Palmetto Report

(Rock Hill, S.C.) -- Former elite runner Mary Cain, who trained with Nike’s now disbanded Oregon project from 2013 to 2017, recently made allegations in an op-ed for The New York Times of mental and physical abuse that she experienced during her time at the training group. Cain, 23, said coaches, lead by head coach Alberto Salazar, convinced her that she had to keep losing weight, ridiculed her body and weight in front of her teammates and other athletes at competition and ignored her when she expressed feelings of depression and self-harm. Dr. David Schary, sports psychology professor at Winthrop University and consultant for Winthrop Athletics, appeared on the Palmetto Report to discuss the topic. He said the double standards for men's and women’s bodies in sports are a reflection of the double standards placed on bodies in society.

(Rock Hill, S.C.) -- Winthrop University is launching a new degree program, which is geared toward adults, including military veterans, who are at least 25 years old and have attained an associate degree or have at least 60 transferable credits. The new bachelor of professional studies program will launch in spring 2020 after it was given the final approval by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). Dr. Scott Amundsen, associate professor and director of the professional studies program, said the program is flexible and affordable, because it includes a special tuition rate that is 30 percent lower than the regular rate.

(Rock Hill, S.C.) -- Renew Our Community (known as the ROC), a nonprofit homeless shelter in Rock Hill, shut down its operations last month due to a lack of funding. The ROC, which was founded by Dale Dove, opened its doors in 2011 as a center that assisted the homeless and others in York County gain access to shelter, clothing, food, training and spiritual support. Over the years, the number of clients has grown tremendously from 10 a day to 125 a day, according to Iris Smalls-Hubbard, executive director of the ROC. She said the number of homeless living in York County is estimated to be around 500 people.

(Rock Hill, S.C.) — In the last three years, the resale market for clothing has grown at 21 times the pace of the mainstream apparel market, according to research collected by the online thrift store thredUP. This growing market is predicted to reach $51 billion by 2023, in part because of millennials and Generation Z, who have really turned thrifting, which has been around for a long time, into a fashion trend. According to Dr. Jane Thomas, a professor of marketing at Winthrop University, thrifting has become much more socially acceptable than it was 30 years ago. “Today it’s something people, a consumer, would brag about and say ‘I got this at a thrift store and let me tell you about the great bargain I got,’” said Thomas, who was a guest on the Palmetto Report to discuss the trend.

(Rock Hill, S.C.) — Winthrop University provides many opportunities for its students, including the chance to get published in the school’s literary magazine. The Anthology, housed in Winthrop’s office of student publications, is published once per year and focuses on literature, photography, design, art and poetry. The publication has been the university’s literary magazine for about 100 years, according to its website, and since the 1990s, The Anthology has also featured visual art. The Palmetto Report's Matt Thrift spoke with the people behind the magazine, including editor-in-chief Téa Franco and faculty adviser Jason Tselentis, to get a look at how the publication is put together.

(Rock Hill, S.C.) -- South Carolina will soon play a key role in the 2020 presidential election, as the state will host the "first in the South" primary Feb. 29. As a result, a number of Democratic candidates have been traveling to the state to campaign and reach out to voters. Most recently, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren made stops in Rock Hill. Additionally, Sanders, in September, and California Sen. Kamala Harris, earlier this year, visited the Winthrop University campus for campaign events. "Nationally, I think the 20-some candidate Democratic field is going to narrow. Not everybody is going to be able to raise enough money to get to stay in the race, to run the advertising and the things they need to do," said Dr. John Holder, an adjunct professor of political science at Winthrop. Holder, who is teaching a class this semester on the presidency, was a guest on the Palmetto Report to discuss South Carolina's role in the presidential race.

(Rock Hill, S.C.) -- Academic advising for the spring 2020 semester has begun at Winthrop University and with that comes many questions and concerns for students at every level of the school. Dr. Adria Belk, director of student services for the College of Arts and Sciences, spoke with the Palmetto Report to discuss advising and preparation for graduation. Belk says students should be prepared when going into an advising session. “Advisors are definitely there for guidance, but I always recommend students look up course offerings and see what they can take and try to put a schedule together themselves," said Belk. "Also look at Degree Works and see what requirements they need to meet.”

