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Meet the 2024 Tiny Desk Contest winner

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Meet the 2024 Tiny Desk Contest winner


Nearly 7,000 independent artists entered this year’s Tiny Desk Contest, NPR Music’s annual search for the next great undiscovered artist. Earlier today, Morning Edition revealed the winner: a Sacramento producer, singer, rapper and multi-instrumentalist who performs as The Philharmonik. As he soaks in his big win and prepares to travel to NPR’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., to perform a Tiny Desk concert, songwriter Christian Gates joins Juana Summers to share the story behind his winning entry.

One of the requirements when submitting to the Tiny Desk Contest is that each video must feature a desk. (It shows the judges that artists are prepared to play behind the real Tiny Desk; plus, it’s fun.) Gates says that desks usually make him feel as if he’s deviating from his own path by working for someone else. Eventually, he decided he needed to work at his own desk.

In a YouTube comment on his video, Gates shouts out the Sacramento community, which helped him see this vision through when he said he didn’t have a single penny to his name.

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Gates expands on this comment in his All Things Considered interview, sharing with Summers that he went through a dark and humbling time last year. While driving for Uber in order to make ends meet, he got into a bad car accident and could no longer work.

“I was really scrounging up money for change, to even do shows,” he says. “I had these big visions for shows where I wanted nine people playing with me — but I couldn’t afford it. And as the months went by it got progressively worse. And my other bills started to fall behind, too.”

Then, when the Tiny Desk Contest opened, he asked his community for a favor.

“I said, hey, I think we could do good in this Contest if we execute this vision — but I really need your guys’ help with this,” Gates explains. “And everybody, absolutely everybody, came through to help me with no hesitation.”

Gates says that since winning the Contest, it feels like his life has changed overnight.

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“I’m glad that I went through the struggle, because 1715811069 this win feels so honest to me, to what I believe in. It’s a reflection of what I’ve worked for,” he shares. “So I’m eternally grateful for everything that I’ve gone through, good and bad.”

This summer, Gates and his eight-piece band will headline the 10-city Tiny Desk Contest On The Road tour. You can get tickets to see The Philharmonik, plus other local Contest entrants, at npr.org/tinydeskcontest.

Copyright 2024 NPR





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Live nightly lottery drawings hit ABC15 as SC Education Lottery partner

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Live nightly lottery drawings hit ABC15 as SC Education Lottery partner


ABC15 is the new official broadcast home for South Carolina Education Lottery (SCEL) drawings, beginning Wednesday, July 1!

Weekday evening drawings for Pick 3, Pick 4, Palmetto Cash 5 and Cash Pop will air live just before the 7:00 p.m. newscast and are approximately one minute long.

ABC15 will also air live jackpot drawings during its 11 p.m. newscast on:

  • Mega Millions: Tuesdays and Fridays
  • Powerball: Wednesdays and Saturdays

In addition to the live broadcasts, official SCEL results will be displayed on-screen following the midday Pick 3, Pick 4 and Cash Pop drawings. Weekend evening drawings will also be shown through official results crawls.



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Hricik launches no-money pledge campaign for SC attorney general

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Hricik launches no-money pledge campaign for SC attorney general


Richard Hricik, South Carolina’s Democratic nominee for attorney general, has officially launched his campaign for November’s general election.

Hricik was unopposed in the primary, automatically advancing to the ballot in November. He will now race against the Republican nominee David Stumbo, who beat Republican challenger Stephen Goldfinch in a runoff on June 23.

Hricik launched his campaign on June 25, just two days after the Republican primary runoff concluded.

In a press release Hricik, a Charleston attorney of more than 25 years, said that his campaign focuses on the fact that the rule of law should protect everyone equally.

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“The Rule of Law isn’t red or blue. It has to apply to everyone, and be defended for everyone,” Hricik said. “An Attorney General who treats the law as their own political agenda — who protects some people and not others — threatens our democracy and makes every South Carolinian’s rights less safe. If someone attacks the State House in Columbia, I won’t ask who they voted for; it won’t matter — they are going to prison. That’s the law, and the Attorney General’s job is to defend and uphold The Rule of Law. For everyone.”

Hricik also announced that he has a no-money pledge for his campaign.

“An Attorney General is supposed to answer to two things: You and The Rule of Law. No one and nothing else,” Hricik said. “So, I take no money — not from special interests, not even from myself. That’s not a gimmick. It’s my firewall against corruption and influence. When you owe no one, you can fight for everyone and The Rule of Law.”

There has not been a Democrat in the attorney general office since Thomas Medlock, who left office in 1995.

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Stumbo, who is currently serving a fourth term as Solicitor for the Eighth Judicial Circuit of South Carolina, ran his primary campaign on the basis of being a career prosecutor and lifelong Republican.

On runoff election night, Stumbo and his supporters gathered at the City Club of Greenville to watch results come in. In his winning speech that night, Stumbo said that while there hasn’t been a Democratic attorney general in South Carolina in many years, there would still be work ahead.

“We still got a lot of work to do, and I need everyone in this room fighting like crazy for the next few months to make sure that when we’re standing there on election night in November that we are officially the next attorney g eneral of South Carolina,” Stumbo said.

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Ruth Cronin covers Greenville County business, growth and development. Contact her at rcronin@usatodayco.com.



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SC moves to revive death-penalty in double murder after federally commuted sentence

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SC moves to revive death-penalty in double murder after federally commuted sentence


A judge has started the process for South Carolina to pursue the death penalty against Brandon Council, the man accused of killing two women during an armed bank robbery at CresCom Bank in 2017.

Council is charged federally with murder after authorities said he walked into the bank to commit an armed robbery that ended with two employees being shot and killed.

He was originally sentenced to death in federal court, but the Biden administration commuted the sentences of 37 death row inmates, changing their status to life in prison.

With Council no longer facing execution under the federal sentence, South Carolina is moving to revive state charges that had been dropped before he was federally charged.

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READ MORE: Spectators pack courtroom as Alex Murdaugh returns to court after convictions overturned

In court, prosecutors sought to add dates to the case calendar as they pursue the death penalty again.

Fifteenth Circuit Solicitor Jimmy Richardson said the state had initially been looking at April 2027 for a trial date, but the judge denied that as too soon.

“We were being as aggressive as we could be. But by July 17th, the defense will give their order. We will turn in another order, and we’ll see if we can’t come to an agreement. That way, the judge doesn’t have a lot of problems. It’s just an agreement between the two sides,” Richardson said.

During the hearing, the judge and the state were asked about any bias before moving forward.

Richardson said, “I don’t know him. So he’s from a different state, and, they ask us to let them know about any bias. I don’t know about any bias. I just, you know, it’s whatever the crime is.”

He added, “The main thing for me was to get the schedule in order so that we know where we’re going, and it looks like we’re on the road to that, but we’re not there yet.”

READ MORE: Florence woman sentenced to 35 years in prison for 2-year-old’s death

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At one point, Council sought to represent himself in court and objected to statements made by the prosecution.

By the end of the hearing, he changed his mind and accepted representation.

Richardson said he does not expect the trial until 2028.



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