Government shutdown hurting local craft beer
National parks are closed, astronauts are furloughed and now the government shutdown is affecting local breweries, The State reported.
Columbia has seen three craft beer breweries crop up near Williams-Brice Stadium in recent years. The government shutdown has pushed back the opening of two of those — River Rat and Swamp Cabbage breweries — and is delaying bottling operations at Conquest Brewing.
The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) approves brewery licenses, reviews and approves beer labels and deals with excise taxes on alcohol. Many of its employees are not currently working due to the federal shutdown.
“Our permits are just sitting on someone’s desk right now,” said Mike Tourville of River Rat Brewery. “Every week it stays shut down, we lose a week. We can’t even do test runs. Until the feds say so, you can’t brew alcohol.”
Granby Oaks resident arrested after fire
A first-floor resident of West Columbia’s Granby Oaks Apartment complex has been arrested and charged with doing nothing to stop a fire that started in his apartment, The State reported.
Daniel Dupuy, 47, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Police say he left his 800 State St. apartment after a fire started in his kitchen. He did not call 911 or alert his neighbors, police say.
The fire was not set intentionally, according to the West Columbia Police Department.
The fire later spread to four adjoining apartments, killing an upstairs neighbor.
Jay Gross, 65, died from smoke inhalation after firefighters were unable to rescue him in time.
The fire displaced residents of eight units in the apartment complex. About a dozen firetrucks responded to the late September incident, WACH FOX reported.
SC man tidies national monument in capitol
A South Carolina man has gone to Washington, D.C., to maintain national landmarks while the federal government is shut down, the Associated Press reported.
Chris Cox, of Mount Pleasant, bought a lawn mower and a chainsaw and drove to the nation’s capitol to keep the Lincoln, Vietnam and World War II memorials maintained while government workers are furloughed.
Cox carries a South Carolina flag with him while he works. He has been asked by Park Police not to continue his maintenance, but has not been cited or arrested for his work.
U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, R-SC, praised his constituent Wednesday afternoon. Sanford saw Cox at work at the Lincoln Memorial while Sanford was on a run.
“I’m impressed. Chris embodies what it means to be not just a South Carolinian, but an American,” Sanford said in a press release.