South-Carolina
After release of scathing report, McMaster still maintains confidence in SC treasurer
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The day after the release of a scathing report that puts blame on Treasurer Curtis Loftis for a $1.8 billion debacle, Gov. Henry McMaster said he still has confidence in the ability of South Carolina’s elected treasurer to control the state’s money.
But McMaster is calling on Loftis to communicate and work with other state agencies to resolve the issue — something a group of state senators and South Carolina’s comptroller general claim the treasurer has been loath to do to this point.
For months, a Senate subcommittee has been investigating nearly $2 billion in taxpayer money with no known owner and which lawmakers didn’t know about until last fall.
In a report it released Tuesday, the group holds Loftis responsible for this discrepancy, saying his office created the fund containing the money several years ago but never notified the legislature of its existence.
Loftis has claimed he invested the money and generated around $200 million in interest, which he said the legislature has spent, and asserted Comptroller General Brian Gaines, the state’s accountant, bore responsibility for telling lawmakers about it, which Gaines did last October.
In a statement, Loftis said he did not plan to read the report, though his staff would, and decried it as character assassination from a group of lawmakers set on overturning his election to install their own puppet to control the state’s money.
In the report, senators outlined a series of interim recommendations, including a forensic audit to determine the money’s ownership, but they stopped short of calling for Loftis’ removal from office, at the governor’s request.
Sen. Larry Grooms, R – Berkeley and the chair of the subcommittee, said had McMaster not asked them to hold off, it would have been among their recommendations.
The governor made the request after forming a new task force last week, and he wants to give it time to work.
“The main thing is not to, at this point, is not to point blame or try to find error, but to find out the answers about the money: where is it, where was it supposed to go, did any of it get to where it was supposed to go, what was it supposed to be used for, and if it’s really there,” McMaster told reporters Wednesday.
The multiagency group — led by the Department of Administration and including both Loftis and Gaines, at whom the treasurer has assigned much of the blame — has been charged with determining where this money came from by July 1.
“We have to get those answers,” McMaster said. “Otherwise, the public is going to lose complete faith in the system. That’s $1.8 billion.”
The newly released Senate report details that days after a contentious, hours-long hearing between Loftis and Grooms’ subcommittee earlier this month, the treasurer threatened to publish sensitive information on the state’s finances online.
McMaster had to get on the phone to try to stop him, briefly describing their conversation Wednesday.
“That it would be dangerous to do that, and I wish he wouldn’t do it,” the governor said he told Loftis, confirming the story Loftis claimed in a Facebook post Tuesday is “a bold faced lie.”
Grooms said South Carolina’s top law enforcement officer, SLED Chief Mark Keel, and Attorney General Alan Wilson also had to intervene to stop Loftis, and the treasurer ultimately did not publish the information.
Yet McMaster said he still has confidence in Loftis.
“I think as long as we all work together — communicate, collaborate, cooperate, and work for the people and quit fighting among ourselves — we’re going to be just fine,” he said.
When asked what would happen if the task force did not meet McMaster’s July 1 deadline to determine the money’s ownership, the governor said he was confident they would have answers by then.
But Grooms said he did not believe that was feasible and that the only question they may be able to figure out by then is whether and how much of the money is actually real.
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On July 1, three days before fireworks erupted across the United States, South Carolina football launched some of their own across the college football world after landing five-star cornerback Joshua Dobson.
Dobson’s commitment to the Gamecocks marked the highest-rated defensive back commit in program history. Additionally, the No. 12 prospect in the nation is the third-highest-ranked Gamecock commit ever, according to the Rivals Industry Ranking.
On July 3, ESPN’s Craig Haubert, Eli Lederman and Tom Luginbill predicted the fit of all current five-star prospects with their future schools. That list included Dobson’s fit with South Carolina.
What does this mean for the Gamecocks? Mingo Martin and fellow subscribers are discussing it now on The Insiders Forum.
“ESPN’s No. 2 cornerback was a priority local target for South Carolina coach Shane Beamer in the 2027 cycle,” Lederman wrote. ” … If he signs later this year, Dobson will represent the program’s highest-ranked signee since defensive end Jordan Burch arrived at South Carolina as the No. 4 overall recruit in the 2020 class.”
Dobson, originally of Fort Mill, S.C., transferred to Hough High School in Cornelius, N.C., after his junior season. In the days following his commitment, his Hough teammate, Davion Jones, joined him in South Carolina’s recruiting class.
