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In a major victory for Ohio’s four minor political parties, the so-called “John Kasich Re-election Protection Act” was struck down on Tuesday, January 7, 2014. The Libertarian, Green and Constitution Parties had sued to stop the bill that would have banned their Party primaries. The parties would “suffer irreparable harm” if Senate Bill 193 (SB 193) was enforced by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson wrote in his opinion. Language in SB 193 disbanded the minor parties for not receiving two percent of a statewide vote in the 2012 election, even though there was no such requirement that year. Senator Bill Seiz (R-Cincinnati) introduced SB 193 the same day the Ohio Libertarians publicly announced their gubernatorial candidate Charlie Earl’s nomination. A recent poll showed John Kasich and his Democratic opponent Ed Fitzgerald each running at 41 percent and Earl attracting 6 percent of the vote, presumably from voters who normally lean toward the conservative Kasich. This is the fourth straight victory for the Libertarian Party.

There was not a dry eye in the house. “Stop the cameras,” muttered Dr. Heather Carone, as she reached for a Kleenex to dry her eyes. “Please give me a moment …,” a telling plea from an ER physician, who has probably seen everything. As if tears were contagious, others at the video shoot could be heard quietly choking back emotions that cut to the core of every parent. But Paige Frate didn’t notice, as she played with her mother’s blond hair. Three-year old Paige has her blond locks lightly tied into a pert ponytail. She wiggles as if to say she wants down and then waddles toward a puzzle, giggling as she greets the dog. But what appears on the surface to be normal is far from it. Paige has been diagnosed with Dravet Syndrome, a rare genetic form of epilepsy that begins in infancy and afflicts an estimated 5,400 American children. A neurological disorder, epilepsy is characterized by recurrent, unprovoked seizures. Current treatments are comprised of pharmaceutical drugs, many of which have debilitating side effects.

Northstar Cafe has the best vegan burger in town! If the major burger chains developed and offered an affordable vegan option even half this delicious, instead of a careless “alternative” most likely to be mistaken for a hockey puck, we would be well on our way to a more socially just society and ideally reestablishing the Amazonian rain-forest. We have lost well over 80 percent of the Amazon- the lungs of the world, and the resulting incomprehensible number of species extinctions in the last 60 years to our gluttonous consumption of cheaper, convenient burgers (which can be comprised of the decaying flesh of possibly 1000 cows, a lot of excrement/pathogens, unnecessary terror, pain, suffering, death and according to the FDA; 500 to 600 chemicals not listed on the nutritional data label). There are many vegan friendly items on the Northstar menus, and they are dedicated to local, organic, environmentally conscious methods of operations/buildings/locations (3). Northstar Cafe (Short North, Clintonville and Easton), are all open 7 days a week from 9am to 10pm.

The main attraction distraction, got you number than numb. Empty your pockets son, got you thinkin' that what you need is what they're selling. Make you think that buying is spreading the Gospel. Ain't nobody explain yet the exact role of the Willie beard Chia Pet plays in the message of God's love. It's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter Heaven. There's a Bible quote that ain't making it into the interview. Life in America is fake life, and the moral outrage directed at A&E is little more than a simulacrum of the real thing. Woe be upon white evangelical conservatives. I mean, I understand that key to the rhetorical legitimacy of any group is some configuration of persecution, but I would think that at some point, if they really want to be God's Truth, they would feel the need to upgrade, per Phil Jackson, from a stage 4 tribal culture to a stage 5, i.e. “a rare stage characterized by a sense of innocent wonder and the strong belief that 'life is great.'” (See Bulls, Chicago, 1995–98.) I mean, is this a religion y'all or is it a schematic of co-dependency?

Relationships can be tough. I think we’d all accept that as a given, whether we’re talking about the family kind of relationship or the lovey-dovey kind. In two movies opening in Columbus this weekend, people face various kinds of relationship problems. In the better of the two, a lonely man actually tries to make a computer program his “significant other.” But before we visit that late-arriving piece of 2014 Oscar bait, let’s look at a far more traditional entry.

Things aren’t OK in Oklahoma

August: Osage County, directed by John Wells and adapted by Tracy Letts from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, delves into the lives of the dysfunctional Weston family. When the alcoholic father (Sam Shepard) suddenly disappears, its far-flung members are forced to return to their Oklahoma homestead. There they try to comfort each other in a time of crisis, but they’re too consumed by their own problems and neuroses to be successful. Did I call the Westons dysfunctional? Actually, that doesn’t begin to describe them. Before their tale is over, we’ve witnessed drug abuse, infidelity, incest and even attempted statutory rape.

