Roofer in Columbia, SC

Columbia will not host rounds of the NCAA’s March Madness men’s basketball championship in 2027 or 2028, despite submitting a bid earlier this year.

Columbia’s problem is its lack of full-service hotels, explained Scott Powers, executive director of Experience Columbia Sports, the city’s sports tourism agency.

“While it wasn’t a surprise, we’re disappointed,” Powers said, explaining that the NCAA informed the city earlier this month that it would not be among host cities for tournaments in 2027 or 2028.

In 2019, the city broke a nearly 50-year streak and was chosen to host a portion of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament for the first time since 1970. Almost 48,000 tickets were sold for the six games hosted in Columbia that year, and the overall economic impact to Richland and Lexington counties was $11.3 million.

It was a big moment for Columbia, not only because of the economics, but also because March Madness draws international attention and it was a chance for South Carolina’s capital city to show its assets.

The city keeps hoping to recapture that moment, but every year since the city last won a host position the requirements have gotten more stringent, Powers said. In 2019, they found creative ways around the full-service hotel problem. But the NCAA hasn’t been willing to make the same concessions in more recent years.

Columbia and the surrounding area do have a lot of hotels. There were at least 160 hotels with a total of 13,263 rooms in the Columbia metro area as of December 2023, according to the state Restaurant and Lodging Association. That’s also a significant increase from December 2019, when there were 129 hotels and under 12,000 rooms. So the region is also adding hotels. But they aren’t adding the right kind of hotels fast enough.

The NCAA wants host cities with eight to 10 full-service hotels with in-house food and beverage options, with four meeting rooms of at least 2,000 square feet. And it wants each of the eight teams playing in the tournament rounds to have their own hotel to avoid any bad blood before or after games. There are only four hotels in the region that meet those requirements, Powers previously told The State, and the city hasn’t built any new ones in almost 20 years. The last NCAA-approved full-service hotel that opened in Columbia was the Hilton Columbia Center in 2007.

Columbia wasn’t the only city in the Carolinas to miss out on the host gigs. Charlotte is the only city in the Carolinas to have been selected by the NCAA this round. Powers thinks this indicates that smaller cities might not stand a chance in the future.

Powers said he will keep bidding to host NCAA tournament rounds, but he’s not optimistic that Columbia will get selected, at least until after 2030, because bids have to be submitted up to two years prior and Columbia won’t change enough in that time. He said one solution could be to limit the number of small hotels that can be built downtown in favor of larger projects.

Developer Ben Arnold has plans to build one new full-service hotel in the Vista in coming years, and the Convention Center has also been planning a hotel project adjacent to its property.

Powers added that he doesn’t think the NCAA’s decision is an indication that Columbia isn’t a good fit to host high-profile events, pointing to the recent Premier League Rivals in Red match hosted at Williams-Brice. While there are limits to what the city can support, he said, Powers believes Columbia will still continue to build momentum to host bigger events.

“Obviously we know we’re not going to host a Superbowl,” he said.

This story was originally published October 22, 2024, 12:04 PM.

The State

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Morgan Hughes covers Columbia news for The State. She previously reported on health, education and local governments in Wyoming. She has won awards in Wyoming and Wisconsin for feature writing and investigative journalism. Her work has also been recognized by the South Carolina Press Association.

A Columbia man was arrested for stealing more than $44,000 from the nonprofit organization where he used to be the executive director, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

Darrel President Sr., 56, was charged with breach of trust with fraudulent intent ($10,000 or more) on Oct. 16, SLED said in a news release.

Between May 19, 2023 and Feb. 29, 2024, President took funds from Greenbrier Resource Community Development Center and spent the money on “his personal enrichment,” according to an arrest warrant and affidavit shared by SLED.

“Darrel President did knowingly, willingly and without the the lawful authority to do so, take, steal or convert to his ownership, more than $10,000 from Greenbrier Resource Community Development Center where he was an authorized signer on the bank account for (the nonprofit organization) and in a position of financial trust,” an arrest warrant said.

The money — approximately $44,220 — was taken after the nonprofit had received $100,000 in state funded grants to build a community center in Fairfield County, the affidavit said.

