The Beaufort Gazette
328 apartments open in Beaufort: What you get for $1,600
Owners of a new 328-unit “workforce” apartment complex in Beaufort say its units will be attainable for “doers” who are earning decent pay but still priced out of the local housing market. U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-SC, who is working on legislation he...
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Tragic loss of Harbor Island dog shows beach trash can kill
A Harbor Island woman who lost her best friend, a beloved black lab, at the start of 2026 to a fishhook is turning the tragedy into a resolution to raise public awareness about the problem of beach litter. Lisa Morris and her friend Tricia Gustin were...
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Here are the 10 best deals for Hilton Head restaurant week
Hilton Head Restaurant Week, an annual event that gives local eateries a boost during the post-holiday lull, is back this month. More than 80 restaurants in Bluffton and Hilton Head are expected to participate in this year’s event, scheduled for Jan....
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Delisheeyo owner’s photos, memorabilia lost in house fire
It’s the first Monday after Christmas, and delisheeyo is as busy as ever. With a smile, owner Blake Wearren assembles spring rolls packed with sprouts, beets, avocado and sauteed tofu. Just last week, a car drove into the restaurant and Wearren’s...
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New Year’s guide: fireworks, events, restaurants
Ready to ring in 2026? Residents and holiday visitors across the Lowcountry will have several chances to celebrate the New Year with events, ball drops, dinners and waterfront fireworks on New Year’s Eve. From Hilton Head Island to downtown Beaufort,...
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Baker builds award-winning gingerbread cash register
One might call Kelly Clements a gingerbread engineer. A cookie architect. A confectionary builder. For the 20-year Bluffton resident, the world is a catalog of potential gingerbread builds — from buildings to jukeboxes to the forgotten mechanics of an...
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Two Beaufort area eateries will offer free meals Christmas Day
The Lowcountry’s tradition of helping its neighbors continues this Christmas, ensuring everyone can enjoy a home-cooked holiday meal. For those who may not have family nearby, plans for Christmas Day or simply want to share the holiday with others,...
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Beaufort balloon ban is SC’s first: Who is behind it?
To Jenn Clementoni, the release of latex or plastic balloons to honor a loved one or mark an achievement is littering, plain and simple. Even if it’s done in celebration, master naturalist and Harbor Island resident Clementoni said she thinks it...
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US strikes 3 more boats in eastern Pacific, killing 8
The U.S. military struck three boats it suspected of carrying drugs in the eastern Pacific on Monday, killing eight people, the U.S. Southern Command announced. The strikes, which the military said were carried out in international waters on what it...
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Plan for Port Royal property blends marina, public benefits
A new master plan for some of the last remaining undeveloped waterfront in Port Royal puts a premium on public access to the water and sets aside land for new restaurants and retail while also including a working marina. The plan by developer Safe...
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Some gated communities are storing your private data
In gated communities of Hilton Head and Bluffton, residents’ desires for peace, safety and security often clash with their need for personal freedom and individual privacy. It’s a push-and-pull that residents of gated communities sign up for when they...
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40-minute jail visit sparked probe of a Beaufort councilman
A 40-minute visit between a Beaufort County councilman and an inmate triggered a weeks-long investigation into possible criminal violations in the county jail. Now, the 43-page police report detailing the findings of the investigation has been...
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Daufuskie Island's oldest resident featured on TODAY show
A photo of Daufuskie Island’s oldest living resident lit up TV screens across the country Sunday morning. Cleveland Bryan, affectionately known as “Cleve,” appeared on Sunday TODAY celebrating his 100th Thanksgiving meal, a program that he “never...
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Russia says Witkoff to visit Moscow for peace talks
U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff will lead a delegation for talks in Russia next week, a Kremlin official said, as Donald Trump pushes for a deal to end the war in Ukraine. “As for Witkoff, I can say there is a preliminary agreement that he will...
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Hilton Head’s free Thanksgiving dinner organizers pass baton
It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 1998. The Island Packet was selling for 25 cents a copy. The news of the day ranged from the merger between International Paper and Union Camp to a proposal for earlier school start times. But one headline...
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Willie’s sign removed as sheriff attempts to revoke licenses
The St. Helena Island businessman behind the restaurant where a mass shooting killed four was seen taking down the bar’s signage Tuesday afternoon, signaling a new era as authorities attempt to take away his alcohol and business licenses. Willie...
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Projects reshape Buckwalter Parkway
Cranes, concrete and construction crews have become a familiar sight along Buckwalter Parkway, where Bluffton’s landscape — and its services — are changing fast. From new hospitals, businesses and a towering new water tank, five major projects are now...
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Salt plagues area water; mill closure could change things
On an island in many ways defined by the water, the quest to get it fresh and flowing from Hilton Head’s taps is one with a fraught history. The closure of International Paper in Savannah led to the overused Floridan aquifer, historically Hilton...
