Top of Mind

Looking for Love, Finding Federal Charges

If dating apps weren’t already bleak enough, Ohio has now delivered a fresh reminder that sometimes “hey beautiful” is less a pickup line and more the opening act of a felony.

Two Ohio men have now been sentenced or pleaded guilty in separate romance-fraud schemes that drained millions from victims across the country, many of them elderly, grieving, or simply lonely enough to believe the person on the other side of the screen actually meant it when they said, “I can’t wait to build a life with you.”

Edward Amankwah, a 45-year-old from Westerville, pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder nearly $4.3 million through online romance scams. According to federal prosecutors, he and his co-conspirators created fake dating profiles, built emotional relationships with victims, and then started asking for money. In total, the broader group laundered nearly $12 million. Because apparently catfishing is no longer just about fake abs and old photos. Now it comes with international wire transfers.

The stories from the victims are brutal. One person sent $131,400 to someone pretending to be a military member who needed money to retire early. Another transferred $70,000 to a supposed mine owner in China to help with operating expenses. Which is a sentence that should raise alarms immediately, but that is the thing about scams like this. They do not work because people are stupid. They work because people are emotionally invested, and by the time the story stops making sense, the damage is already done.

Amankwah has agreed to pay about $4.9 million in restitution and faces up to 20 years in prison.

Then there is Richard Opoku Agyemang, a 41-year-old Cincinnati man who was sentenced in March to 41 months in prison for his role in a separate romance scam that caused more than $2 million in losses. Prosecutors said victims were tricked through fake profiles using stolen photos and false identities, then manipulated into sending money for made-up emergencies like medical bills. Agyemang laundered the proceeds through accounts he controlled, sending money across the U.S. and overseas.

The victims in that case were reportedly elderly or recently bereaved. Some maxed out credit cards. Some sold homes and cars. Some drained 401(k)s and life insurance policies. Which takes this story from “internet scam” to something much uglier: a business model built around identifying people at their most vulnerable and treating their trust like an ATM.

Agyemang was also ordered to pay nearly $1.4 million in restitution to identified victims, plus more than $20,000 to the Small Business Administration for fraudulently obtaining COVID relief funds. So yes, he allegedly folded pandemic loan fraud into a romance scam, just in case the résumé needed another line item.

There is something especially grim about these cases because they do not just steal money. They steal time, trust, and whatever fragile hope someone had left that another person might actually care about them. That is the real damage. The money matters. But so does the humiliation, the isolation, and the fact that many victims now have to live with the memory of being emotionally dismantled by someone who never existed in the first place.

Modern dating is hard enough without having to wonder whether the love of your life is actually a money-laundering operation in Westerville.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: What is the most Popular Dating App in Ohio

A. Hinge
B. Bumble
C. Christian Mingle
D. Tinder

Ohio House Passes Bill Targeting Public Drag Performances

The Ohio House has passed House Bill 249, legislation that would ban certain drag performances from taking place in public and open the door to misdemeanor and felony charges tied to performances in front of minors. The bill now heads to the Ohio Senate, where lawmakers are devoting more time to policing gender expression than addressing the everyday costs that are actually squeezing most Ohioans.

Supporters insist the bill is about protecting children from obscene performances. That is the sales pitch. The actual language is broader and far murkier. HB 249 would prohibit “adult cabaret performances” outside adult cabarets, then expands that definition to include performers who present a gender identity different from their sex assigned at birth using clothing, makeup, prosthetics, imitation body parts, or other physical markers.

The legislation lumps drag performers in with topless dancers, strippers, go-go dancers, and exotic dancers, while carving out an exception for legitimate film, theater, or artistic performances that are not obscene or harmful to juveniles. Which sounds reassuring until you remember vague carve-outs are usually where panic, confusion, and selective enforcement go to thrive.

That uncertainty is the point critics keep hammering. Not because the bill clearly defines every possible violation, but because it does not. It leaves performers, venues, businesses, and community groups trying to guess where the line is, who gets targeted, and whether hosting anything remotely gender-nonconforming is worth the legal risk. The punishment ranges from a first-degree misdemeanor if a performance happens in front of a juvenile, to felony charges if it is deemed obscene. That is a lot of criminal exposure built on language that still seems designed to make people squint.

Democrats said exactly what this looks like: another culture war bill dressed up as child protection. Rep. Dontavius Jarrells called it an attack on transgender and gender-nonconforming people. Rep. Beryl Brown Piccolantonio said it does nothing to make Ohio safer, but could absolutely cost the state money, chill economic activity, and scare already vulnerable people further into the shadows. Even beyond the civil rights concerns, there is the practical issue that businesses and event organizers may simply decide Ohio is not worth the hassle.

And that is before the lawsuits start. Similar laws in other states have already been blocked in court as unconstitutional restrictions on free speech and expression. So if this bill becomes law, Ohio could be spending taxpayer money defending legislation that was shaky from the start. House Speaker Matt Huffman says the bill is constitutional, though he also admitted it will almost certainly end up in court. Which is a fun way of saying: we know this will be expensive and messy, but onward.

At its core, this bill is not really about obscenity. Ohio already has laws dealing with obscenity. This is about who gets to exist comfortably in public, who gets labeled dangerous for how they dress, and which performances lawmakers find acceptable when children are nearby. And for a legislature that keeps insisting it is focused on serious issues, it is spending a remarkable amount of time worrying about drag queens.

Ohio’s Prison Drug Pipeline Came With Drones, Dead Birds, and DoorDash Energy

Turns out the future of crime in Ohio is not particularly elegant. It is a guy in the woods with a Facebook Marketplace drone, a bag of fentanyl, and just enough confidence to believe he had invented prison DoorDash.

That is essentially what happened in Ohio in 2021, when Cory Sutphin joined a drug-smuggling ring that used drones to deliver contraband directly into state prisons. Cell phones, fentanyl, meth, Suboxone, pills, all of it flown over prison walls and dropped into recreation yards, onto rooftops, and in at least one case, straight to an open cell window, where a hand reached out and grabbed the package like it was a late-night takeout order.

Sutphin, now serving nearly five years at Chillicothe Correctional Institution, said he started as a driver and quickly realized the money was absurd. One early trip to the prisons in Chillicothe brought him $1,200 for less than three hours of work. So naturally, instead of seeing that as a warning sign, he quit his welding job and leaned in. Over about seven months, he says he made roughly $100,000. Child support, divorce lawyer, expensive nights at the bar, Jordans, gold chains. You know, the classic financial planning portfolio.

And this was not amateur hour. Sutphin taught himself to fly drones, scoped out launch points using Google Maps, and kept dozens of backup drones ready to go in a spare bedroom in case one crashed. He said he got past prison drone detection systems about half the time. When the packages needed camouflage, the crew got creative. Drugs were stuffed into empty chip bags so they looked like litter in the yard. One package was disguised using a dead bird carcass, because apparently someone in this operation watched one too many heist movies and thought, yes, this is the move.

Another drop involved a fishing line and sinker attached to a package left on a prison rooftop, so the recipient could pull it down the side of the building, which is both inventive and deeply embarrassing for everyone involved.

The broader ring fed a black market inside Ohio prisons that did real damage. These were not harmless side hustles. The drugs fueled addiction, violence, and chaos inside facilities already filled with people trying, at least theoretically, to survive incarceration and maybe even come out better. Sutphin said he used to think the whole thing was victimless. Prisoners wanted drugs; he brought them drugs, end of story. But now, from inside, he gets to watch the consequences up close: people lying to family members for money, inmates incapacitated while high, bodies convulsing, drooling, unable to move. A front-row seat to the destruction he helped build.

Investigators finally caught a break in May 2021, when a Phantom 4 drone crashed inside Toledo Correctional Institution. Along with phones, fentanyl, and Suboxone, it carried a micro SD card with practice footage showing a bearded man flying the drone in a neighborhood while children played nearby. That led police to Robert Faulkner of Columbus, and from there, the whole operation began to unravel.

Troopers traced phone calls, checked prison lines, mapped cell data, reviewed Amazon deliveries, pulled trash, installed GPS trackers, and matched fingerprints and DNA from confiscated packages to Sutphin, Faulkner, and Charles Gibbs. From May to October, investigators tied the group to 11 intercepted drone drops at five state prisons. Sutphin claims that was only a fraction of the actual number. He estimated there were closer to 100 to 120 drops, with 50 to 70 successful deliveries across eight or nine prisons.

So yes, Ohio had an airborne prison drug network operating at scale, and it was apparently being held together by burner phones, electrical tape, and the kind of decision-making that only makes sense if you are already high.

When police raided Faulkner’s house in November 2021, they found more than $319,000 worth of illegal drugs, along with weapons, cell phones, and drones. Altogether, the case produced more than 100 felony charges. All three men took plea deals. Sutphin got four years and 11 months. Faulkner got 15 years. Gibbs got 10.

Now Sutphin says what he did was “stupid and foolish,” which feels like a strong understatement for a man who once took his children on a road trip to pick up pounds of fentanyl and meth, while stopping for ice cream along the way to keep things fun.

There is something very Ohio about this story. Not the drones, necessarily. The improvisation. The bleakness. The fact that modern technology somehow made prison drug trafficking more efficient than public transit. It is a story about easy money, addiction, stupidity, and the way people convince themselves they are just getting by while making life worse for everyone around them.

The most depressing part is not even how elaborate the scheme became. It is how casual it all sounds in retrospect. A drone here, a package there, a dead bird, a bag of drugs, a prison yard, repeat. Like any other delivery business, just with a much darker customer base and a slightly higher chance of ending in a felony indictment.

D) Tinder and the Demographics for tinder in Ohio is 61% men and 39% woman…

Top of Mind

Wintersville: The Tiny Ohio Town That Accidentally Won the Weed Economy

There are a lot of places you’d expect to dominate Ohio’s recreational marijuana market.

Columbus, maybe. Cleveland, obviously. Cincinnati, if it could stop arguing with Northern Kentucky for five minutes.

But Wintersville?

No offense to Wintersville, a village of fewer than 3,700 people tucked near the Ohio River, but this is not exactly the kind of place you expect to become one of the hottest cannabis markets in the state. And yet, since recreational marijuana sales began in Ohio in August 2024, this tiny Jefferson County village has quietly turned itself into a full-blown marijuana boomtown.

That’s right. While bigger cities were busy being bigger cities, Wintersville was out here doing what every good small town hero does: minding its business, staying weirdly efficient, and making an obscene amount of money off people crossing state lines for gummies.

The setup is almost too perfect. Wintersville sits near both West Virginia and Pennsylvania, two neighboring states where recreational marijuana is still illegal. So now, people from Pittsburgh, the West Virginia panhandle, and beyond are making the pilgrimage to this otherwise quiet village to stock up on vapes, tinctures, flower, and edibles like it’s some kind of green-tinted retail oasis.

And the numbers are absurd.

Wintersville’s two dispensaries have sold more marijuana than Cleveland, a city with roughly 100 times the population. They are outselling Akron too, because apparently population density matters less than geographic luck and a nearby border full of people who would also enjoy legally purchasing a gummy bear that makes laundry feel profound. Wintersville now ranks seventh among more than 100 Ohio local governments that are home to dispensaries.

This is the part where the underdog movie music swells.

Because Wintersville is not some flashy growth machine. It’s an old mill town. The population has declined for decades. Like many Appalachian-adjacent communities, it has spent years watching the industries that once sustained places like this shrink, move, or disappear entirely. And now, in one of the strangest economic plot twists Ohio has produced in recent memory, weed is helping write the comeback story.

Since August 2024, the village’s share of state marijuana tax revenue has totaled about $1 million. For context, that is an enormous amount of money for a place this size. Local officials are now talking about using it to create a perpetual investment fund to support infrastructure and future community projects. In other words, while half of Ohio is still debating whether legal weed is morally acceptable, Wintersville is over here trying to fund sidewalks and water lines with it.

A true public servant knows opportunity when he sees it.

And yes, this story gets even more Ohio.

Before becoming mayor, Mike Petrella actually started one of the village’s first dispensaries. Later, he sold it to Greenlight, a Missouri-based company. So naturally, the man helping steer Wintersville’s marijuana-fueled civic future is also someone who helped build its cannabis economy in the first place. In any other state, this would sound like the pilot episode of a prestige drama. In Ohio, it is just called local government.

To be fair, Wintersville didn’t do this through hype. There are no flashy brand campaigns here, no neon “green rush” nonsense, no self-important speeches about disruption. In fact, local officials say the dispensaries are quiet, secure, and rarely cause problems. Calls for service are rare. The village administrator described them as some of the most secure places in town. Which is honestly beautiful. The accidental hero of this story is not chaos. It is competence.

And that might be the most surprising part of all.

For years, marijuana opponents sold the public on visions of disorder, danger, and moral collapse. But in Wintersville, the dispensaries are not blowing up the community. They are helping fund it. They are bringing in outside money, supporting local revenue, and creating a tax stream that may eventually outpace the village’s income tax collections. Not bad for a product half the state used to talk about like it was satanic oregano.

Of course, there is still tension in the background. Transporting marijuana across state lines remains illegal under federal law, even if enforcement is murky. And local leaders are nervous the state could eventually change how tax revenue is distributed, because nothing says Ohio governance like finally finding a revenue stream that works and then immediately worrying the statehouse will snatch it back.

But for now, Wintersville is winning.

This little village, with its hometown-heart slogan and old-school Ohio bones, has become one of the most successful marijuana markets in the state not because it reinvented itself into something trendy, but because it happened to be in exactly the right place when the laws changed and had just enough vision not to waste the moment.

And honestly, that is a very Scarlet Letter kind of hero.

Not polished. Not glamorous. Not the place anyone would have picked.

Just a tiny river town quietly smoking the competition

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: The first major rock 'n' roll concert and generally considered the world's first rock concert, was the Moondog Coronation Ball in Ohio in what year?

A. March 21st, 1952
B. February 18th, 1949
C. April 29th, 1898
D. June 3rd, 1969

Columbus Has a Billion-Dollar Music Economy, and We’re Still Acting Like It’s a Side Hobby

Columbus loves to call itself a growing city. A city on the rise. A city of momentum, cranes, and endless presentations about the future.

And according to a new economic impact study from Music Columbus, one of the things already helping carry that future is music. Not in a cute, “support your local band” way. In a real-money, real-jobs, real-tax-revenue way.

The study found that Columbus’ music economy, including the local music industry and music-influenced tourism, generated more than $1.3 billion in output, nearly $800 million in value added, $380 million in earnings, and 9,244 jobs in 2024. It also estimates the city realized about $5.6 million in tax revenue from that activity.

Which is a nice reminder that music is not just a vibe. It is payroll.

For years, Columbus has treated music like a bonus feature. We talk about development, jobs, sports, tech, housing, logistics, and then somewhere near the bottom of the brochure it says, “also, there are concerts.” But this report makes clear that venues, artists, festivals, studios, promoters, and the spending around them are already functioning like a serious economic engine.

A lot of that money is coming from people who do not even live here.

The study estimates that music-influenced tourism alone accounted for $840.5 million of the total impact and supported 6,263 jobs. It also found that 5.1% of Columbus tourism spending, or about $418.3 million, was attributable to music, including more than $161 million in lodging, $101 million in food and beverage, and $60 million in entertainment and recreation spending.

So yes, that out-of-towner in a black band tee spending too much money in the Short North is technically participating in economic development.

The study’s bigger point is that Columbus has been underselling this for years. Music is woven into the city’s identity, but it is still oddly muted in the way Columbus markets itself. The report notes that while Experience Columbus does include live music on its website, the city still does not treat music as a central pillar of its tourism brand. That is pretty incredible for a city that loves branding itself as innovative, creative, and culturally alive.

And here is the catch.

The report argues that Columbus is largely a city of audiences and artists, not a major music production hub like Nashville. It compares the city more to Austin, where live music demand drives the ecosystem. But it also says what local musicians already know: Columbus is not yet deep enough to support lots of full-time artists. Local musicians on average derive only about one-fifth of their income from music, and 68% of census respondents work another job outside music.

In other words, Columbus loves live music. Columbus does not always love paying the people who make it.

That tension runs through the whole study. On the strength side, Columbus has major venues, festivals, affordability, a young population, and a strong audience base. On the weakness side, the report cites a lack of leadership unity, weak business and government support, no central event calendar, a “sports-first mentality,” and an “identity crisis” around music.

“Sports-first mentality” might be one of the most Columbus phrases ever written.

Because of course this city has spent years acting like the only sounds that matter are marching bands, goal horns, and 100,000 people pretending a noon kickoff is a spiritual experience. Meanwhile, music has been quietly filling hotels, feeding bars and restaurants, supporting jobs, and making the city more attractive to the same young professionals every economic development person claims they want. The report explicitly says music matters for talent attraction and retention in a modern economy.

The recommendations are straightforward.

The study says Columbus should launch a real music-focused visitor marketing campaign, create a branded music and entertainment district, and invest in Music Columbus or a similar organization so someone actually has the resources to execute a long-term strategy.

It also estimates that for every additional percentage point of tourist activity tied to music, Columbus could generate another $168 million in annual economic impact and support more than 1,250 jobs.

That is the sort of number cities usually pretend to care about very deeply.

