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Policy Matters Ohio, the non-profit lobbying for progressive values at the Ohio Statehouse and across Ohio, is mobilizing against HB 327 and HB 322, two bills that could ban “divisive teaching” such as Critical Race Theory or CRT.

The Ohio legislature has been pushing the whitewashing of American history. Critics of HB 327 say that besides censoring schools and teachers, the bill could result in school districts losing funding, schools losing their AP (Advanced Placement) designation, teachers facing civil litigation from parents and the further degradation and privatization of our public schools, especially those in urban districts.

Policy Matters Ohio is a founding member of Honesty for Ohio Education, a statewide coalition of over 30 organizations,which held a press conference on Wednesday at the Statehouse.

Honesty for Ohio Education has a simple mission: “Defend Ohio students’ freedom to learn and educators’ freedom to teach a full, honest history of our nation.”

As I have written in these and other publications, Columbus is poorly served by its major media, from its no-longer-daily Columbus Dispatch, owned and operated by the USA Today/Gannett chain, to its three network TV affiliates and its NPR affiliate. None actively and reliably serve their publics or fulfill the press’s and media’s historical and democratic mission. (See my columns, “Columbus’ identity crisis and its media”; “Response to Columbus Alive, ‘The list: Reasons that Columbus Underground opinion piece is trash,’ by Andy Downing and Joel Oliphint, Columbus Alive, July 26: A visit to journalism fantasy land”; “The Columbus Dispatch – The decline of a metropolitan daily newspaper”; and “WOSU, the nation’s worst NPR affiliate?

Vulnerable atomic reactors in a war zone?!  Please join us this TONIGHT Thursday, March 10, at 7 pm EST (https://kinema.com/e

The race to break the glass ceiling in Ohio by electing a woman as governor or as U.S. senator this year has been superseded by the aggressive actions by the highest ranking female elected official in Ohio, the one and only Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor.

Republican O'Connor must have gotten a hold of a piece of a glass ceiling in the Statehouse warehouse and is smashing it repeatedly on the heads of the five Republican members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission with a little help from the three Democratic members of the high court.

Talk about the revenge of a feminist. Talk about a woman who has played the go along, get along game pretty well until now when  the five white males running the state and the redistricting commission just plain pissed her off and she went rogue. She proceeded to figuratively bang the glass ceiling on their noggins not once, not twice, but three times with a fourth and fifth conk likely soon.

Gong No. 1. She and the three Dems turned down the first set of new district boundaries for the Ohio House and Senate.

Gong No. 2. They rejected the second set.

Six and a half weeks ago I broke humerus bone (upper arm). I had surgery to put a pin put into my arm. This is the 1st bone I’ve broken in my 73 years. It SUCKS!

I’m an alpha female, mother, grandmother and keeper of the casa. It has been quite challenging to “let” my sweet husband do for me the things I’ve always handled. Like undressing myself: I had to ask him to peel my sports bra off over my head! Very humbling, to say the least. Thank God we’ve been married for several decades. This experience is an exercise in patience. I’m having to adjust to my new normal. It’s made me reflect on all of the things I’d taken for granted – like undressing myself.

I have been teaching yoga since the 80s and I miss it terribly. My body misses it. I especially miss doing the yoga pose Down Dog (DD). I think about all of the times in a yoga workshop when the teacher kept us in DD for a long time and I’d think, when will it end. Now, I can’t wait to be able to pop out a Down Dog. Never thought I’d see the day where I was craving a nice long DD!

Wednesday, March 9, 7-8:15pm, this on-line event requires advance registration

This is week four of a four-week discussion course based on the four-part article “The Path to an Ecological Future for Humanity.” The link to the article is here. It is not necessary to read the article but it will be helpful.

Instructor: Chuck Lynd will begin with a short slide presentation and then will facilitate the discussion of each topic.

The goal of this course is to deepen our understanding of what it means to co-evolve a new culture rooted in ecological values and understand the role of Simply Living in building sustainability in central Ohio.

RSVP for this event by using this link.

Hosted by Simply Living.

In honor of March 8 - International Women's Day:

Last Friday evening, the Department of Justice filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in the case by the states of Illinois and Nevada seeking to force U.S. Archivist David S. Ferriero to publish the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as part of the Constitution. The brief asks the D.C. Circuit to affirm the dismissal of the case “without resolving the ERA’s legal status.”

Importantly, the brief does not embrace the district court’s conclusion that the time limit stands in the way of the ERA. Instead, it recognizes that the questions of the ERA’s validity are important, profound, and novel. The brief argues that the dismissal should be affirmed on the grounds that the plaintiffs lack standing and have fallen short of the requirement to show a “clear and undisputable” entitlement to government action. 

The brief also repeats President Biden’s statement “expressing his ‘support for the ERA loudly and clearly’” and declaring that “nothing prevents Congress from taking legislative action to ‘recogniz[e] ratification of the ERA.’” 

As you may know, the Ohio House Energy and Natural Resources Committee has passed House Bill 434. 

It could be voted on by the full House at any upcoming meeting. The next meeting is Wed., March 9.

The state attacks its young people: Why? Of what are the state legislature, the majority on the State Board of Education, the governor, the secretary of state and attorney general afraid? What fears of losing power and control motivate them to institutionalize infantilization and its consequences of infanticide and stunted growth, all threats to the wholeness, wellness, and maturity of our nation? Why do they act unconstitutionally, against recognized modes of child development, with ignorance of the history and books they anti-democratically and inhumanely seek to ban?

This essay builds on my recent writing in Publishers Weekly and elsewhere on book banning as “the new illiteracy” and my testimony in the American Civil Liberties Union case suing a Missouri school district for its unconstitutional removal of books.

Home Grow. Ohio: Adult Use or Medical Only?  Unions. Hemp Acreage. Killer Kush.

Selected bites of fresh cannabis news sliced from the headlines, with a legislative flavor and sweet Ohio twist. Sources are linked.

HOME GROW – 15 REASONS WHY

Read Mary Jane’s Free Press feature article for February Here!

“There’s a lot of talk about freedom these days. Freedom of speech.   Freedom of choice.   Freedom of association.  Why don’t these freedoms apply to cannabis?  If Americans are guaranteed freedom and liberty, growing six harmless plants should be permissible.”

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FEDERAL LEGISLATION    See Federal Cannabis Legislation Table.

117th Congress (2021-2022): House bills = 43 and Senate bills = 15, for a Total of 58.