was so quick. Every day you see the price go up 5, 6, 10 cents more."

Diesel prices at the pump also struck a record high of $4.20 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. That's sure to add to truckers' costs and drive up the price of food, clothing and other goods shipped by truck.

"You and I are going to pay more," said Bob Costello, chief economist of American Trucking Associations. "Exactly how much ... I can't tell you, but it's got to show up."

A judge ordered last week that the genetic material be taken to help determine which children belong to which parents.

Authorities need to figure that out before they begin custody hearings to determine which children may have been abused and need to be permanently removed from the sect compound in Eldorado, and which ones can be safely returned to the fold.

State social workers have complained that over the past few weeks, sect members have offered different names and ages. Also, the children refer to all of their fathers' wives as their "mothers," and all men in the community as "uncles."

The testing went on behind closed doors at the crowded coliseum where the children seized in the raid earlier this month on the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints compound are staying.

The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited, the university announced. For ticket information, call (803) 535-5751 or e-mail jdarby@claflin.edu.

The Volunteers will perform 7 p.m. in Ministers’ Hall.

Since their founding in 1981, the Volunteers band mixes jazz, 1950s favorites and Motown classics.

—From staff reports

Talley has been rehired as Barons football coach, headmaster Fred Moulton confirmed on Monday.

"As we looked through many wonderful candidates, we just felt like the stability from within was important and obvi-ously he is a proven winner," Moulton said.

Talley had remained on staff at Wilson Hall for the past four years, as assistant headmaster and as boys basketball coach. The departure of coach Jimmy Noonan, who accepted a position at Wando earlier this month, after one season at the helm created the unexpected opportunity for Talley to return to the gridiron.

"I really had no intentions of getting back into it ... but Friday nights, once you do it, it’s kind of hard to get it out of your system," said Talley, a twice-retired football coach.

The dedication ceremony, organized by the Richland County Conservation Commission, will be at 11 a.m. April 28 at the farm at 10730 Two Notch Road.

The pristine property is a fourth generation farm near Pontiac purchased by family matriarch Mary Percival in 1884. The Monroe family has farmed corn and wheat there for decades, and still works the land.

The family’s decision to put their property into a conservation easement protects the headwaters of the Spears Creek Watershed, according to a county news release.

For more information, call Jim Wilson, environmental program manager, at (803) 576-2084.

The agency said it has $20 million to lend teachers that the state Department of Education sees as a way to help schools recruit and retain employees, especially in communities where housing costs are high or where housing is scarce.

Home buyers meeting income eligibility requirements can qualify for a 30-year loan at 5.875 percent, which is below the current market rate. Down payment assistance of up to $7,000 will also be available to teachers whose salary is less than 80 percent of a county's median income.

Valarie Williams, the housing authority director, estimated the agency anticipates it will be able to help finance about 175 loans.

The announcement came during a joint news conference with schools chief Jim Rex, who said he saw the program as an innovative way to boost the profession’s image.

Former University of South Florida students Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, 26, and Youssef Samir Megahed, 22, were to be tried together next week on one of the charges stemming from their August arrests during a traffic stop in South Carolina.

But a new indictment issued last week adding charges, as well as attorneys' conflicting schedules, led U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday to split the trials completely. Megahed's trial is now set for May 5, with Mohamed's scheduled for July 7.

Deputies in South Carolina who stopped their car Aug. 4 said they found items to build pipe bombs in the trunk. The men contend those items - PVC pipe containing a mixture of sugar, potassium nitrate and cat litter, plus fuses - were ingredients for homemade, low-grade fireworks.

But also in the car, prosecutors say, was a laptop computer containing a video Mohamed made to demonstrate how to turn a remote-control toy into a detonator for a bomb.

Ohio-based Olympic Steel Incoporated expects its 100,000-square-foot plant to be completed by the end of the year.

The company specializes in the direct sale and distribution of large amounts of processed carbon and coated and stainless steel. It currently runs 15 facilities and employs around 1,200 people.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, her husband and their daughter Chelsea have separate campaign stops planned before meeting up in Philadelphia for an evening event. Barack Obama finishes the day in Pittsburgh.

