College building with sign Free Education to all

The Supreme Court struck a huge blow to the future of higher education in America.

SCOTUS has gutted affirmative action and stopped President Biden’s student debt relief plan in its tracks.

Higher education was meant to be the great equalizer in America, but thanks to rulings like these, our institutions will become more costly, more exclusive, and more out of touch with the general public.

The Supreme Court may be legislating from the bench when it comes to the future of higher education, but legislators have the power to make college accessible for all by passing the College for All Act.

The College for All Act of 2023 would address the growing issue of skyrocketing college tuition and student loan debt, make higher education accessible and affordable to all, and uplift students of all backgrounds.


 “The Fukushima Disaster, The Hidden Side of the Story,” is a just-released film documentary, a powerful, moving, information-full film that is superbly made. Directed and edited by Philippe Carillo, it is among the strongest ever made on the deadly dangers of nuclear technology.
It begins with the words in 1961 of U.S. President John F. Kennedy: “Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by an accident, or miscalculation or by madness.”
It then goes to the March 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plants in Japan after they were struck by a tsunami. Their back-up diesel generators were kicked in but  “did not run for long,” notes the documentary. That led to three of the six plants exploding—and there’s video of this—“releasing an unpreceded amount of nuclear radiation into the air.”

A tiny piece of news out of Florida the other day poked me, you might say, in the rear end. The nation’s prison population — we’re number one! — expanded slightly, as did the concept of crime itself.

A couple in Daytona Beach, Florida — two police officers — put their 3-year-old son in jail two days in a row, handcuffing him, letting him sit in the cell wailing, because he . . .

Pooped in his pants.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not just against the establishment of a Palestinian state, he wants to eliminate the very aspirations for such a state.  

 This was the gist of Netanyahu's remarks, made at a meeting of the Israeli Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. They were reported in Israeli media on June 26.

 Some, including officials in the Palestinian Authority (PA), seemed oddly surprised following the release of the reports, as if Israel's intentions regarding Palestinian freedom and statehood are not known even to a political novice.

Greyhound bus

Several major Columbus news media reported this past week that Greyhound buses are leaving their central location from downtown Columbus and are opening a new terminal at 845 North Wilson Road in the Hilltop neighborhood.

A June 27 Dispatch story stated, “Greyhound’s new terminal, in the site of a former Shell station, features indoor and outdoor seating, ADA accessible restrooms, a ticket kiosk, and round-the-clock live ticket sales. The new site doesn’t offer food but is within walking distance of a Waffle House, Wendy's and McDonald’s…The Greyhound station Downtown has moved nearly 10 miles west of the city’s center.”

The decision to move the Greyhound terminal drew harsh criticism from numerous transit advocates. One stated, “Columbus is a joke of a city. The new location is wildly inaccessible without a car. Just getting to the new station via COTA will add an hour to any trip I take.”

Voter registration sign

Wednesday, July 5, 2023, 6:30 PM
Indivisible Central Ohio and Grandview Ignite are offering a voter registration training and refresher course open to all! Learn voter registration tips and get info about the new voter ID laws in Ohio.  
Register here

Malcolm X and person wearing red, white and blue

There’s a special election coming up this August. The voter registration deadline is Monday, July 10th. Are you registered to vote yet?

If you’re not, it’s totally understandable: discussion of a need for an active and conscientious electorate can be quite insulting when you work more than two jobs to keep a roof over your head and food on the table; it can seem totally irrelevant. It’s also true that many of our elected officials tend to become aloof for all but the most intense portion of their re-election campaigns, so why bother?

Getting out the vote is the reason I entered into community organizing work, which brought me to Columbus over a decade ago. It was 2011, and Gov. John Kasich’s Senate Bill 5 sought to marginalize the collective bargaining powers of public workers.

Those opposed to the legislation saw it for what it was: an attempt to hoodwink the public into gutting worker protections while privatizing public sector jobs. We knew the Right would exploit their base’s resentments against unions. But we fought back and won with one of the largest mobilizations in Ohio history. 

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