Ohio

Judge Says Columbus Police Ran ‘Amok’; Restricts Use Of Force

May 3, 2021 Catherine Whelan, NPR. Educate! Legal System, Ohio, Police abuse, Rebellion2020

A federal judge has ordered police in Columbus, Ohio, to stop using force including tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets against nonviolent protesters, ruling that officers ran "amok" during last summer's protests of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Judge Algenon Marbley of the Southern District of Ohio described the actions of the Columbus police as "the sad tale of officers, clothed with the awesome power of the state, run amok." He opened his 88-page opinion with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.: "But somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for rights."

Ohio Students Sit-in To Demand University Cut Ties With Police

April 22, 2021 Graeme Massie, The Independent. Resist! Ma'Khia Bryant, Ohio, Police violence, Student Activism

Students at Ohio State staged a sit-in protest and demanded that the university cut ties with Columbus Police in the wake of the killing of Ma’Khia Bryant. The protest took place one day after a police officer shot and killed the 16-year-old girl in the city, just as the verdict in the George Floyd trial was reached. Students staged their Wednesday protest in the Ohio Union before taking to the streets to march. Some carried signs with the victim’s name, along with phrases like “say her name”, while another student had a sign that said, “Being Black shouldn’t be a death sentence.” “Ohio State supports the right of our students, faculty and staff to peacefully express their views and to speak out about issues that are important to them,” the university said in a statement.

Group That Won School-Funding Suit Now Challenging Private School Vouchers

May 15, 2020 Darrel Rowland, Columbus Dispatch. Resist! Legal System, Ohio, Privatization, Public Education

The same coalition that successfully sued the state a generation ago over an unconstitutional school-funding system now is putting together a new lawsuit challenging the legality of Ohio’s school voucher program. “The vouchers are causing harm to the students that are left in the public school districts, reducing the availability of resources that school districts have,” said Bill Phillis, executive director of the Ohio Coalition for Equity & Adequacy of School Funding. “And, of course, there’s a double whammy now with the reduction of appropriations for primary and secondary education,” he added, noting $300 million in K-12 funding cuts announced last week stemming from reduced state revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic. Ohio’s EdChoice voucher program redirects taxpayer money from public schools and gives it to parents to help them pay tuition to private schools.

Solidarity With Ohio prisoners

May 10, 2020 Martha Grevatt, Workers World. Resist! COVID-19, Ohio, Prison, Prisoners

Over 200 people demonstrated outside the state prison in Marion, Ohio, May 2 to protest the conditions inside and demand prisoners who meet certain criteria be released. The prison drew national attention after 80 percent of the prisoners tested positive for COVID-19. Conditions are now deplorable, with the prisoners only receiving two meals a day. Those meals do not meet the caloric intake or nutritional needs of an adult male. The excuse given is that staff needs extra time to sanitize. However, the more critical steps of requiring masks and social distancing have not been taken. The protesters demanded that all the 400 prisoners housed at the Marion Reintegration Center be given clemency by Gov. Mike DeWine. Most of them are deemed “low risk” and are within a year of their release date.

Physicians Demonstrate Support For Targeted Health Department Director

May 4, 2020 Jane Morice, Cleveland.com. Resist! COVID-19, Ohio, Public Health, Reopen Economy

Columbus, Ohio - The Physicians Action Network held a socially distanced demonstration Sunday at the Ohio Statehouse, showing their support for Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton. The demonstration comes one day after another small group gathered outside Acton’s home in the Columbus suburbs, lamenting the state’s stay-at-home order and pushing for the state to re-open in full. About 25 physicians donned their scrubs and lab coats Sunday and stood a safe distance apart as a show of support for Acton, a video posted on the Physicians Action Network Facebook page shows. In the video, one masked physician - Anita Somani, an OB-GYN based in Columbus - notes that many doctors are in similar positions to those protesting the stay-at-home order that’s kept hundreds of thousands of Ohioans out of work for weeks. Not all doctors work in hospitals, and some own small businesses too.

