Local
Wednesday, April 12, 5-6:30pm, Ohio Environmental Council, 1145 Chesapeake Ave., Suite I [this event will also be occurring via Zoom]
Ohio Energy Law and Policy is a complex web of regulations, laws, and administrative decisions. It is constantly evolving, making it difficult for attorneys and advocates to understand how best to represent their communities or their clients in venues like the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio or the Ohio Power Siting Board — or in other venues, such as city councils or the Ohio General Assembly.
But the reality is, energy law and policy dictate the future of climate action in Ohio.
Through our “Ohio Energy Law and Policy Primer,” the Ohio Environmental Council will outline the recent history of Ohio’s energy world, from deregulation in the early 2000s to the RPS and EE standards of 2009, onward to House Bill 6 and its aftermath in 2019 and 2020 as well as even more recent developments, like Senate Bill 52 passed under the 134th General Assembly.
The recently introduced Ohio Senate Bill 83, the so-called Ohio Higher Education Enhancement Act, has generated heated debate and considerable confusion over the bill’s motivation, what it actually says, its implications and impacts.
When asked at the first hearing what problem in Ohio public and private universities and colleges the bill was solving, the bill’s author, Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) stated plainly and clearly: to deal with a trend towards indoctrination in our universities.
But what is less plain and clear from the rattle-bag of bans and demands in the bill, is what this means in practice. Indoctrination is nowhere mentioned as the cause for the bill banning mandatory Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training, courses, and initiatives, academic relations with China, or university employees from striking.
At the same time, indoctrination is missing from the rationale for the bill demanding a compulsory American History course, Board of Trustees education programs, making course syllabi public or determining faculty workload and annual reviews.
Community Festival returns to Goodale Park on June 23, 24 and 25, 2023.
ComFest showcases the very best in live music in Columbus and Central Ohio. Entertainment applications for all stages are now open through April.
Street Fair brings local artisans, food vendors and community organizations together to showcase their wares, interact and celebrate with the Columbus Progressive community. Street Fair applications are open until April 20, 2023 at www.comfest.com
In just a few words -- “those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future” -- George Orwell summed up why narratives about history can be crucial. And so, ever since the final helicopter liftoff from the U.S. Embassy’s roof in Saigon on April 30, 1975, the retrospective meaning of the Vietnam War has been a matter of intense dispute.
Free Press readers gathered Saturday evening, April 8, for a Cyber-Salon.
Mark Stansbery, Free Press Board member, started out the salon by introducing the two speakers, progressive candidates for the general election this fall in Central Ohio. Both speakers are also recipients of the Free Press Libby Award for community activism.
The first speaker was Joe Motil, who is running for Columbus mayor, the only opponent in the race is current mayor, Andy Ginther. Joe is a lifelong Columbus resident, 40 years active in city public policy, and a retired union worker.
Joe is running because he’s tired of the pay to play city politics that benefit developers. His campaign will focus on affordable housing, police reform, public transit, homelessness, neighborhood infrastructure, and government corruption.
Joe has lots of public policy proposals, including bond packages, raising the hotel tax, and having tax abated companies like Intel kick in to help create affordable housing. He proposes that the City should purchase land and build affordable housing.
WHAT: Oil and Gas Land Management Commission public hearing and business meeting
WHEN: Monday, April 10, at 10 a.m.
WHERE: Ohio Department of Natural Resources, 2045 Morse Road, Building E, 1st Floor Assembly Center, Columbus, OH 43229
The Oil and Gas Land Management Commission will hold a hearing on Monday, April 10, to hear public testimony on Draft Rule 155-1-01, which will create the process for granting oil and gas industry leases for fossil fuel extraction from Ohio public lands.
In attendance will be a group of dedicated Ohio citizens and users of Ohio state parks and forests to call out the oil and gas industry’s grab of our public lands.
Dear unrepresentative council member Rob Dorans,
May I give you a tour of Columbus or any other city in the US or the world? Have you ever been to a functional city with credible urban planners and traffic engineers? Do you know what an actual neighborhood is? Have you or another employee of the failing city, and city of Columbus studied cities, and their histories? NO!
You and your city flunkies, the paid agents of out-of-control tax abatements and TIFs with no accountability demonstrate your profound ignorance with your latest uninformed and dangerous “Where Do We Begin? Identifying Initial Focus Areas for Modernizing the City of Columbus’ Zoning Code.”
Look at the rhetoric and grammar itself. Can you translate any of this poor sloganeering into communicable English, let alone urban policy? Where does who begin what? Identifying initial focus areas? Modernizing? What do you mean? None of these terms speaks for itself. Do you or your scribal aides have any idea? Has anyone taken freshman composition, let alone urban planning?
Saturday, April 8, 7-8pm, this event will be occurring via Zoom
Get to know our local progressive candidates!
Speakers:
• Adrienne Hood, Columbus City Council candidate
• Joe Motil, Columbus Mayor candidate
A question-and-answer period will be included.
Please use this Zoom link to join this event.
Hosted by The Columbus Free Press.
City of Columbus mayoral candidate Joe Motil says, “Andy Ginther continues to spout off about crime numbers being down and how he is going to make Columbus, Ohio “the safest city in America” while he reduces the police force. At the same moment, five homicides occurred within a 48-hour period between this past Saturday evening and late Monday afternoon. To date, there have been 44 homicides in Columbus. On March 13th, the city of Columbus tragically recorded its 30th homicide of 2023. Since Ginther has been mayor, this is the second fastest time that Columbus has reached 30 homicides.”
RAPID 5’s “vision” to put parks and greenways within a mile-and-a-half of all Franklin County residents is arguably one of the most ambitious public-private development endeavors in the history of Central Ohio.
RAPID 5 stands for “Rivers and Parks Imagination Design” and has a “vision” – they refuse to call it “plans” – for all five of Central Ohio major waterways: the Big Darby, the Scioto River, the Olentangy River, Alum Creek and the Big Walnut.
Those behind RAPID 5 and on its board are some of the biggest policy makers and developers in the region: MORPC, Franklin County Metro Parks, Thrive Developers, Continental Real Estate Company (described as a full-service retail and hospitality developer), M/I Homes and City of Columbus, to name a few.
But so far, RAPID 5 has left one significant and extremely large public group out of its preliminary vision plans or draft reports – the pubic itself.