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I have a crystal ball in front of me, and I’m gazing deeply into it. I’m seeing a future, one that is bright, yet has a common feel. One that seems unfamiliar, yet refreshingly new. I’m seeing a vibrant cannabis marketplace. Cannabis-based goods and services are being exchanged between buyers and sellers for a price, much like other products. Entrepreneurs are establishing companies that make their wares available for purchase; consumers are perusing these offerings and buying the ones that fulfill their particular need at the time. The market is regulated to ensure a level playing field, but success or failure is determined by market forces like solid business plans, supply and demand - not the blunt end of a battering ram or a cash-only black market profiteer. There has been an evolution among the five medical marijuana ballot initiatives fielded in Ohio over the past five years, with the most recent one, the Ohio Cannabis Rights Amendment, quickly gaining speed as its aims for the 2014 ballot.

Japan Asks for Fukushima Help as its 14,000 Hiroshimas Still Hang 100 Feet in the Air By Harvey Wasserman As petitions (www.nukefree.org) and YouTubes ( http://www.nukefree.org/eon-films-world-action-now-fukushima ) calling for a global takeover at Fukushima soar past the 100,000 mark, Japan’s pro-nuclear Prime Minister Shinzō Abe has finally asked for international aid. The request comes more than 30 months after the 3/11/2011 earthquake/tsunami led to three melt-downs and at least four explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi site. The Prime Minister asks help controlling the massive quantities of heavily contaminated water pouring through the stricken site into the Pacific Ocean. Hundreds of huge, flimsy tanks are also leaking untold tons of highly radioactive fluids. “Our country needs your knowledge and expertise,” he has said to the world community.

I've said before to anyone who will listen (i.e. no one in particular), that history is a function of will as much as it is anything else. The ultimate will over which we struggle is that of the will of the people. And it is the will of the people that any and all protests seek to demonstrate. Of the two rallies that took place at the statehouse last Wednesday on October 2, which one better represented the will of the people? Ain't No Love reports, and will also decide. Activism is a funny bird. By the time this prints, the government will still probably be shut down. In a parallel universe, this would be a mitzvah. I will admit that I have chanted “We're gonna rise up, we're gonna shut it down” quite a number of times at demonstrations. But this isn't that parallel universe, and so instead, the federal government shutdown and the Tea Party saga are rather instructive lessons on the limits of populist activism. For the purposes of analysis, let us accept that the Tea Party is/was a movement that contained significant amounts of Astro-turf, but arose out of real popular discontent. To topple a structure, you need people pushing on the inside and the outside.

The last year has been historic for the cannabis movement. A record number of statehouses have brought up legislation to legalize cannabis for medical and even recreational purposes. One person actively pushing for cannabis rights in Ohio is Toledo resident Kevin Spitler. He is hosting the first annual “Ohio Medical Marijuana Expo” this Saturday in Toledo. I sat down with Kevin and tried to get readers a better idea of what he is trying to accomplish with this first of its kind event here in Ohio. M.R. First off Kevin, could I get a bit of background information on you for the readers? K.S. 40 years old and an Ohio native, I migrated to Michigan in search of relief in 2009. I became more and more involved in helping people along the line of education and found several avenues to do this. After several endeavors Med Joint Community Compassion Center was created. Med Joint took the lead in community involvements as well as safe access, Community involvements like a food drive which dropped off over 10,000 pounds of food to a local food pantry. I am now involved with Ohio Rights Group in the effort to help legalize Medical Cannabis as well as Industrial Hemp.

The Free Press offers five of its own news stories that could be considered censored stories in central Ohio. Censored does not mean the news items did not have any press coverage at all. Here, censored describes underreported or misreported news items, due to reporter self-censorship or media bias. 1. Romney family tied to voting machine company used in Cincinnati for 2012 presidential election “Vote counting company tied to Romney” September 27, 2012 By Gerry Bello & Bob Fitrakis “Will H.I.G.-owned e-voting machines give Romney the White House?” October 12, 2012 By Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman “Romney family and friends will help tabulate the vote count in Cincinnati: Hart Intercivic holds maintenance contracts on their own machines” October 24, 2012 By Gerry Bello and Bob Fitrakis (All from freepress.org) 2.

