The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld federal Judge Peter Economus’ historic ruling protecting African American voting rights in Ohio. In a September 4, 2014 opinion, Economus held that the actions of Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted violated both the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by erecting illegal barriers to keep minorities and the poor from voting in the Buckeye State.

Husted’s attack on voting right proceeded under the guise of fighting “voter fraud.”
 

Economus noted, “The state’s argument about reducing fraud did not withstand logical scrutiny.”

As the New York Times stated, “There has been no in-person voter fraud documented in the country.”

Republican Secretary of State Husted is up for re-election this year, and in order to increase his chances he came up with a variety of measures that directly suppress minority and poor voters. His opponent, State Senator Nina Turner (D-25), is a black female and an outspoken voting rights activist.

 

Take two of Saturday Night Live’s funniest alumni and cast them in a drama. And no ordinary drama, but one permeated with so much despair that each of their characters attempts suicide within the first few minutes.

That’s not exactly a formula for box-office success, which helps to explain why The Skeleton Twins is opening at only two Columbus theaters this weekend. Nor is it a surefire formula for artistic success, but that’s where the flick fools us.

This second feature by director Craig Johnson (True Adolescents) is astoundingly good. So are stars Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader, who play siblings Maggie and Milo.

The troubled offspring of a father who killed himself and a mother who’s never there for them, the two been separated for the past 10 years due to an old grudge. They’ve spent that decade trying to build fulfilling lives—Milo as an aspiring actor in Los Angeles, Maggie as a dental technician and wife in their New York hometown—but both have failed to find happiness.

NEW YORK — The massive People’s Climate March, the most hopeful, diverse, photogenic, energizing, and often hilarious march I’ve joined in 52 years of activism — and one of the biggest, at 400,000 strong — has delivered a simple messag​e: we can and will rid the planet of fossil fuels and nuclear power, we will do it at the grassroots, it will be demanding and difficult to say the least, but it will also have its moments of great fun.

With our lives and planet on the line, our species has responded.
 

Ostensibly, this march was in part meant to influence policy makers. That just goes with the territory.

But in fact what it showed was an amazingly broad-based, diverse, savvy, imaginative, and very often off-beat movement with a deep devotion to persistence and cause, and a great flair for fun.

Because what must happen most of all is organizing from the grassroots against each and every polluting power plant, unwanted permit, errant funding scheme, stomach-turning bribe, planet-killing frack well, soon-to-melt reactor, and much much more.

Scotland's long-awaited referendum on independence from the United Kingdom ended on Thursday night in a defeat for secessionists, when 55% of voters said 'no' to independence.   Now that Scotland has voted by a narrow margin to remain in the UK, establishment figures are relieved that they have dodged Britain's biggest constitutional crisis in centuries.  But even though the 307-year-old union remains intact (for now), the political landscape has seen a tectonic shift overnight as the conversation has changed: has the time finally come to remake Britain into a federal state?   Only a week before the referendum the Yes camp enjoyed a sharp surge in polls that pushed the pro-independence vote from a fairly consistent 35% up to 51%.  Most commentators agree that this was less a sudden surge in patriotic mettle and more a reaction against the patronising negative campaigning of the 'Better Together' camp, which throughout the campaign enjoyed the overwhelming support of elites in Westminster, the media and the financial sector.