Local

Haga clic aquí para la traducción al español

Renewable Energy Leads New Generation

Solar and wind accounted for almost 98 percent of all of the new electrical generating capacity added to the U.S. grid in the first quarter of 2025 and were the only sources of new generating capacity in the month of March.

According to recent data from FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, March 2025 was the 19th consecutive month where solar was the largest single source of electrical generating capacity on the U.S. grid, dating back to September of 2023.

For the first quarter of this year, solar accounted for 72.3 percent of new generating capacity. Generation from wind turbines provided nearly 25 percent of the nation's new electrical resources.

Generation from wind accounts for 11.8 percent of the nation's electricity, followed by solar with 10.7 percent. 

Israel has been massacring and starving Palestinian families in Gaza while violently invading the West Bank. These acts of genocide are directly funded through our taxpayer dollars. Gaza can't wait. The West Bank can't wait. And we can't look away while our tax dollars enable these atrocities.

Email your members of Congress now to demand: Support an immediate ARMS EMBARGO to halt all weapons to Israel, Enforce U.S. law that prohibits military funding for human rights violations, and Push for unobstructed humanitarian aid and a permanent ceasefire.

Our tax dollars should fund care, not killing. Books not bombs. Homes not drones. Healthcare not warfare. 

In the coming months, tens of millions of public citizens will rally to fight fascism worldwide.  Especially with Donald Trump trying to turn the US into his personal dictatorship.
To oppose the rising fascist tide, we can expect countless great gatherings that energize the masses while impressing the media. 

Fortunately—-especially since Trump’s 2017 first coming—-rally organizers have grown increasingly adept at using these gatherings to build the data bases needed to follow through with a critical political mass.

Some methods work better than others  

Individuals hand gathering signatures, e-mails and phone numbers with lists on clipboards can be inefficient and error-prone.  

Fliers can be wasteful, clunky & prone to discard, especially if they lack a union bug or are printed on something other than hemp or recycled paper.  

But trial-and-error, plus some deep discussion (grassrootsep.org), have offered up a viable alternative worth considering:  business cards with QR codes that lead quickly and easily to pre-programmed websites.  

RICHARD ESKOW: In a recent column you asked, “What’s preventing a united front against the Trump regime?” You say, “America desperately needs a united front to restrain the wrecking ball of the Trump regime.” I get the “wrecking ball,” but why do we need a united front? What’s wrong with a multi-pronged approach from various groups and actors?

 NORMAN SOLOMON: There’s a serious lack of coordination at the political level. The Democratic Party is a constellation of 50-plus state and other local parties, and there are many organizations which are—or should be—independent of the party.

 To the extent there is any governing body, it's the Democratic National Committee. The DNC should provide leadership at times like these. But there’s still no leadership, several months into a second Trump regime that’s much worse than the first. There's energy to oppose, but it’s uncoordinated.

 Rethinking the Left and the Party

We need your help to Stop Senate Bill 153, an attack on Ohio voters' rights and our democratic process.

One of my favorite sections of an afternoon. I'm eating lunch in my living room while reading a new book: Fearless Vampire Killers….Bad Brains Photographs by Akashic Books———> By Glen E. Friedman.

I now am using a Flex Capacitor. Now, I'm at A7 in the 1980’s New York looking at Bad Brains perform is a space the size of either Skylab or the Legion of Doom. I'm looking at PMA inspiring cultural evolution in the context of rejection of our fascist government.

In Fearless Vampire Killers, Friedman follows Bad Brains from A7 into the L.A. Sunset Strip. A7 is a small NY punk venue. L.A. is where Bad Brains sneak Black Flag on stage because Black Flag was banned because of punk riots. Fearless Vampire Killers is Glen E. Friedman in a moment working for skateboard media while participating in hardcore punk. Punk, and Hip Hop unleashed Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys, Public Enemy, BDP, Beastie Boys etc.  Friedman took iconic flicks of all of these icons.

Punk and Hip Hop REJECTED 80s fascism until Hip Hop and grunge changed all of society. Friedman is legendary for documenting our culture’s icons – Dischord, Def Jam, and of course BAD BRAINS.

Sunday, May 18, 12 noon
Grandview Theater, 1247 Grandview Ave.
The eye-opening documentary about microplastics and their impact on our health and ecosystems followed by a post-film discussion with local sustainability advocates and experts. Doors at 11:30am, film at 12:00pm, $8 per person. Sponsored by Simply Living. 

TransOhio and Equality Ohio strongly condemn the decision by the Ohio Government Oversight and Reform Committee to reject public testimony submitted by both organizations and community members regarding harmful anti-transgender language proposed in the state budget: “It is the policy of the state of Ohio to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”

“This testimony was submitted in accordance with all legislative rules, and it was explicitly relevant to language in the budget that aims to strip trans, nonbinary and intersex Ohioans of legal recognition,” said Dara Adkison, Executive Director, TransOhio. “Rejecting our public testimony is just another egregious attempt to silence trans voices and the voices of community members who respect our right to life, liberty, and happiness. This language has the potential to affect people receiving services from every agency in Ohio.”

Haga clic aquí para la traducción al español

In April, several federal agencies brought about arresting a Columbus man they claim is a member of Tren de Aragua,  without offering any details . Since then, they've been blasting his picture all over social media. 

When I saw his blurred face and rumpled clothes, flanked by federal agents in riot gear, my heart sank. I didn't see anyone to fear. I saw a regular man at the dawn of what should have been another day of work. In his blurred face, I also saw the ghost of a person who might soon be “disappeared” to a torture camp in El Salvador, by our own US government.

The embarrassing Health & Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. joined with the TV Doctor Oz who is now heading CMS, which runs Medicaid and Medicare, the Secretary of Agriculture, and the head of HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, in a joint op-ed jeremiad demanding that as the headline roared: “If You Want Welfare, and Can Work, You Must.”   

This must be the triumphant pinnacle of what we have long opposed as “workfare,” but it’s worse than that. Their joint fabrication is a less than subtle effort to rebrand all parts of the US safety net as “welfare,” a freighted term that has been made into the equivalent of a hex on any social programs. The fact that this is transparent doesn’t disguise its pernicious callousness.