Local
The “Offense Book of Books” kicks off their publication during three events in January.
Every once in a while something good seemingly falls into your lap. The proponent hearing on HB 440, the Ohio Health Security Act (OHSA) in the House Insurance Committee on December 5 and 12 was pure serendipity.
The OHSA would provide payment for all necessary health care for all Ohio residents for life. It includes inpatient and outpatient hospital care, preventive care, mental health, vision, hearing, prescription drugs, dental, medications and medical devices, emergency services-including transportation, rehabilitation, hospice care, home care and other necessary medical services as determined by any state licensed health care practitioner. It is “Medicare for All for Ohioans.”
Co-sponsors of HB 440 are Ohio House Representatives Teresa Fedor and Bernadine Kennedy Kent.
With Moonlight, his 2016 breakthrough film, writer-director Barry Jenkins defied our expectations. If you knew the Oscar winner was set in a poor Miami neighborhood and that two of its characters were drug dealers, you still weren’t prepared for its mixture of tenderness, beauty and longing.
His follow-up film, If Beale Street Could Talk, is just as beautiful but not quite so unexpected. Based on James Baldwin’s 1974 novel and set in Harlem, it faithfully captures the author’s voice as it shares a bluesy, poetic account of young love blossoming in the midst of racial injustice.
Tish Rivers (KiKi Layne) is a 19-year-old who suddenly finds herself attracted to her lifelong friend, 22-year-old Fonny Hunt (Stephan James). Tish becomes pregnant and they get engaged, but their plans are dashed when Fonny is arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. It’s clear he’s been set up by a racist cop, but they have no way to prove it, especially since the alleged victim has disappeared.
The inaugural Columbus Covers Columbus (CCC) festival, held in January of 2018, was based on a unique idea. The two-day festival would feature Columbus musicians playing cover sets comprised entirely of the music of other local acts.
The concept was an immediate hit, selling out its first night and packing the Shrunken Head for a weekend of entertainment that included live podcasts and stand up sets from top local comedians. For the event’s organizer, Columbus performer Tony Casa, putting on the whole affair was a step outside his comfort zone.
“I was horrified...once I started, I realized it was a much more intense task than I had previously planned,” Casa remembers of the weekend. “I was pretty damn nervous for the entirety of the event, until we sold out day one.”
When you’ve already made strides in one field, stepping into a new role can be intimidating. As frontman for the popular Columbus band Zoo Trippin’, Casa has achieved heights most local acts can only dream of. For his first foray into event planning, CCC was a learning experience – one that he undertook almost single-handedly.
Village Taco just launched their new restaurant, spicing up the sprouting vegan scene in the sleepy Alexandria community east of Columbus near Granville. And WOW, they also teamed up with Doughasis and Whit’s (Clintonville) to deliver seriously decadent frozen brownie or blondie dessert combos.
This is a full-service, 100% vegan menu from appetizer (nachos, fries, chili, popcorn chickun) to walking burritos (Rollin Fatties), enchiladas, and tacos, and taco salads, to dessert. Most people wouldn’t know it since they are offering seasoned shredded plant-chickun, seasoned ground plant-beaf and spicy chipotle plant-porq – meat alternatives that are rocking the town into vegan consciousness in ways they never imagined.
President Donald Trump’s move to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria and Afghanistan last month certainly sent the Washington establishment into a tizzy. However, the action will show, as journalist Matt Taibbi wrote, the real divide in our nation’s capital – those who oppose war and those who are for it, profit off of it and probably just enjoy it. It has been the American way for quite some time now.
A fantasy...
January 15, 2019.
Urban Meyer is tooling west on I-70 in Indiana in his Audi S7, tires barely touching the pavement, on his way to an interview at the University of Iowa.
He notices a solitary hitchhiker in a black Columbia coat, hunched over, looking disgruntled, holding a sign that says "Iowa." The person looks familiar. Freed from the requirement to be a role model imposed on him as OSU football coach that would instruct not picking up a hitcher, Meyer slows to take a closer look.
"Urban," the man says. "It's John. Kasich. The, uh, Governor." Meyer motions him into the front passenger's seat.
"I've got an interview for the football job at Iowa," Meyer says. "Why are you going there?"
"I'm running for president. It starts in Iowa," Kasich blurts. "The Lord has a plan for me to be president, but so far he is not providing free transportation. I lost my free security and travel expenses when my term expired yesterday. It was all secret. Taxpayers' money. A few million. No biggee.
Every day millions of domestic workers — house cleaners, nannies, eldercare workers, and home health aides — care for our nation’s homes and loved ones. But these domestic workers have been excluded from many of the basic labor protections that other workers are guaranteed. That’s why the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) — the nation’s leading voice for dignity and fairness for domestic workers — along with Senator Kamala Harris and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, just announced the national Domestic Workers Bill of Rights. This Bill of Rights would close legal loopholes that have historically excluded domestic workers. It would create protections for domestic workers like fair scheduling practices. It would strengthen support networks for domestic workers who are survivors of sexual assault.
Monday, December 31, 2018, 10:00 PM
Sunday, December 30, 2pm
379 Chittenden Ave., sponsored by Food not Bombs
We’re cooking to serve outside the downtown YMCA again — bring whatever vegan(ish) food you can find, or just bring yourself to help prepare stuff, or just come over for conversation and company. New people always welcome!
We'll gather our resources by 2pm and start prepping a meal to serve, Should be done cooking by 5pm and then go to the YMCA on W Long St & N Front St and then to set up (hopefully by 5.15-5.30pm) a community picnic for those in need (picnic usually lasts only an hour til we're out of food). Come help (learn) to cook, or come help with the serve, with it being so close to holidays ... just let us know you are actually coming :)
All are welcome to come with, and we should be able to find you a ride if needed
Every Saturday at noon with Central Ohioans for Peace. Location: 161 & N. High, Worthington.