Mary Green
Reporter
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Mary Green reports for the KCRG-TV9 News at 10 p.m. — though you might also catch her at 4, 5, or 6, depending on the day.
Before moving to eastern Iowa, Mary started her career as a multimedia journalist at WFXL in Albany, Georgia, where she covered local government, tornadoes, hurricanes, and even a bit of snow.
Despite being born and raised in Tampa, Florida, Mary is no stranger to the Midwest. She graduated from the University of Notre Dame and loves to cheer on the Irish!
If you see Mary and her dog, a beagle named Chris Bosh, around town, please say hi! You can also reach her at Mary.Green@kcrg.com, or through Facebook or Twitter.
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Along with expanding background checks for younger potential gun buyers, incentivizing states to establish red-flag laws, and putting more money toward mental health resources, the law closes the “boyfriend loophole” at the federal level.
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Veterans in South Carolina will no longer have to pay state income taxes on their military retirement, as the state joins 35 others with a full tax exemption on these benefits.
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Cunningham said he supports codifying Roe into state law, ensuring access to the procedure in South Carolina.
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Republican Gov. Henry McMaster called South Carolina’s upcoming state budget “the most transparent and accountable budget in modern times” while renewing his call for more openness into how public dollars are spent.
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Per an agreement, 92% of South Carolina’s portion must be spent on combatting the opioid epidemic in the state.
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South Carolina voters will be able to head back to the polls starting Wednesday to cast their ballots for the June 28 primary runoff elections.
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A recent audit found most of the state’s public schools lack access to a counselor, and critical services like crisis counseling are even scarcer.
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Senate leadership has not formed any committees at this point as the House has done, instead waiting for a final Supreme Court ruling to determine if and how to proceed.
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The focal point of this budget is a restructuring of South Carolina’s income tax brackets that will cut the state’s top rate down from 7% to 6.5% when people file next year.
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Republican Gov. Henry McMaster said he believes some of the president’s proposals could infringe on Second Amendment rights.
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While some changes will take effect at later dates, many are already in place now for the June primaries, and they are also already causing some confusion with South Carolina voters.
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During the state’s last gubernatorial race, in 2018, Democratic candidates faced off three times in debates before the June primary.
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Starting with this primary, the new law guarantees two weeks of early voting before elections, or three days for run-off elections.
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In 2020, the most recent year of complete data, there were 571 murders across the state, an all-time high since that number was first tracked and 50% higher than it was just five years before.
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The day after an 18-year-old gunman used a semi-automatic rifle to murder 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Texas, state lawmakers say they are focused on South Carolina schools safe.
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House members beat a crucial deadline to advance the final version of the bill to McMaster’s desk before the two-year legislative session ended May 12.
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The nonprofit Mother’s Milk Bank of South Carolina, developed through MUSC, provides breast milk donations to NICUs around the state for high-risk babies.
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Healthcare providers in South Carolina may soon be able to refuse to perform procedures that they say violate their morals, ethics, or religious beliefs.
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Despite the abrupt death of the bill to legalize medical marijuana in South Carolina this year, supporters and advocates say their hope for the legislation is still alive.
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At the end of last week, House members moved to create a statewide task force to hold hearings and figure out how to recruit and retain more teachers in South Carolina.
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The bill would provide for 5,000 students a year to receive $5,000 for an Education Scholarship Account.
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According to the U.S. Department of Labor, nearly 3,000 people with disabilities in South Carolina were being paid less than the minimum wage just before the pandemic began.
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With just three days left on the calendar in South Carolina’s legislative session, it will be a race to the finish to advance bills to the governor’s desk by the end of next week.
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The House Ways and Means Committee advanced a version of S.2 to the House floor Thursday, after amending the bill with significant changes that would pump the brakes on its progress.
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The decision shocked leaders in the state Senate and may have repercussions well beyond failing to make South Carolina one of about 40 states allowing patients to use marijuana as medicine.
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Last year, McMaster signed the “Fetal Heartbeat Bill” into law, which bans most abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, typically around six weeks, making it one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the country.
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Sponsors of this bill have held that DHEC, overseeing the state’s health and environmental control operations, has become unwieldy and ineffective at times.
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Supporters argued this would give women information about options they may not know they have.
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Senators started debate on the upcoming state budget Tuesday with a $12.6 billion spending plan proposal before them.
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Supporters argue it would save women time and money by saving them additional trips to the physician.
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South Carolina is hoping to get everyone in the state connected to high-speed internet at home and work within the next few years, thanks in large part to a major influx of money coming in from the federal government.
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After a routine vote in the state Senate on Thursday, a significant early voting bill has now passed both chambers of the South Carolina State House with bipartisan backing and without getting a single vote against it.
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Jay Lucas, SC Speaker of the House, said he won’t run for re-election this November.
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SC’s anti-vaccine mandate legislation is on its way to Governor Henry McMaster’s desk after the House voted 76-34 to agree with the changes the Senate made in early April.
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The office tasked with broadband expansion and investment in South Carolina estimates it will cost more than $600 million at this point to ensure everyone in the state is connected to the internet.
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A proposal moving through the South Carolina Senate aims to incentivize students to take those jobs.
The end of this week marks the close of “crossover week” at the capital, the deadline by which bills have to pass one chamber and cross over the lobby to be considered in the other chamber.
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Some supporters shared that concern, but ultimately, several echoed the sentiment that they believe this bill will help the people of South Carolina and give them more healthcare options.
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As the bill works its way through the House, it now sits with the Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs, or 3-M, Committee and on Monday, members of that committee heard six hours of public testimony on the legislation as they consider advancing it.
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It would also set aside $100 million for applications that were approved by the end of last year but have not been able to use the tax credits since the state moratorium went into effect.
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Supporters of the legislation are under a tight deadline, as it needs to pass the House by the end of next week to beat a key deadline, or else the legislation dies and has to be refiled next year.
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To celebrate 100 years on the earth, Thomas Rew took a trip above it.
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“It’s concerning because very recently, within a very short time period within about a week, we had in the two different ends of the state two outbreaks reported,” DHEC Public Health Director Dr. Brannon Traxler said.
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South Carolina lawmakers believe this could be the year they will be able to guarantee paid time off for state employees when they welcome a child into their family.
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State lawmakers are considering putting limits on the amount of funding allocated to the Workforce and Senior Affordable Housing Act’s tax credit program
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The second-longest-serving Democrat in the South Carolina House of Representatives announced Friday he will not seek re-election for his seat and instead is running for state Superintendent of Education.
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The Senate will next have a chance to change the budget, and senators could opt to take out the NIL proviso.
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About half of the reports of intimate partner violence in South Carolina, including murder and assault, are between people who are dating.
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This is part of a tax cut plan moving through the South Carolina Senate, which would also cut the state’s top tax rate from 7% to 5.7%.
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Two of the bills would further restrict or totally ban abortions in South Carolina.