The weekend saw some of the most negative attacks of the campaign. Each side aired TV ads yesterday that accused the other of maintaining ties to special interests that they both claim to reject.

Clinton also criticized Obama for saying that either of the Democrats - as well as John McCain - would be "better than George Bush." She says the Democrats don't need a nominee who will "cheer on John McCain."

Clinton picked up an endorsement from an unlikely source, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. It's owned by Richard Mellon Scaife, a conservative who funded many of the investigations that plagued Bill Clinton while he was in office.

SCANA, with $4.6 billion in revenue last year, remains the state's only Fortune 500 firm, according to the latest rankings released today.

When the list is expanded to the top 1,000 companies based on annual revenues, three more S.C. companies make the list.

They are: -- No. 550, Sonoco, the Hartsville packaging maker; -- No. 563, AbitibiBowater, the paper maker that had its headquarters in Greenville before a merger in October; -- No. 901, ScanSource, the Greenville communications and scanner firm.

Wal-Mart remain atop the Fortune 500 list, edging Exxon Mobil for the second straight year.

The Charlotte bank that's S.C.'s second largest in deposits reported a profit of $1.21 billion, or 23 cents per share, down from $5.26 billion, or $1.16, a year earlier.

The bank increased its provision for bad loans by $4.78 billion from a year ago to $6.01 billion as borrowers struggled to pay back home-equity and small business loans. The nation's biggest bank by market value also took about $2 billion in writedowns to account for the falling value of subprime-related investments and loans for buyout deals.

"Despite revenue growth in most of our businesses, these results clearly did not meet our expectations,'' said chief executive Ken Lewis in a statement.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had projected earnings of 41 cents per share.

Current gas wholesale costs suggest the Midlands average could mushroom past $3.50 -- and past the record mark when adjusted for inflation.

The recent run-up sent prices past the former high-mark of $3.23 set in 2005 after much of state's gas supplies were cut off in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In current prices, that equals $3.53.

The U.S. average already has passed $3.50 -- breaking that mark today.

And oil prices also keep rising.

Sisters Angie Baldwin and Suzette Dunlap say they saw that some of the widows didn't have a good support network. Baldwin and Dunlap are married to Charleston firefighters and want to make sure all the wives have help.

The group has grown to 25 members and meets once a month.

Baldwin says sometime the group talks about the June 18 fire and sometimes it doesn't. She said they've been to ball games, had guest speakers and held a self-defense class.

A memorial picnic is planned for Charleston firefighters and their families June 22, four days after the first anniversary of the tragedy.

Phillip Miles, from Conway, S.C., has been in custody since his arrest on Feb. 3. He was arrested several days after customs agents at a Moscow airport found a box of 20 rifle shells in his luggage.

The court sentenced him to serve three years and two months in prison, with the sentence calculated from his detention date.

Miles has said he brought the .300 caliber cartridges for a friend who had recently bought a Winchester rifle. He said he did not know bringing such ammunition into Russia was illegal.

Judge Olga Drozdova accepted in her 20-minute summation that Miles had brought the ammunition for a friend, "as they are both inveterate hunters."

Boat owner Robert Payne tells The (Charleston) Post and Courier that he found the marble tombstone earlier this month and immediately brought it to the police.

Payne says he has rented his houseboat a number of times and had people trespass on the vessel as well.

Police say the tombstone has "Infant son of R.W. & E.J. Hypes" written on it, but can't figure out what cemetery it came from. The child died in 1894.

Police say stealing a tombstone worth more than $200 in South Carolina is a felony.

The 544-student school’s normally jam-packed parking lot was practically empty throughout the day — save for the flood of national media that has descended on the Chesterfield County town of about 1,500 people.

The story has led cable news broadcasts throughout the day.

Ryan Schallenberger, 18, was assigned a lawyer during a brief court hearing Monday. The teen was silent but appeared agitated, his eyes widening at the sight of cameras awaiting him when he entered in an orange jumpsuit, hands cuffed and ankles shackled.

