Mattress storein Charleston, SC

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD) – The News 2 family is mourning the loss of a leader, colleague, and a friend.

For many years, those who have worked at WCBD News 2 were greeted with laughter and stories told by P.J. Ryal. He was a great man who wore many hats in our building; not only as general sales manager, but also a mentor, chief story teller, or perhaps being the “unofficial mayor of Charleston.”

The stories he could tell — they ranged in topic from working in the television industry throughout the decades to those of past experiences that would leave you roaring with laughter by the end.

His impact on our staff was great. He was loved by all. Not one day would go by where P.J. did not make his rounds saying hello to employees in each department.

Even after retirement P.J. would stop by the station just to say his hellos and offer a laugh.

“It is not common when you have trudged the career path for three decades to still have someone who can still shape your intellect, interest, and passion. But P.J. Ryal kept me fired-up about being a broadcast journalist, said WCBD Anchor Carolyn Murray.

Murray worked alongside Ryal at another television station in the 80s, and again a short time later after both joined the WCBD team.

“He tapped me on the shoulder to co-anchor the (10 p.m.) broadcast. I was only a couple of years into my broadcast career but that single move bolstered my confidence on the anchor desk,” she said.

“PJ Ryal was a good man, a faithful husband, a loving and caring father, and an amazing grandfather,” said WCBD Chief Meteorologist Rob Fowler. “He loved and lived life to its fullest, and will be missed terribly by all of us who had the honor and pleasure of working side by side with him every day.”

“He was my co-worker and golfing buddy but most importantly, my friend,” said WCBD Anchor, Brendan Clark. “I have many stories about PJ Ryal. One that involved a garbage disposal on Hilton Head or his leap over the hedges in Murrells Inlet. But it was the stories he told that were best and filled with the most laughter.”

Clark went on to say, “I learned a lot from PJ over the years and won’t forget those lessons or him…ever.”

To echo the words spoken by Carolyn Murray, P.J. Ryal was the life of the party. He kept us as a station moving. Handed out nicknames to those he loved. Offered support when you needed it, or didn’t know you needed it.

Most of all, he was our friend. And we will miss him.

For the end of nearly every conversation came a single phrase uttered by P.J., one we end this story with that: “…as you were.”

Charleston Restaurant Week is (almost) upon us, friends. This celebration, held Jan. 13-23, sheds light on local restaurants and provides the opportunity to try something new from Lowcountry favorites like 39 Rue de Jean, Halls Chophouse + MESU.

If you’ve never experienced the holy grail of the Charleston food + bev industry that is Restaurant Week, you’ll need a bit of guidance, as the choices can get overwhelming — though too many options is never a bad thing, right?

Different eateries offer special deals to encourage people to get out + dine in at local restaurants. With 40+ Charleston area restaurants participating, the hardest part will be choosing where to dine. We’re here to highlight a few of the participating restaurants and their Restaurant Week deals.

39 Rue de Jean, 39 John St. | 3 dinner courses for $45 | Stop by this brick-walled bistro + enjoy French classics and cocktails from the bar.

82 Queen, 82 Queen St. | 2 lunch courses for $20, 3 dinner courses for $40 | Not sold on the award-winning She Crab soup? Take a look at the jambalaya and get back to us.

Bourbon N’ Bubbles, 570 King St. | 3 dinner courses for $45 | We have to say, it’ll be hard to decide between the bruschetta + crispy tempura shrimp.

CO, 340 King St. | 3 dinner courses for $25 or 4 for $30 | Spicy crab rangoon with the option of a sake pairing? Sign us up.

Coast Bar & Grill, 39D John St. | 3 dinner courses for $45 | You can’t go wrong with any dish from this seafood eatery, but the surf & turf is definitely grabbing our attention.

Coastal Provisions, 200 Grand Pavilion Blvd., Isle of Palms | 3 dinner courses for $40 | Calling all gnocchi lovers: the sweet potato gnocchi dish looks ah-mazing.

FortyEight – Wine Bar & Kitchen, 547 Freshfields Dr., Kiawah Island | 3 dinner courses for $35 | There’s just something special about the ambiance of a wine bar. Pair it with the FortyEight Pimento Burger? We’re in.

Florence’s Lowcountry Kitchen, 90 Folly Rd Blvd., Ste B-4 | 2 lunch courses for $20, 3 dinner courses for $30 | This Lowcountry eatery has blessed us with two opportunities to enjoy its delicious Southern dishes. I’ll have an order of the shrimp & grits, please.

