Local

Most Columbus residents assume that our city is safe from the fracking industry. It is not. There are currently 13 injection wells of toxic radioactive frack waste in the Upper Scioto Watershed area, Columbus’ source water protection area.

This waste contains radium 226, which has a half-life of 1600 years, and up to 700 chemicals. Many of the chemicals we know about – some are hidden as “proprietary secrets” – are carcinogens, neurotoxins and hormone disruptors. Each of these injection wells contain millions of gallons of this toxic stew.

Now comes the Columbus Community Bill of Rights (CCBOR) to the rescue. To prevent Columbus residents from being exposed to these dangers and future polluters, an all-volunteer group of concerned citizens has gathered 18,404 signatures over the course of a year for an initiated Columbus city ordinance that would protect our city’s air, water and soil from frack waste. Members submitted all signatures to City Hall at the end of June. Thereafter, the Franklin County Board of Elections validated more than 12,000 signatures, much more than the 8,890 required to put the ordinance before voters for adoption.

Progressive activist Joe Motil has often gone in front of Columbus City Council on a Monday night urging them to not hand out another tax break, and he recently spoke out against a tax-abatement proposal for CoverMyMeds, which is owned by the McKesson Corporation, one of the nation’s largest corporate opioid “pill pushers.” Put more simply, a corporation that’s lead the US into a heroin epidemic.

You would think Motil’s statements before City Council would make the nightly local broadcast news stations of WSYX, WBNS and WCMH. Perhaps even lead their 11 pm broadcasts, and be often repeated the following morning.

But per usual, our local broadcast news stations ignored a concerned citizen who urged City Council to not hand out such a ridiculous tax break to the unscrupulous and undeserving McKesson Corporation.

Indeed, City Council unanimously approved a $77.7-million, 100 percent tax-abatement over 15 years for CoverMyMeds so they can build a new office in Franklinton. CoverMyMeds helped the McKesson Corporation earn over $200 billion in revenue for 2017.

It’s a hot day in July and I’m driving into Cleveland, Ohio. I’ll be staying at some nameless and faceless motel in the big-box suburbs, out there with the Home Depots and Olive Gardens. It reminds me of an old song by The Beautiful South – “[t]his could be Rotterdam or anywhere, Liverpool or Rome.”

Cleveland used to have a reputation for being ubiquitous. Tennessee Williams once said that “America has only three cities, New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. “Everywhere else,” he explained, “is Cleveland.” In 2018, though, it seems like it would be lucky to keep even this non-distinction. Now it’s just a nearly abandoned crater, surrounded by suburbs full of white people who love their racist baseball team.

And oh yes, the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame. They have that too. I can see dingy signs demanding that I take exit 195A and pay $23.00 for the chance to see some of Keith Richards’ clothing. Or perhaps a moving tribute to the “giants of the blues” or whatnot. Lifetime achievement awards to the bands of the baby boomers. And, more recently, Bon Jovi.

I want to highlight that the article “Fighting the Klan could get you 15 years in prison” is inaccurate and needs to be corrected. There are many inflammatory and inaccurate comments. I have highlighted some below and also included more information and a fact sheet.

The bill itself doesn’t apply to only one organization – it impacts any group or person that deprives somebody of Constitutionally-protected rights while wearing a mask. So the bill applies to the KKK, Antifa, and any other group that intimidates other of their constitutional rights while wearing a mask. So saying that “would have to do is claim they were triggered by counter protestors” is false.  The “injures, oppresses, threatens or intimidates” language comes directly from existing federal civil rights statutes dating from 1948.

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections is targeting Siddique Abdullah Hasan again for organizing.

Local gun safety group, Ohioans for Gun Safety is seeking to pass ballot initiative for common-sense background checks on gun sales in Ohio.

Ohioans for Gun Safety, a grassroots non-partisan advocacy group, is working to close the legal loopholes which allow for private sales of guns, particularly online and at gun shows, without background checks. There are many gun owners who strongly believe that such checks are necessary to reduce the amount of gun violence in our state.

“We are not against gun ownership,” says Marian Harris, one of the organizers. “We simply feel it is high time that common-sense background checks be put into place to reduce the number of gun sales to those who should not have access to them, such as convicted felons, convicted domestic abusers and those adjudicated mentally ill.”

Zach Sager, a gun owner himself, strongly supports the measure.

Local gun safety group, Ohioans for Gun Safety is seeking to pass ballot initiative for common-sense background checks on gun sales in Ohio.

Ohioans for Gun Safety, a grassroots non-partisan advocacy group, is working to close the legal loopholes which allow for private sales of guns, particularly online and at gun shows, without background checks. There are many gun owners who strongly believe that such checks are necessary to reduce the amount of gun violence in our state.

“We are not against gun ownership,” says Marian Harris, one of the organizers. “We simply feel it is high time that common-sense background checks be put into place to reduce the number of gun sales to those who should not have access to them, such as convicted felons, convicted domestic abusers and those adjudicated mentally ill.”

Zach Sager, a gun owner himself, strongly supports the measure.

Jobs or the environment? That's the tragic dilemma in which the powers that be seek to trap the global working class forever, convincing us that we cannot have both. We desperately need to find a way out of this dilemma . . . before the capitalist system, with its relentless drive to make more and more profit at any cost, makes this planet unlivable for the human species.

The Right knows how to politically exploit this dilemma: pretend to prioritize jobs over the environment -- until the products become unprofitable and the workers become disposable. That will fool some of the people in swing states all of the time, or so hopes the Party of Lincoln in the age of Donald Trump. Unlike the GOP, the Democratic Party, torn between its capitalist donors and working-class base, wishes to present itself not only as the defender of both jobs and the environment, but also as good for both workers and capitalists, an impossible balancing act that frequently fails.

Thurs, Aug 2, 12-1pm
471 E. Broad St.
Edith is a Columbus mother who has been living in sanctuary since September 5th, 2017. Edith has previously discussed her case with Rep. Beatty, only to be told that the congresswoman was too busy to visit with her. With it being August Recess for Members of Congress, we are again renewing our request that Rep. Beatty champion Edith’s case.

If we needed more proof of why Ohio Republicans are the reason we can’t have nice things, it turns out that Governor John Kasich’s controversial Medicaid expansion had some ulterior motives all along. According to a recent article in The Columbus Dispatch, Kasich’s administration is full of CVS lobbyists who have been given cushy jobs with the state’s Medicaid system – jobs that enable them to rig the pricing of drugs and give CVS exclusivity when it comes to the needs of some Medicaid customers.