The alleged plotter was arrested Saturday after his parents called police because the teen had ordered 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate, which they’d retrieved after getting a delivery notice from the postal service, authorities said Monday. Police also said they discovered a disturbing journal.

Beginning with bubble wrap and shredded paper, employees of Studio 2LR were creating a fashion masterpiece from recyclable materials.

Architects by day and fashion designers by lunch hour, the employees were stapling, stuffing and weaving the garbage to compete in this year’s Runaway Runway Fashion Show, sponsored by the Columbia Design League.

“It’s a fashion show where all of the materials are recycled,” said Design League board member Rhett Anders. “All of the designers are local talent.”

Seventeen-year-old Magill Thomas, above left, and 19-year-old Jessika Harlin, both of Columbia and dressed in their recycled runway outfits, wait for the results following the fashion show.

The era of cheap gasoline is over. SUVs will be things of the past. Gas will cost so much people will give them up.

“The resale value of them is dropping by the day,” says Inglis, who represents South Carolina’s most conservative area — the Greenville-Spartanburg corridor.

“In several years, $4 a gallon gasoline will be a fond memory.”

Such talk comes from a new Inglis, one who now steers a course apart from many Republican colleagues, who aren’t known for aggressive environmental stances.

That’s one of the things that S.C. National Guard Lt. Col. Robert Spires learned when his team of engineers started designing and building barracks for the Afghan army.

Spires learned that rocks, which are plentiful here, commonly are used in the Afghan bathroom routine instead of toilet tissue. Thus, a rock-catcher is essential.

“If you don’t install a rock-catcher in the commode, then the first bend in pipe will be plugged,” said Spires, a project manager for Eastman Chemical in Sandy Run in civilian life.

Spires, a member of the S.C. National Guard’s 218th Brigade Combat Team, is chief of Task Force Phoenix’s engineer unit in Afghanistan. In that role, Spires and the 26 troops under his command are handling 1,000 building projects — ranging from plywood huts to $172 million chow halls.

The 32-year-old native of Japan, who has lived in the United States for 17 years, was the second of seven finalists who auditioned in the just-completed 2007-08 season.

“He set the bar, and nobody ever came close,” said Gail Morrison, head of the philharmonic’s search committee. “Not to take anything away from the others, but there was just something special about Morihiko. After every other conductor, we’d say, ‘Yep, it’s still him.’”

The appointment will be announced at 10:30 a.m. at the Koger Center. Nakahara, associate conductor of orchestras in Spokane, Wash., and Jacksonville, Fla., will attend.

“This will be my main job, and I consider it full time,” said Nakahara, who plans to spend most of his time in Columbia and Spokane. “I’ll be making friends and making friends for the orchestra.”

Macpherson sent the teen for an HIV/AIDS test at the county health department.

But a state law requiring that HIV/AIDS test results be reported to a student’s school stopped the teen in his tracks.

“He wouldn’t get tested because they were going to tell his (superintendent) and school nurse the results of the test,” Macpherson said. “I couldn’t believe there was such a requirement. This law prevented a patient of mine from seeking medical care on something so critical as HIV. It’s outrageous.”

That might change under a bill filed by Macpherson’s husband, Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg.

Horton becomes executive director of the Kershaw County Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Center on May 12, replacing Buddy Clark, who retired in December after eight years.

Horton, 32, worked for the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce for five years, starting in 2002 as an assistant to the vice president and, later, becoming a vice president. She joined the Cabarrus Regional Chamber of Commerce in North Carolina in January 2007 as vice president.

Horton’s base salary at the chamber will be $57,500.

Her experience in fundraising and events will be a plus in her new job, said Johnny Deal, head of the search committee for the Kershaw County chamber.

Work is scheduled to begin Saturday on the bridge connecting the Riverfront Park parking lot on Laurel Street to the popular walking trail.

The bridge, built in 1908, is in need of an upgrade.

“We’re celebrating its 100th birthday by giving it some new wood and paint,” said Karen Kustafik, coordinator of Columbia’s park rangers.

While the work is going on, the city will open the trail gate at the Columbia Hydro Plant, next to EdVenture and the State Museum, Kustafik said.

