News
October has beennamed “Breast Cancer Awareness Month.” In its honor and for breast cancer patients …
Who started Breast Cancer Awareness Month?
According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, “October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is an annual campaign to increase awareness of the disease.” It was founded in 1985 collaboratively between the American Cancer Society and what is now AstraZeneca, which develops and markets cancer drugs.
Why the pink ribbons?
The Columbus Free Press Libby Award for Community Activism for 2021 honors Esther Flores, born for such a time as this.
Esther Flores is a registered nurse fiercely committed to restoring the dignity and health of women who have been thrust onto the streets of Columbus by sex trafficking, addiction, and domestic violence. Through her harm-reduction non-profit 1DIVINELINE2HEALTH, she offers support and services to the women she calls “Street Sisters.”
Esther says, "They are not prostitutes. They are ‘Women Who Haven’t Been Loved Enough.’ “
When people hear the word “radiation" they most likely think of the horrible human and environmental devastation of Hiroshima, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl or Fukushima, and they are correct to think that. Scientists and the data have confirmed that exposure to radiation causes cancer and death—quickly or slowly, depending on the exposure and accumulation.
Yet, in Ohio and other oil/gas producing states like Pennsylvania, Texas and Oklahoma, when the industry’s radioactive waste products are discussed, they are portrayed and classified as harmless by drillers and government officials. Thanks to investigative journalists, to scientific researchers not paid for by the industry, and especially to concerned community members, we now have more unbiased information to propose legislation for the protection of all people of Ohio and the natural environment. Records have been uncovered that the oil and gas industry has known for decades how dangerous this waste really is (America's Radioactive Secret).
Sunday evening workers and supporters of workers at Worthington’s three library branches gathered on Worthington’s Village Green to rally support for voting yes to unionize. The year-long effort to unionize the workers at Worthington Public Libraries has come down to a vote, which employees and the community are optimistic will result in the recognition of the union.
If workers at Worthington Public Libraries succeed in forming a union, it would be the first library to be unionized in Franklin County. Libraries in Franklin County are fragmented among individual towns and cities, which is why the City of Worthington has three branches under Worthington Public Libraries. Columbus has its own library system, Columbus Metropolitan Libraries, and cities like Bexley, Upper Arlington, and others each have their own independent libraries, but all share resources with each other.
Sunday evening workers and supporters of workers at Worthington’s three library branches gathered on Worthington’s Village Green to rally support for voting yes to unionize. The year-long effort to unionize the workers at Worthington Public Libraries has come down to a vote, which employees and the community are optimistic will result in the recognition of the union.
If workers at Worthington Public Libraries succeed in forming a union, it would be the first library to be unionized in Franklin County. Libraries in Franklin County are fragmented among individual towns and cities, which is why the City of Worthington has three branches under Worthington Public Libraries. Columbus has its own library system, Columbus Metropolitan Libraries, and cities like Bexley, Upper Arlington, and others each have their own independent libraries, but all share resources with each other.
September 19, 2021
To the people of Mexico:
To the peoples of the world:
To the Sixth in Mexico and abroad:
To the Networks of Resistance and Rebellion:
First: On September 11, 2021, in the early morning, while the Zapatista air delegation was in Mexico City, members of ORCAO – a paramilitary organization serving the Chiapas state government – kidnapped the compañeros Sebastián Nuñez Pérez and José Antonio Sánchez Juárez, autonomous authorities from the Good Government Council of Patria Nueva [New Homeland], Chiapas.
The ORCAO is a political-military organization with paramilitary characteristics: they have uniforms, equipment, weapons, and ammunition purchased with money they receive from [government-sponsored] “social programs”. They keep part of the money for themselves and use part of it to pay off government officials for reporting that they [the ORCAO] are complying with the terms of the social programs. They fire on the Zapatista community of Moisés y Gandhi every night with these weapons.
Dozens of teachers, support staff, and community members picketed outside of the Zanesville Board of Education (ZEA) meeting on Tuesday, September 14. The teachers’ union in Zanesville has been negotiating for a new contract since July, trying to retain their healthcare plan and secure a raise that, at a minimum, would keep pace with inflation. A federal mediator has been brought in to help facilitate movement, but things have only gotten worse.
On Tuesday, the Board accused the teachers’ union, the ZEA, of lying to the press when they mentioned the fact that their healthcare plan was on the table. The Board called their statements “blatant falsehoods,” adding that “the Board has offered ZEA a competitive salary package, well above the state and area averages.”
Following our mission to connect people to learning opportunities that promote sustainability, environmental justice, and our local economy, Simply Living is relaunching Sustainable U.
This fall we will offer two discussion courses through EcoChallenge, formerly Northwest Earth Institute, a course through Local Futures, and three online courses from our members. Read on for more information about each of these learning opportunities!
Did President Obama anger so many conservative white Ohioans that they overwhelmed the ballot box, giving the Ohio Republican Party a decade of dominance at both the state and congressional levels?
Or, as some election experts believe, did the GOP’s ten-year supermajority in Ohio and in other states result from a calculated top-down gerrymandering strategy by Karl Rove and John Boehner?
In 2011, Ohio Republicans schemed in secrecy for three months, with direct input from Boehner, to redraw both state legislative and Congressional maps, says Katy Shanahan, Ohio director of All On the Line, a national grassroots org created to end partisan gerrymandering.
They chose their voters while also squeezing in pro-GOP corporations to maximize campaign contributions. All done in what Ohio Republicans at the time called “the bunker” – a non-descript, soulless downtown Columbus hotel room with privately-controlled access so to easily slam the door in the public’s face.
Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance has made his name as a “hillbilly” turned venture capitalist. He met with Trump back in March and is now one of the many Ohio Republicans trying to get Trump’s blessing in the race to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Rob Portman. Even with all of his money and connections, Vance faces an uphill battle due to his previous anti-Trump positions, his connection to Silicon Valley elites, and the distrust he garners from real working-class Appalachians.
Vance’s best-selling memoir Hillbilly Elegy (and subsequent Netflix film of the same name) described his life’s journey – from growing up in Middletown, Ohio, while occasionally visiting family in Kentucky then joining the Marines and attending Yale. He went on to become a venture capitalist and, naturally, a poster boy for the American Dream.
After his book became a success, Vance became a CNN contributor where he explained to confused liberals why Trump won the 2016 election, although he didn’t support Trump himself. He marketed himself as the spokesperson translating Trump supporters’ anti-establishment anger to media and financial elites.