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   Perhaps the greatest law enforcement officer in Ohio history died on September 18, 2015. David Sturtz served for 31 years with the Ohio State Highway Patrol, retiring as a major. In 1988, Governor Richard Celeste appointed him the state’s first Inspector General to investigate public corruption plaguing Ohio’s state agencies. Republican Governor Voinovich, elected in ’91, retained Sturtz as Inspector General until he began to uncover serious scandals involving the Governor’s family business in 1994.
   Sturtz uncovered a vast network of corruption in Ohio involving unbid jail contracts going to the so-called “V” Company owned by Voinovich’s family; ties between Les Wexner and Carl Lindner, Jr., organized crime and the CIA; the “Coingate” scandal connected to the Ohio Bureau of Worker’s Compensation and their money laundering into the George W. Bush campaign. As a result of these investigations, Voinovich fired Sturtz in 1994

   The voters of Toledo are to be congratulated! By more than a 2 to 1 margin of victory, they abolished any jail terms and penalties for possession of marijuana up to 200 grams. Toledo’s Issue 1, The Sensible Marijuana Ordinance passed on September 22, 2015, establishes complete decriminalization for misdemeanor marijuana offenses. Sensible indeed! The Free Press wishes Columbus would come to its senses soon.
   Campaign manager Sean Nestor, Ohio Green Party Political Director, was correct when he told the Toledo Blade that: “I do think what we have is pretty potent as far as protecting cannabis users. We feel this is important even on a national scale.”
   One big difference between Toledo and Columbus is that their mayor and city councilmembers believe in citizen’s initiatives and democracy. Had this effort been attempted in here, Columbus City Council President Andy Ginther backed by City Attorney Rick Pfeiffer would have dreamed up a technicality to keep the people from voting on the measure.

It's beginning to look like political season has finally arrived, and it isn't just that we have two debates under our belt and primaries about to begin. The telling statistic is that fully 85 percent of op-ed writers, most of whom ought to know better, have finally succumbed to the temptation of reacting to some piece of insane gibberish emanating from our dear friend Donald Trump. It's the journalistic equivalent of a weekend off, a “phone it in and come to bed honey” moment. More fool them – the man is plainly a Democratic plant, as is his friend Tom Brady.

  But this is a music column, and we don't ask the easy questions here. If you want to know John Kasich’s stance on net neutrality, the Dispatch would be more than happy to oblige you. Here, however, we roll up our sleeves and get down to the ugly core of what makes someone deserving of the presidential office – if a candidate was a Kinks songs, which Kinks song would they be? Cue “The Contenders,” in alphabetical order:

“88 Like We Bringing the Rooftop Back.”- Iggy Azealia or Nas

“I didn’t meet Rakim til later with Scott/I remember we were jammin’ at the Rooftop.” - Krs-One

Columbus Hip Hop holds a special regard for Bernie's Distillery similar to how people in New York discuss LQ or the Rooftop or L.A people speak on the Good Life. The talent nurtured at the Short North Record Store Groove Shack in the mid-90’s called the grimy dive-bar home when MHz, Weightless, S.A. Smash and J. Rawls rose to worldwide prominence.

  Bernie’s was a home that had character to hold up to the talent-level thanks to a crew of deejays (the Fonosluts) and the location’s campus slum punk rock nature. (The Fonosluts were Detroit transplant DJ PRZM, DJ Lo-zone, DJ Pos 2 and host So What?)

  This month presented itself to reflect on the weekly Fonosluts Hip Hop event that existed from ‘99-2005.

  First off because Bernie's is set for not-to-exist after December 31, 2015.

  Secondly, it was the last Daymon Day in this form.

You get three things in spades with new Keith Richards album: feel, feel and more feel. You don't automatically think it--that comes second. You...feel it. But of course. Then you think, ah, the old bastard's back, nice, so let's cop a feel--or 15. With a dozen-plus-three tracks on Crosseyed Heart, the ageless aging dude's third solo album released last week, it's a quiver-full of Keith's many trademarks. Dirty guitar chords, night-cat rockers with leather-jacket desperado charisma, surprisingly tender ballads, reggae grooves better than what you hear on the radio, and oh my, oh, there's more.
  Verdict: it don't quit/it won't quit. It just rolls a bit more subliminally than it appears. That's Keith's magic and that's why we love him, right? Goddam right.

