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South Carolina health inspectors found multiple violations at restaurants in the Charleston area in August, from kitchens filled with flies to moldy food. The state regularly releases grades and inspection reports for food establishments in the Charleston area.

Here are the restaurants that received some of the lowest ratings in August.

The Shelter Kitchen and Bar had an inspection on Aug. 20 and got a C grade.

An inspector observed organic accumulation in the ice machine and on the can opener blade.

Certain foods were seen not kept at proper holding temperatures. Two bins of uncovered ice were seen potentially exposed to dust and grime contamination from above. Cook line equipment was seen excessively soiled.

The restaurant had a required followup inspection on Aug. 23 and got an A grade.

Agaves Cantina had an inspection on Aug. 15 and got a B grade.

An inspector observed a pan of cooked pork being thawed on a shelf in dry storage at room temperature. Also observed pork thawing in a sink not completely submerged under cold running water.

The restaurant had a required followup inspection on Aug. 23 and got an A grade.

Blue’s Coastal Bar & Grill had an inspection on Aug. 9 and got a B grade.

An inspector observed an abundance of flies in the kitchen.

An excessive buildup of grease was seen on hood filters. Certain foods were seen not kept at proper holding temperatures.

The restaurant had a required followup inspection on Aug. 22 and got an A grade.

Buckshot’s Restaurant had an inspection on Aug. 1 and got a B grade.

An inspector observed a buildup of food debris on the outside of Ranch, slaw dressing and mustard bottles.

Potatoes were seen stored on the floor. Single-use items were also seen stored on the floor. The walk-in cooler was unable to maintain its minimum required temperature.

The restaurant had a required followup inspection on Aug. 14 and got an A grade.

Handcraft Kitchen & Cocktails had an inspection on Aug. 23 and got a B grade.

An inspector observed small flies hovering in soiled areas of the facility.

Mold was seen on sliced tomatoes and cheddar cheese. An open package of hummus and cooked pasta was seen stored without date marks. Ice was seen stored uncovered and exposed to dust and grime from above.

The chemical dish machine was not dispensing detergent.

A required followup inspection has not yet been held.

Shuang Xi Chinese Restaurant had an inspection on Aug. 2 and got a B grade.

An inspector observed chicken being held in a large, deep container, improperly cooling.

A big gap was seen in the back door that could let pests inside. There was no proper date marking for foods.

The restaurant had a required followup inspection on Aug. 12 and got an A grade.

Stone’s Throw Tavern had an inspection on Aug. 20 and got a B grade.

An inspector observed restricted use pesticides in the facility.

Food debris buildup was seen on the can opener. Certain foods were seen not kept at proper holding temperatures. The back door was not sealed properly. The back room water heater was seen draining water into buckets. Grease and dust buildup was seen on hoods of the main cook line.

The restaurant had a required followup inspection on Aug. 29 and got an A grade.

Ty’s Roadside had an inspection on Aug. 30 and got a B grade.

An inspector observed flies present in the dish room and bar areas.

An employee was seen preparing ready-to-eat food with bare hands. Raw beef, lemons and cooked pasta were seen stored on the same pan.

Meatballs in sauce were seen not allowed to cool properly. Cutting boards were seen discolored.

A required followup inspection has not yet been held.

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Patrick McCreless is the service journalism editor for The State, where he and a team of reporters write about trending news of the day and topics that help readers in their daily lives and better informs them about their communities. He attended Jacksonville State University in Alabama and grew up in Tuscaloosa, AL.

CHARLESTON, S.C. – This weekend, September 13-14, Middle Tennessee volleyball will be traveling to Charleston, S.C. to take part in the College of Charleston Invitational, along with Utah Tech and Robert Morris. The Blue Raiders will begin play on Friday, Sept. 13 vs. Utah Tech at 10:00 a.m. CT. MTSU will then take on Robert Morris later that day at 4:00 pm CT. To wrap up the tournament, the Middle Tennessee volleyball team will take on the College of Charleston on Saturday, Sept. 14 at 6:00 p.m. All three matches will have live stats on statbroadcast.com and the final matchup vs. Charleston will be streamed on FloSports.

This past weekend, the Blue Raiders hosted the Blue Raider Bash facing off vs. Lehigh, SEMO, Austin Peay and Arkansas State. MTSU finished the weekend with a record of 2-2, with Andi Spies taking home CUSA Freshman of the Week honors. Spies recorded the first triple-double in program history during the 25-point era.

Graduate student Kiera Booth was named to the All-Tournament Team finishing the weekend with 44 kills on an outstanding .425 hitting percentage. She also recorded eight blocks. Outside hitter Adriana Rhoda had a terrific weekend herself, adding 60 kills on a .309 hitting percentage. Defensively, she added three blocks and 12 digs. On the season Booth has a .398 hitting percentage, which is good for third in CUSA.

