Between 2006 to 2012, in the far-west zip code of 43228, each and every person accounted for 3,300 oxycodones or hydrocodones distributed. 170 million pills in total for roughly 50,000 Columbus residents.

The 43228 ranks number one in the state for the total amount of opioids distributed over those six years, and number three for pills per person, this according to data recently made public by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Across the entire state 3.4 billion opioids were distributed over this time.

These numbers, this stomach-turning data, was voluntarily submitted by drug companies from 2006 to 2012 to the federal government’s ARCOS database or Automated Reports and Consolidated Ordering System. This begs the question, did federal law enforcement know the scope of what was happening? It was their database after all.

Following continued pressure by journalists, the data was recently made public by US District Judge Dan Polster of Cleveland. Polster is presiding over 2,000 lawsuits against drug manufacturers and distributors, which of course includes Cardinal Health of Dublin, the state’s largest distributor of opioids.

Temperatures during the summer months have been scorching. The last few weeks of July brought a dangerous heatwave throughout Ohio, the greater United States and worldwide. Staying cool during the month of August is achievable, however, with the help of herbalism and cooling energetics. Learning to harness the power of herbs — to beat the heat —is a valuable tool as more sweltering days approach.

Yet, how on earth can herbs help the human body to cool down? When working with live plant medicine it is important to consider that the life force of the plant itself has its own energy. The subtle energetic properties of herbs hold valuable answers on how one might use them to dissipate heat. Just as each human is born with their own unique set of genes, so are plants. 

Author Esther Flores is a registered nurse and the founder of 1DIVINELINE2HEALTH, a 501c3 public charity. Their mission is to eliminate human suffering locally and globally via compassionate messengers through a holistic approach. They are 100 percent solution-driven and community-funded. The organization is client-centered vs. system-centered. Seventy percent of their monetary donations go towards serving human trafficking victims and the remaining 30 percent goes towards loans, property taxes, insurance, maintenance and other costs. Flores is an abolitionist, with an addiction to love in the Columbus Jungle – a type of love that demands action and transparency. 1DIVINELINE2HEALTH defines compassion by using their human resilience as they meet hurting folks where they are at, never empty handed, which include the street outreach in a red commercial truck the victims call the “love bug.”

The classic fantasy card game “Magic The Gathering” (MTG) has been producing new art and play mechanics for nearly the past three decades. I grew up playing tabletop and card games, mostly competitive Pokemon when I was young. But Magic was always around and familiar, the demo stations were always there at gaming conventions.

As an adult, around a year ago, I became interested in picking up a game again. Over the course of the proceeding months I had two people hand me thousands of cards because they were extra cards they had no need of any longer. The nature of the value of cards of time and purchasing them through random booster packs can leave you with a lot of extra cards with no value, but that’s something we will get into later.

I went to the Ultimate Masters booster draft one day, where I met someone who gifted me a collection of cards. To those unfamiliar, there are tournaments held when new sets of cards come out and players build decks from randomized packs opened on site. There’s a small fee to play, but you end up keeping the cards, as well as being able to possibly win prizes for playing well.

Not many people know that the infamous Jeffrey Epstein spent a lot of time in Columbus in the 1990s and owned the second most valuable house in Franklin County, in the plush Stepford suburb known as New Albany. Epstein came to my attention when I was an investigative journalist for Columbus Alive. The State of Ohio Inspector General David Sturtz, one of my sources, was gathering evidence against Les Wexner and Jeff Epstein regarding public corruption, bribery and information related to the murder of Columbus attorney Arthur Shapiro.

Sturtz referred to Epstein as Wexner’s “boyfriend,” but Epstein was more than that. He was an “international man of mystery” with ties to the CIA, the royal family, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and others. But, at the heart of it, he is perhaps our nation’s most well-known pedophile.

Echoing Greek tragedies, the local billionaire with his name on more central Ohio buildings than anyone and known for his generous philanthropy, is now caught up in Epstein’s human trafficking scandal.