(Rock Hill, S.C.) -- A South Carolina lawmaker plans to file a bill later this year that would ban discrimination based on wearing hair in a natural style, which could included curls, dreadlocks, twists or braids. Rep. Kambrell Garvin (D-Richland) will file the "CROWN Act" (Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair) to ban discrimination of facial features, hair textures, hair types, hairstyles and protective hairstyles. The bill is similar to laws that were passed earlier this year in California and New York, which prohibit race-based hair discrimination, and a number of other states have proposed similar legislation. “My definition of natural hair is hair that has not been altered, it operates in its natural state in a sense that hasn’t had any chemical sort of application,” said Jennifer Dixon-McKnight, an assistant professor at Winthrop University. Dixon-McKnight, who teaches a course called Black Women in America, was a guest on the Palmetto Report to discuss the topic.

(Rock Hill, S.C.) -- The Charlotte Area Paranormal Society (CAPS) has been investigating unexplained activity across the Carolinas since 2005. The non-profit group’s goal, according to its website, is to document and prove the validity of haunted places through research and investigations. In the spirit of Halloween, the Palmetto Report spoke with Tina McSwain, founder and executive director of CAPS, about hauntings, some the group's investigations and her favorite ghost stories. "I wanted a more scientific approach to the study of paranormal activity, so I formed CAPS," said McSwain. The group uses digital voice recorders, thermal imaging cameras and electromagnetic field detectors to document and search for evidence of the paranormal. "We believe ghosts are actually energy, so if you're looking for energy, then you would see that," she said, of the thermal images the cameras can produce.

(Rock Hill, S.C.) -- The Charlotte Area Paranormal Society (CAPS) has been investigating unexplained activity across the Carolinas since 2005. The non-profit group’s goal, according to its website, is to document and prove the validity of haunted places through research and investigations. In the spirit of Halloween, the Palmetto Report spoke with Tina McSwain, founder and executive director of CAPS, about hauntings, some the group's investigations and her favorite ghost stories. "I wanted a more scientific approach to the study of paranormal activity, so I formed CAPS," said McSwain. The group uses digital voice recorders, thermal imaging cameras and electromagnetic field detectors to document and search for evidence of the paranormal. "We believe ghosts are actually energy, so if you're looking for energy, then you would see that," she said, of the thermal images the cameras can produce.

(Rock Hill, S.C.) -- October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and South Carolina is now ranked the fifth deadliest state in the nation for women who are killed by men. According to the Washington, D.C. based Violence Policy Center, there were 52 women killed by men in the state in 2017, which was a rate of 2.01 women per 100,000 thousand men, based on an analysis of homicide data. South Carolina has been in the top ten for women murdered by men for the past 20 years. Myesha Belcher, volunteer coordinator for Safe Passage in Rock Hill, was a guest on the Palmetto Report to discuss the issue. “The causes for domestic violence are power and control; that’s the two main things that people want when they are abusers,” said Belcher. Safe passage offers support to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse in York, Chester, Lancaster and Union Counties.

(Rock Hill, S.C.) -- Democrats in Washington are calling for President Donald Trump's impeachment after a whistleblower’s complaint that Trump pressured the president of the Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a potential rival in the 2020 election. Considering this is such a rare occurrence the Palmetto Report explored the topic of impeachment with Dr. John Holder, an adjunct professor of political science at Winthrop University who is teaching a class this semester on the presidency. Holder spent 10 years in Washington working for three members of the South Carolina congressional delegation and he is the former secretary of the York County Democratic Party. Only two American presidents, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, have been impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives, but both were acquitted in the Senate, which requires a two-thirds vote for removal from office. Richard Nixon resigned before a vote on impeachment was taken, thus, no president has been removed from office by impe

(Rock Hill, S.C.) -- Student loan debt, at about $1.5 trillion, is now the second-largest debt market in the U.S. behind home mortgages, with the average student carrying more than $33,000 in student loans upon graduation. Additionally, a national survey of more than 18,000 undergraduate students at 52 colleges and universities, conducted by Ohio State University, found 70 percent reported feeling stressed about their personal finances. Earlier this year, the U.S. Financial Literacy and Education Commission, part of the U.S. Department of Treasury, issued a report that recommended that colleges and universities start to require financial literacy courses. Dr. Jimmy Cheng, an assistant professor of finance at Winthrop University who who specializes in financial planning, was a guest on the Palmetto Report to discuss the struggles students face managing money.

(Rock Hill, S.C.) -- The use of big data -- including information from maps, spreadsheets and large databases -- is becoming more important in the field of journalism. That was the message Gavin Off, data reporter at the Charlotte Observer, gave to students during a presentation last month at Winthrop University. "We're still journalists, we're still reporters, but we want to ask the data questions, to pull out information, to write better stories," said Off, who was a guest on the Palmetto Report. The Guardian's reporting on NSA files leaked by Edward Snowdon, Bloomberg's story on the deadliest jobs in America and the San Francisco Chronicle's examination of the effect of Airbnb on the city's housing market are often cited as some of the best examples of data journalism.

