Local
Police Funding Up, Community Safety Measures Down:
This budget goes against public health best practices that tell us to invest in social determinant-focused programs like affordable housing, quality health services, food security, and after-school programs, We must loudly reject this proposal to save lives and keep institutional thugs off our streets. A deep dive into the Columbus 2025 public safety budget reveals potential consequences for community health and safety, link here.
Rising Police Budget:
Police Funding Up, Community Safety Measures Down:
This budget goes against public health best practices that tell us to invest in social determinant-focused programs like affordable housing, quality health services, food security, and after-school programs, We must loudly reject this proposal to save lives and keep institutional thugs off our streets. A deep dive into the Columbus 2025 public safety budget reveals potential consequences for community health and safety, link here.
Rising Police Budget:
Late last night we learned that President Biden will commute the death sentences of 37 of the 40 men currently on federal death row. This is a huge success, and we congratulate everyone who has had a hand in accomplishing this unprecedented task.
A broad coalition of democratic organizations from across the state have mobilized to protect free speech rights from a secretive attempt by right-wing lawmakers to make public criticism of the state of Israel illegal in the state of Ohio.
This is the story of how they did it – how people of all different backgrounds came together on short notice, learned to navigate the convoluted cutlure of the Ohio statehouse, and faced down a powerful lobby determined to shield the state of Israel and its supporters in the US government from accountability for the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Faten Odeh, the executive director of the Cleveland chapter of The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR-OH), had heard rumblings of states intending to codify the IHRA definition of antisemitism into law, but could have never anticipated how fast legislation around the definition would develop in Ohio. Perhaps a bigger surprise was how quickly she, along with Ann Ghazy, Jawhara Qutiefan, and a myriad of other organizers were able to mobilize large numbers of people to help protect free speech from government overreach.
Please urge Gov. Mike DeWine to veto a new provision that will make Ohio less transparent by enabling additional costs to public records requests to law enforcement.
A change in open government and public records was snuck into House Bill 315. They have added language to House Bill 315 that says body cam footage and dash cam footage can only be provided by a police department after charging the public $75 per hour (with a cap of $750) for the agency to “retrieve, download, review, redact, seek legal advice regarding, and produce the video record.”
Take Action Before Gov. DeWine Signs the Bill
WE NEED YOU!
How will families understand police incidents? How will reporters get access to footage? How can they hide transparency behind a costly payment scheme?
TAKE ACTION | Call Governor DeWine: (614)-466-3555
Use the script below:
Saturday December 21 at 7 pm
First Unitarian Church, 93 W. Weisheimer Road, Columbus 43214
On the darkest day of the year when daylight will be at its lowest ebb, join me and my musical friends for an uplifting concert that looks ahead to the new year, its emerging sunlight, and its potential for joy and progress.
I’ll sing popular songs from the 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and beyond that represent our hopes, dreams, and prayers for 2025. They’ll be songs that symbolize positive values of peace, community, gratitude, love, courage, justice, friendship, activism, and struggle. These are songs linked to a wide variety of folks –- Mama Cass, Pete Seeger, the Byrds, the Beatles, James Taylor, Carol King, Bob Dylan, Louis Armstrong, and Judy Garland.
Fellow musicians Joanne Blum and Joe Lambert will add beautiful vocal harmonies, and Ann Fisher will add soothing counterpoints with her flute.
The reflective evening will also feature wise sayings about darkness and light. And the concert in the darkened sanctuary will be bathed in the glow of dozens of candles. Expect a couple fun surprises too.
Once again, the Ohio legislature has gifted the oil and gas industry with an amendment stuffed into an unrelated bill during its last committee hearing of the lame duck session with no public notice or chance to comment -- this time extending leases to frack our public lands up to eight long years. And once again, Gov. Mike DeWine has signed such a bill against the wishes of Ohio citizens, of whom 98% commenting on fracking Salt Fork State Park were opposed.
Ohioans do not want to see our beloved state parks and wildlife areas turned into industrial zones by out-of-state corporations, ruining our beautiful natural spaces for oil and gas profits. We do not want to see our freshwater sold for one-third of one cent per gallon to the oil and gas industry, turned into toxic and radioactive waste by fracking, removed from the water cycle forever, and injected into wastewater wells where it can easily migrate.
In an ongoing struggle for free speech, a dedicated coalition of Ohioans from across the state have worked diligently to defeat legislation that conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism and ties it to heightened criminal penalties. Lawmakers attached the same provisions to multiple bills in a deceptive legislative bundling maneuver to fast-track controversial measures by contributing to ‘Christmas Tree’ bills during the lame duck session. Wednesday night December 18 marked the end of the 135th General Assembly and advocates remain energized and committed to protecting First Amendment rights in 2025.
Dr. Bob Fitrakis and Dan-o Dougan discuss a variety of holiday songs: gratitude songs from Thanksgiving by ZZTop, William DeVaughn, and Sly Stone; Christmas-oriented songs like Father Christmas, Christmas in Prison, River, and Run, Rudolph, Run; and more!
Listen live at 11pm December 20 and 27 streaming at wgrn.org or on the radio at 91.9FM
and
Mondays at 2pm streaming December 23 and 30 at wcrsfm.org or on the radio at 92.7 or 98.3FM
Archived on Mixcloud here
Once upon a time during the winter solstice, the Friends of Serpent Mound, a group of supporters who donated time and labor to the site’s upkeep, were allowed to light up and honor Serpent Mound with sand bagged votives (pictured above). The winter solstice, of course, is the shortest day of the year and thus the longest night of the year.
This event – that some called the “Lighting of the Serpent” – drew more people to this marvel of ancient times than all the other days of the year and all combined at its peak. Fascinating is how the Serpent’s spiraled tail aligns with the winter solstice sunrise while its head aligns with the summer solstice sunset.