Local

On Tuesday, Dec. 12 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, media are invited to a panel discussion hosted by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) at WOSU’s Ross Community Studio to reveal new data about the trail networks that are developing across the country, and the effect that infrastructure will and is having on America

The panel will feature RTC, Latino Outdoors, and the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission (MORPC) for a discussion about the urgency to connect this walking, biking and active transportation infrastructure and what it will take to get there, spotlighting Columbus as a specific example of progress and potential.

What:         America’s Trail Networks—An Exploration of the Scope and Impact of the Nation’s Developing Trail Networks

When:        Dec. 12, 1 p.m. Eastern

Where:       WOSU’s Ross Community Studio, 1800 N. Pearl St., Columbus, Ohio (See it on a map.)

Who:          Ryan Chao, President, Rails-to-Trails Conservancy  

                   William Murdock, Executive Director, MORPC

This is dedicated to “Senator” J.D. Vance who now ignorantly assaults his alma mater on the basis of an ignorant, ideologically-driven Wall Street Journal Opinion Essay. Despite his OSU BA and Yale law degrees, Vance writes to OSU’s incoming, not yet in office president Top Gun Carter, not to the acting president in office. Of course, all this is only for show…. Never for tell….

The contradictions are  incalculable. The right-wing—not conversative—National Association of Scholars joins forces with their ideological partners in the shameless Opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal to attack The Ohio State University baselessly. While this will thrill Sen. Jerry Cirino when he finds a literate person to read it to him, and amuse the Board of Trustees, it will rattle the ghost of Salmon P. Chase whose memory is deeply insulted by its association with OSU’s new anti-diversity center.

Ohio House Bill 68, currently in the state Senate, would criminalize healthcare for transgender youth, ban transgender girls from competing in sports and reject the global medical consensus of millions of doctors.

During nearly eight hours of public testimony at the Ohio Statehouse, doctors and healthcare professionals begged members of the Ohio Senate Government Oversight Committee to reject House Bill 68. 

The bill — which would criminalize healthcare for transgender youth and ban transgender girls from competing in sports from kindergarten through college — is set to receive a committee vote on Wednesday December 13 at 9 a.m. If lawmakers vote in favor of the bill, it will likely receive a full senate vote the same afternoon.

Alexander Payne's "The Holdovers" is exactly why we love movies. It takes us on a journey, immersing us in the warm and cozy, unique setting of a 1970 New England prep school, the fictional Barton Academy, and stirs our emotions along the way. This unlikely Christmas movie, starring Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, and Da'Vine Joy Randolph, is the perfect blend of humor, grief, and redemption, far removed from your typical holiday movie.

As a teenager, spending Christmas break with a professor, let alone a prickly one would be haunting. I'd feel trapped, hopeless, and abandoned, as if the world had forgotten me. This is supposed to be a time with family.

A coalition of Ohio environmental & community activists is demanding that the Ohio EPA include community members in their investigation of the impacts from the fire at an GFL Environmental Inc. oil refinery on the city’s Northeast side on November 21st.

The coalition, which includes Black Environmental Leaders Action Fund & Black Environmental Leaders Association, Columbus Stand Up, 350, Ohio Working Families Party, Green Worker Alliance and Sierra Club, stands in solidarity with residents throughout Central Ohio who are consistently subjected to environmental risks stemming from a lack of corporate accountability.

On behalf of the coalition, Morgan Harper from Columbus Stand Up stated, “The Ohio EPA should conduct a thorough investigation that includes community members to fully understand the harm stemming from the fire to ensure GFL Environmental covers the costs of remediating those harms.”

Today’s announcement by Environmental Court Judge Stephanie Mingo that she would recuse herself from hearing the City of Columbus v. Wilson 845 LLC (Greyhound/Baron’s) case should be of no surprise. And the residents of the Hilltop neighborhood who have been trying to do everything in their power to shut down the Greyhound/Barons bus terminal on North Wilson Road since July can thank their newly re-elected Mayor Andrew Ginther for breaking the law.

As Mayor, Andy Ginther is a party to City of Columbus v Wilson 845 LLC et al 2023 EVH 060592. As disclosed by Judge Stephanie Mingo on December 8, Ginther called the personal cell phone of Judge Mingo with specific needs on the case.

Tuesday, December 12, 2023, 10:00 AM
Ohio House Bill 308 would do that!  Nuclear power is dirty, dangerous, and expensive and now must be funded almost entirely by the public!  Don’t let the legislature saddle the public with radioactive waste and paying for nuclear power!    

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED! Written testimony opposing Ohio House Bill 308 is needed by 10 am on Tuesday, Dec. 12.  

For talking points, the Ohio Nuclear Free Network’s information sheet is here: OHIO HB 308 Turns Nuclear Waste Green.   

Suspicion 

Sara was on her way to Annie’s house. She was listening to DJ Kurt Bishop on her pink transistor radio, holding it to her ear to hear it better as the cars and buses roared past her on Long Street. Sara hated that it was pink, she asked for a blue one, but knew better than to say something negative about it to Shelia. Better to be pink then to have it taken back for being an “ungrateful brat.”

Sara and Annie had made plans to walk to Franklin Park and hang out. It was Saturday and the day was sunny and bright, so it would be packed with people. Annie liked to sit and people watch, as she called it. They would point out a person and then make up stories about who they were and what their lives were like. Annie always made up nice stories. The people were always successful, loved by many and beautiful. Sara’s stories were, what she felt, more realistic. The people had problems, they suffered great tragedies and harm and sometimes, to make it really interesting, they knocked people off, you know, murder.

The December Free Press Second Saturday Salon was held on December 9 over Zoom.

Listen to the recording here.

Mark Stansbery of the Free Press Board, introduced the speake Vina Colley. She related to us how she used to work at the Piketon Gaseous Diffusion Plant. She found that workers there, including herself, were not protected from radiation while at work. She complained about it and began to be suppressed by her employer.

On an aquifer, the plant has been contaminating the Ohio River in addition to the workers, the surrounding community, and several schools – one that was shut down because so many children had died. It is a cancer cluster and Vina herself has many physical problems as a result of her job. Also affected are the Scioto River, the Beaver Creeks, and many external sites.

Sunday, December 10, 2pm
Old First Presbyterian Church, 1101 Bryden RoadI
Community Organizing Center is organizing and readers are coming from a variety of voices: Interfaith Association, Ohio Immigrant Alliance, First Congregation, Scioto Valley Presbytery, and others. We have held an annual marking of the declaration for 30 years, but this year is the 75th year. We are recording the reading and will post it.