President withdrew the money from the nonprofit’s bank account without the approval or knowledge of the organization’s board members, according to the affidavit.

There was no word about what personal items President bought with the stolen money, or if all of it was spent.

When President was questioned by the nonprofit’s board members he admitted to withdrawing the money and agreed to repay the funds, according to the affidavit.

“President began making payments back for the funds fraudulently withdrawn in June 2024,” the affidavit said.

SLED said President was booked into the Fairfield County Detention Center. Information about President’s bond was not available.

President will be prosecuted by the 6th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.

If convicted on the felony charge, President maximum punishment of 10 years in prison, according to South Carolina law.

In 2018 and again in 2022, President unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Richland 2 school board.

In a breaking news situation, facts can be unclear and the situation may still be developing. The State is trying to get important information to the public as quickly and accurately as possible. This story will be updated as more information becomes available, and some information in this story may change as the facts become clearer. Refresh this page later for more updated information.

A company that has outdoor apparel stores nationwide has opened a new spot in a trendy Columbia shopping center.

Orvis recently debuted a new shop at 702 Cross Hill Road in the Cross Hill Market shopping center just off Devine Street. While the store already is open for business, it will have a grand opening celebration from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 25-27. There will be giveaways, sales and refreshments during each of those days, and a portion of the proceeds from the celebration will go to Congaree Riverkeeper, according to social media posts from Riverkeeper and Orvis.

Congaree Riverkeeper is a nonprofit that advocates for the protection of rivers and streams in the Midlands area.

Initially founded in 1856 and headquartered in Vermont, Orvis is a leading name in outdoor clothing, fly fishing gear, products for dogs and more. It has locations nationwide, including additional South Carolina stores on King Street in Charleston and on Main Street in Greenville.

“Columbia has been a focus for us for several years as an opportunity to further expand our footprint in South Carolina, and Cross Hill was our preference for several reasons: it’s active, energetic and close to our core customers,” Orvis director of real estate Jason Williams said in a previous story in The State.

Cross Hill Market has been an enduringly fashionable shopping hub near Devine Street and Garners Ferry Road, southeast of downtown Columbia. The plaza is home to a Whole Foods grocery store, Midwood Smokehouse barbecue restaurant, Basil Thai Cuisine, Athleta clothing shop and more.

The shopping center is at the nexus of a handful of high-traffic roads. About 29,000 cars per day travel down Devine Street nearby, per state Department of Transportation statistics, while about 46,000 cars per day travel down Garners Ferry Road and 16,100 per day traverse Cross Hill Road.

This story was originally published October 21, 2024, 11:30 AM.

An art piece awarded as part of the competitions at this year’s S.C. State Fair has been disqualified due to the use of artificial intelligence.

The piece, “Country Woman” by Blackville artist Terrance Washington, had been awarded Best of Division - Amateur, which comes with a $300 cash prize. Organizers for the fair, which takes place in Columbia, declined to comment on the piece’s disqualification beyond a statement sent out to the artists who submitted to this year’s competitions. That statement doesn’t specify whether the cash prize had already been awarded or if the fair will try to get it back.

“It has been brought to our attention that there was a violation of the art contest rules in relation to Digital Media and the use of Artificial Intelligence,” the fair’s statement reads. “Contest rules clearly state in Divisions 107-Professional and 607- Amateur that pieces ‘Must NOT be created using generative Artificial Intelligence (AI).’ ”

Washington couldn’t immediately be reached for comment about his piece’s disqualification.

“We hope to work to educate our exhibitors on the rules related to digital art and also to work with our judges to prevent this from occurring in the future,” the fair’s statement continues. “While we believe this was an unintentional mistake, we encourage all competitive exhibit participants to closely read the rules in place and to act with integrity. This year, the SCSF had over 1600 pieces registered for the art show. 1276 unique pieces of art are currently on display. Of those pieces, 20 are entered in digital art. After being informed there was a piece of art generated with AI on display, the artwork was pulled. We are working to ensure that this does not happen again. However, we also must rely on the integrity of our artists and trust they are following the contest rules.”

Local artists told The State that the piece was pulled after they reached out to the fair, pointing to a July 2023 post on X (formerly Twitter) from Washington that includes “Country Girl” and three other pieces with the caption: “I did my first A.I. Art, it’s based on Artist Thriving in a rural communities [sic].”

