South-Carolina
Undefeated South Carolina No. 1 in Albany region full of fresh faces
For the fourth straight season, South Carolina is a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. And once again, Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks are the favorites to win the Big Dance.
South Carolina (32-0) just completed their second consecutive undefeated regular season and captured the program’s eighth Southeastern Conference Tournament title. The Gamecocks will begin their pursuit of a third national championship under the direction of Staley on Friday at home in Columbia, S.C. The Gamecocks will take on the winner of a First Four matchup between a pair of 16-seeds, Sacred Heart (22-9) and Presbyterian (17-14).
The Gamecocks will have to play that game without leading scorer and rebounder Kamilla Cardoso, who must serve a one-game suspension after she was ejected from the SEC championship game for what the referees deemed was fighting during a late-game skirmish with LSU. Cardoso averages 14 points and 9.5 rebounds per game and sixth nationally in defensive rating with a 71.8 mark.
“We all know that we’re a better basketball team when Kamilla Cardoso is in the lineup,” Staley said Sunday. “We’ll make do hopefully until she’s able to come back.”
Staley, who this week was voted Coach of the Year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association for the third straight year, has won comfortably without Cardoso this season though. The Gamecocks beat Missouri and UConn by an average margin of 28 points while the 6-foot-7 center was playing with the Brazilian national team in February. Cardoso also missed a 48-point win over Kentucky, when she was sidelined for rest.
In the win over UConn, it was Te-Hina Paopao who stepped up and scored 21 points. The transfer from Oregon has flourished under Staley, shooting a career-best 47.1 percent from 3-point land this season, which is 11th best in the country. Freshman MiLaysia Fulwiley has played well lately too, averaging 15 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game over her last six outings. Fulwiley was named SEC Tournament MVP after scoring 24 points in 16 minutes in the title game.
Fulwiley isn’t the only stellar freshman in the Albany 1 region. No. 2 Notre Dame (26-6) has been powered this season by Hannah Hidalgo, who has piled up stats and accolades.
After being voted Freshman of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Hidalgo poured in 58 points, 18 rebounds and 18 assists in three days in Greensboro, N.C. to help Notre Dame win its first ACC Tournament title since 2019. Hidalgo leads the nation in steals with 4.6 per game.
“Hannah is a special player,” Irish teammate Sonia Citron said. “We knew before she even played a game. Just when she came in in the summer, she just has a different mentality, so in workouts, in practices, we kind of just knew she was going to be special. She’s just different.”
While the Irish have three players averaging double figures in scoring – Citron and Maddy Westbeld join Hidalgo’s 23.3 points per game in that group – they lack depth. Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey said Sunday that starting forward Kylee Watson would miss the NCAA Tournament with a torn ACL she suffered in the ACC Tournament. Notre Dame has played all of this season without All-American guard Olivia Miles, who had knee surgery last offseason.
Should South Carolina and Notre Dame meet in the Elite Eight, it will be a rematch of the season-opener for both teams, a 29-point win for the Gamecocks on a neutral court in Paris, France.
While South Carolina is undefeated, the nation’s second-longest win streak belongs to the Fairfield Stags, who are seeded 13th in this region. The Stags (31-1) – guided by second-year coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis – have won 29 games in a row and are ranked 25th in the latest AP Top 25 Poll. Fairfield, which begins its tournament at No. 4 Indiana, is also led by a standout freshman in forward Meghan Andersen, who averages 15.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.
“We’re excited to get ready and prepare for the week ahead and figure out the plan. It’s a team and a league I’m familiar with so I’m excited to get back to Big Ten country,” said Thibault-DuDonis, who was an assistant at Minnesota before coaching Fairfield.
The Stags will aim to pull off an upset over the Hoosiers in Bloomington, Ind. The last MAAC team to win an NCAA Tournament game was Quinnipiac in 2018.
—On the other side of Indiana’s host site is No. 5 Oklahoma (22-9) against No. 12 Florida Gulf Coast (27-4). While the Sooners won the Big 12 regular season title, FGCU – coached Karl Smesko in his 21st season – has made a habit of first-round upsets. Since 2018, the Eagles have advanced to the second round in three of their last five tournament appearances.