(Rock Hill, S.C.) — Brandon Taylor, a news anchor in Columbia, S.C., told students at Winthrop University the news business isn’t as glamorous or lucrative as some might think, during the school’s annual Mass Comm Week. The three-day event, hosted by the Department of Mass Communication, included a series of speakers and panel discussions Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. Taylor, who was part of a panel of alumni working in media, graduated from Winthrop in 2007 with a degree in journalism. He is currently the co-anchor of News 19 This Morning at WLTX-TV, but he has also worked as a reporter for the CBS station in Myrtle Beach and as an anchor for the ABC affiliate in Madison, Wisconsin. “It’s so good to be back at Winthrop. You know it’s kind of a surreal experience to be back where it all started,” said Taylor.

(Rock Hill, S.C.) — To kick off campus sustainability month, Winthrop University’s Office of Sustainability is hosting an event called Weigh the Waste, in order to draw attention to the issue of food waste. It’s estimated that 30 to 40 percent of the food supply is wasted, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which means billions of pounds of food ultimately ends up in landfills. Chris Johnson, Winthrop sustainability coordinator, said last semester the school collected over 300 pounds of food during the Weigh the Waste event. “It sounds like a lot, but at the same time it’s just bringing attention to it, that is the most critical part of the program,” said Johnson.

(Rock Hill, S.C.) — Charles Perry, the 2019 S.C. Press Association Journalist of the Year and a Winthrop University alum, told students they need to acquire a myriad of skills to work in the field of journalism, during the school’s annual Mass Comm Week. “Students need to be able to not only write clearly, write powerful stories, but they also need to be able to take compelling photographs, shoot and edit video. They really need to be generalists,” said Perry, who spoke with the Palmetto Report about his career. He was the keynote speaker at the three-day event hosted by the Department of Mass Communication, which included a series of speakers and panel discussions, Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. Perry, who graduated from Winthrop in 2005 with a degree in mass communication, was honored as the department’s distinguished alumnus. He serves as the editor of myhorrynews.com and the Carolina Forest Chronicle, a weekly newspaper in Horry County, where he covers county government, the justice system and agriculture.

(Rock Hill, S.C.) — National Hispanic Heritage month is Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 and Hispanics represent about 5 percent of the population in South Carolina. According to the U.S. Department of Education, undergraduate enrollment for Hispanic students has doubled to 3 million from 2000 to 2015. However, Hispanic students only represent 4.8 percent of those enrolled at Winthrop University, as compared to about 62 percent for whites and 29 percent for African-Americans. The Palmetto Report spoke with two Hispanic students to learn more about their experiences at Winthrop.

(Rock Hill, S.C.) — An Alabama man has become the state’s first death related to lung disease associated with vaping, officials announced Wednesday (Oct. 2). It’s the 17th vaping-related death in the U.S. after officials in Virginia and New Jersey announced confirmed cases the day before (Oct. 1). Amanda Harris, reporter for The Herald in Rock Hill, spoke with the Palmetto Report to discuss the issue and its impact in South Carolina. Harris covers health and education in York, Chester and Lancaster counties. In February, she reported on students in Clover who were caught vaping in school. So far, vaping-related deaths have been reported in 14 states, including California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska and Oregon. Harris said she thinks the recent deaths may encourage people to think twice about using electronic-cigarettes. “I think more awareness is needed, so people understand that these (e-cigarettes) are not safe, even though they’re not a regular c

(Rock Hill, S.C.) -- September is National Suicide Prevention Month and the World Health Organization calls suicide a “global crisis," as the group estimates a person dies by suicide every 40 seconds. According to the Centers for Disease Control, there were 47,000 suicides in the U.S. in 2017, which is a rate of about 129 per day. The CDC estimates for every one suicide death, another 280 people seriously consider it. Among college students, suicide is the second leading cause of death, with roughly 1,000 suicides on college campuses per year. "That is staggering," said Dr. Gretchen Baldwin, a licensed psychologist and the clinical coordinator for counseling services at Winthrop University, who appeared on the Palmetto Report to discuss the topic. Additionally, a recent survey, by health researchers in Boston, found 20 percent of college students have thought about suicide and 9 percent have attempted. "It's an issue here at Winthrop," said Baldwin. "Almost 40 percent of our appointments in counseling service