Refusing To Fund Our Own Destruction

June 28, 2019 By Kelsey Hawkins-Johnson, Otherwords.org Resist! Electoral Politics, Ohio, Toxic Chemicals, Water Pollution

I spent the summer of 2015 knocking on doors across Cincinnati. As a rising college sophomore, I’d joined a group called Ohio Citizen Action to canvass for my community and the planet. That year, the Ohio River was the most polluted body of water in the nation. Named for the Seneca term for “beautiful river”, the Ohio was then — and remains today — a dumping ground for toxic chemicals. Also that year, the state was in the middle of a two-year freeze on renewable energy and energy efficiency standards, making Ohio the first state to roll back its clean energy standards.

Lake Erie Just Won The Same Legal Rights As People

March 1, 2019 By Sigal Samuel, Vox.com Create! Ohio, pollution, Reform, Water

It started in a pub. A handful of people, hunched over beers in Toledo, Ohio, were talking about a water crisis that had plagued the city in 2014. The pollution of Lake Erie had gotten so bad that it had taken a serious toll on their lives. The government, they felt, wasn’t doing enough to protect the lake. And so they wondered: What if the lake could protect itself? The idea they hatched that night ultimately resulted in a special election, which had the citizens of Toledo voting Tuesday on a very unusual question: Should Lake Erie be granted the legal rights normally reserved for a person?

Enbridge Gas Pipeline Explodes In Ohio

January 29, 2019 By Lorraine Chow, Ecowatch.com Educate! Ohio, Pipelines

A natural gas pipeline owned by Enbridge exploded in Noble County, Ohio at approximately 10:40 a.m. on Monday. At least two people were reportedly injured and two homes are believed to have been damaged in the incident. "We got reports flames were shooting (up) 80 feet to 200 feet (25-60 meters)," Chasity Schmelzenbach, emergency management director for Noble County, Ohio, told Reuters. "You could see it upwards of 10-15 miles (16-24 km) away. Lots of people thought it was in their backyard because it does appear large."

Columbus, OH: Rally To End ODRC #PrisonStrike Retaliation

November 26, 2018 Pittsburgh Anarchist Black Cross, Itsgoingdown.org Resist! Ohio, Prison Strike, Prisons, Repression

On Friday November 16th, activists from across Ohio and Pennsylvania collaborated for an action outside the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) Central Office in Columbus. The rally was in response to a number of repressive and retaliatory actions against prisoners following the massive #August21 prison strike. Organizers of the action included Lucasville Amnesty, Pittsburgh Anarchist Black Cross, Central Ohio IWOC and BQIC (Black Queer & Intersectional Collective). Amplified voices recounted the demands of 2018 prison strikers, sounded off on the mistreatment of the prison strikers and all prisoners by the ODRC, and called for solidarity with queer and trans prisoners. Interested ODRC staff lined the windows to witness the spectacle.

Supreme Court Allows Purging Voter Registration For Nonvoters Who Do Not Respond To Mail

June 12, 2018 Staff, Demos.org Educate! Electoral Politics, Ohio, Supreme Court

WASHINGTON – In a 5-4 ruling in Husted v. APRI, the U.S. Supreme Court today upheld an Ohio voter purge practice that removes infrequent voters from the registration rolls. The decision creates a danger that other states will pursue extreme purging practices to disenfranchise millions of eligible voters across the country. “Today’s decision threatens the ability of voters to have their voices heard in our elections,” said Stuart Naifeh, senior counsel at Demos, which led the legal team challenging the state’s practices. “The fight does not stop here. If states take today’s decision as a sign that they can be even more reckless and kick eligible voters off the rolls, we will fight back in the courts, the legislatures, and with our community partners across the country.”

Columbus Activists Turn Out To Support ‘Black Pride 4’ Protesters During Sentencing

March 21, 2018 Prince Shakur, Injusticetoday.com Educate! Activism, LGBTQ, Ohio, Protests

On March 13, roughly two dozen community activists and supporters gathered outside a courtroom in Franklin County Municipal Court to support four young activists accused of disrupting last June’s pride parade in Columbus, Ohio. The Black Pride 4 — Wriply Bennet, Ashton Braxton, Deandre Miles-Hercules, and Kendall Denton — and six other activists blocked the path of the parade for seven minutes last June “to protest the acquittal of Jeronimo Yanez, the Minnesota police officer who killed Philando Castile in 2016, as well as to shed light on the lack of safe spaces for black and brown people in the LGBTQIA+ community,” according to their press release. Three out of four of those arrested were sentenced Wednesday to two years of probation and dozens of hours of community service; two of them were fined.

