A QUICK SPIN

What’s going on around the State House:

INTERNET STALKERS TARGETED BY BILL

A Senate subcommittee on Wednesday approved a bill that would make it illegal to entice or stalk children on the Internet. The bill now moves to the full Senate Judiciary Committee. The House approved the bill last month.

Currently, the state has no criminal prohibition on adults for stalking, luring or enticing children for the purpose of abduction or sexual assault. Under the bill, the maximum penalties for all obscenity offenses involving minors would be increased and the multicounty limitation placed on the state grand jury for investigating obscenity offenses would be removed.

LAWMAKER KEEPS TERM LIMIT PROMISE

A Lowcountry lawmaker who promised to serve only three terms will step aside despite a change of heart on term limits. Rep. JoAnne Gilham, R-Beaufort, said she won’t run again for her seat on Hilton Head Island, keeping a pledge a national term limits advocacy group called U.S. Term Limits.

The party was surprised by Gilham’s decision and hasn’t had time to recruit a replacement candidate, Beaufort County Republican Party Chairman Doug Robertson said.

FOLKS APOLOGIZES FOR WOMEN’S JOKE

Gov. Mark Sanford’s spokesman has issued a public apology for a joke he made about Sanford’s elimination of funding for the Commission on Women, more than three weeks after his comments were made public.

In a letter to the editor of The State newspaper published Wednesday, Sanford press secretary Will Folks wrote, “I regret that my comments did not reflect the respect I have for women — but more importantly, that they did not reflect our governor’s record on this important issue.”

Folks was in the lobby of the State House on Feb. 3, preparing for a visit from a group of schoolchildren, when he was approached by reporters from The State and The Miami Herald. He told them he planned to give baseball cards to the boys and pencils marked with the governor’s name to the girls.

A reporter asked: “What if the girls don’t want pencils; what if they want baseball cards?”

Folks replied: “Maybe we should ask the Commission on Women what they think. Oops, we can’t.”

Sanford eliminated funding for the commission last year by vetoing its $99,955 from the state budget.

HOUSE PASSES ON PRIVATIZING BUSES

House members agreed Wednesday to put off a proposal to sell the state’s school bus system, opting instead to create a committee to study privatization.

The original version of the state budget had proposed having the State Budget and Control Board seek private companies to bid on taking over the bus fleet statewide.

Some lawmakers were concerned the state would dive into the new venture without input.