Palmetto Scoop taken to the woodshed

Waldo Lydecker’s Journal does an amazing (and quite humorous) job dissecting a post by The Palmetto Scoop’s Adam Fogle on a new book about South Carolina state parks, authored by Chad Prosser, the director of the SC Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.

Fogle’s latest windmill-tilting exercise aimed at Prosser alleges a variety of affronts to humanity, such as the book being possibly funded by taxpayers and Prosser possibly getting a cut of the profits.

And, of course, as Waldo points out, no story on Prosser or Parks, Recreation and Tourism is complete without mention of the PRT-funded “South Carolina is So Gay” ad campaign that Fogle so adroitly uncovered last year, saving the Palmetto State from being inundated by hordes of gay Britons.

Consumer end-around on tobacco taxes

Here’s something legislators counting on increased revenue from higher tobacco taxes likely weren’t counting on:

A growing number of smokers have turned to cultivating tobacco to blend their own cigarettes, cigars and chew, driven by ever-rising tobacco prices, according to The Associated Press.

Across the Southeast, smokers and smokeless tobacco users are planting Virginia Gold, Goose Creek Red, Yellow Twist Bud and dozens of other tobacco varieties in both urban lots and on rural acreage.