Local
Hundreds of crime survivors and families of murdered loved ones from 35 cities across Ohio gathered at the statehouse atrium today, urging lawmakers to expand support for crime victims and make communities safer. Crime survivors were joined by elected officials, including Reps. Tavia Galonski (D-Akron) and Brett Hillyer (R-Uhrichsville), at Survivors Speak Ohio – an annual event organized by Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice (CSSJ) – with families holding photos of murdered loved ones and advocating for public safety reforms.
Ohio archaeology has a problem. All around the globe, a movement has been underway to change the imperialist names once given to archaeological sites to names indigenous to the cultures that created those works. This is called “the decolonization of archaeology” in Canada, which includes such names as the Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung Mounds in Ontario. It’s a sign of basic respect to the peoples of authorship.
Meanwhile, Ohio remains a bastion of unrepentant Anglocentrism, with the important exception of the Adena name, which Thomas Worthington likely borrowed from the Shawnee. But the Adena Mound “type site” – or the model of a particular archaeological culture – was completely destroyed and now lies below Orange Street in Chillicothe.
Wednesday, March 15, 6pm, this on-line event requires advance registration
To celebrate National Sunshine Week, join us for a lively discussion from a panel of political and environmental journalists who have spent their careers shining the light on Ohio’s government and elections.
Learn about Ohio’s Sunshine Law, how the Householder/Borges trial is a great example of what happens in the dark, and what reforms are needed to make Ohio a brighter place to live.
Panelists are:
• Dave Davis, former Plain Dealer reporter, and Journalism Fellow at Youngstown State University
• Kathiann Kowalski, Reporter for Energy News Network and Eye on Ohio and author of 25 books
• Anthony Shoemaker, Ohio Bureau Chief of USA Today Network
Moderated by Catherine Turcer, Executive Director of Common Cause Ohio and Sandy Theis, owner, Theis Research and Consulting, and a former reporter and political analyst.
Co-sponsored by Common Cause Ohio, All Voting is Local, Ohio Fair Courts Alliance, League of Women Voters of Ohio, ACLU Ohio, Ohio Voice, Ohio Environmental Council, and Ohio Citizen Action
BANGKOK, Thailand -- More than 3,800 U.S. troops led 30 countries' forces and observers through Cobra Gold, the Pentagon's biggest Asian military exercise, trying to keep Thailand's coup-empowered army allied with Washington while Beijing increases its political, economic, and cultural influence.
"There has been resentment among Thai military officers and conservative politicians because of what is perceived as [Washington's] high-handed, tutelary policy about what Thailand should and should not do -- with regard to coups," said Paul Chambers, a Southeast Asian Studies lecturer at Naresuan University in Thailand.
"The negative policy in Washington toward coups [in 2006 and 2014]...contributed to some extent in Bangkok moving toward a realist policy of 'hedging' whereby a state creates balance between two great powers, in this case China versus the U.S.," Mr. Chambers said in an interview.
"The Thai military establishment does not like the United States for talking and pressing about military non-intervention in politics, and for the need to return democracy to the Thai people," former foreign minister Kasit Piromya said in an interview.
On March 14, 2023, a day that will live in infamy in Columbus and across the Oval, The Ohio State University filed the petition to the US Supreme Court that it foreshadowed the moment the federal District Court of Appeals ruled against its previous attempt to escape responsibility for the criminal misconduct of Dr. Richard Strass and its refusal to respond responsibly to the more than 600 documented victims of Strauss’ sexual abuse.
It is no accident that OSU’s unnamed attorneys file their brief with the right-wing ideological and anti-Constitution majority United States Supreme Court. They purposefully and blatantly misrepresent the case and the issues. The University declares that it asks, “the justices to review at divided decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in order to preserve the statute of limitations for Title IX claims, which is foundational to the nation’s shared rule of law, and affirm the scope of federal education protections under Title IX.”
Let’s begin with this summary statement. I note:
1. “Divided opinion” = 24 against OSU; 4 in favor. In today’s wording that is called a super-majority, not a division.
Bus Stile Activities celebrated the Columbus Metropolitan Library’s (CML) 150th anniversary. Our libraries were founded in March 1873 after the Civil War showed the importance of literacy. CML still astound me. Our society agrees acquiring knowledge can exist as a public collective agreement. I used the library as a kid.
Once I became good at shoplifting I didn’t need the library.
By 6-20-2016 I had stopped shoplifting. I had stopped shoplifting before 2016 but this was the day I decided I needed a library card.
My first library items 6-20-2016…as an adult:
Rules For Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals, By Saul Alinksy.
Eric Rohmer’s La Collectionneuse, Love in the Afternoon, Claire’s Knee, Suzanne’s Career and My Knight at Maud’s.
I celebrated CML’s 150th Anniversary by perusing these items last week:
A Decade Under The Influence: the 70s Films That Changed Everything
Ohio Nuclear Free Network:
3-3-23 webinar recording: No Miracles Needed: How Today’s Technology can Save Our Climate and Clean Our Air.
Top energy expert Mark Jacobson outlines innovative new technologies, says no to all combustion. A lot of that is laid out in his new book by the same name.
Moderated by Ken Cook from the Environmental Working Group.
Ohio’s non-residential solar industry – also known as utility-scale solar energy – is entering into a boomtime. Across the state’s vast farmlands massive solar panel farms are coming online, under construction or in a planning phase, with several of these projects a few miles west and southwest of I-270.
According to the Ohio Power Siting Board (a state office), just three solar farms are currently operational, but 11 are under construction and 22 are in a planning phase.
The Highland Solar Farm in southern Ohio, for example, will be a 300-megawatt facility built on 3,500 acres and expected to produce enough clean energy to power over 49,200 homes. What’s more, Ohio may someday be home to the nation’s largest solar panel farm if Microsoft’s Bill Gates – one of Ohio’s biggest land owners – decides to build it in Ohio.
Monday, March 13, 2023, 6:30 – 7:30 PM
The time is NOW to protect Abortion access in Ohio. Overwhelmingly, Ohioans support abortion, and other types of reproductive healthcare, and believe that the government should stay out of people's healthcare decisions. The ACLU of Ohio, along with a multitude of organizations, is working to put abortion on the ballot this year through a citizen-initiated effort. Join us on Monday, March 13th, to hear about our efforts and how you can help protect and defend this human right.
Register here.
Ginther Continues to Display a Lack of Leadership and Vison To Address our Affordable Housing Crisis
Candidate for Mayor of Columbus Joe Motil states, "The Conference of U.S. Mayors tweeted Saturday that, “Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of the signing of the American Rescue Plan Act, which provided $65.1B directly to America's cities. Over the past two years, mayors have put this funding to work to address long-standing challenges and build stronger, more equitable cities.”
Mayor Andy Ginther’s reply on Twitter conveniently neglects to inform voters that he has not spent a dime of our city’s $187 million share of ARP funds to build a single unit of affordable housing. The city has $84.6 million remaining. Since 2021, there has been 36,500 evictions, close to 300 homeless in Columbus have died, and about 60,000 people are paying 50 percent or more of their incomes to pay for rent.