Pleicones unopposed for short term as S.C. chief justice

S.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice Costa Pleicones appears on his way to a short term as the state’s chief justice.

Pleicones was the only person to apply to be the state’s top judge when Chief Justice Jean Toal is forced to retire this year because of her age.

The state requires judges to retire by the end of the year when they turn 72. So Pleicones’ stay as chief justice may be short as well. He turns 72 in February 2016, meaning he would have to leave the court after only one year as chief justice.

Pleicones has been on the Supreme Court since 2000.

The Judicial Merit Selection Commission says it will hold a screening hearing for Pleicones and other court seats in late April.

Toal has spent 27 years on the Supreme Court as she prepares to retire by year’s end.

Graham says he doesn’t use email

Responding to the Hillary Clinton email controversy, potential presidential candidate Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he has never sent a single message using the technology.

“I don’t email,” Graham said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “You can have every email I’ve ever sent. I’ve never sent one.”

Graham said the controversy over Clinton’s use of private email as secretary of state raised questions about other Obama Cabinet officials’ practices.

Among that group, Graham appears to have had some company. Former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in 2013 that she didn’t use email either, calling it “inefficient” and a time suck.

Graham said he had confidence that U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, a fellow South Carolina Republican leading a House committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attack, “will get to the bottom” of the matter.

Clinton representatives have denied wrongdoing in her email practices, and she said she has asked the State Department to make her messages public.

Governor’s schedule, activities

Gov. Nikki Haley’s publicly announced schedule for this week, released Monday by her staff, is:

Tuesday, 12:30 p.m.: Address the Rotary Club of Greenville

Wednesday, 12:30 p.m.: Visit East Aiken School of the Arts and attend a performance of Julliard pre-college artists, Aiken

Thursday, 12:20 p.m.: Speak at the Greater Florence Chamber of Commerce spring business outlook luncheon

Thursday, 1 p.m.: Visit Roche Carolina, Florence

According to her office, the governor’s activities last week included:

4: Economic-development activities, including the announcement of a new Mercedes van plant in Ladson and three days — Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday — spent on an unidentified economic-development mission; that trip reportedly was to the United Kingdom in an attempt to land a new Jaguar Land Rover vehicle plant for the Lowcountry

3: Meetings with S.C. students, including addressing the Young Republican Club at Blythewood High School and visiting Bradley Elementary School in Columbia

2 each: Ceremonial duties, greeting President Barack Obama at Columbia Metropolitan Airport on his arrival in South Carolina and a photo opportunity with representatives of an animal rescue center; also, legislative meetings; also, reported phone calls, one to S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson and a condolence call

1 each: Education meeting; also, a policy meeting; also, a media call; also, an agency meeting

The Associated Press, Bloomberg and staff reports