South Carolina: 1,000-year rain. Some media eyebrows (including yours truly’s) were raised when Gov. Nikki Haley (R) contended that the rainfall currently flooding much of the state was the most in 1,000 years. It turns out, however, that the governor had her facts straight: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that the recent deluge in the state could be expected once every thousand years ……. Tennessee: Corker says Volkswagen committed to Chattanooga. US Sen. Bob Corker (R), a former mayor of Chattanooga, said that the recent disclosure that the German auto company had cheated on its emissions detection system meant that some folks “paid more” than they should for their clean diesel vehicles. Nevertheless, reports the Times Free Press, Corker said VW is committed “to clean this up.” He added that under the company’s new chairman, “there’s an even stronger commitment to making sure that Chattanooga is a place of operation.” The VW plant there employs some 3,200 people …… Oklahoma: Inhofe hits new ozone standard. “When I was mayor of Tulsa,” US Sen. Jim Inhofe (R) wrote in an op-ed in USA Today, “Tulsa County was in nonattainment of the 1979 ozone NAAQS (national ambient air quality standard), so I saw firsthand the economic impacts associated with the challenges of attainment.” He says that President Obama’s latest change in the standard will “impose very real, draconian economic costs” on states across the country …….
