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by DYLAN NOLAN
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Hulu’s Murdaugh: A Death in the Family drama has rekindled the public’s fascination with the Murdaugh family’s dark empire.
While the series’ dramatization of Alex Murdaugh‘s infamous family-annihilation double-homicide was expected, its inclusion of his “jellyfish” operation — a scheme he ran in the murky waterways and hidden marshes of South Carolina’s lowcountry — was surprising.
FITSNews’ investigations into the the myriad properties co-owned by Murdaugh and accused drug-trafficker Barrett Boulware have been underway for years, and have been revived by research director Jenn Wood, who discussed her latest efforts in this week’s episode.
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RELATED | FROM MOSELLE TO JENKINS CREEK
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Jennifer broke another South Carolina legal scandal in the making this week as she unveiled parts one and two of Toxic Justice — FITSNews’ new series dedicated to the state’s highly secretive and incredibly incestuous asbestos civil litigation docket.
South Carolina’s asbestos docket has become an internationally infamous feeding-trough for the state’s most powerful civil attorneys — including S.C. House speaker Murrell Smith — who routinely “revive” long-defunct asbestos companies to secure tens of millions of dollars of dubious insurance payouts.
This is almost all done under judicial seal, meaning the public has no insight into these schemes and settlements — until now.
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Our final segment features multiple unexpected developments from the South Carolina state house.
The pro-citizen DOGE SC movement’s judicial reform bill dropped this week and featured a surprising set of sponsors.
The DOGE SC legislation – a key plank of its “Palmetto Revolution”– proposes a “comprehensive overhaul” of the scandal-scarred S.C. Judicial Merit Selection Commission (JMSC). That’s the legislatively controlled, 12-member panel which screens judicial candidates and determines which ones advance to a vote by the whole General Assembly.
The bill, if passed into law, would rebalance the state’s legislatively-dominated judicial system by giving the governor the ability to appoint and control the JMSC.
Perhaps more surprising than the bill’s content were its sponsors, which featured both Smith and Freedom Caucus chairman Jordan Pace.
We discussed the implications of this Freedom Caucus-GOP unification, as well as how to interpret this week’s special elections for seats in the state House and Senate.
Finally, a possible “NukeGate” redemption.
Eight years after the spectacular implosion of a multi-billion-dollar, command economic boondoggle, the state of South Carolina is getting back in the nuclear power business, and is posed to soon accept a private sector bid to complete construction on two partially completed nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer nuclear generating station in Fairfield County.
Make sure to tune in next week for our live Month in Review…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
(Via: Travis Bell)
Dylan Nolan is the director of special projects at FITSNews. He graduated from the Darla Moore school of business in 2021 with an accounting degree. Got a tip or story idea for Dylan? Email him here. You can also engage him socially @DNolan2000.
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