Tuesday March 15 is just around the corner and the national media hordes will be descending into central Ohio, the swing region in the swing state, to cover the presidential primary.

On the Democratic side, the slugfest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will be coming to a head with Sanders needing a victory to overcome Clinton's growing lead..

Former Gov. Ted Strickland is also on the ballot, trying to fend off challenger and Cincinnati councilman P.G. Sittenfeld for the U.S. Senate Democratic nomination. Ordinarily, Strickland, well-known and well-liked by Ohio Democrats, would be home free against a little-known newcomer, but Sittenfeld has been cozying up to the Sanders campaign and could ride a Sanders wave into contention, even an upset.

Strickland is a longtime Clinton supporter, owing her for helping him win a close race his southeast Ohio Congressional seat way back when. Strickland could be harmed and Sittenfeld helped if Clinton slumps or is wounded by the FBI investigation of her emails while secretary of state.

IMPLICATIONS FOR FRANKLIN COUNTY

On Sunday, March 6, at 12:30 pm, hundreds of farmworkers, religious leaders, students, and consumers will gather at Goodale Park to march to Wendy’s at 3592 North High Street to protest the chain in its hometown for its failure to respect farmworker rights, and ending at Tuttle Park.

The protest, organized by local group Ohio Fair Food in partnership with the farmworker-led Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), is part of the CIW’s Workers’ Voice Tour, which builds on a three-year consumer campaign and a year-long national student boycott of Wendy’s, launched by Ohio State University students a year ago.

“Are you tired of the 1 percent making more than the bottom half of this country?” asked Troy Harris, an activist with Central Ohio Grassroots for Bernie Sanders. “Are you tired of corporate-owned Democrats and Republicans who are controlling our legislative interests? Are you tired of Starbucks and Wal-Mart decimating our communities?

“I’ve got a candidate for you,” he said. “His name is Bernie Sanders.”

Harris was speaking to a crowd of about 900 Sanders supporters at the Wexner Center Plaza on the Ohio State University campus on February 27, a few days after a Sanders campaign office opened on East Main Street in Columbus.

Many of the speakers at the rally emphasized the local implications of Bernie Sanders’ national platform. CWA Local 4501 president Kevin Kee brought the focus directly to OSU and the university’s privatization of much of its workforce.

“They outsourced the parking here, and now pay employees $8 an hour,” Kee said. “You can’t raise a family on $8 an hour. You can’t buy a car on $8 an hour. Are we in a race to the absolute bottom of the wage scale, or do we believe that there should be a living wage?

Unofficially, as his family knew, Scalia was old, unwell, and frail

he official version of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia’s death at a remote Texas luxury resort during the night of February 12-13 is that he died of natural causes, in bed alone and without any witness, time of death unknown. While there’s little forensic evidence to support this or any other conclusion, there’s even less evidence to challenge it. What, after all, is not credible about a 79-year-old, overweight man with heart disease and other medical issues dying in his sleep after overindulging at a dinner party for forty people?

Nick Scott takes I’ll be back, one of the greatest movie quotes of all time, to a mind-bending level of inspiration.

At 16 he was in a car accident that paralyzed him from the waist down. He became borderline suicidal. He ballooned to 300 pounds. He was lost in a world of despair that healthy people can’t or simply don’t want to comprehend.

Seventeen years later he has become an iconic figure for handicapped athletes and Paralypians. He’s pioneered the competition of pro-wheel chair body building. He’s been recognized by the White House. He travels the country as a motivational speaker. He started Wheelchair Athletics, Inc. His ultimate goal is to open a chain of gyms for the handicapped.

He gives thanks every day the car accident didn’t end his life because the accident actually gave him life.

“I hated who I was,” said Scott to the Free Press. “But God gave me a second chance at life, and I realized I was blessed. And instead of being hateful about it I decided to live life positive not negative. Not what I couldn’t do, but what I could do.”