Everything I know about jazz I've learned from watching Treme on HBO. That fact not withstanding, I spent the evening of Wednesday December 18th, 2013 at the Brothers Drake Meadery and Bar absorbing the Ben Johnson Quartet. This experience seemed to me to be everything modern jazz should be, despite the fact I know nothing about modern jazz. Regardless of how you define it, Mr. Johnson and company played jazz for the modern age. Aaron Quinn on guitar, Dan Shaw on keys, and Ryan Jewell on drums accompanied the aforementioned Johnson on bass in a set consisting of jazz tributes (it does not feel proper to call them covers) of well known nineties songs. It's as accessible as it is impressive, a perfect fit for jazz Wednesdays at the Brothers Drake. Although, while sipping some damn good apple pie mead, I did find myself wishing I was in some dive bar filled with cigarette smoke where the beer is served warm and in cans. But, barring that momentary lapse of reason, the classiness of the venue held it's sway from front to back and beginning to end. The first set of the inaugural performance involved noticeable nerves, yet still sounded smooth.

Guess what Joe Peppercorn's 12-hour Beatles tribute at the Bluestone the last Saturday of 2013 took me back to? My Beatles-loving childhood? Well, of course. But that wasn't the biggest--or best--surprise of the night. The music? Again, sure--but the music is always and will always be with us. Timeless, by God, and eternal—hopefully. OK, here's the really amazing thing I felt very deeply that wonderful, extraordinary Saturday night in that amazing old stone church, especially during certain songs from Joe's rendition of “The White Album.” I can't remember exactly which song it was that I first noticed but all of a sudden, looking up at the folks on the balcony, looking behind me (I was close up to the front of the stage), doing a 360 and seeing everyone in the place clued in to the song, the vibe, the band--well, that communal feeling I used to get at Comfests of old when there was just one big-ass stage and we'd all get swept up in the celebration of great music happening right in front of us. That, you know, Woodstock feeling. Corny but...the feeling of gigantic oneness. Of mass warmth.

USEC Inc., the company building the American Centrifuge Plant (ACP) to enrich uranium at Piketon, OH, announced it will file for bankruptcy in the first quarter of 2014. USEC said they are restructuring to pay off $530 million in debts to bondholders. Unbelievably, the bankruptcy did not end government subsidy for the ACP. * Just hours after USEC announced bankruptcy, the U. S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) announced it would give the company $30 million to keep the ACP alive—around $10 million per month for the next 3 months. * In an article critical of the DOE’s subsidy decision, the online stock market news 4-traders wrote about how USEC, on the same day as the bankruptcy, announced that they are seeking new investor money because of a “National Security Train Program” utilizing ACP technology to be funded by the government for not less than $750 million. No official DOE or other government documents could be found mentioning a “National Security Train Program,” and neither DOE nor USEC would comment on the program. USEC has put about $2.5 billion, much of this subsidized by the DOE, into the ACP.

Taxpayers beware! Encouraging granny to gamble may be the only way that Columbus and Franklin County residents can avoid an unexpected $100 million increase in the cost of the publicly financed Nationwide Arena, according to the Columbus Coalition for Responsive Government. In a press release provided to The Columbus Free Press by Coalition spokesperson Jonathan Beard [Beard also serves as Chair of the Editorial Board of the Free Press], the Coalition reports that Ohio’s four casinos are not generating enough tax revenue to the state of Ohio to fully cover bond payments due from the Franklin County Facilities Convention Authority for that agency’s purchase of Nationwide Arena. Ohio Department of Taxation reports show that actual statewide casino revenues have landed far from the rosy amounts originally projected. During the 2009 campaign for Ohio casinos, backers projected $1.9 billion in casino gambling revenue in Ohio. By 2011, the state of Ohio revised its budget forecast for the casinos downward to just $1.1 Billion. And actual gambling revenues over the past 12 months have been just $868 Million.

The Holidays are a time when one either blesses their own foresight or curses themselves for their lack of it. Overcoming setbacks in my year-end Kerouac-esq peregrination to the east made me do both. I should have planed this trip better, but at least I stole Peeves’ login so I can give Free Press readers a properly scathing product review of my travels. It all began with a quick jaunt to New York on a Chinatown bus. Younger friends had been suggesting this for years, older friends swore I would die in some flaming wreck. The bus from Downtown Columbus to Canal Street in New York was advertised at twelve hours and sixty bucks. The bus left a little late and lost a tire on the way. It was still only two hours late and the blowout barely woke me up. Discount Christmas shopping in Chinatown was followed by a quick and cheap gypsy cab ride to my final destination. Christmas party, old friends, mulled cider, good times. Greyhound wanted more than twice as much and professed to take twice as long. No thanks dirty dog. After the party it was time to drift southward. Sadly, every Chinatown bus service going anywhere relevant was sold out for the holidays.