There is even a built-in funding angle. The report notes that arts and culture tax sources are expected to generate $24.6 million for the arts in 2025, up from $22 million in 2024, and suggests some of that growth could help support a stronger music strategy.

So this is not really a story about whether Columbus likes music. Obviously it does.

It is a story about whether Columbus is finally ready to treat music like infrastructure instead of decoration. Like industry instead of ambiance. Like a real part of the city’s economic future instead of something nice to mention after the serious stuff.

Because the punchline here is that Columbus has spent years trying to become a more interesting, competitive city, and one of the best tools for doing that has been playing onstage the whole time.

And now there is a report politely telling us the band has already started.

We should probably stop standing in the lobby.

Gambling Awareness Month

March is Problem Gambling Awareness Month and here in Ohio, nearly 1 in 5 adults are considered at-risk for problem gambling – that’s about 1. 8 million people around the state of Ohio. Unfortunately, young adults are among the fastest-growing groups that are seeking help, especially since sports betting options have expanded over the past two years. “March Madness can be a perfect storm for problem gambling,” said Derek Longmeier, executive director of the Problem Gambling Network of Ohio. “There are dozens of games, constant betting opportunities and what starts as fun can escalate quickly into a problem.” Longmeier also noted the rise of and lack of regulation of prediction markets – where instead of stocks or products, you buy a guess about the future – can add even more challenges for people trying to navigate that fine line between entertainment and gambling harm. The good news is that Ohio has several great resources for people who are worried about their gambling or betting or those of a loved one, they can visit Pause Before You Play or call Ohio’s Problem Gambling Helpline. Trained and understanding specialists will answer 24/7 at 1-800-589-9966 or text 988.

A) March 21st 1952

Top of Mind

Ohio State’s Latest Leadership Seminar: How to Resign in Under a Week

It was quite a week at Ohio State University, if your favorite genre is institutional panic with a side of board-approved embarrassment.

In the span of just a few days, Ohio State held a board meeting with President Ted Carter, learned he had been carrying on an “inappropriate relationship” with someone seeking public resources for her personal business, accepted his resignation, launched an investigation, and then promoted Provost Ravi Bellamkonda to the top job. Efficient, if nothing else.

For a university that loves to market itself as a global model of excellence, this was less “best damn university in the land” and more “HR emergency with a marching band.”

Carter resigned on March 9, a little more than two years into the job, after disclosing to the board that he had, in the university’s words, an inappropriate relationship with someone seeking state support for her business. In his statement to the campus community, Carter said he “made a mistake in allowing inappropriate access to Ohio State leadership,” which is one way to describe a scandal that detonated so fast the board went from glowing performance reviews to presidential replacement in what felt like the length of a long weekend.

And let’s pause there for a moment. In August 2025, the same board gave Carter rave reviews, a 4.5% merit raise, and a bonus worth nearly $400,000. Seven months later, they were meeting on a Saturday to figure out how to usher him out the door. That is not a leadership transition. That is a fire drill in scarlet and gray.

The details only got messier from there. JobsOhio said it believes the situation may be connected to Carter’s relationship with Krisanthe Vlachos, host of The Callout Podcast, a veterans-focused show Carter appeared on multiple times and was even listed on as a cohost. JobsOhio had paid $60,000 to sponsor a four-episode pilot series, though only one episode was actually completed. By the next day, the state’s private economic development arm was publicly trying to claw the money back, which is never exactly the sign of a clean and healthy arrangement.

So, to recap: Ohio State’s president resigns over an inappropriate relationship tied to a person seeking public resources, JobsOhio gets pulled into the orbit, tens of thousands of sponsorship dollars are suddenly in question, and the university has to speed-run a presidential succession before the week is over. Just a normal, stable stretch for one of the largest public universities in the country.

And if you’ve followed Ohio State long enough, this all feels depressingly on brand. This is a university that can build a national football empire, launch billion-dollar initiatives, and brand every square inch of human existence in Block O, but somehow still cannot stop turning the president’s office into a two-year stress position. Carter himself had only been in the role since January 2024, after Kristina Johnson’s own short and messy tenure. At this point, the most unstable thing on campus may not be the administration’s politics or priorities, but the actual presidency.

Which is saying something, because Carter’s tenure was not exactly quiet. Under his watch, Ohio State dismantled DEI programming under pressure from the state, established the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture and Society to address so-called liberal bias, and cracked down on student protests over the war in Gaza. Critics on campus blasted his leadership as top-down, repressive, and unaccountable. Supporters could point to athletic success and strategic planning. But no amount of football glory or polished administrative language changes the fact that he left under a cloud of scandal, with the university once again forced into damage-control mode.

And now it’s Ravi Bellamkonda’s turn.

Ohio State moved quickly to elevate the provost, because when your house is on fire, the first thing you do is find the nearest person already holding a clipboard. Maybe Bellamkonda brings stability. Maybe he lasts longer than the last two presidents. Maybe Ohio State finally gets a leader whose tenure is defined by something other than political pressure, internal drama, or abrupt resignation.

But for now, the takeaway is simple: at one of the richest and most powerful institutions in the state, the adults in the room once again managed to make leadership look like a frat house problem with better salaries.

Ohio State may still know how to win championships.

Running the university is apparently another matter.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: This has nothing to do with the Letter but how much a big mac (just the sandwich) in 2008

A. $4.50
B. $2.87
C. $3.57
D. $5.25

Ohio’s Economic Development Strategy Has Apparently Expanded to Include Bigfoot

While Ohio State was busy speed-running a presidential scandal, northeast Ohio was dealing with a different leadership crisis: multiple people claimed to see Bigfoot stomping around Portage and Trumbull counties like he was on a regional listening tour.

Over the course of just a few days in early March, witnesses in places like Mantua, Garrettsville, Windham, and Newton Township reported seeing huge upright creatures, usually described the same way: dark hair, long arms, somewhere between 7 and 10 feet tall, and making deep grunting noises in the woods. Which, to be fair, is also how some people describe men at Buffalo Wild Wings during March Madness.

According to Jeremiah Byron of the Bigfoot Society podcast, this may be what enthusiasts call a “flap,” which is a sudden cluster of Sasquatch sightings in a short period of time. And if that sounds fake, please know that “flap” is a real term in cryptid culture, which means there are people who have spent enough time discussing Bigfoot to develop industry language.

What makes this especially rich is that the current setup is only a few years old. Voters The stories are, admittedly, incredible. One witness in Mantua claimed to see a 9-foot-tall Sasquatch in broad daylight. Another reported hearing deep footsteps and “vibrating grunts” before spotting an 8-foot figure moving between trees. In Garrettsville, hikers described a black-haired creature with broad shoulders, long arms, a musky odor, and a grunt so dramatic it sounds like Ohio’s forests are now doing immersive theater. In Newton Township, one man said his German Shepherd completely lost it after a large black shadow crashed through the woods behind his home at 4 a.m.

No physical evidence has turned up yet. No clear photos. No video. No tuft of hair. No giant footprint that can survive more than one news cycle. Law enforcement agencies also said they have not received much in the way of formal reports, which is probably for the best, because there is no quicker way to test a dispatcher’s patience than calling 911 to report a suspiciously enormous woodland gentleman.

Still, the legend persists because Ohio is an ideal place for this kind of thing. We are a state full of woods, fields, weird little towns, and just enough regional melancholy to make “what if there’s an 8-foot ape-man out there” feel almost plausible. This is also the same state that has given us the Loveland Frog, the Melon Heads, Orange Eyes, and enough ghost stories to fill a Buc-ee’s parking lot. Bigfoot is not an outlier here. He is part of the brand portfolio.

And maybe that is the real charm of the whole thing. In a state constantly trying to sell itself through business incentives, sports, Intel chips, and carefully scripted growth language, there is something refreshing about Ohio still being, at heart, a place where several people can look into the woods and say, with total sincerity, “I know what I saw, but I don’t know what I saw.”

That may not be science. But it is very Ohio.

Columbus Will Gather This Summer to Celebrate the Pickle, a Food We Have Somehow Turned Into a Lifestyle.

Columbus has hosted a lot of festivals over the years. Arts festivals. Jazz festivals. Beer festivals. Taco festivals. Mac and cheese festivals. Entire weekends dedicated to standing in the sun while paying $14 for something served in a paper boat.

So naturally, the next step in our civic evolution is Pickle Palooza.

On June 27, Huntington Park will host the national pickle-themed food and drink festival, which is exactly what it sounds like: an evening dedicated to pickle-inspired food, craft beverages, live music, games, and what can only be assumed will be a deeply unsettling number of adults willingly competing in pickle-eating contests in public.

The event is being produced by Outlier Events, the group behind other traveling food spectacles like Mac and Cheese Fest, Taco & Tequila, and Donut & Beer. Which means they have correctly identified the modern American business model: take one ingredient, add alcohol, a DJ, and VIP tickets, and watch people sprint toward it like it’s cultural enrichment.

And honestly, they may not be wrong. Organizers say the first Pickle Palooza in Grand Rapids sold out in just three hours, which means there is either enormous untapped demand for pickle-based entertainment, or the Midwest has finally become too powerful.

Columbus attendees can expect pickle-themed food from local vendors, including fried pickles, pickle pizza, and surely several other menu items invented by someone who looked at a cucumber in brine and thought, let’s see how far we can push this. Drinks will include beer, cider, cocktails, and nonalcoholic options, all sampled through tokens that come with admission, because no festival experience is complete until you are doing beverage math with a commemorative lanyard around your neck.

There will also be live music, a DJ set, and games, because apparently eating pickles at a baseball stadium now requires the atmosphere of a bachelorette party and the logistics of a county fair.

And yet, this makes perfect sense for Columbus. We are a city that loves an event. We love a theme. We love a food item elevated just enough to become an outing. We are spiritually the kind of place that sees “pickle festival at Huntington Park” and says yes, that feels right, that feels like summer, that feels like something I will absolutely complain about paying for and then attend anyway.

So if you have ever wanted to spend a warm June evening surrounded by brined enthusiasm, competitively crunchy energy, and the kind of crowd that treats a tasting cup as a personality trait, Columbus will soon have your moment.

The pickle’s time has come.

And apparently, it came with platinum admission.

C) 3.57 I was on the phone with my buddy writing the letter, and we were guessing the price, so I thought it would be fun for the letter.

Top of Mind

Frank LaRose Just Sent 8 Million Ohioans’ Voter Data to the DOJ, Because Apparently That Felt Like a Great Idea

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose has now handed the U.S. Department of Justice a copy of the state’s voter registration database, meaning the personal information tied to nearly 8 million Ohio voters is no longer just sitting in Columbus. According to reporting and public statements, the data shared included names, addresses, dates of birth, driver’s license or state ID numbers, and the last four digits of Social Security numbers. Because when people register to vote, they naturally assume that information might someday get gift-wrapped and shipped off to Washington in the name of “election integrity.”

LaRose says Ohio was simply complying with a federal request as the Trump administration pushes states to turn over detailed voter records. That broader effort has already sparked alarm across the country, and not just from the usual partisan corners. Federal judges in California, Michigan, and Oregon have all recently rejected similar DOJ attempts to force states to hand over unredacted voter data, with courts questioning both the legal basis for the requests and the privacy risks involved. One federal judge warned that centralizing this kind of information could chill voter registration altogether, which feels like the sort of thing you might want to think about before uploading half the state’s personal data into the national bloodstream.

Critics in Ohio are calling the move exactly what it looks like: reckless. State Rep. Allison Russo said Ohioans deserve confidence that the private information they provide to participate in democracy will actually stay protected. That confidence is, at best, wobbling. And it is not hard to see why. If you told the average voter that signing up to cast a ballot might also mean their identifying data gets handed to a federal administration openly obsessed with voter fraud mythology and citizenship crackdowns, they might reasonably decide democracy sounds like too much paperwork and not enough privacy.

The official defense is that the DOJ promised to use the records only for legitimate governmental purposes and that data protections are in place. Wonderful. We are apparently doing government now on the honor system. This is the same federal push that has raised concerns in multiple states that voter data could be repurposed for immigration enforcement or other political fishing expeditions. Ohio, meanwhile, did not wait to be dragged into court. We just opened the door and offered the whole file cabinet.

And that is really the part worth sitting with. Voting is supposed to be one of the most basic acts of citizenship in a democracy. It should not come with the creeping suspicion that your personal information is being passed around like a legislative casserole. Ohio likes to brag that it is the “gold standard” of election administration. But if the gold standard now means handing over sensitive voter data because the DOJ asked nicely, then maybe the bar is not gold. Maybe it is just lying on the floor. 

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: Which city smokes the most weed in Ohio?

A. Columbus
B. Cleveland
C. Cincinati
D. Akron

Districts

Columbus spent years congratulating itself for finally creating council districts, only to end up with a system where the people in a district can still get outvoted by people who do not live there. Which is how District 7 voters chose Jesse Vogel, and Columbus as a whole chose Tiara Ross instead. If that sounds less like representation and more like a group project designed by committee, you are not alone. That outcome has now helped spark two separate efforts to change how City Council elections work before voters head back to the ballot in November.

Both proposals go after the same basic problem: Columbus calls these “districts,” but under the current system, every voter in the city gets a say in every district race. So the Hilltop can help pick Downtown’s representative, Downtown can help pick Linden’s, and everyone gets to pretend this is normal. One proposal from the coalition Our City Our Say would keep the current map for now and simply move Columbus to a true ward-style system where only residents of each district vote for their own council member. A separate proposal led by Jonathan Beard would do that too, but it would also redraw the map entirely, arguing the current lines undercut Black political power and fail to create enough majority-minority districts.

And that is where this stops being a simple good-government cleanup and turns into a very Columbus fight. On one side is the argument that the most obvious fix is the clean one: let each district choose its own representative and worry about redistricting after the 2030 census. On the other is the argument that if the map itself is flawed, then locking it in for four more years just preserves a different kind of dysfunction, especially for Black Columbus. In other words, Columbus may be on the verge of having two ballot campaigns built around the same basic message: this system is broken, we just disagree on whether to fix the engine first or the steering.

What makes this especially rich is that the current setup is only a few years old. Voters approved the city-backed hybrid system in 2018, it went into effect in 2023, and already people are trying to rip it back open because reality had the nerve to test the theory. Turns out residents do not love being told they have district representation when their district’s preferred candidate can still lose to the larger city machine. A shocking development, apparently, for anyone who has ever met a voter.

At the heart of this is a very basic question Columbus has not fully answered: what are districts actually for? If they are just branding, a nice way to make City Council look more neighborhood-friendly while keeping citywide power dynamics intact, then the current system is working exactly as designed. But if districts are supposed to mean local accountability, actual neighborhood representation, and council members who answer first to the people they live among, then this whole thing has been a civic costume from the start. November may give voters the chance to decide whether they want real districts, new districts, or just another round of Columbus making democracy more complicated than it needs to be. 

Ohio Said Yes to Weed. Now It’s Getting Weird About the Drinks.

Just when Ohio finally figured out how to let adults buy weed without acting like the sky was falling, the state has found a new hobby: going to war with THC seltzers. Two Cincinnati breweries, Fifty West and Urban Artifact, are now suing Ohio over Senate Bill 56, arguing that Gov. Mike DeWine used his veto pen to turn what lawmakers passed as a temporary sales window into an outright ban on hemp-derived THC drinks. In other words, the legislature handed the industry a runway, and the governor came in with scissors.

The dispute is not over whether Ohio wanted rules. It is over whether DeWine rewrote the law on the fly. According to the lawsuit filed in the Ohio Supreme Court, the enrolled version of SB 56 would have allowed hemp beverages, defined there as drinkable cannabinoid products, to be manufactured, distributed, and sold in Ohio through December 31, 2026, with products sold in-state capped at up to five milligrams of total THC per serving. The plaintiffs argue DeWine’s line-item veto erased that carveout and flipped the bill from regulation into prohibition.

And yes, this matters beyond a few trendy cans in brewery coolers. Starting March 20, 2026, hemp products with more than 0.4 milligrams of THC per container can only be sold in licensed Ohio dispensaries, which means the corner market, bottle shop, brewery, and bar lose access to a product category that has been one of the few bright spots in an alcohol industry that has spent the last few years getting body-slammed by shifting consumer habits. Court filings say the ban threatens millions of dollars in losses, layoffs, and, in some cases, existential harm to the businesses involved.

DeWine’s side says this is just good policy. His administration has argued that allowing THC drinks to stay on shelves through most of 2026 would confuse consumers and clash with a broader crackdown on intoxicating hemp. Ohio Senate Republicans have echoed that line, saying the law is about oversight, accountability, and ending the sale of unregulated intoxicating hemp outside licensed dispensaries. Which is a very polished way of saying Ohio looked at a product people were buying legally and decided the only place you should get it now is somewhere with much harsher barriers to entry.

There is also a referendum effort brewing in the background, because apparently one court fight was not enough. Opponents of SB 56 have been gathering signatures to put the law on hold and let voters decide its fate in November. If that effort succeeds, the law gets paused. If it fails, the restrictions move forward in late March. So Ohio consumers may soon learn whether their THC drink is a regulated product, a political football, or just another thing the state managed to make dramatically more complicated than necessary.

