Local

Step by step the revitalization of Franklinton is gaining traction. And because this is the city’s oldest neighborhood and practically in the shadows of downtown, how Franklinton actually emerges will be historic even if the revival takes two decades, the time planners have suggested is needed to make their vision a reality.
  But questions and rumors are swirling amongst residents, some of whom are families with generations invested in Franklinton. Some are worried they will be displaced and wonder if they are even wanted in their own community. Franklinton was founded in 1797, but unmercifully split over a century-and-a-half later by State Route 315 into East Franklinton, home to many industrial buildings, and West Franklinton, where most residents live.
  The mayor’s office, the Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority, and their hired developers, such as the high-profiled Don M. Casto Organization, are at a critical juncture as they continue to plan and begin to build what they are calling “an arts and innovation” community that will attempt to bond both East and West Franklinton back together.

Elder Michael Reeves, Pastor of Corinthian Baptist Church, led off a January mayoral candidates debate co-sponsored by the Coalition of Concerned Black Citizens and elder stateswoman Ann B. Walker by saying “we did this forum because we have not seen a political agenda for Black Columbus, and wanted all the candidates to know that we expect them to address issues of interest to the Columbus black community.” The most surprising thing about this statement coming as the city’s first Black Mayor is preparing to retire, is that it was not a controversial statement whatsoever to the audience.

Attend the Day of Action opposing the FirstEnergy bailout

Monday, June 15 at 11 am in front of PUCO offices, 180 East Broad Street in Columbus

Following the rally, the Sierra Club will host a lunch

with overview and opportunities to contact the PUCO and Governor John Kasich.

    Since December of 2010, FirstEnergy has been attempting to get a 20-year license extension for its Davis-Besse nuclear reactor (power plant) located on Lake Erie in Oak Harbor, OH, 20 miles east of Toledo.

    The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has stacked the deck in numerous ways to shut out citizen organizations seeking to prevent relicensing of the nation’s fleet of aging, embrittled reactors.  

Book Review: A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life By Allyson Hobbs

If you watch the trailers for Tomorrowland—or if you just consider the fact that it’s a Disney film named after a Disney theme-park attraction—you have a pretty good idea what to expect: It’s going to offer an optimistic view of a future in which technology is used to cure the world’s ills.

Surprisingly, it’s not like that at all. Even more surprisingly, it might have been more satisfying if it had been.

There’s a part near the beginning when it briefly lives up to expectations. A young boy named Frank Walker (Thomas Robinson) visits the 1964 New York World’s Fair to show off the flawed jet pack he built from an old vacuum cleaner.

There he meets a girl named Athena (Raffey Cassidy) who gives him a strange pin that turns out to be the key to a magic kingdom of sorts. It allows him access to a hidden world filled with gleaming structures and giant robots. One of the robots even fixes his jet pack, allowing him to soar above the exotic landscape.

After seeing this glorious scene, you might be fooled into thinking this Disney-fied view of the future is what the story is about.

Last week, Portage and Fulton Counties joined Medina, Athens, and Meigs Counties to petition for County Charters through direct initiative. County residents are faced with shale gas drilling and fracking wastewater and liquid natural gas (LNG) pipelines, and are determined to protect themselves through a vote by the people for community rights to preserve clean air, water, and soil, and assert their right to local self-government. They join a growing movement across the state for community rights. Portage County residents have been alarmed for years at the volume of frack wastewater deposited into fourteen active injection wells, and learned more wells have been permitted. Athens and Meigs Counties also face unprecedented quantities of wastewater to be injected in their communities.

On Friday May 15th, Joe Motil, longtime community activist and past candidate for Columbus City Council and State Representative announced today that he filed paperwork with the Franklin County Board of Elections as an official write-in candidate for the office of Columbus City Council.

ComFest needs people with professional license and/or other comparable standing in health care & medicine are automatically welcome. For those not, you only need to have certified training (Red Cross and American Heart Assn courses qualify) in First Aid & CPR, or otherwise demonstrate appropriate skills.

We operate two First Aid Stations: the Main Station, in the center of Goodale Park, is just a bit northwest of Safety Radio Base, and adjacent to Cleanup & Recycling, Signage, and the golf cart corral. It operates 9am-midnight on Friday, somewhat earlier on Saturday and Sunday. Station 2 is on the east edge of Goodale Park, across the street from the intersection of Park Street and West Poplar, and operates 3-11pm Friday, and 3-9pm Saturday and Sunday. Both First Aid Stations are in synch with a three-member unit of firefighter/paramedics from the Special Events Office of the Columbus Division of Fire. Firefighters and colleagues are members of Local 67, IAF.