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As part of our commitment to sharing actionable research in support of progressive policies, Innovation Ohio recently conducted a survey to see where Ohioans stood on President Trump and his early 2nd term actions.

AI and the Energy Sector

A onprofit electricity research and development organization, EPRI, https://www.epri.com/, announced a collaboration with Microsoft to develop and deploy AI solutions for the energy sector. 

The OpenPower AI consortium will collaborate with energy companies globally in an effort to enhance grid reliability, improve workforce safety, advance forecasting and planning models and achieve real-time grid intelligence by using artificial intelligence. EPRI announced the launch of the OpenPower AI consortium at Nividia's GTC conference https://msites.epri.com/opai  last month, stating that the effort hopes to drive the development and deployment of an OpenAI model tailored to the power sector.

The consortium will focus on three primary areas. 

The first is to develop and maintain open-source AI models, data sets, libraries, as well as optimizing power sector specific challenges.

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Last week, 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, including a United Nations employee went missing. They’ve since been discovered buried in a mass grave, each of them executed one by one by Israeli military forces.

In an attempt to rehash failed legislation from the 135th General Assembly, Ohio legislators – who are more focused on conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism – are attempting to pass a pair of bills that could severely limit the ability of Ohioans to criticize the actions of the Israeli government. S.B. 87, or its House version, H.B. 90, and S.B. 53 are bills that, when applied separately or in tandem, could prove devastating to free speech criticizing the state of Israel. 

Wednesday, April 2, 12:30-1:30pm
John W. Bricker Federal Building, 200 N. High St., 200 N. High St.

All hell is breaking loose in the country and our members of Congress are missing, especially Bernie Moreno!

We will not stand down. Let’s hold him accountable to the people and taxpayers of Ohio. His office at 200 N. High St. with lots of public visibility! We demand to be seen and heard, just like his rich donors.

RSVP for this event by using this link.

This event will be repeated each week until Wednesday, June 25.

Hosted by OPAL [Ohio Progressive Action Leaders].

Facebook Event

The Environmental Protection Agency (epa.gov) ) website includes a short history
of the agency. Here’s some of what you can find there
(https://epa.gov/history/origins-epa).
“The American conversation about protecting the environment began in the 1960s.
Rachel Carson had published her attack on the indiscriminate use of
pesticides, Silent Spring, in 1962.  Concern about air and water pollution had
spread in the wake of disasters.  An offshore oil rig in California fouled beaches
with millions of gallons of spilled oil. Near Cleveland, Ohio, the Cuyahoga River,
choking with chemical contaminants, had spontaneously burst into flames.
Astronauts had begun photographing the Earth from space, heightening awareness
that the Earth’s resources are finite.
“In early 1970, as a result of heightened public concerns about deteriorating city
air, natural areas littered with debris, and urban water supplies contaminated with
dangerous impurities, President Richard Nixon presented the House and Senate a
groundbreaking 37-point message on the environment.  These points included:

Piketon’s Town Hall will be a big deal for the community of Piketon, Ohio, which for 70 years has been suffering the effects of radioactive contamination from the Portsmouth Nuclear Site (PORTS), 4 miles south of the village.  

The Town Hall will be hosted by reporter Duane Pohlman of WKRC TV in Cincinnati. It will be a forum to give voice to the people in the area who have suffered cancers and other illnesses in their families.

Several radioactive isotopes have been found in Department of Energy (DOE) monitors outside PORTS and in offsite samples taken for the DOE by Solutient Technologies and analyzed by Auxier & Associates. Dr. Michael Ketterer, professor emeritus of chemistry and biochemistry at Northern Arizona State University, will also speak. He has analyzed samples taken from outside PORTS and has also found radioactivity. Epidemiologist Joseph Mangano will speak online from New Jersey. He has reported that the premature death rate in Pike County is twice the national average. PORTS looms large as a suspect in these illnesses.

uesday, April 1, 7-10pm, Pierogi Mountain, 105 N. Grant Ave.

Join us for our DSA happy hour! We will be meeting on the first Tuesday of each month. This will be an informal get together to meet, hang out, talk shop, and enjoy the camaraderie! Non-members are welcome to join and learn more about the chapter.

Hosted by Columbus DSA [Democratic Socialists of America].

Facebook Event

Right around the height of the COVID-19 global pandemic, I lost hope. I saw the worst of us on display during that time. I looked in horror upon the anti-vaxxing, anti-masking, privileged, blatantly racist, proudly ignorant population, and I lost hope. All of it. All my faith in humanity – right down the drain.

Before then, I didn’t realize how much I actually relied on that hope to get through life. It was only when I lost it that I missed it and realized it. I spent a few years in an emotional rock bottom. I withdrew, physically and emotionally, in disgust. I stayed in my bedroom, leaving it only to eat and to work. I cried a lot. I wept when I caught glimpses of people or performances that espoused hopefulness. (Such a performance was Melody Gardot’s music video for “From Paris With Love”. It’s made up of selfie-recorded videos from people all over the world during the pandemic. It’s worth watching. Melody Gardot - From Paris With Love (Official Music Video) (youtube.com))

Hundreds of people showed up at the Easton Tesla dealership in Columbus on March 29 for a protest against Elon Musk and his influence on the US government. Though it was promoted for Proud Boys to show up, there were only a handful of counterprotesters proclaiming love for Elon.

See video here