And that is the real Ohio magic here. Voters approved legal marijuana in 2023. Businesses built products around the state’s hemp gray zone. Lawmakers wrote one thing. The governor trimmed it into something else. Now breweries are in court, advocates are chasing signatures, and consumers are left standing in the beverage aisle wondering why a state that finally entered the 21st century on cannabis is suddenly acting like a cherry-lime THC seltzer is a threat to civilization. 

A) Columbus: $4.7 million, Cincinnati: $2.5 million, Dayton: $1.2 million, Canton: $1.1 million, Akron: $877,000, Cleveland: $803,000

Top of Mind

Compost Me, Columbus

Ohio has two official exit strategies right now: burial or cremation. Very traditional. Very “choose your fighter.” But a state senator is trying to add a third option that sounds like a campfire story your weird uncle tells at Thanksgiving: human composting.

Senate Bill 323, introduced by Sen. Louis Blessing III (R-Colerain Township), would legalize natural organic reduction, aka “terramation,” aka “turn me into dirt, respectfully.” The process uses a specialized vessel to speed up decomposition into soil in about a month. Families can keep the soil, or donate it for conservation work, because nothing says “legacy” like becoming a small but meaningful contribution to reforestation.

Blessing’s pitch is basically: this is a personal choice, it’s already legal in 14 states, and Ohio’s funeral laws are stuck in an era when “innovation” meant a nicer casket handle. The bill wouldn’t force anyone to do it or require any town to build a facility. It would just set rules for licensing and operation, and yes, it includes the very Ohio sentence: facilities must be kept “clean and sanitary,” and humans and animals have to be reduced in separate chambers. (We cannot believe we have to clarify that either, but welcome to legislation.)

A human-composting company called Earth Funeral told lawmakers they’ve already heard from 2,000+ Ohioans who want this option, and that families are currently having to drive bodies across state lines to fulfill final wishes. The estimated cost is $5,000 to $7,000, which puts it right in the same “expensive but somehow still cheaper than a full funeral” zone as everything else related to dying.

The Catholic Conference of Ohio reportedly has concerns, tied to beliefs about keeping remains whole, which is fair. Meanwhile, the rest of us are just trying to process the reality that the state is debating whether your final form should be urn, box, or bag of premium garden soil.

Anyway, if you’ve ever wanted to haunt your enemies as a ficus, Ohio might be getting you closer.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: How many countries are competing in this years Arnold Festival

A. 80
B. 102
C. 96
D. 37

The Arnold: Columbus’s Annual Invasion of Biceps and Hotel Bookings

The Arnold Classic: Columbus’s Annual Reminder That Humans Can Be Forklifts

Every March, Columbus hosts the Arnold Sports Festival, which is basically what happens when you combine the Olympics, a bodybuilding show, and a Costco sample aisle, then drop it all inside the Convention Center and say “good luck.” It’s loud, crowded, and full of people who look like they were carved out of granite.

Here’s the part that always surprises outsiders: this whole thing is deeply Columbus.

Arnold’s relationship with Central Ohio traces back to 1970, when he competed here and later called that contest “the most important event of my life,” because it was the first time he beat Sergio Oliva on neutral ground. From that trip, he built a friendship (and eventually a business partnership) with Worthington’s Jim Lorimer, and the handshake logic was simple: keep bringing big bodybuilding to Columbus, then eventually build a Columbus-based event that became the Arnold.

Now it’s not just bodybuilding. It’s a full-on sports festival with competitors and fans pouring in from everywhere.

How big are we talking?

• 105,000 attendees came through in 2025, with visitors from all 50 states and 80+ countries, according to Experience Columbus.

• The event is expected to generate around $15.6 million in direct visitor spending (that is, money spent by visitors in the local economy).

• It’s also a hotel monster. Reporting around the event has cited 8,400+ hotel rooms booked for the weekend.

• On the “this is why restaurants love it” front: Experience Columbus pegged the 2024 festival at $16 million in direct spending and anticipated 100,000+ people in town.

And that’s the Arnold as a single event. The really funny part is how it lands in the city calendar like a wrecking ball.

In early 2025, Columbus hosted the Arnold the same weekend as the NHL Stadium Series at Ohio Stadium, and Experience Columbus said the two events combined for nearly $40 million in direct visitor spending in that first-quarter window. Axios framed it as a roughly $35 million weekend overall, with the Arnold contributing the familiar $15.6 million chunk of that.

What makes it feel even bigger than the numbers

• The Arnold is not just “come watch something.” It’s also “come buy something.” The Arnold Expo has been known to hit 1,000+ vendor booths in recent years, according to the Convention Center’s own event notes.

• The official Arnold site describes the 2026 expo as “hundreds of booths” and positions it as the heart of the weekend.

• If you ever wonder why downtown feels like it’s running at 1.5x speed that weekend, it’s because you’re not just hosting spectators. You’re hosting competitors, coaches, vendors, brands, and entire friend groups who think “vacation” means “bulk creatine and a posing oil budget.”

So yes, Columbus gets its annual economic boost, its annual congestion headache, and its annual reminder that somewhere inside the Convention Center there is a person warming up to lift something that should legally require a forklift.

And outside, the Arnold statue just stands there… quietly judging your posture and your choices.

Bogey Inn: The Dublin Golf Fantasy That Got Sent to the Rough

Remember that big Rise Brands plan to turn the old Bogey Inn site in Dublin into a shiny, golf-themed entertainment campus? The one with the renderings, the optimism, and the implied promise that Memorial Tournament week would become an even bigger carnival?

Yeah. That plan is dead.

Rise Brands has scrapped the redevelopment concept for the property at 6013 Glick Road, pulling the plug on a proposed 3-acre entertainment destination that was supposed to include indoor and outdoor bars, live entertainment, food options, and a 36-hole putting course (27 outdoor holes + 9 covered holes), plus a covered bar.

And the biggest plot twist: it wasn’t killed by a lack of imagination. It was killed by math and logistics.

The company’s new CEO, Hana Hesselgesser (who stepped into the role in January 2026), told The Dispatch the project simply wasn’t feasible at that location. The issue wasn’t demand, or branding, or “people don’t like fun anymore.” It was the unsexy stuff: significant site-related hurdles, including the fact that the property spans multiple municipal jurisdictions, which turned “let’s build a campus” into “let’s spend a great deal of time and money trying to make the land itself cooperate.”

That’s the part worth underlining: Rise didn’t just shrug and walk away. They apparently burned real time and cash trying to finalize site improvements, then finally looked at their business model and said, “Not here.”

Which is a very grown-up move, and also extremely disappointing for anyone who enjoys the idea of Dublin becoming a year-round festival of putting, patio beers, and Memorial Tournament overflow energy.

Because this was supposed to be timed perfectly. Rise’s plan had the redeveloped site opening during the 2026 Memorial Tournament in June, leaning into the location’s proximity to Muirfield Village and the property’s history as a Memorial week party spot.

So what now?

Officially: Rise says they’re no longer moving forward with the golf concept at that particular location, and the future of the site is unclear. Hesselgesser did say she’s still excited about bringing a golf-related concept into the Rise Brands family somewhere else, so this might not be the end of “Rise does golf,” just the end of “Rise does golf here.”

In other words, the Bogey Inn didn’t get revived. It got value-engineered out of existence by zoning gravity.

And if you’ve ever wondered what Columbus-area development looks like in 2026, it’s that: everyone has a dream, then the site says, “Cool. Now do it across three jurisdictions.”

A. 80! The Olympics have 96 countries that compete!

Top of Mind

Milano Cortina Is Here, And Ohio State Women’s Hockey Has Been Building To This!

The Winter Olympics are underway in Milano Cortina, and Ohio’s biggest footprint is exactly where you’d expect it: women’s hockey.

Ohio State has five current players in the tournament, plus a deep list of alumni spread across multiple national teams. It’s a reflection of what the program has become under coach Nadine “Muzzy” Muzerall: a place that consistently produces the kind of players who end up on Olympic rosters, not just highlight reels.

The Buckeyes on the Olympic ice

Current Ohio State players

• Joy Dunne, United States
  

• Sanni Vanhanen, Finland (2022 bronze medalist)
  

• Hilda Svensson, Sweden
  

• Jenna Raunio, Sweden
  

• Mira Jungåker, Sweden
  

Ohio State alumni

• Cayla Barnes, United States (gold 2018, silver 2022)
  

• Hannah Bilka, United States
  

• Jenn Gardiner, Canada
  

• Sophie Jaques, Canada
  

• Emma Maltais, Canada (gold 2022)
  

• Natalie Spooner, Canada (four-time Olympian)
  

• Andrea Brändli, Switzerland
  

Joy Dunne’s Olympic moment

One of the best storylines in the group is Joy Dunne, who put “The Olympics” on paper as a third-grader and is now living it as a 20-year-old on Team USA.

She’s the points leader and an assistant captain for one of the nation’s top programs, a finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, and part of Ohio State’s 2024 national title run. Her coach wasn’t surprised. Dunne’s family is full of high-level hockey players, and Muzerall has known her since she was 10.

Dunne’s reaction to making the team was simple and honest: overwhelmed, emotional, grateful, grounded.

A program built for this stage

Ohio State women’s hockey has had an Olympian at every Winter Games since women’s hockey became an Olympic sport in 1998. This year’s group is a high-water mark: a single-Games program record for Olympic representation, with Muzerall having coached most of them.

The on-ice dominance is real. Under Muzerall, the Buckeyes have won two national titles (2022, 2024), reached six Frozen Fours, and built a culture players consistently describe the same way: demanding, supportive, and relentlessly competitive.

And yes, they’re doing it in the classroom too

Ohio State’s women’s hockey program has also been one of the most consistent academic performers on campus. The team has won the Varsity O academic award for a large roster team four years running, and the five current Olympians carry a combined 3.8 GPA. It’s not a throwaway detail. The program standard is clear: elite on the ice, serious about the rest.

When to watch

Tomorrow (Feb. 19): Women’s Hockey Gold Medal Game — 1:10 p.m. ET (USA Network, Peacock)
The bronze medal game is at 8:40 a.m. ET.

If you want, I can tighten this one even further into a clean, newsletter-ready block (same info, fewer lines) or add a short kicker that tees up your next story.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: Where is the oldest curling club in Ohio with dedicated Ice

A. Troy
B. Bowling Green
C. Warrensville Heights
D. West Chester

Your Local Olympics: Columbus Curling Club

to bring that energy back to Earth, without buying a single piece of expensive outerwear you’ll wear twice.

The Columbus Curling Club has been around since October 2004, and it’s one of the few places in Ohio with dedicated curling ice. It’s social, surprisingly strategic, and perfect for this exact moment when everyone is already watching the sport and saying, “Wait… I get it now.”

Learn to Curl: Feb. 15–28

The club is running Learn-to-Curl sessions Feb. 15–28, built for beginners. You’ll learn how the game works, get coached through the basics, and actually play. It’s a great winter activity because it’s active, it’s indoors, and it comes with instant camaraderie.

Late Night Special: Weeknights (Mon–Thu) 8:30 p.m., starting Feb. 18, are $40 for Learn-to-Curl.

One of only four dedicated curling clubs in Ohio

Dedicated curling clubs are rare. Columbus is one of four in the state, alongside Mayfield, Cincinnati, and Bowling Green.

Group option, if you want to bring people

They also offer corporate and daytime outings: 2 hours on the ice with instruction, plus 30 minutes in the warm room afterward for hanging out (extra time can be added).

If you’re looking for one very seasonally correct thing to do while the Olympics are still fresh, this is it.

Goodwill Is Moving Into Big Lots’ Old Spot (And Making It Big)

Westerville is getting a new Goodwill this spring, and it’s taking over a very specific kind of Ohio real estate: the former Big Lots building at 60 E. Schrock Rd.

This one is retail-only and clocks in at 13,000+ square feet, which will make it Goodwill Columbus’s largest retail store to date.

Goodwill says a public grand opening celebration is coming with the usual lineup: prizes, giveaways, music, and more details “in the coming weeks.”

Why they’re doing it (besides the obvious: we all love a deal)

Goodwill Columbus has been in expansion mode, with this becoming the fourth opening since 2023, following locations including Clintonville and Brice Road.

And the bigger point behind the stores: Goodwill Columbus says it has served more than 100,000 individuals since 2020, hitting a goal they originally set for 2030 five years early.

A quick clarification Westerville will ask immediately

This new Schrock Road location is Goodwill Columbus, and it’s separate from the Marion Goodwill Industries store on Northgate Way.

Why this is a very time-appropriate activity

It’s winter, it’s thrift season, and a new, bigger Goodwill means more aisles for the sport we all pretend we’re above but absolutely are not: finding something absurdly useful for $6 and acting like we discovered it in Paris.

(Grand opening date pending. Your spring plans may now include “Schrock Road.”)

Enemy No. 1 Returns: Ohio Just Put The Whole State Under Lanternfly Quarantine

The spotted lanternfly has officially reached the “we’re not messing around anymore” stage.

As of Feb. 17, 2026, the Ohio Department of Agriculture issued a statewide quarantine across all 88 counties, expanding what used to be an 18-county quarantine.

What a statewide quarantine actually means

This is not a “nobody can leave the state” situation. It’s a “certain stuff can’t leave the state without paperwork” situation.

Under the quarantine, regulated items like trees and nursery stock cannot be moved out of Ohio unless they’re covered by a compliance agreement, permit, or inspection certificate showing they are free of spotted lanternfly.

Translation: if you ship plant materials for work, business, or agriculture, Ohio wants you checking loads so we do not export this problem to someone else.

Why the state cares

Spotted lanternflies feed on a lot of plants, but officials keep circling back to the same big concerns: grapes and vineyards, plus other agriculture and specialty crops.

They also love the tree-of-heaven, which is itself invasive and basically serves as the lanternfly’s favorite hangout.

C. Warrensville Heights opened its doors in 1962…the oldest in the USA, is Milwaukee Curling Club, which opened in 1845

Top of Mind

Springfield is bracing, and it deserves better than guesswork

Springfield is heading into February with a lot of families holding their breath.

Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status designation is set to end at 11:59 p.m. local time on Feb. 3, which could strip legal work and residency protections from thousands of Haitian residents who built lives here legally under the program.

What comes next is the part that is keeping people up at night: local officials have heard talk of a possible U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation beginning as soon as Feb. 4, potentially lasting weeks, but the reporting is consistent on one point. Nothing has been confirmed, and details are thin.

And that uncertainty is not a minor inconvenience. It is destabilizing. When a city is asked to stay calm while also being told a major federal enforcement action could arrive with little notice, the result is fear, rumor, and people making contingency plans for scenarios no one will even put in writing.

City leaders are trying to do the basics: keep the community steady, coordinate with schools and partners, and reduce the risk of confusion. The city passed a resolution requesting that federal officers remain identifiable, faces uncovered, and credentials visible, after past incidents involving masked people who were not ICE. They cannot force it. They are asking anyway, because residents should not have to guess who is showing up at their door.

Even Mike DeWine has called the TPS change a mistake, pointing to Haiti’s conditions and the real fallout for Ohio communities, including families with U.S.-citizen kids.

And if you want to understand why nearby cities are reacting too, look at Dayton. Businesses and residents joined a national day of action protesting ICE operations and the broader climate around enforcement. It is not “politics” to people on the ground. It is neighbors trying to protect neighbors.

If you’re in Columbus, Dayton, or anywhere else in Ohio watching this unfold, here’s the simple truth: Springfield is not a headline; it’s a community. Thousands of Haitian families moved there legally, found work, enrolled kids in school, opened businesses, joined churches, and helped keep the city running. That’s not “a situation.” That’s your neighbors.

So standing with Springfield can look like the basics: don’t spread unverified rumors, amplify confirmed updates from the city and trusted local reporting, and support the local groups doing real work on the ground. And if federal enforcement does arrive, the message should be clear: we can disagree about policy without treating families like collateral damage.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: How many animals are at the Columbus Zoo

A. Over 10,000
B. Over 5,000
C. Over 20,000
D. Over 15,000

Meet the best Ohio State coach you may not know

At Ohio State, coaching greatness is usually reserved for people with headsets, laminated play sheets, and the ability to say “establish the run” with a straight face.

So let’s commit a small act of campus rebellion and talk about Nadine Muzerall, the most dominant coach in Columbus, you probably do not hear enough about. While the rest of the state argues about spring games and punters, she has been turning Ohio State women’s hockey into a national problem since 2016.

When Muzerall arrived, Ohio State had never made the NCAA tournament. Since then, the Buckeyes have stacked conference titles, lived in the Frozen Four, and won two national championships. Not “competitive.” Not “on the rise.” Actual hardware.

And this is where it gets hard to ignore, even if you have never watched a full period of hockey. This winter, five current Buckeyes are headed to the 2026 Winter Olympics, representing three countries. That is not a fun fact. That is a pipeline.

The Olympian pipeline is not a metaphor

Here’s the current roster heading to Italy:

• Joy Dunne (USA)

• Sanni Vanhanen (Finland)

• Hilda Svensson (Sweden)

• Jenna Raunio (Sweden)

• Mira Jungåker (Sweden)

And it’s not just them. Ohio State says twelve current and former Buckeyes will compete in the 2026 Games. Twelve. That’s not “a couple alumni made it.” That’s “Ohio State is basically running a national team annex.”

