Dennis Kucinich Speaks to Move To Amend On “The Otherside Of The News” with Dr. Robert Fitrakis
March 31st, 2017

Dennis will be Keynote Speaker At Move To Amend Ohio Statewide meeting.

Join the MTA annual meeting April 1 and hear Dennis Kucinich at 1:00 p.m.

 

Free Press free film night:
“Black Lives Matter”
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
7:30pm

Free Press free fourth Tuesday film night:
Black Lives Matter Newsreel: Why Columbus Needs a Citizens Review Board
Tues, March 24, 7:30pm, Drexel Theater, 2254 E. Main St.
Police shootings of citizens in Columbus are almost always ruled as justified, the Columbus Dispatch reported. “Of seven cities surveyed by The Dispatch — all similar in size to Columbus — Columbus had the second-highest rate of police shootings, both fatal and nonfatal, in 2013. Last year, the city ranked fourth, at 1.1 shootings per 100,000.”
To highlight the need for a civilian review board to investigate officer-involved shootings, videographer Will Delphia has compiled a newsreel of footage from the local and regional #BlackLivesMatter movement.
Discussion will follow.
colsfreepress@gmail.com or 614-253-2517

Join the Green Party to march in the
Pride Parade this weekend and
Join us for the Free Press FREE Movie on Tuesday!

March in the Columbus Pride Parade Saturday, June 21 @ 11am Join the Franklin County Green Party and the Hart for Congress campaign Meet on Front Street (between Main and Broad) at 11am. Look for the Hart for Congress banner or call 614-374-2380 for directions.

March in the Columbus Pride Parade
Saturday, June 21 @ 11am
Join the Franklin County Green Party and the
Hart for Congress campaign
Meet on Front Street (between Main and Broad) at 11am. Look for the Hart for Congress banner or call 614-374-2380 for directions.

<a href=Growing Cities: A Film about Urban Farming in America Tuesday, June 24, 7:30pm Drexel Theater, 2254 E. Main St. This award-winning documentary examines the role of urban farming in America and asks how much power it has to revitalize our cities and to change the way we eat. A question-and-answer discussion will follow with a panel moderated by Michelle Moskowitz Brown, Director of Local Matters. Co-sponsored by Simply Living, the Columbus Free Press, and the Columbus Film Council. Contact: Chuck.Lynd@gmail.com or call 614-354-6172 colsfreepress@gmail.com or (614) 253-2571

The latest issue of the Free Press is out and on news racks everywhere.

In this issue Bob discusses the implications of the defeat of the Zoo Levy. Columbus voters defied the downtown elite and voted the level down by an overwhelming 70%!

We will be talking about this and other important issues at our monthly Second Saturday Salon on June 14th. Join progressive friends for food, drink and music at 1021 east Broad from 6:30pm – 11:00pm.

We will also be talking about the Ohio Green Party’s extraordinary victory. Despite the obfuscation, last minute law changes, and interference from John Husted Ohio voters wrote in enough votes during the recent primary to keep the Green Party on the ballot.

The Free Press is still out investigating and still breaking the news. Read about Mike DeWine’s apparent cover-up of a controversial police shooting.

Our Arts and Entertainment section is still one step ahead of the Alive with a review of the recent X-Men release and a response to their flailing stab at a top 10 X-men story.

Lieutenant Governor candidate Bob Fitrakis today urged all Ohioans who despise authoritarianism and who support democracy to vote in the primary election May 6, request a Green Party ballot — and write in Anita Rios for Governor and Bob Fitrakis for Lt. Governor.

“The Republican Party showed its utter contempt for the democratic process by outlawing all four minor parties in Ohio. The Republicans disrupted our signature gathering process with the Senate Bill 193. This law banned all minor parties in Ohio but has since been overturned by a federal court,” Fitrakis said. “We are asking all voters, regardless of political party, to stand up for democracy and take the pledge to write in Rios and Fitrakis in the primary.”

Take the pledge: http://www.ohiogreens.org/node/327

You’re invited to the
Free Press Second Saturday Salon
Saturday, January 11, 2014
6:30pm-midnight
Socializing with progressive friends, food, drink, music, art, and film: “The Last War Crime”- a very well done film that recreates all the events leading up to the invasion of Iraq with actors portraying all the principals (7:30-9pm).
1021 E. Broad St. (east side door)
614-253-2571
colsfreepress@gmail.com

by Bob Fitrakis
November 23, 2013

The website says it all: RadioactiveWasteAlert.org.

The billboard with a young woman guzzling liquid with a radioactive warning on it under the phrase: “Don’t Frack My Water, Protect Columbus” set the stage for one of the most important public forums in the city’s history.

If we had to summarize the major themes that emerged from the Tuesday, November 12 Radioactive Frack Waste Forum, the first is this: the public has a right to know that much of the process allowing radioactive waste into the central Ohio watershed near Alum Creek is the result of hidden, behind-the-scenes maneuvering by Ohio legislators and Governor John Kasich.

Second: the frack waste is undisputedly radioactive and carcinogenic. Radium 226 found at 3000% over the allowable limit by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a long-established link to many forms of cancer, including breast and bone cancer.

Third: All landfills leak. If you put radioactivity into them, it will come out.

Fourth: Ohio has become a radioactive dumping ground for the fracking industry and is not importing the waste prohibited by the regulators in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Of the eight billion gallons of toxic radioactive waste injected into underground wells in Ohio over the last 30 years, half of it came from out-of –state.

Finally: Ohio is now poised to receive 19 million cubic feet of solid radioactive shell rock waste in the near future. Our 39 licensed landfills are de-regulated and open for the toxic imports.

