Local
The speed that hackers were able to breach security on dozens of electronic voting machines at one of the United States’ largest cybersecurity conferences underscores the long-standing problem with computerized electronic voting systems in our country. At the annual DefCon cybersecurity conference this July, hacker managed to break into every voting machine within minutes, according to an article in The Hill.[1]
Thomas Richards, a security consultant, said “It took me only a few minutes to see how to hack it” referring to the Premier Election Solutions voting machine currently used in Georgia.[2]
Computerized voting in the United States was promoted by an interlocking industrial complex of political operatives, technicians and vendors.
Friday, August 24, 10:30 am
Columbus, Ohio, Franklin County Board Of Elections, 1700 Morse Rd, Columbus, OH 43229
Concerned citizens are invited to a special meeting of the Franklin County Board of Elections (BOE), Friday, August 24 at 10:30am, the Columbus Community Bill of Rights attorney Terry Lodge will present the legal arguments in support of the Columbus Community Bill of Rights ordinance to clear its passage on the November ballot. Once on the ballot, all Columbus voters will have a voice in protecting their water.
After the citizen-led initiative qualified with enough signatures and was approved by the Columbus City Council to go on the ballot, a single Columbus citizen, Loretta A. Settlemeyer filed a protest with the BOE. It has been discovered that she is a legal assistant at the law firm Bricker & Eckler LLP, a firm that has been involved in other attempts by residents throughout the state to protect their communities from oil/gas projects. Her attorneys will present her case as to why her single voice should be allowed to take away the voices of all other Columbus voters.
Al Warner was my friend and comrade in arms. He served as board president of the Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism, publisher of the Columbus Free Press, during a tumultuous period. We were exposing corruption from the local school board, to the city, and to the state.
Al was many things, but first and foremost, he was tenacious. Like a pitbull on a pantleg, once he got ahold of an issue involving corruption against schoolkids, he refused to let go.
Al was progressive, intellectual, and thoughtful. And his show “At the Table” was enlightening. The axiom at the table was simple – either you’re at the table or on the menu. And many times Al invited himself to the table to defend the rights of poor and underserved children.
I fondly remember him as my co-host on “Fight Back!” on WVKO where Al did verbal combat in defense of social justice and equality. Al and I also worked very closely to preserve the mission of Columbus’ Africentric School. On more than one occasion, Al personally funded lawsuit to maintain equality for all children and defend staff members under fire from the reactionary forces of the status quo.
Why is the Greater Columbus Arts Council (GCAC) shilling for the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Nationwide Arena boondoggle? The first open forum on GCAC’s proposed 7 percent ticket tax faced stiff opposition Wednesday night, August 22 at the Vanderelli Room art gallery and event space with standing room only. The ticket proposal would place a 7 percent increase to all cultural and sports events only in Columbus except for high school and college sport events.
The tax is estimated to generate $14 million a year. GCAC is straightforward in their fronting for the Arena’s needs. Point Four of their handout entitled “The Proposed Ticket Fee Helps All of Columbus and Franklin County” specifically states that the tax will “…fund up to $4 million annually in efficient, essential renovations to Nationwide Arena, to maintain the facility and attract major concert shows, and sporting events that add so much to our economy and quality of life.”
On Saturday September 9th, join Will Strickler and his six-piece band Waves de Ache as they present a concert dedicated to the music of Latin Jazz legend saxophonist/composer Paquito D’Rivera at Copious Notes in downtown Columbus. Listeners can expect a heavy dose of Cuban Salsa music, mixed with American Jazz and seasoned with elements of hip-hop, rock and funk music.
After several years playing bass guitar as a sideman for numerous artists (including Grammy-award pop singer Daya, finalist on “The Voice” Chris Jamison and Columbus’s favorite neo-funk band, Mojoflo), Strickler stepped away from a life on the road to pursue his longtime dream of writing and playing Cuban-inspired jazz music, in collaboration with his fellow Capital University alumni Max Marsillo and childhood friend Ben Maloney.
Since its inception as part of Strickler’s artist in-residency at the one and only Dick’s Den, Waves de Ache has played numerous venues around Columbus, including The Refectory, Columbus Jazz & Ribs Festival, Brother’s Drake Meadery and more.
One hopes that human wisdom and ethics will continue to grow, but unlimited growth of population and industry on a finite earth is a logical impossibility.
Today we are pressing against the absolute limits of the earth’s carrying capacity. There are many indications that the explosively increasing global population of humans, and the growth of pollution-producing and resource-using industries are threatening our earth with an environmental disaster. Among the serious threats that we face are catastrophic anthropogenic climate change, extinction of species, and a severe global famine, perhaps involving billions of people rather than millions. Such a famine may occur by the middle of the present century when the end of the fossil fuel era, combined with the effects of climate change reduce our ability to support a growing population.
A new book
I would like to announce the publication of a book addressing these problems, entitled “Population and the Environment.” The book may be freely downloaded and circulated from the following links:
The lands west of downtown Columbus have only had one robust economy since mayor George Meeker first annexed Franklinton and a couple square miles up Sullivant's Hill in 1870. Meeker also renamed Sullivant's Hill (where prosperous Franklinton people had built large luxurious homes, above the floodplain, overlooking the city), "The Hilltop." However, Mayor Meeker (who was involved in east and north side land developers), annexed the Westside in a way that would prevent it from ever taking another "highly desirable" private building project away from the other sides of his city.
How did he do this?
When he annexed the Westside, he used eminent domain to have both the city and state buy all of West Columbus’s premium land (I mean every inch above the Franklinton floodplain) for two enormous government projects. See both here
Today, members of a newly formed citizens coalition entitled A.R.T. (Advocates for Responsible Taxation) announced its opposition to the proposed 7% ticket tax in the city of Columbus. The A.R.T. membership consists of a diverse group of area residents who are united to prevent an unneeded and unwarranted massive new tax that threatens the middle class while shining the light on this special interest driven new tax.
Attend the public meeting to oppose the ticket tax tonight:
Wednesday, August 22, 5:30-7:30pm
Vanderelli Room, 218 McDowell St. (Franklinton)
CHILLICOTHE, OHIO: On August 8th, the Fourth District Court of Appeals dismissed the Athens County Bill of Rights Committee’s (ACBORC) appeal to place their rights-based county charter initiative on the ballot. Athens County residents were denied the right to vote on forming a county charter government in the November 2017 election. The Athens Board of Elections and the Common Pleas Court blocked the people’s initiative, which also banned fracking wastewater injection wells, despite residents duly qualifying the measure.
The appellate court claimed there was a technical mistake made at the Common Pleas Court, thereby justifying the higher court’s refusal to issue a decision. ACBORC asks why the court took more than six months to decide not to decide.