How she does it

Muzerall’s whole deal is demanding excellence without losing the human part. Tough love, yes. Also real investment. She’s the kind of coach who will back you publicly, coach you brutally, and then make sure you have what you need to actually get better.

The details matter. She stays in close contact with national team staff, takes feedback, and turns it into specific training plans. Not vibes. Not speeches. Actual development. The result is players who improve fast, play with edge, and show up ready for the highest level.

She even brought in a Navy SEAL to work on mental toughness, because apparently the only thing harder than college hockey is convincing your brain not to melt under pressure.

Ohio State has plenty of elite programs, but women’s hockey might be the cleanest example of what a modern powerhouse looks like when it’s built on purpose. Recruiting reach, player development, a defined culture, and results that show up in championships and Olympic rosters.

It’s also just objectively wild that one of the most dominant runs in the entire athletic department is happening on ice, and half the city still couldn’t name the coach.

So here’s your reminder: if you like winning, if you like Ohio State, or if you just enjoy excellence without 300 callers debating “heart,” women’s hockey is right there. And Nadine Muzerall is the reason.

Pizza Boxes, Super Bowl, and Your Cardboard Problem

More than 12 million pizzas get ordered on **Super Bowl Sunday, which means your group chat is about to do what it always does: spend $84 on food, watch commercials, and generate a small mountain of cardboard.

To keep at least some of those boxes out of the Franklin County Sanitary Landfill, SWACO is teaming up with dozens of local pizzerias to slap tens of thousands of reminder stickers on carryout boxes, because cardboard is one of the biggest items we throw away, even though it’s wildly recyclable.

If you needed a sign to recycle your pizza box after the game, congrats. It’s literally going to be stuck to the lid.

https://www.swaco.org/m/newsflash/home/detail/380

Columbus Zoo vs. The Cold That Wont Leave

While the rest of us were doing the annual Central Ohio winter routine (complain, scrape windshield, pretend we “like seasons”), the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium has been running a full-on animal wellness operation behind the scenes.

According to WSYX, the zoo stocked up on extra food and medicine, had a backup generator ready to keep heating systems online, and generally acted like a place responsible for thousands of living creatures instead of just a fun Saturday plan.

Some animals got upgraded to “nope, you live inside now.” The zebras and donkeys were locked in during the cold stretch.

The flamingos, meanwhile, are receiving the kind of spa treatment most of us cannot even get with insurance. Keepers are using Epsom salt foot baths to protect their legs and feet because for long-legged birds, one bad injury can turn into a serious problem.

And then there’s Bubba, the 79-year-old Aldabra tortoise, who apparently has “tortoise snugglers.” Volunteers trained to hang out with him and Sonny in the colder months, talk to them, and even play music. Columbus really is a city where someone’s dream job is soothing an elderly tortoise with a playlist, and honestly, good for them.

The zoo says the animals are doing fine, even with a water main break on Friday that did not affect them. The zoo is set to reopen Monday after a ten-day weather closure, its longest outside the pandemic.

Trivia Answer

A. Over 10,000 isnt that incredible

Top of Mind

Operation Buckeye Is Not Public Safety

The Scarlet Letter does not fuck with ICE. We do not support ICE’s actions here. Not the scale, not the tactics, not the fear it injects into neighborhoods that already carry enough stress without federal agents turning daily life into a scavenger hunt for survival.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, more than 280 people in central Ohio were detained in a single week, Dec. 16 to 21, during what ICE called Operation Buckeye. Local advocates and service providers say the fallout has been immediate and brutal: people not coming home, cars found abandoned, frantic calls to legal offices from spouses trying to figure out where someone was taken and what happens next.

The Ohio Immigrant Alliance reported that at least 214 people were arrested and in detention as of Dec. 24, and said the real number is likely higher. They also found that 93% were men and 80% appeared to be Latino. If you are looking for the part where this feels “targeted” and “precise,” keep looking.

ICE has tried to frame the operation as a crackdown on people with serious criminal backgrounds, listing a handful of examples in a release. But what they have not done, at least publicly, is answer the most basic question: how many of the 280+ people detained actually had criminal records. Without that, the messaging reads less like public safety and more like PR.

Meanwhile, the people on the ground in Columbus are describing something else entirely. Attorneys and immigration service workers say they saw a sudden spike in “ICE reports,” including traffic stops and detentions that left families scrambling. Some clients are now afraid to go to routine ICE check-ins, even though missing them can make things worse. Some parents have stopped sending their children to school. Not because they do not value education, but because they are terrified that a normal day could end with a family separated.

Then there is the detention piece, where the story gets even darker. An analysis from advocates said 137 detainees were taken to Butler County Jail, with others sent to facilities around the state. Butler County Jail has been flagged for overcrowding, with reported population numbers far above recommended capacity. People detained there have reported packed cells and inadequate conditions. This is not a “process.” It is a pressure cooker.

And if you want the simplest version of why we reject this kind of operation, it is this: when enforcement depends on fear, it stops being about safety and starts being about power. You do not build trust by making people scared to drive to work, pick up their kids, or answer the door.

Columbus deserves better than a policy that treats entire communities like collateral damage. Ohio deserves better than “Operation Buckeye” as a brand name for human misery. And if local leaders say this makes the community less safe, we are inclined to believe the people who actually live here.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: This snow sucks. How many days till spring

A. 100
B. 52
C. 68
D. 10

Why Cars Hit Buildings in Columbus, Ohio

Mezcla is going to be closed for a minute. . .

Why Does this Happen

If it feels like cars are crashing into Columbus buildings at an alarming rate — that’s because they are. So far this year, 37 vehicles have made surprise entries into Central Ohio storefronts, porches, living rooms, and lobbies, blurring the line between traffic pattern and demolition derby. It’s become such a recurring spectacle that you half expect to see “Drive-Thru Closed” signs at coffee shops without drive-thrus. But here’s the kicker: that number might only scratch the surface.

Instagram post

Does this happen elsewhere?! YES.

In April 2022 The Storefront Safety Council completed an exchange of data and methodologies with an arm of Lloyd’s of London, the largest insurance market in the world. Lloyd’s found that their data was valid and credible and that their collection methodology gave them such high confidence that their collection of data concerning vehicle-into-building / storefront crashes should be used by researchers and risk managers as “source data” given the lack of any other available data sets involving private property accidents in the United States.

Lloyd’s concluded in their remarks that the data, as complete as it is, reflects only a fraction of the total of storefront crashes that occur every single day: At the most conservative, it appears that the SSC database captures 1 in 12 incidents (8.33%)

Storefront crashes occur more than 100 times daily, and if we are only tracking 8%, that means the problem is actually WAY bigger than we thought…

So what now? Well, unless every building in Columbus suddenly installs bollards and barriers like a presidential motorcade route, we’re left relying on better data, better planning, and the occasional miracle. The Storefront Safety Council may be tracking the tip of the iceberg, but the real fix will require more than spreadsheets. Until then, if you're opening a business in Central Ohio, maybe skip the corner unit and ask your insurance rep about “vehicular incursion coverage.” It's apparently... a thing.

Columbus Ended 2025 With Its Lowest Homicide Total In Nearly 20 Years

Columbus ended 2025 with a rare headline that actually deserves to be said out loud: the city recorded 81 homicides, the lowest total since around 2007, according to city leaders. That does not mean the work is done, but it does mean something moved in the right direction, and for a city that has carried heavy years lately, that matters.

Mayor Andrew Ginther and Police Chief Elaine Bryant also pointed to something families want almost as much as prevention: answers. Bryant said detectives solved 69 homicide cases from 2025 and cleared 30 more from previous years, which is a meaningful sign that more people are being held accountable and more families are getting closure than they were before.

There are other indicators moving the right way too. Bryant said felonious assaults are down by about 500 cases over two years, and city leaders credited stronger community cooperation, including a record number of tips coming in to help investigations.

And the city is leaning into what seems to be working. Leaders highlighted an 18-month pilot program in South Linden and Milo-Grogan that treated non-fatal shootings with the same focus as homicides. Police said they solved about 75% of those non-fatal shooting cases in the pilot area, compared to roughly 46% of non-fatal shootings typically being solved, and the program is expected to expand in 2026.

Now, the hard truth that belongs in the same paragraph as the progress: domestic violence homicides remain a major exception to the overall decline. Ginther said the city is “not going in the right direction” on that front, and he framed it as a community issue that cannot be solved by police alone.

That is the glass-half-full version too, even if it is painful: the city is identifying the problem clearly, saying it plainly, and acknowledging that it will take more than enforcement to fix it. If Columbus can reduce violence in one area, it can put that same focus, funding, and coordination into the places where danger hides behind closed doors.

So yes, take the win. Columbus earned it. Then take the lesson: progress is real, but it has to be shared by everyone, everywhere, including at home.

Trivia Answer

B. 52 days till spring.

P.S. Sorry for the lack of pictures; there isn't a lot of room for funny gifs when it comes to these subjects.

Signing Off

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why, right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”

MLK Day is a reminder that this wasn’t just a beautiful sentiment; it was a strategy. In a world that feels louder, harsher, and more allergic to nuance by the day, his point still lands: truth does not need a weapon to win, and love is not soft when it is disciplined. If we’re going to honor him, it can’t just be with quotes and a day off. It has to be with the kind of courage that stays human, even when it would be easier to be cruel.

Top of Mind

Why We Call It “Gubernatorial” (And Why It Sounds Like A Victorian Illness)

As Ohio heads into a governor’s race in 2026, you are about to hear the word “gubernatorial” said with the confidence of someone who also uses “aforementioned” in a text message. It is one of those political words that feels like it was invented specifically so insiders can sound like they have a lanyard. And yes, it is objectively weird that we get from governor to gubernatorial instead of the very normal-sounding “governatorial,” which is a word that looks right, sounds right, and would save all of us from this spelling situation.

Here’s what happened.

“Governor” came into English through French back in the 1300s, basically meaning what it means now: a person responsible for governing something. But English, being English, later circled back during the Renaissance and borrowed from Latin too, because nothing says “intellectual glow-up” like grabbing the same concept twice in different outfits. The Latin form gubernator (governor) did not really stick around as a common noun in English, but its adjective form did. That is how we ended up with gubernatorial.

Now here’s the part that makes the word slightly less ugly and way more interesting.

The Latin gubernator traces back to Greek roots tied to steering a ship, specifically the idea of a helmsman, someone literally holding the wheel and keeping things pointed in the right direction. That metaphor is so perfect it almost feels unfair. Because if you have ever watched Ohio politics for more than ten minutes, you know the state is basically a large vessel where everyone is yelling directions from the deck while somebody tries to steer through fog.

Even better, that same Greek root is connected to cybernetics, the study of systems, control, and feedback loops. So every time a talking head says “the gubernatorial race,” they are accidentally referencing ancient ship navigation and the science of controlling complex systems.

Which is honestly the most accurate description of governing I have heard in years. Also, the word has enemies. A lot of them.

The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage reportedly calls “gubernatorial” stilted and suggests writing “the race for governor” or “the campaign for governor” instead. Which is a very New York Times thing to say, because yes, it is stilted, but also, have you met political people?

Stilted is their love language. And if you think the dislike is modern, it is not. There is a long tradition of people complaining about “gubernatorial,” as if it personally ruined their day. Even serious language writers have taken shots at it over the years, because it sounds pompous even when used correctly. So why do we keep it? Because it is useful. It is the single-word adjective that headlines and election nerds can slap onto anything: gubernatorial debate, gubernatorial field, gubernatorial fundraising, gubernatorial chaos. And, as some editors will tell you, it is sometimes genuinely shorter and cleaner than repeatedly writing “race for governor,” especially when space is tight.

Now, the practical part: Ohio’s primary is May 5, 2026, and the general election is November 3, 2026. If you live in Columbus, that means the next year is going to be full of state-level decisions that land directly on your doorstep, whether the topic is schools, housing, transit, jobs, or whatever fresh policy idea shows up wearing a “common sense” hoodie.

So yes, we are going to cover the governor’s race heavily. And we are going to do it in plain English whenever possible. But every once in a while, we are absolutely going to say “gubernatorial,” because it is election season and we deserve one silly word that also secretly means “the person steering the ship.”

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: How many governors has Ohio had?

A) 70
B) 60
C) 80
D) 50

COSI’s New Exhibit: Executive Compensation

COSI just laid off 15% of its staff this month, citing attendance and funding changes.

Which is a bleak sentence for a place that basically runs on school field trips, sticky fingers, and the annual tradition of parents realizing “membership is cheaper than leaving the house in January.”

And yet, if you want to understand what’s been happening inside our beloved science museum over the last few years, you don’t need a microscope. You need a calculator.

COSI’s nonprofit tax filings (under its legal name, the Franklin County Historical Society) show a financial roller coaster:

• 2020: net income of -$2.6M
  

• 2021: net income of +$6.1M
  

• 2023: net income of +$524K
  

• 2024: net income of -$1.35M

So yes, “turbulent” is fair. But here’s where it gets spicy (or, in COSI terms, where the chemical reaction starts bubbling).

In 2020, COSI reported $481,951 in “Executive Compensation” and $6,415,925 in “Other Salaries and Wages.” That means exec comp was about 7% of payroll (exec comp divided by exec comp + other wages).
pushing exec comp to about 10.6% of payroll.

By 2024, executive compensation was reported at $1,770,443 with $9,517,658 in other wages, making exec comp about 15.7% of payroll.

That is a real trend. And it lands differently when the same institution is simultaneously telling the public it had to cut jobs.

Then there’s CEO compensation.

COSI’s filings list Frederic M. Bertley at:

• $292,978 in 2020
  

• $378,966 in 2021
  

• $427,476 in 2023
  

• $484,142 in 2024

So while the museum’s finances went from “pandemic disaster” to “temporary comeback” to “back in the red,” the CEO line kept doing what it does best: trending up and to the right.

Also, Bertley is not just running COSI. He’s listed as the CEO of the National Veterans Memorial and Museum too. Which is impressive, if you’re into the “two CEO titles at once” lifestyle. The rest of us are still trying to answer emails before lunch.

None of this is to say COSI is evil. It’s to say that when a family museum starts laying people off while executive pay becomes a bigger slice of the payroll pie, people are going to ask questions. And if the goal is to inspire curiosity, congratulations, mission accomplished.

Want the real hands-on experience? Open the filings, and start poking around.

FYR Turns Up The Heat In The Short North

Columbus restaurants love a “new menu” announcement. Usually, it means two new apps and a cocktail with rosemary on fire.

FYR Short North actually did the thing.

Inside the Hilton Downtown at 402 N. High St., FYR rolled out a reworked menu built around wood-fire cooking, with a heavy lean into Ohio-sourced ingredients and seasonal flavors.

What’s new

The highlights are basically a greatest-hits list for anyone who enjoys dinner with a little drama:

• Wood-oven crab cake

• Wagyu Royale with citrus-fed Australian Wagyu and Ohio Raclette

• Ora King salmon

• Local vegetables

• Bone marrow whipped potatoes, which feel like a dare

They’re also running a dry-aging program for meats with bourbon basting, because FYR would like your steak to taste like it has a personal brand.

New chef, same obsession with fire

The menu is led by Executive Chef Zachery Warn, a 25-year veteran with time in Napa and Vegas kitchens. His pitch is simple: respect the ingredient, then cook it like it owes you money.

Dessert and cocktails got the memo

Dessert and drinks keep the theme going:

• Build-your-own banana split
  

• Basque cheesecake with toasted meringue and smoke chocolate ganache
  

• Martinis made with fire-roasted ingredients

If you go

Open 4 to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday, and 4 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Bottom line: if you want a downtown dinner that feels like an event without being stiff, FYR is making a case.

Brutus Pulled A Heist In Orlando And Got Away With It

If you were worried Ohio State might go a full week without winning something, relax. Brutus Buckeye is a national champion again.

On January 17, Brutus took first place in the Division IA Mascot competition at the 2026 UCA & UDA College Cheerleading and Dance Team National Championship at ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando. It’s his first mascot national title since 2019, which is both a fun stat and a reminder that time moves faster than you think, especially when your main hobby is watching a large nut do backflips.

Here’s the part most people don’t realize: mascots don’t just show up, wave, and accidentally knock over a kid’s nachos. To even make nationals, schools submit an entry video, get scored out of 100, and only the top 10 get invited to perform live. That video score makes up half of the final score, so yes, there is an entire serious judging system devoted to costumed chaos. This year, Brutus’ video came in fourth, behind a stack of heavy hitters, including Minnesota’s Goldy Gopher.

Then came the live performance, a 90-second skit written by the spirit squad and coaches. The theme: bank heist, with Brutus on a mission to steal the championship ring. Because if you’re going to compete for a national title in mascot division, you might as well commit to a plot that sounds like a direct-to-streaming action movie called Fast and Furriest.

Ohio State’s head mascot coach Ray Sharp gave the most important reminder in all of this: there’s a whole support team behind Brutus, and they put a ridiculous amount of time into getting this right. Which makes sense. The margin between “national champion” and “guy in a suit doing the worm” is apparently a lot of practice, props, choreography, and crowd work.

