Local

Despite the recommendation of an Expert Group to save 10 buildings of historic Poindexter Village, Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) has been determined to leave no physical evidence of the housing authority that nurtured so many great African-American contributors to the development of Columbus. Voting unilaterally to tear down all 35 buildings, CMHA has reneged on what community activists believe was a promise to save at least a small portion of buildings that preservationists say are eligible for a place in the National Register of Historic Places. “We see this as a lack of integrity and lack of good faith in CHMA’s own process. It disrespects the former residents, historic preservationists and the black community as a whole,” noted Reita Smith. Smith is a member of the Poindexter Village History Advisory Group (PVHAG) and the Coalition for the Responsible and Sustainable Development on the Near East Side. She is also a member of Ohio’s First Families having documented her family history back to the 1700’s.

October is National Kink Month as declared by JT Stockroom and The Pleasure Coach, both of Los Angeles. They define it as “Kink Month is a public education campaign – but one that appeals as much to seasoned BDSM players looking to extend their repertoire as it does to beginners curious about incorporating fetish roleplay into their love life.”

Oct 11 is National Coming Out Day, and to all those who have recently or are about to come out, welcome. Please step up to claim your toaster ovens. With Linda’s beautiful story, we launch our coming out series. We invite you to share your own coming-out stories, whether they’re funny, painful, happy or heart-breaking. We’ll post them on outlookcolumbus.com and create a space on our website where they’ll be archived as a coming-out resource.

I have a crystal ball in front of me, and I’m gazing deeply into it. I’m seeing a future, one that is bright, yet has a common feel. One that seems unfamiliar, yet refreshingly new. I’m seeing a vibrant cannabis marketplace. Cannabis-based goods and services are being exchanged between buyers and sellers for a price, much like other products. Entrepreneurs are establishing companies that make their wares available for purchase; consumers are perusing these offerings and buying the ones that fulfill their particular need at the time. The market is regulated to ensure a level playing field, but success or failure is determined by market forces like solid business plans, supply and demand - not the blunt end of a battering ram or a cash-only black market profiteer. There has been an evolution among the five medical marijuana ballot initiatives fielded in Ohio over the past five years, with the most recent one, the Ohio Cannabis Rights Amendment, quickly gaining speed as its aims for the 2014 ballot.

Japan Asks for Fukushima Help as its 14,000 Hiroshimas Still Hang 100 Feet in the Air By Harvey Wasserman As petitions (www.nukefree.org) and YouTubes ( http://www.nukefree.org/eon-films-world-action-now-fukushima ) calling for a global takeover at Fukushima soar past the 100,000 mark, Japan’s pro-nuclear Prime Minister Shinzō Abe has finally asked for international aid. The request comes more than 30 months after the 3/11/2011 earthquake/tsunami led to three melt-downs and at least four explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi site. The Prime Minister asks help controlling the massive quantities of heavily contaminated water pouring through the stricken site into the Pacific Ocean. Hundreds of huge, flimsy tanks are also leaking untold tons of highly radioactive fluids. “Our country needs your knowledge and expertise,” he has said to the world community.

I've said before to anyone who will listen (i.e. no one in particular), that history is a function of will as much as it is anything else. The ultimate will over which we struggle is that of the will of the people. And it is the will of the people that any and all protests seek to demonstrate. Of the two rallies that took place at the statehouse last Wednesday on October 2, which one better represented the will of the people? Ain't No Love reports, and will also decide. Activism is a funny bird. By the time this prints, the government will still probably be shut down. In a parallel universe, this would be a mitzvah. I will admit that I have chanted “We're gonna rise up, we're gonna shut it down” quite a number of times at demonstrations. But this isn't that parallel universe, and so instead, the federal government shutdown and the Tea Party saga are rather instructive lessons on the limits of populist activism. For the purposes of analysis, let us accept that the Tea Party is/was a movement that contained significant amounts of Astro-turf, but arose out of real popular discontent. To topple a structure, you need people pushing on the inside and the outside.

The last year has been historic for the cannabis movement. A record number of statehouses have brought up legislation to legalize cannabis for medical and even recreational purposes. One person actively pushing for cannabis rights in Ohio is Toledo resident Kevin Spitler. He is hosting the first annual “Ohio Medical Marijuana Expo” this Saturday in Toledo. I sat down with Kevin and tried to get readers a better idea of what he is trying to accomplish with this first of its kind event here in Ohio. M.R. First off Kevin, could I get a bit of background information on you for the readers? K.S. 40 years old and an Ohio native, I migrated to Michigan in search of relief in 2009. I became more and more involved in helping people along the line of education and found several avenues to do this. After several endeavors Med Joint Community Compassion Center was created. Med Joint took the lead in community involvements as well as safe access, Community involvements like a food drive which dropped off over 10,000 pounds of food to a local food pantry. I am now involved with Ohio Rights Group in the effort to help legalize Medical Cannabis as well as Industrial Hemp.

The Free Press offers five of its own news stories that could be considered censored stories in central Ohio. Censored does not mean the news items did not have any press coverage at all. Here, censored describes underreported or misreported news items, due to reporter self-censorship or media bias. 1. Romney family tied to voting machine company used in Cincinnati for 2012 presidential election “Vote counting company tied to Romney” September 27, 2012 By Gerry Bello & Bob Fitrakis “Will H.I.G.-owned e-voting machines give Romney the White House?” October 12, 2012 By Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman “Romney family and friends will help tabulate the vote count in Cincinnati: Hart Intercivic holds maintenance contracts on their own machines” October 24, 2012 By Gerry Bello and Bob Fitrakis (All from freepress.org) 2.

From Project Censored 25. Israel Gave Birth Control to Ethiopian Immigrants Without Their Consent In January Israel acknowledged that medical authorities have been giving Ethiopian immigrants long-term birth-control injections often without their knowledge or consent. 24. Widespread GMO Contamination: Did Monsanto Plant GMOs Before USDA Approval? Monsanto introduced genetically modified alfalfa in a full two years before it was deregulated according to recently released evidence. 23. Transaction Tax Helps Civilize Wall Street and Lower the National Debt In February United States senators Tom Harkin D-Iowa and Peter DeFazio D-Oregon introduced a bill to implement a new tax of three basis points that is three pennies for every hundred dollars on most nonconsumer stock trades. 22. Pennsylvania Law Gags Doctors to Protect Big Oil’s “Proprietary Secrets” In communities affected by hydraulic fracturing or fracking people understand that this process of drilling for natural gases puts the environment and their health at risk. 21.

Twas a Saturday night and I don't remember if the moon was bright but yours truly went a-roving. First stop: the Basement, my most favorite place for near-guaranteed intimacy in Columbus, where you can technically get close enough to the performers to untie their shoes (though I prefer not, but when the Stones played the Shoe and I was photographing them I could've undone Mick's laces; I successfully fought the urge).       And honest to goodness and Lord Byron's club foot, too, I went to hear the two acts absolutely entirely and only because I liked their names and nothing more (at that point): Bass Drum of Death and headliner Hanni El Khatib. The former had much to live up to--and I do admire true boldness; and the latter, too, in this day and age of religious war with the Middle East, a name like that invites raised eyebrows but then again, I know from growing up in several entirely different regions of America what it's like to be an outsider. Fighting led to friendship, that's the American way.      My unpretty hunches paid off handsomely.