Ann Walker

On Sunday, October 5, 2025, Columbus would learn that afternoon the news that shook its soul: Queen Mother Ann B. Walker — broadcaster, journalist, community matriarch, civil rights trailblazer, and living archive of Black excellence — had joined the ancestors at 101. The air felt heavier that day. Social feeds filled with black-and-white photos, church bells echoed across the Near East Side, and elders spoke her name with reverence, as if afraid it might be the last time it would roll off their tongues while she was still fresh in memory.

This wsn’t just another obituary moment. This was Columbus losing a cornerstone.

From East High to Ebony Airwaves

Long before Ann B. Walker’s name echoed through newsrooms and political halls, it was written in the ink of the East High X-Ray, her high school paper. She recalled the moment her teacher, Miss Marie Google, told her that “we didn’t need to go to Bexley to work in anybody’s kitchen when we were working in our own.” That moment became prophecy.

Tuesday, October 7, 2025, 11:30 AM
Ohio Statehouse, Columbus
For almost two years, Ohioans have been organizing across the state to demand divestment from Israel. Our tax dollars should not fund genocide, apartheid, or the starvation of millions in Gaza. Our tax dollars should be used here—to support education, housing, infrastructure, and public services.

On the two-year anniversary of the beginning of this ongoing genocide in Gaza, organizers and community members from around the state will come together to demand a permanent end to all of Ohio’s ties to Israel. We demand an end to Ohio’s complicity in genocide. 

With gabapentin risks back in the news and Trump’s friendship with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla reportedly behind new drug pricing agreements, it’s time to revisit questions about the drug, the company and its misleading marketing.

Two Neurontin Widows

After years of silence, two women who say their doctor husbands died from taking Neurontin (gabapentin) spoke out.

What began as something personal and private in their lives became a call for social justice, awareness and protecting the health and safety of others both women, Debbie Alsberge and Robin Briggs, told a reporter.

Another day, another Israeli massacre in South Lebanon. Hassan Atwi and his wife Zainab Raslan were killed in an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon on October 6, 2025. The strike targeted their car in the village of Zabdin, near Nabatiyeh, according to Dearborn.org-News & media website.

Hassan Atwi, who is an engineer, was reportedly blinded in a pager blast last year and his wife lost her right hand. The couple had two sons who were killed during the 2023-24 Israel air bombing campaign of Lebanon. 

The Lebanese health ministry also reported Monday's attack and confirmed, "two people were killed and one wounded when an Israeli drone strike targeted a car on the Zebdin road in the Nabatiyeh district" of southern Lebanon, reported the New Arab Staff and Agencies on October 6.

Over 4,000 people were killed in Israel's attacks in Lebanon since the November 27, 2024 ceasefire agreement was signed.

Russian Dictator Vladimir Putin last week eagerly confirmed that all “Peaceful Atom” nuclear power plants are fair game for military destruction and that the ensuing apocalyptic fall-out is not really his concern.

As Reuters reported, “Putin on Thursday warned Ukraine that it was playing a dangerous game by striking the area near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and suggested that Moscow could retaliate against nuclear plants controlled by Ukraine.”

The six-reactor Zaporizhzhia complex is, noted Reuters “Europe’s largest [and] has been cut off from external power for more than a week and is being cooled by emergency diesel generators.”

Zaporizhzhia was captured by Russian forces in the early days of the 2022 invasion.

The global crisis it now embodies was foreseen 45 years ago by Bennett Ramberg, in his book “Nuclear Power Plants as Weapons for the Enemy: An Unrecognized Military Peril.”

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Stop HB 324! Protect Mifepristone

Ohio House Bill 324 would restrict access to mifepristone, a safe and commonly used abortion medication, and force doctors to deliver state-mandated medical misinformation.

An opposition hearing will be held by the House Health Committee on Wednesday, October 8th, at 10AM. Please attend if you are able. We want them to know we are watching and that we reject government interference in personal health decisions. 

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Banned Books Week (October 5–11, 2025) is an opportunity to celebrate literature and a reminder that reading is resistance in our fight for the freedom to learn.

It would be an interesting exercise if one might view and consider in retrospect the week that began with the United Nations General Assembly speech in New York on September 23rd that included the “Your countries are going to hell” performance by President Donald Trump followed on the 26th by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu experiencing the boycotting UN Delegate walk-out before moving on to Netanyahu subsequently at the White House revising the Trump plan for Gaza. The week concluded with the meeting by Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth at Quantico with America’s flag officers.

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