Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum is a Shakespearean repository of culture, and with their delectable production of the Bard’s comedy Twelfth Night this Topanga troupe has outdone itself in letting its collective hair down. If WGTB’s version of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth borrows from burlesque’s conventions, Twelfth draws heavily from slapstick to produce a crowd-pleasing spectacle.

 

For some reason, hidden and mistaken identities are a long standing plot and character theatrical device dating back to the Greeks. Here, following a shipwreck the youthful Viola (Willow Geer) contrives to disguise herself as a eunuch, calling herself “Cesario.” Camouflaged as a male, she becomes an envoy for Duke Orsino (Max Lawrence, who was so great as Boxer in WGTB’s staging of Orwell’s Animal Farm a while back) in his campaign to woo Olivia (Christine Breihan), a countess.

 

Many decades ago, the great media critic George Seldes observed: “The most sacred cow of the press is the press itself.” That remains true today.

 

Bernie Sanders set off the latest round of outraged denial from elite media this week when he talked to a crowd in New Hampshire about the tax avoidance of Amazon (which did not pay any federal income taxlast year). Sanders went on to say: “I wonder why the Washington Post -- which is owned by Jeff Bezos, who owns Amazon -- doesn’t write particularly good articles about me. I don’t know why. But I guess maybe there’s a connection."

 

Police accidently release a report linking
Leslie Wexner and the Mob
by Bob Fitrakis
 

The ghost of Arthur Shapiro—a prominent local attorney who was slain in a 1985 “mob-style murder”—continues to haunt the City of Columbus. Shapiro’s doomed soul was resurrected recently when the Columbus Division of Police released the controversial—and once believed destroyed—document investigating his death.

Columbus Alive obtained a copy of the “Shapiro Homicide Investigation: Analysis and Hypothesis” report through a public records request on Friday. As previously reported in Alive, the report confirms that the name of central Ohio billionaire Leslie Wexner was linked “with associates reputed to be organized crime figures.” The names of businessman Jack Kessler, former Columbus City Council President and current Wexner associate Jerry Hammond and current City Council member Les Wright also appear in the report.

Big white government building with tall gray statue out front and some greenery in the foreground

COLUMBUS, OH –Columbus City Council Candidate Joe Motil and longtime outspoken critic of the city’s tax abatement policies was encouraged to see that other reputable U.S. news organizations are reporting about the counterproductive and unnecessary use of tax abatements to Fortune 500 companies and their subsidiaries that take place nearly on a daily basis here in Columbus, Ohio. An article in today’s Bloomberg Businessweek titled, “When Midwest Startups Sell, Their Hometown Schools Often Lose” talked about the Columbus Education Associations (CEA) decision to protest Columbus City Councils $55 million tax abatement giveaway to CoverMyMeds. CoverMyMeds is owned by pharmaceutical giant the McKesson Corporation which reports profits of $2 billion most years.

 

Black and white photo of young black man with afro playing tennis

I had the pleasure of meeting Arthur Ashe in the early 1980s. It was in a little tennis shop in a strip mall somewhere on Bethel Road. He was representing his brand, Le Coq Sportif, and the store was full of white children who weren’t even born when Ashe was on the professional tennis circuit. In fact, he and I were the only two black people in the store. I had just come from a tennis lesson, and we chatted about that briefly. He signed my copies of two books he had written, stopping to look at a photo of himself after heart surgery, and a poster for my tennis instructor, Dick Fryman. He couldn’t have been more gracious.

Guy in blue jacket with words ICE on the back putting another guy in handcuffs

On Friday, August 16, at 4PM RAID will be holding a rally at the Ohio Statehouse to demand an end to ICE activity in Central Ohio and nationwide. We intend to use this rally to bring the public’s attention back to the detention of our immigrant community and demand freedom for those detained as well as an immediate cease to ICE raids and detention efforts.

We are Central Ohio grassroots activists dedicated to supporting immigrant communities affected by unethical detention of the state. Through direct action, community awareness, and support, we intend to keep our neighbors and community members safe from raids and deportation by abolishing ICE and closing the camps and detention centers.

Blocks of text in red white and blue describing the event

Thursday, August 15, 2019, 6:30 – 8:30 PM
Calling all the S.E.X.Y. Voters come and be EMPOWERED ! Ask questions of the Candidates asking for YOUR vote!  Location:  1561 Old Leonard Ave., Columbus 43219. Hosted by WTF? Weigh The FactsFacebook

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Unwilling to allow the public to get zonked or
profit from recreational marijuana, Thailand has instead produced its
first pharmaceutical THC and CBD oils, tablets, oral sprays, chocolate
wafers and traditional potions after recently legalizing medical
cannabis.

This first line of weed-based products puts Thailand on the cutting
edge of Southeast Asia's legal marijuana industry, a lucrative
advantage if allowed to flourish.

If recreational marijuana is legalized and freely grown, it would
create an extremely profitable domestic and international market
possibly bigger than this mostly agricultural country's rice, sugar
cane, or tapioca crops.

South Korea is ahead of Thailand in producing legal medical cannabis
products for domestic use.

India offers relatively small, decades-old legal "bhang" sales for
recreational use solely within that country and made from otherwise
illegal marijuana.

Proud of the tiny amount they created, the government organized a

Purple background and white words People Power Action Event

Wednesday, August 14, 2019, 6:00 PM
Did you know? Many individuals who are detained in jails do retain the right to vote. In Ohio, only those in jail or prison following a felony conviction lose the right to vote. But while those awaiting trial can still cast a ballot, few are able to do so because officials do not have voting programs in place. Join All Voting is Local and the ACLU of Ohio for a training to learn how you can help register voters currently detained in Ohio’s jails.  At this training you will learn:  What are jails – who is in them and who runs them; How to help voters register and request an absentee ballot; and, How to build an effective volunteer team.  Refreshments Provided.  Location:  Columbus Metropolitan Library – Northern Lights Branch, 4093 Cleveland Ave., Columbus 43224.  Register here. 

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