“No Rail, No Vote” was recently posted to r/Columbus Reddit, foreshadowing a potential grassroots effort to derail the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA)’s November 0.75 percent sales tax levy for rapid transit bus corridors or Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).

The LinkUS Mobility Initiative is the billion(s) dollar plan to increase Columbus’s public transit mobility options other than motor vehicles so to address the huge population spike regional leaders are predicting over the next twenty to thirty years. Estimates have varied widely, from $2 to $8 billion, on what the final LinkUS cost to taxpayers will be.

Initiated in 2020 by both COTA and the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Committee (MORPC), the plan has designs on five Columbus corridors, such as West Broad and Olentangy River Road.

Friday, June 28 noon-11pm
Saturday, June 29, noon-11pm
Sunday, June 30, noon-6pm
Independent, nonprofit, non-corporate fun festival - Comfest has been held in Columbus for 52 years! There are several stages with local and national music, community booths, food, drinks, kids activities, and much more! See comfest.com and this year's Program Guide.

When: Thursday, June 27th, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Where: Global Gallery - 3535 N High St, Columbus, OH 43214

Join us for a fun-filled evening celebrating the launch of the Green Champions Podcast, a collaboration with Green Drinks (hosted by us, Green Columbus)! This event is your chance to:

• Be among the first to hear about the new Green Champions Podcast.
• Meet the hosts and get to know some of the guests (aka local ‘Green Champions’)
• Network with fellow sustainability enthusiasts at a monthly Green Drinks event.

The evening will feature:

• Drinks & giveaways
• Live music
• Panel discussion with the Green Champions team and special guests
• Vendors showcasing local sustainability initiatives.

A portion of beverage sales from Global Gallery will go directly to Green Columbus, a non-profit promoting environmental awareness in our community.

The “ADVANCE Act,” a bill to promote nuclear power, was passed 88-to-2 in the U.S. Senate last week. The ADVANCE stands for “Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy.” The only senators voting against it were Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. 

It was approved in the House of Representatives in May, also by a lopsided margin:  393-13. And it now has gone to President Joe Biden,

After twelve years — including five years of solitary confinement at Belmarsh Prison in London — Julian Assange is free. God bless America! He wasn’t extradited to the U.S. to stand trial, where he faced a sentence of 170 years in prison for violating the so-called Espionage Act.

Instead, he took a plea deal with the U.S. government, pleading guilty to one count of violating that act — you know, threatening America’s freedom — for which he had paid by his time already served. He was officially pronounced free at a U.S. federal court in Saipan, capital of the Northern Mariana Islands (a U.S. territory), after which he flew home to his wife and two children in Australia.

My emotional relief at his escape from the clutches of this government far outweighs my feelings about the broader implications of the guilty plea, which has justifiably stirred concern and controversy. The government got its little triumph: a “legal” acknowledgment of its right to keep monstrous secrets about what it does and punish any unauthorized spilling of the beans as “espionage.”