Final standings in Division IA Mascot looked like this:

1. Ohio State, Brutus Buckeye

2. Minnesota, Goldy Gopher

3. Tennessee, Smokey

4. Cincinnati, Cincy Bearcat

5. Auburn, Aubie the Tiger

6. Wisconsin, Bucky Badger

7. Alabama, Big Al

8. Penn State, Nittany Lion

9. Oklahoma, Boomer

10. Texas, Hook Em

So yes, Columbus can officially brag about another national title, and this one came from a giant nut committing a staged felony in Florida. If that isn’t the perfect summary of college sports culture, nothing is.

Trivia Answer:

A) 70 Gubernatorial

Top of Mind

Columbus’ Somali community just got dragged into Washington’s latest “temporary” decision

If you live in Columbus, you know the Somali community is not some abstract talking point. It’s your neighbor at Kroger, your kid’s classmate’s parent, the owner of the café you swear you “need to try soon,” and the reason half of Northland has better food than your group chat deserves.

This week, that community got a very real jolt: the Trump administration is ending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Somalia, with an effective deadline of March 17, 2026 (11:59 p.m. local time).

First, what TPS actually is (because the internet is bad at definitions)

TPS is a temporary humanitarian protection the U.S. can grant to people from countries deemed unsafe to return to due to armed conflict, disasters, or extraordinary conditions. It can allow people to live and work here legally while it’s in effect, but it is not a green card and it is not citizenship. It’s basically the government saying: “You can stay for now, but don’t unpack emotionally.”

Somalia has been designated for TPS since 1991, and it has been repeatedly extended for decades.

What changed

DHS and USCIS announced the Somalia TPS designation is being terminated, saying Somalia is no longer experiencing an “ongoing armed conflict” nationwide, describing it instead as “localized pockets of violence,” and raising concerns about vetting and documentation capacity.

The timeline matters: TPS for Somalia had been extended into March 17, 2026, and this move is essentially the administration saying it will not extend it again.

How many people are affected (and why the numbers are already messy)

Nationally, the numbers floating around vary depending on the source:

• USCIS data cited in reporting indicates 2,471 Somali nationals currently hold TPS, with 1,383 applications pending.
  

• Other reporting cites a smaller estimate of current beneficiaries (around 705) based on a different dataset (CRS).
  

What we do not have yet is a clean public answer to: How many people in Ohio are currently under TPS for Somalia? (Because why would the federal government ever make it easy to understand who it is about to disrupt.)

Why Columbus is paying attention

Columbus is widely cited as home to the second-largest Somali community in the U.S., often estimated around 60,000 people.

But here’s the key detail that gets lost when cable news discovers Ohio exists: Most Somali immigrants in the U.S. are naturalized citizens. Which means this TPS change does not suddenly apply to the entire community, even if it absolutely cranks up fear for everyone adjacent to it.

Governor Mike DeWine, when asked about the broader “Somali fraud” narratives bouncing around online, made the rare move of stating the obvious like it’s a principle: if you are a U.S. citizen, you are a U.S. citizen.

The part people are going to confuse on purpose

TPS ending does not mean “every Somali person gets deported.” It means people who only have TPS (and no other status) could lose work authorization and protection from deportation after the deadline, unless they’ve transitioned to another legal status.

It also means families get thrown into the blender of paperwork, legal fees, employer uncertainty, and “what do we do next” panic. In a city where Somali-owned businesses and community institutions are woven into daily life, that anxiety does not stay neatly contained to a policy memo.

So what now

If you’re reading this and thinking, “Ok but what does a TPS holder actually do,” the honest answer is: they scramble, they lawyer up if they can, they look for alternate pathways, and they wait for what always comes next in American immigration policy: lawsuits, updates, reversals, and more updates.

Columbus will feel this most in the places that already carry the weight of being misunderstood: schools, small businesses, and families trying to plan their lives more than 60 days ahead without the rug getting pulled.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: In the early days of Television, it was not always broadcast everywhere. In the early days, coverage was limited to local areas, primarily in urban centers, and the technology and infrastructure for widespread broadcasting developed gradually over many decades. How many years has Columbus had TV

A) 76
B) 64
C) 85
D) 102

NEW CLUB ALERT

Columbus is getting a 24/7 work club, because your best ideas show up at 11:47 p.m.

Welcome Switchyard!

If you’ve ever tried to “just knock out one thing” at a coffee shop and ended up panic-ordering a second drink so you could justify taking up a table, Columbus has an update for you.

Switchyards is opening in German Village at 368 E Whittier St, inside the historic Buckeye Radio Lab building. It’s a 7,000-square-foot members-only “neighborhood work club” that will be open 24/7, which is either thrilling or deeply concerning depending on how many tabs you currently have open.

What it is

Think: the coffee shop vibe, minus the closing time, minus the guilt, plus the stuff you actually need when you have to be a real adult for 30 minutes.

It’s $129/month, no tiers, no nonsense. You get endless free coffee from One Line and Royal Flamingo, plus organic Rishi tea for the non-coffee saints among us. There are bookable phone booths and meeting rooms, fast internet, and a free guest policy, which is a bold move in a city where “Can I bring a friend?” is the first question everyone asks about everything.

Also, your membership works at their other locations around the country. Columbus is club #34, which feels correct for a city that has quietly been training for this moment by turning every brewery into a coworking space between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

The Shark Tank Story

Columbus is on Shark Tank tonight!

Set your reminders and clear your calendar from 9:59 p.m. to 11:01 p.m. because Makers Social is heading to the big stage.

Columbus entrepreneur Megan Pando is appearing on ABC’s Shark Tank on Jan. 14, pitching her Franklinton-grown concept to the Sharks from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET.

If you have not been to Makers Social, it is one of those ideas that makes you wonder why it took so long for someone to do it right. It’s an interactive makerspace and bar where you can build something with your hands (jewelry, leatherwork, woodworking) while enjoying craft cocktails in a space that actually feels social. Less “scream over music,” more “leave with a thing you made and a story worth telling.”

Also, the origin story is very Columbus. Pando moved here in 2014, opened Studio 614 in Clintonville, then launched Makers Social in 2020, which is either courageous or clinically unbothered by risk. Either way, it worked.

Makers Social lives at 461 W. Rich St. and tonight it gets to represent the version of Columbus we actually recognize. Creative, scrappy, welcoming, and quietly building something special while the rest of the country is busy asking if Ohio has electricity yet.

The Whitehall Situation…Someone Call That Rooster Guy

Whitehall City Council kicked off 2026 the way only local government can, with a gavel, a scandal, and applause at all the wrong times

Whitehall’s first City Council meeting of 2026 (Jan. 6) opened with the kind of tension you usually only get when someone microwaves fish in a shared office kitchen. The backdrop is Councilman Gerald Dixon, who was arrested on Dec. 8 and charged with felony counts related to alleged sexual misconduct involving minors. A judge dismissed the case on Dec. 23, but police and prosecutors have said the investigation is continuing and could still be presented to a grand jury.

At the meeting, Mayor Michael Bivens again called for Dixon to resign, then got cut off mid-comments by Council President Thomas M. Potter, who corrected the record in real time: the charges had been dropped, and he did not want to go down that road. The room clapped, because nothing says “functional civic process” like applause during a procedural shutdown.

Dixon, for his part, thanked supporters and emphasized “innocent until proven guilty,” leaning heavily on due process language while the city tries to figure out how to act like this is normal. Meanwhile, Councilmember Amy Harcar made it clear she didn’t bring legislation to remove Dixon only because she didn’t think it would pass right now, not because she thought it was unwarranted.

And now the plot thickens: recall petitions

On top of everything else, residents are now circulating recall petitions targeting Mayor Bivens and council members Lori Elmore and Amy Harcar. Bivens’ response was basically: go ahead, try it.

Here’s the part that matters if this moves from Facebook energy to actual ballots:

• Under Whitehall’s rules, recall petitions require signatures equal to 15% of the voters from the last relevant election (and a higher threshold for ward council seats).
  

• The exact number of signatures being cited varies by reporting and election math. WOSU reported petitioners may need about 586 valid signatures for the current effort.
  

• Also, Dixon can’t even be recalled yet under the charter until he has served six months of his term.

So yes, Whitehall is now juggling a dismissed criminal case with an ongoing investigation, internal council conflict, and a recall movement aimed at multiple leaders. It’s like a civics lesson, except everyone is yelling and the lesson is “this is why people hate politics.”

Trivia Answer:

A) 76 there are people alive in Columbus who might not of seen TV till they were like almost 20

Top of Mind

Ohio’s Most Predictable Plot Twist: “Almost $900K Missing” + “Hello, Mexico.”

Nothing makes you feel alive like realizing your workplace can lose almost $900,000, and the alleged culprit can just… relocate.

Kinley Lee, a former controller at Coldstream Country Club in Anderson Township (Cincinnati area), is accused of embezzling $883,000 and then leaving the country with his wife, Katherine. Prosecutors say the couple left the U.S. in June 2024 and have reportedly been living in Mexico, on property somehow tied to Katherine’s father.

If you’re thinking “Controller at a country club” is not the classic action-movie villain job title, you’re correct. But according to court documents described in reporting, the alleged scheme was not subtle: unauthorized credit card transactions, forged checks, and even a fraudulent vendor setup. The kind of stuff that reads like a list of “How to get caught” examples in an accounting ethics course.

Coldstream didn’t just shrug and move on.

The club previously filed a civil lawsuit that ended with a judgment of around $4 million, thanks to Ohio law allowing triple damages in cases like this. Prosecutors, meanwhile, say they’re pursuing the amount he’s accused of stealing, not the inflated civil number.

And now we arrive at the part where everyone in the legal system says a version of “don’t ask me when”: the extradition process is underway, but there’s no timeline, and the FBI is not exactly hopping on the record to narrate the chase.

If extradited and convicted, Lee could face two to eight years in prison, a fine of up to $15,000, and mandatory restitution. There’s also a statute of limitations angle, but fleeing can change that math.

The most Ohio part of this story is the vibe: a country club, a weird job called “controller position” and even tho he only worked there less than a year, all the sudden becomes a crime expert and escapes with his wife to possibly live happily ever after in mexico   Also, for anyone keeping score at home: this is not the first time prosecutors have watched a financial-crime suspect vanish and then waited years to get them back. Reporting points to a past example where extradition took about five years. So yes, this may be a long game.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: On April 18th 2021, Google searches for Columbus Ohio, spiked and more than doubled. It was and remains the highest search day over the last 5 years. What happened that day/weekend?

A) Chitt Fest Riot
B) Crew Beats Cinci
C) Crazy flood when High Street was underwater
D) Actor Comedian Desi Banks sells out the funny bone

Pharmacists Might Be Able Prescribe More in Ohio Because Your Doctor Is Booked Until 2029

The keyword here is protocol. Pharmacists wouldn’t just freestyle this. Under the bill, treatment has to be done under a protocol established by a health care provider, and that provider must practice primarily within a 40-mile radius of the pharmacy where the protocol is used.

Pharmacists would also be able to:

• Order or perform certain lab or diagnostic tests or screenings (with appropriate training)

• Evaluate or interpret results

• Prescribe drugs and drug therapy-related devices

• But no controlled substances

There are also specific guardrails, like:

• Athlete’s foot prescriptions are restricted to topical drugs.
  

• For pharyngitis (sore throat), the pharmacist has to order or perform a diagnostic test before prescribing related drugs/devices.

And yes, the bill gets into the “please loop in someone who has your medical chart” part too. Protocol requirements include guidance for medical history, contraindications, and instructions for notifying a patient’s primary care provider. Pharmacies would also have to prominently display signage advising follow-up care. 

So what’s the real debate?

• Pro: Access. People can get treated faster for common conditions without waiting weeks for an appointment.
  

• Pro: Normalizing pharmacists as part of the front line, which they already are in practice, especially in communities with fewer providers.
  

• Con: Coordination and oversight, because expanding access is great until it becomes “who is actually tracking outcomes and complications.”
  

• Con: Health system politics, because anytime you move a slice of care away from the traditional lane, someone with a lobbying budget starts sweating.

The bill isn’t saying “pharmacists are doctors.” It’s saying “the system is clogged, and if we have trained professionals behind the counter, maybe we can stop pretending they can only point at aisle 6 and wish you luck.”

Columbus’ Top Searches of 2025: Diddy, Taylor Swift, and Jeff Teague. Sure.

Google released its Year in Search data, and Columbus showed up exactly how you’d expect: confident, chaotic, and somehow nostalgic about things it did not personally experience.

According to Google Trends’ Columbus area “Local Year in Search,” our top celebrity search was… Diddy. 
No further notes. Just a curious Columbus.

Top song search in Columbus: “Wood” by Taylor Swift.
Columbus is big swiftie country

Top ticket search: “Make America Slime Again Tour” by NBA YoungBoy. 
If you didn’t know this existed, don’t feel bad because neither did I.

Top slang search: “67” 
…I currently pretend like I know what it means…but Im lying to you and myself.   

Top jersey search: Jeff Teague. 
Why is this on the list, and yes, Jeff Teague. The city has spoken.

Now, if you zoom out and look at the world’s top “Year in Search” list, the contrast gets even more interesting. Globally, Google’s top trending searches included Gemini, India vs England, and Club World Cup, with major news trends like the Charlie Kirk assassination, US Government Shutdown, and a new Pope chosen showing up high on the list. 

So, to recap:

• The world: geopolitics, AI, global sports, and major news events.

• Columbus: Jeff Teague jersey, 67, and a Taylor Swift song called “Wood.”

This is not a criticism. This is a mission statement.

Which means Columbus is doing what it always does: existing in the same country as everyone else, while emotionally living in a parallel universe.

Ohio Republicans Want to Rename Part of I-70 the “President Donald Trump Freedom Highway”

Ohio politics has never met a moment it couldn’t turn into a sign.

A bill filed in the Ohio House, House Bill 638, would designate a two-mile stretch of I-70 in Franklin County as the “President Donald Trump Freedom Highway.” Specifically, it targets the eastbound and westbound lanes from mile marker 98 to mile marker 100, and it directs ODOT to install “suitable markers” indicating the new name. 

The bill was introduced by Reps. D.J. Swearingen and Jeff LaRe.

Now, the obvious question: why this stretch?

The bill text itself is not a “why,” it’s a “do.” It doesn’t explain significance; it just declares.

Which, in its own mest up way, is kind of the most honest version of politics: no backstory, justa couple dip shits going off vibes and a budget line for signs.

It’s also worth noting what this is not:

• It doesn’t rename all of I-70.
  

• It doesn’t solve traffic.
  

• It doesn’t fill potholes.
  

• It doesn’t make the downtown split less of a daily test of faith.

It’s branding. On a highway. Through Columbus. In a state that already has a proud tradition of naming roads after people, so we can argue about it, forget about it, and then argue again.

If passed, the bill would still need to clear both chambers and be signed by Gov. Mike DeWine.
So at the moment, this is a proposal, not a done deal.

But the concept is already doing what it was built to do: generate attention, force a reaction, and give everyone a chance to pretend the most urgent problem facing I-70 is a lack of commemorative signage.

Meanwhile, the rest of us will be over here begging for something radical, like lane markings you can see at night.

Trivia Answer:

A) Chitt Fest, where OSU kids flipped and burned a couple cars! here’s the graph…

Top of Mind

Columbus Has a Fix-It Button. It’s Called 311.

That pothole you’ve been swerving around since April?
The streetlight that’s been out long enough to develop lore?
The mystery couch that’s been living on your block rent-free?

Columbus actually has a fix-it button for that. And no, it’s not yelling into the void on social media. It’s 311.

What 311 Actually Is

311 is Columbus’s non-emergency service line. It exists for the everyday problems that make city living feel like an obstacle course, but don’t require police, fire, or anyone arriving with sirens.

Think of it as customer service for the city you already pay for.

You can reach it by dialing 311, calling 614-645-3111, or submitting a request online or through the city’s app.

What You Can Report?

311 is designed for issues like:

• Potholes that are actively winning
  

• Dead streetlights
  

• Illegal dumping and overflowing dumpsters
  

• Abandoned vehicles
  

• Graffiti
  

• Broken sidewalks or curbs
  

• Missed trash or recycling pickup
  

• Yard waste issues
  

• Street signage problems

If it’s broken, abandoned, unsafe, or clearly the city’s responsibility, it probably belongs here.

What 311 Is Not For

Important expectations to set:

311 will not:

• Mediate neighbor disputes
  

• Handle emergencies
  

• Settle parking grudges
  

• Explain why traffic cones have become legally binding in some neighborhoods
  

If someone is in danger, call 911.
If something is annoying, persistent, or slowly decaying in a public space, call 311.

Why It Actually Matters

Here’s the underrated part: 311 creates a paper trail.

Every request is logged, tracked, and routed to the appropriate department. Over time, those requests help the city identify repeat problems, prioritize repairs, and justify budget decisions.

Translation: complaining is fine. Complaining through 311 is how things actually get fixed.

Columbus processes tens of thousands of these requests every year, and patterns matter. Multiple reports about the same issue carry more weight than one very angry tweet.

How to Use It Without Overthinking It

• Be specific
  

• Add photos if you can
  

• Include exact locations
  

• Don’t assume someone else already reported it

The system works best when people actually use it.

311 won’t fix everything.
But if something is broken, abandoned, or clearly the city’s responsibility, this is how you stop yelling into the void and start leaving a paper trail.

And in Columbus, that alone puts you ahead of the game.

