Throughout history, fringe religious Zionist parties have had limited success in achieving the kind of electoral victories that would allow them an actual share in the country’s political decision-making. 

 The impressive number of 17 seats won by Israel’s extremist religious party, Shas, in the 1999 elections, was a watershed moment in the history of these parties, whose ideological roots go back to Avraham Itzhak Kook and his son Zvi Yehuda Hacohen. 

Our sloganeering Mayor Andy Ginther had been spouting off about how Columbus is “America’s Opportunity City” as far back as 2015 when he stated, his "Columbus will be America’s Opportunity City.” In 2018 Ginther told the inaugural cohort of the New American Leadership Academy, “We are a top city with immigrants. We are proud of that.” In his 2019 State of the City Address he claimed, “In my previous State of the City addresses, I committed to make Columbus America’s opportunity city, to tackling our most pressing challenges and making tangible, long-lasting changes to lift up Columbus neighborhoods and move our city forward together. We have. And we are.”

During Ginther’s 2023 mayoral campaign he wrote he would, “Ensure anyone who works in America's Opportunity City can afford to live in the neighborhood of their choice” and “Every family in every neighborhood should be able to share in the success story that is Columbus. But what makes Columbus truly special is how we respond to opportunity.” Ginther has been full of more empty campaign promises.

Ohio environmental groups and allies are alerting the public about the need to stop fracking methane gas and keep fossil fuels in the ground so to mitigate the worst effects of global warming and climate change.

These groups are promoting book signings throughout Ohio, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania this spring for Rolling Stone and DeSmog writer Justin Nobel’s new book investigating worker health harms and the environmental dangers of working in the gas and oil industry.

Nobel’s nonfiction book, Petroleum-238: Big Oil’s Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop it (Karret Press, 2024) will be released April 24th in U.S. bookstores.

Nobel spent seven years traveling eastern and southeastern Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and other states across the country interviewing workers in the gas and oil industry about their work conditions, the radioactive toxic waste they were exposed to daily, and the health issues they eventually faced.