—In the second round, South Carolina will likely face the winner of No. 8 North Carolina (19-12) vs. No. 9 Michigan State (22-8).
A meeting with the Tar Heels would be a rematch of a Nov. 30 game in Chapel Hill, which the Gamecocks won by seven points despite trailing by as much as 11 points in the second quarter. UNC and South Carolina also faced off in the 2022 Sweet 16 in Greensboro, N.C.
—This is the first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance for Presbyterian. Tilda Sjokvist, a sophomore from Sweden, leads the Blue Hose with 13 points and 3.5 assists per game.
—Mitchell Northam, Field Level Media
South-Carolina
Nancy Mace’s foul-mouthed airport tirades roil race for South Carolina governorship as rival slams ‘spoiled brat’
New disclosures of a foul-mouthed tirade by Rep. Nancy Mace in the Charleston airport have roiled the South Carolina governor’s race and ignited angry accusations between the lawmaker and one of her competitors in the Republican primary.
Her rival, state AG Alan Wilson, called Mace a “spoiled brat” who treats cops like “servants,” at a time when the two of them are furiously competing for support from voters – and President Trump.
Mace back in August called herself “Trump in high heels” and acknowledged “I would really like his support for governor.” So far, Trump hasn’t given it – to anybody.
Mace this week slammed an internal Charleston Airport Authority investigation that probed her profanity-laced “spectacle” Oct. 30, when Mace chewed out police officers and TSA agents over expedited security for her outbound flight, after a planned VIP escort fell through.
New details are still coming to light – including an earlier incident in April where Mace allegedly blew up at agents who wouldn’t let her bring a family member through expedited security, according to the investigation report.
“This is the only airport that gives me s–t,” she complained, according to one of the numerous law enforcement officers interviewed as part of the probe.
The investigative report was obtained by The Post through a public documents request.
One interviewed TSA agent quotes Mace as telling a cop following the botched Oct. 30 escort for her arrival at an airport gate, “I’m sick of your s–t, I’m tired of having to wait.”
Another officer, an explosives tech, described Mace as being “very nasty, very rude.” She said she could hear Mace calling police officers “f–king idiots” and “f–king incompetent” and stating that she was a “f–king representative.”
Yet the airport was “not busy at all” at the time of the incident, the officer said.
A TSA agent said during the interaction Mace “literally was on that phone talking and texting her life away” as well as “saying rude things,” according to the investigative report.
One TSA officer who had been at the airport 23 years told investigators “every VIP or whomever, dignitary, that we’ve been across and had to deal with, we never, never had this problem.”
Mace hired an attorney and threatened weeks ago to sue the airport over the October incident, but has yet to do so.
The report revealed the April confrontation when agents wouldn’t let Mace bring a family member through expedited security. TSA later let her take family members with her when she got screened.
“I thought that the way she acted showed a sense of entitlement – [that] she is entitled to special protection, she is entitled to special treatment. When she doesn’t get special treatment, she throws a tantrum. To me that harkens back to a child not getting their way,” Wilson told The Post in an interview.
“These are public servants, not personal servants,” he said of law enforcement at the airport.
Mace told CNN in an interview this week the report had been “falsified,” without providing evidence. In response to Wilson’s “brat” comment, she wrote: “Imagine being ‘Attorney General’ and flying 500 miles for the sole purpose of dismissing death threats against a single mom.”
She told The Post she has received numerous credible death threats, and said on Friday a judge denied bond to a man accused of making online threats against her. She said during the April incident TSA had violated its own policy allowing federal officials to bring a guest and separated her from her child.
Mace has been taking her case to the airwaves in a week where she trashed the House Republican leadership in a Washington Post op-ed.
A consultant to Mace’s campaign, Austin McCubbin, resigned Dec. 1, accusing her of turning her back on MAGA and trying to “hug the political cactus that is the [Sen.] Rand Paul [and Rep.] Thomas Massie wing of the Party.”
