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(Voter info below.) Before 2004, there was one way to vote in Ohio. You signed in on voting day, punched your ballot, saw it dropped into the ballot box, and walked away knowing you’d done your duty. Since then, a series of Republican moves to hamper voters countered by Democratic moves to help voters, has […]

Ohio Gerrymander #4 “This plan is the most grotesque partisan gerrymander that I, as a political scientist, have ever seen,” said Professor Richard Gunther of Ohio State University. Gunther was speaking of Ohio’s new congressional district map, created by Republican state officials to give their party 75% of the congressional seats*, while getting about 50% […]

Sixty years ago this week, the world’s first rock ‘n’ roll concert took place in Cleveland, the city that now houses the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.1 The concert was the creation of Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed, who called his radio show “The Moondog Show,” himself “The King of the Moondoggers,” and the […]

Almost cut my grass. It happened just the other day. It’s getting kind of long. I could’ve said it was in my way. But I didn’t, and I wonder why … Well, I did eventually cut my grass, but not till latter May. And it’s no wonder why — I’m slow to mow to start […]

On the last day of March, Ohio governor John Kasich signed the Republicans’ anti-democratic law, Senate Bill 5 (SB5). Soon after, a citizens alliance began using the state’s democratic public referendum law to repeal it.1 9 With 40-some clauses that weaken workers and their unions, SB5 practically cancels the public worker’s right to collective bargaining, […]