Artists who responded to the situation online were pointed in their criticism.

“The work of living artists all across the internet is scraped and compiled to create these images without the artists’ knowledge, consent, or compensation,” West Columbia illustrator, printmaker and photographer Colton Giles posted to Facebook. “This combined with the use of GenAI in place of commercial illustrators, graphic designers, photographers, and many other professional artists is a more pressing issue than the gray-area conversations around what may or may not be real art. GenAI imagery is theft, and that is not a gray area.”

West Columbia artist Sean McGuinness, who creates Godzilla-centered mash-up art via the brand Neo Monster Island and who submitted multiple pieces to the fair’s digital art competition, told The State he worries about the event’s ability to detect AI submissions moving forward.

“I don’t think the State Fair is really prepared for this,” he said. “Think about who’s judging these pieces, a bunch of older folk who don’t even know how to recognize digital art. The only reason this got brought up is because they were able to find out the forum where the guy admitted it was AI.”

This story was originally published October 18, 2024, 1:32 PM.

The State

Jordan Lawrence is a reporter for The State covering Lexington County. He has worked for newspapers in the Columbia area for more than a decade, having previously served as the lead editor for Free Times and the Lexington County Chronicle. He has won several South Carolina Press Association Awards, including recognition for breaking news reporting, business reporting and arts and entertainment writing.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - Richland County said an independent auditor found that the county’s penny tax spending was compliant with South Carolina law.

When voters in Richland County head to the polls in less than a month, they will have the opportunity to extend the county’s current penny transportation tax, which is set to expire in 2026.

The penny tax — a one-percent sales tax increase — has been funding infrastructure and transportation projects since it was approved by voters in 2012.

In 2020, a S.C. Department of Revenue said audit found that $32 million of funds from the program were misspent.

During the Richland County Council meeting, County Administrator Leonardo Brown presented a letter from an independent auditor, Mauldin & Jenkins, showing that the county‘s penny tax program was compliant with the Department of Revenue’s ruling.

However, a full copy of that audit was not provided to the public during council‘s Tuesday night meeting and was not in county council’s agenda packet, even though Brown told a councilmember it was.

Councilman Don Weaver asked for Brown to put this audit out to the media.

Weaver said: “I was just curious, is there any plan by the administration to put this out to the media, showing that we got this clean bill of health? It might be timely, with the vote coming up Nov. 5.”

Brown responded and said, “The information we are sharing with you was to let you know as a policy-making body what the work of your staff is. It wasn’t so much to try and show the media ... So, if the media chose to utilize this information, as a part of the council packet, they can certainly do that.”

WIS News 10 requested a copy of the independent audit after Tuesday night’s meeting.

Brown said the letter he released was to provide county council members, and the public, with assurance that their taxpayer dollars were not being misspent.

Richland County disagreed with the findings in the 2020 state audit, and the case went to court, where a settlement was reached between the state and the county. Richland County agreed to invest $15.5 million into transportation projects.

Brown said since the 2021 ruling, for two years in a row the county has been deemed compliant by the outside auditor.

The DOR audit found Richland County used the taxpayer dollars on line items that weren’t transportation projects.

Independent Audit Results by maggie.brown.wistv on Scribd

The summary of the audit findings lists the ineligible expenses as audit expenses, Richland County operating expenses, mentor-mentee program fees, legal expenses, and more.

Some of the big-ticket items included nearly $7 million spent to purchase Mill Creek Property and $1 million on public relations costs, according to the DOR.

The Department of Revenue audit found $1.8 million went towards start-up costs for a project development team, which included the county paying for things like office supplies, cars, an icemaker, computers and office furniture.

The independent audit, which reviewed the penny tax program for the fiscal year ending in June 30, 2023, said, “the County complied, in all material respects, with the requirements of the South Carolina Department of Revenue ruling.”

On the Richland County’s Penny Tax website, monthly reports show where the funding is going toward. The program also has its own advisory committee.

Brown also said the county had received an award for excellence in their financial reporting.

According to the county website, the Government Finance Officers Association has given Richland County this award every year since July 1, 1982.

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