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Cool John Ferguson, Beaufort bluesman of national value
The world lost one of its greatest guitarists with the passing of Beaufort’s Cool John Ferguson in August and the South lost one of its greatest exports. The Gullah-Geechee culture of the South Carolina Lowcountry lost one of its greatest claims to...
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Trump and Xi, hoping to ease trade war, call 1-year truce
After a series of failed attempts to de-escalate an acrimonious trade war, President Donald Trump and China’s leader, Xi Jinping, agreed to a yearlong truce that rolls back many of the contentious tariffs and retaliatory measures that deepened the feud...
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Trump could send ‘more than the National Guard’ into cities
President Donald Trump told U.S. troops assembled in Japan on Tuesday that he was prepared to send “more than the National Guard” into cities to enforce his crackdowns on crime and immigration, further escalating how he has talked about using the...
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Plea for occupant cap in short-term rentals fails
After months of debate, new rules for short-term rentals on Hilton Head received their final stamp of approval Tuesday evening. The new rules passed a second and final reading at a Tuesday night meeting of the Hilton Head Town Council. Last week, the...
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On Hilton Head, surfers of all levels take to the waves
Hilton Head beaches aren’t known for producing the biggest waves, but the area has brought up a number of lauded surfers and provided a safe place for tourists and locals alike to learn the sport. Byron Sewell learned on Hilton Head beaches from his...
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Israel marks 2 years since Oct. 7 as fragile ceasefire holds
Israel marked a national day of commemoration Thursday for the victims of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel and for those who died in the ensuing war, almost a week after a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip was declared. A central state...
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No occupancy caps for short-term rentals in Hilton Head
Hilton Head leaders have finally come to a consensus on new rules for short-term rentals. At a special meeting Monday evening, the Hilton Head Town Council approved new amendments to its short-term rental ordinance. The vote comes eight months after...
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Hilton Head tennis legend Pat Van der Meer dies
Hilton Head tennis legend and owner of Van Der Meer Tennis University, Pat Van der Meer, has passed away, the tennis organization announced Tuesday on Facebook. Her husband, Dennis Van der Meer, founded Van Der Meer Tennis University, and is credited...
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‘No one likes limp shrimp’: Shrimpers take aim at imports
Live music and locally caught shrimp drew thousands of people to downtown Beaufort’s Waterfront Park Friday evening as the city’s annual Shrimp Festival celebrating the state’s No. 1 seafood kicked off. Forrest Gump, aka Paul Dengler, was working the...
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Trump promises cuts to ‘Democrat agencies’ during shutdown
The federal government remained shut down Thursday with no end in sight and President Donald Trump calling it an “unprecedented opportunicluding ty” to enact cuts targeting agencies that provide services cherished by Democrats. The threat came as his...
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Lady’s Island residents vexed by persistent odor in the area
It starts in the early morning. As residents of a Lady’s Island neighborhood wake up, many hop in their pickup trucks and begin the drive to work, they’re greeted by a smell that some describe as sulfur and others as septic. After years of an...
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What to know about Beaufort’s new golf cart rules
New rules are in place for golf cart operation in Beaufort. Key points include everybody on board must wear a seatbelt and, for the first time, the city will allow the operation of golf carts at night, joining neighboring Port Royal. The Beaufort City...
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In public and in private, New York marks 9/11 anniversary
At 14 minutes to 9 on Thursday morning, for thousands of people in New York City and across the region, time stopped, and silence descended, filled by memories of another balmy blue-sky morning two dozen years ago. Then, on a memorial plaza near the...
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Coconut cream cake and a life well-lived for ‘Miss Judy’
Her apron was simply labeled “Miss Judy.” Her Rolodex of sweet recipes was endless. German chocolate cake. Sweet potato pie. Peach cobbler. Key lime sour cream poundcake. Strawberry muffins. Lemon meringue pie. But she was most known for her...
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Senators unite in criticizing Kennedy for vaccine policy
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., appearing Thursday before a Senate panel, offered a combative defense of his approach to vaccine policy and his record as President Donald Trump’s health secretary, while blaming the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for...
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End finally in sight for Spanish Moss Trail
Dean Moss remembers when the Spanish Moss Trail was just an idea. Today, ten of the original scenic 16 miles envisioned by early enthusiasts like him 20 years ago have been constructed. There’s still ground to cover to reach the finish line. But the...
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Petite Sweets brings bite-sized cupcakes to area
Giant cupcakes with mounds of frosting on top are a common sight at Hilton Head weddings, engagement parties and baby showers. But not everyone wants to eat an entire cupcake after stuffing themselves with dinner, and some need to watch their sugar...
