Politics
The Free Press has been getting it right since 1970. When no one else would champion the rights of gays, lesbians and bisexuals, the Free Press editorialized on behalf of the gay community and universal human rights. When environmentalists were considered crazy tree-huggers on acid, the Free Press pointed out how they were right on sustainability. When no one would take on this town's modern day robber barons and their wholly owned political subsidies, the Free press exposed the secret world of the power elite. The work of the Free Press has been so valuable to the public its contents have been archived by no fewer than three major data bases for more than two decades. In honor of that tradition the Free Press offers articles from the archive.
Columbus attorney William Todd, Chief Executive Officer of real estate development firm Develop88 LTD, submitted a purchase offer to the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) on August 9th, in an effort to purchase and rehabilitate ten of the 35 buildings of the Poindexter Village housing community, which is now being demolished.
Todd said, “the goal of every revitalization effort should be to get private investment to turn these neighborhoods around. We can’t continue to rely on federal dollars, when the private sector is willing to step up and invest. These are great buildings with a rich history of particular importance to Columbus’s African American community. These buildings are ripe for reinvestment, and we are willing to bring private dollars to get this project done.”
Develop88 Managing Partner Beth Gano Cattunar says “we were excited by the vision of a new future for Poindexter Village – one that retained a strong sense of service and history while breaking from the government housing past. Every neighborhood is as unique as the people that live there. We want to build on the strong foundation of the past while adding vision for the future.”
It’s a crucial question -- but President Obama intends to render it moot with unwavering contempt for the war authority of Congress. Like his predecessors. Even with war votes on Capitol Hill, the charade quotient has been high. The Gulf War began in early 1991 after the Senate vote for war was close: 52 to 47. But, as the PBS “Frontline” program reported years later, President George H.W. Bush had a plan in place: if Congress voted against going to war, he’d ignore Congress.
The obvious question is, “so why in the hell would you start an independent print newspaper business – jumping into a news industry in rapid decline?”
Unfortunately, our best answer is “well, somebody has to do it!” And to borrow from Richard Nixon’s 1972 campaign slogan, we believe an independent newspaper is needed in Columbus “now, more than ever.”
Why? Because every big city needs a free and independent weekly press – a serious and politically astute newspaper that is fun, funny and fundamental to its healthy democracy. And we don’t have one. And we really are a big city.
So let’s call it our civic duty – our expression of our love for Columbus – to bring The Columbus Free Press to the people. And as for a business model … well, let’s just say that we are the kind of people who buck the trends, rage against the machine, spit into the wind (well, actually just once – and we won’t do that again) … and, the truth of the matter is, we think we’re smarter than every other Columbus independent weekly publisher that ever has been and that we can make the numbers work.
The soap opera "Fah Jarod Sai" or "Where the Sky Meets the Sand" stars Thai actors in a superficial melodrama portraying an imaginary Arab-style royal officer who falls in love with a girl who is half-Thai, half-French, in a fantasy kingdom named Hinfara.
On August 22, a small, outspoken Bangkok-based group, Muslims for Peace, demanded Channel 7 cancel the series.
On August 24, in response, Channel 7's executives met Thailand's moderate Muslim spiritual leader Aziz Phitakkumpon, who is the "Chularatchamontri" or State Counselor for Islamic Affairs, which is an advisory position approved by the prime minister and appointed by the king.
It was not announced whether or not the Chularatchamontri and his office's Muslim colleagues also objected to the soap opera.
David Miranda, who lives with Greenwald in Brazil, was held at Heathrow Airport for nine hours under the Terrorism Act (2000), denied legal representation for the duration, and told repeatedly that he would be imprisoned if he failed to surrender the passwords to his personal accounts. Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, also revealed that two months ago "shadowy figures" from the government told him "you've had your fun" and demanded access to the newspaper's basement, where agents smashed hard drives thought to contain sensitive NSA and GCHQ data.
The deadliest explosion took place when a suicide bomber drove a car into a neighborhood in Tuz Khormato, a town located about 130 miles north of Baghdad. The attack left eight people dead and dozens wounded. Another car bomb detonated near a market in Baghdad’s southeastern suburbs of Jisr Diyala, killing seven people and wounding 20 more. In southeastern Baghdad a car bomb killed three people in the neighborhood of New Baghdad, while three more were killed in Amil. In the city of Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, four people lost their lives.
Read the letter in full here
“We hereby urge you to end the persecution of Bradley Manning, a young gay man who has been imprisoned for over three years, including ten months in solitary confinement, under conditions that the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez deemed 'cruel and abusive.' Bradley Manning has already suffered too much, and he should be freed as soon as humanly possible,” write politicians from Spain, France, Sweden, Germany, Portugal, Ireland, and Ukraine.
In addition to the abuse Manning suffered, the MEPs specifically condemn the 'aiding the enemy' offense with which Manning is charged, a capital offense that “would set a terrible precedent.”
"Teachers handling Arabic Language and Islamic Values Education (ALIVE) are requested to remove the veil covering the face -- 'niqab' -- when teaching in the classroom," said Education Department Secretary Armin Luistro in an Official Gazette announcement dated July 24.
"This is to promote better teacher-pupil relationship, and to support effective language teaching since seeing the teacher's lips helps in the correct production of letter sounds," Luistro said.
"Inside the classroom, she [the teacher] is requested to remove" any veil covering her entire face, "for proper identification of the teacher by the pupils," the Education Department had said in the Gazette one day earlier on July 23.