Editorial

The Central Ohio Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (COADCDL) wants to know whether law enforcement in Ohio is using the controversial Stingray surveillance device in the Buckeye State. Some people think it is.

Technically, the Stingray is an IMSI-catcher. ISMI stands for International Mobile Subscriber Identity, meaning this device is meant to “catch” your conversations and communications, but also to extract stored data from your cell phone. The Stingray is a cellular phone spying device initially created by the Harris Corporation for the Deep State. Not only does the device track and locate you, it is designed to unlock encrypted content.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) tracks which federal, state and local law enforcement and intelligence use these devices for “spying without a warrant.” Ohio is listed as a state where it is “unknown” if the device is in operation. The ACLU lists 13 federal agencies as using the spying device, among them are the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Army/Navy/Marines, the National Security Agency, and Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The abuse of OSU athletes by Dr. Richard Strauss for the better part of two decades went unreported for nearly four decades?

And when it did come to light, it was not uncovered by the Columbus Dispatch and the city's other mainstream media, but by victims coming forward.

Suffice it to say that the Ohio State University is a sacred cow in the eyes of the local news media. The university has so many patrons and loyalists that the news organizations are reluctant to investigate it for fear of alienating and losing their fickle audience. Not to mention that OSU spends a lot of money on local advertising that the local media does not want pulled as punishment for negative coverage.

The uncritical behavior gets worse as the Dispatch, among others, has a growing propensity to run press releases from OSU as news stories in prominent positions.

For instance, on May 16 on the front page of the second section, theDispatch ran the following headline: "Study: OSU has $15.2B economic impact." The article that followed was credited to an "analysis released by the school" in a recent speech by President Michael Drake.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerold Nadler, D-NY, has declared that our country is in a “constitutional crisis” as a result of the executive branch’s refusal to honor congressional subpoenas for documentation and testimony regarding the Mueller Report and other congressional investigations. He went on to say that the survival of the Republic was now at stake. Others in politics, the media, and academe have expressed concern over the erosion of democracy in the United States. If democracy in America, a seemingly successful experiment which has withstood the test of time over the past 231 years, is in jeopardy, who is at fault and what can be done to remedy the situation?

OMG! Ohio Rep. John Becker (R-Clermont County)is even dumber than I thought. In fact, he has just grabbed the dumber-than-a-doorknob title held for the last few years by former Rep. Jim Buchy who once told Al Jazeera  he couldn’t figure out why someone would want an abortion.

Becker is the Republican who introducedHB 182in the Ohio House a couple of weeks ago, The bill excludes private insurance coverage for abortion, It includes two other whackadoodle provisions:

·         mandates a medical procedure to remove the embryo in an ectopic pregnancy from a Fallopian tube or elsewhere and implant it in the uterus in to order avoid abortion.

·         “prohibits the use of drugs or devices used to prevent the implantation of a fertilized ovum.” whatever that means.

Gun violence has become an epidemic in the U.S., with shootings becoming so frequent in the news that many people have become desensitized to them. Over the last few years, some of the most shocking shootings have happened in public schools, causing shock and fear in students, administrators, and parents.

Although there are several reasons behind these shootings, such as lax gun control laws, sexism, bullying, and feelings of entitlement, schools are now looking for ways to prevent these tragedies from occurring in their schools.

In the world’s most developed countries, 80 percent of all deaths related to firearms occur in the U.S., according to statistics presented by Regis College. Gun violence is considered a public health issue in the country, where shootings are a leading cause of premature death in the general population. The U.S. also has some of the most laidback gun laws, which is a common reason attributed to the high levels of gun violence.

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Help us comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable!

A newspaper reporter friend told me that his paper's coverage policies were determined by the editor's interests rather than the readers' interests.

That could be a reason why newspapers are losing audience these days.

Dispatch editor Alan Miller demonstrated this quirk of leadership in the April 14 edition when he wrote about his father's restoration of a barn in Holmes County and included a picture.

That's 85 miles northeast of Columbus and way out of the Dispatch coverage area.

No other Dispatch journalist could have done it. Only the editor.

I wonder if it signals that Miller is nearing retirement. After four years of cost-cutting and dancing to the GateHouse corporate tune, Miller may be ready for the family farm, so to speak.

Spectrum News 1 Quotes Yours Truly, Columbus Free Press

What’s Right

Compost Exchange: This is an important and convenient way to keep food out of the landfill to get it used in urban gardens and farms. For a small fee you take home a yellow tub, put in your leftover or spoiled food waste, and bring it back for an empty one. Details and drop-off locations: thecompostexchange.com.

Bring your own bag, bulk foods and refill stations: Kudos to the grocery stores and co-ops that provide refill stations for olive oil, peanut butter, honey and water; bulk food areas allowing customers to bring their own containers; and “bring your own bag” incentives. Now, if the City of Columbus could just officially ban plastic bags!

Zero waste events: This is an effort to encourage local festivals and even OSU football games to stay clean and green. Guidelines include: supplying recycling containers with clear labeling; composting food waste; attendees bringing re-usable water bottles or dishes; and educating vendors about no-waste procedures.

We all have our own Origin Story that brings us to who we are today.  Whether it has brought trauma or prestige, all origin stories must be understood as how we begin.

Before starting let us all establish ground rules.  All Super heroes (organizers) go through some kind of a struggle or a painful experience, and “it is the choices they make, rather than their special abilities, that make them superheroes” (organizers) (Dr. Janina Scarlett). 

Why would you want to become a superhero, or an organizer? What are some attributes of being an organizer? We have many examples of heroes, like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Harry Potter and Star Wars.  But who are the role models for an organizer?  Throughout history, mostly they have been ostracized or assassinated.  Can each of us describe feelings and attributes that bring us to the choice of joining that elite group of people who have stepped up to organize when called?  ‘’

New Chief:There’s a new Interim Columbus Police Chief in town – 29-year CPD veteran Thomas Quinlan – replacing embattled Kim Jacobs during the nationwide search for a permanent chief. Lucky him, walking into this mess…see below.

FBI investigation:Enough said.

The Stormy Daniels saga: Although the allegations that the debacle was pre-planned and politically motivated, the Internal Affairs Bureau found the Columbus Police arrests of Stormy Daniels and two other women at a strip club event to be “improper.” The city spent $150,000 in a settlement with the two women arrested with Daniels.