Local
Lost in the attention accorded to the flurry of right-wing Republican legislatures’ passing and governors’ signing blatantly partisan and extralegal redistricting bills—and, in a growing number of states, both state and federal courts ruling them unconstitutional—is “the great state of Ohio.” In North Carolina, for example, the State Supreme Court not only rule legislative redistricting unlawful, but instituted more constitutional maps. As I follow the incessant “shenanigans” (the much too soft and legally irrelevant word of the Columbus Dispatch [Editorial Board, “Our view: While your groceries go up”]) of the politically biased State Redistricting Commission. Not “shenanigans,” these are violations of the U.S. Constitution and state law. They constitute a unique and so far highly successful path of obfuscation and voter suppression.
The stage is set
Tuesday, May 24, 2022, 5:30 PM.
Many of our neighbors in Central Ohio lack the proper ID they need in order to meet their basic needs and participate in the community. One ID Columbus can change that. More information on their website: www.oneidColumbus.org. Register for the webinar here.
Joe Motil, former Columbus City Council candidate and longtime community advocate who has begun circulating petitions to run for Mayor in the 2023 Mayoral primary election attended today’s Little Turtle “Thumbs Down” save the Turtle event. Mr. Motil was approached by Little Turtle community leaders in March of 2021 to assist them in fighting this corrupt and unethical roadway project and has been at their side ever since.
Motil says, “It’s heartbreaking to witness the destruction of this grand boulevard that has stood here for over 50 years when Little Turtle became Central Ohio’s first planned housing development. And it is all being wasted for the benefit of a developer who used his money and political influence to fatten his bank account.”
Our first volume of the Ohio Migration Anthology, “Far From Their Eyes,” was a huge success! Check out some of our media coverage and pick up your copy here.
Last year the Columbus Free Press republished a chapter from the first volume of the incredible and harrowing survivor tale of Bol Aweng, who now lives in Hilliard. Aweng, an artist among other talents, is one of the “Lost Boys of the Sudan.”
The Ohio Immigrant Alliance is publishing Volume 2 in 2023. Learn more in our FAQs below and submit your contributions for consideration here.
The deadline for submission is January 2, 2023. This is a competitive selection process, so read the guidance below to have the best chance of being chosen for Ohio Migration Anthology, Volume 2.
MONDAY, MAY 23, 2022, 4 TO 6 PM
Little Turtle Way between Longrifle Road and Blue Jacket Road
This is your invitation to witness firsthand the site of the iconic mounded, grand boulevard being leveled! Come early to see the excavation on the 2 mounds underway now.
Little Turtle residents will rally in the Little Turtle community Monday, May 23, 4 to 6PM, to show their unity to Columbus and to the Columbus City Council members of its great displeasure with the demise of the community’s grand boulevard, a 50-year piece of Columbus history, and now the roadway’s resultant traffic congestion. The boulevard mounds are being leveled and the mature trees removed.
On behalf of the residents, we are inviting you to come out to see and document the boulevard’s destruction, as a piece of Columbus history is being erased, as well as the end of Little Turtle’s moniker as a “hidden gem.” You, as well as the taxpayers of Columbus, need to see how $6 million of our tax dollars are being spent on a roadway not wanted or needed by the residents and the disgraceful demise of beautiful greenspace and mature trees. We will not go quietly into the night.
In early March, employees of the Wexner Center for the Arts at the Ohio State University came together to form Wex Workers United in an effort to collectively establish a union at their workplace. These employees are advocating for a fair and equitable workplace, the right to negotiate for wages and benefits and to have a voice in important workplace issues such as safety. They are demanding dignity and respect on the job.
While having received the Wexner employees’ petition, with signatures from an overwhelming majority of employees, the Co Interim Directors Megan Cavanaugh and Kelly Stevelt, as well as OSU President Kristina M. Johnson, PhD, and Melissa L. Gilliam, MD, MPH Executive Vice President and Provost, have remained unmoved and disinterested in addressing employee concerns. Wex Workers United is demanding that the Ohio State University and its leadership respect the employees who are organizing by either voluntarily recognizing the employee union or by putting forward a consent agreement calling for a free and fair union election.
Please sign and share this petition to support AFSCME Council 8 and the brave Wex workers organizing for a union.
Remember Rep. Jean Schmidt's terrible abortion ban bill? They're still moving it forward.
The Ohio House Government Oversight Committee has scheduled the second hearing on House Bill 598, the abortion "trigger" ban. Why do we call it a trigger ban? Because it will ban all abortions in Ohio, but it won't go into effect right away, it has to be triggered by certain conditions, those include the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the Roe v. Wade decision.
Over half of young trans people have contemplated suicide. Now up to a third of us could lose the care that’s been proven to prevent it.
In states across the country, small-minded lawmakers are pushing cruel, vicious new bills targeting transgender children.
These bills threaten to ban everything from medical care to even acknowledging the existence of trans people in the classroom. Many threaten parents and medical providers with prosecution. And all of them put the lives of young trans people at risk.
If these laws had been passed when I was transitioning, I might not be alive today.
As a trans student in middle school, I was dehumanized. I endured harassment, abuse, and physical violence for which I was the one punished. Even worse, my school responded to my coming out with harmful new policies.
For example, I was banned from the bathrooms. Instead of using the girls’ room near my classrooms, I had to go down two flights of stairs, across an open courtyard, into another school building, and all the way to the end of another building to use the nurse’s office bathroom.
Thursday, May 19, 12noon-1pm, Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, 345 S. High St.
For nearly 18 months now, the family of Casey Goodson, Jr. has had to fight for accountability for his murder. While this fight has long focused on Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Jason Meade (@convictmeade), the fight also requires accountability from the government agency that enabled a sheriff’s deputy with a violent history to take Casey’s life.
The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office hired, trained, and enabled a violent deputy who eventually took the life of Casey Goodson, Jr. Following Casey’s murder, they never fired Jason Meade or took any official action against him. They instead allowed him to retire and keep his pension, funded by taxpayer dollars.
Eventually, Meade was indicted for murder, but only after the prosecutor’s office delayed that indictment by waiting six months to appoint special prosecutors. Gary Tyack’s office ran on a platform of police reform and thus far that promise has not only gone unfulfilled, but they have decided to stand with Jason Meade to the detriment of this family and this community.