News

Diebold: the controversial manufacturer of voting and ATM machines, whose name conjures up the demons of Ohio’s 2004 presidential election irregularities, is now finally under indictment for a “worldwide pattern of criminal conduct.” Federal prosecutors filed charges against Diebold, Inc. on Tuesday, October 22, 2013 alleging that the North Canton, Ohio-based security and manufacturing company bribed government officials and falsified documents to obtain business in China, Indonesia and Russia. Diebold has agreed to pay $50 million to settle the two criminal counts against it. This is not the first time Diebold’s been accused of bribery. In 2005, the Free Press exposed that Matt Damschroder, Republican chair of the Franklin County of Elections in 2004, reported that a key Diebold operative told Damschroder he made a $50,000 contribution to then-Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell's “political interests” while Blackwell was evaluating Diebold's bids for state purchasing contracts. Damschroder admitted to personally accepting a $10,000 check from former Diebold contractor Pasquale “Patsy” Gallina made out to the Franklin County Republican Party.

Some things are just too good to let go. So with a nod of respect to The Other Paper and its annual Halloween masks, The Free Press is pleased to serve up City Council President Andrew Ginther as this year’s Halloween trick. So what makes this an appropriate honor? Well, Ginther is a kind of modern day political Frankenstein … a Democrat on paper whose execution of office has distinctly Republican overtones. What do we mean? – well, let’s consider ...

Corporate welfare

Republicans love corporate welfare, and so does Council President Ginther. The year was 2011, and the power elite of this community decided they no longer wanted to accept the money-losing consequences of the business risks they took in building an arena to house the Blue Jackets NHL franchise. So what’s a council president to do? First, meet in private for two years with representatives of this group of multimillionaires to figure out how to help them.

Campaign Finance Spending

Pro levy sponsors Reimagine Columbus Education reported spending $2,266,005.86 for the period ending October 16th. That’s a lot of money – 5 times more than in the previous school levy campaign – to not yet have convinced a majority of voters that the bad ideas in Issues 50 and 51 are good ideas. The citizen opposition group has spent less than $1,820.00.

How Low Can They Go

People with “Just Say No” to Issues 50 & 51 Yard Signs report they are being stolen from their yards. Are the Pro-Tax Hike forces really that desperate?

Lower Still

People report that Linden McKinley STEM students are going door-to-door asking people to vote for the levy. Linden-McKinley was renovated and currently has an F rating. It was also a school where data scrubbing occurred. We wonder if the students know the full story.

Legal Fees

Columbus City Schools continue to rack up legal bills.

Independent candidate for Columbus City Council Nicholas Schneider is making his support for public access TV a major issue of his campaign. The issue is featured on his campaign’s website, and he is raising it at campaign events. At the Oct. 16 candidates’ forum at Centennial High School, Schneider charged that Council’s failure to fund public access TV stems from a desire to suppress freedom of speech and dissenting views in the city. During closing remarks at the event, Schneider said that earlier in the evening he asked Democratic incumbent Councilman Troy Miller what Miller’s position is on the issue, but Miller refused to answer. The audience at the event also heard nothing about the issue from Eileen Paley and Priscilla Tyson, the other two incumbent Democratic Council members on the Nov. 5 ballot. Schneider later told The Free Press that public access TV would be good for local groups to use to communicate with the public and for showing documentaries made by activists around the country.

Eight weeks ago The Free Press filed a public records request with Columbus City Schools (CCS), related to legal fees.

When you run a well-oiled political machine like Michael Coleman, you don’t expect to hear any squeaks. The Mayor’s commitment to pass Issues 50 and 51, the Columbus School levy issue and the establishment of an independent School auditor, appeared to be a non-controversial landslide. Imagine his dismay now, with less than two weeks to go before Election Day, knowing opposition is spreading spontaneously in unexpected places. First, “It’s OK To Vote No on the Columbus City Schools Levy 50 & 51” popped up with a strong internet presence. Then “No Cheaters, No Charters Columbus” began placing “Vote No on 50/51” yard signs around the city. But the Mayor knew he was in for a battle, looking genuinely stunned and agitated when the Columbus Council of PTAs unanimously rejected his levy proposals. The Mayor’s headaches grew on Wednesday, October 16 when a new group emerged opposing the levy issues – Citizens Against Issues 50 & 51. The group sprang from Khari Enaharo’s Magic 106.3 radio talk show and includes three well-known African American ministers: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s cousin Joel L. King, Jr., and Pastors Dale B. Snyder and Frederick LeMarr.