Scouting Utah Tech This will be the first time MTSU will be facing off with Utah Tech in program history. The Trailblazers are off to a terrific start to their season with a record of 4-1. They will enter the College of Charleston Invitational on a three-game winning streak with their most recent outing being a win over Gonzaga. A season ago, Utah Tech finished with a 9-17 record and 5-11 in conference play.

The Trailblazers are led by head coach Camilla Hafoka who is in her fourth season at the helm. Prior to taking over as head coach, Hafoka served as an assistant for two seasons at Utah Tech. She holds a 27-44 record as head coach.

Utah Tech is led by junior outside hitter Kennedi Knudsen, who was just honored with Tournament MVP honors at the Gonzaga Tournament. In two games she recorded 31 kills and 15 digs. Last season, she led the Trailblazers in kills/set with 3.10. She also finished second on the team in digs/set with 2.33.

Scouting Robert Morris This will be the fourth matchup vs. Robert Morris in program history. MTSU holds a 3-0 record vs. RMU with the last matchup coming on August 25, 2018.

Robert Morris volleyball is led by Head Coach Danny Doherty, who is in his third season at the helm. Doherty has been part of the RMU coaching staff since 2011. As head coach, his teams have a record of 19-46.

The Colonials have had a solid start to their 2024 campaign with a 3-3 record. Robert Morris just hosted the Chick Fil-A Robinson Classic and recorded a record of 1-2 at the tournament.

Sophomore Natalie Stepanovich returns after a great freshman season for the Colonials, leading the team in kills and making the All-Conference Second Team. Ashleigh Wallin is set for her senior year with RMU as she led the team in assists and service aces in 2023.

Scouting Charleston This will be the third matchup vs. the College of Charleston in program history. MTSU holds a 2-0 record vs. CofC with the last matchup coming on August 30, 2003. The Cougars are in their 50th season as a program and Head Coach Jason Kepnar is in his 18th season and has an overall record of 344-182.

To begin this season, the Cougars are off to a 3-4 start. A season ago, Charleston had a record of 14-16, while going 11-7 in conference play.

The Cougars had one member of the Preseason All-CAA Team in Allie Holland and also had Emily Banitt named a CAA Preseason Honorable Mention. Charleston is returning 11 members from their 2023 squad, including 2023 CAA Libero of the Year Tynley Smeltzer. Smeltzer recorded 424 digs which was good for third in the conference.

Quick Facts

Keeping Up with the Blue Raiders Follow the Blue Raiders on Twitter/X (@MT_Volleyball), Instagram (@mt_volleyball), and Facebook (Middle Tennessee Blue Raider Volleyball).

Those who've been pre-approved but are still waiting on an interview appointment to secure access to the federal Global Entry program can stop by Charleston International for a pop-up event this week.

Global Entry is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Trusted Traveler program. The 10 million-plus preapproved globetrotters in the program enjoy streamlined security screening procedures "at land, air and seaports of entry into the United States and at preclearance locations around the world."

Through Sept. 13, Global Entry officials will be available by appointment at 5550 Porsche Blvd. Travelers are required to sign-up in advance online at https://ttp.cbp.dhs.gov/ and have conditional approval before getting an onsite appointment.

Global Entry membership costs $100 and lasts for five years. Documents required for the in-person interview include a valid passport, proof of residency and a Trusted Traveler membership number.

The in-person interviews are mandatory for applicants’ final approval, but they aren't always easy to get. If the schedule fills up, it's best to keep checking to see if there are any last-minute cancellations. Persistence can pay off.

Airport officials have previously discussed the lengthy backlogs of South Carolina-based applications since there is no permanent processing center in the state. Currently, travelers have to head to a nearby major city to enroll in the government-approved line-skipping option.

Airport CEO Elliot Summey has said Global Entry will ultimately be available five days a week at CHS, but for now it's still in the planning stages.

“A partnership like this doesn’t just happen for a medium-sized airport," Summey told the Charleston County Aviation Authority earlier this year. "It takes a lot of collaboration. We’re going to be one of the first.”

Breach beseech

An investment firm named for a local waterway is wading into the business of one of its holdings.

Breach Inlet Capital Management LP, which said it targets “underfollowed and misunderstood” smaller and lesser-known stocks, said last week that it fired off a letter to the directors of Nasdaq-listed International Money Express urging them to review strategic alternatives, including a sale, to maximize shareholder value.

The Mount Pleasant-based investor owns about 700,000 shares of the Miami-based global money remittance service, also known as Intermex, which trades under the symbol IMXI. It’s been in the stock for about three years, according to Chris Colvin, co-founder and portfolio manager.