Frothy Beard Brewing Co.,1401 Sam Rittenberg Blvd.| 2 people for $30 | Pro tip: This brewery includes two pints of beer in its Restaurant Week deal.

Jalisco Taqueria & Tequila, 1217 Folly Rd. | Saturdays only: 3 lunch courses for $25, 3 dinner courses for $25 | Enchiladas, and salsa, and churros — oh my.

MESU, 570 King St. | 3 dinner courses for $25 | Can’t decide between Mexican + sushi? Grab an app of chips and guac before enjoying one sushi roll as your main course. Best of both worlds.

New Realm Brewery, 880 Island Park Dr. | 3 dinner courses for $30 | We can confirm that the Ultimate Wagyu Burger is worth the hype.

Swamp Fox Restaurant & Bar at Francis Marion Hotel, 387 King St. | 2 lunch courses for $20, 3 dinner courses for $40 | Enjoy all your Lowcountry favorites at this restaurant. We’re looking at you, hush puppy + deviled egg lovers.

The Salty Dog Cafe – Seabrook, 1882 Andell Bluff Blvd., Johns Island | 3 courses for 2 people for $50 | Looking for your fish ‘n’ chips fix? Look no further.

Virginia’s on King, 412 King St. | 2 for $15 brunch, 3 dinner courses for $30 | Mix it up and enjoy brunch at this popular spot, including a mimosa + your choice of a breakfast burrito or strawberry waffles.

Pro tip: Make sure you’re staying up to date on the restaurants’ latest COVID-19 updates and potential closures.

The best part? This isn’t all. Click here to see all 47 participating Charleston area restaurants + the deals they’re offering.

The Omicron variant is driving what scientist Michael Sweat, Ph.D., called a meteoric rise in cases in the Charleston Tri-county area.“The weekly growth rate was just sky high, 738%.”

The rise in daily cases can be rocket-like, too – encapsulated by what happened between Jan. 2 and Jan. 3. The Charleston area, which includes Berkeley and Dorchester counties, went from 124 cases per 100,000 people to 217 per 100,000 in that one-day period. “It’s stunning,” Sweat said.

Sweat leads the COVID-19 Epidemiology Intelligence Project at the Medical University of South Carolina. It’s been tracking COVID since the early days of the pandemic to inform the public and give leaders scientifically sound information and forecasts to guide their decisions.

And what the team is seeing right now is a surge unlike anything we’ve dealt with so far — in ways that are both worrying and reassuring. Worrying, because Omicron is really contagious. “I've never seen an RT that high in our world,” Sweat said of the virus’ current basic reproductive number, a measure of its infectiousness. “It's like lightning. It just takes off.”

But his team’s assessment is also reassuring — in a way — when it comes to hospitalization rates. Sweat’s team estimates a 60% reduction in hospitalizations compared with previous waves, based on studies from the U.K. and Denmark.

The problem is that Omicron may infect so many people that it will still fill hospitals. The super spreading variant may also take a toll on health care workers who take care of COVID patients and test positive themselves, triggering the need to quarantine and miss work.

It’s already clear that hospitalizations at MUSC Health are on the rise. “There were 18 people hospitalized with COVID a few days ago, and that number just jumped to 48,” at the main hospital in Charleston, Sweat said.

The number of COVID patients in the MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital and MUSC Health hospitals across the state is rising, too. But leaders say all MUSC Health hospitals still have plenty of room and there are plans in place to expand COVID care as needed.

Meanwhile, they’re keeping an eye on estimates of how long the Omicron surge may last. “What you want to do is look at other places and see when it drops - and it isn't dropping anywhere. Nowhere. It just keeps going up” in other states, Sweat said.

But the surge may be relatively short, he predicted, because Omicron will run out of people to infect. At this point, Sweat said it looks like we could peak between 250 and 350 cases per 100,000 people. “I think it could happen pretty quickly. That would be my guess,” Sweat said. “If we get up to 300 cases per day, per 100,000, that means 6% of our total population in the area will get infected within 60 days.”

With that in mind, Sweat encouraged people to be careful for the next month or so. “I think it'll probably wash over, hopefully, relatively quickly.”