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Beaufort hires law firm to review document release
The Beaufort City Council on Monday voted to hire a Charleston-based law firm to review how 9,000 pages of emails and attachments were released to the public with some private information. The emails, some of which included details such as social...
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Beaufort council moves forward on golf cart rules
Using new powers granted by the 2025 Legislature, the Beaufort City Council on Tuesday took the first step toward adopting an ordinance that carries several changes for the city’s thousands of golf cart owners. The biggest: Making nighttime driving...
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Surfers take on high waves stirred by Hurricane Erin
Hurricane Erin is keeping most beachgoers out of the water as high surf and rip current warnings take effect up and down the East Coast, but dedicated local and visiting surfers are taking advantage of the uncharacteristically high waves as the storm...
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Improvements begin in the ‘choke point for traffic’ on I-95
Smoother travel is on the horizon for frequenters of Interstate 95 as the South Carolina Department of Transportation, in partnership with the Georgia Department of Transportation, begins long-awaited improvements to one of the state’s busiest rural...
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Lightning sparked Pinckney Island brush fire Tuesday
A lightning strike ignited a bush fire on Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge Tuesday afternoon. According to the Bluffton Township Fire District, the agency received several reports of smoke in the area. Ultimately, the Shell Point Fire burned...
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Villagers trapped as heavy rains in Beijing kill nearly 40
Thick, muddy brown water coursed past the site where two houses had once stood. Tree trunks, shards of road and downed utility poles were strewn on the ground. Dazed villagers crowded around an emergency truck to charge their phones and contact worried...
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Beaufort County to join ICE task force soon, sheriff says
Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner says his department is expecting a formal agreement from ICE within days — the next step toward rejoining a controversial federal-local partnership program that would deputize local officers to enforce immigration...
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How ‘ICE holds’ work at Beaufort County jail
As President Donald Trump’s administration looks to local-federal partnerships to achieve its goal of mass deportations, questions remain about the role of county police and local jails in enforcing immigration law. In Beaufort County, Sheriff P.J....
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Sea Pines leader opposes move to curb development
As rapid development on Hilton Head outpaces the town’s ability to regulate it, town leaders are eyeing a tool to control growth that has ruffled the feathers of leaders in the vacation rental market. Town leaders are planning to assess the...
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Bluffton rescuers save dolphin from Hampton Lake lagoon
A dolphin named Lucky lived up to her name this weekend as she was saved from a shallow, Bluffton-area lagoon and returned to the May River to swim free. Local officials and marine experts alike said the rescue was like nothing they had ever seen. A...
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Beaufort County sheriff stands behind ICE program
In a rare departure from his usual position behind the lectern, Beaufort County Sheriff P.J. Tanner stood in front of it Tuesday evening, his elbows resting on the wooden platform. He stood mere inches from the public, fielding questions about his...
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Lowcountry tragedy: Loving Bluffton couple die in boat crash
In the 1960s, a young man waited by the window. He watched hopefully, waiting to catch his first glimpse of the woman he’d be introduced to for their blind date. At the time, he was serving in the Navy, and a friend of his was dating a woman who had a...
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Senate passes policy bill amid deep GOP divisions
A divided Senate on Tuesday narrowly passed Republicans’ marquee bill to slash taxes and social safety net programs, as the GOP muscled through deep internal rifts in a bid to deliver President Donald Trump’s agenda. The 51-50 vote sent the...
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Hilton Head’s history with boxing icons packs a punch
“In Washington, D.C., during the 1970s, a black man could get into the newspapers in one of two ways: crime— or boxing.” Such begins the synopsis for boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard’s 2012 autobiography, written along with Micheal Arkush. Before...
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Shrimpers sue Charleston-area restaurants for ‘shrimp fraud’
The war over imported farm-raised shrimp being sold in restaurants in South Carolina — whose rich coastal waters already are teeming with wild shrimp and local shrimpers who earn a living catching them — is heating up in U.S. District Court, where a...
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‘Mayor Billy’ Keyserling receives Palmetto award in Beaufort
Billy Keyserling, Beaufort’s renowned leader who has been called the city’s mayor for life, was back at City Hall on a recent Tuesday evening. And the former mayor did not pull any punches that he’s not happy about the state of American...
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Senate GOP’s bill includes more aggressive Medicaid cuts
Senate Republicans propose to cut trillions of dollars in taxes for households and businesses in their version of President Donald Trump’s signature economic package, a plan that comes at the expense of curbing health coverage for some low-income...
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360-unit apartment complex coming to Hardeeville
Drivers who frequent Exit 8 on I-95 are about to see a large construction project rise out of the newly cleared land on the east side of the interstate. No, it’s not the much-anticipated Buc-ee’s (that’s still in the works on the west side) but a...
