The recent legislation passed by the United States Congress, oddly named One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), and signed by the U.S. president, shows that Republican lawmakers in the nation’s capital don’t care about excess and premature mortality in the United States.

If these increased deaths truly mattered to the Republican representatives and senators, the OBBB would not have included such a lack of concern for its dreadful consequences on human life and wellbeing. 

In the coming months, the OBBB can be expected to result in excess and premature deaths in the United States, especially among vulnerable groups, such as low-income individuals and families, children, people with disabilities, and seniors.

The lack of concern from Republican lawmakers about the expected excess and premature mortality resulting from the OBBB is evident in the candid remark made by an Iowa Republican senator during a recent town hall meeting. 

Los Angeles is set to host the 2028 Olympic Games, with Dodger Stadium in Chavez Ravine serving as the venue for Olympic baseball. Transforming this iconic ballpark into a fully green-powered facility—and turning its vast parking lots into sources of clean energy—could position LA as a global showcase for a Solartopian future. 

It would hugely further the massive green energy conversion that’ll define human survival. 

AND…it’ll lower both the very high electric rates and soaring temperatures that threaten our city.

Here’s the bottom line: with currently available technology, solarizing Dodger Stadium could be done within three years, as canopy costs drop and electric rates rise. 

Available battery back-ups can keep the park lit for night games. AND help meet the city’s prime time power needs. 

Solar canopy technology is now widely used in both urban and agricultural settings (where it’s known as “agri-voltaic”) .

Numerous parking lots throughout the world are now being covered.

Israel is aggressively implementing plans to shape Palestine's future and the broader region, sculpting its vision for the 'day after' its genocide in Gaza.

 The latest, bizarre iteration of this strategy proposes fragmenting the occupied West Bank into so-called 'emirates,' starting with the 'emirate of Hebron.'

 This unexpected twist in Israel's protracted search for alternative Palestinian leadership first surfaced in the staunchly pro-Israeli US newspaper, the Wall Street Journal. It then quickly dominated all Israeli media.

Four presenters spoke about qualified immunity and the ballot initiative to overturn qualified immunity during the weekly “Current Events” discussion group that had been held July 15, 2025 at the recently-opened Bob Crane Community Center in Upper Arlington.

Qualified immunity is a legal concept that protects government officials, for example, police officers and others, from civil liability for violating a person’s civil rights in most situations when they are acting in their professional capacity.

One speaker, Cynthia Brown, is the 2023 Free Press Libby Award winner for Community Activism. Cynthia’s passion to change the system has grown since her nephew Kareem Ali Nadir Jones was shot and killed by Columbus police in 2017. He was harassed for no good reason and ordered to get on the ground. He was then tragically shot in the face, neck, and in the back while on the ground by two white officers. Both are still with the Division.

Let’s call it the human guessing game. There comes a point in life when we find ourselves playing it whether we want to or not. Hallelujah for a sense of humor. It gives (temporary) relief from the unrelenting unknown . . . of dying.

Yeah, I said it, not abstractly or politically, but personally. It’s not simply that “people” are going to die, or “you” are going to die. I’m going to die. I don’t know when. I’m full of determination, just shy of age 79, to stay alive and functional, but doing so ain’t what it used to be. Ouch. Simply standing up now takes the sort of effort I once exerted walking a mile. Our Hero (as I call myself) is functionally ebbing.

Change is coming! The basic term for this change is “death.” – certainly one of the most avoided words in the language, at least when the discussion is personal. Some people fortify their reaction to that word by embracing a certainty – religious or secular – about what happens next. Others, myself included, essentially embrace “wait and see,” but nonetheless grasp for fragments of possibility that occasionally spurt out of the unknown.