• Date of birth: July 11, 1976

• Description: Walker is 6 feet 3 inches tall, weighs 170 pounds and has black hair and brown eyes

• Wanted by: Lexington County Sheriff’s Department

• Charges: Criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature

“We all used to joke about the fact that she had more energy than all of us put together,” said friend and former co-worker Nicole Ravenell, 37.

At 65, Shuptrine had retired from her position as president and CEO of the Southern Institute on Families and Children, but was still on the board of directors and was actively involved in the organization’s Southern Business Institute.

Shuptrine, of Columbia, died of a sudden illness Saturday. She is survived by her husband, two daughters and sons-in-law, and six grandchildren.

Shuptrine was quoted Sunday in an article in The State about Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Landmark Development in Winston-Salem, N.C., was in the midst of converting the old Lockmore Cotton Mill into about 40 apartments when the fire broke out Thursday night.

Fire officials say the flames spread so quickly that they decided to let the blaze burn itself out.

Landmark Development officials told The (Rock Hill) Herald that the building was insured and the renovation will continue as soon as possible.

No one was injured in the blaze. The investigation into the cause of the fire continues.

That’s why Carolina Wildlife Care calls its annual awareness event the Wildlife Baby Shower.

The flood of orphaned babies in the wild each spring strains the resources of the nonprofit rehabilitation outfit on Bush River Road. So Carolina Wildlife Care throws open the doors for one weekend, asking visitors to bring “presents” such as paper towels, scent-free dish washing detergent and garbage bags.

“Not only do we want people to see what goes on behind the doors here, but this represents an incredible educational opportunity,” said Joanna Weitzel, executive director of Carolina Wildlife Care.

The education is twofold. It lets people know there is a place where they can take abandoned newborn or injured adult wild animals, and it also asks people to consider how they can be better neighbors to those animals.

GOVERNMENT

Blythewood Architectural Review Board: 7 p.m. today at Town Hall, 171 Langford Road

Richland County Council: 7 p.m. Tuesday, zoning public hearing, county administration building, 2020 Hampton St., Columbia

SCHOOLS

If so, the Richland County Public Library is seeking nominations for the Lucy Hampton Bostick Award, which recognizes a worthy literary advocate with a medal and cash honorarium.

The award honors Lucy Hampton Bostick, longtime head librarian in Richland County and former Richland County Public Library director from 1928 to 1968.

Bostick promoted library appreciation throughout the state and fostered an interest in Southern literature and history.

The deadline for nominations is May 2. Nomination forms are available online at www.myrcpl.com/bostick.htm or by calling the Friends of the Library at (803) 929-3475.

“A CABAL OF HYPOCRITES”: Through Sunday, 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, Drayton Hall Theatre, USC campus. Adults, $16; USC faculty/staff/military, $14; students, $10. (803) 777-2551

ARTISTA VISTA: 5-9 p.m. Thursday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, the Congaree Vista. Visitors can tour galleries, speak to artists and see demonstrations. Complimentary wine and hors d’oeuvres. Free. (803) 269-5946; www.vistacolumbia.com

“DOUBLE EXPOSURE: TWO GROUPS, ONE CONCERT”: 7-8:15 tonight, Free Times office, 1534 Main St. Concert features the Sandlapper Singers, Chip Mosteller and Lucas War Hero. Free. Beer, wine and soft drinks will be for sale. For more information contact the Nickelodeon at (803) 254-8234 or www.nickelodeon.org, the Sandlapper Singers at www.sandlappersingers.org or the Musicians & Songwriters Guild of South Carolina at www.scsongwriters.com

STACY MORGAN ART SHOW: Through May 5, Kershaw County Fine Arts Center Bassett gallery, 810 Lyttleton St., Camden. (803) 425-7676; www.fineartscenter.org

The event will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Gambrell Hall 153 on USC’s campus. Admission is free.

Geshe Dakpa Topgyal was born in Tibet. His family fled to India when he was a small child.

He joined Drepung monastery at age 10. He was ordained by the Dalai Lama, served as an official translator for the Mystical Arts of Tibet and has taught Buddhism in Europe.

