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Is a lack of intellectual diversity causing university faculty to self-censor? That’s a central claim made by advocates of Ohio State University’s Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, which is one example of a slate of new “viewpoint diversity” centers established recently on college campuses. In an era of dwindling state support for higher education, Ohio State’s version was created by the state legislature (over the objection of the Faculty Senate) at an initial cost of $24 million.

This article first appeared on Substack

Monday, September 15,  Columbus City Council President Shannon G. Hardin and Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther announced that the city is now accepting applications for the newly formed LGBTQ+ Affairs Commission.

The LGBTQ+ Affairs Commission was formed in July through Ordinance 1412-2025 to ensure that the voices and needs of LGBTQ+ residents are represented at the highest levels of city government. 

Although most Republican still reject Isolationism, a small, but clamorous contingent of the MAGA Coalition has embraced what Rebecca L. Heinrich calls the 1939 Project. Tucker Carlson has emerged as the leader of this endeavor, striving to delegitimize American intervention in World War II and America’s post World War II role in the world it catalyzed. What began as a fringe movement is alas on the threshold of morphing into a mighty threat to U.S. national security now that Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation – Ronald Reagan’s favorite thinktank, has joined the ranks of such “restrainers.”

Columbus’ political establishment is being forced to reckon with a new generation. On Sunday afternoon, the nonprofit Columbus Stand Up! hosted its second annual youth-led candidate debate at Fort Hayes Education Center, where students as young as 15 grilled candidates for Columbus City Council District 7 and the Columbus City School Board.

In a city where partisan politics often feel scripted, the event broke the mold: teens and twenty-somethings set the agenda, filled the auditorium, and put candidates on notice that the next generation is watching.

A Race Defined by Nepotism and Party Politics

This year’s contests are already thick with insider maneuvering. District 7’s council race — representing Downtown and surrounding neighborhoods — has been shaped less by policy and more by partisan endorsements.

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There’s a lot of national attention on this topic right now, because President Trump is telling states like Texas to rig (“gerrymander”) districts to give Republicans more seats in Congress.

Columbus is in the middle of a building boom. Sleek apartment towers climb skyward, marketed with rooftop lounges and pet spas. Rents stretch past $1,500 for one-bedroom units. But a very different Columbus exists on the other side of the leasing office glass: one where families tuck their children into bedrooms streaked with black mold, where winter nights are endured with broken furnaces, and where cockroaches scurry across kitchen counters.

These tenants aren’t silent. They are doing exactly what the city says they should — calling 311, filing code complaints, and showing up in Environmental Court. Since January 2024, Columbus renters have filed more than 7,000 housing complaints, and the court has opened nearly 2,600 cases. Judges have ordered more than $1 million in fines against landlords.

Yet the same addresses keep appearing in 311 logs, the same landlords keep showing up in court dockets, and the same families keep waiting for repairs that never come. Columbus’s enforcement system documents the crisis in detail, but rarely fixes it.

Thousands of Complaints, Few Consequences

USDA announces it will discontinue funding solar projects

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it will discontinue providing funds for solar and wind projects, through its Rural Energy for America (REAP) grant program. In recent years the USDA has provided over $4 billion to fund energy projects in rural and farming communities. 

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 added over $2 billion in funding for the program through Fiscal Year 2031. Post-IRA, over $1 billion in funds supported 6,822 projects from 2023 to 2025, contributing an estimated $2.75 billion to rural economic development.

Many Americans believe that the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the United States’ illegal bombing of Iran, and the United States’ disastrous proxy war with Russia in Ukraine are too far away to do anything about. These Americans, however, overlook the fact that most of the weapons and other military technologies used by Israel to massacre Palestinians, to commit war crimes against Iran, and to waste Ukrainian lives in a completely avoidable war are manufactured in their backyards. Americans do not need to travel to Gaza, Iran, or Ukraine to save innocent lives in those countries, they could interfere with the manufacture of weapons and other military technologies right here in the United States. On February 7, 2025, for example, the State Department approved a $6.75 billion sale of thousands of bombs and bomb guidance systems to Israel and reported that the sale will come “from principal contractors The Boeing Company, located in St.

The Ohio Coalition to End Qualified Immunity (OCTEQI) is advancing its historic citizen-led initiative to amend the Ohio State Constitution. After overcoming a prolonged series of administrative and legal battles, the campaign has now entered its critical statewide signature-gathering phase, aiming for placement on the November 3, 2026, general election ballot.​ The coalition is a unified effort of multiple civil rights and accountability organizations, led by the Heartbeat Movement Inc.​ The initiative’s Ballotpedia page can be viewed here.