Home Care In North Charleston, SC

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The South Carolina Department of Environmental Services is strengthening its air quality monitoring system with an upgrade to the station in North Charleston.

The state’s network of air monitoring stations consists of 20 stations around the state. The one in North Charleston specifically monitors sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.

Dylan Cobb is the manager of the audit calibration and technical support section of SCDES. He says those pollutants can come from a lot of different places.

“Obviously, you have emissions from sources like factories, any kind of transport ships and vehicles, are big sources,” Cobb said. “You can also have things like wildfires.”

The department spent roughly $50,000 to upgrade the 20-year-old facility. The majority of the expense was used to replace the housing for the equipment, but Cobb and his team also reconfigured the instruments to make them easier to access.

“So, this new shelter has a configuration that allows us to remotely access our audit and calibration equipment,” Cobbs said. “At any time from our office in Columbia, we can run automated or manual quality control checks or calibrate the monitors remotely. That greatly improves our ability to respond to issues with the monitors, and it also allows us to more frequently do quality control checks.”

The North Charleston station is part of a wider system that collects environmental data around the state to make sure South Carolina is in compliance with the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s clean air standards.

“The EPA sets national ambient air quality standards for six principal pollutants, which they call criteria pollutants. So, that’s ozone, PM2.5, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and lead,” Cobb said. “So, there are primary standards that provide public health protection, including protecting the health of sensitive populations like children, the elderly or people with asthma.”

Cobbs says the upgrades will make collecting data more reliable.

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NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — A fifth person involved in a corruption case that embroiled several council members in South Carolina's third-largest city entered a guilty plea Tuesday, according to federal court documents.

Hason "Tory" Fields, 51, pleaded guilty to one count of bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit both bribery and wire fraud, according to court documents.

Fields was one of eight people in the federal corruption probe. Three of whom were members of the North Charleston City Council. At the heart of the case was Jerome Heyward, who federal authorities claim embezzled city funds by organizing kickbacks for various organizations.

Heyward was reportedly soliciting payments in exchange for his "official action as a City Councilman" and conspiring with former councilman Mike A. Brown and Aaron Hicks to accept bribes from Hicks in exchange for Heyward's support in rezoning the Baker Hospital site.

Fields was initially charged with conspiracy to commit bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds and honest services wire fraud, bribery for programs receiving federal funds, and honest services wire fraud. He allegedly worked with Hicks to pay bribes in an attempt to influence Councilman Sandino Moses in the Baker Hospital rezoning scheme.

Fields, before the guilty plea, faced a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, a $250,000 fine, and three years on supervised release.

The full court filing can be read below.

The four people, along with Fields, to enter a guilty plea include Heyward, Hicks, Moses and Donavan Moten, a local nonprofit leader. However, the case remains far from over.

Michelle Stent-Hilton has a change of plea hearing scheduled for Aug. 15. Brown faces a pretrial conference in late October and jury selection in early November.

Rose Emily Lorenzo, Heyward, Hicks, Moses, Fields and Moten have no future court date set yet, according to records.

A faint crescent moon hovered above the USS Yorktown as an abundance of beauty queens gathered aboard the 82-year-old ship known as “The Fighting Lady” for the welcoming event of the inaugural Miss All American Pageant.

Handheld fans fluttered during the 86-degree summer evening on July 30 as 117 contestants sporting sashes filled the belly of the 888-foot boat, which was outfitted with huge box fans to circulate the blanket of humid air.

Everyone headed up to the flight deck, which was mercifully breezy, for the very first photoshoot the contestants would take together to kick off the very first Miss All American pageant week.

Swirled clouds and soft dusk encased the scene as the women walked between giant planes, photos snapping. Then it was time to head back down below for the evening’s address and a chance for each sashed contestant to walk the red carpet.

Soon they will each take the stage at the North Charleston Performing Arts Center to compete in the inaugural Miss All American Pageant taking place Aug. 1 and 2.

At the core of Miss All American, a newly expanded national competition, is the revival of the Miss Teen All American Pageant first launched in 1979. For over 20 years, it welcomed state delegates to vie for a national title, including Halle Berry, who won in 1985 before rising to stardom in film and television.

Now under the direction of Aiken-based showrunner RPM Productions, Inc., the Miss Teen All American brand has evolved into the new Miss All American Pageant, featuring three divisions: Miss, Teen, and Junior. The reimagined program builds on the legacy of its original namesake while welcoming a broader range of contestants nationwide.

The world of pageantry has evolved a lot since RPM got started in the business, said the company’s president Paula Miles, who’s been at the helm since its founding in 1979.

“Pageants today, especially Miss All American, are less about outdated stereotypes and more about the opportunities we can provide through our network of friends, colleagues and community,” she said. “One of our goals is for this to lead to personal growth.”

