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"Ignorance of the law is no excuse" for you and me, but ignorance of the Constitution is an excuse for the government.
When a cop violates your right to speak, protest, or be free from unreasonable force, qualified immunity steps in to protect them. Likewise for any public employee.
It's time for this to stop. We need leaders like you in Columbus.
Step up and stop the spread of government overreach in Ohio.
Join us today: AbolishQualifiedImmunity.org/volunteer
There is a great opportunity coming up to build the peace movement by supporting or creating anew a powerful local event on the International Day of Peace. We’ve got all the resources you could want below — and if something is missing, let us know!
September 21 is the International Day of Peace, first celebrated in 1982 and recognized annually by many nations and organizations, including day-long pauses in wars that reveal how easy it would be to have year-long or forever-long pauses in wars.
This could not be more critical than at this moment of escalating genocide in Gaza, the ongoing devastation of the war in Ukraine, horrific militarized violence in Sudan and the Congo, and military spending skyrocketing across much of the globe.
This is a good day on which to work for permanent peace and to remember the victims of war. Below are events you can join, and resources you can use to support those events or to organize new ones.
Friday, September 5, 4:30-10pm
Saturday, September 6, 12 noon-10pm
Sunday, September 7, 12 noon-8pm
It's time for Hot Times in Olde Towne again! The free, family-friendly event includes great music, art cars, kid's activities, cultural Olympic games, lots of food, even beer, wine and liquor, community vendors, drum circles, a poetry slam and more!
The Hot Times Music and Arts Festival will be back at 240 Parsons Avenue this year, happening Friday, September 5 through Sunday, September 7. The festival is on the front lawn of the Columbus Health Department building between Bryden Road and Main Street, on Parsons.
This year's lineup:
Hot Times 2025 Main Street stage schedule:
FRIDAY, September 5th, 5 to 11 PM
5:00 Ron Holmes - Eclecticism
6:00 Mendelsonics
7:00 Just Another Mojo
8:00 Whitley Jean
9:00 Willie Phoenix
10:00 Shaun Booker Dammit
SATURDAY, Sept.6th, Noon - 10 PM
12:00 TBA
The laughs return to Columbus in September from Thursday, September 4 through Sunday, September 7 when the city hosts 100+ comedians for four days of events during the second annual Columbus Comedy Festival. National headliners, regional performers and local talent will take the stage at venues including The Columbus Funny Bone, Palace Theatre, Shadowbox Live, Maroon Culture Lab, The Attic Comedy Club, MadLab, The Nest Theatre, The Hashtag Comedy Company, Don’t Tell Comedy: Columbus, Leisure Club, and more.
"As Columbus grows, so does the importance for quality, live entertainment in the city,” stated Hannah Romes, performer, producer and co-owner of Hashtag. “We are incredibly lucky to have such a strong pool of comedic talent in Columbus, which has been a bit of a secret until recently.”
This year’s list of headliners and four-day schedule includes Jeremiah Watkins, The Second City, ALOK, Shadowbox Live, Sam Tallent, Maddie Wiener, Geoffrey Asmus, Kasaun Wilson, James Adomian, Ric Diez, Katie K, Aiko Tanaka, Chad the Bird, Henry Allen, Curtis Cook, Gwen Rose, Jordan Conley, Sean Reilly and many more.
There's nothing quite like watching Democrats condemn dark money in politics while lobbyists are literally handing out talking points in the same room where they're voting.
That's exactly what happened at the Democratic National Committee's summer meeting in Minneapolis, where party officials simultaneously passed resolutions condemning secret political influence and allowed pro-Israel lobbying groups to orchestrate the defeat of a Gaza resolution through classic dark money tactics.
The irony was lost on no one really paying attention.
Democracy Theater Meets Real Power
While DNC members were busy congratulating themselves for supporting campaign finance reform and transparency in politics, Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) was running a textbook influence operation inside the Resolutions Committee room itself.
Thursday, September 4, 2025, 4:30 – 5:30 PM
Grant and 349 E. Livingston, Columbus 43215
If you think the U.S. is rapidly moving in the wrong direction with healthcare cuts, rising prices, student loan changes, corruption, loss of rights, eroding democracy, personal data collection, tariffs and massive funding for a militarized police force... Say Something!
More information and sign up here.
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There’s a lot of national attention on this topic right now, because President Trump is telling states like Texas to rig (“gerrymander”) districts to give Republicans more seats in Congress.
500,000+ March in Labor Day “Workers Over Billionaires” Events Nationwide
This Labor Day, more than five hundred thousand laborers, families and community members showed their resistance against the billionaires and corporations who continue to hoard wealth and power at workers’ expense.
This is a pivotal moment for working families. Billionaires are stealing public dollars, separating families and destroying U.S. democracy in their pursuit of profit, but in the streets and on the shop floor, in union halls and the halls of Congress, working people are rising up and fighting for freedom, fairness and security. Working Americans won’t be scared away by the billionaires taking over our government.
Highlights include:
Global investment in renewable energy projects hit a new record this year - but fell in the U.S. according to a study by BloombergNEF.
The first half of 2025 saw the "reallocation" of investment dollars away from the United States, with spending falling $20.5 billion, or 36 percent, from the second half of 2024. It was the steepest drop in renewable energy investment in any nation. Bloomberg stated the falloff was a direct response to the U.S. presidential election and anticipated anti-renewable federal policies.
Columbus is in the middle of a building boom. Sleek apartment towers climb skyward, marketed with rooftop lounges and pet spas. Rents stretch past $1,500 for one-bedroom units. But a very different Columbus exists on the other side of the leasing office glass: one where families tuck their children into bedrooms streaked with black mold, where winter nights are endured with broken furnaces, and where cockroaches scurry across kitchen counters.
These tenants aren’t silent. They are doing exactly what the city says they should — calling 311, filing code complaints, and showing up in Environmental Court. Since January 2024, Columbus renters have filed more than 7,000 housing complaints, and the court has opened nearly 2,600 cases. Judges have ordered more than $1 million in fines against landlords.
Yet the same addresses keep appearing in 311 logs, the same landlords keep showing up in court dockets, and the same families keep waiting for repairs that never come. Columbus’s enforcement system documents the crisis in detail, but rarely fixes it.
Thousands of Complaints, Few Consequences