Local

COLUMBUS, OH –Columbus City Council Candidate Joe Motil and longtime outspoken critic of the city’s tax abatement policies was encouraged to see that other reputable U.S. news organizations are reporting about the counterproductive and unnecessary use of tax abatements to Fortune 500 companies and their subsidiaries that take place nearly on a daily basis here in Columbus, Ohio. An article in today’s Bloomberg Businessweek titled, “When Midwest Startups Sell, Their Hometown Schools Often Lose” talked about the Columbus Education Associations (CEA) decision to protest Columbus City Councils $55 million tax abatement giveaway to CoverMyMeds. CoverMyMeds is owned by pharmaceutical giant the McKesson Corporation which reports profits of $2 billion most years.

I had the pleasure of meeting Arthur Ashe in the early 1980s. It was in a little tennis shop in a strip mall somewhere on Bethel Road. He was representing his brand, Le Coq Sportif, and the store was full of white children who weren’t even born when Ashe was on the professional tennis circuit. In fact, he and I were the only two black people in the store. I had just come from a tennis lesson, and we chatted about that briefly. He signed my copies of two books he had written, stopping to look at a photo of himself after heart surgery, and a poster for my tennis instructor, Dick Fryman. He couldn’t have been more gracious.

On Friday, August 16, at 4PM RAID will be holding a rally at the Ohio Statehouse to demand an end to ICE activity in Central Ohio and nationwide. We intend to use this rally to bring the public’s attention back to the detention of our immigrant community and demand freedom for those detained as well as an immediate cease to ICE raids and detention efforts.

We are Central Ohio grassroots activists dedicated to supporting immigrant communities affected by unethical detention of the state. Through direct action, community awareness, and support, we intend to keep our neighbors and community members safe from raids and deportation by abolishing ICE and closing the camps and detention centers.

Thursday, August 15, 2019, 6:30 – 8:30 PM
Calling all the S.E.X.Y. Voters come and be EMPOWERED ! Ask questions of the Candidates asking for YOUR vote!  Location:  1561 Old Leonard Ave., Columbus 43219. Hosted by WTF? Weigh The Facts. Facebook

Wednesday, August 14, 2019, 6:00 PM
Did you know? Many individuals who are detained in jails do retain the right to vote. In Ohio, only those in jail or prison following a felony conviction lose the right to vote. But while those awaiting trial can still cast a ballot, few are able to do so because officials do not have voting programs in place. Join All Voting is Local and the ACLU of Ohio for a training to learn how you can help register voters currently detained in Ohio’s jails.  At this training you will learn:  What are jails – who is in them and who runs them; How to help voters register and request an absentee ballot; and, How to build an effective volunteer team.  Refreshments Provided.  Location:  Columbus Metropolitan Library – Northern Lights Branch, 4093 Cleveland Ave., Columbus 43224.  Register here. 

On the 74th anniversary of the United States imposing nuclear devastation on Hiroshima, Japan, Pax Christi USA launched its Back from the Brink: The Call to Prevent Nuclear War Campaign.  We believe that the massive death, damage, years of suffering, and pure adulteration of humanity and creation caused by nuclear weapons should never happen again. Therefore, the goal of this campaign is to get your local government (state, city, town, or county) to adopt publicly a "Back from the Brink: The Call to Prevent Nuclear War" resolution. Places around the country are already doing this. Phase one of the campaign will be August 6, 2019 through August 9, 2020, and we invite all PCUSA regions, local groups, and individuals to participate. The campaign, modeled on the larger United States Back from the Brink initiative, is endorsed by numerous faith, civic, and peace groups.

Sunday, August 11, 4pm
Scioto Greenway just below the Broad Street Bridge (near the corner of Broad and Civic Center Drive)
Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the month of Av on the Jewish calendar, is a day of communal mourning. This year it begins at sundown on Saturday, Aug. 10 and ends at sundown on Sunday, Aug. 11. A day of mourning on the Jewish calendar, Tisha B’Av commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples of Jerusalem and the generations of forced migration of the ancient Israelite people. The day is traditionally observed by fasting and reading from the Book of Lamentations in Hebrew scripture.

Jews around the United States are holding #CloseTheCamps vigils on Tisha B’Av to draw attention to the striking similarity between the plight of our refugee ancestors and the contemporary cries of those whose tragedy is right before our eyes in America - the myriad immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees who are being treated inhumanely by the Trump administration.

Trump’s Global Gag Rule restricts international family planning aid and access to reproductive health care, forcing clinics to either accept restrictions on the care they can provide to patients or lose aid. The Domestic Gag Rule bans the use of Title X funding for U.S. family planning clinics that also offer abortion services. 

So, Jeff Epstein “committed suicide” while on suicide watch in prison. This was widely predicted, since Epstein, in part to gratify himself, was running one of the world’s most notorious “honey traps.” if you were rich or powerful and liked underage girls, Epstein was your guy. Now that Epstein’s gone, the likes of Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew and other former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson can breathe easier.

If the public is lucky, a slew of civil suits will come forward and provide more revelations. But we can expect the majority of these to settle quietly with non-disclosure statements, thus allowing pedophiles of the world to continue to unite in their quest for illegal sex.

Epstein was also the intelligence community’s guy. As journalist Vicky Ward pointed out in “Jeffrey Epstein’s Sick Story Played Out For Years in Plain Sight,” Alexander Acosta, the former U.S. attorney who went light on Epstein in a 2017 deal, became the Secretary of Labor under Trump. Reportedly he told the people vetting him in the Trump administration: “I was told Epstein belonged to intelligence and to leave it alone.”

Saturday, August 10, 6:30-11pm
1021 E. Broad St. in the backyard
Join progressive friends for food, drink, socializing and networking. This event will include music by DJ LaChewla and a presentation by Eriyah Flynn. Contact: colsfreepress@gmail.com or 614-253-2571