Local

The past year marked many major milestones for marijuana. Michigan voters passed an adult use ballot measure in November 2018, with the first business licenses issued on December 1. In June, Illinois became the second Midwest state to go full legal, doing so via legislature. Federally, the U.S. House overwhelmingly passed the Safe Banking Act in September, the first step to opening this system to cannabusinesses. Then, just days ago, the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act easily passed out of U.S. House Judiciary Committee and onto the House floor for a full vote. This groundbreaking legislation would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), require federal courts to expunge records for prior marijuana convictions and basically end the drug war.

The pillars of prohibition are crumbling.

 

Common- Leader (Crib Love) JAre- Classroom Chatter Razor Nights – Army of Shadows Anderson Pak Ft. Smokey Robinson -Make It Better Beastie Boys – Shadrach A JRawls Remix Zig Zag – Killer of Killers Wu Tang Clan- That Shit Again Flying Lotus ft. Anderson Pak- More Tyler, The Creator- A Boy Is A Gun Whitney- Used To Be Lonely Earl Sweatshirt – 4N’s Adrian Younge ft. Jack Waterson – Smile Vacation- Paper Trails Taylor Swift- The Archer Andre 3000 ft. Raekwon + Cee Lo – Roll Em’ Flush Co City – Pineapple Express Yves Tumor -Applaud Black Keys – Sit Around + Miss You Frank Ocean – In My Room The Midnight Hour- Harmony Pusha T ft. Lauryn Hill – Coming Home

Listen to Wes Flexner’s Rock’n’Roll Show on WCRS-FM, 92.7/98.3
Streaming on wcrsfm.org
Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m.

Nile Vegan Ethiopian Restaurant just opened in October 2019 on OSU campus on Worthington and 8th (so bring coins for the meters if you aren’t in walking distance or prone to public transit). Their owners are transplants from Toronto Canada and have brought a completely new 100% vegan ethnic restaurant to Columbus open 10am-10pm, seven days per week.

If you have never had Ethiopian food before, savor the delicious new distinctive flavors and textures, where eating with your hands is the norm. The flavors are authentic, the food was filling and delightful. The establishment is quite pleasant, conscionable about all things sustainable, and has a very minimalist and anti-plastic approach to their business processes and supplies. Treat yourself to an exotic new experience and discover this fabulous vegan flair on Ethiopian fare.      

VeganShift and the Columbus Vegan Meetup will be having a lovely holiday Vegan Wine and Vegan Cheeze tasting at 6:30pm on Thursday, December 19 at Savor Pint, 4440 Indianola Avenue.

The United States has a history of churches offering sanctuary to people without papers.

In the early 1980’s, American churches provided safe haven for Central American refugees fleeing civil conflict.Forty years later, the sanctuary movement is responding to federal immigration policies that makes obtaining asylum difficult, if not impossible.

In the past two years, organized religions are offering their buildings as sanctuaries for people without papers who are under threat of deportation and separation from their children. This is not a new threat...it’s been happening for decades for various reasons.

A local case is Miriam Vargas, who along with her two young daughters, has been living at the First English Lutheran Church near downtown Columbus, Ohio since July 2018. There are several other denominations that offer similar types of sanctuary for people without papers. Edith Espinal has been fighting deportation in sanctuary at the Columbus Mennonite Church for two years and is currently on a hunger strike, waiting for a visit from Senator Sherrod Brown, as we go to press.

Yes We Can is to be congratulated for taking on the Franklin County Democratic Party machine again, though the Party machine under the control of Boss Ginther and his sidekick Shannon Hardin, fight any new voices and ideas with all their might. Yes We Can exists because the Republican Party has clearly given up contesting elections in Ohio’s capital city. Or maybe they determined they don’t need to oppose the Franklin County Dems, whose Republican-lite policies are so pro-elite and the “unelected, but appointed” Columbus City Council members are all owned and operated by wealthy developers. Next mayoral election, Yes We Can should run a mayoral candidate to oppose the anointed one and bring out some new voters.