He is the author of several books, including “Essential Ethics: A Buddhist Approach to Modern Day Life and Social Action” “Holistic Health: A Tibetan Monk’s View” and “Diamond Key for Opening the Wisdom Eye: A Guide to the Process of Meditation.”

Adding to the confusion was the fact that quarterbacks Chris Smelley and Tommy Beecher kept throwing passes to the wrong team — the defense.

Smelley and Beecher combined for eight interceptions, giving the game a rag-tag quality and ensuring the quarterback competition would drag on through the summer.

Not surprisingly, Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier said he would not name a starter until August, when suspended freshman Stephen Garcia could be back in the mix by successfully completing several university-imposed disciplinary requirements.

“At some point one of the quarterbacks has to really show a strong commitment level to really want to be good,” Spurrier said. “Right now I don’t think any quarterback we have knows what really playing well is all about.”

Graves, 35, had heard that on Saturday morning local governments were, for the second year in a row, offering a lawn mower exchange in which residents of Richland and Lexington counties could turn in their gas-powered mowers and pick up cordless, electric ones.

The first 125 local residents would get a $200 discount, allowing them to buy the electric mower for $199.

“My wife had mentioned that I should get there at 9,” Graves said. “I said, ‘The only people getting there at 9 are the people not getting (discounts).’”

Graves — a staff sergeant stationed at Fort Jackson who, like many a soldier, is accustomed to getting up early in the morning — made sure he would not be among those missing out on the discount.

As a preacher, Charles Austin is not just heard — he is felt.

Sit in one of the hard-backed pews at the Village of Hope Fellowship on a Sunday morning. You hear deep-throated screams from the pulpit. You feel the emotion that, once unleashed, causes him to dance.

As a city manager, Charles Austin is felt — not just heard.

Sit in one of the hard-backed benches at City Hall on a Wednesday morning. See his whispers to his staff. Watch as he keeps his head down.

So, Sheriff Leon Lott summoned a panel of community leaders to watchdog officers’ conduct.

This time they reviewed the March 26 death of Larry D. Bosket, 34, a suspect in a drug investigation.

The Richland County Sheriff’s Citizen’s Advisory Committee, created in 2001, is the only such group in the state.

Lott said his committee is vital to the operation of the Sheriff’s Department because it provides a civilian perspective and influences policy at the agency.

The fault zones beneath the Mississippi River Valley have produced some of the largest modern U.S. quakes east of the Rockies, a region covered with old buildings not built to withstand seismic activity.

Friday’s quake shook things up from Nebraska to Atlanta, rattling nerves but doing little damage and seriously hurting no one. It was a magnitude 5.2 temblor centered just outside West Salem in southeastern Illinois, a largely rural region of small towns that sit over the Wabash fault zone. The area has produced moderately strong quakes as recently as 2002.

But it hasn’t been studied to nearly the degree of quake-prone areas west of the Rockies, particularly along the heavily scrutinized Pacific coast.

“We don’t have as many opportunities as in California,” said Genda Chen, associate professor of engineering at the University of Missouri-Rolla, which sits near the well-known and very active New Madrid fault zone.

“They’ve utterly changed my life,” said Cowley, 70, who credits the treatments with enabling her to live long enough to welcome six grandchildren into the world.

Unlike most terminally ill cancer patients, Cowley had the chance to try untested drugs. With the opening of a government-run network of experimental cancer clinics across the country this month, British doctors are hoping to offer millions of dying cancer patients the same chance.

The network builds on cancer research centers first established in 2002 to bring laboratory advances quickly to patients. Each center will receive $4 million from the Department of Health and Cancer Research United Kingdom to develop new treatments.

Under the government-supported trials, Cowley has tried at least four experimental medicines for free. Her doctors aren’t sure which ones have had the most impact but say her situation is stable.

On a highly personal day, he spoke of his own “spiritual poverty” and said he hoped to be a worthy successor to St. Peter, considered the first pope. He rallied young people, priests and seminarians and assured them of his support as they deal with damage from the clergy sex abuse scandal.

