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I've tried, I really have. But, as much as I'd like to, I just can't work up any enthusiasm for the Winter Olympics. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a number of the events. I think it's the coverage that's throwing me off. NBC and its many affiliate networks aren't happy unless they can provide a story line that is either tragic or triumphant. And they're so formulaic in the way they present these stories. What's so strange to me is all the footage they have of some of the athletes. For example there's the American figure skating pair of Meryle Davis and Charlie White and their heartwarming tale of growing up skating together. Their parents must have foreseen the need to video tape the duo from an early age, no doubt banking on the future of their progeny as Olympians. How else can you account for the seemingly endless hours of tape of the pair. And it's not just Davis and White. Is there an American athlete in the games whose early life wasn't documented by their parents? If, on the odd chance, there isn't any archival footage, NBC has done us the favor of going out to get some.

Have you ever asked somebody: ‘Why doesn’t the Columbus Zoo have giraffes?’ Adam Felts bets you have. Because he’s heard from more than a few of you. “We hear it all the time,” said Felts, who is one of the zoo’s curators. “It’s ridiculous how often we get that question.” Fortunately for local enthusiasts of the tallest land mammal, their giraffeless nightmare is almost at an end. On Friday the zoo officially unveiled the name of its newest exhibit, set to open some time in May. And it will feature all the giraffes you can handle. The zoo’s newest exhibit, “Heart of Africa” will contain more than a hundred new animals from a dozen different species. The list includes zebras, ostrich, gazelles, storks, cranes, guineafowl, kudu, vervets and wildebeests. Since last summer Felts and his staff have been busy bringing the new collection of animals to Dublin from zoos all over the country, as well as the wild. “Heart of Africa” will be broken into several individual exhibits, including a “Watering Hole” where different animals will be rotated through at different times of the day. But the star attractions will undoubtedly be eleven giraffes.

An across-the-board cut in rates favored by Governor John Kasich may allow low-income Ohioans to buy a slice of pizza a year, on average. Those in the middle could purchase a cheap pizza maker, while the state’s most affluent taxpayers could use their cut to go on a round-trip for two to Italy, with money left over to pay the hotel bill and buy some real Italian pizza. Policy Matters Ohio previously noted that Senate Bill 210, a measure heard this week in Senate committee that would provide a 4 percent rate reduction, on average would provide enough for low-income Ohioans to buy a cheap cup of coffee each year. Reducing rates to get the top rate below 5 percent would allow low-income Ohioans to go to Starbucks once a year and get a Grande Medium Roast. These are the conclusions of an analysis done for Policy Matters Ohio by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington, D.C.-based research group that has a sophisticated model of the tax system. The top income-tax rate after the full phase-in of cuts approved last year will be 5.333 percent, down from the previous 5.925 percent and from 7.5 percent a decade ago.

According to Ohio State professor Dr. Brad Bushman, who’s been studying the influence of media violence on behavior for over 25 years, playing violent video games such as Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto may not trigger someone into a gun-toting murderous rampage, but you are more likely to blow a loud horn into someone’s ear, pour hot sauce down their throat or ignore someone who’s dying on the side of the road after being run over by a car.   There’s no definitive link showing violent video games such as “first-person shooters,” which indirectly place you behind a very realistic gun so you can be rewarded for killing very realistic human beings, cause shooting rampages, says Bushman. Mostly because there’s no ethical way to run experiments, you can’t “randomly assign people to play violent video games and then give them guns to see what they do with them,” he told the Free Press.   There is definitive evidence, however, based on hundreds of studies, says  Bushman, that shows playing violent video games, even for a few days in a row, increases aggressive thoughts, makes you more angry and also drains you of empathy.

Renee Dion and Jon Rogers are celebrating the release of their Fender Rhodes laden, textured and beautiful down-tempo R & B album “Moonlight” on Saturday February 22nd at Brother's Drake Meadery. “Moonlight” is destined to be one of the better Columbus releases of the year, so I was delighted to speak to Renee Dion last weekend. The release party for “Moonlight” is a milestone in Dion's artistic life which started off with her singing on her organist grandmother's lap at church when she was a little girl. However, the Brotherâ's Drake show will not be as nerve-wracking as Dion's May 5th, 2012 performance of the National Anthem for President Barack Obama at a Columbus rally. Dion recalled the historical performance, “I've been thrown in so many situations vocally, where I just had to rise to the occasion. That was the most crazy thing I probably have ever done. There is no music.

