Local

Stinks: Who’s in charge of this Barn?!

Chicken face staring in the camera

A picture of his penis from the White House. Sex toys, $2,200 worth, delivered to his office where he had sex with a secretary. Taking high school coaches to strip clubs. Oh, and let’s not forget the victim. Zach Smith’s ex-wife, Courtney, had a number of serious looking bruises.

So this is our sacred Buckeye football team, so proud of its winning ways and its “core values.” We have a head coach, a self-touted man of faith, allowing a nepotistic toddler man run amok. Our head coach, a father of two daughters, turning a cold shoulder to obvious domestic violence so OSU can recruit the best wide receivers.

And this is our prestigious University. Slapping Urban Meyer on the wrist during the #MeToo movement. Ohio State University (OSU) claimed Urban had memory issues but he remembered to delete his text messages.

Franklin County Green Party meeting

Green symbol of the shape of the state of Ohio with a white flower design inside

Tuesday, September 11, 2018
6:00 PM  Open business meeting
7:00 PM General Meeting and speaker.  Join the Franklin County Greens - we meet on the second Tuesday of each month.   Program:  Sandy Bolzenius will update us on the Columbus Community Bill of Rights efforts to have a Community Bill of Rights for Pure Water, Clean Air, and Safe Soil on the Ballot in November.   Location:  Northwood Building, 2231 N. High St., Room 100.  Parking available behind the building in “R” spaces.  For more information, contact:   fcgreenparty@gmail.com or facebook.com/FCgreenparty. 

Abolition Study Group #1: Are Prisons Obsolete?

A wooden door and the words Angela Y. Davis and Are Prisons Obsolete?

Monday, September 10, 6:30-7:30
Page Hall, 3rd Floor, 1810 College Road, OSU
If you're interested in learning more about the prison-industrial-complex, policing or hyper-incarceration, please join us for a political education series called, 'Abolition Study Group.' The purpose of this group is to learn the theoretical frameworks necessary to build an abolitionist practice.

Each week, we'll meet on the 3rd floor for a discussion and that discussion will include commentary/questions provided by our incarcerated accomplices.

For Abolition Study Group #1, we will read 'Are Prisons Obsolete?' by Angela Y. Davis. The pdf is available here: bit.ly/2m6ihNa

If you're interested in co-hosting this event please advise.

From the Great Financial Crisis to the Affordable Housing Crisis

White sign with red letters saying Forclosure in front of a house

Great Financial Crisis

On September 15, 2008, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. It was the largest bankruptcy in the history of the United States, a key moment of mounting panic during what came to be known as the Great Financial Crisis. In London this year, some of the alumni of the bankrupt bank are reportedly planning to hold a party to "celebrate" the anniversary of the bankruptcy. That pretty much sums up the attitude of the rich.

The rich have certainly much to celebrate. Just about all assets they own -- from stocks to real estate -- in many countries command higher prices than ever. For the rest of us, however, the crisis has never ended. Our real wages, in fact, are declining, lagging behind inflation. Our pensions and health care benefits are being cut. Our housing costs are soaring.

Housing Crisis Today

Are we all becoming Travis Bickle?

Robert De Niro, youngish white man with a mohawk hairsut and sunglasses smiling with his arms crossed, wearing an army jacket with patches

I've been thinking about a couple of decades-old movies lately, Stanley Kubrick's 1987 Full Metal Jacket and Martin Scorsese's 1976 Taxi Driver.

Don't know why for sure.

It just might be a sign of the times.

Both tell stories of male characters descending into the inhumanity of violent madness – one an individual's, the other an organized societal group. Both involve alienation. Both are disturbing. Neither makes sense we want to be familiar or comfortable with. But I don't see how we have a choice anymore.

Full Metal goes full-bore into the deterioration and death of a mentally and physically unfit recruit in Marine Corps basic training while his cohorts successfully adapt to the dehumanizing process of being turned into our nation's first line of defense – killers, in other words.

That's Jacket's first part. The second is a tale of our now-blooded Marines getting the hell shot out of them by a very young NVA or Viet Cong sniper girl. Kubrick getting in his humiliating anti-American licks.

Rise Up march draws many on a rainy Saturday

Woman in a long green dress with a sash and a cape and crown of flowers with a sign saying It's not nice to frack mother nature

Some 100 or so protesters marched in the steady rain in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday September 8, 2018, as part of over 900 events in 95 countries and on all seven continents, for the "Rise Up For Climate, Jobs, and Justice" day of environmental action. Stops and speakers at the Statehouse, Senator Portman's office, and City Hall, promoted a 100% renewable energy goal for the City of Columbus; the Columbus Community Bill of Rights for clean water, air, and soil voter initiative; and a reinstatement of clean energy standards for development projects in Ohio. Winie Wirth and Nathalia Rhodes as "Mother Nature" and "Sister Water" reminded us that "Water Is Life-Don't Frack it Up"!

Medical Marijuana in Ohio – Comedy or Tragedy?

Drawing of two masks, one smiling, one frowning

As September begins, Ohio’s newly formed medical marijuana program continues to be plagued by various delays and failures. As a direct result, our state’s patients, who are in dire need of the treatment cannabis provides, will have to wait even longer for the legal relief they require.

The program was supposed to be up and running by September 8, but has seemingly hit every speed bump along the way. On July 31, Buckeye Relief in Eastlake planted the first legal seeds, a momentous day only made possible because the cultivating facility finally received its certificate of operation from the state four days before. The state’s department of commerce can only give up to 12 of these certifications before the September 8 deadline, with potentially more on the way. However, the late start with cultivation means the crops won’t be ready until November, and then they must be sent to a processor to be transformed into approved consumable products for patients. As of now, these approved products only include edibles, oils, patches and other non-smokable methods.

Free Press Heroes

Two men in foreground of people sitting in chairs, one younger white man with dark rimmed glasses with his hand over his mouth holding a pen, and the other a white haired white man, both in dark suits

The Free Press Salutes Jeffrey Wadsworth

The Free Press salutes former Ohio State University trustee Jeffrey Wadsworth who resigned from the University’s board after disagreeing with Urban Meyer’s three-game suspension. The New York Times reported that Wadsworth felt the punishment should be stronger. He appears to be the one lone trustee on the OSU board voicing concern about the message the University was sending to the community regarding domestic violence, dishonesty and the destruction of public records.

Enemies of the People – Attorney Don McTigue and the Franklin County Board of Elections

The members of the Franklin County Board of Elections (BOE) are the Free Press enemies of the people, after effectively stripping 560,000 Columbus citizens of their right to vote on a ballot measure entitled Community Bill of Rights for Water, Soil, and Air Protection and to Prohibit Gas and Oil Extraction and Related Activities and Projects Ordinance.

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