Here is an incomplete list of some of the culprits:

      A) Foreign Mining Corporations (PolyMet, Glencore, Twin Metals, Antofagasta, etc);

1. Minnesota’s Elected Politicians/Accomplices (both Corporate-influenced “Liberal” Democrats, and “Conservative” Republicans);
2. Minnesota’s “Regulatory” Agencies that are Supposed to be “Natural Resource Protectors” (Including the DNR, the PCA, and the US Forest Service); and
3. Most Area Newspapers; Most Area Television Stations; All the Area’s Chambers of Commerce; Minnesota Power (Electric Utility); the Trump Administration; Regional Labor Unions: and Dozens of Suppliers/Businesses that will Temporarily Profit from Supplying the Mining Industry While Simultaneously Risking the Permanent Poisoning of the St Louis River Watershed, Including Lake Superior

Wriply, Ashley and Kendall of the #BlackPride4 were recently tried and found guilty of six out of eight of their heinous trumped-up charges stemming from their peaceful protest at 2017 Columbus Pride. After a week-long jury trial in Franklin County Municipal Court, a jury decided the following in three of the four #BlackPride4 cases:

Wriply Bennet:
  Disorderly Conduct – Guilty
  Failure to Obey – Guilty
  Resisting Arrest – Guilty
Ashley Braxton:
  Disorderly Conduct – Guilty
  Failure to Obey – Guilty
  Resisting Arrest - Not Guilty
Kendall Denton:
  Disorderly Conduct – Guilty
  Failure to Obey - Not Guilty

Now these folks have a quickly approaching sentencing date of March 13, with the threat of jail time looming heavy overhead. Wriply Bennet, a beloved Black trans activist and artist, was convicted of the most charges.

The advent of #MeToo has revealed so many sexual predators who used some form of emotional abuse or manipulation to get what they truly want, perhaps we should begin thinking of new laws to protect women from predators who spring emotional traps to have sex.

I served in Iraq and was the only female in my platoon. We faced constant threat by the enemy, and I faced daily misogyny and sexual tension from my fellow soldiers. Eventually I was raped by another soldier and now suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). My predators never faced any consequences. I served my country and survived to advocate for other female soldiers, and now for #MeToo.

You may not be in the know, but what follows is a short list of dangerous and abusive ways to emotionally manipulate women or men, for that matter. Emotional abuse leaves no physical scars, but can be devastating to a person’s psyche causing years of anxiety and depression. And now that our dating scene has been aggrandized, simplified and hyper-sexualized by Tinder, Grindr, and the like, perhaps it’s time emotional abuse is treated by the law in similar ways physical abuse is treated.  

Love is more important than art, a character proclaims during a key moment from An American in Paris. While that’s undoubtedly true, it’s art that makes the musical so memorable.

Christopher Wheeldon’s direction and choreography combine with Bob Crowley’s set and costumes, Natasha Katz’s lighting and, most of all, George and Ira Gershwin’s ageless jazz tunes to create multiple gifts for the eyes and ears. As for the love story at its center, it mostly amounts to the colorless glue that holds it all together.

Based on the 1951 film about an American (Gene Kelly) who woos a reluctant Frenchwoman (Leslie Caron), the musical took an unconventional path to its 2015 Broadway premiere. It debuted in late 2014 in Paris, where it created a stir despite the language barrier. In addition to its glorious musical numbers, Parisians likely were attracted to its rejiggered plot and setting.

Last month, Ohio’s lieutenant governor Mary Taylor made headlines by not getting the endorsement for governor from her state party and subsequently putting them on blast for doing so. In a speech madeto the Ohio Republican Party’s State Central Committee on February 9, Taylor – who is up against Ohio’s attorney general Mike DeWine for the gubernatorial nomination following months of reshuffling within the party– did not hold back. She opened her remarks by calling the venue “Mike DeWine’s living room,” thanked the press for coming so they could televise DeWine’s “coronation,” and went on to slam his campaign for its “air of inevitability” as well as the Ohio Republican Party for “all of the good ol’ boy bullying and backroom deals that have gotten us to this point.” By the end of her speech it was clear Taylor wasn’t actually gunning for the endorsement, nor did she want it in the unlikely event she received it.