Brian Hicks

1 week ago | postandcourier.com | Brian Hicks

There’s not a day goes by that I don’t get some social media clickbait about National Parks. For better or worse — mostly worse — these algorithms know our interests. I’m such a National Parks obsessive that I buy hats at every site I visit. One Father's Day, my oldest son gave me a dad hat with the National Park Service’s ubiquitous arrowhead logo on it. Which I wore once unthinkingly when visiting Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in St. Augustine.

2 weeks ago | postandcourier.com | Brian Hicks

Kevin Sack has devoted a lot of thought to the concept of forgiveness these past 10 years. Like everyone in Charleston, and the rest of the country, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times writer was both awestruck and befuddled by what happened here a decade ago this month. That’s when, just days after a delusional white supremacist murdered nine innocent souls in the city’s most storied black church, some of the victims’ family members stood up at a bond hearing and forgave him.

2 weeks ago | postandcourier.com | Brian Hicks

South Carolina could be looking at oil derricks on the horizon ... the one visible from our beaches. Yeah, that again. If the prospect of renewed interest in offshore drilling here alarms you, there are 12 days left to lodge a complaint with the federal government. And, for once, it’s easy. See, the Trump administration’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is reviewing its long-term plans for oil drilling along America’s coastline. Which means, of course, it wants to allow it.

3 weeks ago | postandcourier.com | Brian Hicks

The Charleston Animal Society has taken in more than 250 furry new guests in the past week. This is not particularly good news, because — for context — that’s a 40 percent increase over the number of critters the Animal Society welcomed during the last week of April. So, this would be more mouths to feed. Often bottle feed. See, most of those recent arrivals are kittens — 80 of them way too young to be away from their mother, because that severely reduces their odds of survival.

1 month ago | postandcourier.com | Brian Hicks

The Briggs-DeLaine-Pearson Foundation opens its new Education Center in Summerton this weekend, and that’s a big deal. The nonprofit will offer the children of Clarendon County afterschool mentoring, help with their homework, counseling, vocational opportunities and even good meals … along with some important local history lessons. The foundation has been doing all this for decades, assisting hundreds in a region where math and reading test scores lag far behind the state average.