Local

It was an event 20 years in the making.

In April, Julian Assange, the controversial founder and publisher of WikiLeaks, was arrested in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for what appears to be trumped up charges regarding classified information that Wikileaks published in 2010. While there’s been no shortage of big news in recent months, as often tends to be the case in our hyper-partisan, 24-hour news cycle, the most important aspects of the Assange story have been misrepresented by the mainstream media and partisan hacks on both sides.

First and foremost, everyone needs to realize that while Assange is certainly a tendentious figure who provokes a variety of feelings, the charges brought against him by the U.S. in this particular instance are because Chelsea Manning supposedly asked Assange for help cracking a government password back in 2010. While Assange originally agreed to help Manning with the hack, he subsequently failed at doing so, making the charge even more frivolous, so much so that the Obama administration actually decided not to prosecute Assange for the same thing. So, the fact that these charges are being brought forward now has several journalists scratching their heads.

Ohio’s corrupt voter registration system must be reformed. The Dispatch got it right in an editorial that began by saying “Ohio lawmakers should take up Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s request to make voter registration automatic.”

Our current system, fueled by the former Secretary of State and hardline right-winger Ken Blackwell, was designed to target and eliminate core Democratic voters, particularly blacks and poor people. Former Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted perfected the art of de-registering Democratic voters. A 5-4 Supreme Court decision in the Husted v A. Philip Randolph Institute case last year upheld Husted’s undemocratic scheme – purging voters who hadn’t voted in the last few federal elections.

In the run-up to Ohio’s 2004 presidential election, the Free Press broke the story that 305,000 voters – primarily in the cities of Cincinnati, Cleveland and Toledo – were stripped from the voting rolls. In the next four years prior to the 2008 presidential election, the Free Press acquired the names of 1.25 million voters kicked off the voting rolls. Between 2009 and 2012, the number reached 1.1 million.

Tuesday, April 30, 2019, 8:00 – 10:00 PM

Rev. Gary Witte calls out the ones responsible for the tax abatements that take money from the Columbus city schools. On April 24, approximately 400 Columbus school teachers marched to the headquarters of one of the local corporations that has received a "15-year, 100 percent property-tax abatement last year for a new $225 million office complex in downtown Columbus to be completed by 2024," according to ThisWeek newspaper. Holding a banner that stated "Cover My Students" they descended upon the firm CoverMyMeds to protest how that corporation will "avoid more than $50 million in property taxes thanks to the abatement it received from the city," reported WOSU Radio. The teachers' union says the abatements hurt the public educational system in Columbus because it relies on property taxes for funding. 

No names will be mentioned, nor place of performance. No band name, no bar name, no set list. This...group...is real. It exists. It must never see this review.

Because I don't want to hurt their feelings. Nor do I want to die. One of 'em looked like Charles Manson.

Anonymous they must remain. Or I am a dead man.

It isn't just a bad review. It's a sad review. Old goat classic rock zombies--Facebook is loaded with them--and not very good, it's doubtful these guys could ever play. And at this late stage of the game nor ever will they.

But playing bad isn't the greatest sin in the world, no sir. Playing bad and thinking you're playing good isn't the greatest sin either.

No. The worst sin in the world is playing really bad, thinking you're really good--and also thinking you are really, really bad-ass while playing like crap thinking you're great. At a really old age.

I guess what am trying to say is you may as well pose like you have a ravenous armadillo in your pants 'cuz you suck so badly anyway.

Last month, Ohio governor Mike DeWine signed controversial Senate Bill 23into law. The law, which bans abortion as soon as six-weeks into a pregnancy, is an almost total ban on the procedure, as many people do not even know that they are pregnant by six weeks. While the bill does include an exception in the case a pregnant person’s life is at risk, there are no exceptionsfor rape and incest included in the legislation.

From the Presbyterian Church (USA) Office of Public Witness
For a year now, Palestinians in Gaza have been creatively and bravely protesting for their freedom by marching towards the fence with Israel to demand an end to the blockade of Gaza and respect for their rights.  In response, Israel has met unarmed civilians with live sniper-fire, killing over 200 and injuring tens of thousands, including paramedics, journalists, children, and people with disabilities. In total, 45 children have been killed.  Click Here to Contact Congress.
 

A newspaper reporter friend told me that his paper's coverage policies were determined by the editor's interests rather than the readers' interests.

That could be a reason why newspapers are losing audience these days.

Dispatch editor Alan Miller demonstrated this quirk of leadership in the April 14 edition when he wrote about his father's restoration of a barn in Holmes County and included a picture.

That's 85 miles northeast of Columbus and way out of the Dispatch coverage area.

No other Dispatch journalist could have done it. Only the editor.

I wonder if it signals that Miller is nearing retirement. After four years of cost-cutting and dancing to the GateHouse corporate tune, Miller may be ready for the family farm, so to speak.

Spectrum News 1 Quotes Yours Truly, Columbus Free Press

A Coalition to #FreeMasonique is calling for a National Week of Action to draw attention to Masonique Saunders and has begun a calling campaign to Ron O’Brien asking him to drop the charges against her.Masonique has been sitting in Columbus’ juvenile jail since December, after being charged with aggravated robbery and felony murder, and is awaiting a May 9 court date. She spent her 17th birthday, March 18, in jail. Masonique’s mother is struggling to help her and to pay legal bills.

In December 2018, a Columbus police officer shot and killed Julius Tate Jr., a 16-year-old Black boy, during a sting operation, claiming he had a gun. The police then pinned their murder on Masonique Saunders, Tate’s girlfriend, on the premise she was party to a felony happening during the murder. Read more in the Free Press May article by Sarah Mamo: “A sting, a police murder and a cover-up.”