CENTRAL — Daniel High School is South Carolina’s top traditional public high school, according to U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings, released last week.
Only Charleston’s Academic Magnet High School and the Charleston County School of the Arts ranked above the Pickens County school.
“I am very proud of our students and teachers,” said Daniel principal Sharon Huff. “Our teachers maintain high expectations for student learning, and the students challenge themselves by taking rigorous courses. It truly means a lot to our school and community to receive this prestigious recognition.

Throngs of people flocked to Blue Ridge Electric Co-op’s Pickens headquarters last Friday night for the annual Blue Ridge Fest, which featured a cruise-in, food, fun and hours of classic music by artists such as Jim Quick and Coastline and Ben E. King.

COUNTY — On Monday night, the three remaining candidates for Pickens County Sheriff on the ballot for next month’s Republican primary — Billy Looper, Rick Clark and current sheriff C. David Stone — answered questions before a standing-room-only crowd at the Farm Bureau office on Highway 178 between Pickens and Liberty.
Hosted by the Pickens County Taxpayers Association, the forum featured PCTA president Dennis Reinert asking the candidates to speak on issues of importance to the people of Pickens County. After these formal questions were asked and answered, audience members were given the opportunity to question the candidates as well.
While Looper, Clark and Stone were asked a wide range of questions, the topics of greatest concern to the crowd concerned the second amendment and gun control, crime rates in Pickens County and federal government intervention at the state level.

EASLEY — Easley Chamber of Commerce President Kent Dykes announced Tuesday that he will retire next month.
Dykes announcement at the chamber’s Tuesday board of directors meeting that he will retire effective June 29.

PICKENS — The English garden at the historic Hagood-Mauldin House in downtown Pickens will be in bloom with even more than exquisite roses and perennials this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for the annual Art in the Garden celebration.

EASLEY — Tommy Sorrels gives his all on stage.
The veteran actor has been featured in 37 different local productions, many of which have been on his home stage at the Easley Foothills Playhouse.

SIX MILE — The 2012 Issaqueena Festival will be held on Saturday, May 19, from 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. in downtown Six Mile.
Main Street will be closed from Liberty Highway to Six Mile Baptist Church during the festival. There will be free entertainment provided, including The Hotfoot Cloggers — children and adults who will be performing during several entertainment breaks.
There will be plenty of room to sit down and enjoy the entertainment under tents along Main Street.

LIBERTY — On April 25, 190 employees of Cornell Dubilier in Liberty celebrated BCBS’s National Walk @ Lunch Day.
The on-site Nature Trail was spruced up just in time for the event. Cornell employees were treated to special T-shirts to promote the walk and 48 lucky employees’ names were drawn for prizes.
The Walk at Lunch Day is just one example of health and wellness initiatives at Cornell that encourage employees to keep fit and have fun on the job. One may spot employees enjoying line dancing in aisles during Move to the Tunes breaks. Twice each day music is played for the employees to take a short break, stretch or dance.

EASLEY — An Easley man is dead following a two-vehicle accident in Easley on Monday.
Pickens County Coroner Kandy Kelley said that Robert Chance Conner, 36, of Earls Bridge Road, was killed when the Nissan Ultima he was riding in was involved in a collision at the intersection of S.C. 183 and Jim Hunt Road in Easley. Conner was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the South Carolina Highway Patrol, troopers believe the car in which Conner was a passenger was traveling west on Jim Hunt Road while a truck involved in the accident was traveling south on S.C. 183. The collision occurred at 1:25 p.m.