When the Olympics return to Los Angeles in 2028, we can make history— and vastly lower our electric rates, clean our air and employ our people— by making sure the Games are 100% powered with local-generated solar energy. 

That clean green electricity should not be wired in via an obsolete, over-stressed grid, coming from places that should otherwise be left in their natural state. Instead we have four full years to cover every appropriate southern California rooftop with photovoltaic cells.  

That would mean installing solar arrays atop this mega-city’s many square miles of wahouses, businesses, factories and homes. It would also embrace our parking lots and structures, sports stadia, aqueducts, canals, rivers, reservoirs, all powering local-based micro-grids that can save billions in unnecessary generation and transmission costs.

The Columbus Education Union (CEA) already has enough weirdo enemies in the Ohio GOP and conservatives in general. They hate public school teachers and their list of unwarranted grievances and jealousies is long and disturbing – teachers have summers off, they are desperate to privatize education for profit, and public-school teachers’ unions are a key base of support for the Democratic Party.

But now the leaked planning document scandal looking to marginalize any CEA pushback against possible school closures has exposed the Columbus City School Board as a new/old adversary, say CEA union stewards and members to the Free Press.

“The simple fact of the matter is that we [the CEA] hit national news with the strike, and through the power of that and collective bargaining, we won one of the best and strongest contracts in the nation,” a CEA union steward who wished to remain anonymous told the Free Press.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- A China-Thailand military air force exercise recently deployed Chinese and Swedish warplanes above this Southeast Asian nation but below their friendly warplanes, Chinese criminals, cheap goods, e-commerce and investment are annoying the close relations between Thailand and China.

Even with Chinese boots in the sky during the Aug. 18 to Aug. 29 Falcon Strike 2024, the U.S. expects its non-NATO treaty alliance with Thailand will remain secure if regional tensions between Washington and Beijing increase.

Bangkok tries for balanced relations with both superpowers, and neutrality when Washington and Beijing sink into confrontations.

For Falcon Strike, "the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has sent some of its main combat aircraft to Thailand," China's Global Times reported.

The joint air force training exercise, seventh in its annual series, is using refurbished U.S.-built Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base as its headquarters.

The U.S. Air Force launched bombing raids from the northeast base in the 1960s and 1970s during the Vietnam War.

On September 21 (international Peace day), we are hosting a Third Space at Old First Presbyterian Church
1101 Bryden Road 43205
7 pm
Discussion and jam session.
Speakers will include two Presbyterians Mary Grace B. (Chair of commission on Justice) and Ricky N. (Muskingum College), who are planning a November trip to Palestine and Muna Al Aseer, one of our board members.

Most of us believe in fair pay for honest work. So why aren’t low-wage workers better paid?

After 30 years of research, I can tell you it’s not because employers don’t have the cash. It’s because profitable corporations spend that money on their stock prices and CEOs instead.

Lowe’s, for example, spent $43 billion buying back its own stock over the past five years. With that sum, the chain could’ve given each of its 285,000 employees a $30,000 bonus every year. Instead, half of Lowe’s workers make less than $33,000. Meanwhile, CEO Marvin Ellison raked in $18 million in 2023.

The company also plowed nearly five times as much cash into buybacks as it invested in long-term capital expenditures like store improvements and technology upgrades over the past five years.

Lowe’s ranks as an extreme example, but pumping up CEO pay at the expense of workers and long-term investment is actually the norm among America’s leading low-wage corporations.