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Early this year, legislators in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the U.S. Senate introduced resolutions that call upon the U.S. government to lead a global effort to halt and reverse the nuclear arms race. Co-sponsored by 36 members of the House and 5 members of the Senate, H. Res. 317 and S. Res. 323 urge the U.S. government to pursue nuclear disarmament, renounce the first use of nuclear weapons, end sole presidential authority to launch them, cancel plans for new, enhanced nuclear weapons and delivery systems, maintain the current moratorium on nuclear testing explosions, and provide a just economic transition for impacted communities.

An unnamed oil and gas company has submitted a “nomination” to the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission to frack 1,460 acres of Jockey Hollow Wildlife Area in Harrison County.

If approved, it would be the third-largest tract of Ohio public land for oil and gas extraction. But before that can happen, we the people who pay for and use this land have a chance to comment.

SUBMIT A COMMENT

For the first time in recent history, a seat on the Columbus City Council has become an actual competition. Normally the hand-picked Democratic candidate WINS regardless of whether he or she is intelligent or has empathy.  Who does the hand-picking?  Franklin County Chairman Michael Sexton, also known as Willy Wonka.  With a wave of his magic wand, anyone can become the “endorsed candidate” with their name on the “golden sample ballot.”

Maybe a Primary Might Help?

On the 44th anniversary of Ohio’s death penalty law taking effect, twenty-seven members of the 114th General Assembly have now joined the chorus of leaders calling for abolition.

On Friday, the former lawmakers sent a letter to current lawmakers expressing support for efforts to repeal Ohio’s death penalty. The letter is directed to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where SB 133 was referred.

Hearings on the legislation have not yet begun. 

The letter states, in part, “we understand this broken death penalty system’s grievous flaws, its unintended consequences, and its failure to achieve the benefits we had intended.”

The full letter can be found at this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-I2lV_0WycmTdX_ik6Ldg6O8geWRS_t6/edit

On October 7, the Center for Constitutional Rights endorsed an amended and expanded legal complaint filed by Taxpayers Against Genocide, the National Lawyers Guild International Committee, and Palestinian-American petitione

Athens County’s new treasurer, Taylor Sappington, has chosen not to reinvest the $300,000 Israel bond of county funds that came due October 1. In a memo (attached) to Athens County Commissioners, he explained: “On October first, $300,000 in our tax dollars matured from an Israel Foreign Government Bond alongside a domestic government debt maturity of nearly $1,000,000. I directed our investment firm to reinvest these dollars as close to home as possible, defined as investing in our region or state if rates and the market would allow for it. But beyond the geography, the decision was backed by the recommendations and advice of Meeder [Investment Management] who see the bonds’ downgrades and negative financial outlook as risky for public entities at the moment.”

Released American hostage Tom Hayes received a hero's welcome at John Glenn International Airport in Columbus, Ohio yesterday Sunday October 12, 2025. 

He was among the nearly 500 Sumud Flotilla crew who were taken hostage by the Israeli pirates on October 3 in internarial water about 100 miles away from Gaza shores. 

All Global Sumud 46 vessels were intercepted by Israel as it was sailing to break the siege in Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid to the besieged and starving people in the Strip. They carried food, water, baby formula, and toys for kids.

Several dozen people from Central Ohio and some from Athens in Ohio came to Columbus airport to give Tom Hayes the welcome he deserves: A hero's welcome! After all, he risked his life for the people of Gaza and for justice. 

When Hayes saw the well-wishers with signs and balloons, he screamed from the top of his lungs repeatedly "Free, Free Palestine!" One of the well-wishers gave him a plant of olive trees, which is more than just a tree in Palestine but rather a symbol of resilience, rootedness, and deep connection of the Palestinian people to their land.

Armed federal agents violently attacked and assaulted the owner and some workers of Panchos Tacos restaurant in downtown Mount Vernon, Ohio on Thursday, October 9, 2025. The attackers were not ICE, but rather Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). They appear to be related, and their tactics were similar, as they violently assaulted and kidnapped brown-skinned people trying to come to work. When the owner drove up to his restaurant with one of his workers Thursday morning they were approached by HSI with guns drawn and were assaulted and detained.

The owner is a US citizen who was born in the country. Several workers fled the scene. Some were caught and taken away. Their conditions and whereabouts are unknown to the general community. Reports are that the location is known to some, but not being released because families of those kidnapped are fearful that if protesters turn up at the detention location, it might cause violence and harm to their loved ones being detained there.

What do Ohio State University (OSU) and Israel have in common? They both desperately try to conceal the truth about the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the daily Israeli war crimes committed against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip.

 OSU targets pro-Palestinian activists for exposing the university of complicity in the Gaza genocide by arresting them, charging them with criminal trespassing, and threatening them with police escort from study-in for having "Keffiyeh," and the Israeli Death Forces (IDF) targeted Palestinian journalists in Gaza for informing the world about the reality in Gaza where Israel has not allowed international journalists.

This article first appeared on World Beyond War 

The Nobel Committee has frequently given the peace prize to major war makers, and frequently to do-gooders whose work in a variety of fields has been unrelated to abolishing war. It has also often given the prize to opponents and victims of Western empire. But it has never given the prize to open advocates of war and fascistic government. Trump was never going to be given the prize directly.