Local
Millions of Ohio voters have tried to vote on Election Day over the past 15 years only to find their names were erased from the pollbooks.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) brought suit against the State of Ohio and Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted to protect voter’s rights to remain registered. At the crux of the ACLU’s lawsuit were 385,065 registered Ohioans who were refused absentee ballots in 2016 because they had failed to vote in the 2012 or 2014 federal elections.
The United States Supreme Court will now decide whether voting in Ohio is a constitutional right like free speech or a more limited right controlled by the Secretary of State’s office. Oral arguments begin on Wednesday, January 10.
Columbus voters rally to abolish City Council appointment process
COLUMBUS, OH – On Monday, Jan. 8 at 4:30 p.m., Yes We Can Columbus will host a rally outside City Hall to demand City Council abolish the undemocratic appointment process used to fill open Council seats.
Voters from across Columbus will gather to collectively protest the appointment process and to demand Yes We Can candidate Jasmine Ayres, who was the 4th highest vote-getter in the Nov. 7 election, fill the open seat.
Speakers will begin at 4:40. After the rally, attendees will join the remainder of the Council meeting.
Who:
Rhiannon Childs, executive director of the Ohio Women’s March
Kiara Richardson, former secretary of the Central Ohio Young Black Democrats
Puja Data, organizer with the Working Families Party
Kenny Myers, organizer with Yes We Can Columbus
Jasmine Ayres, candidate for Columbus City Council
When:
Monday, Jan. 8 at 4:30 p.m.
Medical cannabis laws were signed into effect in June of 2016 and Ohio has been working on the rules, regulations and guidelines since. The Ohio State Medical Association has approved Extra Step Assurance’s division, Cannabis Expertise, as an approved training provider for all medical professionals in the State of Ohio. Extra Step Assurance is an Ohio based company having offices in Bellefontaine Ohio and Farmingdale New Jersey. All doctors looking to recommend medical marijuana in the state must have the state approved two-hour training and education beforehand.
It turns out that cannabis is not the evil wacky weed we were led to believe by criminals disguised as politicians, but instead, provides the pathway to better living and good health. How does cannabis work as a medicine and why are so many people demanding it? There happens to be a really good answer that lives within you.
We are all familiar with basic bodily systems, such as the circulatory or digestive systems, but did you know that within those systems lives another whole system that actually helps control and regulate those same systems? The Endocannabinoid system (ECS) lives within each and every one of us but this system wasn't discovered until 1964 when Dr. Rapheal Mechoulam isolated the THC molecule and soon thereafter the CBD molecule.
How do these play into our ECS system and what does that have to do with cannabis as a medicine? Both THC and CBD are cannabinoids and surprisingly enough they actually fit and bind, similar to a lock and key, into receptors endogenous to our bodies more understood systems. Cannabinoid receptors are embedded in cellular membranes and it is believed they are in greater numbers than other receptor systems.
Welcome to the anniversary of the Great Cannabis Comeback. 20 years ago it seemed industrial hemp’s eminence here in the state with the heart of it all seemed not so far away. A few years tops, advocates thought. The subject was in the news regularly, pop culture was catching on and products ranging from textiles to food and cosmetics were becoming mainstream. It wasn’t just a fad.
There was a big problem with the poll numbers though, with Ohio voters being a walloping 40 percent undecided. This resulted in the funding plan for the industrial hemp and medical use initiative going up in smoke. The ball had to be handed off to the people to whom it would matter the most: The farmers. This is what the politicians were asking for with any hopes of a legslative bill.
Considering all plastics can be made from the cellulose and its seed more nutritious than a soybean, it shouldn’t be that hard of a position for them to advocate. It’s not marijuana.
December turned out to be a rough month for me in terms of getting out to see some shows. I guess I just picked up the holiday laziness. So on Christmas Eve I found myself looking through the archives of albums that local acts have asked me to review to see if I had missed anything interesting. The pickings were slim -- a couple of mediocre punk albums, a jam band live recording (god help us), and a well-financed folk-country disc which had a nasty habit of referencing whippoorwills. There was also a pretty decent metal demo, but I worry that reviewing demos would make me seem desperate.
