RED LIGHT CAMERAS GET GREEN LIGHT

Cities with 20,000 or more residents could install cameras at traffic lights to catch those running red lights under a bill approved by the Senate Transportation Committee.

The committee voted down a similar bill a week ago because opponents said it might be a tempting revenue source for small towns. Some also said the accused wouldn’t have enough protections. The difference with this bill is it applies only to cities with 20,000 or more residents.

Police review the images, and if they see a violation, they write a citation for the vehicle’s owner. If someone other than the owner was driving the car, it’s up to the owner to make that clear. Fines would be capped at $100, and couldn’t be put on the driver’s record or be used to raise insurance rates.

DOT FRACAS

The state Transportation Commission chairman has called for the agency’s director to resign because of financial and employee morale concerns.

But Transportation Department head Elizabeth Mabry, who has held the post for eight years, called the some of the claims “unsubstantiated and false,” and said it’s not uncommon to find employees with low morale in an agency with 5,000 workers.

Commission chairman Tee Hooper, who was appointed by Gov. Mark Sanford two years ago, sent a letter to Mabry on Feb. 17 saying agency workers had complained to him about several issues recently.

Commissioner Bob Harrell Sr. said if the commission voted, “it would be a lopsided vote in favor of her staying.”

PRESCRIBED BURN

Gov. Mark Sanford on Thursday declared March “Prescribed Fire Awareness Month,” reminding South Carolinians that managed fires improve the environment.

The governor’s proclamation is designed to counter the perception that every fire in the woods is bad.

In a prescribed burn, foresters wait for the ideal weather conditions — dry surface, damp soil and a light, steady wind — to burn off the undergrowth in thick forests. Many plants and animals thrive only in an open forest understory.

Currently, land owners purposely burn about 500,000 acres in the state each year. Experts say twice that much should be burned. Complaints about drifting smoke is a major reason for the under-use of prescribed burns, said Bob Schowalter, head of the S.C. Forestry Commission.

— Joey Holleman and The Associated Press contributed