On an ink-stained night in October, 1973, sheriffs near Zanesville witnessed three pulsating globes over a local graveyard on the edge of town. UFOs hovering over graveyards sounds like a bad plot line to one of the countless number of abysmal horror films made in the last decade. But 40 years ago this month, and just days before thousands of kids flooded the streets for Halloween, the truth was way stranger than fiction as a UFO wave swept across the Midwest in October of 1973. Even the Ohio governor at the time, John J. Gilligan, had a close encounter with an “amber-colored vertical craft” for 30 minutes as he was driving with his wife. “I saw one the other night, so help me,” said the shaken Gilligan during a press conference that was cited by Walter Cronkite during the national news. “I'm absolutely serious. I saw this. It was not a plane. It was not a bird. It didn't wear a cape. And I really don't know what it was.” Gilligan, a liberal Democrat, was voted out of office the following year. Not for claiming he saw a UFO chasing his car in the dead of night – but for implementing Ohio’s income tax.

We believe there are two things a public entity should demonstrate before going to the ballot for a levy: trust and merit. The public entity should earn the trust of voters through complete transparency, and the public entity should present a ballot proposal that has obvious merit. With Issues 50 and 51, we have questions about both those prerequisites. It is beyond obvious that the Board of Education has taken a low profile during this levy campaign, and the public has not heard directly from the Board, but from a million dollar advertising campaign organized by the Mayor’s Office. However, it is the Board of Education that should be held responsible for previous transgressions, and for levy promises. There has been much solid reporting on the transgressions, but no media has been able to nail the Board of Education down to some obvious inconsistencies in its response. We ask that the Columbus news media pursue solid answers to these questions from the Board of Education prior to the levy, so that voters can have complete information prior to casting a vote. 1. Background: Columbus City Schools has been unclear on its beliefs about data scrubbing.

“The Butler: A Witness to History” author, Washington Post reporter and Columbus native Wil Haygood will be the keynote speaker at this year’s Columbus Association of Black Journalists (CABJ)’s 25th anniversary celebration. Wil Haygood, whose grandparents are from Selma, Alabama, is a journalist and cultural historian. His success as a journalist has opened the door to key newsrooms and reporting sites around the world. His thoughtful studies of iconic personalities Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., Sammy Davis, Jr., and Sugar Ray Robinson prepared him well for the gentle interrogation needed to unlock the wealth of information maintained by Eugene Allen, butler to U.S. presidents for 34 years. As author of “The Butler: A Witness to History,” Haygood provided the inspiration for a movie that has informed America of key moments during political processes that enriched and strengthened many community and political actors. For the past 25 years, the Columbus Association of Black Journalists (CABJ) has been dedicated to the support, recognition and professional advancement of African Americans in the news industry.

The Ohio UFO flap of 1973 made history for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the so-called Coyne Incident, which stands as one of the best documented UFO encounters. While 1973 stands out in the annals of ufology, it is far from being an isolated incident. UFOs were sighted frequently before 1973 and continue to be reported in the Buckeye State to this day. Ohio is, in fact, one of the more active states for UFO sightings, according to the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC). With California the number one state in reports (with 8,248 reports between 1994 and 2011), Ohio ranked number nine with 1,813 reports in the same period. The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) ranks Ohio number 12 on its list of most reported sightings by state. MUFON also ranks California its number one state for sightings. One of the more well known events in recent history happened in the Cleveland area in March of 2010, when witnesses reported seeing odd lights over Lake Erie for nine consecutive nights. A MUFON investigator went to the scene in Euclid and was able to observe the phenomenon.