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This article first appeared at Ohio Capital Journal
One Ohio-based Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer was convicted this year of abusing women and another was arrested on such charges. That has an advocate for immigrants calling on the agency to explain what it’s doing to screen agents as it seeks to rapidly grow its ranks.
ICE didn’t respond when asked that question.
President Donald Trump came into office promising to deport what he claimed were undocumented, violent criminals.
But NPR reported last week that more than a third of those arrested — about 74,000 — had no criminal records.
Of the rest, about half have pending charges and half have convictions. Most of the convictions are for low-level offenses such as traffic violations, the news organization reported.
Thursday, December 18, 2025 - 12:00 PM
Zoom - register here
At this training, you’ll learn how a bill becomes a law in Ohio and how YOU can impact state laws and policies. The path to rebuilding Ohio starts with showing more people what their current elected officials are doing. They say sunshine is the best disinfectant…let’s shine a blinding ray of light on the Statehouse.
Save Ohio Parks volunteers across Ohio are distributing literature outside theatres and museums to educate Ohioans that pristine state parks featured in a new docu IMAX film are at risk of being despoiled if Ohio public lands continue to be fracked for natural gas.
The nonprofit has already hand-distributed brochures to hundreds of people across the state, including to many planning to view the new Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) docu film, “Wild at Heart.” The film promotes Ohio’s state parks and includes scenes from these state parks: Hocking Hills; Kelley’s Island; Magee Marsh; John Bryan; Mohican; Punderson; and Shawnee.
“We love our Ohio state parks,” said Anne Sparks, board member at Save Ohio Parks. “That’s why we need to protect them. Fracking pollutes our air and increases the risk for cancer and other illnesses. It depletes and contaminates our fresh water; destroys biodiversity; and heats the planet.”
The Trump Administration has deployed thousands of troops and at least 8 warships to the Caribbean, threatening war against Venezuela.
DSA urges you to contact your representatives in Congress to say No War on Venezuela! The House will vote on H.Con.Res.64, a bipartisan War Powers Resolution to prevent any unauthorized U.S. military action in or against Venezuela.
I stare blankly at the news. Little men with guns once again stir the country – the world – into a state of shock and grief and chaos. Attention: Every last one of us is vulnerable to being eliminated . . . randomly,
On Saturday, Dec. 13, there’s a classroom shooting at Brown University, in Providence. R.I. Two students are killed, nine others wounded. A day later, in Sydney, Australia – in the midst of a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach – two gunmen fire into the crowd of celebrants. Fifteen people are killed. The shock is global. The grief and anger flow like blood.
So do the questions: Why? How can we stop this? How can we guarantee that life is safe?
Usually, the calls for change after mass shootings focus on political action: specifically, more serious gun control. Ironically, Australia does have serious gun control. And, unlike the U.S., mass shootings there are extremely rare, but they still happen, which indicates that legal efforts can play a significant, but not total, role in reducing violence.
I learned that Columbus mayor was going to visit the 3rd Shift Warming Center and I was suspicious that he was doing so just for another Facebook “photo opportunity.”
Yeah, I was correct. He and his staff members (plus police bodyguards) arrived with pizzas so that he could be photographed giving them out. He also walked around to shake hands, but I don’t think he learned anything from the experience.
I sat at a round table watching his entourage coordinate his movements, all while a few boxes of pizza were sitting on a table. The smell of the pizza was everywhere, but instead of allowing people to eat they had to wait for the mayor to get photographs of himself walking around. Ever movement was choregraphed.
The funniest thing I heard was from an older man sitting next to me, “Great. We have to sit here smelling pizza and on top of that I’m allergic to tomatoes!”
The mayor’s chief of staff made sure that he made contact with specific people, but it was 3:30 in the afternoon and not late at night when the basement would be packed.
Almost everyone who visits the Octagon sites winds up asking: Why would anyone think of building a gigantic octagon? There is a logical answer, and it is rooted in traditions that were already thousands of years old. Shaman-midwives were building increasingly accurate calculators in order to more precisely understand the cosmic cycles of Grandmother Moon. This, in turn, would be expected to produce more accurate calendars for calculating the most fertile times of every woman’s monthly cycle, and for monitoring the stages of every pregnancy.
Among the ancient Ohio earthworks recently added to the UNESCO World Heritage List, the most befuddling are two very similar ones, both in the shape of gigantic irregular octagons. One, southeast of Chillicothe, is called the High Bank Octagon, probably built in the 1st century CE, and the other, probably built about two centuries later, is 58 miles to the northeast in Newark. The shapes of the two are completely congruent, but the Newark Octagon has dimensions exactly double those of High Bank.
WOODY OR WEXNER? OHIO STATE MUST CHOOSE
WOODY OR WEXNER – Information Sharing Event
Wednesday, December 17, 2025
1:00 – 2:00 PM EST
Outside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center
535 Irving Schottenstein Drive
Columbus, OH 43201
Ohio State University has never fully reckoned with its role in one of the largest sexual abuse scandals in college athletics history.
Thousands of athletes were sexually abused by Dr. Richard Strauss. Some were football players. Survivors have raised serious questions about how power, money, and silence protected abusers—and those connected to them.
Jeffrey Epstein donated $2.5 million to Ohio State, and shortly after, Les Wexner’s name was added to the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
Survivors have also pointed to disturbing overlaps between Strauss, Epstein, and Abercrombie & Fitch—then owned by Wexner—including allegations involving photographed athletes and modeling connections.
Despite this, Les Wexner has refused to comply with a subpoena to testify in the OSU abuse case.
That is unacceptable.
Survivors are demanding accountability.
We are demanding action.
This article first appeared on Substack.
Will Governor DeWine do the right thing? Or will he cower and cave to his party’s extremists?
He only has a few days left to decide.
Ohio Statehouse Republicans have sent the governor four bills that would cause immense harm to our state. He can choose to sign the bills into law or veto (reject) them.
Three of the bills (HB 129, HB 186, and HB 335) are fake property tax “relief” plans that will devastate Ohio communities while protecting politicians’ wealthy donors.