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A grand jury decided that the actions of Officer Jason Bare and Officer Zachary Rosen were reasonable in the shooting death of Henry Green in a secret process that is replicated across the nation. According to witnesses, on June 6, 2016, between 6:00 pm and 6:30 pm, the plain clothes officers rolled up suddenly on Green in an unmarked vehicle with out-of-state plates and tinted windows without identifying themselves. Along with his friend, he was walking to his aunt’s house – just 2 doors away from the shooting. According to Republican prosecutor Ron O’Brien, the grand jury heard from 20 witnesses with varying accounts of what transpired.
Two events on this subject have occurred recently. The first on February 15th and the second on March 7th. The first was a "speaking and listening" session held at the 1st Unitarian Universalist Church and the second was a follow-up hosted by Tifereth Israel Synagogue with speakers from New York, Detroit and Baltimore discussing their experiences implementing their city's programs. The links to these videos are:
Speakers at the Sanctuary City demonstration Monday, March 13 outside Columbus City Hall demaded sanctuary for all: "Immigrants, refugees, Muslims, Mexicans, Asians, Black people and Trans people." Although it was bitterly cold, several dozen people held signs and rallied hoping to get their message to the Mayor and City Council meeting inside.
Speakers included organizer Pranav Jani of the International Socialist Organization, Ruben Herrera of the Central Ohio Workers Center, Zarqa Abid of ProjectUSA, Tynan Krakoff of Showing Up for Racial Justice, Tammy Fournier Alsaada of the People's Justice Project and others. All of them agreed that Mayor Ginther had given lip service to making Columbus a sanctuary and opportunity city -- but the continuation of Columbus police shooting black people, pepper spraying and arresting protestors and the expansion of the Summer Safety Initiative prove he is not serious about creating safety for all residents of the city. The crowd chanted "Liberation! No incarceration!" "Black Lives Matter!" and "No Ban, No Wall!"
The warning sounded ominous: “… three unresponsive persons calls in the last 24 hours. The common denominator appears to be marijuana laced with an unknown opiate. The victims are unaware they are using anything other than marijuana but are overdosing like they had used heroin or fentanyl. Be cautious and call 911 ASAP if you suspect an overdose.”
Yikes. So I read a post on the Facebook page of the Painesville Township Fire Department on February 8, 2016.
Fair? Ohio has indeed been hit hard by the opioid crisis. A recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation accorded Ohio the dubious distinction of having highest number of annual opiate-related deaths – some 2,106. This tragedy has touched countless families and stretched the limited resources of first responders like fire departments.
On first blush, the warning had the community interest at heart. Or did it?
Within a few hours, the post had gone viral. As of this writing, 4,846 shares, 259 likes and 120 comments, for an organization that received only one congratulatory note for its 50th anniversary.
What may be America's most dangerous, decrepit and disastrous nuke is facing Judgment Day. And it could cost you both your money and your life. The infamous Davis-Besse reactor, near Toledo, is at the breaking point. It is poised to lose hundreds of millions of dollars for its owners and Ohio rate payers. So, of course, the "free enterprise" Republican legislature is poised to give those nuke operators a massive bailout. To the tune of more than $4 Billion (that's not a typo).
Natural Gas is cheaper. New gas plants far in excess of DB are under construction. Ohio has tremendous wind resources, far in excess of anything we will ever need and far more than it would take to replace DB. Thanks to spectacular technological advances in recent years, that wind power—along with new solar panels—is cheaper, safer, cleaner and more reliable than the nuke, and would create thousands of jobs beyond the few hundred at Davis-Besse.
In February, Columbus City officials announced a massive giveaway to a major developer to build upscale housing at Easton. The city and school district will forego a total of $68 million in property taxes over the next thirty years. In return, The Georgetown Co. will make a total of $5.75 million in contributions toward development in the Linden area – $4.25 million of which will be repaid to them using a tax increment financing district, or TIF. The deal also requires Georgetown to create a total of 500 full-time, non-retail jobs over the next 11 years. Ostensibly the income tax revenue from these jobs would offset a portion of the lost property tax - but the penalty for missing the goal is only $100,000 per year.
Some of you may already know that Carolyn Harding of Columbus traveled to Standing Rock this week to stand with the people in that community standing up to protect their water and their community. Carolyn was one of the final arrests made. Carolyn has posted many pictures and accounts of her experience on her Facebook page.
Jewish Voice for Peace Central Ohio was saddened to learn of the recent vandalism of the Ahlul Bayt Society Islamic Center on Dublin-Granville Road. Surveillance cameras at the mosque caught the perpetrator writing anti-Muslim messages on the front glass doors of the mosque after morning prayer on Saturday, February 11, 2017. The case has been referred to local law enforcement, who will investigate this as a possible hate crime. This mosque is a center of prayer for fellow Ohioans, and as such deserves to be treated with care and respect.
This act does not represent the values and ideals of our community. We stand in solidarity with all those who are targeted by such hateful behavior and all who are made to feel insecure by the ignorance that produces it. We believe that security, strength, and understanding is fostered and sustained when the community stands up in dark times and vocally opposes the normalization of such events. The Jewish tradition teaches that we take ownership over the character of our community and advance tikkun olam (or repair of the world) by exchanging hate for love.
Federal agents from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office, also known by the chilling acronym ICE, have ramped up their efforts locally since Trump’s immigration ban. According to the Columbus-based Ohio Hispanic Coalition, ICE is waiting outside the homes of suspected undocumented immigrants, following them in unmarked cars, pulling them over without cause, and in some cases, arresting them when they cannot provide proof they are American citizens.
So far six Columbus families have had loved ones arrested by ICE after they drove away from their homes, says Josue Vicente, the executive director of the Ohio Hispanic Coalition, a non-profit for Ohio’s Latino population. He suspects there are more families who are too afraid to come forward with similar stories.
Vicente says some of undocumented immigrants arrested are believed to not have criminal records or outstanding warrants in the US or their home country.
WASHINGTON DC -- Moments ago, Reuters reported that in a phone call between Russian and U.S. Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, Trump rejected the possibility of extending the New START Treaty and derided the nuclear arms control agreement as favoring Russia.
The New START Treaty requires that both the United States and Russia reduce their deployed strategic nuclear warheads to no more than 1,550 accountable offensively deployed weapons by 2018, the lowest level since the 1950s. It also caps the number deployed land- and submarine-based missiles and nuclear-capable bombers. It does all this under rigorous on-the-ground inspections by both countries.