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Rampant ‘good old boys’ corruption is robbing Ohioans blind
The first couple days of the Larry Householder/Matt Borges/FirstEnergy political bribery, billion dollar bailout corruption scandal conjured up stereotypical scenes from a poorly written movie: Fat cat politicians and lobbyists jet-setting on private corporate planes to D.C. to wine and dine at expensive steakhouses with other fat cat corporate executives. I imagine glasses of Scotch […]
LGBTQ kids need protection from bullies and violence, not adults targeting and bullying them too
I grew up in a struggling, post-industrial Ohio town in the 1990s where ignorance and intolerance often reigned. I stood up to bullies my whole life, and when put under physical threat, I fought them. No bully can intimidate me, and so even though I was definitely a weird kid, I was also funnier, smarter, […]
Ohio’s new Republican crybaby caucus another consequence of gerrymandering
After a weeklong meltdown of moaning, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, a new faction of Ohio House Republicans capped off their temper tantrum Wednesday by revitalizing plans to subject the Ohio Constitution and all Ohioans to extremist minority rule. Last week, 54 adults in the Ohio House came together in a bipartisan vote to elect […]
The Ghost of an Idea: A reflection on Charles Dickens and the history and meaning of the season
Since the stone age, winter festivals have bestowed their warming glow of fire and light and bountiful feast in nearly every culture of human civilization drudging through the cold, dark, biting months surrounding the solstice. Using the stars and sun as a guide for monitoring the seasons, humans through history sowed their crops, stocked food […]
Ohio Rep. Stewart gives amendment game away on extremist abortion bans and illegal gerrymandering
There’s an old saying that a journalist’s job is to always search for the truth, and a politician’s job is to never give the game away. Ashville Republican state Rep. Brian Stewart made every Ohio journalist’s job a little easier Wednesday after giving the game away regarding his attack on Ohio voters’ power to amend […]
A point-by-point refutation of LaRose and Stewart’s arguments for attacking Ohio voters
Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose seems to be big mad at being called out for attacking Ohio voters’ democratic power at the ballot box, after leading a proposal to raise the threshold for amendments from 50% to 60%. State Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, has become the legislative sponsor for the scheme. Because their arguments […]
In 1912, Ohio voters asserted their democratic authority. Now Ohio Republicans want to rip it away
Ohio Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Rep. Brian Stewart have launched a frontal assault on voters’ ability to amend our state constitution, putting their knives at the neck of 110 years of citizen-led democratic progress in the Buckeye State. Thinking that Ohioans are stupid and gullible enough to relinquish our democratic powers […]
In official count, Democrat wins last undecided Ohio House race, now headed for automatic recount
In official election results from the Franklin County Board of Election, Ohio House Democratic incumbent Richard D. Brown looks to have won the only remaining undecided race, meaning that Republicans will control the House 67-32 instead of 68-31. The official results for Ohio House District 5 show Brown received 17,429 votes, or 50.21%, compared to […]
Ohio House Republicans looking to create states rights ‘Tenth Amendment Center’ in AG’s Office
A group of 14 Ohio House Republicans are putting forward a bill to create a states rights “Tenth Amendment Center” within the office of the state attorney general. Ohio House Bill 506 creates a Tenth Amendment center to “actively monitor federal executive orders, federal statutes, and federal regulations for potential abuse or overreach, including assertion […]
J.D. Vance: Ohio’s new servile, self-seeking sycophant of a U.S. Senator
After two years of relentless lies from Donald Trump about the 2020 Election — lies that precipitated a deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol to try to overturn a free and fair American election — Ohio’s newly elected U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance says it’s not the traitor Trump’s fault that Republicans failed to create a […]
Studies show gains against childhood hunger were lost after child tax credit ended
An article in the Journal of the American Medical Association in October confirmed previous research that food insecurity increased substantially after the expiration of federal monthly advanced child tax credits on Jan. 15, 2022. The study looked at the period between January and July of this year in a series of national surveys, and found […]
Householder attorneys object to allowing First Energy deferred prosecution agreement at trial
Attorneys for former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder have objected to allowing First Energy’s deferred prosecution agreement from being introduced as evidence in his upcoming felony racketeering trial. In what the federal prosecutors have called the biggest bribery scandal in state history, Householder and four others were arrested in the summer of 2020. Facing racketeering, money […]