Benedict began the day with a Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the landmark Roman Catholic church on Fifth Avenue. The building was packed with cardinals and bishops, priests and nuns, who cheered him to mark the day he succeeded Pope John Paul II.

The German-born pope lamented that what he called “the joy of faith” was often choked by cynicism, greed and violence.

“The spires of St. Patrick’s Cathedral are dwarfed by the skyscrapers of the Manhattan skyline, yet in the heart of this busy metropolis they are a vivid reminder of the constant yearning of the human spirit to rise to God,” he said.

This rush to regulate also was apparent in the recent crackdown on the airlines, resulting in thousands of grounded flights for safety inspections as the government beefs up its enforcement of existing laws. There have been mounting proposals for tougher government rules to address climate change. High corporate salaries have come under attack on Capitol Hill, as have oil industry profits and rising food costs.

Advocates of more aggressive government action see it as a boon to ordinary Americans struggling in hard economic times. But those favoring a lighter federal touch worry that the pendulum will swing too far toward regulation, stifling economic growth and efficiency.

“There’s always that danger,” said Jack Kemp, former New York congressman, housing secretary in the first Bush administration and 1996 Republican vice presidential nominee. “We do have to be concerned about overregulation.”

But even the conservative Kemp, now an economic adviser to John McCain, has come down on the side of more federal involvement to help struggling homeowners.

The attack on April 19, 1995, is the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.

“The evil act perpetrated here illustrated the depths of human depravity,” Gov. Brad Henry said. “But Oklahomans met tragedy with triumph. From such a horrible crime came tales of astounding goodness.”

At 9:02 a.m., the moment of the bombing, people attending the service observed 168 seconds of silence for each of the bombing’s victims. Victims’ names also were read aloud.

Before the ceremony, relatives of the victims placed wreaths and mementos on the memorial’s symbolic glass and bronze chairs, each one representing a victim of the bombing.

When the vehicles stopped, the children surrounded them and pressed against the doors, barely giving the soldiers enough room to open the doors.

“Pen. Pen. Pen,” the boys shouted in English. “Soccer ball. Volleyball.”

The Palmetto State soldiers, on their final visit to the Tahai Maskan Orphanage, did their best to oblige.

Members of the Guard’s 218th Brigade Combat Team — which next week ends its yearlong tour of duty in Afghanistan — adopted the orphanage in August as one of several civil affairs projects.

Bill D. Whitmire of Florence was given the Award of Excellence in Teaching; T. Alissa Warters of Florence was presented the Award for Excellence in Service; and Victor Scott Kaufman of Florence received the Award for Excellence in Research. Each award carries a cash prize.

An associate professor of mathematics, Whitmire has been a member of the FMU faculty since 1997. He also is coordinator of secondary education certification for mathematics programs. Whitmire has created courses for continuing education in-service teachers.

Warters, a native of Rock Hill, is an assistant professor of political science. She has been a member of the FMU faculty since 2004. Her primary research and teaching interests are the American presidency and public law. She recently was recognized for her role as co-chair of the United Nations Symposium.

Kaufman, a native of Slidell, La., became an assistant professor of history at FMU in 2001 and an associate professor of history in 2005. He has taught many courses in the field of history and published five books since 2000, including “The Presidency of James Earl Carter Jr.,” “Francis Marion: Swamp Fox of the Carolinas” and a biography of former first lady Rosalynn Carter.

Batesburg-Leesville High School’s band boosters say they are looking to capitalize on the feel-good atmosphere their grassroots project created by keeping “Music Replay” alive. They already have in mind another Pee Dee area school — not identified — that they’d like to help.

“We are going to continue the program,” said Robin Cocklin, publicity chair of the Batesburg-Leesville High band boosters. “We’re now going to work on helping another school.”

A State newspaper photograph of a J.V. Martin student playing a badly dented tuba inspired the Lexington 3 school to organize a used musical instrument drive. Erik Lifchez, a Columbia-area music store owner, volunteered to underwrite the cost of reconditioning all the donated instruments that Batesburg-Leesville collected.

The logistics of how “Music Replay” will live on are taking shape. But Cocklin said band booster officers are focused on several ideas:

“Oh, God, it’s been horrible,” said Nikki Hardin of Mount Pleasant, publisher of the women’s magazine Skirt! “I just think it’s been abominable.”

