Local

Sun, April 7, 2-4pm
399 S. Front St.
Gathering at Bicentennial Park (233 S Civic Center Dr, Columbus, OH 43215) at 2pm and marching over to the Franklin County Juvenile Jail (399 S Front St, Columbus, OH 43215-5038, United States) to demand justice for Masonique! Bring your instruments, be ready to sing and chant.

We all have our own Origin Story that brings us to who we are today.  Whether it has brought trauma or prestige, all origin stories must be understood as how we begin.

Before starting let us all establish ground rules.  All Super heroes (organizers) go through some kind of a struggle or a painful experience, and “it is the choices they make, rather than their special abilities, that make them superheroes” (organizers) (Dr. Janina Scarlett). 

Why would you want to become a superhero, or an organizer? What are some attributes of being an organizer? We have many examples of heroes, like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Harry Potter and Star Wars.  But who are the role models for an organizer?  Throughout history, mostly they have been ostracized or assassinated.  Can each of us describe feelings and attributes that bring us to the choice of joining that elite group of people who have stepped up to organize when called?  ‘’

All the cool politicians are backing it; President Trump is mocking it: it’s the Green New Deal. The Democratic Socialists (DSA) spring issue of Democratic Left is totally dedicated to reporting on the Green New Deal. Perhaps DSA’s most famous member currently is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), or as Time magazine calls her on its cover, “The Phenom.”

It was AOC more than any other elected official who brought the Green New Deal into vogue. First, a week after the 2018 midterm election, the Sunrise Movement held a sit-in over climate change at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. Representative Ocasio-Cortez stopped in to chat up and support he demonstrators. Soon after, she went beyond that as she introduced House Resolution 109 – the Green New Deal – in the newly seated 116th U.S. Congress. Senator Markey (D-MA) introduced similar legislation with Senate Resolution 59. Their legislation reveals that the Green New Deal in essence is a jobs stimulus program centered around solving the problems of climate chaos and economic inequality.

Saturday, April 6, 1pm
Stratford Ecological Center, 3083 Liberty Rd, Delaware
We want to plunge into stronger support for local farmers, as well as to address the related issues of sprawl, traffic and a more sustainable transportation system. We will start our time by hearing from Josh Lapp from Columbus Transit, which is seeking ways to create just such a transportation vision--which can include an express bus system, bus lanes, increasing ride-share options--and eventually , if we are lucky, a light rail system for our area.Please join us as we reconvene, gather these task forces back together and hear about their on-going plans, and consider new transportation ideas and ways of addressing sprawl. We welcome--and appreciate--continued involvement. Please bring a friend ... and spread the word. Hosted by Sustainable Delaware.

Many hardworking and successful marijuana connoisseurs have dreamed of one day working a legal and legitimate job in the cannabis industry.

For Ohioans that dream can finally become a reality. According to many Ohio medical-marijuana industry experts, there is a shortage of skilled workers as the state’s medical marijuana program takes off like John Glenn in a rocket.

Indeed, some Ohio medical marijuana companies have looked far and wide to find experienced workers. Standard Wellness near Sandusky, one of the state’s first cultivators and processors of medical marijuana, started with four employees and now has 45, said CEO Erik Vaughan recently to Cleveland.com.

“We had to go out of state to find specialists and managers for our cultivation business,” says Vaughan.

Also telling is how many cannabis careerists have had to leave Ohio to make their career dreams a reality. But staying near to home is now possible as the only state-approved career school for cannabis education east of Colorado – The Cleveland School of Cannabis or CSC – is opening a second location in Columbus this April and currently enrolling students.

Fri, April 5, 7-9pm
Just North United Church of Christ (UCC), 2040 W. Henderson Rd.
BluesSwing will play blues and swing tunes from the 1930s to the present to benefit SSCM Food Pantry. facebook.com/BluesSwingBand.

Thursday, April 4, 5-6:30pm
Sen. Rob Portman's office
37 w. Broad St.
Trump appointed Attorney General Barr failed to meet Tuesday's deadline for releasing the Mueller report to Congress. Therefore, Central Ohioans will join people across the country in coordinated actions to demand full transparency and accountability from our government. #ReleaseTheReport

On March 23, Amber Evans body was recovered from the Ohio Scioto River.  She had been in the river since January 28, 2019.  The community of Columbus and people across the nation had been waiting since January 28th for the police to recover Amber’s body as there was clear evidence that she was in fact, in the Scioto River.  They found her car near the river, they found her cell phone near the river and all evidence pointed to the fact that Amber would be found in the river.  How she got there was to be determined, after they found her body.  

I understand the pain, fear and the torture of having to wait for the police to tell you that your loved one, that has been missing for several weeks, has been found.  On March 3rd, 1977, on my 21st birthday, my father’s first cousin, a woman that he grew up with, loved and considered his “favorite cousin’s” body was recovered from the river in Indianapolis, Indiana.  She had been missing since December 1976, when her family found her door unlocked, her purse and keys on her kitchen table and no signs of her, anywhere.  

Mayor Ginther: Unopposed and Unindicted

Mayor Andrew Ginther is running unopposed in this year’s election. His major accomplishment in his first term was successfully remaining unindicted in the RedFlex camera scandal.

Ginther perfectly personifies the so-called “Columbus Way,” and that way is pretty straightforward. You suck up to multimillionaire and billionaire developers who don’t live in Columbus and give them massive tax breaks. In return, they fill your coffers for re-election.

Also as part of the Columbus Way, you make it difficult for any oppositional forces to get on the ballot. Municipal election signatures on candidate petitions cannot be gathered until after the November election. You have Thanksgiving, Christmas and then the coldest month of the year in January to try to get signatures. You require 1000 valid signatures for Mayor.

The Mayor with his power of patronage, appointment and abatements can gather a coterie of sycophants looking for favors.

Portia Yiamouyiannis knocked down a wall in Porta’s Cafe and opened the expanded new coffee shop and deli concept “Portia’s Next Door” on Indianola in Clintonville on Feb 11, 2019. I’m already delighted with the “eggless salad” and the many prepared deli-style salads one can discover there. Portia has also teamed up with Eric “Tofu Louie” Ma creating a dynamic duo for delectable vegan sushi pop-ups featuring “vegan carrot lox, cucumbers and cream cheeze” rolls; “scallops” (mushrooms); and a “sashimi with avocado roll.” Spare the fishes and get your sushi on with sustainable, socially-just, healthier consuming plants. That amazing breakfast sandwich is the cholesterol-free, low-on-the-tropic-level-biomagnification, healthier option bomb, too.