MELINDA WALDROP PROFILE

Suzette Brunson knows firsthand the difference the money, and the change it brings, can make. For the third year, Brunson, a science teacher at New Bridge Academy in West Columbia, received a Strong Schools grant from Colonial Life. S... Read More

The newest bankers in town are looking to put down roots — roots they intend to cultivate through managed, controlled growth. United Community Bank, headquartered in Blairsville, Ga., entered the S.C. market with its $240.5 mill... Read More

It’s safe to say Kellan Monroe and Andrew Johnson’s brainstorm in the back of engineering class at the University of South Carolina has worked out pretty well. Now, the co-owners of popular Devine Street taproom and bottle... Read More

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include comment from the governor's office.  Holding signs touting “Principle, People, Prosperity, Process,” dozens of University of South Carolina faculty, staff,... Read More

Julie and David Tuttle wanted to help their hometown first. The Tuttles, partners in Columbia-based developers Styx Co., are both area natives, with Julie hailing from Northeast Columbia and David from Irmo. Their close connection to ... Read More

Dirt is in Brinton Fox’s blood. Fox, 28, grew up on an organic herb farm in Chapin run by her mother, Bettye Boone. While she enjoyed piddling around the greenhouse and stirring the compost piles, Fox planned to be a lawyer unti... Read More

A new, upscale condominium development in the heart of the Devine Street district is taking residential contract deposits and targeting a December completion date. The Trolley at Devine District, located at the intersection of Maple a... Read More

A year-long charitable project culminated in five checks and countless smiles on Tuesday. The Flip & Give initiative, which transformed a 1920s-era, two-bedroom bungalow into a four-bedroom, three-bath showplace, donated net proce... Read More

Lou Kennedy’s mother taught elementary school, and teachers hold a special place in the president and CEO of Nephron Pharmaceuticals’ heart. They also occupy a spot in her company. Inspired by teachers like her mother a... Read More

The winner of the lion’s share of a charitable donation from the Flip & Give house, a renovated residence at 3317 Duncan St. in the Shandon area, will be announced June 4. Columbia real estate firm The Moore Co. announced th... Read More

Once Chanda Jefferson entered the classroom, she knew she wasn’t leaving. Jefferson, a biology teacher for grades nine through 12 at Fairfield Central High School in Winnsboro, was honored as the 2020 S.C. Teacher of the Year du... Read More

Three weeks after the death of a University of South Carolina student who police think was killed by a man she mistook for an Uber driver, representatives from the ride-hailing service chose USC’s campus as the setting to anno... Read More

Columbia is home to a plethora of talented architects at both established and up-and-coming firms, and many of those companies share a common characteristic: They feature award-winning women in leadership positions. The Columbia Regional... Read More

Warren Wise didn’t plan to become a teacher, but his career detour — now in its 16th year — has proven to be a successful path. Wise, a science teacher at Blythewood’s Kelly Mill Middle School in Richland Schoo... Read More

The former Dianne’s on Devine restaurant at 2400 Devine St. has been sold to Hickory, N.C.-based Backstreets Bar & Grill. The casual dining restaurant will open a new location in the space, according to a news release from N... Read More

Preston Thorne, recruited to the University of South Carolina nearly two decades ago, is now  persuading a new generation to choose the Gamecocks. Thorne, a former USC defensive tackle who came to Columbia from Summerville in 200... Read More

Soda City Market will soon be getting a tasty new addition. Local craft beer tasting room and bottle shop Craft and Draft will offer curated libations showcasing Columbia-area breweries at the weekly Main Street artisan market on Apri... Read More

Cameron General Contractors, a Lincoln, Nebraska-based firm with projects under construction nationwide, has purchased 12.29 acres of land at the intersection of North Lake Drive and Lake Murray Boulevard for $4 million. A spokeswoman... Read More

Would-be educators seeking a non-traditional path to the classroom have an innovative option at Columbia College, and the school’s Alternative Pathways for Educator Certification Center has received a boost with a $24,000 grant fro... Read More

The BullStreet District’s latest addition is a big one. Washington-based outdoor outfitter REI Co-op plans to build a 20,000-square-foot store in the northwest corner of the district at the intersection of Bull Street and Freed ... Read More

Alison Schriro had her share of frustrating moments during her first year as a math teacher at Dreher High School. But she never thought of quitting. Chalk her experience up as a victory for the Carolina Teacher Induction Program, a... Read More

