Celebrating our 55th year, the Columbus Free Press will honor five outstanding community activists and a community organization at our November 2025 Salon and Awards event on Saturday, November 8 from 1:30-4:30pm at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, 93 W. Weisheimer Road. One of our "Libby" Award honorees is Bob Krasen. 

Bob worked in Columbus for non-profits, United Cerebral Palsy, American Red Cross Blood Services, and Vision Center of Central Ohio. He volunteered for 12 years with Suicide Prevention Services.

After retiring in 2006, he became a volunteer in Healthcare for All Ohioans / SPAN Ohio, assuming a leadership position in 2014 as Columbus Regional Coordinator. He continues in active membership, stepping down from leadership positions in 2023.

Healthcare for All Ohioans is a state wide volunteer organization started in 2003, to promote passage Healthcare for All legislation in Ohio as the Ohio Health Care Act, (HB 289 & SB 78, 2025-26). The organization also supports the passage of Enhanced and Improved Medicare for All (HR 3069 & SR 1506, 2025-26) in Congress.

The Washington Post quoted Trump on Tuesday, Oct. 21, that “the federal
government owes him ‘a lot of money’ for prior Justice Department investigations
into his actions and insisted he would have the ultimate say on any payout because
any decision will ‘have to go across my desk’”. The implication
is that Trump thinks he can use the power of his office and his control over the
Justice Department to ensure that he will be given this money. And it is a
substantial amount of money.
The Post story further explains the issue in question.
“Trump’s comments to reporters at the White House came in response to questions
about a New York Times story that said he had filed administrative claims before
being reelected seeking roughly $230 million in damages related to the FBI's 2022
search of his Mar-a-Lago property for classified documents….”
The flaw in Trump’s views of the case is that he did break federal law when, after

President Donald Trump has announced that a massive new homeless shelter and soup kitchen will replace the East Wing of the White House, which he has demolished.

“This 90,000 square foot structure which I am building without any process or approval from the American people or Congress will stand as human history’s greatest single monument to kindness and charity. 

“This kingly project will certainly win me the Nobel Prize, whose proceeds I will donate toward the expense of housing and feeding hundreds of humans suffering under the weight of the billionaire bonanza that is my regime.”

Trump explains that “throughout history, great men like myself have devoted ourselves to empathy, compassion, kindness and charity.  

“Thus the re-made White House will cement my status as the best American Dictator ever.”

Trump says he and his fellow oligarchs promise (without putting up any actual collateral) to fund the structure, now projected to cost about one-third of a billion dollars, roughly what he’s suing the federal government for as compensation for his having been investigated for his 2021 attempt to seize the federal government.

This article firrst appeared on World Beyond War. 

Dr. Bob Fitrakis and Dan-o Dougan talk about how freedom is in peril and play some songs that celebrate freedom, from Free at Last by Sam Cooke to Freedom by Beyonce and many more!

Listen here

Listen live at 11pm Fridays, October 24 and 31 streaming at wgrn.org or on the radio at 91.9FM
and
Mondays at 2pm streaming October 27 and November 3 at wcrsfm.org or on the radio at 92.7 or 98.3FM