Global
Image
Last weekend (January 24th through 26th) the Greater Columbus Convention Center was filled with magical girls, Power Rangers, heroes, monsters, elves, demons, and gray-skinned people with candy corn horns. Ohayocon 2014 brought together geeks from all over the Midwest in a celebration of not just anime but video games, tabletop gaming, video gaming, and everything else the kids are into these days.
“Kids” is the operative word, too. Ohayocon is all about the youth culture of geek culture, the cutting edge of anime and all related forms of entertainment. Though anime has been imported to the US since Speed Racer debuted with a notoriously awkward translation in the late 60s, it’s picked up considerable steam as the generation that grew up with Pokémon aged and became a serious market for streaming video services like Netflix and the all-Japanese Crunchyroll.
Instead of having to wait for months if not years for a show or movie to be translated and released in the US, fans can watch new episodes of popular shows like Naruto Shippuden and One Piece online at the same time that they’re airing in Japan.
Image
In the Robert Louis Stevenson novel “The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde,” a good-natured physician transforms into the evil Mr. Hyde after
taking a potion. All it used to take for Jamie Caton to make a transformation from a soft-spoken coed to a fierce, “win at all costs” competitor was to slip on a basketball uniform.
The 5-foot-10 forward for the Capital University women’s basketball team fouled out 10 times in the last two seasons while the rest of her teammates
fouled 11 times combined.
“I try to be a really nice person off the floor so people are shocked to see how intensely I play when they come to a few games,” says Caton, who leads the Crusaders in points (12.7 points a game) and in games fouled out (three) in the first 16 games of the season. “Coach (Dixie Jeffers) has said I’m the nasty girl on the court and the nice girl off the court.
“Sometimes that nasty girl comes out and it gets me into trouble. In basketball you only get five fouls. I’ve had many games when I’ve used all five.”
Caton used her intensity and aggressiveness to her advantage in a 74-72 win over Marietta on Jan. 22.
Eleven-hundred workers in eastern Ohio are trying to regain their jobs because AEP is increasing unaffordable rates to electrical consumers like Ormet, the company where these workers had jobs. Workers shouldn’t be caught in the middle of corporate greed.
Will you join us at our phone banks at the Ohio AFL-CIO (395 E. Broad St, Columbus) to call Union members and working families, to demand fairness for workers, from AEP?
Good jobs---with family-sustaining pay, retirement security, and healthcare---are at risk, and AEP, the Public Utilities Commission, and Gov. Kasich all have a hand in this. Politicians who are attacking jobs with so-called right to work are not even acting to save good, Ohio jobs. Our phone banks will talk with union members and allies about keeping these workers on the job and we will connect them by phone with an AEP office to leave a message that working families and electricity users don’t accept this.
What: Phone banks to Save Ohio Jobs & Beat Back Right to Work
When: Tuesdays & Wednesdays: 4:00pm - 6:00pm and 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Where: Ohio AFL-CIO, 395 East Broad St, Columbus
Will you join us at our phone banks at the Ohio AFL-CIO (395 E. Broad St, Columbus) to call Union members and working families, to demand fairness for workers, from AEP?
Good jobs---with family-sustaining pay, retirement security, and healthcare---are at risk, and AEP, the Public Utilities Commission, and Gov. Kasich all have a hand in this. Politicians who are attacking jobs with so-called right to work are not even acting to save good, Ohio jobs. Our phone banks will talk with union members and allies about keeping these workers on the job and we will connect them by phone with an AEP office to leave a message that working families and electricity users don’t accept this.
What: Phone banks to Save Ohio Jobs & Beat Back Right to Work
When: Tuesdays & Wednesdays: 4:00pm - 6:00pm and 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Where: Ohio AFL-CIO, 395 East Broad St, Columbus
Much has been printed concerning the “data-scrubbing” scandal in the Columbus City Schools (CCS) district. Less has been revealed about the more blatant criminal theft and misappropriation of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) tutoring funds.
As a result of the Tuesday, January 27 release of State Auditor David Yost’s long-awaited report on student data tampering, four principals were immediately fired and Columbus Schools data czar Steve Tankovich may be facing possible criminal charges.
Yost also told reporters that former Columbus Schools Superintendent Gene Harris may have known about the illegal activity: “There’s a reasonable inference, at least based on our interviews that she was at least aware of what was going on.” Yost is sending the information he gathered in the data tampering scandal to the Columbus City Attorney’s, Franklin County Prosectutor’s and the U.S. Attorney’s offices.
Buried in the report on page 90 is a brief reference that federal law may have been violated: “In addition to violating federal laws under No Child Left Behind and potentially invoking the penalty provision of Revised Code Section 3301.0714(L)….”
As a result of the Tuesday, January 27 release of State Auditor David Yost’s long-awaited report on student data tampering, four principals were immediately fired and Columbus Schools data czar Steve Tankovich may be facing possible criminal charges.
Yost also told reporters that former Columbus Schools Superintendent Gene Harris may have known about the illegal activity: “There’s a reasonable inference, at least based on our interviews that she was at least aware of what was going on.” Yost is sending the information he gathered in the data tampering scandal to the Columbus City Attorney’s, Franklin County Prosectutor’s and the U.S. Attorney’s offices.
Buried in the report on page 90 is a brief reference that federal law may have been violated: “In addition to violating federal laws under No Child Left Behind and potentially invoking the penalty provision of Revised Code Section 3301.0714(L)….”
