Category Archives: News
Feds: Upstate restaurant chain denied workers overtime pay

By Jason Evans
Staff Reporter
jevans@thepccourier.com
STATE — The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered more than half a million dollars in back wages and damages for more than 200 employees following an investigation into an Upstate restaurant chain with a location in Pickens County.
The Easley location of Tipsy Taco was among the six locations investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour investigators, according to a news brief issued by the agency.
The investigators found that Tipsy Holding II LLC, operating as Tipsy Taco, failed to pay the half-time premium to cooks, servers and bar employees for hours over 40 in a workweek, an overtime violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the brief said.
“As food service industry employers struggle to find people to fill the jobs needed to remain competitive, they should remember that keeping and finding workers is harder for employers who don’t respect workers’ rights and shortchange them of their full wages,” Columbia-based Wage and Hour district director Jamie Benefiel said. “Overtime violations are common in the restaurant industry, but they shouldn’t be. There are more than enough resources available to employers to help them understand their obligations to employees under the law.”
The employer also failed to keep accurate records for workers, the brief said.
The brief said $567,079 in back wages and liquidated damages for 215 workers were recovered.
In addition to the Easley location, the sites investigated were the Greer and Simpsonville restaurants and the locations on Wade Hampton Boulevard, Conestee Avenue and Pelham Road in Greenville, the brief said.
The agency’s Wage and Hour Division recovered more than $27.1 million for more than 22,000 workers in the food service industry in fiscal year 2022, the brief said.
Workers who feel they may not be getting the wages they earned may contact a Wage and Hour Division representative in their state. Representatives can be found by visiting dol.gov/agencies/whd/contact/local-offices.
Life-saving opioid antidote to be given out June 15

EASLEY — Behavioral Health Services of Pickens County (BHSPC) will be handing out a drug that can reverse opioid overdoses later this month.
BHSPC staff will hand out Naloxone, also known as Narcan, from 6-8 p.m. Thursday, June 15, in the Branham Conference Room on the first
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County athletes named all-state

By Bru Nimmons
Sports Editor
bnimmons@thepccourier.com
COUNTY — With the spring sports season coming to a close last month, high school all-state lists have been released, and five county athletes were listed among the state’s best in their respective sports for the 2023 season.
Daniel High School saw the most athletes named all-state, with two members of the Lions’ girls’ soccer team and a member of the Daniel
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Pomp & circumstance

Photos by Kerry Gilstrap/Courier
Hundreds of Pickens County high school seniors received their diplomas in four separate graduation ceremonies at Clemson’s Littlejohn Coliseum on Saturday. We at the Courier had our lead photographer Kerry Gilsrap there to provide his photo journalistic skill to show you how exiting it was for the seniors of Pickens County. To see photos of all the 2023 graduates and all the awards information for the seniors of Daniel, Easley, Liberty and Pickens high schools, click below and enjoy this year’s Pickens County Courier graduation special section in it’s entirety.
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Pair arrested in Clemson murder case

By Riley Morningstar
Courtesy The Journal
rmorningstar@upstatetoday.com
CLEMSON — Two men have been charged with murder after a deadly shooting at a Clemson apartment earlier this month.
Joaquile Woody, 22, of Honea Path, was arrested by S.C. Law Enforcement Division agents and booked into the Clemson city jail on Friday,
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Miracle Man

Mark Holliday strode casually to the pulpit at Mount Tabor Baptist Church last Sunday, and, amazingly, it seemed as though he had never been gone.
You never would’ve known by looking at him that Mark, a deacon at Mount Tabor and a high school teacher who coaches wrestling and football, had been walking through the valley of the shadow of death for nearly four months.
You never would have guessed that he had “died” (the term used by a hospital chaplain) seven times in 40 days. How’s that for a feat of biblical proportions!
It’s no wonder that many of the thousands of people who’ve been praying for him are calling him a Miracle Man.
This was his triumphant return to church after all that.
Based on what I’d heard, I half expected that his wife would wheel him out there, prop him up and let him wheeze out a
DAR holds annual Students Awards Day

COUNTY — The Fort Prince George Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) gave out 11 awards to Pickens County students at its annual Student Awards Day.
More than 60 family members and friends of the award winners joined the chapter for the ceremony. East End Elementary fifth-grader Ava
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