The Table was an exciting new discovery in vegan options located in the Short North on the south side of 5th Ave directly across the street from Brothers Drake. They have a comfortably eclectic atmosphere of with variety of mismatched dinning tables, chairs and dinner plates and interesting lighting fixtures. Friendly and informed staff, regarding vegan needs, and delicious food made a great overall experience. A friend and I went for dinner and enjoyed the squash ribbons starter, and veganized versions of the beet gnocchi and the curried chickpeas. They even made us a special dessert with a variety of apples and the entire meal was loaded with flavor.

As the book editor for the Columbus Free Press, I am currently reading Jimmie Lee & James: Two Lives, Two Deaths and the Movement That Changed America, by Steve Fiffer & Adar Cohen. The book shines a light on two neglected deaths that occurred during the campaign for voting rights in the South. Jimmie Lee Jackson was a young African American man, a father, a deacon at his church and determined to be free in his lifetime. James Reeb, a white minister in the Unitarian Universalist Church, was a husband and father of four.
  Reeb was one of the many ministers who had answered a call from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to come to Selma and work in the campaign for African Americans’ voting rights. Their deaths, especially that of Reverend Reeb – white outrage trumps black lives every time – were the catalyst that moved President Lyndon B. Johnson to send a voting rights bill to Congress. Outside of the movement their deaths are little known, especially that of Jimmie Lee Jackson. Keep your eye on The Free Press for the review.

A diary is a book in which one keeps a daily record of events and experiences. Generally if read by someone other than the writer they would come away with an idea of who the person really is in their own words. They would learn the writers likes and dislikes, how and where they live and other personal information.
  Gerry Bello gives you all of that and more in his recent book “My Netwar Diaries Volume 1: Post Constitutional America.” Bello starts off like all other diaries by telling the reader how he came to start writing his diary, or rather how he came to piece together in chronological order articles that have been written by him and other creditable journalist that deal with the very real threat of Netwar to American citizens, and people everywhere. The diary dates start from May 31, 2013 to May 27, 2014.

On Aug. 7, 1974, a Frenchman named Philippe Petit put on a show that was at once beautiful, dangerous and completely illegal.
  With the help of collaborators, he sneaked up to the top of the yet-unfinished World Trade Center and strung a cable between the Twin Towers. Then, as dawn broke, he proceeded to put on a high-wire act a quarter-mile above the streets of New York.

  Petit’s stunt was previously examined in a 2008 documentary called Man on Wire. Even if you’re lucky enough to have seen that fascinating flick, you won’t be disappointed by The Walk. Directed and co-written by Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump), it explains just who Petit was and why he was so obsessed with conquering what were then the world’s tallest buildings.

  Inevitably, Petit’s biography turns into a thriller of the first order. If you have the slightest fear of heights (and who doesn’t?), your palms will start sweating as soon as the ballsy Frenchman arrives on the South Tower’s 110th floor.

The publisher and editor of the Columbus Dispatch like to brag about what they consider sterling journalism in the newspaper and about all the awards it has won.
   But when it comes to reporting news about their own shop, they travel the road of self-serving public relations, not journalism.
   After leaving us to read reporter Tom Knox’s articles in Columbus Business First about $10 million in budget cuts and impending layoffs, the Dispatch broke its silence in mid-September with a “news article” and columns by publisher Jim Hopson and editor Alan Miller over a two-day span that disclosed that 63 non-newsroom employees had been laid off and hinted that journalists would be let go (I’ll guess 25) after the first of the year when the Dispatch moves much of its editing and design work to Austin, Texas, where parent GateHouse Media operates a centralized editing and design shop for its many newspapers.

Jobs lost, Governor silent