“A long, gifted corner with elite level speed, he posted a 4.39 40 this spring. Dobson is smooth and transitions extremely quickly in and out when turning and running or closing on the ball,” Luginbill wrote. “He can mirror without allowing separation in man-to-man, shadowing receivers out of their breaks. He tracks the deep throw well, showing a second gear to break under the ball and has outstanding hands and ball skills.”
The former quarterback and ESPN national recruiting director also predicted that Dobson can be an early starter at South Carolina.
There is precedent in ensuring young defensive backs see the field as freshmen under Beamer. During the 2025 season, true freshmen Kendall Daniels Jr. and Damarcus Leach saw limited action.
Daniels featured in nine games primarily on special teams while Leach saw limited time across seven matchups. Both players returned to the Gamecocks for a sophomore season in 2026.
Earlier during the Beamer era, Nick Emmanwori, DQ Smith, and Jalon Kilgore all earned Freshman All-American honors with the Gamecocks.
“He also shows good closing speed and aggressiveness in run support, and isn’t just a finesse cover corner,” Luginbill wrote about the Gamecocks’ 2027 Freshman All-American hopeful. “Dobson has awareness and instincts for the position that are coveted, and his speed sets him apart.”
Dobson’s speed features 100-meter track times in the 10.4-second range alongside his 6-foot 5-inch wingspan.
However, the crown jewel of South Carolina’s 2027 recruiting class still has a senior year to play. In an age of NIL and constant player movement, Dobson’s recruitment remains far from over. Should the Gamecocks retain their potential star through signing day, the sky is the limit for him and Clayton White’s secondary.
South-Carolina
Federal court revives NAACP lawsuit challenging SC education law limiting how schools can teach race
A legislative effort to put a similar ban in regular state law — minus the “discomfort” item — failed in 2024 after the House and Senate couldn’t agree on how it would be enforced.
A second part of the lawsuit and appeal concerned the Lexington Three school district’s decision to remove the book “Stamped,” by noted anti-racist author Ibram X. Kendi from its libraries.
Kendi alleges in the lawsuit that the removal of his book constitutes unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination, linked to the budget provision because at least one member of the district review committee pointed to the law as a reason for the removal.
Lydon had also tossed that claim on standing grounds, which the appeals court similarly reversed, finding that the lawsuit “plausibly alleges” that Kendi’s book was pulled from shelves because of the budget provision.
As with the AP course part of the lawsuit, Agee’s opinion doesn’t rule on the larger legal question of whether an author has a First Amendment right to keep their book in a school library, just that it’s not reason to deny the author standing.
The Budget Provision
The Budget Provision
The following proviso has been included in South Carolina’s annual budgets since 2021.
For the current fiscal year, of the funds allocated by the Department of Education to school districts, no monies shall be used by any school district or school to provide instruction in, to teach, instruct, or train any administrator, teacher, staff member, or employee to adopt or believe, or to approve for use, make use of, or carry out standards, curricula, lesson plans, textbooks, instructional materials, or instructional practices that serve to inculcate any of the following concepts:
(1) one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex;
(2) an individual, by virtue of his race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously;
(3) an individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment solely or partly because of his race or sex;
(4) an individual’s moral standing or worth is necessarily determined by his race or sex;
(5) an individual, by virtue of his race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex;
(6) an individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his race or sex;
(7) meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist, or were created by members of a particular race to oppress members of another race; and
(8) fault, blame, or bias should be assigned to a race or sex, or to members of a race or sex because of their race or sex.
Nothing contained herein shall be construed as prohibiting any professional development training for teachers related to issues of addressing unconscious bias within the context of teaching certain literary or historical concepts or issues related to the impacts of historical or past discriminatory policies.
Just a day after four-star PA wide receiver Khalil Taylor spurned Penn State for Nebraska, the Nittany Lions got more fantastic news as four-star South Carolina running back Aiden Gibson announced his decommitment from Penn State and flipped to Rutgers with the intention to enroll for the 2026 season.
Not really much to say here other than this sucks and there have just been too many losses for Penn State this cycle. No one is going to bat 1.000, but after a strong March and April that had the Nittany Lions positioned to sign a Top 15 class, they have managed to lose Jamir Dean to Georgia, Zach Gleason to West Virginia, DeShawn Hall to Auburn, Khalil Taylor to Nebraska, and now Aiden Gibson to Rutgers. The class is now ranked No. 22, behind the likes of Cal, Kentucky, and…Virginia Tech.
Gross. The 2028 class needs to be better.
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