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January 25, 2001 - Imagine Columbus Alive's surprise last week when Nigel Rosser, a British journalist and reported confidant of the royal family, contacted us to inquire about Prince Andrew's central Ohio connection. Rosser had read two award-winning Alive stories--"The Shapiro Murder File" and "Spook Air"--and wanted to chat about our own Leslie Wexner and his top aide, the mysterious Jeffrey E. Epstein.

Rosser's article, published in the London Evening Standard on January 22, described Prince Andrew's recent behavior as "erratic" and "greatly upset[ing]" the royal family. The Prince has been so busy partying with his new American pals, even his ex-wife Fergie is complaining.

Who's to blame for Andrew's failure to babysit for his daughters Beatrice and Eugenie, according to Rosser's article? None other than Ghislaine Maxwell, who has been spotted in the Prince's company at hotspots-of-the-rich-and-famous around the world. Ghislaine is the daughter of the infamous financier Robert Maxwell, who died after falling overboard from his yacht in 1991.

In this year’s elections around Athens County, Ohio, there are a number of independent candidates running for office, including several socialists.

McCray Powell (I, Nelsonville) and Ellie Hamrick (I, Athens) are both running for office as independent socialists for City Council in their respective cities.

As socialists, Hamrick and Powell believe in workers controlling their own workplaces and communities, instituted by revolutionary system-change that must occur from “the bottom up.”

“Socialism to me is workers running the world that they created,” Powell argued. McCray Powell says that he developed his Marxist beliefs through his experiences at previous jobs he’s worked, including working as a cashier, factory worker, retail worker, maintenance worker, server, fast-food worker, and as a wine-bottler.

Hamrick says that she had first started her activist journey by reading Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle in middle school; activist work throughout her time at Ohio University, however, was what fully solidified her socialist beliefs.

Never in the history of First Ladies’ memoirs has there been a book so eagerly awaited as the one written by Michelle Obama. When Becoming hit the stores on November 13, 2018, it took only a week for the book to rocket to No. 1 in the New York Times Book Review, and is still a top ranked book in a dozen countries. According to Crown Publishing, more than six million units in all formats and editions have been sold in the U. S. and Canada, andBecoming has been translated into forty-four languages. The hardcover version of Becoming has sold more copies than any other nonfiction hardcover book published since 2007; it has sold more copies in 2018 than any other book published that year.

Mrs. Obama embarked on a tour that took her throughout the United States and Europe where she spoke in sold out venues; additional dates were added in the last several months. She has been met with rapturous crowds that are more common for rock stars than authors.

What does a community herbalist do? “Many people are confused when they see my business cards. says ‘Lily Kunning, Community Herbalist.’ Some are familiar with clinical or medical herbalists and wonder if that means that I do not see clients. Actually, I was trained in a clinical herbalism program and do indeed see clients. So why do I call myself a community herbalist?”

The answer is perspective and point-of-view for Kunning. To her, community herbalism is not “less than clinical herbalism” but instead is a form of activism rooted in plant medicine – what Lily calls “the people’s medicine,” because people can grow their own treatments cheaply.

In the past, all herbalists were community herbalists, and it wasn’t until the advent of heroic and capitalist medicine that a distinction was made between clinical and community herbalists, much in the way that western philosophy emphasizes the individual and the mind over the community and the body. In the past, healers treated everyone in their community, because the health of the community ensured the health of all individuals. “We need to get back to a community-centered form of healing.” says Kunning.

I fought for over 8 years for medical cannabis legalization for Ohio's patients so when it became a reality in 2016, I wanted to take what I learned in my years of patient advocacy and participate in Ohio's budding new green industry. So I was super excited when, in January of this year, I was hired by Green Thumb Industries as their Patient and Community Outreach Manager. I felt this role gave me a great opportunity to continue my work helping patients discover a better and more natural way to treat their ailments and live healthier lives.

But my excitement soon faded when I realized just how oppressive the Ohio Board of Pharmacy was going to be in their oversight and enforcement of this industry. Everything, and I mean everything, we wanted to do to engage the public and the patient community had to be fully detailed in a report to the State inspector at least two weeks prior to any given event and they had the final say in what we could and, more importantly, couldn't say or do.

On April 8, two days after the death of Rubén Castilla Herrera, the team that supports Miriam Vargas gathered at First English Lutheran Church on the Near East Side. They met to remember Rubén, who started the sanctuary movement in Columbus. Miriam and her family have been living in sanctuary at First English since June. 

