Legislative Wrap Up

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ Legislative measures to hire more judges, give non-violent offenders another chance and provide a free vaccine to seventh graders are among those that made it to the finish line in the South Carolina Legislature. The regular session ends at 5 p.m. Thursday. Any bill not heading to the governor’s desk or assigned to a conference committee by that deadline dies. The Legislature will return for a special session starting June 19 to deal with bills that reached a panel of House and Senate members. That includes the budget. Bills heading to the governor’s desk include one adding nine judges statewide to relieve severe backlogs. Nonviolent felonies could be erased from the records of now-upstanding citizens. And a free vaccine could be offered to prevent a sexually transmitted, cancer-causing virus.