MELINDA WALDROP PROFILE

Three weeks after the death of a University of South Carolina student who police think was killed by a man she mistook for an Uber driver, representatives from the ride-hailing service chose USC’s campus as the setting to anno... Read More

Columbia is home to a plethora of talented architects at both established and up-and-coming firms, and many of those companies share a common characteristic: They feature award-winning women in leadership positions. The Columbia Regional... Read More

Warren Wise didn’t plan to become a teacher, but his career detour — now in its 16th year — has proven to be a successful path. Wise, a science teacher at Blythewood’s Kelly Mill Middle School in Richland Schoo... Read More

The former Dianne’s on Devine restaurant at 2400 Devine St. has been sold to Hickory, N.C.-based Backstreets Bar & Grill. The casual dining restaurant will open a new location in the space, according to a news release from N... Read More

Preston Thorne, recruited to the University of South Carolina nearly two decades ago, is now  persuading a new generation to choose the Gamecocks. Thorne, a former USC defensive tackle who came to Columbia from Summerville in 200... Read More

Soda City Market will soon be getting a tasty new addition. Local craft beer tasting room and bottle shop Craft and Draft will offer curated libations showcasing Columbia-area breweries at the weekly Main Street artisan market on Apri... Read More

Cameron General Contractors, a Lincoln, Nebraska-based firm with projects under construction nationwide, has purchased 12.29 acres of land at the intersection of North Lake Drive and Lake Murray Boulevard for $4 million. A spokeswoman... Read More

Would-be educators seeking a non-traditional path to the classroom have an innovative option at Columbia College, and the school’s Alternative Pathways for Educator Certification Center has received a boost with a $24,000 grant fro... Read More

The BullStreet District’s latest addition is a big one. Washington-based outdoor outfitter REI Co-op plans to build a 20,000-square-foot store in the northwest corner of the district at the intersection of Bull Street and Freed ... Read More

Alison Schriro had her share of frustrating moments during her first year as a math teacher at Dreher High School. But she never thought of quitting. Chalk her experience up as a victory for the Carolina Teacher Induction Program, a... Read More

Basketball fans had a chance to see top NCAA seed Duke and star freshman Zion Williamson for free on Thursday, and they turned up — to the tune of an estimated 5,000 at Thursday's practice at Colonial Life Arena.  ... Read More

Longtime sport and entertainment management professor Tom Regan has studied countless sporting events during nearly 30 years at the University of South Carolina, but he’s never analyzed the economic impact of one quite like this. ... Read More

At the 1977 dedication of a building bearing his name in Washington, D.C., former vice president Hubert Humphrey said: “The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; tho... Read More

A charter school which ran into community opposition of its plans to locate a campus on a five-acre site in Cottontown has leased temporary space on the other side of Elmwood Avenue in downtown Columbia. Clear Dot Charter School, whic... Read More

Brian Denny took his 13-year-old son, Cooper, hunting last year. Big deal? It was to Denny, paralyzed from the shoulders down after a work accident in 2010. But thanks to an adaptive wheelchair called a trackchair, Denny was able to g... Read More

Chris Rogers needs only to look out his office window to find inspiration. Rogers, an attorney with Columbia law firm Rogers Lewis, is also a member of a local limited liability company that scouts the Midlands and beyond for promisin... Read More

After a $19.1 million renovation of its sprawling headquarters off Interstate 126, Colonial Life realized the supplemental insurance company still needed one thing: a neighbor. Prisma Health, the new health care organization formed by... Read More

From a Vienna Boys Choir member with a queasy stomach to Alice Cooper, Steve Borders has seen it all at the Koger Center. “I’m the original employee,” said Borders, the technical director for Columbia’s perform... Read More

Columbia International University has completed the purchase of seven Monticello Road properties it hopes to develop as part of a revitalization of an area CIU president Mark Smith has heard called “the forgotten community.” ... Read More

A Five Points landmark will soon begin its third life. After more than three decades as a Columbia industrial pioneer during its incarnation as a bakery, followed by 30 more years as a hotel, Claussen’s is once again transformin... Read More

This is not your father’s pizza joint. Regional pizza chain Stoner’s Pizza opened its first Columbia location last month at 1216 Washington St. in downtown Columbia. But the Arcade Mall store and its brick-and-mortar ilk a... Read More

On more than one occasion, a teenage Henrie Monteith Treadwell had the best seat in the house. Treadwell, one of the subjects of the new Smithsonian Channel documentary “The Green Book: Guide to Freedom,” remembers the lum... Read More

