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As the NATO Parliamentary Assembly sat for its spring session, hundreds of protestors representing a broad coalition of the peace movement, workers, and environmentalists demonstrated just on the other side of the perimeter to protest, loudly, against the continued expansion of NATOs imperialist mission.

Demonstrators gathered early Saturday morning on the grassy lawn of the Dayton public library, closed to the public for the day to accommodate the NATO meeting. Outside hundreds gathered to hear speeches from the coalition of organizations behind the protests, including Veterans for Peace, the Ohio Peace Council, the Ohio Nuclear Free Network, and the Communist Party USA.

Just next door, separated by 12 foot high portable security fencing and dozens of heavily armed police, representatives and staff of the 32 nation NATO alliance were contained within a multi-block security perimeter in the Oregon riverfront district of downtown Dayton. Windows of the hotels looked down over the day's festivities and the protesters just outside the walls.

Right now, Congress is working on a giant, fast-track bill that would make historic cuts to basic needs programs to finance another round of tax breaks for the wealthy and big corporations.

As the Communications and Policy Director for the Rural Democracy Initiative, I’ve been hearing from rural leaders across the country about the devastating impacts this bill would have.

The good news is it’s not too late. But there’s little time to spare.

This dangerous, unpopular bill would increase costs for rural working families by thousands of dollars per year, leaving millions hungry and without health care — all to provide tax breaks and handouts to the wealthy and special interests.

Here are just six of the worst provisions.

1. It guts rural healthcare.

Ohio is one of three states which allows the owners of private property to do as they please with human remains if dug up during construction on their property, according to the Ohio Archeological Council. Couple that with the construction boom across Central Ohio, and Ohio-based Native American activists are increasingly worried about the continuing desecration of their ancestors.

Cranes and construction equipment these days are seemingly everywhere in Columbus and surrounding counties. Rising out of the excavated dirt are apartments, roads, data centers, and everything in between. Just east of Columbus in Licking County – home to the Native American earthworks that became Ohio’s first World Heritage site – the “Silicon Heartland” is slowly being built by Intel and others.

TransOhio and Equality Ohio strongly condemn the decision by the Ohio Government Oversight and Reform Committee to reject public testimony submitted by both organizations and community members regarding harmful anti-transgender language proposed in the state budget: “It is the policy of the state of Ohio to recognize two sexes, male and female. These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”

“This testimony was submitted in accordance with all legislative rules, and it was explicitly relevant to language in the budget that aims to strip trans, nonbinary and intersex Ohioans of legal recognition,” said Dara Adkison, Executive Director, TransOhio. “Rejecting our public testimony is just another egregious attempt to silence trans voices and the voices of community members who respect our right to life, liberty, and happiness. This language has the potential to affect people receiving services from every agency in Ohio.”

House Minority Leader Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington and pictured above) today released the following statement after Wednesday’s Ballot Board meeting that advanced the Citizens for Property Tax Reform’s proposed constitutional amendment to abolish property taxes in Ohio:

“I think the effort to put this forward as a constitutional ballot amendment clearly demonstrates frustration by Ohioans on this issue. When the legislature doesn’t respond, the people usually step up – often through ballot initiatives. However, this particular initiative concerns me because while it eliminates the property tax, it doesn’t explain how we’ll replace the funds that support police, fire departments, public education, and other critical services,” said Leader Russo. “Democrats have been introducing bipartisan legislation for the last couple of General Assemblies to provide direct relief, but none have been prioritized by the Republican majority. It’s beyond time to provide direct property tax relief for Ohioans.” 

This week President Trump and his regime are welcoming Afrikaners - white South Africans who are part of an ethnic group that facilitated legal discriminatory violence against their Black and Indian counterparts for decades – into the U.S. as refugees. To many, it may seem odd – if not downright ridiculous – to classify full citizens of a first-world country in this way despite their having lived comfortable lives without the threat of persecution, war, or violence. Odd or not, it’s on-par with U.S. immigration policy since the eighteenth century.  

Dozens of activists for the rights of nature who traveled to the United Nations to participate in a high-level meeting were unexpectedly barred from speaking on April 22nd, Earth Day, due to a supposed “security breach.” 

The attendees, each of whom was personally invited by the Bolivian Foreign Minister, had previously been cleared by UN security personnel and issued access passes. Many had traveled thousands of miles — coming from Brazil, Poland, Canada, the UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Chile, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Colombia — to attend the meeting. 

Callie Veelenturf, a rights of nature advocate and Executive Director of The Leatherback Project, one of a handful of the attendees who was allowed to speak, observed during the meeting that the silencing was ordered by the President of the UN General Assembly. She also observed handwritten notes indicating that pressure from unnamed Republicans may have been involved in the last-minute cancellation.

They’re at it again. Despite a year and a half. Despite a half billion dollars. Despite record opposition to a similar bill, the Ohio General Assembly is once again pushing forward with its wet dream of legislatively killing last year’s Issue 2 that legalized adult use marijuana. So, what’s a seasoned activist to do? How about submitting written testimony to the Judiciary Committee, followed by reworking that same testimony into an article for the Columbus Free Press. Then, everyone can to see, hear, read, digest, and abhor the legislature’s total lack of understanding of what mandatory minimum sentencing means to sick, dying, and disabled patients.

President Biden left behind an economy that was pretty healthy, conventionally speaking. Unemployment was low and wages were rising, but stubbornly high costs of living opened a door for Donald Trump’s political comeback.

Exactly why has the City of Columbus and the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) removed large areas of tree canopy and brush from Columbus over the past several years? According to some homeowners and activists in Franklinton, ODOT accidentally let the cat out of the bag. Telling them during a meeting it was because “homeless live there.”

Other Franklinton homeowners refute ODOT’s slip-of-the-tongue explanation, saying there is no conspiracy against the unhoused, instead they contend ODOT lied during the meeting to conceal the truth. Which is that ODOT and its private contractors failed to follow their protocols due to incompetence and laziness.  

Nevertheless, in April of 2024, ODOT with help from local contractors, removed roughly six acres of trees and brush off the slopes of SR-315 and I-70 within Franklinton. Incidentally, ODOT’s contractors also at that time cut down $30,000 worth of City of Columbus trees planted on a city easement between city and ODOT property. Rosalie Hendon, Columbus’s City Forester, has requested ODOT pay to have them replaced.