Plenty of new ideas are needed locally as the city has 22 percent of African American families living in poverty, Ohio is one of the top five states in human trafficking cases, and the state is ranked third in the nation for reports of hate crimes.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” stated George Santayana. We’ve heard this often the past three years, mostly in reference to the rise of Nazi Germany. The rigged U.S. election system and antiquated and undemocratic Electoral College system has produced the most “perfect” presidential pomposity in political history. The genocide is not as overt but getting closer as more immigrants are interned at our borders while their kids are stripped from their families and caged. We need to understand that all the horrendous draconian laws, corporate dominance, and wealth inequality we face now did not begin with Donald Trump. He is just the predictable outcome.  

2020 is almost here. It’s not the end of the world as we know it, just the end of a dismal decade that continues its incremental climb to inverted fascism in the US. The planet is in peril.

On Saturday, November 16, dozens of Ohio college students, activists and immigrant advocates will go to Morrow County Jail in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, to protest the county’s contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The demonstration will be held from 11:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. and will involve testimonials from those personally affected by ICE actions.

Corrections Facility Administrator Captain Sara Fulk emphasized at a Morrow County Commissioners meeting that expenses are increasing. “The cost of everything is up,” said Fulk. “The costs of meals, utilities, and wages have all increased.” ICE brings detainees from many central Ohio counties to the Morrow County Jail. A Kenyon College student involved in organizing the protest stressed that Morrow County residents should know that their municipal tax dollars are subsidizing ICE operations in Ohio.

Drake's Exit Opens Way for Kasich, Meyer        

President Michael Drake is stepping down at OSU next year and the search for his replacement is under way. Look no further than former Governor John Kasich as Drake's replacement, so says John Michael Spinelli, Ohio's leading independent reporter. Kasich has largely faded from the scene, having been vanquished by Donald Trump and reduced to writing nonsensical books and making obsequious comments on CNN. The OSU job would restore his visibility. Half of the OSU trustees owe Kasich a favor because he appointed them.

Meanwhile, Drake's imminent departure opens the door to a comeback by Urban Meyer as OSU football coach. Meyer quit after last season in part because he believed that the 3-game suspension imposed by Drake was excessive. New coach Ryan Day is going great guns at this writing, but big money from the pros could pull him away. Stranger things have happened.

How Convenient! The Chase Young Suspension           

Yes We Can is to be congratulated for taking on the Franklin County Democratic Party machine again, though the Party machine under the control of Boss Ginther and his sidekick Shannon Hardin, fight any new voices and ideas with all their might. Yes We Can exists because the Republican Party has clearly given up contesting elections in Ohio’s capital city. Or maybe they determined they don’t need to oppose the Franklin County Dems, whose Republican-lite policies are so pro-elite and the “unelected, but appointed” Columbus City Council members are all owned and operated by wealthy developers. Next mayoral election, Yes We Can should run a mayoral candidate to oppose the anointed one and bring out some new voters.

Plenty of new ideas are needed locally as the city has 22 percent of African American families living in poverty, Ohio is one of the top five states in human trafficking cases, and the state is ranked third in the nation for reports of hate crimes.

Maybe a decade ago I was a hockey fan. During an unexpected moment of affluence my wife and I splurged on Blue Jackets season tickets in the nosebleed section, and I would dutifully go down to see bad hockey week after week. Bad for real – this was in the latter years of the Ken Hitchcock era, with borderline NHLers like Andrew Murray and Gilbert Brule sometimes playing on the second line. 

The technical reason we cancelled our seats was that having children had made the expenditure unthinkable, but it was not a painful decision. I was done – I even cancelled my subscription to Fox Sports Ohio. They had just become painful to watch. A second broken shoulder ended my beer league career permanently. I lost the love. Even subsequent success and the playoffs didn’t bring me back.