Next time something’s busted, don’t tweet it.
311 it. And while this isn't exactly the kind of eye contact and hospitality OSU dining staff were taught in the ’90s, it’s still service with a smile, even if it’s digital.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: Columbus’s 311 line averages 500,000 calls a year. How many is that per day?

A) 1328
B) 1347
C) 1392
D) 1369

Real Bad Weathers Here

By Tuesday, daytime highs in Ohio are expected to sit in the 20s and 30s, with colder air settling across the Upper Midwest, where temperatures could dip into the teens and single digits. Wind chills will make it feel colder, and lake-effect snow will once again be a factor for northern Ohio.

As if that weren’t enough, forecasters say a reinforcing shot of Arctic air could arrive around New Year’s, pulling colder air south from Canada. While this second wave isn’t expected to set record lows, it will keep temperatures well below seasonal comfort levels heading into early January.

Looking further ahead, the outlook is mixed. January is expected to continue this pattern of swings, brief cold snaps followed by milder stretches. February could actually trend warmer than average along the East Coast. Much of that depends on the behavior of the polar vortex, which is expected to strengthen early in the year, a setup that usually limits prolonged cold outbreaks but still allows short, intense ones.

The takeaway: Ohio isn’t heading into a historic deep freeze, but the next week will be a sharp reminder that winter still knows how to make an entrance.

Layer up, check your heating systems, and maybe don’t test how “brisk” that New Year’s walk really feels.

While The Rest of America Drops Balls. Elmore Drops Sausage

America Drops Balls. Elmore Drops a Sausage.

Across the country, New Year’s Eve follows a familiar script.
A crowd gathers.
A countdown starts.
Something large is lowered very slowly.

In Elmore, that something is an 18-foot illuminated bratwurst, suspended from a crane.

Yes. The Sausage Drop is happening again.

Where This Is Happening

Elmore sits just off the Ohio Turnpike near Toledo. Population: about 1,370.
Slogan: Time Well Spent Since 1851.

Tonight, the village is living up to it.

The Sausage

The glowing bratwurst is nearly 18 feet long, wrapped in lights, and lowered from a crane as the countdown hits zero. It’s organized by the Elmore Historical Society and honors Tank's Meats, a longtime local butcher shop that has donated time, food, and support to the community for years.

Instead of a plaque or proclamation, Elmore chose a floating sausage.

Correct decision.

What’s Happens on NYE in Elmore

This is not just a drop. It’s an evening.

Bingo.
Fireworks.
A sausage-eating contest that escalates faster than anyone plans for.

In previous years, competitors have consumed multiple sausages in minutes. Pride was high. Regret followed quickly.

At 6 p.m., the sausage descends. Fireworks follow. The New Year begins.

Why People Show Up

Because it’s early.
Because it’s family-friendly.
Because no one has to drive home at midnight.

Because sometimes a town just decides to do something strange together and sticks with it.

No sponsors chasing national attention.
Just neighbors, a crane, and a very confident sausage.

New York drops a ball.
Elmore drops meat.

And every year, somehow, that feels exactly right.

Time well spent.

Trivia Answer:

D) 1369… Okay, techinically its 1369.86, so you should round up, but that’s not what this is all about, is it!

Top of Mind

Invisible Gas, Radon in Central Ohio

A recent Columbus Dispatch investigation revealed something unsettling about our basements: central Ohio is sitting on a serious radon problem, and most homeowners have no idea.

Radon, an odorless, invisible, radioactive gas that forms when uranium naturally breaks down in soil and rock, has quietly crept into homes all over Franklin, Delaware, and Licking counties. In fact, nearly 80% of homes tested in the Dispatch program registered above the EPA’s safety action level, including houses in some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Columbus.

That threshold, 4 picocuries per liter, doesn’t sound like much, but the health implications are huge.

Why radon matters

According to the CDC, radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in the United States, behind smoking. The EPA estimates radon exposure contributes to over 21,000 lung cancer deaths every year.

And unlike pollutants we fight outdoors, radon comes from inside our own walls, seeping upward from basements and crawlspaces.

One Bexley homeowner featured in the report saw her basement test at 14.7 picocuries per liter, more than three times the federal action level. Another home in Licking County reached a staggering 70 picocuries during monitoring.

Why central Ohio?

Scientists believe Ohio’s geological history, specifically ancient glaciers that mixed soil and uranium deposits across the region, created ideal conditions for radon emissions.

Every one of Ohio’s 88 counties has seen buildings test positive, but central Ohio stands out:

• Franklin County: widespread high readings
  

• Delaware & Licking counties: some of the strongest concentrations in the state
  

• Licking County 43055: the highest radon concentration zip code in the nation, according to a 2025 Harvard study

The uncomfortable part

The Dispatch notes the Ohio Department of Health repeatedly denied the danger for decades. Meanwhile, radon mitigation has often been left to homeowners, private companies, and patchwork local education programs.

One homeowner quoted in the report captured the psychology perfectly:

“If you could go back in time and prevent some nasty health issue, would you? I’m sure everyone would say yes.”

Is radon in your house?

The EPA makes it simple: every home should be tested, with or without a basement. Radon levels can hit first floors and upper levels, too.

Here are the options available right now in Columbus:

Borrow a radon monitor for free through the Columbus Metropolitan Library
Buy a hardware store test for around $20
Hire a state-licensed contractor to test and consult (usually $150–$300)

If your home tests above 4 picocuries per liter, the EPA recommends installing a mitigation system. Most cost roughly $1,500, plus maintenance and monitoring.

Why this matters beyond science

Radon is not theoretical here. It’s not folklore.

It’s a local public health issue that:

• disproportionately affects the older housing stock
  

• hits renters who have little testing control
  

• targets neighborhoods regardless of wealth
  

• and has long been under-discussed
  

And it’s preventable.

The bottom line

Central Ohio’s radon levels are higher than most of the country. Testing takes minutes. Fixing the problem can literally save lives.

Ohio already made January “Radon Awareness Month,” but as this report shows, awareness isn’t the problem; action is.

If you’ve never tested your home, 2026 might be the year to do it.

(And if you want more stories that dig beneath this city, not just its bedrock, subscribe to The Scarlet Letter.)

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: What is the median age of Ohio

A) 37
B) 43
C) 40
D) 29

Market Blooms Owner Marty McGreevy To Retire After Nearly 36 Years at North Market Downtown

After nearly 36 years of filling North Market Downtown with care and community connection, Market Blooms owner Marty McGreevy will retire at the end of 2025.

McGreevy has operated Market Blooms since February 13, 1990, opening just one day before Valentine’s Day, and has been a beloved presence at North Market ever since.

From its early days in a Quonset hut surrounded by dirt to its place today as an anchor merchant at North Market Downtown, Market Blooms has grown alongside the Market itself. Through decades of change, McGreevy’s shop has remained a constant source of warmth, creativity, and personal connection for guests, merchants, and staff alike.

“Every moment here has been a kindness,” said McGreevy. “I’m deeply grateful to have been part of North Market for so many years. I’ve seen so much change, wonderful change, and every step of the journey has been exciting and amazing. It feels like the right time, and I’m proud to leave knowing Market Blooms is strong, the team is taken care of, and the transition is in great hands.”

McGreevy shared that her decision to retire came with three priorities: ensuring Market Blooms remained an anchor at North Market, securing continued employment for the longtime team members who helped build the business, and reaching a moment of personal and professional fulfillment. With those goals met, she looks forward to spending more time with family and friends, traveling, enjoying the golf course, and embracing a more relaxed pace.

North Market is pleased to share that Market Blooms will continue operations under new ownership beginning January 3, 2026. Longtime admirers of the shop can expect the same floral services, familiar friendly faces from floral designers, and the welcoming experience they have always known. Market Blooms will be closed January 1 and 2, 2026, to support the ownership transition.

“I have such great confidence in the new owners,” McGreevy added. “They’re the full package, and I know they’ll honor what Market Blooms has always been.”

Morgan and Kyle Laberdee will assume ownership of Market Blooms, carrying forward its legacy while maintaining the shop’s commitment to quality, service, and community.

“Marty’s impact on North Market cannot be overstated,” said Rick Harrison Wolfe, Executive Director and CEO of North Market. “For nearly four decades, she has helped define what it means to be a Market merchant: deeply personal service, consistency, and genuine care for people, and perhaps most of all, the ability to adapt and evolve. On a personal level, Marty has been a trusted presence and source of perspective for me, offering wisdom, steadiness, and an unwavering commitment to this place that has shaped my own leadership. Market Blooms is woven into the fabric of North Market’s history, and we are incredibly grateful for Marty’s leadership, vision, and heart.”

North Market will celebrate McGreevy’s legacy in the coming weeks and invites the community to stop by Market Blooms to share well wishes and gratitude for her remarkable tenure.

Holiday Hours: North Market will be closing early on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, and will be closed on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. More information can be found at northmarket.org.

Ohio Is About to Get Much Older. And Nobody Seems Ready.

Ohio isn’t just aging, it’s aging fast. New state and federal data show the Buckeye State is heading toward a demographic turning point by 2040, when one in every four Ohioans will be 60 or older. Even more dramatic: Ohioans 85 and up are projected to increase by more than 50% over the same period.

This isn’t a niche shift. It’s a statewide transformation with massive implications for healthcare, housing, infrastructure, and how we think about retirement.

The Numbers

Ohio’s overall population isn’t expected to grow much between now and 2040. But its age curve will:

• 25% of residents will be 60+
  

• The 85+ population jumps 51%
  

• Seniors already outnumber children in dozens of counties
  

For the first time in U.S. history, older adults will outnumber young children.

What’s Driving the Crisis

Experts say Ohio faces two unavoidable questions:

1. Who will care for older Ohioans?
   

2. How on earth will we pay for it?

Ohio nursing homes and long-term care providers are already struggling to hire staff, with wages that often resemble fast-food pay scales rather than medical care positions.

Registered nurses saw median hourly pay rise from the low $30s to the high $30s between 2018 and 2021, but it hasn’t kept up with demand, stress, or inflation.

A national projection warns of a 4.6 million job gap in long-term care roles by 2032.

Families Aren’t Ready, Either

Many Ohioans assume Medicare will pay for long-term care. It won’t.
Medicare covers hospital stays and short-term rehab, not daily help with bathing, dressing, or dementia support.

Medicaid does cover long-term care, but only after people spend down their savings, and the state can recover costs from estates after death.

Translation: a lot more Ohio homes may end up sold to pay for elder care.

Aging in Place or Alone

Ohio, like most states, is pushing to help seniors remain in their homes longer. It’s cheaper and more popular.

But advocates warn the “age at home” model can quickly turn into isolation:

• No driving
  

• No social contact
  

• Increased fall risk
  

• Emergency healthcare spikes

There’s also a shortage of assisted living and memory care units, one that experts say will grow severe as the 85+ population explodes.

Not Just a Healthcare Issue

An aging Ohio touches everything:

• Housing accessibility
  

• Transportation planning
  

• Elder abuse and fraud protections
  

• Medicaid budgeting
  

• Workforce pipelines
  

• Taxes and labor markets

In Columbus and across central Ohio, planners already expect to rethink bus routes, walkability, zoning, and public health priorities to accommodate the demographic shift.

The Price Problem

Costs are rising faster than inflation:

• Nursing home and elder day-care costs up 4%+ annually
  

• Medicaid reimbursement gaps are widening
  

• Facility closures increasing

Meanwhile, the state’s own data show more than 32,000 elder abuse and neglect reports in 2020, a number experts believe dramatically undercounts the problem.

Here’s the thing

By 2040, Ohio will be older, more medically complex, and more expensive to care for, and the systems designed to support older adults were never built for this reality.

The director of Ohio’s Department of Aging put it best:

“This is not a problem one agency can handle. This is an issue the entire state must address.”

Ohioans have a habit of ignoring problems until they happen, then scrambling. Aging doesn’t care. It’s coming, and it’s coming fast.

Columbus and the rest of the state have 15 years to get ready.
If they don’t?
The strain won’t just hit older Ohioans. It’ll hit everyone: workers, families, taxpayers, cities, and healthcare systems.

Ohio isn’t just getting older.
It’s getting older than it has ever been, with fewer young people coming behind.

And that changes everything.

Trivia Answer:

C) 40 well, its techinacly 40.3, but I think the point 3 is weird

Top of Mind

COLUMBUS JUST CAPPED UTILITY FEES RENTERS HAVE BEEN QUIETLY PAYING FOR YEARS.

If you rent in Columbus and don’t get your water or electric bill directly from the utility company, the City Council just stepped in.

On Monday, the Columbus City Council voted unanimously to regulate utility reselling, the practice where landlords receive utility bills and then pass them on to tenants with added fees. The legislation, sponsored by Councilmember Christopher Wyche, places firm limits on what landlords and third-party billing companies can charge.

The vote comes at a moment when utility costs are already rising, and renters are feeling the impact.

WHAT THE NEW RULES DO

Under the ordinance, landlords and billing middlemen must:

• Charge tenants no more than the actual utility cost

• Cap administrative fees at $8 per billing cycle

• Provide clearer, more transparent bills

• Offer payment plans for overdue balances

• Avoid higher late fees than the utility itself would charge

In short: no markups, no mystery fees, no creative math.

WHY COUNCIL STEPPED IN

In many multifamily buildings, tenants are not direct customers of water or electric utilities. Bills go to landlords first, who then resell usage to tenants, often adding administrative fees or surcharges.

A long-standing problem with that setup is access. Residents billed through landlords typically cannot enroll in city utility assistance programs, even if they qualify.

Right now, only about 8,500 Columbus residents are enrolled in the city’s utility assistance program. Wyche said he hopes these new rules will double enrollment by next year, since tenants will finally have the documentation required to apply.

This matters more now than ever. Just weeks ago, City Council approved water rate increases expected to cost the average customer about $125 more per year.

WHY IT’S NOT A BAN

Council initially discussed banning submetering outright. That idea was pulled back after concerns that landlords could offset the loss by raising rent.

Instead, the city chose regulation over prohibition. Wyche acknowledged the legislation isn’t perfect, but said it addresses inflated bills while avoiding immediate ripple effects in rent prices.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

The changes will roll out over the next year and will be enforced largely through complaints filed with the city. Violations can result in $150 fines.

Wyche also signaled that Columbus may not be done. The city is considering a rental registry, which could make enforcement easier and bring more accountability into the system.

At the state level, bipartisan legislation to regulate submetering has sat untouched for years. Columbus moved first.

THE BOTTOM LINE

City Council didn’t eliminate utility middlemen.
But it did take away their ability to quietly pad bills.

For renters facing higher water rates, rising electric costs, and fewer safety nets, this is one of the rare cases where regulation actually lowers the ceiling instead of raising it.

And in Columbus right now, that’s nothing.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: What year was the worst power outage in Ohio History

A) 2008
B) 2012
C) 2022
D) 1998

A DUMP TRUCK KNOCKED OUT POWER FOR NEARLY 3,000 PEOPLE BY OSU

Columbus’s power grid had a very Friday-afternoon moment.

A dump truck crash near Ohio State’s West Campus knocked out electricity for 2,889 AEP Ohio customers on Friday afternoon, cutting power to homes, apartments, and campus-area buildings just after 3:15 p.m.

The crash happened near Carmack Road and West Lane Avenue, where AEP Ohio says the truck struck utility equipment, triggering the outage.

WHAT WE KNOW

• Peak outage: 2,889 customers

• Location: West Campus area near OSU

• Time: Around 3:15 p.m. Friday

• Cause: Dump truck collision with AEP equipment

• Estimated restoration: Around 6 p.m.

By 7:20 p.m., AEP’s outage map showed power restored to nearly everyone, with just 12 customers still affected as crews wrapped up repairs.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

No injuries were reported, and AEP crews were on site quickly to assess the damage and restore service. Updates were shared through AEP Ohio’s social channels as repairs progressed.

For thousands of students and residents, though, the incident was a reminder that sometimes the biggest disruption to your Friday plans isn’t weather, finals, or football.

It’s a dump truck meeting the wrong piece of infrastructure.

Power was mostly back by evening.
The memes probably lasted longer.

OHIO IS BANNING “GAS STATION WEED” and making it Illegal to bring weed in from other states.

Ohio’s brief era of THC gummies next to the beef jerky is coming to an end.

Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday he will sign Senate Bill 56, a sweeping measure that bans intoxicating hemp products and modifies Ohio’s voter-approved recreational marijuana law from 2023.

“No longer will it be the Wild, Wild West,” DeWine said, referring to delta-8 and other THC-infused hemp products sold in gas stations, smoke shops, and CBD stores across the state.

If signed before the end of the year, the law could take effect as soon as March.

WHAT’S GETTING BANNED

Senate Bill 56 targets intoxicating hemp products sold outside licensed dispensaries.

That includes:

• Delta-8 and similar THC products
  

• Hemp-derived gummies and beverages
  

• Products sold in gas stations and convenience stores
  

DeWine has pushed for regulation since January 2024, citing child safety.

According to the Ohio Poison Control Center:

• 257 delta-8 poisoning cases have been reported in recent years

• 102 in 2023 alone

• 40 involving children under six

“You won’t be able to walk into a gas station and let an 11-year-old buy the stuff,” DeWine said.

