Happy (almost) Cinco de Mayo, Charleston.

The holiday honors Mexico’s victory over French forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. The Second Franco-Mexican War didn’t end that day, but the battle became a symbol of resistance against foreign powers.

If you’re celebrating this year, here’s where to eat, drink, and dance in the Holy City — on Cinco de Mayo and through the weekend.

Celebrate

Cinco de Mayo Block Party at Mex 1 West Ashley | Thurs., May 5 | $10 in advance, $15 at the door | 5 p.m. | Mex 1 West Ashley, 817 St. Andrews Blvd. | Head over to this local spot to enjoy food tents, local vendors, outdoor bars, and live music from Charleston-based Midnight City Band.

Cinco de Mayo Parking Lot Party | Thurs., May 5 | Free | 4-9 p.m. | Jalisco Taqueria & Tequila, 1271 Folly Rd. | Experience a full-service taco tent, music, yard games, and a margarita bar offering $10 Patrón margaritas and $7 shots of Patrón — family and pet friendly.

Cinco de Mayo Party | Thurs., May 5 | Free | 5 p.m. | Dashi, 1262 Remount Rd., North Charleston | Grab $3 tacos, $5 house margaritas, $8 frozen jalapeno & mango margaritas, $2 jarritos, and $3 Modelo & Dos Equis before a late-night comedy show with Cam Bertrand, Jeremy McLellan & Dedrick Flynn.

Cinco de Mayo at The Basement | Thurs., May 5 | Free | 12 p.m. | The Basement, 1055 SC-41, Mt. Pleasant | Dig in at the free taco bar from 2-5 p.m., all-day drink specials including $5 house margaritas and $5 Espolón shots, and wrap up the evening with live music from 6-9 p.m.

Margarita at the Beach | Thurs., May 5 | $39+ | 6-8 p.m. | Painting with a Twist, 2511 N. Main St., Ste. B, Summerville | Celebrate the holiday by painting a 16×20 canvas or 17.5×17 wood plank board at this local studio.

SOL Southwest Kitchen | Thurs., May 5 | Free | All day | SOL Mt. Pleasant, 1101 Stockade Ln., Mt. Pleasant | Partake in a complimentary tequila tasting from 6-8 p.m., enjoy live music from Patrick Norris between 6-9 p.m., and celebrate with all-day specials.

Charleston Margarita & Mimosa Fest | Sat., May 7 | $24.99+ | Registration 12-2 p.m. | Share House, 23 Ann St. | Bar hop between Share House, Silver Dollar, The Brick, and Uptown Social from 12-6 p.m. with your wristband good for various drink specials at each venue.

Eat + drink

Cinco de Mayo is about much more than delicious food and drinks — but the deals don’t hurt.

Cinco de Mesa | Snag a $5 Mesa Verde at your local Verde restaurant with the online promo code CINCO22.

$6 House Margaritas | Choose between coconut, pineapple, lime, mango, spicy, and signature margarita flavors at Pink Cactus for this hard-to-beat special.

Happy celebrating, Charleston. Let us know how you’ll be spending the day.

Monroe Freeling, one of the top offensive tackle prospects in the class of 2023, is narrowing things down in his recruitment. Freeling, who has 25 scholarship offers, shared his top 7 teams on Friday.

The Mount Pleasant, South Carolina native and Oceanside Collegiate Academy product has Florida and Georgia in his top group, along with Clemson, Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame and Ohio State.

BREAKING: Four-Star OT Monroe Freeling is down to 7️⃣ Schools, he tells @On3Recruits

The 6’7 290 OT from Mount Pleasant, SC is ranked as a Top 40 Player in the ‘23 Class (No. 5 OT)

More Here (FREE): https://t.co/PtSeyHojKu pic.twitter.com/Ky6hS6TsQ5

— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) May 6, 2022

Freeling has also taken visits to South Carolina, North Carolina and Stanford. He told On3’s Hayes Fawcett that he approves of UGA adding former UNC assistant Stacy Searels to Kirby Smart’s staff.

“They were one of the first schools to offer me back at the beginning of my sophomore year,” Freeling told On3. “Though they have gone through coaching changes, they hired Coach Searels who I had a good relationship with when he was at UNC. Not to mention them being national champions!”

Freeling told On3 he enjoyed his visit to UF on March 19, particularly getting to know assistant coach Rob Sale.

“I really enjoyed my time in Florida when I went down there,” Freeling told On3. “The campus was really pretty and they have great academics. Coach Sale and I have a good relationship and I think that Florida is heading in the right direction!”

Freeling’s junior-season highlights can be viewed below, via Hudl:

Junior Season Highlights 2021

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CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCIV) — Two people involved in a Mount Pleasant businessman's child sex trafficking case are expected in court later this month for plea hearings.

Dawson Caldwell- former president and CEO of AP Recovery in Mt. Pleasant- was arrested in October on a charge of child sex trafficking. He was indicted by a federal grand jury on human trafficking, prostitution and child pornography charges.

Cedrick Riley and Jessica Michelle Mills were charged in the same case.

They are set to appear in court later this month for plea hearings:

Mills' plea agreement was filed April 6, 2022. In it, Mills agreed to plead guilty to "conspiracy to traffic a minor for sex."

The maximum penalty is imprisonment for life, a fine of $250,000, a trafficking victim assessment fine of $5,000, and a term of supervised release of five years to life in addition to any term of imprisonment, plus a special assessment of $100.

In pleading guilty to this charge, the courts will move to dismiss the remaining charges against her.

Mills was charged with child sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit child sex trafficking, according to court records.

BACKGROUND

A 17-year-old girl, who is supposed to be in high school, was being sex trafficked and fed drugs, according to federal prosecutors.