“We are confident that IMXI would draw significant interest from private equity buyers given the company’s growth prospects, low capital intensity and underleveraged balance sheet,” he wrote in the Sept. 4 letter

If the board doesn’t publicly announce a review of its business, the stock “may continue to languish” and any prospective buyout offers “may be anchored to the depressed trading price,” he added

“We believe there are numerous potential private equity buyers willing to pay a substantial premium to IMXI’s current share price. We also believe that shareholders would be widely supportive of such a transaction,” Colvin wrote.

He said Breach Inlet Capital has had numerous talks since 2021 with management. It cited “the board’s failure “to substantively respond to our concerns” for its decision to go public with its views.

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Intermex has not publicly responded to the letter as of last week.

The company’s stock over the past three years jumped from about $16 in 2021 to a peak of $27 in October 2022 before falling back. More recently, the shares have hovered from $18 to $20 and were trading toward the lower end of that range last week.

Volvo tallies EX90 sales

Volvo Cars has announced the first official sales figures for the all-electric EX90 sport-utility vehicle the automaker is building at its $1.2 billion manufacturing campus in Ridgeville.

Volvo, headquartered in Sweden and majority owned by China's Geely Holding Group, said it sold 85 EX90s to U.S. customers in August. Three more EX90s were sold to overseas buyers. The August figures are the first announced for the battery powered car that started production in June. The EX90 has a base price of $81,290, which includes a $1,295 shipping charge.

All told, Volvo sold 10,420 cars last month in the U.S., down 2.1 percent from the same period last year. Sales of electrified models — those with a fully electric or plug-in hybrid powertrain — increased 47.1 percent compared with the same month last year and accounted for 37.7 percent of sales in August. The XC90 SUV was the top-selling model with 2,979 sold during August, followed by the XC60 SUV at 2,799 sales and the XC40 SUV at 2,474 sales.

U.S. sales have totaled 81,029 vehicles through the first eight months of 2024. That's a drop of less than 1 percent from 2023 totals.

Global sales totaled 52,944 cars in August, up 3 per cent year-over-year. Volvo said the sales increase was primarily driven by strong performance of its fully electric cars in Europe. Volvo has sold 498,464 cars so far this year, up 11.4 percent.

Up for review

A hotel and mixed-use development slated for Maybank Highway on Johns Island is scheduled to come up again in a Charleston City Council meeting Sept. 10.

The council gave its first sign-off on zoning changes, a development agreement and a conceptual plan Aug. 20. It will conduct a second reading during the meeting. A second and final signoff by the council will pave the way for the hospitality project to move on to the technical review process.

The 13-acre Jubilee project, at 2935 Maybank Highway, has been proposed as a 75-unit hotel, 65 cottages, several restaurants, retail and office space, preserved wetlands, a community park and meeting space.

The zoning changes combine five separately zoned parcels under one development agreement, which requires approval and oversight from the City Council.

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East Coast Warehouse & Distribution has established its first South Carolina facility in Charleston, creating 52 new jobs, according to a South Carolina Department of Commerce news release.

The company, a temperature-controlled logistics provider throughout New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Savannah, invested $14.5 million into the new Charleston operations, the release said.

East Coast Warehouse & Distribution will be located at 2015 Tellico Road, about a mile and a half from the SC Ports Hugh K. Leatherman Sr. Terminal, the release said.

The temperature-controlled facility will be dedicated to public refrigerated warehousing solutions and will also serve as a base for the company’s Safeway Trucking operation, according to the release.

“We’re thankful to our partners at Capital Development Partners and the Port of Charleston who helped us make a smooth transition into the Charleston market. This new facility – our first in the market – will allow us to expand our footprint, improve productivity, maximize flexibility and offer increased speed to customers in the greater Charleston area,” Jamie Overley, East Coast Warehouse & Distribution CEO, said in the release.

According to the release, the new facility will be 259,000 square feet on 17.6 acres as well as nine acres of parking and storage space for trailers and containers.

“South Carolina Ports welcomes East Coast Warehouse & Distribution to the Charleston port market,” Barbara Melvin, South Carolina Ports president and CEO, said. “Their new temperature-controlled facility will support food and beverage shippers and others moving goods through the Port of Charleston, giving some of the world’s most recognizable brands direct access to our well-run port and the booming Southeast consumer market.”

Related: $175M logistics center opens in North Charleston

Related: Global shipping container company expands with new Charleston HQ

According to the release, the operations for the company will begin in summer of 2025 and serve as a part of North Charleston’s Shipyard Creek Logisitics Center, the release said.

“East Coast Warehouse & Distribution’s decision to establish its first South Carolina operation in Charleston County is a testament to our region’s robust logistics capabilities and strategic location,” Charleston County Councilman Herbert Ravenel Sass III said in the release. “We are excited to welcome them to our community and look forward to the economic growth and job opportunities their investment will bring.”