Local
Sam Randazzo was once the Chair of the Ohio Public Utilities Commission.
Now, at 74, he’s dead by apparent suicide.
As is the “Nuclear Renaissance.”
Dating back many years, we often encountered Sam at energy hearings in Columbus. He was always personable and friendly as we exchanged handshakes and smiles.
That we were totally on opposite sides of the issues was like an inside joke between us.
But he was there to lobby for the fossil/nuclear industry while we were demanding Ohio get its energy from wind and solar—which it could be doing today except for Sam and his corporate bankrollers’ highly effective back channel arm twisting.
Randazzo was always highly paid…TOO well paid, which is what led to his death in a Columbus warehouse owned by a shell company he controlled.
Apparently it was a suicide, though one can never be entirely sure when there are millions of bucks flying around in bribes.
Because unbeknownst to us and even some of those paying him, Sam played both sides of the fence.
Wednesday, April 10, 2024, 12:00 PM
The #NoDeathPenaltyOH campaign is going to the statehouse on April 10 and we’re parking right out front.
Governor DeWine will be delivering the State of the State address at noon, so we want to make sure people see our message! Join us to gather at the truck and demonstrate support for repeal. We’ll have campaign swag to give away and postcards to fill out to lawmakers. You can also opt in to help us make some social media content!
Location: Ohio Statehouse, 1 Capitol Square, Columbus.
The City and its development offices have been working to overhaul the zoning code since 2021, but some local housing advocates say City officials made the changes “blind” in some respects, after they decided not to use area and neighborhood land use plans as guides.
“Zone In Columbus” – which was formally voted into existence Monday night by City Council – could radically change Columbus’s major corridors as the region continues to experience population growth with some estimates saying nearly 90 new residents a day are moving here.
But a few critics say “Zone In Columbus” is mostly about building taller apartment buildings with no parking options in these major corridors so to create more density. For example, “Zone In Columbus” states Clintonville and its High Street corridor are being “underutilized”.
Check out the billboard currently up on the corner of State & High, right across from the statehouse and the Riffe Center, where the House of Representatives and the Governor have their offices! Thank you for sponsoring that, ACLU of Ohio!
TUESDAY, April 9 at 1pm - Show up to stay in opposition gas suffocation executions in Ohio! House Bill 392 has been scheduled for sponsor testimony in the House Government Oversight Committee in room 313 at 1pm on Tuesday, April 9. This will be sponsor-only testimony, so we're not on the hot seat to schedule people to testify, however, we must demonstrate opposition. If you can show up, please be in room 313 in the Ohio Statehouse by 12:45pm. We had hoped that this bill would not be brought up at all, but here we are...
Wednesday, April 10 at noon in front of the Statehouse - Join the visibility action with the mobile billboard sponsored by the ACLU of Ohio on behalf of the #NoDeathPenaltyOH campaign.
Check out the billboard currently up on the corner of State & High, right across from the statehouse and the Riffe Center, where the House of Representatives and the Governor have their offices! Thank you for sponsoring that, ACLU of Ohio!
TUESDAY, April 9 at 1pm - Show up to stay in opposition gas suffocation executions in Ohio! House Bill 392 has been scheduled for sponsor testimony in the House Government Oversight Committee in room 313 at 1pm on Tuesday, April 9. This will be sponsor-only testimony, so we're not on the hot seat to schedule people to testify, however, we must demonstrate opposition. If you can show up, please be in room 313 in the Ohio Statehouse by 12:45pm. We had hoped that this bill would not be brought up at all, but here we are...
Wednesday, April 10 at noon in front of the Statehouse - Join the visibility action with the mobile billboard sponsored by the ACLU of Ohio on behalf of the #NoDeathPenaltyOH campaign.
The Free Press Second Saturday Salon will present an Earth Day Birthday celebration for WGRN 91.9 FM community radio on Saturday, April 13, 2024. WGRN will honor it’s “Volunteer of the Year,” long-time Board member Joe Keehner. And “Producer of the Year,” Felice Thomas, host of “The Cell.”.
The doors will open at 5:30 with light refreshments, socializing and an awards ceremony. It is followed by a 7:00 PM concert by folk musician Tom Neilson.
The celebration and award event will be held in Beach Hall at the First Unitarian Universalist Church at 93 West Weisheimer Rd. in Columbus. For information, contact: spatzer1959@gmail.com.
The Free Press Second Saturday Salon will present an Earth Day Birthday celebration for WGRN 91.9 FM community radio on Saturday, April 13, 2024. WGRN will honor it’s “Volunteer of the Year,” long-time Board member Joe Keehner. And “Producer of the Year,” Felice Thomas, host of “The Cell.”.
The doors will open at 5:30 with light refreshments, socializing and an awards ceremony. It is followed by a 7:00 PM concert by folk musician Tom Neilson.
The celebration and award event will be held in Beach Hall at the First Unitarian Universalist Church at 93 West Weisheimer Rd. in Columbus. For information, contact: spatzer1959@gmail.com.
Monday, April 8, 2024, at 6 pm ET, 3 pm PT.
As wars continue in Gaza, Ukraine, and elsewhere, efforts to stop them are up against a powerful military-industrial-media complex in the United States. No matter how much coverage of war comes through mainstream news outlets, the human realities of war are scarcely conveyed.
Decision Time
I finally calmed down and let Annie finish telling her story. Her mother sold the house, moved from the southside to the eastside and never looked back. Annie stopped asking about her father because her mother would just look at her and say “What father? You don’t have a father.” After a while, Annie stopped dreaming about her father. Forgot what he looked like or how he smelled. The sound of his voice had faded from her ears, and she no longer heard his songs. Her mother had destroyed any pictures that her father was in, so Annie couldn’t even look at past memories they had as a family.
Every time there is a solar eclipse that affects Ohio, the old story of Tecumseh’s alleged eclipse predictions of 1806 and 1811 is recycled. Often, some historian attempts to correct the popular myth by saying that it was not Tecumseh, but his brother Tenskwatawa, “the Shawnee Prophet,” who predicted the two eclipses, thus building the cult that regarded Tenskwatawa as a genuine shaman, rendered into the English title “Prophet. “The Shawnee Prophet’s movement did spread, largely on the myth of the eclipse prediction, becoming a major basis of modern syncretic Native American religion. The myth of these “prophecies” has been greatly amplified by the novelist Allan Eckert, whose highly-fictionalized outdoor drama Tecumseh still plays in Chillicothe, Ohio, using the prophecy motif to turn Tecumseh into a Jesus figure.