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Husted, Counties Sued to Prevent Planned Destruction of Election Records

Columbus, OH, April 20, 2018 – Ohio voters are suing Secretary of State Jon Husted and the Boards of Election of Franklin and Cuyahoga in order to protect key election materials from next month’s primary election that they say the counties plan to destroy.

At issue are the “digital ballot images” created by the digital scanners that tabulate votes on paper ballots. Digital scanners are in use in 15 counties, including Cuyahoga and Franklin. These records are essential for verifying the accuracy of the election results, according to the suit.

“We’ve had indications that most of the counties that use this technology are following the law and preserving the digital ballot images,” said attorney Robert J. Fitrakis of Columbus, who filed the suit yesterday in the Ohio Supreme court. “As a precaution, we’re seeking a court order that these crucial records be protected in every county where they exist.”

Wellness and Safety Fair
Saturday, April 21, 10am-2pm
Woodward Park Community Center, 5147 Karl Road
It will be a fun filled day where people of all ages can have a good time learning about wellness, health, and safety. Workshops and tabling by: United Healthcare, Lowes, Woodward Park Community Center, IBT, Faith Thomas Foundation, VSP, The Center for Health Families, Franklin County Children Services, Hands On, Shawnee State, Action for Children, Cancer Support, Doterra-oils, OSU, Columbus Public Library, Be the Match, CPR, Fire & Safety, Sheriffs Department, CPR and Blood Pressure Information.

Tom Neilson Concert
Saturday, April 21, 7:30-10:30pm
Columbus Mennonite Church, 35 Oakland  Park
A concert by Tom Neilson, folksinger and storyteller extraordinaire. He'll be performing at Columbus Mennonite Church on April 21 at 7:30. Steve and I will open for him. Suggested donation $15. Tom's songs are powerful social and political commentaries which resonate with the work of Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs. 

Just hours before attending a preview screening of I Feel Pretty, I happened to be riding a stationary bike at my gym when the nearest TV showed Amy Schumer plugging the flick on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

DeGeneres praised the comedy, as you might expect, but she had especially kind words for the Schumer character’s final speech. She hinted that the consciousness-raising moment is the best part of the film.

Judging from the early reviews, many agree that I Feel Pretty has an important message, but they also seem to feel it undermines that message in a way that’s clumsy at best, unconscionable at worst. So when I say I actually enjoyed the flick, maybe I need to stress that I did not fall off that stationary bike and hit my head before seeing it.

Written and directed by Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein—and engagingly performed by Schumer and the rest of the cast—the comedy takes on society’s obsession with physical perfection and the damaging effects it has on the self-esteem of women and girls.

Our opponents are relentlessly attacking women’s health from every angle. Even when it’s not in the headlines, it’s happening practically every day.Tell the Trump administration: Hands off women’s health care!


Here’s why every abortion-rights activist should care about the latest attack on women’s health:
 

 Operation Warm Continues Supporting Low-Income Kids with Help from Community

Chadds Ford, PA – Since 1998, Operation Warm, a national nonprofit dedicated to providing brand new winter coats to children in need, has gifted more than 2.5 million coats. Due to the expansion of giving efforts across the U.S., Operation Warm has launched its first ever ‘Volunteer Brigade,’ a highly trained force to give more coats to kids in need.

This past year, Operation Warm was able to give coats to 325,000 children with the help of community organizations, foundations, and business partners. This was an especially impressive feat, given that the organization has under 25 full time staff members. According to school administrators, Operation Warm coats provided not just warmth, but confidence and hope as well.

It’s easy to nowadays to casually flip through the newspaper, “Such a shame,” we say. Crying babies and images of ICE agents cover the front page. “Too bad, those poor kids.” And yet we turn to the next page; these are only problems in border states. Besides, it doesn’t affect us...right?

Each day, it seems, new foreign policy changes appear in the newspaper headlines: increased border security to deter Central American illegal immigration, harsher and speedier deportation laws, the end of the DACA program, as well as the proposed travel ban which would limit travelers and immigrants from Chad, North Korea Venezuela, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.

We skim these headlines, our eyes glancing over writers addressing important questions; What would America be without its immigrants? More importantly, how would the immigrant policies affect our local communities?

Ready for 100 Columbus, a campaign to persuade the city of Columbus to commit to achieving 100 percent renewable energy by 2050 or before, is hosting an aerial art photography project on Earth Day.

Ready for 100 Columbus is launching its public campaign for 100 percent renewable energy with an aerial art project at this year’s Earth Day Columbus celebration.

Ready for 100 is a national campaign by the Sierra Club aimed at inspiring leaders in cities across the nation to embrace a vision of healthier communities powered by 100% clean energy. The Columbus campaign’s goal is to persuade the city of Columbus to commit to 100 percent renewable energy citywide by the year 2050.

The aerial art project will feature Columbus residents gathering in formation on the Scioto Mile greenway to spell out “100%”, which will be captured by a professional photographer with the Columbus city skyline in the background. The project will be held in conjunction with the annual Earth Day Columbus celebration, sponsored by Green Columbus on Sunday, April 22.

The universal laws of physics have been turned upside-down and torn to shreds: we’ve traveled back in time. We have hurtled back to the 1990s with a homophobic sexual predator as president. America’s military is once again launching strikes to protect the fossil fuel industry and distract the country from sex scandals and legal troubles. We are saying goodbye to a right-wing ideologue Speaker of the House while healthcare is being used as a political weapon.

Wednesday morning quickly brightened our month by bringing us the news of Paul Ryan’s retirement. Ryan, the creepiest teenager ever, confirmed recent speculation by declaring he was stepping down from the speakership and would not seek reelection at the end of the year. He has spent his entire career drafting crippling cuts to public spending, especially to Social Security and various healthcare programs. As speaker, he has overseen a large increase in federal spending and falling tax revenues. For all of his talk about fiscal common sense, he has possessed none.

La La Land was pelted with jokes galore for its alleged depiction of a white man who wanted to “save” jazz. Personally, I thought the attacks were unfair. The way I saw it, Ryan Gosling’s character was simply a white musician who idolized and was inspired by black jazz icons.

So why do I have such an uncomfortable feeling watching Flock of Four, the story of a white high school student who idolizes and is inspired by a black jazz icon? Maybe because the modest little film tries to tackle the issues of race and cultural appropriation head on, and it does it in a way that’s sometimes awkwardly self-conscious and embarrassingly naïve.  

Directed and co-written by Gregory Caruso, Flock of Four partially makes up for this shortcoming by taking us on a pleasant journey through a pivotal era in Southern California’s musical history.