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700 Marines deployed to LA after night of scattered protests
Hundreds of Marines were expected to take up positions in Los Angeles on Tuesday, joining National Guard troops there and sharpening an extraordinary confrontation between the White House and California leaders over the response to protests against the...
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Trump announces travel ban for citizens of 12 countries
President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced a travel ban on citizens of 12 countries, mostly in Africa and the Middle East, aiming to prevent or severely limit their entry to the United States. The policy is similar to a ban that Trump put into...
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‘White boot warriors’ return to sea to hunt white shrimp
“White boot warriors” — commercial fisherman known for their practical rubber boots — are returning to the sea in strong numbers this spring in search of white shrimp thanks to higher prices and lower input costs that have them cautiously optimistic...
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Trump trade strategy roiled by court blocking global tariffs
President Donald Trump’s tariff strategy has been thrown into turmoil after a U.S. court issued a rare rebuke blocking many of the import taxes he has threatened and imposed on other countries. In a ruling issued late Wednesday, a three-judge panel...
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Residents voice opposition to sand mine project
As one of the fastest-growing counties in the country, Jasper County needs a lot of sand. Sand is needed to satisfy the demand of a construction industry that uses truckloads of the material each day when pouring concrete slabs that support precast...
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Town will ban dog access on part of beach to start renourishment
Dog owners who stroll a portion of Fish Haul Beach will need to find new sands to walk their four-legged friends as the access rules are changing soon. During a Feb. 4 Hilton Head Town Council meeting, Assistant Town Manager Shawn Colin said that in...
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One killed, three injured in Bluffton crash
The South Carolina Highway Patrol revealed key details Monday night about the car crash that claimed the life of a driver and hospitalized three others Monday afternoon in Bluffton. The crash, which occurred around 12:30 p.m. Monday at the...
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Murdaugh trial’s clerk faces misconduct, perjury charges
Becky Hill, the former Colleton County clerk of court who oversaw Alex Murdaugh’s 2023 double murder trial, has been charged with two counts of misconduct in office, one count of obstruction of justice, and perjury. Hill, 57, was arrested Wednesday...
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Trump arrives in Saudi Arabia on first leg of Mideast visit
U.S. President Donald Trump touched down in Saudi Arabia aboard Air Force One on Tuesday on the first stop of a four-day visit to the region, the first major overseas trip of his second term, with a focus on securing investment in the U.S. economy...
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Vatican announces first US pope: Leo XIV
Cardinal Robert Prevost of the United States has been elected the new pope and has chosen the name Pope Leo XIV. Pope Leo XIV is the first U.S. pope and the second American pope after Pope Francis, who was from the South American nation of...
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Tom Reilley, Hilton Head restaurateur, dies at 78
Tom Reilley, founder of Coastal Restaurants and Bars, passed away Friday at the TidePointe retirement community on Hilton Head Island. He was 78 and died with family members by his side, his son Brendan said. His restaurant empire spans eight...
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US economy contracts on pre-tariff surge of imports
The U.S. economy contracted at the start of the year for the first time since 2022 on a monumental pre-tariffs import surge and more moderate consumer spending, a first snapshot of the ripple effects from President Donald Trump’s trade...
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Residents weigh in on Pine Island development request
Tensions around a newly-submitted zoning amendment request for development on Pine Island came to a head Monday night during a county council meeting. This is not a new debate to the community, nor is it a simple one, but it is one that has recently...
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Sailboat sinks in Beaufort River near Whitehall Boat Landing
A sunken sailboat in the Beaufort River was discovered over the weekend, and now it’s been declared abandoned, making it the public’s problem. The latest case of a derelict vessel polluting area waters surfaced on Saturday. Duncan O’Quinn, owner of...
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Hilton Head marinas safe for fish, but are they safe for people?
Who is responsible for making sure the tragic collapse of a dock ramp in Georgia doesn’t play out again on Hilton Head Island? Despite a tight-knit net of regulations on developments in coastal areas, the answer is still murky. Simply put, despite...
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In grueling Ranger competition, gender proves no obstacle
A female Army Ranger competed for the first time in one of the military’s most grueling tests of physical fitness, besting many of her male counterparts and challenging assertions by the U.S. secretary of defense regarding women’s abilities to perform...
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Inside Trump’s plan to halt hundreds of regulations
At the Department of Health and Human Services, Trump administration officials want to reverse a regulation that has required nursing homes to have more medical staff on duty. At the Mine Safety and Health Administration, powerful lobbying groups...
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Rulings in NY, Texas curb deportations of Venezuelans
Two federal judges issued separate orders Wednesday placing roadblocks in the Trump administration’s continuing efforts to use a powerful wartime statute to deport Venezuelan migrants accused of being gang members to El Salvador. The twin rulings, in...
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