News

Homeowners rush to install solar

 Homeowners are rushing to install solar before the December 31st expiration of the 30 percent tax credit. 

The surge in consumer activity follows the passage of HR1 on July 4th of this year, and its elimination of the residential Investment Tax Credit (ITC) at the end of 2025. Homeowners have through December 31st, to have their systems installed to claim the 30 percent federal tax credit, which represents an average of $9,000 in savings on typical installations, according to EnergySage Intel data.

Overall, EnergySage saw a 59 percent month-over-month increase in registrations from potential customers from June to July and a 205 percent year-over-year increase in homeowners actively working with installers.

Solar installers are being dramatically impacted by the urgency to go solar. A recent survey conducted by EnergySage found that 35 percent of solar installers expect to stop taking new customers before October 1st, and around 9 percent indicated they have already reached capacity for 2025.

End Starvation. Divest Now

Residents of Ohio will hold a rally and press conference on Friday, August 22 at 11:30 AM outside the Ohio Statehouse to demand an end to the forced starvation in Gaza and Ohio’s investments in Israel Bonds and private affiliates.

● Gaza is facing mass starvation, and aid is being intentionally restricted
● Israel Bonds have dropped below investment grade—yet Ohio counties still buy
in
● Pending legislation (SB 87, HB 188) threatens to silence divestment campaigns
● Ohioans are saying

Friday, August 22, 2025 |
Rally begins 11:00 - 11:30 AM
Press Conference: 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Ohio Statehouse – 1 Capital Sq, Columbus

Speakers—including Gazans and those directly affected, veterans, lawyers, faith leaders, students, and healthcare workers—will call for divestment from entities
complicit in Gaza’s starvation and Israel’s war crimes.

The event follows rising public pressure on counties like Franklin for financially and ethically questionable investments in Israel.

This article first appeared on Ohio Capital Journal

Buried in a March executive order from President Donald Trump is a provision that could cast doubt on voting machines in Ohio and around the country. The order directs federal officials to amend a set of security benchmarks for voting machines.

Those standards, known as the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines, are indeed voluntary. But some states, including Ohio, require compliance with the most recent guidelines in state statute.

What: The Farce. The Fix. The Force. The * …

You support legalizing marijuana, aka cannabis, in Ohio. In fact, you have followed this issue for years. A few citizens you knew were putting the subject on the ballot. You signed their petition, confident that you understood its contents. Sufficient signatures and plentiful petitions placed the issue on the statewide ballot in November 2023 as Issue 2. You made sure your voter registration was current so you could participate in the early vote. After election day, you woke up happily to find that over 2 million other Ohioans voted just like you. Ohio legalized adult use cannabis. The new law went into effect on December 7. And Ohioans lived happily ever after … or not. You recently learned that Ohio legislators are trying to gut the new law. Your reaction? WTF!

WHAT: THE FRAMEWORK

Watch video here

People gathered for the "End the Genocide.  Stop the Starvation and Seige" protest at Schiller Park on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. The message was that Israel is trying to deflect global outrage by promising more aid, but we know the truth: starvation, blockade, and mass killing are not accidents. They are weapons of genocide. Even if trucks move tomorrow, this is not a solution.  It’s a PR cover for genocide and the the world must not look away. The protest stopped at US Rep. Mike Carey's house to bring the message directly to him.

We start with “America’s Mayor,” HEIDI LAMPERT of Waldport, Oregon.

We then meet the dastardly Jeffrey Epstein as presented by the great DR. BOB FITRAKIS, who broke the first stories about Epstein's financial roots in Central Ohio.

Long-time activist JOHN STEINER raises the specter of gerrymandering and how we must fight it.

KPFA mainstay DON GOLDMACHER raises the issue of re-districting California to match the gerrymandering in Texas and other warped “rotten boroughs.".

“Policy is the answer” says HEIDI V as she conjures a movement to defeat fascism.

From Texas we hear ALICE EMBREE fill in many of the blanks the Lone Star fight over the manipulation of who will control the US House.

Long-time writer/activist THORNE DREYER founder of “The Rag” in Houston & Austin’s best left radio station shows us his great new “Notes from the Underground.”

Energy expert KEVIN KAMPS confirms that the South Texas Nuke Plant did freeze in the big Lodestar Storm, resulting in dozens of deaths.

The Central Ohio Worker Center and the Ohio Federation of Teachers are co-hosting the first Central Ohio High School Collective Bargaining Day. At least ten unions and 45 students will come together for a day-long program to learn about unions and participate in a Collective Bargaining Simulation. The curriculum and materials for the program are provided by the DePaul University Labor Education Center, and the Northeast Ohio Worker Center has hosted a similar program the last two summers. Students will leave with hands-on experience negotiating a work contract, will learn about what rights they have as a worker, and will make personal connections with local union leadership. Columbus City Councilmember Rob Dorans will share opening remarks. Event registration is full. 

The quarterly meeting of the Franklin County Treasurer, Cheryl Brooks Sullivan, and the Investment Advisory Committee (IAC) took place last Thursday, July 24, 2025. This meeting of the IAC was the last quarterly meeting before the Treasurer is faced with the decision of whether or not to reinvest $2,500,000 of tax payer funds into Israel bonds set to mature on October 1, 2025. The first half of the meeting consisted of a presentation on the standing of the county’s portfolio, while the second half was dedicated to public comment.

Between deep Medicaid cuts and a ballooning budget for an increasingly fascistic Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the recently passed federal budget contained grim news for just about everyone in the country. While MAGA-land rejoices at the bill’s passage, recent climate-related disasters show that everyone will suffer under this “Big Beautiful Bill”. The legislation guts Joe Biden’s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), eliminating tax credits for renewable energy and electric vehicles — a move that will cost Ohio billions in investment and thousands of jobs. Even Trump’s most rabid white nationalist supporters will live in the hotter, more disaster-prone, and volatile climate system that this climate rollback will help to usher in — right along with the rest of us.

Six weeks into Columbus’s self-declared “Summer of Safety,” the headlines are bloodier than the branding suggests. Two youth-involved mass shootings. A spike in gun seizures from teens. Millions of dollars spent—and still, no public accounting of whether any of it is working.

Columbus officials announced a historic $28.2 million investment in youth violence prevention this year. Yet despite repeated public records requests, direct interviews, and community testimony, it remains unclear how much of that money has been disbursed, who it has helped, and whether it’s had any impact on the escalating violence.

In Spring 2025, Mayor Andrew Ginther and Public Safety Director Kate McSweeney-Pishotti announced Columbus would allocate $28.2 million in federal and local funds for youth-focused summer programming. The stated goal: curb youth violence by investing in prevention, jobs, recreation, and mentorship.

“We have 112 programs that are receiving some level of funding, whether it be $5,000 or $500,000,” said McSweeney-Pishotti, in a July 10 interview with ABC6/FOX28 Columbus.