WHY NOW

DeWine attempted a temporary ban earlier this year via executive order, but a Franklin County judge blocked it. That case is still pending.

The bill also aligns Ohio with new federal rules, which ban hemp products containing more than 0.4 mg of THC per container. States are allowed to act sooner. Ohio chose to.

WHAT CHANGES FOR LEGAL MARIJUANA

Recreational marijuana remains legal, but with new limits:

• THC caps lowered

  • Extracts: 70% max (down from 90%)

  • Flower: 35% max
    

• Smoking is banned in most public places

• Marijuana must stay in its original packaging

• Bringing legal marijuana from another state becomes a crime

The bill also allows 5 mg THC beverages to continue through Dec. 31, 2026.

WHERE THE TAX MONEY GOES

The legislation directs 36% of marijuana tax revenue to cities and townships that host dispensaries, giving local governments a larger share of the proceeds.

THE SHORT VERSION

Ohio is ending unregulated THC sales and tightening the rules on legal weed.

Gas station gummies are out.
Dispensaries stay.
The law you voted for still exists, but with new caps, new crimes, and clearer boundaries.

The Wild West phase is over.

COLUMBUS IS ABOUT TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT PARKING

If you’ve ever parked in a bike lane because “no one was using it,” Columbus has some news for you.

City Council is moving forward with a major overhaul of the city’s parking code, reshaping how tickets are issued, how much they cost, and how long drivers have to respond. Officials insist this isn’t a cash grab. It’s about safety, mobility, and preparing the city for a future where buses, bikes, and pedestrians actually have space to exist.

Council is expected to vote on the changes Dec. 15, with the new system rolling out in early 2026 and updated fines kicking in by April.

WHY PARKING IS GETTING A MAKEOVER

Columbus’ current parking rules are a mess. More than 50 violations, inconsistent fines, and a system where tickets can quietly snowball into triple-digit problems in under two weeks.

Councilmember Lourdes Barroso de Padilla says thousands of residents collectively owe millions in unpaid parking fines, often because tickets escalate before people realize what happened.

The proposed fix:

• Extend the response window from 10 days to 30

• Reward early payment with lower fines

• Reduce the “I forgot about it and now it’s $100” problem

WHERE THE CITY IS DRAWING THE LINE

The biggest changes target safety-related violations, especially those that interfere with new transportation infrastructure.

Expect tougher enforcement for:

• Blocking bike lanes

• Stopping in bus stops or future bus-only lanes

• Parking in crosswalks

• Stopping on sidewalks

These will fall under the most serious category, with fines reaching $100 if unpaid after 30 days.

City officials were clear: lanes don’t work if cars keep sitting in them.

WHERE DRIVERS GET A BREAK

Not every violation gets harsher.

Expired tags, one of the most common tickets issued in Columbus, would get more flexibility:

• Tags expired less than 30 days: warning only

• Up to three tickets allowed at $30 each

• No escalating penalties tied to response time
  

The city says this is about avoiding unnecessary financial spirals over paperwork delays.

HOW THE NEW FINES WORK

Most violations would fall into four categories, each with tiered pricing:

• Egregious safety violations: $80 → $100

• General safety violations: $50 → $90

• Parking management issues: $50 → $90

• General parking violations: $30 → $50

Parking in a handicapped spot without a permit stays at $500. No changes there.

THE REAL REASON THIS IS HAPPENING

This isn’t just about parking. It’s about what Columbus is becoming.

With bus rapid transit on the way and bike lanes expanding, city leaders want rules in place before LinkUS corridors launch. The message is simple: if the city builds dedicated lanes, it plans to protect them.

As Barroso de Padilla put it, not everyone loves these changes, but a lot of people depend on them.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

City Council is scheduled to vote on the proposed parking code updates on Dec. 15. If approved, the changes would take effect in January, with updated fine amounts beginning in April.

City leaders say the revisions are intended to improve safety, reduce congestion, and prepare Columbus for expanded transit and mobility projects, including future bus rapid transit corridors.

For drivers, that means clearer rules, more time to respond to tickets, and higher penalties for violations that block bike lanes, bus lanes, and crosswalks.

Trivia Answer:

A) 2008 a storm from hurricane Ike wipped out power for 5 days for millions of Ohioans. Some didnt have power for 2 weeks.

Top of Mind

Bobcats Are Back in Ohio, and One Just Took a Casual Stroll Through Prairie Oaks.

Central Ohio got a surprise celebrity sighting last month, and for once it wasn’t a Buckeye football player or the guy who plays the accordion on High Street.
It was a bobcat, our state’s most elusive, shy, “I’d rather not be perceived” native predator, captured trotting across a trail at Prairie Oaks Metro Park in the early morning hours of Nov. 21.

Metro Parks posted the video on Instagram this week, quietly confirming that yes, you really did just see a wild bobcat west of Columbus. And no, it was not someone’s Maine Coon.

Why This Is a Big Deal

Bobcats used to be everywhere in Ohio, until we eliminated them from the entire state by 1850 because settlers were bad roommates for nature.
But starting in the mid-1900s, bobcats made a slow comeback, mostly in the eastern and southern counties, think Appalachia, not Hilliard.

A sighting in Franklin County?
Still rare.
Still cool.

ODNR says the first modern bobcat sighting in Franklin County wasn’t until 2012, and statewide sightings jumped from 6 confirmed in 2001 to 561 in 2021. The population is expanding, cautiously, like someone turning the corner at Easton during December.

What You Need to Know About Bobcats

Ohio’s bobcats (Lynx rufus) are:

• About twice the size of a housecat
  

• Built for stealth, not drama
  

• Marked with distinct patterns, black-tipped ears, and a “bobbed” tail
  

• Solitary ambush predators who do not want to fight you or your kids
  

They will, however, go after small pets or livestock if given the opportunity, so maybe don’t let your off-leash chihuahua wander into the underbrush like it owns the place.

ODNR stresses that bobcats avoid humans and generally pose no threat unless cornered. In other words:
Stay calm. Stay back. And please, for the love of nature, do not try to get a selfie.

Why This Matters

Bobcats returning to central Ohio is a sign that local ecosystems are strengthening, and that our green spaces, yes, even the ones 25 minutes from downtown, are wild enough to support native carnivores again.

Metro Parks is asking visitors to:

• Enjoy from a distance

• Report sightings to Ohio’s wildlife observation system

• Let the bobcats do their bobcat things

Because every confirmed sighting helps wildlife biologists track how far the species has recovered and where it may settle next.

Ohio’s wildcats aren’t just back, they’re creeping into new territory, including the outskirts of Columbus. And while they’re still rare in central and northern counties, the trend is pointing upward.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: The Scioto madtom, a tiny catfish found only in Big Darby Creek, was last seen in 1957 and officially declared extinct in 2023 by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

A) 2023
B) 1973
C) 2016
D) 1992

FRANKLINTON IS HOSTING A HOLIDAY BOURBON CRAWL, AND YES, IT’S FOR A GOOD CAUSE.

Franklinton Friday is already one of the city’s best monthly traditions, studios open, music drifting out of old warehouses, makers selling things they made by hand instead of ordered online at 2 a.m.

Now add a bourbon crawl to the mix, and Franklinton just won December.

This Friday, the Franklinton Arts District is hosting its first-ever Holiday Bourbon Crawl, a four-stop cocktail walk featuring custom-batched bourbon drinks from Watershed Distillery and some of the neighborhood’s most beloved watering holes.

Your $50 ticket gets you bourbon cocktails at:

• Land-Grant Brewing Co.

• Sweeney’s Walnut Street Tavern

• Rehab Tavern

• BrewDog Franklinton

In between drinks, you’ll wander through Franklinton Friday, the district-wide art crawl that turns the neighborhood into a mashup of galleries, pop-up markets, live music, and “Wait, how long has that building been here?” discovery moments.

And unlike most holiday bar crawls, this one actually supports something real.

Where Your Money Goes

Every cent of ticket revenue benefits the Franklinton Arts District, the small but mighty organization that:

• Advocates for artists

• Supports studios, galleries, and makers

• Runs youth arts programs

• Funds creators through the Bellow Grant

• And keeps Franklinton Friday alive and accessible

FAD is the connective tissue of the neighborhood — the reason Franklinton is more than a collection of warehouses with lights on. They create the opportunities, the programming, and the platforms that make the district one of Columbus’s most vibrant artistic communities.

The Details

Franklinton Holiday Bourbon Crawl
 🍹 Four Watershed cocktails
🎨 Art, music, and markets between every stop
🎄 Holiday attire optional but aggressively encouraged
🎟️ Only 100 tickets available
📍 Franklinton Arts District
📅 This Friday during Franklinton Friday

This is the kind of event that lets you support local artists and enjoy bourbon without having to justify either decision.

If you want in, grab your ticket early. The crawl is capped at 100 people, and Franklinton Friday regulars move fast

NATIONWIDE ARENA IS GETTING A $400 MILLION MAKEOVER

Nationwide Arena is turning 25, and in building years that’s roughly equivalent to discovering your first gray hair and pretending it’s “just the lighting.” The Franklin County Convention Facilities Authority has decided the glow-up can’t wait, rolling out a $400 million modernization plan to drag the arena into the decade where people expect bathrooms to have doors that close and concessions that don’t require a pilgrimage.

Here’s what Columbus is signing up for.

THE MONEY (THE PART EVERYONE CARES ABOUT)

The FCCFA’s funding strategy is… comprehensive:

• Up to $100 million from a new state sports-facilities improvement fund
  

• More than $100 million in public bonds
  

• $25 million each from the City of Columbus and Franklin County
  

• The rest from private financing
  

• And somewhere in the background:
  

  • A lawsuit challenging whether unclaimed-fund dollars can be used for stadium projects

  • AG Dave Yost side-eyeing the plan

  • Every Columbus resident wondering if they have an unpaid insurance check from 1998 now renovating a hockey arena

THE RENOVATION HIGHLIGHTS

You will eventually walk into Nationwide Arena and notice the city spent real money:

A brand-new main entrance

Bigger, faster, and covered from the weather!

An outdoor terrace and plaza bar

A new spot for watch parties, community events, and people who show up early.

Expanded concourses + more escalators and elevators

Translation: fewer human traffic jams, more ADA access, and less of the “sorry, is this line for beer or the restroom?” conversations.

A larger team store

The Jackets may miss the playoffs, but merch never will.

Better seating, upgraded tech, faster concessions

Everything you’d expect from an arena competing for concerts, major events.

A new pedestrian bridge to the McConnell Garage

Finally.

WHY THIS IS HAPPENING NOW

Arena officials say it plainly:
If you didn’t renovate your house for 25 years, people would notice.

The same is true for a venue that hosts over a million visitors a year and pumps $120 million into the local economy. Columbus wants to remain competitive for big tours and national events, and you can’t do that with 1990s architecture and early-2000s HVAC.

Most construction will happen in the summer to avoid disrupting Jackets games, concerts, and that one guy who buys single-game tickets solely to scream at the power play.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Columbus City Council and the Franklin County Commissioners still need to approve the early funding steps, including an arena-only increase in admissions tax and a higher share of casino-tax revenue dedicated to Nationwide Arena.

No new taxes. Minimal impact to existing budgets. Maximum impact to the building that basically created the Arena District in the first place.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Nationwide Arena helped transform a former rail yard into one of Columbus’s busiest districts.

Now the district has outgrown the arena, and the arena has to catch up.

Whether you go for the Jackets, for concerts, for the basketball games, or for the air conditioning downtown in July, the next version of Nationwide Arena is aiming to feel less like a time capsule and more like a venue worthy of the city that built up around it.

SANTA HAS ARRIVED AT POLARIS!

If you’re looking for peak holiday energy, the kind that smells like cinnamon, sounds like children screaming with joy, and comes with at least three free things, Polaris Fashion Place is now officially in Santa mode.

Santa is posted up in Center Court, ready for photos, wish lists, and the annual ritual of parents desperately trying to get one normal picture.

This Year’s Theme: The Polaris Express

Yes, they leaned all the way into The Polar Express.
There’s a train display, themed décor, and enough nostalgic Christmas atmosphere to make you tear up before your shopping migraine sets in.

Every kid gets:

• A Santa coloring book

• A pair of Santa glasses

• A Polaris Express Golden Ticket

• A “BELIEVE” sleigh bell (which doubles as a surprisingly classy ornament)
  

All while supplies last, which is newsletter-speak for “go early or don’t complain to us later.”

Golden Ticket Bonus

Kids 12 and under can take that golden ticket to Pure Imagination Chocolatier for a free hot cocoa through December 31.

Reserve your spot!

Consider it a sugar boost for both their holiday spirit and your stamina.

So if you’re planning your seasonal mall migration, buying gifts, returning gifts, stress-eating pretzels, you might as well stop by Center Court and make a memory.

Trivia Answer:

A: 2023 but none have been seen since 1957

Top of Mind

OHIO STATE JUST SWEPT MICHIGAN AGAIN, AND THIS TIME IT SAVES LIVES.

The Buckeyes didn’t just beat Michigan this weekend.
They out-gave, out-bled, and out-donated them.

For the fourth straight year, Ohio State won the annual Blood Battle, the 44-year-old rivalry where OSU and Michigan compete to see who can collect the most blood donations for local patients. Think The Game, but with needles instead of linebackers.

The Final Score (the one they won’t put on ESPN):

• Ohio State: 1,725 pints
  

• Michigan: 1,622 pints
  

• Margin of victory: 103 pints
  

• Lives potentially saved: up to 10,000

Michigan might have the “leaders and best,” but Ohio State clearly has the donors and veins.

What the Win Means

All blood collected through the competition stays local, going directly to patients at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, people battling cancer, recovering from trauma, undergoing transplants, or facing medical emergencies where blood donation is the difference between crisis and survival.

OSU hosted 52 blood drives in 34 days, proving once again that Buckeyes treat community service the same way they treat rivalry week: as a mandatory part of the curriculum.

A Word From President Carter

Ohio State President Walter “Ted” Carter Jr. celebrated the four-peat with the kind of calm satisfaction only someone who has never lost this competition can feel:

Buckeyes rolled up their sleeves to be part of an effort that’s so much bigger than a game.

Correct. It’s bigger. It’s life-saving. And unlike the football rivalry, nobody can claim we inflated these numbers.

The Streak So Far

Ohio State is now on a run that probably keeps Michigan administrators up at night:

• 2025: 1,725 – 1,622 (OSU win)
  

• 2024: 1,707 – 1,407 (OSU win)
  

• 2023: 1,732 – 1,469 (OSU win)
  

• 2022: 1,630 – 1,533 (OSU win)

You could say dominance. You could say tradition. You could also say Michigan should consider recruiting better.

The Bottom Line

This is the best kind of rivalry win.
No referees. No replay reviews. No arguments about the strength of the schedule.
Just thousands of people in Columbus showing up, donating blood, and helping strangers they’ll never meet.

Beating Michigan is always satisfying.
Beating Michigan and saving lives?
That’s pretty awesome.

The Blood Battle might be over, but
The need for blood doesn’t end.

Hospitals in Columbus use blood every single day for trauma patients, cancer treatments, surgeries, and emergencies that don’t care about rivalry week.

So if you didn’t donate this round, or if you did and you’re already plotting your next appearance, consider rolling up your sleeve again.
Find a drive. Schedule an appointment. Bring a friend who swears they “hate needles.”

Schedule here: 

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: Ohio is the 8th largest turkey producer in the nation. In 2024, how many turkeys were produced in Ohio?

A) 7.8 million
B) 4.2 million
C) 6.4 million
D) 3.7 million

WHO IS AMY ACTON, AND WHY IS SHE RUNNING OHIO’S NEXT BIG RACE?

Before she became one of the most recognizable figures in Ohio during the spring of 2020, before the daily press conferences, before the protests on her front lawn, before national outlets called her “the leader we wish we all had,” Dr. Amy Acton was just a kid growing up on the north side of Youngstown, navigating neglect, abuse, instability, and stretches of homelessness.

Her story is not the usual launchpad for someone running for governor. But Amy Acton has never really followed the usual script.

From Youngstown to Medicine to Public Health

Acton earned her bachelor’s degree at Youngstown State, then paid her way through medical school at Northeast Ohio Medical University, finishing in 1990. She completed residencies in pediatrics and preventive medicine, earned her MPH from Ohio State, and trained at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

In other words: not a political résumé. A public health résumé.

She taught at OSU, managed grants at The Columbus Foundation, ran Project LOVE, and volunteered for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, not as a power broker, but as someone organizing neighborhood email lists in Bexley.

Then, Governor Mike DeWine tapped her in 2019 as Ohio’s director of health. She was his final cabinet pick, the one he said he needed to “get right” because “someday there will be a crisis.”

He was right, and the crisis wasted no time.

Gif by friends on Giphy

Ohio’s Pandemic Voice

When COVID-19 hit, Amy Acton became the face of Ohio’s response. Calm, direct, and often emotional, she delivered the science while DeWine delivered the policy. She told Ohioans the situation would define a generation. She estimated community spread before national models caught up. And she closed polling locations when no one else would touch the decision.

Ohio’s House Minority Leader called her “the real MVP.”
CNN compared her to Fauci.
The Dayton Daily News called her “Ohio’s trusted face during the pandemic.”

Not everyone agreed.

