Toledo City Council last week made The Glass City the first in Ohio to take up a resolution supporting an Essential Workers Bill of Rights as part of a new national campaign to deliver better treatment and higher pay to all “essential workers.” 

The resolution was introduced September 15th at a Toledo City Council meeting by Councilwoman Theresa Gadus. A vote is expected in October.

Toledo’s Essential Workers Bill of Rights largely reflects a national bill proposed earlier this year by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, which seeks to protect frontline workers by requiring employers to provide personal protective equipment, robust hazard pay, and provide 14 days of paid sick leave, among other proposals. The bill has stalled in the Senate, however.

There is no word from Columbus City Council whether it will consider a similar resolution. Several major cities have also introduced an Essential Workers Bill of Rights, as New York City Council did back in April.

The polarized nature of American politics often makes it difficult to address fundamental differences between the country’s two main political rivals, Republicans and Democrats. As each side is intent on discrediting the other at every opportunity, unbiased information regarding the two parties’ actual stances on internal and external issues can be difficult to decipher.

Regarding Palestine and Israel, however, both parties’ establishments are quite clear on offering Israel unlimited and unconditional support. The discrepancies in their positions are, at times, quite negligible, even if Democrats, occasionally, attempt to present themselves as fairer and even-handed. 

Judging by statements made by Democrat presidential candidate, Joe Biden, his running mate, Kamala Harris, and people affiliated with their campaign, a future President Biden does not intend to reverse any of the pro-Israel political measures adopted by the Donald Trump Administration. 

The power of Wikileaks in upholding whistle-blower rights is the reason millions of dollars has been spent by a global coalition of the rich, powerful, and corrupt to discredit the co-founder, Julian Assange.

The case is widely viewed as a global landmark event that violates press freedom, purportedly enshrined in the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution.

President Donald Trump seeks Assange's extradition from the UK this week to face 175 years in prison for publishing outside the United States about US war crimes, as a foreign journalist. 

The extradition result will impact our so-called information-based economy and shape the power balance between the world's rich and poor masses for generations to come, broadly impacting tomorrow’s workforce.

A new book by Kieran Finnane has the title “Peace Crimes.” It refers to acts of civil disobedience against war, or civil resistance to war. My hope is that the phrase continues to sound as absurd as it does now, and that someday the phrase “war crimes” joins it in sounding outrageously ridiculous. “Peace crimes” should sound ludicrous because acting peacefully for peace is the most anti-criminal action possible. “War crimes” should sound ludicrous because war is the most criminal action possible, not a legitimate enterprise to which small crimes can be attached — a situation that makes “war crimes” as redundant and nonsensical as “slavery crimes” or “rape crimes” or “robbery crimes” would be if such phrases existed.

Spiking temperatures, melting glaciers, rising seas, catastrophic hurricanes and unprecedented wildfires are clear signs of a climate emergency caused by humans. Denying the awful reality makes the situation worse. The same can be said of denial about the current momentum toward fascism under Donald Trump.

Trump’s right-wing base and leading Republicans are in lockstep with both types of denial. They embrace the most absurd claims about climate, such as Trump’s recent comment during a visit to fire-ravaged California that “I don’t think science knows, actually.” And they refuse to recognize or deplore his autocratic moves.