Sweat has plenty of experience to guide that prediction. The veteran public health scientist is both a professor in the College of Medicine at MUSC and an adjunct professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He also worked as a research scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sweat said based on how Omicron is acting, it could lead to a lot immunity that could keep case counts low once its surge stops. “But this coronavirus always surprises. It's a very big worry that more variants are going to come out. When the incidence is this high, the chances go up a lot.”

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – The Coastal Community Foundation’s (CCF) ‘Reimagine Schools’ proposal has many Charleston County parents, staff, and community groups on high alert.

According to CCF’s website, the plan would “create three inclusive community commissions that will determine turnaround plans for many of the underperforming schools in their communities located in the most economically challenged areas of the school district.”

The proposal targets over 20 schools in Downtown Charleston, North Charleston, Hollywood, Ravenel, and John’s Island with student populations made up predominately of minorities.

Two recent meetings led the CEO of CCF, Darrin Goss, to address community concerns and principles of the schools in question.

The concerns being raised include claims that CCF has little to no prior experience with school operations. Another is why CCSD would choose to utilize an outside party instead of funneling the money directly into the schools in need. A third concern stated by parents is why the district isn’t able to provide an equal education to all students.

“What this is trying to do is at first to give parents and those who are most affected by the schools the opportunity to reshape those schools. To envision for themselves and their students, what’s the best possible way to educate our children,” said Goss.Community organizations including Stand as One and the Lowcountry Black Parents Association are opposing the vote.

The following is a statement from Stand as One:

“The community is concerned with the vague details in the Reimagine Schools Proposal as well as the lack of transparency to the community. The $32 million privatization proposal for “change management” of 23 CCSD schools was presented to the school board four days before winter break and without any public input. This third-party-operator privatization push is not supported by the community or by any evidence of successful school reform. The vague and incomplete proposal is yet another disruptive experimentation on predominantly black and brown communities. Turning public schools over to redundant, appointed commissions and private organizations is blatant obstruction of fair representation and a waste of resources that should be directed into classrooms. By granting appointed commissions the power to make governance and operational decisions for individual schools, the initiative would take away school ownership from school-level staff and families. The school board plans to vote on this sweeping proposal during a time of leadership instability. In addition to questions about the future of the superintendent position. Ms. Fraizer’s interactions with Coastal Community Foundation’s proposal without alerting any of her elected district brings great concerns. We believe this is why she insisted the vote happened on December 13th. So things would be in place before the community had a chance to challenge it. Politicians are supposed to represent the will of the people and not their own personal intentions. The week before a vote is not enough time to suddenly want the community concerns or convince them this proposal has substance to benefit their community. For all of these reasons, this ill-conceived proposal should be rejected. CCSD should invest all $32 million directly into our schools.”

A press conference will take place Friday January 7th to encourage parents to make their voices heard as well as ask CCSD board members to vote ‘no.

The vote is set for January 10th.

This is a developing story, Check back for updates.

Sure, the holidays are all fun and games — but if you celebrate Christmas, you know that sooner or later you have to deal with that “Night of the Living Dead” tree in the corner. That doesn’t mean it’s Dumpster-bound. Instead, we have some tips on how to put an old tree to good use.

Curbside pickup

Charleston County will recycle your tree for you: all you have to do is bring it out to the curb for your usual pick-up day. To make sure it gets properly recycled, you’ll need to remove the tinsel, garland, tree stand + ornaments before bringing it out.

Drop-off recycling

Maybe you just can’t wait for curbside pickup. Drop the tree off yourself at Charleston County’s McGill Bees Ferry Compost Facility or any staffed center — excluding the Signal Point Road location. Be sure to properly secure the tree to your car if you opt for this route. Bonus: If you drop your tree off before Jan. 10, you’ll get a free bag of compost at the Bees Ferry facility.

Natural feeders

Give back to Mother Nature by making a natural bird feeder. Get creative with edible ornaments (think: orange-apple garlands and peanut butter pine cones), then set the tree out for birds to eat + take shelter. If your property includes a pond or lake, you can toss in the tree to make a natural reef, giving local fish a home.

Make your own mulch

When you take a tree to a recycling center, they turn it into mulch anyway. So, why not use it for your own yard + spring garden? Ideally, you could shred the tree (for example, Home Depot has mulchers for rent), but usually, by the time the holidays are over, the needles will be falling off. You can spread them in garden beds or over the lawn.