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Columbus Free Press Libby Award, November 9, 2025
Bob Krasen, Healthcare for All Ohioans
Comments after the award presentation
A TV Commercial ad is based on 3 simple questions. “What’s the bad news? What’s the good news? And What’s the difference?”
The Bad News?
The people in the USA have a 3 year shorter life expectancy than our neighbors to the north in Canada.
The USA is not one of the 58 countries in the world which provide necessary healthcare to their people.
Our infant and maternal mortality are the highest among first world nations.
Hospitals are closing where they ar most needed: in the inner cities and rural communities.
Doctors are tired of playing “Mommy may I?” with insurers, drug companies, and hospitals, having to get prior authorizations.
Clearly, the USA healthcare payment system not working for us.
The good news?
On behalf of the citizens of the City of Columbus I want to apologize to Ms. Averi Townsend for how she was treated by Emanuel Remy and our elected City Council. You deserve better. Everyone deserves to be treated with respect and kindness by the people we elect. The politicians who sit above us in City Hall are not entitled to anything other than the opportunity to help us become better than we were yesterday. In this they failed miserably and you suffered for their shortcomings. And unfortunately, they will never admit that they were wrong.
City Council has forgotten that in addition to showing up to meetings, their part-time job must also include love. Love for themselves first and the love of helping other people second. They lack empathy and you were the target of how little they care about us. They have no motivation to change.
Without Hardin, Remy would never have been elected.
Dr. Bob Fitrakis and Dan-o Dougan play songs not so complimentary of Trump.
Listen live at 11pm Fridays, November 21 and 28 streaming at wgrn.org or on the radio at 91.9FM
and
Mondays at 2pm streaming November 24 and December 1 at wcrsfm.org or on the radio at 92.7 or 98.3FM
Saturday, November 22, 4-6pm
COED, 1890 E Main St.
Join Columbus DSA and residents across the city for a community conversation as we debrief the 2025 elections and discuss what's next for our city: how can we create a city with safe neighborhoods where people can afford to pay for their home, keep food on the table, and be represented by their political institutions.
Food & childcare provided. Masks required & provided.
About the Columbus DSA Creating Democracy in Columbus Campaign: If we want to see the change we need, city government must be representative of our residents, not packed with hand-picked political appointees from the current leadership. We are building a campaign to ensure Columbus neighborhoods can actually elect the people they want to represent them and fight for their interests. Signup here: dsacb.us/DistrictCampaign
Although the world is experiencing severe global crises, there are new efforts underway to create a more effective means of coping with them.
The crises are clear enough. They include vast slaughter in horrific wars, worldwide climate catastrophe, massive population displacement, and deepening poverty.
Moreover, these disastrous situations are likely to worsen in coming years. Modern wars are fought with increasingly devastating weapons, and preparations for nuclear war have escalated to the level of global annihilation. Similarly, time is running out for saving the planet from an environmental cataclysm, which will surely lead to heightened displacement and poverty.
The Columbus Free Press lost a member of our community Saturday, November 15, 2025. Michael Eckhardt passed on to the spirit world after a courageous journey battling lung disease.
Michael wrote for the Free Press since the 1990s, covering Native American topics, particularly his work with the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC). He served as Regional Director, member of the National and International Speakers Bureau, member of the LPDC Advisory Board, and his last position was being appointed a member of the LPDC Executive Council. Michael also represented the national LPDC at the 1995 United Nations Working Group for Indigenous People in Geneva. After that he was given the responsibility for maintenance and oversight of over 100 support groups worldwide.
California's sees record growth in battery storage
At the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference in Brazil, California Governor Newsom announced that California has reached a record level of battery storage, with 16,942 megawatts (MW) of capacity available. This is a massive buildout that's redefining grid reliability and accelerating the state's transition to 100 percent clean energy.
The new total marks an increase of about 1,200 MW in the past six months and a 2,100 percent surge in storage capacity since 2019. California has now built one-third of the storage capacity estimated to be needed by 2045 to reach its clean energy goals.
California has more installed battery capacity than every other jurisdiction on the planet except for China. Within the United States, California leads all states in installed storage capacity, followed by Texas which has roughly 9,000 MW of battery capacity.
Thursday, November 20, 7pm
Madison Township, 7083 Duvall Rd., Ashville OH, 43103
Protest outside the meeting of the Pickaway County Madison Township Zoning Commussion. They will be reviewing the last remaining land parcels for Anduril-1 Hyperscale facility.
Madison Township residents have been fighting this plant for a year - let's help them!
Local Columbus politics has officially “jumped the shark” and become a performance for the cameras. Like any blockbuster movie you need an endless budget (provided by the taxpayers), a script (distraction from mistakes and secrecy of purpose) and a master director: Shannon Hardin.
In any other sane world Emanuel Remy would have already stepped down from office, but the director wants to keep him in the cast to pretend to govern. Remy is just good enough to follow directions and not ask questions. The director will allow abusive behavior because he has unlimited money to pay off the victims and continue his reign. And that’s what it has all become. To Director Hardin we are just one of his movies.
Our local government is a stage performance riddled with dozens of positive and happy Facebook posts about how the Mayor and City Council love you. All cream and sugar; 24 hours a day paid for by your taxes.
Imam Ayman Soliman – the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital chaplain wrongly arrested by ICE earlier this year – spoke at an event in Columbus on November 15, telling an audience that even during the ordeal’s worst moments, there were activists who offered glimmers of hope that led to his release.
It was midnight on the day of his arrest when he was processed into the infamous ICE-contracted detention center in Butler County – a jail run by Sheriff Richard Jones, known as Ohio’s “mini-Trump.” From there, he may have been deported to his home country of Egypt. In 2014, he fled Egypt where he covered the Arab Spring as a journalist, and for that he was jailed and tortured.
“There was an officer who had a child that had been treated at St. Ann’s Children’s Hospital, and they remembered my face,” he said. “He looked at me during this terrible time and said, ‘I am sorry you are here. I just wanted you to know I watched the news at 11 pm and everyone is protesting on your behalf.’
“You have no idea what that meant to me.”