Basketball fans had a chance to see top NCAA seed Duke and star freshman Zion Williamson for free on Thursday, and they turned up — to the tune of an estimated 5,000 at Thursday's practice at Colonial Life Arena.  ... Read More

Longtime sport and entertainment management professor Tom Regan has studied countless sporting events during nearly 30 years at the University of South Carolina, but he’s never analyzed the economic impact of one quite like this. ... Read More

At the 1977 dedication of a building bearing his name in Washington, D.C., former vice president Hubert Humphrey said: “The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; tho... Read More

A charter school which ran into community opposition of its plans to locate a campus on a five-acre site in Cottontown has leased temporary space on the other side of Elmwood Avenue in downtown Columbia. Clear Dot Charter School, whic... Read More

Brian Denny took his 13-year-old son, Cooper, hunting last year. Big deal? It was to Denny, paralyzed from the shoulders down after a work accident in 2010. But thanks to an adaptive wheelchair called a trackchair, Denny was able to g... Read More

Chris Rogers needs only to look out his office window to find inspiration. Rogers, an attorney with Columbia law firm Rogers Lewis, is also a member of a local limited liability company that scouts the Midlands and beyond for promisin... Read More

After a $19.1 million renovation of its sprawling headquarters off Interstate 126, Colonial Life realized the supplemental insurance company still needed one thing: a neighbor. Prisma Health, the new health care organization formed by... Read More

From a Vienna Boys Choir member with a queasy stomach to Alice Cooper, Steve Borders has seen it all at the Koger Center. “I’m the original employee,” said Borders, the technical director for Columbia’s perform... Read More

Columbia International University has completed the purchase of seven Monticello Road properties it hopes to develop as part of a revitalization of an area CIU president Mark Smith has heard called “the forgotten community.” ... Read More

A Five Points landmark will soon begin its third life. After more than three decades as a Columbia industrial pioneer during its incarnation as a bakery, followed by 30 more years as a hotel, Claussen’s is once again transformin... Read More

This is not your father’s pizza joint. Regional pizza chain Stoner’s Pizza opened its first Columbia location last month at 1216 Washington St. in downtown Columbia. But the Arcade Mall store and its brick-and-mortar ilk a... Read More

On more than one occasion, a teenage Henrie Monteith Treadwell had the best seat in the house. Treadwell, one of the subjects of the new Smithsonian Channel documentary “The Green Book: Guide to Freedom,” remembers the lum... Read More

Beer, as Benjamin Franklin is purported to have said, is further proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. It is also becoming an increasingly popular way to stimulate investment in communities and driving the exponential grow... Read More

When John Carrington founded 3D design and manufacturing company ZVerse in Columbia in 2013, the business’s location presented both challenges and opportunities. While the University of South Carolina provided a readily accessib... Read More

Finding the sign changed the game. During renovations of the circa 1866 Robinson Building at 1621 Main St. in downtown Columbia, workers unearthed a remnant of the structure’s stint as a vaudeville and silent theater from 1909-1... Read More

The small plot of land tucked behind office buildings on Columbia College’s campus is serving a big purpose. The newly formed Columbia College gardening club and the fruits — and vegetables and herbs — of its labors ... Read More

Nadia Theodore is a self-professed optimist, a trait which leads the Consul General of Canada to view the current friction over steel and aluminum tariffs between Canada and the United States as a stumbling block that will be resolved be... Read More

The realities of planning a trip, perhaps for the Christmas holidays, were a serious consideration for people of color in the pre-Civil Rights Act era — especially in the segregated American South. The University of So... Read More

Anna Sveinbjornsdottir knew her company faced a challenge when it took on the interior design of Hotel Trundle, downtown Columbia’s newest boutique hotel carved out of three unoccupied buildings. Sveinbjornsdottir, manager of in... Read More

When the Central Carolina Community Foundation needed to expand to a larger location, the Midlands nonprofit leader scoured the greater Columbia area. But nothing could top the place foundation officials saw when they first began sear... Read More

The average pedestrian out for a late autumn stroll downtown likely has no idea what lies beneath the stately building at the corner of Main and Washington streets. The first and second floors of the Arcade Mall, built in 1912, rehabi... Read More

One of Columbia’s most distinct buildings threw itself a party on Monday. The Arcade Mall at the corner of Main and Washington streets celebrated its grand re-opening with refreshments from retail tenants and remarks from develo... Read More

Dominion Energy has filed a revision to its alternative proposal to acquire SCANA Corp. that the Virginia-based company says will lower bills paid by the average S.C. Electric & Gas customer to rates slightly below those established ... Read More