Hardin and others say their candidate has been unfairly characterized by a biased, sexist punditry that overlooks slights to Clinton’s gender but pounces whenever there is a disparaging remark about U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.

Clinton trails Obama in the delegate race to win the Democratic presidential nomination but could close the gap with a big win in Tuesday’s Pennsylvania primary.

Clinton’s Palmetto State devotees have followed their candidate in the three months since she lost the S.C. primary, compiling a collection of slights they say proves the campaign’s sexism largely has gone unchecked.

Why do all of the really cool bills — the ones people want to talk about — always get killed?

Last week, the bill that would have prohibited exotic dancers and patrons from coming within six feet of one another died in subcommittee by a 3-2 vote.

One subcommittee member told the Buzz he couldn’t justify putting a man in prison for an entire year just because he couldn’t correctly judge six feet.

Buzz didn’t really buy that response. Isn’t six feet just 12 dollar bills lined up end to end? Doesn’t sound too difficult to us.

“Had we not (cut taxes), we’d have had all the money we would have needed this year.”

— State Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, explaining that the budget woes the state is experiencing are partly due to three years of tax cuts that took $500 million out of the state budget. (Leatherman’s most outspoken critic, Gov. Mark Sanford, pushed the tax cuts and insists the state’s woes are from spending too much.) State revenues are projected to be $90 million less than original estimates, and lawmakers are slashing spending to balance the budget.

SCHMOOZING

Where and when lawmakers can eat and drink for free Tuesday — and who’s buying.

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell recently spent almost $30,000 on a reproduction of a bronze cannon, complete with a Palmetto engraving.

“Anybody will tell you a bronze gun has just got a different sound to it,” the Charleston Republican said. “I knew this gun would make noise, and it does. It is a loud, talking gun. ... It really splits the air.”

McConnell has been an enthusiastic Civil War re-enactor for years. He set aside his law career a decade ago to concentrate on running CSA Galleries, a sort of department store for all sorts of memorabilia from the Civil War (or War Between the States, depending on which side your ancestors fought).

Although he began the hobby as an infantryman, a foot injury and the cannon that took part in the 2004 funeral for the Hunley crew stirred his interest in artillery.

1.

Rush Limbaugh says he likes it. America’s most popular conservative radio talk show host has this to say on the book’s jacket: “Big government liberalism and a decline in our culture must be stopped. For ammunition in the fight ahead, read ‘Why We Whisper.’”

2.

DeMint revisits the gay teacher flap. During his 2004 U.S. Senate campaign against Democrat Inez Tenenbaum, DeMint said gay teachers should not be allowed to teach in public schools. He goes over it in a chapter entitled “Feeling the Heat.”

In 1941, she married Edward Stanley Baker of Centenary and their marriage lasted 32 years until his death in 1974. In 1981, she married Walter Franklin Altman and their marriage ended with his death in 1991.

She was Postmaster in Centenary for 30 years and was a devoted member of Centenary United Methodist Church for 52 years. She was a Sunday School teacher and member of the Louise Baker Circle.

She is survived by: her two daughters, Sharon Baker Wilkerson and her husband John of Charleston and Bettise Baker Davidson and her husband Ed of Columbia; five grandchildren, Beth and Amy Wilkerson, both of Charleston, and Neil, Thomas and Summer Davidson, all of Columbia; and three sisters, Inez Powers of Marion, Bessie Phillips of Marion and Corrine Griffin of Hamlet, NC.

She was predeceased by a sister, Beaulah Boatwright.

Funeral services will be conducted at 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, April 22, 2008, at St. Marks Lutheran Church, 255 St. Marks Road, Leesville, South Carolina.

She was born in Tampa, Florida, June 23, 1948, the daughter of Emilio and Maria Perez.

Survivors include her beloved husband, Roger Shealy; daughter, Anastasia Story; parents, Emilio and Maria Perez; sister, Emily Nettles; and her aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews.

Gilda will be dearly missed and is very much loved by her family and friends.