Israel’s balancing act in the Russia-Ukraine war is likely to falter soon, simply because the resulting NATO-Russia conflict is expected to last for years, not weeks or months. Eventually, Israel would have to make a choice. Alas, whatever that choice may be, Israel will stand to lose.

From the first day of the war, Israel somehow became involved. Top Israeli officials, including the country’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, began calling their Ukrainian and Russian counterparts. Initially, some in the media surmised that Israel is concerned because of the large Jewish populations in both Ukraine and Russia. 

Thursday, March 31, 2-4pm, Ohio Statehouse Atrium

The Heartbeat Movement, in partnership with Dream Corps Justice, is holding Ohio’s inaugural day of action for unity in the community to plan for community development and criminal justice transformation. Learn how the Heartbeat Movement is working to create windows of opportunities in Franklin County and the State of Ohio.

The purposes of this event include the following.

• Build empathy in elected officials

• Humanize and uplift stories of those who have been impacted by the criminal justice system

• Raise awareness about issues within the community and how people can help bring positive change

Joe Motil, former Columbus City Council candidate and longtime community advocate who is strongly considering running for Mayor in 2023  states that, “Mayor Ginther’s continued Enterprise Zone tax abatement hand outs at the Rickenbacker logistics center and elsewhere need to be repealed. And with Intel’s presence, the need for tax incentives as an enticement to locate at Rickenbacker and in other Columbus locations makes no sense at all.”

This past Monday, Columbus City Council members approved of a $5.34 million 10-year tax abatement to the athletic sportswear company lululemon USA Inc. The company has operated a distribution warehouse since 2014 at the Rickenbacker logistics center which is one of the if not the number one most risk-free development logistics centers in the United States. Rickenbacker boasted a vacancy rate of its warehouse space of 2.1 percent at the end of the recent 4th quarter.          

Last year Congress increased military spending. It does that every year. But last year it did it in a particularly disturbing way. President Biden asked for a $12 billion increase. Republicans asked for a $25 billion increase beyond that. The Democratic Congress ultimately passed even more than the Republicans had proposed.

This year, Biden has just proposed a $31 billion increase over the total spent last year. In the absence of a major public push for a reduction in military spending, we can expect Republicans to propose a major increase beyond the Biden increase, a handful of progressive Congress Members to mumble something about the proper Biden spending level, and Congress to pass even greater spending on war and war preparations.

Tuesday, March 29, 2:30pm, Ohio Statehouse

We finally have a chance to support pre-trial reform in front of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee as the sponsors introduce the substitute language for S.B. 182.

That committee is typically scheduled to begin at 3:15pm, so you can meet us there or meet us beforehand at 2:30pm over at the AFP office in the KeyBank Building, 88 E. Broad St., on the 11th floor.

Because we know this is a Statehouse hearing that could be canceled or moved [right up until the last second], we’ll have a substitute event ready to go, so you know you can make the trip to Columbus and still be doing something to drive Criminal Justice Reform!

We’ll have food set up in our conference room where we can get together and run through a number of vital actions that we can take to support Criminal Justice Reform and learn about our exciting plan for Ohio, The Buckeye Blueprint! Expect it to be a casual and enjoyable time.

Additional Opportunities:

Our State Director Donovan O’Neil will be speaking on a great panel in the Statehouse Atrium on “Economic Opportunity” that will begin at 4:30pm.