News
The German Village Society, in a letter sent on May 28 to the Mayor’s Office, City Council, and “Zone In” officials, has requested to not be a part of the City’s massive zoning code overhaul.
The Society’s request only covers those German Village properties on East Livingston Avenue, across the street from Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Zone In has left the rest of German Village untouched, arguably Central Ohio’s most unique community.
The Society has yet to receive an answer from City officials. Put succinctly, Zone In seeks density with taller condominiums and apartment buildings in popular Columbus corridors, as high as 16 stories. Zone In has designated this part of East Livingston a “main corridor” where the properties are historically designated. But property owners have absolute ownership and can do as they please.
“Every block along Livingston in the Zone In proposal within our boundary already has historic properties either in place onsite or immediately adjacent, so the height restrictions stated in the Guidelines would be firmly in place,” stated the Soceity’s letter.
Central Ohio Starbucks workers at Neverland Drive and East Broad filed a petition for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) today, joining 18 other Starbucks stores across the country that also filed this week. The massive wave of union filings comes just days after Starbucks Workers United members wrapped a second round of national bargaining with Starbucks where the two parties continued to make significant progress toward a foundational framework for store contracts.
“If I go to my manager for help, nothing happens. If we all go together, Starbucks has no choice but to listen – that’s why we’re unionizing,” said Ash Wearly (he/him), a barista at the East Broad store (88 East Broad St.).
“This pride month we are showing up in solidarity with our partners who have paved the way for us. We are filing because we deserve a living wage, a safe and dignified work environment, and to be respected by Starbucks. We love our partners and want to make our store and this company a better place for all of us,” said Katherine Butler (she/her), a shift supervisor of eight years working at the Neverland Drive store (21 Neverland Dr. in Lewis Center).
Here is Mr. Simmons statement in its entirety:
“I am writing directly to our community once again to express a sincere apology of what has transpired. I am deeply sorry and ashamed.
I want to provide additional clarity to our community:
I can disclose the following three meetings:
7pm May 9th at the Fawcett Center: with President Christina Vera, Superintendent Dr. Anglea Chapman, Board Member Brandon Simmons. A version of this document dated May 9th is still in existence, Christina Vera and Angela Chapman provided feedback and suggestions that were placed in the document dated May 10th.
3:30 pm May 10th at CEC Cabinet Room: with President Christina Vera, Superintendent Dr. Chapman, Board Members Jennifer Adair and Brandon Simmons. Additionally, Dr. Anglea Chapman invited staff from the Office of the Superintendent, the Communications Department, and an external participant. Prior to the May 10 meeting, Dr. Chapman distributed the May 9th document to her staff.
The May 14th press conference is a direct result of the document and this meeting.
After obtaining a shocking leaked Columbus City Schools Board of Education strategy document [READ LEAKED DOCUMENT], which details plans to use racial divides to attack opponents of school closures and hide information from taxpayers, members of the community and Columbus City Schools Union leaders sent the following open letter to the Board of Education this morning:
An Open Letter to Columbus City Schools Board of Education Members,
Community Festival (ComFest) is back in Goodale Park Friday, June 28 through Sunday, June 30, 2024.
ComFest will feature over 150 musical performances, social activism and community-oriented programming over three days. In addition to the line-up of the city’s best live music spread over five stages, workshops, KiDSART, live comedy, poetry readings and other programming will be featured throughout the park. The much-loved Street Fair also returns with one-of-a-kind vendors, arts and crafts, local food and community organizations.
New at ComFest this year will be a singer/songwriter/troubadour stage and a Silent Disco.
ComFest has partnered with Seventh Son Brewing Co. for a special ComFest brew that will be featured all weekend. A portion of the sales will benefit ComFest’s Community Grants Program. Also new for 2024 will be a non-alcoholic beer option.
ComFest is “Powered by Community” and volunteer opportunities are available. Give a shift and get chips for ComFest beverages and food and your very own volunteer T-shirt.
A recreational dispensary on wheels – a weed truck if you will, which may or not be completely state sanctioned – has been rolling around Columbus for some time now and the Free Press decided to go Cheech & Chong-ish and chase down some product.
After glimpsing the THC truck in the Near East and Far East over the previous two months, it was spotted at a gas station catty-corner to Eastlawn Cemetery.
We spent $100, and our first review of this roving THC vehicle is “Meh” on the vapes and “Yay” on the edibles. The truck’s driver and co-worker will go unnamed. They insisted what they were selling was the real deal. Not the headache inducing Delta-8 products sold these days at nearly every city market or bodega.
Delta-8 THC, unlike regular THC, has been fully legal in Ohio since 2018 through a Statehouse bill after Congress passed the Agriculture Improvement Act in the same year which allowed hemp products to be sold as long as they have .3 percent THC or less.
As police violence continues against Ohioans, the Ohio Coalition to End Qualified Immunity (OCTEQI) believes the only way to end police violence is to change policy. And the only way to change the policy that allows police violence is by putting a citizen-led initiative on a state ballot to end qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that allows public officials to escape consequences for unreasonable behavior even when they violate someone’s rights. It has become a barrier to justice for victims of police misconduct.
About 700 students, faculty, & community members held a 6-hour protest at Ohio State University campus yesterday. Protesters called OSU to divest investments from companies with links to Israel. The protest ended when nearly 70 police officers and Ohio State High Patrol brutalized protesters while they were performing "Isha" Muslim prayers and arrested nearly 40 protesters, including students, faculty, one Jewish protester, and community members. There were 20 members who were not affiliated by OSU. Those were parents and other family members of the protesters who came to support the students and be there for them in the event of arrest. After all, it makes no difference if they were students, faculty or not. OSU is public university and is supported by our tax-payers money.
Sam Randazzo was once the Chair of the Ohio Public Utilities Commission.
Now, at 74, he’s dead by apparent suicide.
As is the “Nuclear Renaissance.”
Dating back many years, we often encountered Sam at energy hearings in Columbus. He was always personable and friendly as we exchanged handshakes and smiles.
That we were totally on opposite sides of the issues was like an inside joke between us.
But he was there to lobby for the fossil/nuclear industry while we were demanding Ohio get its energy from wind and solar—which it could be doing today except for Sam and his corporate bankrollers’ highly effective back channel arm twisting.
Randazzo was always highly paid…TOO well paid, which is what led to his death in a Columbus warehouse owned by a shell company he controlled.
Apparently it was a suicide, though one can never be entirely sure when there are millions of bucks flying around in bribes.
Because unbeknownst to us and even some of those paying him, Sam played both sides of the fence.
Every time there is a solar eclipse that affects Ohio, the old story of Tecumseh’s alleged eclipse predictions of 1806 and 1811 is recycled. Often, some historian attempts to correct the popular myth by saying that it was not Tecumseh, but his brother Tenskwatawa, “the Shawnee Prophet,” who predicted the two eclipses, thus building the cult that regarded Tenskwatawa as a genuine shaman, rendered into the English title “Prophet. “The Shawnee Prophet’s movement did spread, largely on the myth of the eclipse prediction, becoming a major basis of modern syncretic Native American religion. The myth of these “prophecies” has been greatly amplified by the novelist Allan Eckert, whose highly-fictionalized outdoor drama Tecumseh still plays in Chillicothe, Ohio, using the prophecy motif to turn Tecumseh into a Jesus figure.