From Project Censored 25. Israel Gave Birth Control to Ethiopian Immigrants Without Their Consent In January Israel acknowledged that medical authorities have been giving Ethiopian immigrants long-term birth-control injections often without their knowledge or consent. 24. Widespread GMO Contamination: Did Monsanto Plant GMOs Before USDA Approval? Monsanto introduced genetically modified alfalfa in a full two years before it was deregulated according to recently released evidence. 23. Transaction Tax Helps Civilize Wall Street and Lower the National Debt In February United States senators Tom Harkin D-Iowa and Peter DeFazio D-Oregon introduced a bill to implement a new tax of three basis points that is three pennies for every hundred dollars on most nonconsumer stock trades. 22. Pennsylvania Law Gags Doctors to Protect Big Oil’s “Proprietary Secrets” In communities affected by hydraulic fracturing or fracking people understand that this process of drilling for natural gases puts the environment and their health at risk. 21.

Dear House Republicans: Well, ya done did it. You shut down the government. Congratulations! Although I'm not exactly sure for what. But let me take a stab at it. Maybe it's because you don't think the Republican Party is irrelevant enough. Or maybe it's because you want to speed up your complete obsolescence. Perhaps it's because you think your 10 percent approval rating is too high. Or maybe it's because you want to prove to Newt Gingrich that you're more reckless, irresponsible and crazier than he was back in '95. Or maybe you're all just too stupid to understand the economic implications of your unconscionable behavior. My guess? It's all of the above. Celebratory cries of "Yay!" and "Yippee!" could be heard throughout the Republican caucus at midnight last night as Speaker John Boehner turned into an even bigger pumpkin. But let's be clear: this is no Cinderella story. There's no Prince Charming to save the day. So now what, geniuses? Do you realize that the "Obama" of "Obamacare" is never going to throw his signature health care reform under the GOP bus? You do realize that you're at an impossible impasse, don't you?

By Bob Fitrakis and Jonathan Beard Hockey season starts this week. Fans cheering for the Blue Jackets in Nationwide Arena and those outside unable to afford tickets, are likely unaware that their tax money bailed out four of the wealthiest families in the city for their losing investment in the team. Despite voting not to subsidize the Arena or our hockey team, Columbus taxpayers are being duped by a convoluted financing scheme that publicly subsidizes the Arena.

Whose Arena – Your Arena!

Despite voting NO in May 1997 – citizens of Columbus, Ohio, helped purchase and now subsidize the Nationwide Arena. The Columbus City Council decided to defer to Mayor Michael Coleman and purchase Nationwide Arena, pledging future casino tax revenue funds – already promised to the taxpayers of Columbus as the way to make our city, and particularly the west side, a better place to live. Oddly, the Columbus Dispatch reported that “the vote authorized the administration of Mayor Michael B.

Cheryl Shuman. If you are unsure who she is, that will soon change. In some circles, she is already an icon. Coined the “Martha Stewart of Marijuana,” Shuman may be one of the most recognized faces in the burgeoning Cannabis industry. And an industry it is. In the report, “The State of Medical Marijuana Markets, 2011,” See Change Strategy estimated that, “A national market for medical marijuana is worth $1.7 billion in 2011 and could reach $8.9 billion in five years.” As an architect of this industry, Shuman began with a subject she knew well: the media. A master at media relations, Shuman has built the largest Cannabis media source in the world, producing content for such outlets as CNN Piers Morgan Live, Katie Couric's show, Katie, The View, Good Morning America, Fox Business News and many other international media outlets, taking them from $150,000 in gross revenues when she started to more than $6.5 million in revenue within a mere 18 months.

Ohio Republican Senator Bill Seitz (District 8) is at it again. His Senate Bill 193 is out to purge Ohio minor parties from the ballot. On Friday, September 20, former Ohio State Representative Charlie Earl announced that he is running for governor as a Libertarian candidate next year. By Tuesday, Seitz was holding hearings on his new bill that would make it difficult for Earl to stay on the ballot. Earl ran as the Libertarian candidate for Ohio Secretary of State in 2010 and received nearly 5 percent of the vote. In his announcement, Earl claimed he had “Tea Party support.” The bill requires minor parties to get 3 percent of the presidential vote in order for their party to stay officially on the Ohio ballot. Essentially, minor parties will be removed from the 2014 ballot on the grounds that they did not pass a vote test – that was not in existence in 2012.