COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ The South Carolina Senate is debating a charter school bill that Superintendent Mick Zais calls his top legislative priority. The state schools chief wants to increase the number of charters statewide.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ The South Carolina House wants to ban public schools from buying meat containing the common beef filler dubbed ``pink slime.'' The House approved an amendment to its budget plan barring state money from buying food for students treated with ammonia hydroxide.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ Sunshine Week in South Carolina is being celebrated with a rally at the Statehouse supporting the Freedom of Information Act.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ South Carolina Democrats are trying to give state employees a one-time bonus in November, saying legislators need to recognize their service. The bonus would be in addition to the 2 percent raises called for in the Ways and Means' budget plan.

The Nickelodeon Theatre, South Carolina's only non-profit art house film theater, launches the second phase of its Move the Nick Capital Campaign to renovate and move the theater, hoping to continue an economic boom in downtown Columbia.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ A second independent audit of South Carolina's unemployment agency shows the system that checks whether people getting jobless benefits were also being paid at a job didn't work properly for six years.

GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) _ Greenville County deputies say they arrested a man who killed one man and shot another while trying to take marijuana from him. Authorities said 23-year-old Colby Thomas was taken into custody Monday at a motel in Anderson and charged with murder, attempted murder, kidnapping and other charges.

Veteran South Carolina lawmakers Glenn McConnell and John Courson take on new roles in state leadership, amid a controversial exit by former Lt. Gov. Ken Ard.

SAVANNAH RIVER SITE, S.C. (AP) _ Officials at the Savannah River Site have opened a $795 million power plant that uses materials like wood chips and shredded tires to provide 30 percent of the electricity for the old nuclear weapons plant near Aiken.

Authorities say an 8-year-old boy from Gastonia, N.C., has drowned in a pool at a Myrtle Beach hotel.

BEAUFORT, S.C. (AP) _ Authorities say a nude Marine who took a fire truck in Port Royal and hit six vehicles and killed a pedestrian last month was already facing federal charges.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) _ With students in the United States owing more than $1 trillion in student loans, a seminar being held in Charleston is focusing on helping students learn how to pay the rising costs of attending college.

Just hours after Ken Ard resigned from his position as the Lt. Governor, Attorney General Alan Wilson announced that a grand jury has indicted Ard on seven counts of ethics violations.