So I was all set to write up a lame “songs to retire in 2018” column when I came across Dumb Country Noise, a three or so year old recording by the absurdist rockabilly/country act the Hellroys. Oh hell, I thought, I remember this. I also remembered that I had told these guys I was going to review this three years ago and totally spaced on it. So with my apologies, here is the review three years too late. I sincerely hope you are still together (your website seems current) and that you haven’t released eight other albums in the meantime.
As I write this article, the total number of homicides in Columbus has reached a record breaking number of 140, breaking the previously held record of 139 in 1991. The latest victims range in age from 37 to 57 years old. Columbus is the 14thlargest city in America with at least 860,000 residents living in this rapidly growing city.
According to the HUD’s 2017 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, Columbus has about 1,691 homeless residents, which includes veterans, families, youth, sheltered and unsheltered and chronic homeless people. The total number for Ohio is 10,095 homeless residents. The good news for Columbus is that 2017 saw a decrease by three percent from 2016.
According to the Ohio Department of Education 2016-2017 Report Card Resources, Columbus, Ohio received D’s and F’s in all categories in education. The city schools earned an F in the Graduation Component Grade, a D in the K-3 Literacy Component Grade and an F in the Prepared for Success Grade.
COMFEST ANNOUNCES 2018 LOGO CONTEST
ComFest announces its 2018 Logo Contest and calls all artists to enter original designs. Each year the selected logo appears on ComFest tee shirts, ComFest beer mugs, and the cover of ComFest Program Guide and thus becomes a part of the festival’s history. A public viewing of entries will be held on Thursday, March 1; 2018 at 7:30 PM at the Goodale Park Shelter House.First round of voting includes the attendingpublic. The three finalists will be reviewed at the following ComFest General Planning meeting on March 25, where a final selection will be made.
Guidelines and details are found on the website, comfest.com. Artists should always include the Hopewell Symbol in the design, along with the date of the festival, a reference to ComFest/Community Festival, and promote harmony, tolerance, and peace in its essence. Remember: ComFest is a progressive organization dedicated to an inclusive community.
COMFEST GRANTS
Once upon a time, every medical marijuana ballot issue and legislative bill contained a provision to permit personal cultivation. In 2007, introduced, but long forgotten Ohio House Bill 343 would have allowed patients to possess 12 mature plants. Limits in the Marijuana Policy Project’s 2012 model bill were set at 12 plants AND 12 seedlings. Why then was home growing omitted from Ohio’s new law?
In June 2016, Ohio became a “legal state” with the passage of Ohio House Bill 523. The legislation established a Medical Marijuana Control Program with cultivators, processors and dispensaries, but forbade “home growing,” well, sort of. The bill itself makes just one vague reference, “cultivator license holder shall not cultivate medical marijuana for personal, family, or household use.” I guess the rest of us can? Ah no, for that one must to defer to the Ohio Revised Code where growing marijuana carries the same penalties as possessing equivalent amounts: small means minor misdemeanors, large can lead to felonies and even mandatory minimum sentences.
Ohio Democrats need a bold new leader, a gut fighter with a heart of gold to win back the governorship in 2018.
His name is Joe. Joe Schiavoni.
The two-term state senator from Boardman, who was born in Youngstown, is 39 and has never run statewide before. But he conducts himself with the wisdom and maturity of a much older person as his experience as a workers' compensation attorney will attest.
His approach is to go out and talk to people as he crisscrosses the state. He wants to find out what Ohioans of all walks of life are thinking about, what their challenges and needs are and what he can do to help them as a state senator and as a future governor.
Well under 6-feet tall with a shaved head, broad-shouldered and muscular, Joe looks like the former Golden Gloves boxing champ that he is.
But he is the consummate gentlemen in his dealings with people.
He understands the key issues of the day. Asked about sexual harassment, he said he will teach his young sons to treat all women respect as they treat their mother.