Miriam was overcome with grief. She met with the team as usual but could only say a few words. “He was like my father,” she said. “He was like a grandfather to my daughters.”

Reverend Sally Padgett, senior pastor at First English, did her best to comfort Miriam. “We’re still here to fight for you,” she said.

The team met again two days later to figure out how to carry on the work without Rubén, who left very big shoes to fill. “Rubén was always texting me early in the morning, asking ‘What to you need?’” Miriam said. “He brought me books in Spanish from the library. He would horse around with my daughter Camilla. He gave me strength every single day. He was my angel. I always told him that. He would always say, ‘I’m just here to help.’”

Columbus’ original beatnik and prime hippie #1 Charlie Einhorn passed into the cosmos in April 2019. So central was Charlie to Columbus’ budding counterculture of the 1960s is that the first headshop took its name from his musical instrument, Charlie’s Guitar. His good friend and co-conspirator Stan Bobrof told the Free Press Charlie’s Guitar was “where it’s at.” Charlie is now drinking coffee and reminiscing with Stan in paradise.

One of the most interesting and unknown aspects of Charlie’s life was his escape from the holocaust and journey to Belgium and eventually the United States. He later relished teaching new immigrants English as a Second Language, because he could relate from his own experiences.

The Freep itself owes a huge debt to Charlie Einhorn and his wife Lynn Stan for the uncountable hours they put in – way into night laying out the paper in the 1990s. Charlie moved the Free Press out of the paste-up stone ages into the desktop publishing era. His creative ideas for the cover were some of the best in Freep history.

The resurrected Columbus Destroyers open the season this Saturday night on the road against the Albany Empire (7 pm broadcast on CD102.5), but Destroyers’ head coach Matt Sauk isn’t letting on who will be under center and their starting quarterback could be a game-day decision.

“We’ll name a starter when we line up for the first play of the game,” said Sauk, who himself played quarterback for Utah State and in the Arena Football League (AFL).

The Destroyers have two quarterbacks in camp at the Bo Jackson Dome in Hilliard. Rookie Grant Russell from Newark, Ohio, and 36-year-old AFL veteran Danny Southwick. In the AFL it’s all about the quarterback all the time, where 98 percent of the plays are passing attempts.

On a recent weekday at camp the 6'4″Russell took the majority of snaps with the first-team offense. Barely recruited out of Newark High School, Russell found a home at Division II Ohio Dominican University where he started three seasons and excelled, completing 72.5 percent of his passes in 2017, and was named Great Midwest Athletic Conference player of the year.

Friday, April 12, 2019, 6:00 PM. 
Holding space with Miriam Vargas to honor Rubén Castilla Herrera and provide support. First English Lutheran Church, 1015 E. Main St., Columbus, Ohio 43205.

Earth Day at Kossuth Street Garden-Tribute to Ruben Herrera and Amber Evans
Sat, April 13, 11am
641 E. Kossuth St.
Free and open to all. This is our 11th year and we will honor all social justice advocates, including Ruben Herrera and Amber Evans. An Easter Egg hunt will be at 10:30 at E Kossuth and Wager Street in Kobacker Park, sponsored by Southern Orchards Civic Association "Blessed be the peacemakers."

Saturday, April 13, 2019, 3:00 PM.  Honoring the Life of Ruben Herrera.  
Funeral service is open to all who want to join us in celebrating Rubén.  For those who are able, we will meet on the steps of the Statehouse at 1:30 PM and march to the church.  
Location: Broad St. United Methodist Church, 501 E. Broad St. 

Ruben Castilla Herrera was the uncompromising conscience of central Ohio’s activist community. Wherever there was injustice – Ruben was there, demonstrating, demanding, asserting the rights of the people. Ruben dedicated himself to helping the working people, the underpaid, the Immokalee farmworkers. He was never caught up in personal gain for himself or making political connections.

He didn’t really trust elected public officials. What he understood was that real democracy was in the streets and injustice must be confronted. Public officials that tolerated it had to be called out. He led us in rallies about immigrant rights, sanctuary, police abuse, peace. He was always there with a bullhorn, his thought-provoking speeches inspiring hundreds through the years. Like legendary activists before him – Cesar Chavez, Eugene Debs, Martin Luther King, Jr. – Ruben was ubiquitous and unyielding.