Gloria Arias Haskins, Chairman of the Republican Hispanic Caucus, and recently defeated Statehouse member. Rep. Haskins is a native of Colombia and it seems she is going back to her roots. She is now flying the Colombian flag at her house on 30 Normandy Drive in Greenville.

We had to see this for ourselves so we went by and took a picture.

TRUTHWATCH by WPDE’s Jim Heath

The battle for the White House is intensifying, and so are the number of emails being circulated that contain misinformation, or complete lies, about the candidates.

A new email being widely circulated this week is an attack on Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. It claims to be a June 29, 2008, column written by Maureen Dowd of the New York Times. What makes the email interesting is how legitimate it looks.

In it, Dowd purportedly claims that “web site security monitors began to notice the bulk of contributions (to the Obama campaign) were clearly coming in from overseas internet service providers…” It goes on to say, “The internet service providers (ISP) they were able to trace were from Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other Middle Eastern countries. Another concentrated group of donations was traced to a Chinese ISP with a similar pattern of limited credit card charges.”

Problem is, Dowd never wrote the column and the claims are not truthful.

Dowd’s actual column on June 29th was about the end of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. She told the Huffington Post that she would never write about money, and that “it is hard to track down and control these things, and anyone who reads my column knows that this wasn’t me. I got to the second line and I knew it wasn’t me.”

As for the information in the email, the fact is all presidential candidates must by law disclose all donors who have given more than $200. The Obama campaign, on their website, points out that “presidential candidates are required to certify that donors are U.S. citizens, and that the Obama campaign would not accept donations from foreigners.”

If you receive this email, the best thing you could do is inform the sender about the facts. There are plenty of differences between the candidates this year without half-truths and lies.

If you come across an email or ad that looks suspicious, just email me at TRUTHWATCH@WPDE.COM. I’ll do my best to hunt down the truth by Election Day!

Stan Spears Jr.,44, (the son of SC Adjutant General Stan Spears) has died of a heart attack on Saturday. He was a great friend of SCHotline helping us out from the very beginning. He will be sorely missed in the political realm.

Here is his obituatry from The State.

Stanhope Sifford Spears Jr.

COLUMBIA — Graveside service for Stanhope Sifford Spears, Jr., 44, will be held Wednesday at 11 a.m. in Bethel Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Clover. Visitation will be 6-8 p.m. Tuesday at Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel.

Mr. Spears died Saturday, July 12, 2008. Born in Greensboro, N.C., he was a son of Major General Stanhope S. Spears and Dorothy Parlier Spears. A 1982 graduate of Spring Valley High School, he received a degree in Accounting from USC in 1991. He served as campaign manager for “Veterans for John McCain for President.”

Mr. Spears was a member of Forest Lake Presbyterian Church. Among his interests were history, reading, computer research and politics.

A loving father, son and brother, he is survived by son, Stanhope Sifford “Ford” Spears, III, of Columbia; his parents of Columbia; brother, Michael Alester Spears of Atlanta, Ga.; uncle and aunt, Joseph J. and Marie D. Spears of Mt. Holly, N.C.; and cousins, Derek Spears and his wife, Missy, of Charlotte, N.C., and Suzanne Wilson and her husband, Scott, of Traverse City, Mich.

Memorials may be made to the American Heart Association, 520 Gervais St., Suite 300, Columbia, SC 29201 .

Please sign online guest book at www.dunbarfunerals.com.

«Obituary posted: July 14, 2008»

We will post more details as they become available here on SCHotline.com for now we leave you with the words from TAPS.

Day is done, gone the sun,
From the hills, from the lake, from the sky;
All is well, safely rest, God is nigh.