Politics
In modern times, more accepting of hyphenated names, Columbus should simply be called the Mike and Andy machine after our “Mayor for life” and current City Council President (heir apparent should Coleman abdicate). This machine functions essentially the same way as the older political machines, except for one key point – the new Columbus machine does not do favors for a majority coalition of various racial and ethnic groups. Instead ours rewards a handful of “titans” who do not live in the city.
Say you have made a bad investment in the Blue Jackets and need a quarter of a billion in cool cash to bail you out. Mike and Andy, like Domino’s, can deliver. Say you want to take over the city schools instead of leaving it up to elected Columbus School Board officials. The Mayor will appoint many of his major donors and political supporters to an educational commission and finance the “reform” campaign.
The Columbus Coalition for Responsive Government (“the Coalition”) has announced that the Hot Times in Olde Towne Festival, September 6-8, will be the last event at which signatures will be collected for the Coalition’s campaign finance reform petition.
The Coalition has been collecting petition signatures in order to enact a campaign finance reform law, saying the high cost of elections in Columbus and the 28 year practice of making council appointments, rather than holding original elections, has eliminated meaningful competition for elected offices and reduced the responsiveness of elected officials to the citizens.
Willis Brown, a member of the Committee of Petitioners that is sponsoring the ordinance says, “the voters passed a charter amendment in 1994, authorizing city council to enact a campaign finance law. Twenty years later, the city council still has not passed a meaningful finance reform law, so we as citizens have written a law and as citizens are bringing it up to Council for consideration.”
Recently a Pew poll came out that showed for the first time in the history of the question, more Americans support legalizing marijuana than think it should remain criminal. I was talking it over with someone and I think the bigger issue is not if it should be supported but why? I thought I’d break down why every group should support legalization.
Let’s start with the political parties……..
Democrats: This party should support legalization because the drug war is the new Jim Crow. Every year over 700,000 Americans, mostly young men and women of color, are arrested for possession of a plant. The war on drugs is what is feeding our quickly growing private prison system. Our prisons now hold more people arrested for drugs than they did for all offenses in 1981. America now has 4% of the worlds population but 25% of the worlds prison population and the 62% of local, state and federal inmates who are in prison for nonviolent drug offenses is the reason why. As the party of civil rights they should also support legalization because of our civil right to control over our own bodies.
Star Wars: Episode VII rumors have been running rampant ever since the new film was announced the moment Disney purchased Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise from creator George Lucas.
First the rumors all circled around who would direct the new franchise, and that was finally settled when Disney hired Lost creator and the man responsible for the resurrection of Star Trek, J.J. Abrams to lead the charge.
Next came the rumors about the old cast members from the original series returning in some capacity for the new films. We then heard about actors such as Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher going on diets to drop some pounds so they could appear in the new movies.
Now the latest rumor involves an actor who was in both the original series and the prequels released by George Lucas, who could be making a return from the dead (sort of) in the new movies that will begin with Star Wars: Episode VII in 2015.
According to several news sites, Ian McDiarmid is apparently rumored to reprise his role as Emperor Palpatine in the new Star Wars series.
If you’re the type of gambler who enjoys a long shot, the 2013 Columbus City
Schools levy might just be the bet for you.
On Nov. 4 voters will be presented with a 9.01 mill levy, effectively adding just over 300 bucks of taxes per year for every $100,000 worth of home a resident owns. It will generate half a billion dollars over five years, most of which will go to general operations, teacher training, the renovation of ten schools, adding access to tech and proving Pre-K for more of the city.
All of which sounds fine and dandy. The issue is that one mill of the levy will go toward (cue the gasps) charters schools. That means that for the first time ever a $42 million chunk of the taxpayer pot will be accessible through a partnership between CCS and qualifying charters.
Making matters worse for the district is the levy is all or nothing. House Bill 167 required going to the ballot with recommendations from Mayor Michael Coleman’s Columbus Education Commission. Efforts to split the levy into multiple ballot issues failed, meaning the ballot issue will sink or swim with charter schools.
What’s Columbus City Schools (CCS) to do when it’s in the midst of perhaps the largest scandal in its history? Ask the voters for one of the largest levy expansions ever. Scandal, corruption and cover-ups equal “give us more money.”
The levy is controversial in many ways. None more so than the fact that the Columbus Educational Commission (CEC), the people recommending the levy, were appointed by the mayor and are not elected school board members. The Republican-controlled statehouse and governor are mandating a local levy vote through state law.
On July 15, 2013 in a bipartisan ceremony, Ohio Governor John Kasich signed into law a bill forcing Columbus City Schools to place a tax levy on the ballot in November. If the levy passes, residents of the Columbus School district will be forced to give money to both public schools and charter schools. Mayor Coleman was granted the power to sponsor charter schools through the city government.
Are they or aren’t they investigating Governor Voinovich’s administration? It’s become a semantics debate. Voinovich campaign contributions, yes; administration, no.
The July issue of the Ohio Observer originally reported that the FBI was investigating charges of contract steering in the Voinovich administration. Then a week ago Sunday, the Cincinnati Enquirer confirmed this and filled in many details surrounding the preliminary investigation. Then the Cleveland Plain Dealer had the feds denying it. But the Enquirer stood by its story. And well they should, since they had, in newspaper biz parlance, “back-up”-usually meaning “we taped it, you idiots.” Plus, the Enquirer had confirmation from multiple sources: two in the FBI and one in the Justice Department.
My, my. The coverup starts in the Columbus Dispatch Metro section lead which begins, “[Franklin] County election officials say they think a clerical error is to blame for 19 Columbus police officers having their voting addresses listed as the Downtown police headquarters.”
Now, if a lower-class black male had used his work address as a voting address, and tried to vote in the inner-city Driving Park area, the headline would have read: “Massive voter fraud uncovered in urban inner-city precinct: ACORN is suspected.”
It is a fifth-degree felony to intentionally register to vote at your work address instead of your residence. The police might enforce the laws, but it doesn’t mean they obey them.
As the Dispatch pointed out, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, who supervises the vote in Ohio, “…isn’t particularly concerned about police officers registering their work address.”
My, my. The coverup starts in the Columbus Dispatch Metro section lead which begins, “[Franklin] County election officials say they think a clerical error is to blame for 19 Columbus police officers having their voting addresses listed as the Downtown police headquarters.”
Now, if a lower-class black male had used his work address as a voting address, and tried to vote in the inner-city Driving Park area, the headline would have read: “Massive voter fraud uncovered in urban inner-city precinct: ACORN is suspected.”
It is a fifth-degree felony to intentionally register to vote at your work address instead of your residence. The police might enforce the laws, but it doesn’t mean they obey them.
As the Dispatch pointed out, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, who supervises the vote in Ohio, “…isn’t particularly concerned about police officers registering their work address.”