News

When the basement flooded again, the Taylors didn’t panic. They filmed it. They emailed Beacon Property Management—again. The water damage wasn’t new. Neither was the silence.

For months, Zakee Taylor and his family had been trying to work with their landlord to resolve outstanding issues at their rental in Northeast Columbus: mold from a previous flood, broken fixtures, a faulty bathroom fan, and rising late fees due to the income cycle of the life of a small business owner entrepreneur. The Taylors are not “problem tenants.” They are deeply embedded in the city they’re being pushed out of. Their company, Taylor Branding Co., has operated in Columbus for more than two decades.

What they asked for wasn’t extreme—access to their online tenant portal, a structured payment plan, and time to vacate the property after their son’s high school graduation. They even had the rent money saved.

But their account was locked. Because Beacon filed for eviction. It wasn’t a miscommunication. It was the model.

This isn’t about one family. This is about what happens when profit meets poverty, meets policy, meets silence. Eviction is not a symptom. It’s a strategy.

Harvey's Comment in LA Times:

These Olympics must also be 100% solar/wind/geothermal powered & the Diablo Canyon reactors must be shut before they begin.

the Games are threatened by potential catastrophe from the continued operation of these two uninsured, obsolete nukes surrounded at Avila Beach by earthquake faults capable of blanketing the region with lethal Chernobyl-scale radioactive clouds. 

debate still rages over how much radiation Fukushima poured into Tokyo in 2011-21; we must not allow that possibility for Los Angeles in 2028 & beyond. 

we have just suffered horrific fires caused at least in part by a faulty central-powered utility system that must be replaced by micro-grid based renewables. rooftop solar is the answer for Los Angeles to have a cheap, safe, clean power system, and it must happen prior to the Olympics. 

Trump Tariffs

It's becoming increasingly clear that the new Trump tariffs will significantly impact the solar industry, adding additional tariffs on top of the already 50 percent level that are assessed against many of the leading solar panel exporting countries.

Preliminary calculations by solar.com anticipate a net 10 cents per watt average increase to the cost of solar hardware. There's currently a significant inventory of solar panels that have been warehoused in anticipation of these tariffs, so the impact on the industry may not be immediately felt. 

According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, there's currently about 50 gigawatts of solar panel manufacturing capacity here in the US, which is theoretically enough to meet domestic demand for solar panels.

However, the subcomponents of those panels, such as the silicon and the metal for the framing, will be subject to the Trump tariffs.

Greep Zoom #219 opens at the giant multi-million global marches that tried to confront the Trump regime.

One performer at LA’s Pershing Square gathering is CLIFFORD TASNER of the Southern California Americans for Democratic Action who introduces us to Trillionaires for Trump.

The fictional Trump “tariff advisor” Ron Vara is exposed by TATANKA BRICCA as a mythological economy crasher.

Our co-convenor MIKE HERSH chimes in with his usual wisdom.

The great DAVID SALTMAN raises the issue of a general strike.

Computer genius LEE FELSENSTEIN offers a “Reverse the Media” strategy going forward, complete with a national mailer on his critical digital design.

Radio maven LYNN FEINERMAN adds to the brilliance with her call for grassroots organizing.

Indivisible’s MIMI S calls for support for the “Make Polluters Pay” movement.

From Minnesota KARLA SAND tells us that 1 in 4 Americans is disabled while she emphasizes the need to protect Medicare and emphasizes that she goes of ‘every darn thing.".

President Donald Trump counts on Steven Witkoff, a longtime acquaintance from their New York real estate days, to negotiate solutions to some of the most fraught issues in world politics—those confronting Israel and Palestinians and those driving war between Russia and Ukraine. Witkoff also ventures to speak about improving US relations with Iran.

The real estate magnate concedes that each item on his to-do list is very complicated, but he plunges ahead, confident that President Donald Trump, is behind him as he deals with life and death issues in multiple settings. Both Trump and his envoy seem to think that problem-solving in international affairs is no different from real estate and requires no particular knowledge.

Sows in Factory Farm Gestation Crates, courtesy of CIWF USA/Jo-Anne McArthur /We Animals Media Non-Commercial use

The blades move ever faster, slicing through flesh—animal and human alike. Workers, pressed shoulder to shoulder in a factory of blood, push through exhaustion, through pain, through the deafening machinery, knowing that slowing down isn’t an option.

Pigs scream, their bodies trembling from stress and drugs, their legs buckling beneath them. Some won’t even make it to slaughter—collapsing from heat, injury, or sheer terror before they reach the kill floor.

Watch protest video here

A huge crowd braved the rain Saturday to go to the Ohio Statehouse and protest President Donald Trump and his administration. It was one of more than 50 such events scheduled for Ohio on Saturday and Sunday and more than 1,400 nationwide. 

Early in the rally, Columbus police said there appeared to be at least 2,000 gathered so far. After it was over, Mia Lewis, and organizer, said 5,000 were at the Capitol, and provided a spreadsheet saying 47,000 attended rallies statewide.

Amid growing international chaos, it should come as no surprise that nuclear dangers are increasing.

The latest indication is a rising interest among U.S. allies in enhancing their nuclear weapons capability. For many decades, remarkably few of them had been willing to build nuclear weapons―a result of popular opposition to nuclear weapons and nuclear war, progress on nuclear arms control and disarmament, and a belief that they remained secure under the U.S. nuclear umbrella. But, as revealed by a recent article in London’s Financial Times, Donald Trump’s public scorn for NATO allies and embrace of Vladimir Putin have raised fears of U.S. unreliability, thereby tipping the balance toward developing an expanded nuclear weapons capability.

A new documentary film, Far Out: Life On & After the Commune, directed by Charles Light, tells the story of a group of leftwing journalists who splintered off from what was known as Liberation News Service (LNS). With candid then-and-now footage, Light’s eighty-five-minute film reveals the communards as young hippies and senior citizens, and shows how their paths intertwined with folk/rock superstars to fight the good fight. 

As part of our commitment to sharing actionable research in support of progressive policies, Innovation Ohio recently conducted a survey to see where Ohioans stood on President Trump and his early 2nd term actions. Our survey of 398 registered Ohio voters, conducted from February 25-27, found that despite strong backing from his core supporters, Trump’s actions are not resonating with much of the broader public.