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On October 3, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted issued a directive that no longer requires county boards of elections to send precinct-by-precinct level data to his office in time-based increments on Election Day. The new requirement is to provide their county’s “summary results” only, instead of individual precinct-by-precinct data.

On October 2, the Columbus Free Press published an article entitled “What’s up with Ohio’s election night reporting system? Nobody really knows what happens on Election Day” by Bob Fitrakis and Gerry Bello. The article pointed out that an existing Ohio Secretary of State directive had very specific requirements for county boards of elections to send precinct-by-precinct data starting once their first precinct reported, and continuing on a time schedule of every 15 minutes, 30 minutes or by the hour.

Columbus City Charter Issues 6, 7 and 8 were the subjects at an Oct. 6 debate sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Metropolitan Columbus. But the matters in dispute at the public event, held at the Whetstone Branch Library, involved only Issue 7. If approved by the voters on Nov. 4, Issue 7 would change Columbus’ procedures for citizen-initiated ordinances, referendums, charter amendments and recall elections. .

Michael Curtin, retired from The Dispatch after 38 years and now a state representative for District 17 in the Ohio House of Representatives, was pitted against Jonathan Beard, president and CEO of the Columbus Compact Corporation. Beard is also chair of the Columbus Coalition for Responsive Government, which in recent years has made several tries to place initiatives about city issues on the Columbus ballot.

Curtin was co-chair of the five-member Charter Review Commission appointed earlier this year by Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman and City Council President Andrew Ginther. The commission was charged with recommending updates and improvements to the city’s foundational governing document, the 100-year-old city charter.

“This Veteran's Day, Columbus taxpayers might want to reflect on the desecration of Vets Memorial and the rip-off of the government money designated for local veterans' well-being,” said combat veteran John Dreska.

If you're counting, here's the latest round of funny numbers that are killing Veterans Memorial. In one of the most fiscally irresponsible decisions in Franklin County history, the Commissioners will now spend nearly $10 million to demolish the structure and prepare the site for a new building. They are also giving away 12 acres to developers. Also, they've pledged a subsidy to cover operating deficits for any new facility built on the site.

The state of Ohio has pledged another $15 million welfare check for the construction of the new facility being built on the site. In a new twist, because the Arnold Classic is moving to the state fairgrounds from Vets Memorial, the state has also pledged an additional $38 million to improve the fairgrounds. The Columbus Dispatch explained that Vets Memorial was for competitive bodybuilders' "Madison Square, their Lambeau Field. Mecca."

Tyshawn Hancock’s family wonders whether or not he was targeted for death by probation officers trained to kill because of his affiliation with the sovereignty movement. Here’s what happened the last day of his life.

John Lasker won a Project Censored award for his stories regarding Military Sexual Trauma in 2012. The following is the story of a female veteran from Seattle who is desperately trying to leave Iraq behind and reclaim her past life.

The Ohio Student Association held a rally on the Statehouse steps on October 18 to demand an end to police killing of unarmed people of color both in Ohio and around the country. The group has been recently active protesting the police murder of John Crawford III in a Walmart in Beavercreek Ohio. Despite video showing Crawford being gunned down by Officer Sean Williams with virtually no warning, while holding a BB gun he intended to purchase, Williams was not indicted for any crime connected with his death.

From October 6 through 9, the group occupied the Beavercreek police station in order to present their demands to the Beavercreek Chief of Police. The Group had three demands including the firing of Williams and the charging of 911 caller Ronald Ritchie for causing the incident by making false claims to the police. The organizers also demanded better training for police to prevent future incidents. All of their demands were firmly rebuffed by the Beavercreek police chief in two separate meetings.

The Ohio Supreme Court’s recent unanimous decision allowing DUI defendants the right to challenge their breathalyzer test is a victory for adults who responsibly consume alcohol and never get behind the wheel when they have had too much, say local and state defense attorneys.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled 7-0 affirming a lower court’s decision to deny prosecution a Cincinnati man’s breathalyzer test as evidence because the state of Ohio refused to hand over computer data showing the breathalyzer machine the man tested on – the Intoxilyzer 8000 – maybe unreliable and has accuracy issues.

While the case, City of Cincinnati vs. Daniel Ilg, is about challenging the Intoxilyzer 8000, it is equally about a defendant’s right for discovery of evidence.

Since 1984 a controversial Ohio Supreme Court decision, State vs. Vega, has denied any DUI defendant the right to challenge any state-certified breathalyzer machine they tested on, and the City of Cincinnati cited Vega when it refused to hand over the computer data to Daniel Ilg’s attorney.

Members of the Ohio Students Association were confronted at 5pm today by officers in riot gear from multiple agencies after refusing to leave the Beavercreek police station. Earlier today, October 8, 2014, the students met with the police chief over demands following an officer-involved killing. Officers from Xenia, Greene County Sheriffs, Beavercreek, Fairborn, Yellow Springs and the State Highway Patrol were on hand to remove the protestors conducting a sit-in in front the station. Demonstrators tweeting from the scene noted the presence of at least two police K-9 units. Students had vowed to stay overnight but left when the police station closed after successfully shutting it down for several hours.

Dateline: Beavercreek, Ohio, 8:51pm October 6, 2014

At least 15 activists with the Ohio Student Association (OSA) are currently occupying the Beavercreek, Ohio police headquarters as of Monday, October 6, 2014. Their demand: Justice for John Crawford. In August, Crawford, a 22-year-old African-American man, was shot without warning in a local Walmart while holding an air rifle, ironically in a state that allows the open carry of A-Ks and other military assault weapons.

James Hayes, organizer with the OSA told the Free Press that, “We expect justice and we will push for justice on behalf of John Crawford.”

Hayes said the Student Association has posed three questions to Beavercreek Police Chief Dennis Evers:

1)      What is the police force going to do about the officer who shot Crawford, Officer Sean Williams, who has killed two people in the past few years?

2)      What is the police force going to do about the 911 caller Ronald Ritchie, who lied to the police, which led to the death of Crawford?