The day before the Forum, “fracktivists” organizers went to Columbus City Council to present their well-documented findings. A few Council members noted that they had read about the radioactivity in the local news where it has been published in both the Free Press and the Columbus Dispatch, as well as reported by the local NBC affiliate, TV 4.

When Council President Andrew Ginther asked the City’s Public Health Director Theresa Long, she immediately declared, as public health directors have done in the past, that there was no threat to the health of Ohio citizens from a large radioactive waste site sitting right next to Alum Creek. She offered no data or facts with her analysis.

City Attorney Richard Pfeiffer asks the fracktivists the key question after the meeting: “What can the City of Columbus do, considering the current Ohio laws?”

That answer would be provided at the Forum. After an introduction by organizer Carolyn Harding, a series of radioactive waste experts and activists addressed this mounting health crisis. Dr. Julie Weatherington-Rice, an environmental consultant with a doctorate in soil science from Ohio State University, explained in detail what Long missed.

“They’ve de-regulated the drill cuttings. That’s 90% of what comes out of a bore hole. The mud is regulated yet every piece of cutting is covered in mud and it dries on the rocks. So if the mud is radioactive and it dries on the rocks, it means that the cuttings are of course radioactive,” she pointed out.

Weatherington-Rice said that most of the radioactivity comes from Radium 228 and 226. These are alpha and beta emitters. What the landfills use to detect radioactivity are Geiger counters. These are designed to detect gamma emissions.

Weatherington-Rice noted that the U.S. Department of Energy protocol requires that radium is not to be field tested by a Geiger counter, but isolated in a lab for 21 days to get a proper radioactivity reading. As she pointed out, amended House Bill 59, Ohio’s 2013 budget bill, has de-regulated “90% of the waste stream with no record-keeping requirement because they are calling the material ‘beneficial use.’”

For more than 30 years, Weatherington-Rice has been one of Ohio’s leading experts on groundwater protection. Long did not consult her before answering Columbus City Council members.

Terry Lodge, an environmental attorney from Toledo, detailed the backroom dealings that allowed radioactive material to be dumped so close to Columbus’ drinking water. He spoke of new Ohio laws that permit the “downblending” of highly toxic radioactive waste into less toxic material, freeing it from regulation. He also explained how defining drill cuttings as “beneficial use” as liners in landfills it can avoid testing or monitoring.

Lodge ended by saying, “I’m an activist. I’m ready for a fight.” Lodge is famous for using “guerilla” legal and populist strategies to fight frackers and other corporate polluters.

Perhaps the most chilling presentation was given by Dr. Yuri Gorby, a microbial physiologist and ecologist, who holds the Howard N. Blitman Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is an expert on the physical health effects of radioactivity and fracking waste. In his talk, Gorby stated that in his studies of fracking and radioactivity he noticed a variety of physical symptoms from bloody noses, burning eyes, rashes and neurological disorders including loss of memory, loss of sense of smell, anxiety, and tremors. Gorby said that he has been able to “fingerprint” through DNA many of the rashes directly to fracking. He warned that Ohio’s desire to allow the de-regulation of drill cutting with “no monitoring” will be disastrous for the health of our citizens.

His slide show, which is available at the website mentioned earlier, showed devastating illnesses among people exposed to toxic and radioactive fracking waste.

Nathan Johnson, an environmental attorney at the Forum, quickly answered the question on what the City of Columbus can do.

“They are allowed by law to establish and charge the companies for a program that would monitor for radioactivity in a proper lab test,” he said, “As long as they weren’t selective and charged everyone bringing in drill cuttings.”

On December 3 at 7pm, the group will meet again at the Columbus Public Library on Grant Street.

originally published at the freepress.org

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/freepress-org-2-0-support-the-future-of-independent-media-in-central-ohio

Bob in Wisconsin @Democracy Convention Aug 7-11 Greg Palast sitting in front.

Fight Back – Episode: 08/14/13 Why We Shouldn’t Trust Computerized Voting
http://www.talktainmentradio.com/podcasts/Fight%20Back%20081413.mp3

Fight Back – Episode: 08/07/13 “Washington March” 50th Anniv./ Whistleblower Wednesdays http://www.talktainmentradio.com/podcasts/Fight%20Back%20080713.mp3

http://www.talktainmentradio.com/shows/fightback.html

Due to the fact the Arena Grand is closed, there will be no Free Press free movie this month, however — the Franklin County Greens are sponsoring three free movies this summer!
Free Movie screening: “Kilowatt Ours” at the Franklin County Green Party Meeting
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Screening of Kilowatt Ours – 7:00 PM
Green Party Central Committee meeting 6:00 – 7:00 PM (Open business meeting)
Sierra Club and Environment Ohio are partnering to make three movies available to be shown by organizations this summer to draw attention to the problems and solutions of global warming. Franklin County Greens will be viewing the first of series, “Kilowatt Ours,” at the June meeting. We will screen “Carbon Nation” in July and “Journey to Planet Earth/Plan B – Mobilizing to Save Civilization” in August. These screenings are free and open to the public. Location: FCGP meets every third Thursday at the Northwood Building, 2231 N. High St., room 100 (parking available behind the building).
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Join Franklin County Greens in the Pride Parade!
Saturday, June 22, 2013
We will line-up on Front St. between Broad and Main Street between 10:00 AM and Noon. Watch for our banners and Green Party Volunteer t-shirts. We’ll send out the exact location of our position in the parade later this week. Please let us know if you plan to walk with us and contact cmhammond11@att.net if you need more information.