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Judge Watson

Thanks to U.S. District Court of Southern Ohio Judge Michael Watson, the voting public should have more days to cast their ballots. On Tuesday, May 24, Judge Watson ruled that Ohio violated voters’ rights by reducing the number of days included in “early voting.” In 2014, Ohio cut early voting from 35 to 28 days and eliminated the “Golden Week” when citizens can both register to vote and cast a ballot. Judge Watson deemed this “unconstitutional” and decided it violated the Voting Rights Act.

Judge Watson’s opinion rejected Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted and Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s contentions that cutting early voting was necessary to prevent fraud and voter confusion. The Judge stated that the shorter early voting period would instead cause longer lines at the polls and potentially deter would-be voters.

Radioactive symbol

In 2013, a group of Columbus citizens became RadioactiveWasteAlert.org when we learned that the Ohio EPA had permitted a local business to “recycle” frack drill cuttings (the dirt, rocks, sludge from a frack bore hole) along the Alum Creek, next to our homes.

We got busy, got the word out, sold t-shirts, put up billboards, and brought in good science professionals: Soil and Watershed consultant -Julie Weatherington-Rice; Microbiologist -Yuri Gorby; Pediatrician -Larysa Dyrszka; and Radiochemist -Michael Schultz, to help us understand the threat. Turns out the Marcellus and Utica shale is naturally radioactive.

Kasich

Ohio Governor John Kasich picked “poodles” – softball interviewers – for his return to public view after dropping out of the Republican presidential primary race in early May, following another shellacking at the polls in Indiana.

Ohio's lame duck governor invited CNN celebrity Anderson Cooper to come to the largely unoccupied Ohio governor's mansion (because Kasich chooses to continue to live in his rural Westerville palatial estate at additional cost to the taxpayer).

Cooper took time off from promoting his latest money-making project -- a book about him and his celebrity mom -- sandwiched in between his stand-up appearance in Columbus with a friend -- to welcome Kasich back to the public spotlight by letting Ohio's blabbermouth Gov say whatever, largely unfiltered and completely unobstructed by follow-up questions.

Steak and potatoes

Copious Restaurant just delivered – for those seeking amazing vegan (and even gluten-free) options – a new and exciting, fine dining experience. WOW! The only thing currently missing is a decadent dessert (rest assured, they are working on it). Everything is top notch – from the grains, greens and beans to the avocado gazpacho (hits the spot on a hot summer night). I was quite likely drooling whilst dreaming about the steak and potatoes for days after my first experience. The only thing good about losing my camera recently, was returning there to replace my lost food photos and assuage my woes with another meal.

Medical marijuana sign

The medical marijuana bill passed May 25 by the Ohio Senate with a vote of 18-15 did not inspire ground swelling support from the cannabis activist community.

Protest outside Wendy's headquarters during the company's 2016 shareholder meeting

Over 50 years ago, the TV documentary Harvest of Shame brought a national spotlight on the town of Immokalee, Florida and the exploitation of migrant farm laborers across the U.S. In the years that followed, the work of Cesar Chávez and the United Farm Workers brought some incremental improvements, but agricultural laborers have still been “exempted” from most of the protections in the Fair Labor Standards Act.

In the past five years, the lives of Florida farmworkers and their families have taken a dramatic turn for the better, thanks to the Fair Food Program, an organizing strategy developed by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a group of Florida farmworkers who have been fighting for human rights in the tomato industry since 1993.

 

President Obama went to Hiroshima, did not apologize, did not state the facts of the matter (that there was no justification for the bombings there and in Nagasaki), and did not announce any steps to reverse his pro-nuke policies (building more nukes, putting more nukes in Europe, defying the nonproliferation treaty, opposing a ban treaty, upholding a first-strike policy, spreading nuclear energy far and wide, demonizing Iran and North Korea, antagonizing Russia, etc.).

Where Obama is usually credited -- and the reason he's usually given a pass on his actual actions -- is in the area of rhetoric. But in Hiroshima, as in Prague, his rhetoric did more harm than good. He claimed to want to eliminate nukes, but he declared that such a thing could not happen for decades (probably not in his lifetime) and he announced that humanity has always waged war (before later quietly claiming that this need not continue).

“Look, nuclear should be off the table. But would there be a time when it could be used? Possibly, possibly . . .”

This is — who else? — Donald Trump, flexing, you might say, his nuclear trigger finger in an interview with Chris Matthews, who responds in alarm:

“OK. The trouble is, when you said that, the whole world heard it. David Cameron in Britain heard it. The Japanese, where we bombed them in ’45, heard it. They’re hearing a guy running for president of the United States talking of maybe using nuclear weapons. Nobody wants to hear that about an American president.”

“Then why,” Trump shoots back in all his politically incorrect, rattle-the-establishment naïveté, “are we making them? Why do we make them?”

Uh . . .

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