Protest Reports
In a viral video that has racked up more than half a million views, students from Columbus Alternative High School (CAHS) urged Gov. DeWine and key legislators to deliver on their promise of fairly and fully funding public schools during the 2023 budget cycle.
The Ohio Organizing Collaborative (OOC) – a grassroots people-centered power organization – helped create the viral video in collaboration with CAHS students. They released it last week on All In For Ohio’s Instagram page, along with an online petition to key legislators urging them to fully fund our schools.
The video has attracted significant statewide and national recognition for hitting a nerve in the ongoing debate around public schools and charter schools.
Hundreds of crime survivors and families of murdered loved ones from 35 cities across Ohio gathered at the statehouse atrium today, urging lawmakers to expand support for crime victims and make communities safer. Crime survivors were joined by elected officials, including Reps. Tavia Galonski (D-Akron) and Brett Hillyer (R-Uhrichsville), at Survivors Speak Ohio – an annual event organized by Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice (CSSJ) – with families holding photos of murdered loved ones and advocating for public safety reforms.
City of Columbus mayoral candidate Joe Motil states, “The OSU student newspaper The Lantern reported today that the warming center for the unsheltered, located in the Summit United Methodist Church is closing Monday at 6PM because of increased safety concerns. “According to 10TV, the Division of Police reported that two people were stabbed February 10th at the warming center.” But this is only publicized a week later. Motil adds, “The other 24-hour warming center located at 501 East Broad Street closed its doors about two weeks ago.”
The Oil and Gas Land Management Commission met Wednesday morning to discuss a change to the Ohio Revised Code which will compel state agencies starting April 7 to approve any request from the oil and gas industry for extraction on public land.
In attendance at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources office on Morse Road was a group of dedicated users of Ohio state parks and forests who demanded robust public notice and commenting procedures before any state lands are fracked or drilled, as well as calling out the oil and gas industry’s grab of our public land.
The meeting follows the passage of HB 507, signed into law by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on January 6. HB 507 forces any state agency, which owns a parcel of public land, to allow the oil and gas industry to extract from public land. It changed the phrase “may lease” to “shall lease” under the law.
Protesters staging a protest outside the Lincoln Theatre on East Long Street in Columbus, Ohio before the City of Columbus's Martin Luther King Day Program, demanding change and action in the City, in regards to equality and preventing violence.
These protesters were carrying signs demanding justice for recent high-profile Black murders in the Columbus area, including Andre Hill (killed by a then-Columbus Police Officer in Northwest Columbus in December 2020), Donovan Lewis (a 20 year-old Black man who was killed by Columbus Police in the Hilltop), and 13 year-old Sinzae Reed. Reed, who was murdered in October 2022 outside the Wedgewood Apartments in West Columbus was murdered by a 36 year-old White man. On January 17, the Columbus Dispatch reported that the Franklin County Coroner's Office officially declared Reed's death a homicide.
Columbus activists submitted the following letter to Tyack’s office on Thursday
Dear Mr. Tyack:
On October 12th of 2022, 36-year-old Krieg Butler Sr. mercilessly shot Sinzae Reed, 13, in the Wedgewood Apartment Complex multiple times. He then fled the scene of the incident, leaving the youth for dead. At the time of the murder, Mr. Butler was on probation for a domestic violence dispute which, according to all available interpretations of Ohio law, should have precluded Mr. Butler from owning a firearm in the first place.
Ohio House Bill 434 has passed the House. Proponent testimony will be heard in the Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee on Nov. 29, 2022. It is likely that opposition testimony will be held the following Tuesday, Dec. 6, with a vote possible that day. HB 434 could open the State of Ohio to a lot of mischief.
Find your senator’s name and contact information using your address. Write one letter and use it SIX WAYS! Here’s how: write or phone to stop Ohio House Bill 434.
The Ohio Nuclear Free Network has created a 4-page flier with 28 concise points on why this bill is dangerous and precedent-setting. This article has highlights from the flier. A link to the flier is at the end of this article. You can write a letter in your own words, copy and paste talking points from the flier, OR send the entire flier.
The theme of the salon was “The Impact of the 2022 Elections: Local, National and International.” It was available live on Zoom and Facebook Live.
The following was presented by Becca Calhoun member of the Committee to Defend Julian Assange – Ohio at the Saturday, October 8 rally and march at the Ohio Statehouse and U.S. Federal Courthoue in Columbus.
Thanks to you folks who are giving your Saturday hours on this international day to defend Julian Assange. Thousands of people have now formed a human chain around Parliament in London demanding Julian Assange’s Freedom. There is a Hands Off Assange event at the Justice Department in D.C. right now, with a list of VIP speakers and public intellectuals who are defending Julian Assange because of what his prosecution represents. We marched down to the Federal Courthouse because this is the institution that is charged to keep the government’s actions in line with the U.S. Constitution and our cherished Bill of Rights.
A supermoon, sun of the night, isn’t always a sure thing. There is no safe trip
Going back
Going limp
Going slack
With the weight of your simple message
that I am just a crack
In that veneer of faith wallpapered over the
faith you lack
There aren’t enough daydreams to buoy this
There aren’t enough churches to bury this
There aren’t enough lies to stack
While me and my body are lost to
echoes of the last frontal attack;
While me and my sisters are broken in half
While me and my daughters are soaked in the black of coat hanger deaths and still born baths
And if you think
We’re going back
To those days
When the world felt like it was on track
because you were born with a cock and a sack
and you could keep your bitch on a leash in the back
When we bred your heirs with a smile and a knack
For obedient care,
With a stepford stare under a pink pretty wrap
When we held our tongues and bent like sap
When we baked you a pie
with your heel on our backs