Lifeline Program Changes Could Cut Low-Cost Internet For Thousands In Ohio

January 18, 2018 By Julie Washington, Cleveland.com Educate! Cleveland, FCC, Internet, Ohio, Open Access

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A federal program that helps low-income people afford internet service in their homes is in the Federal Communications Commission's crosshairs. Under changes the FCC recently proposed, fewer people may receive subsidized broadband service under the Lifeline program. Those left out will struggle to do online tasks such as filling out a job application, or paying bills online. About 12.5 million low-income people across the country, and thousands in Ohio, could be affected. There are even health implications, since so much of today's medicine relies on patients having the ability to make appointments, refill prescriptions and view test results online. "There are a lot of unknowns so far," said Liz Lazar, director of programs and partnerships for DigitalC, a nonprofit organization that provides digital literacy and internet access to the under-served.

Ohio Overturns Ban On Cities Keeping Them From Voting Against Fracking

November 4, 2017 Ruth Milka, nationofchange.org Resist! Ban, Fracking, Ohio, Supreme Court

By Ruth Milka for Nation of Change - In a great victory for environmentalists and the people of Ohio, the Ohio Supreme Court struck down a provision that restricted citizen’s efforts to vote locally on banning fracking. The ruling is a turn around from earlier rulings that prevented residents from placing county charters and a city ordinance to ban fracking from appearing on ballots. In 2015, after the movement against fracking had progressed enough to include new county charters to elevate the rights of local residents and ecosystems, the Supreme Court ruled that the state has “exclusive authority” over oil and gas drilling. This meant cities and counties no longer had the right to ban or regulate fracking through any restrictions. Ohio’s Secretary of State Jon Husted supported the ruling, claiming he had “unfettered authority” to remove county charters from ballots, even if the people had gathered enough signatures. And it’s no wonder, as Husted is deeply tied to the Ohio Oil & Gas Association, who fundraise for him. Since 2015, Husted and his team of appointed county boards of elections, along with the state Supreme Court, have removed 10 proposed fracking-related county charters from Ohio ballots. Earlier this year, the city of Youngstown, Ohio spent $185,000 promoting anti-hydraulic fracking ballot measures, regardless of the state’s law. Even though city lawyers deemed that any regulation or ban that was passed with a vote would “not be enforceable,” the environmentalist group Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, are pushing on.

Fossil Fuel Allies Are Tearing Apart Ohio’s Embrace Of Clean Energy

October 30, 2017 Brad Wieners and David Hasemyer, www.insideclimatenews.org Educate! Clean Energy, Fossil Fuels, Ohio

By Brad Wieners and David Hasemyer for Inside Climate Change - COLUMBUS, Ohio—On March 30, Bill Seitz, a charismatic Republican, took to the floor of the Ohio House to make a case for gutting a 2008 law designed to speed the adoption of solar and wind as significant sources of electricity in the state. The law, he warned, "is like something out of the 5-Year Plan playbook of Joseph Stalin." Adopting a corny Russian accent, he said, "Vee vill have 25,000 trucks on the Volga by 1944!'" Nine years before, Seitz and his colleagues, Republicans and Democrats alike, had voted overwhelmingly for the measure he now compared to the work of a Communist dictator. It made Ohio the 25th state to embrace requirements and inducements to lure utilities away from coal, a major contributor of the gases fueling global climate change. Studies suggested the law would help create green energy jobs and boost the Ohio economy—and it has. Now, Seitz said, it was obsolete. Natural gas, rapidly displacing coal, was the resource Ohio ought to foster, he said. He also argued the law gives an unfair advantage to wind and solar when the state's last nuclear plant is fighting for its life. Most important, Seitz insisted, the government had no business telling anyone what kind of energy to buy.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 »

assetto corsa mods

Daily movement news and resources