It all started as a house burglary in Reynoldsburg. It lead to missing dogs, a missing police service weapon, several arrests and a Columbus Police Detective implicated in a pattern of sex with minors. It then lead to nothing beyond a handful of juvenile prosecutions. The Free Press, as a matter of policy, does not identify minors or survivors of sex crimes. The Free Press has no problem identifying Detective Sergeant Terry McConnell, who is still the second watch supervisor of the Columbus Police Department's Special Victims Unit.

  Through the acquisition of police reports from the Reynoldsburg Police Department, the story leads to the Columbus Police Internal Affairs division and the Franklin County Prosecutor's office. It then ends abruptly.

Supporters of public access TV have wondered for years why the Columbus city government closed the station. The reasons given by the city never made much sense – until a previously hidden reason was recently revealed.

Bogus reason number 1: lack of money

When funding for public access TV was drastically cut in 2001, Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman told The Other Paper that the action was not taken as a reaction to the station’s program content but because of “a lack of money.”

In response to questions about public access TV in 2006, Mike Brown in the mayor’s office likewise explained that the city “faced significant budget challenges during the recession of the early 2000s, and that led to significant reductions to . . . public financing for Public Access Television.” But he said the mayor supported “the concept” of public access TV.

The approval by Columbus voters of a 25 percent income­tax increase in 2009 and the resulting budget surpluses took away the “lack of money” explanation. The restoration of public access TV could therefore have been expected. But city officials didn’t do it.

Gift-giving - Help the local economy

Free Press picks

In some family and friendship relationships, or even at your workplace, you just can't get out of the typical gift exchange. If you don't like participating in mainstream consumerism during the holiday season, The Free Press has some suggestions for alternatives to gift-giving and how to buy gifts that make you feel good.
  Instead of camping out at the mall or Walmart, or using your credit card online, you can patronize small independent businesses for your gift buying. In order to save the planet, we need to re-localize, to stimulate the local economy and circulate our surplus labor value.

Kim Bobo’s book, Wage Theft in America (2009) was the inspiration for starting a workers center in Columbus. Kim Bobo founded the Chicago Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues and is well-known for her organizing and advocacy for a living wage and workers rights that currently has expanded into the Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) with affiliates throughout the U.S. Wage theft is a term created by the IWJ Worker Center Network. Their website identifies this as their number one issue their worker centers are focused on. They do this by holding employers responsible and advocating for new anti-wage theft laws at the state and local level.

If you type in the hashtag #FreeSylvie on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter you will find images of various rappers, musicians, artists and high school kids wearing a shirt that bears the image of Sylvie Mix and the call for her liberation.
  Sylvie is not a rapper arrested for drugs or murder. She is not a political prisoner.

Sylvie Mix is a 16 year-old Columbus Alternative High School AP Physics student whose mother Maika Carter and friend Thom Lessner came up with an innovative form of discipline that raised a decent amount of money for the Mid-Ohio Foodbank by selling the aforementioned Free Sylvie T-Shirts.
  Sylvie’s explained her peer pressure induced crime.

  “I had a party at our house while my mom was recovering from surgery at one of her friend’s houses. Super, duper inconsiderate timing on my part. For the record, it was not my idea alone.”
  Maika Carter was recuperating at her friend Sonya Fix’s house. Maika had adrenal gland removal surgery three Days prior to the teen party. A parent of a kid who went to the party face-booked Maika late in the night notifying her of Sylvie’s unauthorized soiree.