Beer, as Benjamin Franklin is purported to have said, is further proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. It is also becoming an increasingly popular way to stimulate investment in communities and driving the exponential grow... Read More

When John Carrington founded 3D design and manufacturing company ZVerse in Columbia in 2013, the business’s location presented both challenges and opportunities. While the University of South Carolina provided a readily accessib... Read More

Finding the sign changed the game. During renovations of the circa 1866 Robinson Building at 1621 Main St. in downtown Columbia, workers unearthed a remnant of the structure’s stint as a vaudeville and silent theater from 1909-1... Read More

The small plot of land tucked behind office buildings on Columbia College’s campus is serving a big purpose. The newly formed Columbia College gardening club and the fruits — and vegetables and herbs — of its labors ... Read More

Nadia Theodore is a self-professed optimist, a trait which leads the Consul General of Canada to view the current friction over steel and aluminum tariffs between Canada and the United States as a stumbling block that will be resolved be... Read More

The realities of planning a trip, perhaps for the Christmas holidays, were a serious consideration for people of color in the pre-Civil Rights Act era — especially in the segregated American South. The University of So... Read More

Anna Sveinbjornsdottir knew her company faced a challenge when it took on the interior design of Hotel Trundle, downtown Columbia’s newest boutique hotel carved out of three unoccupied buildings. Sveinbjornsdottir, manager of in... Read More

When the Central Carolina Community Foundation needed to expand to a larger location, the Midlands nonprofit leader scoured the greater Columbia area. But nothing could top the place foundation officials saw when they first began sear... Read More

The average pedestrian out for a late autumn stroll downtown likely has no idea what lies beneath the stately building at the corner of Main and Washington streets. The first and second floors of the Arcade Mall, built in 1912, rehabi... Read More

One of Columbia’s most distinct buildings threw itself a party on Monday. The Arcade Mall at the corner of Main and Washington streets celebrated its grand re-opening with refreshments from retail tenants and remarks from develo... Read More

Dominion Energy has filed a revision to its alternative proposal to acquire SCANA Corp. that the Virginia-based company says will lower bills paid by the average S.C. Electric & Gas customer to rates slightly below those established ... Read More

The changing realities of retail made Mark Rosenbaum come up with a different way of doing business. With fundamental principles of the industry undergoing seismic shifts, the way students at the University of South Carolina’s C... Read More

When diners at Terra restaurant in West Columbia sample a distinctive dessert featuring a local pumpkin variety few have ever tasted, they’ll have David Shields to thank. The Dutch Fork pumpkin is one example of once-indigenous ... Read More

As days get shorter and leaves more colorful, fall festivals continue throughout Columbia. The 31st annual Five Points Chili Cook-Off was held Nov. 3, with thousands of people and a few of their four-legged friends turning out to enjoy y... Read More

When his NFL career ended, Connor Shaw’s competitive streak didn’t go away. Now, the record-setting University of South Carolina quarterback has found a new outlet for that drive — and his desire to help people. Shaw... Read More

From dinosaurs to doomed monkeys, Greg and Brandi Glenn have seen — and carved — it all. The husband-and-wife team who make up sand sculpting company Sandscapes were back on familiar turf last week, carving Tyrannosaurus r... Read More

Wes Lyles knows what words likely spring to mind when people picture a brewery. Industrial. No-frills. Utilitarian. None of that is what the president of Studio 2LR Architecture and Interiors envisions for his firm’s latest p... Read More

Columbia’s newest downtown commercial real estate firm is made up of some familiar faces. Bruce Harper is managing partner at Trinity Partners’ first Columbia location at 1556 Main St. Harper is a former p... Read More

Several months ago, the whine of power saws and the pounding of hammers echoed through empty space at 929 Gervais Street. Now, diners chat at tastefully lit tables at 929 Kitchen and Bar. Several feet away, a cutout of Marilyn Monroe ... Read More

Malissa Burnette was proud to see her daughter, Grant, graduate from law school this spring — almost as proud as she was when Grant met Sarah Leverette. Leverette, a legal pioneer and Columbia community fixture, died Wednesday. ... Read More

Recent acquisitions, mergers and leadership changes have highlighted the continued growth of two area banks, but leaders at both organizations say they remain focused on local communities. Greg Lapointe grew up in Columbia, graduating... Read More

Sarah Monteith Rama grew up shopping on Devine Street, and she hopes her new business will give more generations a chance to make similar memories. Rama is opening Duck Duck Goose, the brick-and-mortar manifestation of her successful ... Read More