Free Press is committed to documenting the people taken by ICE

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested, detained, deported, and/or imprisoned many people that it has unilaterally determined to be undesirables.  At first, they claimed they would deport only criminals, but it has already gone beyond that.  We at the Free Press consider every person who has been sent to the Tecoluca (El Salvador prison), Guantanamo naval base, or detained in other prisons throughout the country to be innocent until proven guilty. We will include students who have been expelled for protesting genocide.  It appears the government will revoke Visa's to get rid of undesirable students.  This article will be updated as long as is necessary.

Familiar tale gracefully blends feminism and fantasy

Feminism has a crucial role to play in modern life, but I sometimes wish it would leave our fairy tales alone. The results of its revisionist meddling are too often unconvincing and unsatisfying.

Remember last year’s Maleficent? It turned an age-old story on its head by revealing that the fairy (Angelina Jolie) who turned a princess into a “Sleeping Beauty” was not evil at all. No, she was merely wronged and misunderstood. Worst of all, we learned that the somnambulant princess could not be awakened by a kiss from the handsome prince, but only by a motherly peck from that same fairy.

How heartwarming. And how utterly unromantic.

Thank goodness Disney’s new live-action version of Cinderella doesn’t wear its feminism on its sleeve. It has nods to modern sensibilities, to be sure, but they’re handled with a lighter touch.

Parents, Educators, Students, and Community Members Unite to Call for an Equitable Process Before Any Addition School Closures

People protesting

n response to the district’s ongoing budget shortfall and the possibility of additional school closures, the Columbus Education Justice Coalition (CEJC) and a broad coalition of parents, educators, students, and community members are demanding that the Columbus Board of Education adopt a new budget shortfall policy that centers transparency, equity, and community voice in all major financial and facility decisions.

Letters have been individually sent by educators, parents, students, and community members to Board members, urging the district to publicly discuss and consider the proposed Budget Shortfall Policy submitted by CEJC on September 8, 2025, and move toward formal adoption without delay.

The proposed policy calls for:

  • A robust and transparent analysis of all projected costs and savings for any proposed school closure.

  • Consideration of the full impact on students, families, educators, and communities, including staff and resource access.

  • Creation of a representative decision-making committee with students, parents, educators, staff, and community organizers from each school region and high school feeder pattern.

Tom Hayes speaks about experience on flotilla to Gaza

Details about event

Tuesday, November 18, 7pm
Zoom meeting - please register
Jewish Voice for Peace event - Tom Hayes will reflect on his experiences as a participant in the Gaza humanitarian aid mission in late September. Following his kidnapping and imprisonment in Israel, Tom returned to his home in Columbus on October 12.

Tom is a long-time advocate of Palestinian rights and a documentary filmmaker. In the 1980s, he filmed in Palestinian refugee camps and has produced three long-form documentaries on the denial of Palestinians’ rights. His 1985 documentary “Native Sons: Palestinians In Exile,” narrated by Martin Sheen, follows the lives of three refugee families living in Lebanon’s camps. His 2015 film “Two Blue Lines,” explores the impact of Jewish settlement on the Palestinians, from before the creation of the state of Israel to the present day.

Hayes most recently co-directed “Voyage of the Handala,” an independent documentary about the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, premiering Oct. 27 at Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival in Spain.

Tom is a member of Jewish Voice for Peace Central Ohio.

Canada should have arrested Prince Harry for war crimes in Afghanistan

Canada has launched a criminal investigation into Israeli-Canadian IDF veterans for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict according to report by ynetnews.com last June. The story said, "The RCMP began the investigation in early 2024 and confirmed it in June 2025.

"The probe targets Canadian citizens with dual Israeli-Canadian citizenship who served in the IDF as well as lone soldiers and Israeli citizens residing in Canada who traveled to Israel to enlist."  The RCMP described the investigation as a "structural investigation" under Canada's Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Program, which aims to prevent Canada from becoming a haven for individuals accused of committing atrocities abroad. The investigation has caused concern and controversy within Canada's Jewish and Israeli communities, with many fearing a wave of arrests or summons. 

BAD BILLS at the Ohio Statehouse

Uncle Sam

This article first appeared here.

Monthly LGBTQIA+ Pagan Meetup

Flag with many rainbow colors

Sunday, November 16, 2:30-4PM
The Magical Druid, 2887 N. High Columbus, OH
Providing space for our community to discuss paganism and other topics of interest. Free event but donations to cover rent, utilities etc. is always nice.

Facebook Event

Pulte is a Mortgage Mess and Has to Go

Bill Pulte

Bill Pulte is the administrator of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the huge mortgage guarantors that are critical to the housing market and the ability of Americans to own and remain in their homes. Of course, he’s a Trump diehard, and that’s not the problem, exactly. Trump has the right to appoint a supporter to this position. Nonetheless, there have to some limits, and this guy is an embarrassment and doesn’t seem to have a clue about the job he should be doing, because he seems to believe his only real job is to be subservient to every whim of the president no matter what it might do to these agencies or all of our mortgages.

The scandals surrounding this guy are compounding faster and more furiously than interest rates on a mortgage.

Playing Politics Instead of Leading

GIrl in classroom raising hand

The Columbus Dispatch article by Cole Behrens from November 13 shows us that the Columbus City Schools (CCS) continues to play politics with the future of our children. The Superintendent knows she must cut about 50 million dollars from the budget.

She was in the district when her predecessor hired hundreds of additional administrators to the Central Office. She knows that the Central Office is overstaffed. The Board of Education (elected by Franklin County Democrats) knows this too; they aren’t stupid. So, what’s the first thing they choose to do to solve this budget challenge?

Play politics.

Instead of cutting the overstaffed Central Office, the Superintendent and the politically-motivated Board of Education will take the easiest route to solve the problem: lay off a wide range of employees at every level.

Some Central Office administrative roles will be eliminated, but also plenty of janitors, secretaries, and teachers. Everyone will be angry, but it will be spread across all levels fairly. Fair to the employees perhaps, but unfair to the students.

Pages

Subscribe to Freepress.org RSS