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Sports betting is legal in Ohio, as if anyone needed reminding. And at Hollywood Casino on the West Side, its “Sportsbook” – a 12,000 sq. ft. area strictly for sports betting – is opening February 11 with seven betting windows and 30 kiosks.
Sports betting is becoming Columbus’s newest addiction. Through phone apps, kiosks at both Crew and Blue Jackets games, and soon at Kroger. Adults can also make bets during the game – it’s called “live betting” or “in-game betting”. Also known as “micro betting” considering gamblers can bet on what team scores the next touchdown or what athlete scores the next goal.
When Ohio Attorney General David Yost went judge shopping to permanently ban Columbus City Council’s effort to enact even the mildest of gun safety laws, the Free Press was certain the Fairfield County judge he found would side with the State of Ohio.
Many were confused or not paying attention: How could a Fairfield County judge have authority over Columbus? Unfortunately, and almost unimaginably, is how a tiny sliver of southeast Columbus extends into neighboring (and mostly conservative) Fairfield County.
But the Free Press was thankfully wrong. Fairfield County Common Pleas Judge Richard Berens on January 20 denied the State of Ohio’s motion for a preliminary injunction to forever ban Columbus’s gun safety measures passed in December.
What is described as the “crown jewel” and largest of local Metro Parks – the Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park – is being coveted by RAPID 5, which someday may build a brewery, the “Darby Inn” and a gondola within the park. Similar to the one at the Ohio State Fairgrounds, but several miles in length and built alongside the Big Darby Creek.
Far west, past Hilliard and just off Broad Street before the town of West Jefferson, sprawls the 7,000-plus acre Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park. Both the Big and Little Darby Creeks cut through this Metro Park, and both creeks in 1994 were designated as National Wild and Scenic Rivers, which affords them environmental protections.
What is described as the “crown jewel” and largest of local Metro Parks – the Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park – is being coveted by RAPID 5, which someday may build a brewery, the “Darby Inn” and a gondola within the park. Similar to the one at the Ohio State Fairgrounds, but several miles in length and built alongside the Big Darby Creek.
Far west, past Hilliard and just off Broad Street before the town of West Jefferson, sprawls the 7,000-plus acre Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park. Both the Big and Little Darby Creeks cut through this Metro Park, and both creeks in 1994 were designated as National Wild and Scenic Rivers, which affords them environmental protections.
What is described as the “crown jewel” and largest of local Metro Parks – the Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park – is being coveted by RAPID 5, which someday may build a brewery, the “Darby Inn” and a gondola within the park. Similar to the one at the Ohio State Fairgrounds, but several miles in length and built alongside the Big Darby Creek.
Far west, past Hilliard and just off Broad Street before the town of West Jefferson, sprawls the 7,000-plus acre Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park. Both the Big and Little Darby Creeks cut through this Metro Park, and both creeks in 1994 were designated as National Wild and Scenic Rivers, which affords them environmental protections.
Raised in Columbus, State Representative Munira Yasin Abdullahi (D-Columbus) yesterday became the first Somali American and Muslim woman to serve in the Ohio General Assembly.
When she was three years old, her parents fled war-torn Somalia and settled in a northside apartment off route 161. Columbus has the second largest Somali community in US, with the population estimated at 45,000.
Rep. Abdullahi was a Columbus City School student where she developed a passion for community service. She received a degree in political science from the Ohio State University, and for ten years worked for local non-profits, advocating for youth development and community service.
With a population of nearly 120,000, Ohio House District 9 includes Northland and Minerva Park.
On a warm night in October, a small parade of all colors and ages worked their way down a Sullivant Avenue sidewalk on the west side of Columbus in the setting sunlight. At the lead was a young girl, holding up a cardboard placard with the smiling picture of James Johnson III. In 2020, the 29-year-old was ambushed by gunfire as he walked out of a nearby gas station. His murder remains unsolved and his mother is unwavering for answers.
Who will never be seen in such a sad procession is Ohio Attorney General David Yost or the rural county judge he found to put a December 5 temporary restraining order on three new gun laws passed by Columbus City Council. This judge, Fairfield County Common Pleas Judge Richard Berens, represents just a fragment of southeast Columbus, which includes a small stretch of Refugee Road and Blacklick Woods Metro Park.
“The city has knowingly and deliberately overstepped its legislative authority,” stated Yost following Judge Berens’ temporary restraining order.
A Cincinnati area father whose son committed suicide after being bullied by his Kroger managers is suing the grocery giant for wrongful death. The case claims nothing was done to remedy a hostile and toxic work environment even when Kroger corporate and the local Kroger union were aware of his son’s pleas for help.
Evan Seyfried, who was 40, had worked for Kroger in Milford, Ohio for nearly two decades before taking his life in 2021. He had no prior history of mental illness, and, by all accounts, popular and well-liked by his co-workers.
But perhaps Evan’s popularity, and maybe even his politics, put him on the radar of two managers who would soon wage “a campaign of terror” against him. Many are not aware that Kroger moves managers from store to store every four months or so, and many Kroger workers believe this is part of corporate’s strategy to keep them in line.
The Red Oak Community School, located in the Unitarian Universalist Church in Clintonville, was the site for both a huge success and a huge failure for the Columbus police on Saturday morning. The school had attempted to host an annual fundraiser featuring three local drag artists reading holiday stories to students.
The brand new, blue-vested, de-escalation focused, Columbus Police Dialogue Team was out with a stunning presence, standing two by two among the Proud Boys keeping the confrontation with counter-protesters to a mild roar.
Eight specially trained officers and sergeants were on site to protect the protesters’ right to free speech while reducing the use of force, arrests, and injuries that protesters have experienced in the recent past.
Chief Elaine Bryant reported in a YouTube statement on Monday night that they had been successful in that goal. No use of force, arrests, or injuries were reported.
As disturbing as it was to see the Proud Boys and their fringe groups marching through Clintonville in camo with long rifles slung over shoulders, it is equally as absurd.
One US military veteran on the Columbus Reddit page perhaps said it best.
“The mismatched gear and overall sloppiness of the ‘boots and utes’ of Y’all Qeada never fails to trigger me as a veteran,” they wrote. “How big of a snowflake do you have to be to be triggered by drag queens?”
Another head-scratcher was to see the Columbus police a bit too chummy with the Proud Boys. True, the police were following new “keep-the-peace” protocols, but Canadians would deem this absurd because their nation officially designated the Proud Boys a terror organization in 2021.