While the nation marks the first anniversary of the Minneapolis Interstate bridge collapse that killed 13 people, a new report says South Carolina is one of the worst states at repairing structurally deficient bridges.

Leaders from the South Carolina House and Senate, along with university and business leaders, announced a new plan Tuesday aimed at attracting high-paying jobs to the state.

Mechanics who work on small engines say the ethanol that’s being added to gasoline is causing mechanical problems. Everything from lawn mowers to string trimmers and leaf blowers is being affected.

Trooper Steven Garren is charged with depriving a man of his civil rights by using excessive force.

The rising cost of gasoline and diesel is causing you to pay more at vending machines, too. Vending companies are having to pay more to deliver drinks and snacks to the machines, but the cost of the drinks and snacks is also going up.

Medicare is offering doctors bonuses to switch to electronic prescriptions, which should prevent some of the thousands of deaths each year caused by prescription errors. An estimated 1.5 million Americans are injured by prescription mistakes every year.

A company that monitors news coverage has found that, since June, the three major nightly newscasts have spent 114 minutes covering Barack Obama and 48 minutes covering John McCain. Network news executives say they’re covering Obama more because he’s making history as the first African-American nominee of a major party. But analysts say the networks are causing legitimate concern about fairness.

Montgomery the hippo had been at the zoo since it opened in 1974. He had to be euthanized Tuesday because of several ongoing ailments that were not responding to treatments.

The NAACP’s effort to boost its boycott of South Carolina because of the Confederate flag is causing some confusion among flag supporters. The lieutenant commander of the Sons of Confederate Veterans says the group has made an offer to a property owner to put up a giant Confederate flag along a busy Columbia highway in response to the NAACP. But the commander of the SCV says no offer has been made, only an inquiry, and the lt. commander is speaking for himself and not the group.

The head of the SCDOT says the agency needs a new funding source because gas tax collections are falling. The DOT gets all of its money from state and federal gas taxes, and since people are driving less because of the high price of gas, the agency doesn’t have enough to build and maintain roads and bridges. Director Buck Limehouse says one possibility is to drop the gas tax and start charging a road user fee instead.

An advertising campaign in London aimed at attracting gay tourists to South Carolina has been dropped by the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. The posters in London subways say “South Carolina is so gay”, and list reasons to visit such as golf and gay beaches. Agency officials say the low-level employee who approved the campaign without authorization has resigned because of it.

The Florida Lottery announced its first winners in a game that offers free gas for life, and free gas for a year for others. The director of South Carolina’s Education Lottery says he’ll watch how the Florida game does, and if there’s demand for it here “we might consider doing that.“ But he says cash is the best option for players.

A new audit of state employees’ use of state cell phones and pagers found that some employees took advantage of their state-issued phones, running up thousands of dollars in bills for personal calls, games and ring tones.

It’s rare for an incumbent U.S. senator to face opposition from within his own party. But Sen. Lindsey Graham’s compromises with Senate Democrats in Washington were too much for Republican activist Buddy Witherspoon of Lexington to bear.

South Carolina lawmakers ended their regular session Thursday. They’re expecting to go back for a few days to deal with vetoes, and Gov. Mark Sanford says he may call them back to deal with what he says is an unconstitutional budget deficit.