Not many citizens of Columbus are aware that if the police think you report too many crimes – or complain about them – Columbus’ finest will put you on a “list” and simply ignore your complaints.
The history of how a whistleblower or concerned citizen becomes a “chronic complainer,” blacklisted by the Columbus Police, is well-documented in public records.
Take for example Bernadine Kennedy Kent, the woman who initiated the federal investigation into vendor theft and fraud in the Columbus City Schools system. At the same time Kent was acting as a whistleblower and igniting a federal investigation into the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) funds, she was being blacklisted by the Columbus Police.
How to become a chronic complainer
Kent, a former Columbus City Schools vice principal, runs the nonprofit advocacy group PASS – Parent Advocates for Students in School. In 2006, Kent filed complaints with Columbus Police against the Columbus City Schools for theft and fraud in NCLB funds. When this did not yield results, Kent provided information to the FBI that launched an investigation into the Columbus School’s tutoring program.
The history of how a whistleblower or concerned citizen becomes a “chronic complainer,” blacklisted by the Columbus Police, is well-documented in public records.
Take for example Bernadine Kennedy Kent, the woman who initiated the federal investigation into vendor theft and fraud in the Columbus City Schools system. At the same time Kent was acting as a whistleblower and igniting a federal investigation into the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) funds, she was being blacklisted by the Columbus Police.
How to become a chronic complainer
Kent, a former Columbus City Schools vice principal, runs the nonprofit advocacy group PASS – Parent Advocates for Students in School. In 2006, Kent filed complaints with Columbus Police against the Columbus City Schools for theft and fraud in NCLB funds. When this did not yield results, Kent provided information to the FBI that launched an investigation into the Columbus School’s tutoring program.
If you had taken a walk through central London on the night of November fifth last year, as I did, you would have seen signs that the hollowing out of Western democracy is reaching an advanced stage. Two very different protests were taking place either side of the Houses of Parliament on the night of the year in which Britain celebrates Guy Fawkes's famous attempt in 1605 to blow the Houses up (famously inspiring the Fawkes mask in V for Vendetta).
The anti-austerity movement the People's Assembly blocked Westminster Bridge and made a bonfire of thousands of gas and electricity bills in protest at the private utility cartel's recent energy price hike. The average annual cost of heating and powering your home is due to be hiked by 8-11% this year by the cartel, while charities at the time warned thousands risk cold-related deaths in their homes this winter.
The anti-austerity movement the People's Assembly blocked Westminster Bridge and made a bonfire of thousands of gas and electricity bills in protest at the private utility cartel's recent energy price hike. The average annual cost of heating and powering your home is due to be hiked by 8-11% this year by the cartel, while charities at the time warned thousands risk cold-related deaths in their homes this winter.
Iraq vet Ross Caputi’s film opens with a fleeting synopsis of the American heartbreak — and the bandage we tape across it.
His documentary, Fear Not the Path of Truth, is about the U.S. devastation of Fallujah, in which he participated as part of Operation Phantom Fury in November 2004, but the first couple minutes give us an overview of his hometown, the “former industrial city” of Fitchburg, Mass.:
“But the factory jobs are long gone, so there’s really only two types of people that live here. They’re the people with good-paying jobs in Boston or Wooster who come out here to build big houses at relatively cheap prices. Everyone else gets by doing work on those houses, doing their lawns, putting additions on them, painting them.
“If there was a point of unity among all the racial and economic divisions in this little city, it had to be the troops. Everyone respected the troops.”
His documentary, Fear Not the Path of Truth, is about the U.S. devastation of Fallujah, in which he participated as part of Operation Phantom Fury in November 2004, but the first couple minutes give us an overview of his hometown, the “former industrial city” of Fitchburg, Mass.:
“But the factory jobs are long gone, so there’s really only two types of people that live here. They’re the people with good-paying jobs in Boston or Wooster who come out here to build big houses at relatively cheap prices. Everyone else gets by doing work on those houses, doing their lawns, putting additions on them, painting them.
“If there was a point of unity among all the racial and economic divisions in this little city, it had to be the troops. Everyone respected the troops.”
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Bangkok's political violence worsened on Sunday (Jan. 19) when grenades and gunfire injured 29 people at an anti-government protest, two days after a grenade killed one protester and injured 36 others who were marching to force the prime minister's resignation and stop an election scheduled for Feb. 2.
About 10 people in total have died in scattered shootings, explosions and clashes during the massive street protest which began on Oct. 31, and security officials are bracing for more attacks.
Sunday's (Jan. 19) first explosion occurred downtown during lunchtime at Victory Monument, where hundreds of protesters were peacefully camping in tents in the street next to their huge makeshift stage, to block traffic and disrupt Bangkok's economy in a bid to destabilize the government.
An unidentified man threw a grenade near a media tent erected for journalists, injuring at least 28 people including a Thai reporter, medical officials said.
Witnesses chased the suspect who then threw a second grenade and fired a gun at his pursuers, injuring one more person.
In the past year, during the rule of the Muslim Brotherhood, when the darkness of fanatical Muslims beset Egypt, and when it seemed that the spirit of resistance was fading, and people were giving up, I was observing women, wondering how the new situation was affecting their looks, their clothes, and their make-up, and I kept hope as long as women kept wearing tight pants, and lipstick, as long as I saw girls and boys walking together and laughing out loud. “Fanatical groups will never own the heart of Egypt,” I thought to myself, “as long as women in tights are guarding the spirit of life.” And I was right.