A judge presiding over Caldwell' case said in court it appeared Caldwell led a secret life since the fall of 2020 that even his closest family didn’t know about. A life, prosecutors said in court, revolved around him acting as a teenager’s sugar daddy and dealing with a compulsive sex addiction.

Law enforcement said Caldwell's victim told them he fed her crack cocaine and fentanyl, as well as filmed sex acts, in turn for money.

Prosecutors said Caldwell spent upwards of $50,000 on her drug habit and paid for hotels and shopping as well as trips to his home that he called a “plantation” down in Beaufort County.

The case got federal attention last April when the victim was rushed to the hospital with an appendicitis. When the girl was under anesthesia, about to go into surgery, prosecutors say she asked a nurse to help her.

An investigator from Homeland Security said in court the girl told the nurse she was forced to have sex with 10 to 15 men a day, while drugged with fentanyl and cocaine.

Riley was her handler and Caldwell was a co-conspirator, according to investigators. The case was reported in May, but the abuse began in fall of 2020.

Caldwell was indicted by a federal grand jury on human trafficking, prostitution and child pornography charges.

Riley was indicted on one firearm offense, human trafficking and prostitution.

As part of the indictment, federal investigators seized firearms and two boats, a land cruiser and property in Sheldon belonging to Caldwell.

Caldwell also went by his alias Chuck Ashley.

allaz International Academy, Norbrook Strikers FC and Mount Pleasant Football Academy were all winners at the inaugural Genesis Academy Spring Football Tournament held recently at the Manchester High School.

The tournament, which featured teams from the parishes of Manchester, St Elizabeth, St Ann, St James and Kingston, had 20 participating teams in three age groups, including Under-8, Under-11 and Under-14.

Ballaz International Academy were crowned Under-8 champions, Norbrook Striker were crowned Under-11 champions while Mount Pleasant Football Academy were champions of the Under-14’s.

There were four organisations from Kingston — Ballaz, Emanuel Christian Academy, Norbrook Strikers and the all-female academy, Reinas Academy, Mount Pleasant from St Ann, Cornwall College from St James, Munro College from St Elizabeth, Belair PREP, Kick Start Academy, Redemption SC, May Day High, Manchester High, and Genesis Academy, the hosts, from Manchester.

There were 20 teams in total that participated in the tournament — four in the Under-8 and eight each in the Under-11 and Under -14.

Reinas had a good start to their tournament, clipping Genesis 1-0 courtesy of their player of the tournament Olivia Ashbourne. There were no further wins for the girls however, as they went down 0-4 to Munro, 0-1 to May Day, 1-4 to STATHS and 0-1 to Manchester High.

Tournament organiser and former national youth Coach Andrew Edwards said that his organisation saw it necessary to play their part in returning the sport to the parish of Manchester, at the youth level.

“The Spring Tournament came about after we decided we needed some impetus after the restart, following the hiatus brought on by the pandemic. We were hoping for a perfect eight across the board for all age groups, but we fell short in numbers in the Under-8 category.”

He has been listening to the feedback from the participating teams and the spectators who showed up at Manchester High.

“In general, the feedback has been very positive, we kept hearing that the tournament was well organised and executed. The main areas for improvement noted thus far are refereeing quality and time management.”

While their original tournament will not be held this year, the Spring Cup will remain on the Genesis calendar going forward Edwards revealed.

“We will not have a summer tournament for 2022, but our flagship Genesis Cup. will return in 2023. Absolutely the Spring Tournament will be made an annual calendar event.”

The first Genesis Cup was held in the summer of 2017 and was last held in 2019.

— Dwayne Richards

Oceanside Collegiate Academy (S.C.) 2023 offensive tackle Monroe Freeling has included the Florida Gators in his top seven schools, according to On3Sports.

Freeling, one of the top offensive tackle prospects in the country, was offered by Florida's new coaching staff on March 1. Freeling quickly scheduled an unofficial visit to UF on March 19 and came away impressed by his meetings with offensive line coaches Rob Sale and Darnell Stapleton, in part due to their NFL experience.

"I like coach Sale, he keeps it real," Freeling said. "I was talking to him in the office and he was just telling me how everything is. The NFL and college is way different nowadays, it's becoming, like, college is harder than the NFL in a way. You've gotta balance not only just playing that top-tier talent every week, you have school to worry about too.

"I talked to coach Stapleton too at lunch, and just yeah, really grew our relationship. They know what it takes to be at the next level, and they know what it's like to coach at the next level. So, I think having that insight will probably help them develop me better."

Freeling was also a fan of the environment on the UF campus. Despite the fact that Florida entered his recruitment a bit late, Freeling's experience on the visit was enough to push the Gators into his latest top teams list and emerge as a candidate to receive one of his five official visits.

"This might be one of the prettiest campuses I've been to," Freeling expressed. "When I first stepped on campus, I was like, 'Wow, this is not really what I was expecting.' I was kind of expecting a little swamp, but this is not a swamp!"

The Gators have a major need for blue-chip talent at offensive tackle and Freeling is one of several prospects they're recruiting at the position in the class of 2023. Other tackles worth keeping an eye on are Dr. Phillips' (Fla.) Payton Kirkland, IMG Academy's (Fla.) Francis Mauigoa, Clearwater Academy International's (Fla.) Lucas Simmons and Rockledge's (Fla.) Bryce Lovett, among others.

Freeling is considered the No. 6 offensive tackle and No. 54 overall prospect in the class of 2023 by the On3Sports Composite rankings.

Stay tuned to AllGators for continuous coverage of Florida Gators football, basketball and recruiting. Follow along on social media at @SI_AllGators on Twitter and Florida Gators on Sports Illustrated on Facebook.

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