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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.
Little Eater, a concept restaurant designed to promote more organic, produce-based foods and support local farmers, has expanded operations into a stand-alone restaurant in Clintonville at High Street and Deland Avenue. While there are still some animal products on the menu, vegan options are significantly represented. And, everything I have tried there was excellent, bursting with delicious flavor and colorful appeal.
Their fresh, vegetable-based, seasonally inspired foods are revitalizing. Their warm soups are comfortably satisfying and they have recognized that even vegans deserve dessert. The Columbus Vegan Meetup had a delightful experience there recently and we are grateful to entrepreneurs empowering vegan access and affordability.
As humanity’s population is rapidly growing and technology is constantly evolving, it is urgent for our cultural traditions and infrastructures to evolve into a model that is consciously consistent with our values: energy efficient agricultural production and a sustainable model of human coexistence with fellow earthlings.
Decide if you’re the Party of Caligula or Brewster's Millions.
Vladamir Putin: Reread the Communist Manifesto, and stop bribing Republican politicians who cut social programs and taking measures to create greater class disparities in hopes of collapsing our economy. Oh wait; I get what you’re doing.
Pedophiles: Barely Legal Magazine is not child porn for a reason. Follow this logic.
The Constitution: Campaign finance reform. Pass 28th Amendment to overturn Citizen's United which was a Supreme Court ruling that allowed corporations to pump money into elections in a manner that corrupts the process into not working for American citizens’ best interests. This would also make shopping easier.
Humans: Don’t fall for false equivalencies or weird name games. At best they can be non-logic-based coincidences utilized for further exploration. Like most languages, they should be viewed as attempts to communicate instead of truths.
In late November, Ohio marijuana aficionados waited with excitement to see which 12 companies would receive a coveted Level 1 mega-grow cultivation license. To everyone’s surprise, of the 109 applicants, 73 were “disqualified.” Other irregularities in the selection process began to appear.
Another surprise came on December 11 when Jimmy Gould of ResponsibleOhio fame, whose company CannaAscend was “disqualified,” announced at a Cincinnati press conference that he and fellow RO founder Ian James were preparing a “Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Amendment” for the fall 2018 ballot.
I caught up with Ian, a long-time colleague, to learn more:
MJB: How does it feel to be back?
IJ: I love this stuff.
MJB: Is Ohio ready for adult use marijuana?
IJ: I trust the voters before the bureaucrats. Our research shows that 6 in 10 Ohio voters support legalizing marijuana for adult use. And the numbers keep growing. A Pew (Research Center) poll from 1998 had 81 percent opposed. Both Pew and Gallup now find 64 percent/34 percent in favor nationwide showing that marijuana has strong unflappable majority support.
Like the title character Jessica Chastain portrayed in last year’s Miss Sloane, the woman she plays in Molly’s Game is driven by fierce ambition and copious amounts of pharmaceuticals. Though the current film is a typically literate effort written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, I can’t help preferring its trashy predecessor.
The main problem: Despite the new flick’s snappy dialogue and intriguing story, it’s hard to care about Molly Bloom. Based on an actual woman who made a fortune organizing high-stakes poker games, Chastain’s Bloom comes across as someone who cares only about success.
To be sure, there’s something admirable about Bloom’s ability to carve a place for herself in a secretive world dominated by men. There’s something even more admirable about her determination to forge her own path after some of those men—especially a poker entrepreneur named Dean (Jeremy Strong) and a movie star known only as Player X (Michael Cera)—attempt to control her.
Can a record collection have a soul and does it reveal the man who owned it?
In my time on earth as a music dealer, I've bought a number of record collections from those who’ve passed and whom I’ve know sometimes quite well.
Which isn't to say you've got to die for me to buy your records. I buy shamelessly from the living and the dead – a real bone collector like the medieval days. Remember that scene in Monty Python's “Life of Brian” where there was a not-quite-un-living person in the hereafter cart? But we're talking records here, not cadavers.
On a number of occasions in my decades buying and selling on High Street a particularly fine collection would come in--vinyl, compact disc, cassettes even – after I purchased I’d lament what a shame it was going to be to bust up such a sweetly assembled, beautifully woven, tasteful palette of music. Years if not decades in the purchasing and appreciating and absorption went into it. The man (I'm assuming) went for depth in sidemen like I have never seen: Art Tatum, whom I’ve never liked, showed up in at least a dozen titles.
We’ve heard this story too many times before, but it’s worth repeating in Columbus because the local version of this reality is so surreal and wrong it’s almost as if this community has refused to process it.
The West Side’s golden age was replaced with a casino that hasn’t revitalized the West Side as hoped, and is essentially sucking money out of Central Ohio at an increasing rate.
A few miles past the Hilltop in the years following WWII, two huge manufacturing plants emerged. General Motors built an auto-parts plant at the corner of West Broad and Georgesville, and in walking distance from this plant, White Westinghouse built a plant manufacturing dishwashers.
“The West Side was hopping,” says lifelong Hilltop resident Jim Ogden. “Both those plants were running three shifts a day.”
Twenty years ago, the Columbus Free Press came back into print backed by donations from the pro-hemp/medical marijuana movement. Our underground anti-war publication originated on the Ohio State University campus as an as a reaction to the Kent State killings in October 1970, and after 25 years we went strictly online. Through donations from hemp festivals at Rainbow Farm, arranged by legendary local activist Cannabis Kenny Schweickart, the Free Press was resurrected in 1998.
Wednesday, January 3, 7-8:30pm, Columbus Metropolitan Library [Rm. 1-A], 96 S. Grant Ave.
Jewish Voice for Peace members are inspired by Jewish tradition to work together for peace, social justice, equality, human rights, respect for international law, and a U.S. foreign policy based on these ideals. Contact: centralohio@jvp.org. facebook.com/JVPCentralOhio
Thank Mother Earth 2017 is finally over. It was a year that chewed me up, crapped me out, made sweet love to me, punched me in the gut, stole my lunch money, made me laugh, pantsed me, and gave me hope. And I’m only talking about American politics.
It all began with saying goodbye to Barack Obama, the biggest disappointment since losing your virginity. His departure was going to be the end of congressional gridlock and political baby steps. Special interests, criminals, and Valerie Jarrett would no longer decide the nation’s fate while the president negotiated speaking fees with Cantor Fitzgerald. The people would take back their government, they would take back their lives. Yet, as we know all too painfully, the euphoria was immediately extinguished when Hurricane Donald made landfall.