COLOMBIA, SC (AP) – Nearly 100 companies in South Carolina have announced that they want the state to join 47 other states in the U.S. and pass a hate crime law. The proposal to allow tougher sentences for murders, assaults, harassment, vandalism and other crimes motivated by hatred of race, sexual orientation, religious beliefs or someone’s disability has not yet been heard six weeks after the General Assembly session began. Some of the state’s biggest employers – Walmart, IBM, UPS, Duke Energy, pharmaceutical manufacturer Nephron – joined the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce to pressure lawmakers to approve the bill on Monday. South Carolina, Arkansas and Wyoming are the only states without a hate crime bill.