Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther declared in the annual State Of The City address "The state of our city is strong." He touted development projects across the city such as the One Linden Plan, a master plan for Hilltop, the opening of the Franklin Jubilee Market last May, a new police substation to be built near the Lazelle Woods Community Center, and "record resources" being spent to pave the city. 

The mayor painted a picture of growth and prosperity borrowing from Experience Columbus' statistics that visitors spent 7 billion in Columbus in 2017, and he referenced the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission estimate that over "40,000 people moved to the region in 2018."

In his speech, he announced a plan to invest $3.8 million in 2019 to build new affordable homes and keep them affordable through a land trust in areas around Columbus including in Franklinton and on the South Side. "If mobility is the great equalizer of the 20th century, let us leverage it," he said. 

Bob Fitrakis will be interviewing John Potash, author of Drugs as Weapons Against Us, about his documentary based on the book, WGRN at 5:30 PM on the show The Other Side of the News .

Drugs as Weapons Against Us: The CIA war on musians and activists was released yesterday for rent or purchase.

Seven-plus decades ago, as humanity was ensnarled in a monstrous world war, its instinct to win — to dominate others above all else — achieved ultimate manifestation: the capacity to annihilate all life on Planet Earth.

Nuclear weapons are, you might say, the logical outcome of the 10,000-year journey of civilization: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth.’”

And so we have. And now we’re stuck with ourselves, as are all other forms of life.

After a second public hearing where citizens again strongly opposed the amount as way too high, Columbus City Council unanimously enacted a $12,707.79 annual limit on contributions to candidates for city offices. Council member Michael Stinziano, a lame duck who leaves office Feb. 22, was the only member at the hearing.

Citizens speaking there denounced the limit as a sham benefiting incumbent officeholders and big-money donors under the guise of protecting the public. Speakers generally supported an amount between $250 and $3000, which is more in line with the limits in comparable cities.

They said a lower limit would motivate candidates to seek support from and represent regular citizens instead of a small group of wealthy donors. 

An ineffective limit favoring incumbents and easily avoided