South-Carolina
A Stronger Rail Network Is a Win for South Carolina’s Economy – FITSNews
“The combined rail system would offer the reliability our business community has been asking for…”
by NATHAN BALLENTINE
***
For as long as I’ve served in the South Carolina House, I’ve believed that strong infrastructure is the backbone of a strong economy. Whether talking about roads, bridges, broadband, or freight mobility, our ability to efficiently move people and goods determines how competitive our state will be in the decades ahead. South Carolina continues to grow at one of the fastest rates in the country, and with that growth comes a responsibility to ensure our logistics network can meet the demands of modern commerce.
That is why the proposed merger between Union Pacific (UP) and Norfolk Southern (NS) deserves thoughtful consideration, not just at the national level, but here at home. South Carolina’s economic success is directly tied to reliable freight transportation. From advanced manufacturing in the Upstate, to the distribution and warehousing centers in the Midlands, to the countless businesses that depend on steady supply chains, every region of our state relies on a freight system that works smoothly and predictably.
When freight rail is fragmented across multiple networks, bottlenecks and delays become far more common. Businesses, especially those operating with tight production schedules and narrow delivery windows, feel the impacts immediately. A delayed railcar can throw off inventory planning, disrupt operations, and create ripple effects that stretch across an entire supply chain. These unpredictable slowdowns can be enormously costly for the companies that keep South Carolina’s economy moving.
***
The Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern merger aims to address many of these longstanding challenges. By creating a unified network connecting more than 50,000 miles of track and linking 43 states with over 100 ports nationwide, the combined rail system would offer something our business community has been asking for: reliability. Studies indicate the merger could generate approximately $1 billion in annual cost savings and improve freight-car velocity by around 10 percent. These aren’t abstract figures, they reflect tangible improvements that would strengthen operations for employers, distributors, retailers, and consumers alike.
***
“Economic development teams would also have an even stronger pitch when attracting new employers to South Carolina…”
***
A more dependable rail network means companies can plan with greater precision, suppliers can manage logistics with fewer surprises, and transportation partners can commit to schedules with increased confidence. Economic development teams would also have an even stronger pitch when attracting new employers to South Carolina: not just a skilled workforce and business-friendly climate, but a transportation network capable of supporting long-term growth.
Improved rail performance also benefits South Carolina’s infrastructure more broadly. Rail is one of the most efficient ways to move goods long distances. Every shipment that travels by rail instead of truck reduces congestion on our highways, lowers fuel costs, and decreases wear and tear on roads that taxpayers ultimately fund. Better rail capacity complements, rather than replaces, our ongoing efforts to invest in roads and bridges across the state. It allows us to stretch transportation dollars further and focus on the improvements most needed in fast-growing communities.
Another important factor is competitiveness. States across the Southeast are aggressively investing in logistics infrastructure to position themselves as national leaders in manufacturing and distribution. If South Carolina wants to stay ahead, and continue attracting companies that create stable, high-quality jobs, we must support improvements that strengthen the reliability and efficiency of our freight network. The Union Pacific–Norfolk Southern merger presents an opportunity to do just that.
***
RELATED | SOURCES: S.C. LAWMAKERS THREATEN SUPREME COURT
***
As someone who has spent nearly two decades advocating for responsible, forward-looking growth in our state, I believe that modernizing our freight system is not just a transportation issue, it is an economic necessity. Ensuring that goods can move quickly, safely, and predictably is fundamental to the success of our businesses and the financial well-being of South Carolina families.
Federal regulators will ultimately determine the path forward, and their review should be thorough and transparent. But from where I sit, the potential benefits to our state are clear. A more integrated, efficient rail system will help South Carolina businesses compete, help consumers by keeping costs lower, and help our state maintain the strong economic momentum we’ve built over the past decade.
A stronger rail network means a stronger South Carolina, and that is a future we should fully support.
***
ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Nathan Ballentine represents the citizens of House District 71 in the S.C. General Assembly.
***
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South-Carolina
LIVE: SC AG Alan Wilson, state, national leaders hold press conference on statewide drug busts
Statehouse Reporter Mary Green will have more on this tonight.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – South Carolina Attorney General and other officials will be holding a press conference Friday at 9:30 a.m. to talk about statewide drug busts.
Wilson is set to be joined by South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel, representatives from the Drug Enforcement Administration and Homeland Security, as well as several local sheriffs and other law enforcement partners.
Watch the full press conference in the video above.
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