Local
The Columbus Free Press staff and writers are mostly volunteer. As a small nonprofit independent media outlet, we are dedicated to giving voices to people in our community. Since our inception in 1970, many have stepped up to cover local, national and international current events, give us political commentary, inform us of events, and advocate for social justice.
This year we debut our first Free Press Reporter Award and are delighted to honor one of our most prolific volunteer writers for the past few years – Mahmoud El-Yousseph. His daily reporting on Gaza and related topics is so important and has kept our website timely.
Mahmoud El-Yousseph is a Palestinian freelance writer and retired U.S. Air Force veteran who writes about U.S. foreign policy, Middle Eastern affairs, and social justice.
Born and raised in Ain al-Hilweh, a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, El-Yousseph lived there until age 18. In 1971, he moved to Germany, where he lived for seven years and learned to speak and write German fluently. In 1977, he immigrated to the United States. He married a U.S. citizen whom he had met in Germany in 1971.
I was watching television when a beautiful commercial came on about how wonderful data centers in Ohio were. You know?
Those sprawling data centers that consume our water, drive up utility costs, and pay no property taxes?
It turns out I was wrong!
https://connected-ohio.com/about-us/
According to the “facts” presented by the industry they aren’t using much water at all, employ thousands of people, and pay billions of dollars in property taxes.
They also provide free unicorns to all disabled children in Ohio!
Okay, none of that is true. Their propaganda has just reached a new low.
· Look at your electricity bill.
· Look at how the City of Columbus continues to raise your water bill.
· Watch how our local politicians are manipulated to approve these data centers.
Friday, October 30, 5:30pm
Franklin County Board of Elections, 1700 Morse Rd.
Early Voting Rally! Spakers, music, push to vote early!
See this year's Juneteenth celebration on Mt. Vernon Avenue.
Columbus Metropolitan Club Forum
Who Speaks for Your Neighborhood?
Wednesday, October 28, 2026 - 11:30am
Lunch is served - 11:30 am
Forum begins - 12:00 pm
National Veterans Memorial and Museum
https://columbusmetroclub.org/event/one-city-whose-vote/
In Person
Members: $35 ($30 Early Bird until week prior)
Guests: $60
Members: In Room (NO LUNCH): $25
Guests: In Room (NO LUNCH): $30
Members: Reserved Table for 8: $350
Livestream - Free
Livestream is free and open to anyone, but we appreciate viewers purchasing a “virtual seat” to help us continue our mission
Just three years ago, Columbus updated how it elects its City Council members. Under this revised model, Council candidates must live in the district they seek to represent, but their seats are at-large, meaning City Council members don’t represent any specific area of the city.
A few weeks ago Katherine Cull emailed city commissioners with the subject line: “Educational Handout.” Inside the email was the City Council approved pdf titled, “Issue 8 and 9 Handout.”
Unfortunately, I opened the pdf and read it. Now you have to:
“Issue 8 and 9 Handout” - attached to this article
The Good News.
Yes, some information is accurate.
The “Educational Handout” describes the current system used to elect City Council. Yet, it leaves so many unanswered questions that it couldn’t be any kind of random mistake.
The pdf is finely crafted to promote what City Council wants you to believe.
The “Educational Handout” goes to the trouble to ignore critical questions in favor of promoting the message that serves themselves and their corporate owners. This is the hallmark of propaganda; to confuse and mislead voters by not asking the best questions.
The Bad News.
This “Educational Handout” isn’t educational when it leaves out the most important questions that voters are asking.
For the past week I’ve been asking the Columbus City Council a simple question and still have not gotten an answer. Multiple phone calls and text messages.
I am concerned about two similar issues on this year's city of Columbus ballot - Issue 8 and Issue 9.
Issue 8 is the result of the Our City, Our Say citizen initiative making the nine Columbus City Council true ward-based seats. Each city district would have candidates running who live in the district, and only the people living in that district can vote for them. The ward-based voting is in contrast to the current system where you must live in the district to run to represent that district – but the voting is “at large” and the whole city votes for every seat.
What happens if both Issue 8 and Issue 9 earn more YES than NO votes?
Members of City Council have been telling you:
* “Vote Yes on Both Issues,” without any clear explanation.
* “If both issues pass then Issue 9 becomes law,” although there’s nothing in the City Charter that makes this true.
In collaboration with Sunny Glen Garden and the OEEFA, Simply Living will be screening Groundswell on November 10th at 7:00 pm at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, 93 West Weisheimer Road in Columbus.
A Golden Globe winning documentary film narrated by Demi Moore & Woody Harrelson, Groundswell shares a breathtaking journey across five continents showing a global movement of practical & proven regenerative farming practices that build living soil, store vast amounts of carbon, eliminate harmful inputs, and produce healthier, more nutrient-dense food. And it’s quietly reversing three interconnected crises facing us all: climate change, species extinction, and soil loss.
Come for the music. Stay for the haunting.
The Columbus Queerscendos, the youth ensemble of central Ohio’s premier TTBB vocal organization, the Columbus Gay Men’s Chorus, invite audiences to take a trip to Night Vale with them on Halloween.
The youth choir based its Dead Air concert on Welcome to Night Vale, the hit LGBTQ+ supernatural podcast presented as a fictional community radio broadcast from a desert town where conspiracy theories, urban legends and absurd paranormal events are part of everyday life.
Ohio's governor has grown from supporting the death penalty to favoring its repeal. But it has not been repealed and Governor Mike DeWine has only a few months left in office. When he leaves office, he could leave 108 people on Ohio's death row, of whom 27 are scheduled to be executed during the next gubernatorial term, unless DeWine takes action.
According to the ACLU, "under the Ohio Constitution, the Governor has the authority to issue commutations, as well as full pardons and temporary reprieves of death sentences, to those serving prison sentences. Commutations reduce the severity of a sentence to a lower sentence. For example, a death sentence could be reduced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, or life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years served."