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An estimated 5500 people came out to support science at the March for Science April 22 in Columbus, Ohio today. The marchers started at the Statehouse and walked to the Commons for the Earth Day celebration.
Drone photos courtesy of Eric Vestfals
On April 11, a local anti-corruption group held the Columbus Grassroots Anti-Corruption Forum from 6:30pm-8:00pm EST, at the Columbus Metropolitan Library, 850 N. Nelson Rd., Columbus, OH, 43219. Anti-corruption activists, local leaders, and national experts attended the forum to discuss state-based strategies to to pass anti-corruption reform, gerrymandering reform, and open primaries.
“After almost 100 days of a new administration, it’s clear that the government still won’t drain the swamp: we have to fix corruption ourselves.” Said Barbara Eakins, local member of Represent.Us, the nation’s largest grassroots anti-corruption campaign, which brings together conservatives, progressives and everyone in between to pass anti-corruption laws in cities and states around the country. Represent.Us’ local members helped organize the forum. “There is an anti-corruption movement growing in Ohio, and this forum gives local activists what they need to get involved in fighting our corrupt political system, starting right here in Columbus.” continued Eakins.
Speakers at the forum included:
"When you kill innocent children, innocent babies, little babies . . . that crosses . . . many lines." -- Donald J. Trump, April 5, 2017
Hypocrisy, because:
Children Killed on January 29 in Donald Trump's Botched Yemen Raid
Asma Fahad Ali al Ameri -- 3 months
Aisha Mohammed Abdallah al Ameri – 4 years
Halima Hussein al Aifa al Ameri – 5 years
Hussein Mohammed Abdallah Mabkhout al Ameri – 5 years
Mursil Abedraboh Masad al Ameri – 6 years
Khadija Abdallah Mabkhout al Ameri – 7 years
Nawar Anwar al Awlaqi – 8 years
Ahmed Abdelilah Ahmed al Dahab – 11 years
Nasser Abdallah Ahmed al Dahab – 12 years
And one of these victims, eight-year-old Nawar "Nora" Awlaqi, was an American citizen.
Gar Smith / Environmentalists Against War www.envirosagainstwar.org
Ohio’s environment and the planet would be more peaceful and green if Dennis Kucinich was in charge. That was his message when the former Cleveland mayor, former U.S. Congressperson and former presidential candidate spoke Saturday, April 1 at Columbus’ 5th Annual Move to Amend statewide conference. Kucinich’s keynote was entitled “Ending Corporate Personhood and Money as Speech.” He touched on several environmental and social justice issues that could be changed if the Move to Amend movement was successful in passing a Constitutional amendment to reverse several U.S. Supreme Court decisions during the past century and thereby firmly establish that corporations are not people and that money is not free speech.
Kucinich held up the March issue of the Columbus Free Press as he referred to Harvey Wasserman’s article “Ohio’s Crumbling Nukes Face Judgment Day” about the attempt to have taxpayers bail out Ohio’s nuclear power plants. He described Free Press Senior Editor Wasserman as “one of the foremost citizen activists anywhere on nuclear issues.”
In a world rife with 24/7 breaking news alerts, chaos in politics and fearful citizens, a tonic can be the healthy foods coming from our community gardens in Columbus.
Kossuth Street Garden has been operational since 2007, bringing social justice in the form of fresh fruits and vegetables and community involvement to a food desert on the near south side of Columbus. This is an area just south of Nationwide Children's Hospital that is third in the nation in black infant mortality rates and is in transition from blight to hope.
The site has a rich history. At one point it was the site of a slaughterhouse in this former predominantly Jewish neighborhood. Men and women liberated from Nazi concentration camps walked to work into the kosher sections of the slaughterhouse. It then became a produce warehouse and which was torn down in 1996.
Donald Trump should love hemp. That’s right, you know, hemp is terrific. Just terrific. It’s going to make a tremendous amount of money for people in this great country. Win big. Really big.
… or at least that’s what we’d like to hear him say.
Trying to find the new administration’s position on hemp and hemp alone is like parsing hemp stacks for chemical pesticides and herbicides. Non-existent.
But Donald Trump should love hemp anyway and here’s why.
First the necessary primer. Hemp and its more popular cousin marijuana are related, but still quite different. Both emanate from the cannabis plant, but like, say, the familiar family dog, they are distinct. Canines can be bred to be giant Great Danes or tiny Chihuahuas, gentle and kind Labrador Retrievers or strong and aggressive Pit Bulls. By analogy, the hemp plant can be grown to be strong and fibrous for cordage that sails ships, or molecularly balanced for the oils that treat seizures in small children. Believe me, this plant is incredible.
In honor of Earth Day, Ohio Republicans and Donald Trump in the White House have unleashed a two-prong attack to destroy clean air and clean water in the Buckeye State.
Ohio House Republicans destroy renewable energy
The Ohio House Republicans pushed through a bill ending government assistance for renewal wind and solar power in Ohio. By a 65 to 29 vote, House Bill 114 passed and will now go on to the Senate. Governor John Kasich vetoed similar legislation in December 2016. There were 66 House Republicans and it only takes 60 to override a veto. It would take 20 votes to override a Kasich veto in the Senate. Last December’s veto only garnered 18 Senate votes.
Ordinary people have extraordinary power.
That’s the philosophy behind Defund Injustice, a newly formed coalition based in Columbus that seeks to organize the people’s power of the purse. In a consumer-driven economy, the power of the purse is king. Where people choose to spend and invest their money can be a remarkably persuasive driver of social change. The same can be said of where cities choose to spend and invest taxpayer dollars.
Take, for example, the recent consumer-driven change in the production of eggs. Twenty years ago there were three types of eggs widely available to consumers: small, medium and large. The recent, and growing, interest in more humane egg production practices has resulted in the widespread availability of cage-free and free-range eggs. Last year major restaurant chains, like McDonalds, Taco Bell and Dunkin Donuts, promised to use cage-free eggs in their food production.
The administration at Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) has been targeting and restricting Hasan's communication access on any pretense they can find or invent since his outspoken support for the nation-wide prisoner strike on September 9th of 2016.
Hasan and another prisoner, Jason Robb began refusing food when the OSP administration put them on a 90 day communication restriction for being interviewed by the Netflix documentary series Captives. Hasan appealed the RIB's decision, arguing that they violated policies regarding timelines, access to witnesses, and prisoners' due process rights. Director Mohr's response to the appeal was a form letter that did not address any of the issues Hasan raised.
