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After more than 150 years, The Ohio State University (OSU) does not understand that it is now completely within and surrounded by – and has legal responsibilities to – the city of Columbus and its residents.

Among large urban university campuses and their adjoining residential districts, OSU and the University District are among the most dangerous in the US. As I was in the process of submitting this article, DegreeChoices.com released a new national report that found OSU to be the second “most dangerous campus” in the United States, based on data from the U.S. Department of Education on violent crimes committed and/or reported in 2019-2021. OSU had 583 reported incidents.

OSU has a campus security force of less than 80 for a student, faculty, and staff campus of almost 90,000. The Columbus Police has no regular presence in the University District. For good reasons, students do not want to see them on campus. In 1970, for example, the Columbus Police Department (CPD) and the National Guard rioted on campus.

One week ago, I was physically assaulted in a public place, prior to a press event, by a high-ranking City of Columbus official. But, because I do not know the man’s date of birth, I was not allowed to file charges.

This happened on the morning of April 28, at the Columbus Police Training Academy, where I went to attend what I thought was a public event. 

Department of Neighborhoods Director Carla Scott Williams greeted me as I took a seat. Within a minute, a man wearing a blue sports jacket approached me and said, “Mr. Motil, could you please step outside for a moment.” 

I followed, and as we stepped outside the doors of conference Room 104 and he told me, “You are not allowed to be in there. This is a press event, and you do not have press credentials.”

I argued that I was in a public place for a public event. He disagreed, took me by the arm and pulled me farther away from the closed doors of the meeting room. An officer who arrived shortly afterward agreed with the man in the sport jacket that I was not permitted to re-enter. Asking the man twice to identify himself I was told, “Glenn McEntyre.”

It is a common understanding in the retail industry that "if you break it, you buy it". That same principle applies to a community destroyed by a reckless corporation as well as a community broken by a careless customer. The overdue bill owed by Norfolk Southern for its wanton destruction of East Palestine is a hefty one that far exceeds the $387 million claimed lost in its 1st Quarter Report on the "Eastern Ohio Incident". However, not a dollar has been paid so far to directly compensate property owners for their colossal loss of value. Making matters worse is Norfolk Southern's refusal to even consider purchasing damaged property at pre-disaster value. That must change.

It is a common understanding in the retail industry that "if you break it, you buy it". That same principle applies to a community destroyed by a reckless corporation as well as a community broken by a careless customer. The overdue bill owed by Norfolk Southern for its wanton destruction of East Palestine is a hefty one that far exceeds the $387 million claimed lost in its 1st Quarter Report on the "Eastern Ohio Incident". However, not a dollar has been paid so far to directly compensate property owners for their colossal loss of value. Making matters worse is Norfolk Southern's refusal to even consider purchasing damaged property at pre-disaster value. That must change.

Nazis disrupted a drag brunch on the Westside last week. Social media exploded over the news that white supremacists were disrupting a children’s event and were surprised by the inability of Columbus Division of Police to ensure the Nazis were barred from exposure and scaring the community with their black ski masks.

Up until a few weeks ago, when three Democratic lawmakers joined mostly young people at the Tennessee legislature demanding stricter gun legislation in the wake of yet another mass shooting, the First Amendment was sacrosanct: It states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Thursday, MAY 4th 2023 8pm ET

Register in advance for this webinar:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3iZZgo6SQKmufXL1D0tFmg

Vietnam to Ukraine: Lessons for the US Peace Movement Remembering Kent State and Jackson State!

• Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report • David Swanson, World BEYOND War • And Haig Hovaness, GPAX’s Tribute to Daniel Ellsberg.

Cosponsors: Green Party Peace Action Committee (GPAX) Peoples Network for Planet, Justice & Peace Green Party of Ohio Missouri Green Party Green Party of New Jersey

“No on HJR 1 Day of Action: Join Us at the Statehouse,” hosted by Common Cause Ohio and eight other organizations

Wednesday, May 3, 12:30pm, Trinity Episcopal Church on Capitol Square, 125 E. Broad St.

The Day of Action to stop HJR 1 has been changed to Wednesday, May 3!

The Ohio House session during which we believe that the vote on HJR 1 will take place has been moved to Wednesday, May 3; please join us then. We will gather at Trinity Episopal Church, 125 E. Broad St., across the street from the Ohio Statehouse; we will then march over to the House Chamber at the Ohio Statehouse.

Together, we plan to make it clear that we won’t put up with this attack on our rights and the Ohio Constitution!

The Libertarian Party of Ohio (LPO) announced today that it will be joining over 200 other organizations in the multi-partisan alliance against HJR1 and SJR2, the resolutions being advanced by Republicans in the Statehouse that could potentially usurp Ohioans’ right to amend the state constitution via a simple majority vote at the ballot box.

In 2013, when the LPO was gaining electoral traction with conservatives, independents and moderates alike, the Ohio Republican Party passed new ballot access laws to derail minor political parties' access to the ballot. The law –– called SB 193, but also known as “The John Kasich Re-Election Protection Act” –– was signed by then-Governor Kasich almost immediately.

A few days before Christmas, having quit his job in Germany, Matthias (Marin Grigore) returns to his multi-ethnic Transylvanian village. He wishes to involve himself more in the education of his son, Rudi (Mark Edward Blenyesi), left for too long in the care of his mother, Ana (Macrina Barladeanu), and to rid the boy of the unresolved fears that have taken hold of him. He’s preoccupied with his old father, Otto (Andrei Finti), and also eager to see his ex-lover, Csilla Szabo (Judith State). When a few new workers are hired at the small factory that Csilla manages, the peace of the community is disturbed, underlying fears grip the adults, and frustrations, conflicts and passions erupt through the thin veneer of apparent understanding and calm.

When the relatively unheard of IQAir released its annual “World Air Quality” report earlier this year, it found the “most polluted major U.S. city was Columbus, Ohio.”

Equally alarming and unbecoming is how IQAir said Columbus has a high concentration of PM 2.5, described as some of the worst inhalable particles, which can cause depressed lung function and premature death.

PM 2.5 (particle matter) is mostly created by burning fossil fuels. Some claim automobile-centric Columbus “smells bad” around 9am, just after rush hour. But worse air quality than Los Angeles?

“Usually, Los Angeles is up there. But Columbus beat Los Angeles,” said IQAir’s CEO of North America Glory Dolphin Hammes to WOSU back in March.

Both the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission and the Ohio EPA told WOSU the methodology IQAir followed is providing inaccurate data because some of their air sensors are not up to federal EPA standards.