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A man was sentenced Monday for leaving the scene of a deadly Interstate 26 crash in North Charleston in 2021.

Xavier Rosado was sentenced by the Honorable Dale Van Slambrook to 10 years in prison on charges of reckless homicide, leaving the scene of an accident with death, and leaving the scene of an accident with great bodily injury. Rosado entered a guilty plea as the state prepared to call the case to trial, according to Solicitor Wilson’s office.

Ten years was the maximum sentence for reckless homicide and leaving the scene of an accident with great bodily injury, but leaving the scene with death had the potential of up to 25 years in prison.

The charges resulted from a crash on Oct. 4, 2021, around 1 a.m. on Interstate 26 eastbound near mile marker 214. The crash was caused when Rosado, who was traveling in a Porsche Cayenne, hit the rear of a Nissan SUV with two victims inside while traveling at approximately 139 mph.

The crash caused the Nissan to go off the highway and into a grassy shoulder, where it overturned, trapping the victims inside.

Rosado exited his vehicle and fled the scene. He did not render aid to the victims or alert emergency officials of the crash.

Passersby called 911, and the South Carolina Highway Patrol responded and began rescue efforts after discovering the victims in the overturned Nissan.

After around 30 minutes, the North Charleston Fire Department rescued the victims from the vehicle, and both were transported to the Medical University of South Carolina by EMS.

The driver of the Nissan, a 23-year-old woman, died from her injuries. The passenger of the Nissan, a 22-year-old male, suffered broken bones, including ribs and vertebrae, lacerations, a traumatic brain injury and loss of his sense of smell.

Rosado called 911 to report his car stolen from a North Charleston nightclub 20 minutes after the crash.

The investigation by the SCHP Multi-disciplinary Accident Investigation Team found that Rosado was the driver of the Porsche based on phone record analysis, his physical injuries and DNA evidence processed by the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division from the airbag and front seat area.

This case was prosecuted by Senior Litigator Timmy Finch.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The Teachers’ Supply Closet finally has a location to call its own.

Teachers’ Supply Closet hosted a grand opening of its new space in North Charleston on Deerwood Drive, along with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday.

The organization has been helping teachers get the necessary supplies for their students for decades.

Thanks to a collaboration with the City of North Charleston, Teachers’ Supply Closet took over an old fire department and transformed it into a supply storage. North Charleston Mayor Reggie Burgess said the simple supplies can mean more to students than they appear.

“I had teachers who would give me extra things and do things for me. My mother and my father worked and did the best they could, but they couldn’t afford everything, but the teachers picked up the slack. They gave me a little extra money for lunch, or they gave me an opportunity to get the book that I couldn’t afford,” Burgess said.

Helping families currently struggling is the passion of Teachers’ Supply Closet Executive Director Lynette Duggins.

“Our job is to relieve them of some of the financial stress,” Duggins said.

Duggins said that since 2007, the organization has served 337,000 students and about 26,000 teachers. Now they assist 71 schools in Charleston, Dorchester and Berkeley counties.

Shakeima Chatman is a former Charleston County teacher who is now a board member of Teachers’ Supply Closet and a member of Jack and Jill of America Charleston Chapter, a founding partner organization. She knows all too well the need for extra support.

“Some of the schools that I served in were definitely Title I schools, so sometimes it was just a treasure to get the kids there. There is a poem that’s called ‘Ain’t got no pencil’, and I remember that when I was teaching in the classroom, because when they were there, they may not have had the supplies that they needed, and being able to provide those resources is important,” Chatman said.

Volunteers and organizations like Jack and Jill play a large role in funding and helping run the supply closet.

“As a part of our efforts, we decided to have a fundraiser within our organization to go above and beyond our normal donations. We raised an additional $7,000 to donate just last year in honor of our 70th year in addition to that we have events where our families, our mothers, our fathers, our children come and dedicate their time to organizing the supplies that you see here,” Teachers’ Supply Closet Board Member and Jack and Jill of America Charleston Chapter member Austen Williams said.

Duggins said, based on the calls they have gotten in recent weeks from teachers, she suspects they’ll be overcharged with requests this session, but she is determined to work with the community and meet that need, so students succeed.

Burgess said that when students have the supplies they need, it changes their mindset toward education.

“It takes away that negative thinking in a child’s life so they can continue to be positive and do the things that they are capable of doing,” Burgess said.

Duggins said volunteers are crucial in making the closet function. If you’d like to volunteer or donate, you can visit the Teachers’ Supply Closet website or call (843) 714-0234.

If you are a teacher in a Berkeley, Dorchester, or Charleston county qualifying school, you can order the supplies online from the Teachers Supply Closet and pick them up at the new North Charleston location.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.