BBrriieeffss
by John Temple Ligon
China connections US Airways has its largest hub in Charlotte. Connecting with Philadelphia, Columbians can fly to Beijing by 2009. Continental Airlines, another Columbia service provider, will operate a new flight between Newark/New York and Shanghai, also by 2009. Northwest connects Columbia and Detroit, and by 2009 the airline will operate between Detroit and Shanghai.

More women South Carolina ranks 50th in the percentage of women office holders. The Senate, House, and elected statewide offices have a combined total of nine percent women. In the Senate, there are two women. The Southeastern Institute for Women in Politics, a Columbia- based organization, will hold a day- long workshop Friday, February 8, at the Town House to formally kick off the institute. The speaker will be Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner. With lunch, the workshop's registration costs $75. 799-5740.

The Russians are coming Delphin Group USA, a Russian petroleum firm's North American division, has paid $20 million for a North Charleston industrial site last owned by Chevron Corporation. Hagood Morrison and Amanda Kitchen of Colliers Keenan handled the sale for Chevron. Delphin Group USA plans to employ nearly 200 workers and manufacture 10 million gallons of petroleum products annually.

Charleston The Charles tmoner Pcousrty & Courier recently tested 40 fish- eating South Carolinians along the Great Pee Dee and Lynches rivers and found many people contained levels of mercury approaching a national maximum. The state tests about 2,000 fish a year for mercury but Pdoosets &n oCto tuersite rpeople. Following the discoveries by the , the state Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) disclosed the likely intent to start testing South Carolinians for mercury content. Depending on the results, DHEC may have something to say about Santee Cooper's proposed pulverized coal burning power plant destined for southern Florence County. Coal burning power plants, to date, are notorious for mercury emissions.

Unemployment The nation's jobless rate rose to five percent in December from November's 4.7 percent. S.C.'s unemployment rate for November was 5.9 percent, the fourth worst in the nation. The unemployment rate in Mecklenburg County (Charlotte) fell to 4.5 percent in November from 4.6 percent in October, while in N.C. overall the unemployment rate in November was 4.7 percent, down from 4.8 percent in October.

December house sales and January rate cut December's house sales across the country plunged to a 12- year low. In Columbia, house sales fell 14 percent in November compared with the same month last year. The rest of the nation's economy, however, is showing moderate growth. The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee meets this month, and a rate cut is expected in response to falling house sales and rising unemployment. The Fed's rate adjustments are directly concerned with the short term, the federal funds rate one bank pays another for borrowing money overnight to maintain minimum reserves. Mortgage rates, on the other hand, are for the long term as determined by market forces. So mortgage rates may not come down anytime soon due to a Fed rate cut.

Severance? What severance? The city's recently departed chief financial officer, Rock Hill resident Lisa Rolan, reportedly left her $97,129 job to pursue further career options. However, there is the mysterious matter of severance pay, which the city refuses to disclose. A Freedom of Information Act request for full disclosure has been filed, but so far no news. When SCANA's Cathy Novinger, vice president for government affairs, resigned, she collected a reported severance over several years amounting to about $2 million. Typically, when a high- level employee resigns with a sufficient severance package, either the departure was not elective or the severance came with the directive, QUIET!