Teen pregnancy rates continue upward trend

COLUMBIA --- Teen pregnancy rates are rising in South Carolina after a decade of decline.

More than 10,000 girls between ages 10 and 19 got pregnant in the state in 2006, the most recent data available from the Department of Health and Environmental Control.

That's nearly 36 of every 1,000 girls that age, and more than a quarter of those girls had been pregnant before. The rate reached a low of 33 of every 1,000 girls three years earlier. Teen pregnancy rates had declined 25 percent in South Carolina from 1994 to 2004.

Rates have increased in each of the past three years, and the South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Pregnancy blames complacency, calling for schools and other groups to return to the abstinence first message, combined with age-appropriate information on contraception the organization advocates.

Farmers eligible for loans to offset drought

COLUMBIA --- U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham says South Carolina farmers who have been battling drought conditions are now eligible for low-interest loans.

Mr. Graham announced Monday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture designated 44 counties as primary disaster areas. The state's other two counties -- Beaufort and Charleston -- were labeled as contiguous disaster areas, meaning farmers there can still get aid from the Farm Services Administration.