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Why would the Ohio Green Party Co-Chair end up addressing Bernie Sanders delegates in Philly during the Democratic Party convention? I found myself with them in a pizza place in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania at the behest of the mostly-California-based Election Justice organization.

UPS is the world’s biggest package-delivery corporation and has a major hub on the west side. Earlier this year the hub was awarded a property tax abatement by Columbus City Council and it should save UPS $10.4 million over the next decade. City Council claimed it was needed so UPS doesn’t move the hub that employs 800 to the suburbs or even out of state. The tax break would also create 75 additional jobs, said both UPS and city council.

As we go to press, the devastating numbers are coming in from the special election polls. It appears Issue One has failed.

At the crux of the anti-Issue One campaign was the Big Lie that the idea of a city with representative districts came from "The party of Trump" who were supposedly "associated with the Koch Brothers." Ironically, many voters were worried about an increased cost of $20 million to the city budget, which was part of the anti-Issue One campaign's false advertising. In reality, the movement for more representation was created after the all-Democratic Columbus City Council gave away a quarter of a billion dollars to Nationwide Insurance and four of the richest families to bail them out for a bad investment in the Columbus Blue Jackets hockey team.

The New York Times published an astonishing article last week that blames green power for difficulties countries are facing to mitigate climate change.

The article by Eduardo Porter, How Renewable Energy is Blowing Climate Change Efforts Off Course, serves as a flagship for an on-going attack on the growth of renewables. It is so convoluted and inaccurate that it requires a detailed response.

As Mark Jacobson, director of Atmosphere/Energy Program at Stanford University, pointed out to me via email:

If approved at the August 2 special election, Issue 1 will end Columbus’ seven-member city council whose members are all elected citywide (i.e., “at large”). Replacing it will be a council consisting of 10 members elected from districts of the city and 3 elected citywide.

The present system was designed over a hundred years ago for a city less than a fourth of Columbus’ present size. The reform would make council’s structure consistent with what’s used by virtually every other large American city.

Issue 1 opponents are ignoring the present system’s problems and the changes the reform would bring. They’re hoping voters will too. 

A currently divided city

Opponents say districts would divide the city and pit neighborhoods against each other. They ignore, however, that the present system has produced this very result by favoring certain areas and neglecting others.

As the Democratic Convention opens in Philadelphia, there’s just one one clear message that matters from the Republicans: Donald Trump will be within ten points of Hillary Clinton in the fall election. 

Thus, unless the Democrats do something about the issue of election protection, it will be within the power of key GOP swing state governors to give Donald Trump the presidency.

For all its problems, the wildly disorganized and fractious gathering in Cleveland all boiled down to Trump’s final speech. It was rambling and often incoherent. But it delivered the classic strongman message: You need ME to protect you.

Given the chaos, violence, and injustice of imperial America in 2016, that message is almost certain to sell with enough Americans to keep Trump close enough to Hillary Clinton to allow the election to be electronically stripped and flipped.

In 2008 and 2012, Barack Obama was able to overcome these barriers with a huge popular margin in more states than the GOP could reasonably steal. 

PG&E has also earmarked some $350 million to “retain and retrain” Diablo’s workforce, whose union has signed on to the deal, which was crafted in large part by major environmental groups.

Monday, June 6th, 2016 proved to be the start of a very long hot summer for the residents that live in the part of Columbus that the Columbus Police Department (CPD) have deemed “Hot Zone” areas. It also proved to be the day that another young Black man was killed by police officers “in the line of duty.”

Twenty-three-year-old Henry Green V, was shot to death by plainclothes police officers Jason Bare and Zachary Rosen. The officers were driving their unmarked car in a “Hot Zone” area. These officers were working under the guise of the city’s new Summer Safety Initiative program.  A program initiated by our new mayor, Andrew Ginther, to help decrease violence in areas that the police say have the “highest crime rate” in the city.  

Anyone who has read the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, knows that it is full of wild stories – tales of sex, murder and betrayal that would make a dime-store novelist blush. But genocide? Incest? Yep, they're in there too. And according to a group of deep – and free – thinkers, those crimes against humanity are being celebrated in larger-than-life fashion just an hour south of the Buckeye state.  And in part at taxpayers' expense, no less.

The Ark Encounter opens its doors on July 7th, and the word around the well is that Noah himself would have been impressed. At 510 feet long, 85 feet wide and 51 feet high, the timber-frame building (allegedly the world's largest) is built to the dimensions mentioned in the book of Genesis. Situated about midway between Cincinnati and Lexington on I-75 in Williamstown, Kentucky, the Ark Encounter will relive the saga of the thunderstorm to end all thunderstorms. Complete with animal couples (yes, even dinosaurs) the Ark Encounter serves as the companion piece to the Creation Museum, 45 minutes to the north.

There is an old joke I remember:

Q.: “How do you know when a politician is lying”
A: “His/her lips are moving.”

This certainly seems to be the case with One Columbus, the politician-supported political action committee (PAC) formed to oppose Issue 1 – the citizen’s ballot issue that will be voted on in a special election August 2nd proposing a change to Columbus City Council. The group appears to be launching a campaign against the citizens’ initiative, based solely on lies or distortions.