The Near East Side Area Commission met on February 6, 2014 in part to approve zoning variances for a new 40-unit apartment development planned for 122 South Parsons Avenue. The meeting was punctuated by repeated interruptions by the Commission Chair, Kathleen Bailey, and the Zoning Committee Chair, Anne Ross-Womack, during the time allotted for citizens’ comments on the proposal. Ambiguities between the zoning variance application and corresponding Franklin County property tax records left unanswered questions as to who stands to gain from the proposed development and who actually owns the land. During citizens’ comments, all the citizens who spoke were opposed to the proposal. The proposal was brought to the Commission by Michael Woods, who owns Woods Development Company, to build the housing units in several split unit town homes on the property. The rent on the units has a reported price point between $1200 and $2000 for each two bedroom unit – a rate higher than other rents in the area.

Despite an on-going legal battle with the city of Columbus, Juneteenth Ohio 2014 will go on as planned, though in a new location.   Following a long run at Franklin Park, festival organizer Mustafaa Shabazz says this year's festival will take place at Genoa Park at 303 W. Broad St. in downtown Columbus. The change of venue means other changes will have to be made.   “It will be a gated event,” Shabazz said. “Everyone will be searched in order to provide a safe and secure event. Junetenth Ohio has always been a family friendly event. We will plan the event in a way that everyone will enjoy three days of music, food and family fun. What we do know is that Franklin Park was the perfect place to celebrate Juneteenth Ohio. The open park attracted people planning their family reunions, picnics, renewing marriage vowels, naming ceremonies for the babies. The park was perfect in the celebratory sense that people became reacquainted to the area for the past 23 years.”   Columbus Police shut down Juneteenth 2013 after two days after an 11-year-old boy was shot.

Like some of you, I have a dislike for forced holidays, and do not celebrate this holiday that some say was created by corporations (my personal joke, the Greeting Card Industrial Complex?) However, many do celebrate this day of love, with their romantic partner.   For those rebelling against the masses, and those who want to do something different for the holiday, I have some advice. Challenge yourself to find a way to express love and kindness to your partner, yourself, a friend and a neighbor – whoever you encounter, whoever is near. Find a new way of giving of yourself that you may not have done in a long time, if ever.   I'm remembering Valentine's Day in grade school. Covering old shoe boxes in tin foil, felt, glitter, glue, heart shapes and other kinds of trim. Stuffing inside little cards with names misspelled and silly sayings, sometimes to people we didn't care that much about. However, it still felt good to spread some love around, even if it wasn't romantic.   Perhaps you could buy a package of child's Valentine cards and place them in a series of mailboxes on your street. Don't write any names or addresses on the card or envelope.

When the big snow hit central Ohio last week I happened to be in Whitehall. I was there for reasons that are unimportant.    But that's where I was when we were inundated by the big snowfall. I weighed my prospects for returning to the luxurious digs of the Free Press. After much mental give and take, I ventured forward.    I was pleasantly surprised to find the roads clear, even the side streets. By the time I reached Broad St. at Hamilton Rd. I thought I was in the clear. Traveling West toward downtown everything was fine until I reached the Whitehall/Columbus border.    That's where the plowed road ended and a mountain of snow began. Columbus had not deemed Broad St. plow-worthy apparently. Traffic slowed to a crawl as motorists made their way through the ever-darkening sludge.    Things did not improve until I reached Gould Rd. which just happens to be where Bexley begins. That municipality did take the trouble to plow Broad St. Later I learned that there were lots of places in Columbus that had not been plowed.

There are times when the evil you are facing is so vast, so powerful, and so determined that you begin to question your own sanity. I had put off learning about the Trans-Pacific Partnership for a while now, because though I knew it was horrible, it seemed complicated. Of course, that is part of the point. The multivariate machinations of global capitalism are able to hide in plain sight precisely by passing themselves off as dry boring stuff you don't really need to concern yourself with. Free trade agreements, though, are anything but, witness: Ukraine having a revolution over one right now. And yes, while the phrase “investor-state dispute settlement” sounds esoteric, the concept of corporations suing governments in an international tribunal over environmental regulations that infringe on potential profits ten years in the future is not that complicated. That is but one example of the litany of cartoonishly wicked ideas contained in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, and these are only the ones we know about through leaks and free trade agreements of the past.