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Veteran Suicides…help in some way for what you hold dear

<i>Gena Smith is a combat veteran of Iraq, and suffers from both PTSD and MST (Military Sexual Trauma). She’s a veteran advocate who volunteers for VETWOW, Veteran Women Organizing Women, which has over 3,000 members and nearly all are victims of MST. As the war on terror pushes through a second decade, it’s becoming tragically clear that for many veterans, the only way to deal with MST or combat PTSD is suicide.</i>

The stage musical “Come Alive” tackles suicide deaths, attempts and prevention

Each year the Columbus Black Theatre Festival deals with topics that pertain not only to the African American community but society at large and this year is no different. July 10 -12, 2015 come share in the three day event of workshops, plays and entertainment at the Columbus Performing Arts Center in Columbus.  This year the festival concludes the weekend with the stage musical “Come Alive” written and directed by the founder of the CBTF and Ohio playwright Julie Whitney Scott with music by Cassandra Stewart. This play tackles the issue of suicide in America head on as seen through the lives of college students and adults who have either attempted to or had someone they loved succeed at killing themselves.

Strongest economy in the Midwest? Not for those stuck in the low-wage economy

Columbus mayoral candidate Andy Ginther in his latest commercial hails the local economy as one of the “strongest in the Midwest.” Last month the consumer-focused website Nerd Wallet crunched the numbers of 100 cities and declared Columbus was the third best city to find a job in 2015.

The state of WOMEN in the state

  March 8th was International Women’s Day and the whole month is dedicated to women’s history, so the Free Press is taking a look at the status of women here in Ohio.
  Innovation Ohio analyzed Ohio Governor John Kasich’s 2015 budget and its impact on Ohio women. There are definite positives and negatives for women to watch out for this year.
  The good news is that the bill contains more funding for child care, preschool, maternal health and training on ways to deal with sexual assault at public colleges and universities.
  Here’s the bad news. According to Innovation Ohio, proposed tax changes benefit the wealthy and raise taxes on lower income Ohioans. Not a surprise, but unfortunately most low-income Ohioans are women.

The World Ignores the Crisis in Gaza—So Another Gaza Freedom Flotilla is Ready to Sail in First Half of 2015


With the 51 day Israeli attack on Gaza in the summer of 2014 that killed over 2,200, wounded 11,000, destroyed 20,000 homes and displaced 500,000, the closing to humanitarian organizations of the border with Gaza by the Egyptian government, continuing Israeli attacks on fishermen and others, and the lack of international aid through UNWRA for the rebuilding of Gaza, the international Gaza Freedom Flotilla Coalition has decided to again challenge Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza in an effort to gain publicity for the critical necessity of ending the Israeli blockade of Gaza and the isolation of the people of Gaza.

Will growing weed in Ohio be controlled by cannabis capitalists?

By now, if you follow marijuana in Ohio, you probably know of a group called Responsible Ohio (RO). It seemingly came out of nowhere last summer, bringing with it exorbitant sums aimed at financing a citizen-led initiative to place the legalization of marijuana on the Ohio ballot.
  Bringing this useful plant back from decades of prohibition has been an arduous process. Since 2000, six legislative bills concerning cannabis – aka marijuana – have graced the Ohio legislature, none making it past committee, all while 23 other states have established a legalized marijuana system, whether medically-focused or broadened to include adult use. The apparent success of these systems in Colorado, Washington and other states has ignited a modern-day gold rush, with the prospect of billions drawing a new class of advocate – the investor – into marijuana policy reform. These investors lack the magnanimity of their poorer predecessors, less interested in social justice and more concerned with ROI, the SEC and LLCs. Such is RO.

An injury to one is an injury to all: Supermax Prison hunger strike

During a press conference on Monday, March 16, Siddique Hasan announced  that a hunger strike was underway at the Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP). Hasan had called in to the press conference from a phone within OSP, also known as the “Supermax” prison, in Youngstown, Ohio. He told the reporters he had missed his last three meals.
  Hasan is one of the four “Lucasville Five” inmates who are on death row at OSP as a result of their presence at the Lucasville prison uprising in 1993. His fellow Lucasville Five members, Bomani Shakur (Keith Lamar) and Jason Robb are also participating in the hunger strike.

  Hasan outlined the reason for the current hunger strike. The root of the problem began when a new inmate at OSP stabbed a guard in the neck and punched one in the face. Instead of dealing with that one individual, OSP prison officials applied collective punishment to everyone in OSP under Level Five security.

An Inconvenient Democracy: Minor parties would overcrowd ballot

  Federal Judge Michael Watson, fearing democracy might break out in Ohio, upheld a Republican state law that makes it virtually impossible for minor parties to get on the ballot. Judge Watson sided with Ohio's Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted, who argued that if minor political parties were treated as they are in other democracies, it would add "additional cost" and would cause “the risk of overcrowded ballots and frivolous candidates."
   The United States, recently rated last in election integrity among the world's 76 long-standing democracies, is the only democracy that has a two-party system. America's two-party system is often referred to as "American Exceptionalism." Every other democracy has three or more political parties.

  The Green Party of Ohio stands alone as the only ballot-qualified minor party in the Buckeye State.

  The Libertarian, Constitution, and Socialist Parties will need to gather at least 30,560 valid signatures just to return to official party status in Ohio. Additionally, out of the over 30,000 valid signatures, there must be 500 each from half of Ohio's 16 Congressional districts.

Fukushima Radiation Found in Sample of Green Tea from Japan

Four years after the multiple explosions and melt-downs at Fukushima, it seems the scary stories have only just begun to surface.

Given that Japan’s authoritarian regime of Shinzo Abe has cracked down on the information flow from Fukushima with a repressive state secrets act, we cannot know for certain what’s happening at the site.

 

 

 

 

According to the New York Times, a sample of powdered tea imported from the Japanese prefecture of Chiba, just southeast of Tokyo, contained traces of radioactive cesium 137. Photo credit: Shutterstock

 

 

 

 

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