Council Lets Big Money In

Middle aged white man in a suit with brown receding hair at a mic with a flag in the background

January 14, 2018 // Columbus City Council voted to allow individual campaign donors to give them, and other city office holder candidates $12,707.79 per year. In the last agenda item of the night, on Tuesday 14 January, the city established one of the highest municipal caps in the state. In comparison, candidates in Cleveland can only accept $5,000, and in Cincinnati $1,100. 

All four citizen comments regarding the ordinance at the council meeting opposed the high cap, but members of Council spoke glowingly of the ordinance prior to its approval. Michael Stinziano, President ProTempore, called the ordinance "a good first step." Council President Shannon G Hardin said, "For the first time we are putting a cap on campaign contributions in the city...This legislation is a good, historic first step."

Flash Rally To Support Government Workers

Sign sitting outside in the snow against a large planter says End the Trump Shutdown

Thursday, January 17, -6:30pm
John  Glenn International Airport (Columbus airport), 4600 International Gateway
Show your support for government workers being impacted by the Trump shutdown.
Air traffic controllers, safety inspectors, scientists, TSA agents, our Coast Guard, Park Service and many other working citizens are being forced to work without pay or are furloughed due to Trump's shutdown over his racist monument.
Due to security issues this will be a "flash" event. Please make banners or signs that can be kept folded in a pocket and remain covert until rally starts. Cloth would be ideal.
It is likely we will be asked to leave. However, it is harder for them to ask a large group to leave, hence the "flash" nature.
We lend our peaceful nonviolent support to our government workers. Perhaps we will catch Representatives Stivers and Beatty on their home flights and have opportunity to ask them directly to end this shutdown.

Guilty of Sex Crimes, She Claimed Trump/Manafort Audio

BANGKOK, Thailand -- A jailed Belarusian "huntress girl" and her
Russian lover, who together claimed to have incriminating audio of
Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort colluding with
Russians about America's election, were found guilty January 15 of sex
crimes and will be deported.

After the couple's arrest in February 2018 near Bangkok, Anastasia
Vashukevich -- who calls herself Nastya Rybka -- said she and her
"master" Alexander Kirillov secretly recorded the scandalous audio
when she was Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska's "mistress" during
2016 and 2017.

Thai authorities jailed the couple for conducting a week-long seminar
offering sleazy seduction techniques to foreign men and women who paid
$700 each.

After being busted Pattaya, Thailand's infamously hedonistic beach
resort, Ms. Vashukevich posted a video online while inside a prison
vehicle, pleading with "friends, American press" for help.

She claimed the couple secretly made recordings about "Manafort and

January Green Drinks

Words January Green Drinks hosted by Chadwick Arboretum and some logos

Wednesday, January 16, 2019, 6:00 – 8:00 PM 
There will be more than a dozen groups (including GreenSpot) that will have booths and many speakers. This is a great way to connect with amazing local non-profit organizations and find out how they make Columbus a better place and how you can get involved. 
Location:  Ohio 4-H Youth Development, 2201 Fred Taylor Drive, Columbus 43210.  Facebook.  

Stop the Execution of Warren "Keith" Henness

Tall bald white man with a mustache and beard and green T-shirt standing smiling with his arm around a gray haired smiling lady in a flowered dress

The state has seven executions scheduled for 2019 starting with Warren "Keith" Henness on February, 13 2019. We need your help telling Governor DeWine that Keith's case is yet another reminder of the systemic flaws with Ohio's death penalty for the reasons listed below:

Keith Henness' trial lawyers did virtually no work defending him

  • Lead counsel logged fewer than 12 hours investigating the case during the sixteen months before trial.

  • Counsel did not investigate or hire mitigation specialists to defend Keith.

Lingering doubt exists today; evidence was destroyed

  • Both co-defendants had histories of violence, substance abuse issues, and motive for killing Richard Myers. Keith had no history of violence and no motive for the crime.

1776 THEATRE REVIEW

I hold this truth to be self-evident: That all plays are NOT created equal. I’ve reviewed around 10 shows at La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts and its revival of the 1969 Tony Award-winning Broadway musical 1776 is probably the best play I’ve ever seen there. Not only owing to pleasurable songs composed by Sherman Edwards (accompanied at the La Mirada by a live eight piece orchestra conducted by Jeff Rizzo), along with enjoyable acting, but because it is a rarity from the Great White Way: A historical, fact-based musical explicitly about U.S. politics, insurrection and philosophy.

 

Statewide Wear #RedForEd Day in Solidarity

Red background and white letters that say Never Underestimate the value of a good teacher and the RedforEd logo

On Moday, Jan. 14, wear red on behalf of the California Teachers Association's #RedForEd Day of Action.Sponsored by the Ohio Education AssociationOur United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) and Oakland Education Association (OEA) colleagues are facing tough contract negotiations and need our support. The struggle affects us all.

Medieval Solution

Court Uses Law's Absurdity to Allow Unfit Kavanaugh to Remain as Justice

The allegations contained in the complaints [against Judge Kavanaugh] are serious, but the Judicial Council is obligated to adhere to the Act. Lacking statutory authority to do anything more, the complaints must be dismissed because an intervening event – Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court – has made the complaints no longer appropriate for consideration under the Act…. Because it lacks jurisdiction to do so, the Council makes no findings on the merits of the complaints.

– Order of the Judicial Council of the US Tenth Circuit, December 18, 2018

hat is the sound that eight federal judges make when they know full well they’re doing something rotten but can’t bring themselves to defend the integrity of their own judicial system.

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