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Salon facilitator, Free Press Board member Mark Stansbery, kicked off the salon on Zoom, engineered by Steve Caruso. The theme was “A heart for the homeless.” 

Watch the salon video here 

Free Press Board member Winie Wirth was live at the Heer to Serve at Heer Park on the south side that serves unhoused people every other Saturday evening at 6pm with food, clothing, tolietry items and other goods. OSU also provides Narcan, the antidote for overdosing. It is the site of a homeless encampment. 

Monday, March 13, 11:30am-12:30pm, Ohio Statehouse

Parents, child care providers, and child care advocates recently announced coast-to-coast events coinciding with the Day Without Child Care (DWOCC). The DWOCC will be held on May 13, and is designed to build support for fully funded, quality early childhood education and care.

In Ohio, The CEO [Care Economy Organizing] Project, a division of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, will bring about 500 providers to the Ohio Statehouse. The advocates released the following statement:

“The work of caring for children and families is critical,” said Tami Lunan, director of The CEO Project. “Affordable, quality child care makes it possible for parents to go to work, knowing that the most precious people in our lives are in good hands. Yet it’s some of the most invisible and undervalued work. It’s time to invest in expanding affordable, quality child care with living wages for the hardworking child care providers who care for and nurture our children.”

Who:

• The CEO Project

• Parents, child care providers, advocates

• Additional speakers

Saturday, May 11, 7-8pm, this event will be occurring via Zoom

Theme: A heart for the homeless

Speakers:

• Emily Grace, Heer to Serve, a group dedicated to providing food and other resources to the houseless on the city’s west side

• Matina Bliss, houseless advocate

• Winie Wirth, houseless volunteer

• And more!

A “question-and-answer” period will be included.

If you have announcements for the progressive community, let us know at <colsfreepress@gmail.com>.

Please use this Zoom link to join this event.

Hosted by Columbus Free Press.

Facebook Event

I’m a 75-year-old steelworker, with real mobility problems from decades of hard work, especially as a steelworker. I’m living on a good, United Steel Workers (USW) negotiated pension, like thousands of my fellow steelworkers, thanks to Sherrod Brown. 

I worked at Lorain Works, USX, in Lorain, Ohio and, like thousands of my fellow steelworkers, looked forward to the day that I finally could retire, take it easy, and enjoy a decent life supported by a good Union (USW) Steelworker pension. 

Hiring, then retirements, go in large waves in steel mills as the company puts on or takes off whole “turns” of workers.” So, when I prepared to retire when I hit my 30-year anniversary in 2002, I was part of a big wave of retirements. 

It was at this time that USX mgt. decided to change their top group, change their name and challenge our union contract. Their first move was to deny their pension liability to 3,000 Republic steelworkers and their families. 

From the American Friends Service Committee
For decades, AFSC has worked to end the use of the death penalty as well as life and long-term sentences.

Please join us in urging Congress and state governors to end the death penalty once and for all. The death penalty flies in the face of moral values, common sense, and history. Death sentences do not deter crime, are disproportionately handed to people of color, and have been given to numerous individuals who were later exonerated.

Earlier this year, the state of Alabama put a man to death using the untested execution method of nitrogen hypoxia. The execution was carried out despite U.N. experts warning that the method could lead to excessive pain and constitute torture.  

Killing anyone—by any method—is immoral and should be outlawed.  In recent years, the use of the death penalty has declined sharply across the U.S. Since 2019, three states—Virginia, Colorado, and New Hampshire—have abolished the practice completely.

Now it's time for the federal government and all states to follow suit. 

For too long, policymakers have neglected Ohio’s childcare system, and the littlest Ohioans suffer the consequences.

As police violence continues against Ohioans, the Ohio Coalition to End Qualified Immunity (OCTEQI) believes the only way to end police violence is to change policy. And the only way to change the policy that allows police violence is by putting a citizen-led initiative on a state ballot to end qualified immunity, the legal doctrine that allows public officials to escape consequences for unreasonable behavior even when they violate someone’s rights. It has become a barrier to justice for victims of police misconduct. 

Students need our support right now.  
As of April 30, over 1,100 students have been arrested for protesting on campuses. Instead of listening to student demands, university presidents are calling the police and armed guards to shut down their activism. Like a majority of people in the U.S., students want a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to genocide. It has been over 200 days of Israeli massacres of Palestinians. It must end.  

Send a mass email to University Presidents here. 

I’ve watched the developing protests around our nation, here in Columbus,
with a feeling that some things just haven't changed.

Fifty-four years ago I’d gotten off work, was at the Neil Avenue entrance to OSU,
watching a small, peaceful, student protest develop. Someone for a Black
Student Union had just called for Black Studies to be part of basic education at OSU, and a
young student started saying something about Vietnam. A fearsome looking line
of troopers in riot gear were just off the campus line.

Suddenly, a cartoonish looking guy with an obvious Woolworth’s wig
stepped from behind the police line, and closed the street gate to the campus.
A young student with a crude armband quickly reopened it.

This was repeated 3-4 times, when the police line surged forward, using
their batons on protestors. That got the expected reaction, bottle/rock, they
were quickly reinforced, escalated and began grabbing, arresting protesters.

That was the start of the so-called “student riots!” Peaceful protests had
been going on there for weeks. Within a few days, similar actions cost four young

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