Local
It’s all over the news. Vaping is dangerous, no it’s better than smoke. The problem involves tobacco. No, THC. Additives should be outlawed – no – marijuana should. If you’re confused, concerned or even cautious, let’s shed some light on this new health problem.
First, who started vaping? Inventor Herbert A. Gilbert first conceptualized a “smokeless non-tobacco cigarette” device for inhaling vapors in 1963. Phil Ray, a NASA engineer and father of the desktop computer,” coined the term “vaping” in the early 1980s as part of his push to reduce cigarette risk with a device that eliminated the toxic byproducts of smoke while leaving nicotine. In the cannabis world, the famed “Volcano” created by Markus Storz and Jürgen Bickel hit the market in the mid-2000s. A 2007 study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Neurology found that "there was virtually no exposure to harmful combustion products using the vaporizing device."
The first bullet entered under her left arm. The second bullet entered her left breast – inches from her heart – after grazing her hand which required microsurgery, collapsed her lung, and chipped her rib.
Diona Clark suffered this gruesome attack from her ex-boyfriend September 2005. Miraculously, she survived and is organizing the Fourth Annual Speak Up Speak Out: Domestic Violence Survivors Conference October 26 from 10am-1pm at the Columbus Health Department at 240 Parsons Road in Columbus.
Her ex, Larry Belcher, was sentenced to three years in prison this May, for nearly killing her 14 years ago. Clark told the court, “I don’t think he is remorseful for what he has done to me.” The judge rejected Belcher’s assertion that he may have been the victim, since Belcher had brought his gun to her house upset because she broke up with him.
Clark said Belcher showed her the gun. He said he would kill himself. Clark tried to persuade him not to kill himself, and then to let her go. He shot her as she tried to leave, and then shot himself as she ran calling for help.
October 2, 2019, 7:00 – 8:30 PM. Prospects for peace in Israel/Palestine: Deal of the Century or End of the Road? - A talk by Khaled Elgindy. Khaled Elgindy is the author of Blind Spot, America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump. He is a nonresident fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, where he was a resident fellow from 1020 to 2018. Prior to that, he served an am adviser to the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah on permanent status negotiations from 2004 to 2009 and was a key participant in the Annapolis negotiations held throughout 2008. Books will be available for sale at this event. Visitor parking available in the South Ohio Union Parking garage, 1759 N. High St. and West Lane Ave. garage, 328 W. Lane Ave. JVP Central Ohio will reimburse parking for anyone requesting it. Sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine OSU, Jewish Voice for Peace Central Ohio, and Central Ohioans for Peace. Location: Houston House Building 1102, 97 W.
Local election season is in full swing and it seems like wherever you go in Central Ohio, alternative political candidates are shaking things up. Here in Columbus, the insurgent progressive group Yes We Can is challenging the unstoppable Franklin County Democratic machine, while down in Athens County, Democratic Socialist candidates are making local power players worried as well. Not to be outdone, a few Libertarian candidates are also running in Franklin County and just like their progressive counterparts, they’re causing quite the ruckus for local political establishments.
For the most part, theFreep supports Sen. Sherrod Brown and his daughter Elizabeth Brown, current Columbus City Council Pro Tem, or temporary council president, but this is no endorsement for re-election.
Mrs. Brown is an advocate for Columbus City Schools and a staunch fighter for women’s rights. She initiated the Columbus Families Together Fund, which provides legal help to keep local immigrant parents together with their children.
But when we reached out to her to see if she is actively pushing for air-conditioning in all city schools, the Freep did not hear back.
It makes us wonder whether her past position as an economic development manager with Columbus city government and her current position as chair of the city’s Economic Development Committee has anything to do with her silence on the sweltering issue.
Could the city have avoided this absolute embarrassment and shame, where our city’s marginalized children, who need the best educational system and setting possible, are instead treated like second-class citizens?
Three members of the Mayor’s Safety Commission are speaking out about the lack of transparency, candor and trust within the Commission.
Janet Jackson, former City Attorney and governing Chair of the Commission is accused of running roughshod over the group’s ability to ask questions and to dialogue about the various issues plaguing the Columbus Police Department.
“At no point in these meetings were we allowed to address the real issues. Our voices were not heard.” said Tammy Fournier Al Saada, organizer for the People’s Justice Project.
Ironically, Mayor Andrew Ginther set up the Safety Commission to study and evaluate the work of the Columbus Police Department (CPD), and to restore public trust and legitimacy to his battered police force which has come under severe public criticism within the last few years. Police killings of unarmed citizens, several incidents of police brutality and charges of racism and sexism swirl around the CPD.
Columbus, Ohio is a city known for its arts, culture, innovation, politics and the Buckeyes. However, Columbus is the largest city of its kind named after 15th Century Italian-Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus, an explorer who was more known for raping and pillaging indigenous people, and being a kingpin for slavery, rather than sailing across the Atlantic.
There are some people in Columbus who are questioning the city being named after the famed explorer who also did these heinous things to the indigenous.
There is a petition circulating around to have the City of Columbus change the city’s name to Arawak. Local activist Charles Robol is leading the charge into getting the city’s name changed. Robol has been out in the community in recent weeks handing out flyers to spread awareness of Arawak City.
There is an existential threat to all democracies worldwide, a dark corruption, and sinister plot to rip the fundamental rights and duties of a developed civilization from the hands of the most vulnerable. The vicious beast of American exceptionalism (or exclusionism) has been caught in the hen-house of our governance. Evidence of it's racist, elitist, and over-entitled claw-mark's are all over our metaphorical "collective consensus;" our county-level ballot boxes.
Is Atticus Finch a “white savior”? That question probably wasn’t on the minds of those who took part in a PBS poll that named To Kill a Mockingbird America’s favorite novel. But it certainly was on the mind of Emmy-winning writer Aaron Sorkin when he adapted Harper Lee’s 1960 work for the stage.
After seeing the results of his efforts on a recent trip to Broadway, I had mixed feelings. I felt Sorkin had successfully incorporated modern sensibilities into the beloved tale, but in the process, he misplaced some of the charm and profundity of Lee’s masterpiece.
Set in Depression-era Alabama, the classic story centers on a small-town lawyer who agrees to defend a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman. Lee’s novel and the subsequent Oscar-winning film depict Atticus as a principled man who takes on the case despite knowing it will earn him the animosity of many white neighbors. Conversely, it earns him the respect of the town’s black residents.