Protesters showed up at her home.
Republican legislators tried to strip her authority.
She needed a security detail.
She worried she’d be forced to sign an order that violated her medical ethics.

So she resigned.

Not from public life, just from the system that had turned her into a political lightning rod.

A Pivot Back to Community Work

Acton returned to The Columbus Foundation.
She earned a national Profile in Courage Award.
She later led RAPID 5, the largest parks and greenway project in the region.
And then, slowly, then all at once, she began reentering the political orbit.

By the 2024 Democratic National Convention, she was signaling interest.
On January 7, 2025, she made it official:

Amy Acton is running for governor of Ohio in 2026.
She announced it the way she handled those early COVID briefings, plainly, without theatrics:

“I’m a doctor, not a politician. I’m running to help the people of Ohio.”

What Makes Her Different

Acton is not a career politician. She’s not an ideologue. She’s not someone who built a war chest over the last decade. Her background is public health, crisis management, philanthropy, trauma, resilience, and, whether people love her for it or resent her for it, a belief that science should guide policy.

Her supporters see someone who steadied the state during chaos.
Her critics see someone who shut down public life too aggressively.
Both groups remember her.

What happens next will depend on whether Ohio wants a physician-governor who built her career outside the Statehouse, and whether the story that defined her in 2020 becomes the reason Ohio elects her, or the reason it doesn’t.

Either way: get ready to hear her name. A lot.

Some Different Stuff To Do This Holiday Season

A Guide to Two Columbus Traditions Worth Your Time

Columbus has no shortage of December events, but two long-running local traditions stand out for their focus on culture, history, and community, not just shopping or seasonal crowds. If you’re looking for something meaningful (and uniquely Ohio) to add to your holiday calendar, here are two options with real substance behind them.

1. Holiday Histories at the Ohio History Center

December 13 • Ohio History Center, 800 E. 17th Ave.

The Ohio History Center’s annual Holiday Histories event offers a hands-on look at winter traditions from around the world and across Ohio’s past. Visitors can move through the museum at their own pace, participating in activities and learning how different cultures have marked the season.

Featured stations and activities include:

• Moon Festival Celebration: Learn about the Mid-Autumn Festival and make a Play-Doh mooncake.
  

• Twelfth Night & Winter Tidings: Explore how early Ohioans prepared for winter and decorated with evergreens and early Christmas trees.
  

• Home Away from the Homefront: View letters and artifacts documenting how American soldiers spent holidays overseas during World War I and other conflicts.
  

• 1950s Holidays: Step inside the museum’s Lustron Home to see mid-century holiday traditions.
  

• Ice Age Mammals: Examine fossils and learn about the Ice Age megafauna that once lived in Ohio.
  

• Ohio Toy History: See historic toys from Kenner, Little Tikes, and the Ohio Art Company.
  

• Holiday Vendor Market: Shop from local makers, including Igloo Letterpress and Robin Schuricht Art.

Admission:
Premium members attend for free; all other members receive $5 off each ticket.

2. Holiday Season at the Ohio Statehouse

Events throughout December • Capitol Square

The Ohio Statehouse offers a month of free, public holiday programming designed to highlight Ohio history, Victorian-era traditions, and local performing arts.

Tree Lighting & Holiday Festival

December 3, 5:30–7:30 p.m.
A long-standing public event featuring the arrival of Santa, live choirs, children’s activities, historical displays, and refreshments provided by Tim Hortons, the Girl Scouts, Cabot Creamery, and Statehouse caterers.

Victorian Holiday Tours

Free guided tours highlight how the Statehouse would have been decorated in the 1860s.
Tours depart hourly:

• Weekdays: 10 a.m., 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m.
  

• Weekends: Noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m.
  

Free Noon Holiday Performances

From December 4–18, high school choirs and music groups from around Ohio perform seasonal music at noon in the Museum Gallery. Schools include Eastmoor Academy, Johnstown-Monroe, Centennial, Northside Christian, and more.

Statehouse Museum Shop & Candy Cane Sale

The Museum Shop offers Ohio-made gifts, with discounts of 10–40% available during the annual Candy Cane Sale (Dec. 3–8). Many items are produced by Ohio artists and small businesses.

Why You Should Stop By!

Both the Ohio History Center and the Ohio Statehouse offer a holiday experience rooted in education, preservation, and local culture. They’re opportunities to learn something new about Ohio, support community organizations, and connect with traditions that extend far beyond a typical seasonal outing.

If you want a break from holiday commercialism and something that reminds you why this season has mattered to Ohioans for centuries, these two events offer exactly that.

Trivia Answer:

C: 6.4 million

Top of Mind

OHIO THANKSGIVING: TURKEYS, BORDER WARS, AND WHY THIS STATE GETS WEIRD IN LATE NOVEMBER

Thanksgiving is coming up, which means Ohio is preparing for its yearly rituals: eating too much, arguing over which cousin ruined the mashed potatoes, and crossing out the letter M like the alphabet personally wronged us.

But long before OSU started vandalizing signage for sport, Ohioans had their own Thanksgiving traditions, some practical, some historic, and some involving wild turkeys crashing through people’s houses on High Street.

Yes, really.

The History Before the History

Thanksgiving wasn’t always a fixed holiday. Before 1863, it wandered around the calendar like a confused relative who refuses to use Google Maps. Then Abraham Lincoln stepped in and declared it a national day of thanks during the Civil War — a unifying moment when the country desperately needed one.

From then until 1941, each president set the date individually through annual proclamations printed in local newspapers so people knew when, exactly, to stop working and start eating. Grover Cleveland’s 1887 proclamation encouraged the nation to dedicate the day to “thanksgiving and prayer,” which newspapers in Ohio dutifully reprinted between ads for coal, corsets, and cough syrup.

Once Congress standardized the fourth Thursday in November, the ritual stuck. So did the food.

Ohio, Historically, Was Basically a Turkey Petting Zoo

Long before Butterball took over, Ohio’s wild turkey population roamed the state in numbers modern Columbus residents would describe as “honestly too many.” Early accounts tell stories like:

• A wild turkey running straight into the old Merion homestead on South High Street, hiding on the bed, and getting caught like it was posing for a family photo.
  

• A flock of 20+ wandering across the Hilltop in 1829.
  

• Another flock landing where COSI sits today — promptly shot at by “sportsmen,” sending one turkey flying into a building where it knocked itself out and was casually retrieved.
  

This was normal. This was Ohio.

Turkeys were everywhere. And if Benjamin Franklin had gotten his way, one might have been on the national seal. He argued the turkey was “a more respectable Bird… a Bird of Courage.” As a result, the turkey became a central part of the holiday not just culturally but logistically. Soldiers in the Civil War were sent turkeys for Thanksgiving, cementing the bird’s place on American tables.

Meanwhile, Up North, Ohio Almost Fought a War Over Toledo

If you’re wondering why Thanksgiving weekend now doubles as the most intense sports rivalry in the country, the seeds were planted generations before Michigan ever built a football stadium.

Enter: The Toledo War, the most Midwest conflict imaginable.

Ohio and the Michigan Territory both claimed a 450-square-mile patch of land (including Toledo), and because 19th-century cartography was basically guesswork, no one could say for sure where the border actually was. Both states raised militias, drafted threats, and sent men with bayonets to stand around the Maumee River, giving each other mean looks.

The only recorded injury? A Michigan deputy was stabbed by a man named Two Stickney. And yes, that was his real name.

Eventually, President Andrew Jackson compromised:

• Ohio got Toledo
  

• Michigan got the Upper Peninsula
  

• Everyone went home annoyed
  

Historians widely agree: the resentment from that dispute laid the groundwork for what became the Ohio State–Michigan rivalry, the one that now fuels the annual disappearing-M phenomenon around Columbus.

Thanksgiving Traditions That Have Stuck Around

Ohio’s old newspapers are full of early Thanksgiving customs:

• Poems and essays about gratitude
  

• Holiday travel reports (“Aunt Mabel returns from Zanesville”)
  

• Illustrations of turkeys that look suspiciously judgmental
  

• Ads for Lazarus, which stayed open until 1 PM on Thanksgiving in 1889, proving Black Friday creep is absolutely not new
  

• Football-themed table décor, including a 1904 pumpkin painted like a college football, because Ohio State fandom predates electricity and reason

Much of what we do today, eat, gather, watch football, and complain politely, is unchanged from a century ago.

Gif by friends on Giphy

So What Is Ohio’s Thanksgiving Story?

A mix of:

• frontier wildlife chaos
  

• 19th-century newspaper proclamations
  

• a border dispute that nearly escalated into a war
  

• The evolution of our biggest sports rivalry
  

• families eating too much because Lincoln said so

The modern version, turkey, football, the annual red X over every M in town, is just Ohio layering new rituals onto the old ones.

And in a strange way, it all fits:
Thanksgiving is about history, land, identity, community, gratitude… and occasionally fighting your neighbor over who controls the Maumee River.

Happy Thanksgiving, Columbus. Enjoy the turkey. And if your family crosses out the M’s at dinner?
Just remind them: they’re participating in a tradition older than The Game itself.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: How fast can wild turkeys fly and run

A) 55 mph and 18 mph
B) 88 mph and 88 mph
C) 10 mph 3 mph
D) 35 mph 9 mph

A New Habitat ReStore Just Landed in Hilliard and It’s Huge

Black Friday has a surprise challenger this year.
It is not Target.
It is not Best Buy.
It is not your uncle who camps outside Micro Center for “tradition.”

It is Habitat for Humanity.

Habitat Mid-Ohio just opened a brand-new 29,000-square-foot ReStore on Roberts Road in Hilliard. Think warehouse-sized aisles of discounted furniture, appliances, cabinets, home goods, and the kind of random treasures people insist they’ll “use someday” and occasionally do.

But here is what makes ReStores different from your typical bargain hunt:
Every dresser, appliance, light fixture, and stack of leftover tile sold in a ReStore helps build homes for families in central Ohio. ReStore revenue covers most of Habitat’s administrative costs, which means nearly every donated dollar can go straight into construction and repairs instead of overhead.

The numbers are real.
Nearly 100 families are served every year.
More than 2,000 tons of reusable material were kept out of landfills.
And thousands of Columbus residents donated the chair they swore they would reupholster in 2019.

Why the Hilliard Store Matters

Hilliard is one of the fastest-growing corners of the region and now has its own one-stop shop for anyone who is:

• furnishing a new home
  

• renovating a room
  

• stocking up for a DIY project
  

• or just wandering around asking, “What do you think this used to be”

The new ReStore is open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 to 5. Black Friday will have giveaways, special pricing, and opening-week deals exclusive to the Roberts Road location.

How to Support the Mission

You can shop.
You can donate.
You can do both and feel like you made a dent in the world today.

Every gently used appliance, piece of furniture, tool, or leftover material helps Habitat keep inventory moving and makes homeownership possible for more families in central Ohio.

Not near Hilliard? You have options:

• Westerville, 3140 Westerville Road
  

• Bethel Road, 2555 Bethel Road
  

• Newark, 1660 N. 21st Street

The Bottom Line

This is more than a new store.
It is a visible reminder that affordable housing isn’t an unsolvable problem. It is a community project. One donated nightstand at a time.

To follow new inventory and updates, check their Facebook page.
To volunteer or support events, join their newsletter.

THE OHIO HOUSE JUST PASSED A BILL TELLING TEACHERS TO “BE MORE POSITIVE ABOUT RELIGION.” YES, THIS IS A REAL STORY.

Columbus lawmakers are back at it, this time passing something called the Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act, a name that already feels like it was generated by a malfunctioning Twitter bot.

House Bill 486 would require Ohio public school teachers to highlight the positive influence of religion, specifically Christianity, in American history lessons. Not the full picture. Not the complicated picture. Just the “good vibes only” part.

It passed 62–27, with Republicans voting yes and Democrats voting no.
A perfect, predictable, straight-down-the-middle partisan split.
Ohio politics, everyone.

What the Bill Actually Does

Ohio’s current learning standards already include Christianity, Indigenous religions, Judaism, Islam, and more, without adjectives.
Teachers can already talk about John Witherspoon, the Puritans, abolitionist pastors, religious liberty, and every sermon that ever made it into a Ken Burns documentary.

But HB 486 goes further. Much further.

It instructs teachers to emphasize the positive impacts of religion and includes a list of suggested “uplifting examples,” such as:

• The faith of the Pilgrims

• the Christian theology behind the Founders’ writings

• Witherspoon signing the Declaration

• the “divine purpose” of early American movements

Basically: history class, sponsored by a curated highlight reel.

Who’s On Board

Supporters say the bill corrects an imbalance and “reminds teachers” they’re allowed to talk about Christianity in a flattering light. One advocate said it would help students learn the moral fiber that “bound our republic together.”

Another said it would put Christianity on equal footing with trips to the Jewish Heritage Museum or school celebrations of the Lunar New Year.

Charlie Kirk’s name is attached because legislators wanted to honor him following his death, a symbolic gesture from the Statehouse to Turning Point USA’s base.

Who’s Not On Board

Opposition came from:

• educators

• historians

• interfaith groups

• advocates for the separation of church and state

• and , Christian organizations

Their argument?
Not that religion shouldn’t be taught.
But that teaching only the positive parts is the opposite of actual history.

Critics pointed out the bill’s recommended lessons include interpretations like the first Thanksgiving being purely an expression of Christian gratitude, while leaving out Indigenous spiritual practices or the realities of colonial power.

One testimony said the bill “presents students with only half the story.”
Another noted that Christianity was also used to justify slavery and manifest destiny — two fairly essential parts of America’s actual timeline.

What This Moment Says About Ohio

Every year, Thanksgiving returns and Ohio revisits the same old question:
How do we tell our history honestly?

This bill answers with:
“Tell the good parts louder.”

And that’s the tension.
History is never one thing. It’s sacred and broken, inspiring and uncomfortable, full of courage and contradiction, usually in the same chapter.

Ohio’s classrooms already teach religion.
HB 486 just wants to make sure “positive” comes attached as a mandatory adjective.

What Happens Next

HB 486 now moves to the Senate.
If it clears that chamber, it heads to the governor’s desk.

Whether it becomes law or not, one thing is clear:
Ohio is still wrestling with how to tell its own story, the real one, the whole one, the messy one, even as the Statehouse tries to tidy up the edges.

Trivia Answer:

A: Them suckers fly at 55 mph and can run 18 mph…crazy and sorta scary

Top of Mind

HOUSE BILL 492: THE “GIVE US YOUR NAME OR GO TO JAIL” BILL

Ohio lawmakers are back with another public-safety-themed solution in search of an actual problem. House Bill 492 would make it a crime punishable by up to 30 days in jail if you refuse to give police your name, address, or date of birth during a traffic stop.

Yes, this behavior is already illegal. Yes, police already have the authority to ask for ID. And yes, this bill would simply turn a minor citation into jail time.

Here’s what’s actually happening.

WHO THIS BILL TARGETS

Only drivers during traffic stops.

Not passengers.

Not pedestrians.

Not people walking down High Street with headphones in.

Just drivers, the one group already required to provide ID.

WHAT SUPPORTERS SAY

Rep. Sharon Ray (R-Medina) and Rep. Cindy Abrams (R-Harrison) argue the bill helps police quickly ID drivers with warrants or “sovereign citizens” who refuse to cooperate.

Their argument: officers need a “tool in the toolbox.”

WHAT OPPONENTS SAY

The Ohio Public Defender’s Office calls it coercive and disproportionate.

The Ohio Justice & Policy Center says it will fuel unnecessary incarceration and erode trust, especially in communities already facing disproportionate policing.

Legal groups point out the obvious: Ohio already criminalizes obstructing official business. Police already have legal remedies. No one is walking away from a traffic stop because they refused to state their name.

THE REALITY

This bill doesn’t fix a safety problem. It just adds a jail penalty to a non-violent, low-level offense that’s already covered under existing law.

It turns a moment of confusion or fear into jail time.

And it hands Ohio police even broader discretion in traffic stops at a time when public trust is already thin.

WHERE IT STANDS

HB 492 has passed out of committee and now awaits a full House vote. If it passes the House and Senate, it heads to Gov. DeWine.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Find your representative at legislature.ohio.gov and tell them what you think about HB 492,  whether you believe it improves safety or just criminalizes behavior already covered under law.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: How many grocery stores are in Ohio?

A) 2960
B) 3340
C) 5550
D) 4810

POWELL JUST GOT A 123,000-SQUARE-FOOT MONUMENT TO SUBURBAN GROCERY CULTURE

Powell has a new Kroger. And not just any Kroger, a 123,000-square-foot, $36 million superstore complete with groceries, clothes, household goods, mascots, free samples, and a parking lot that will now be the unofficial Hunger Games arena of Liberty Township.

It’s the second brand-new Kroger in the Columbus area in a year, which is remarkable considering the company didn’t open a single new local store for fifteen straight years. Powell, of course, broke the dry spell by adding thousands of homes, dozens of roundabouts, and enough new residents to convince Kroger it was finally time.

Why Powell, Why Now

Kroger already has another store three miles south, but spokesperson Mark Bruce was very clear: the suburbs are multiplying, and Powell’s rooftops have hit the magic number.

“We’ve had our eyes on this property for a while,” Bruce said, which is the closest a grocery chain will ever come to saying, “We watched the subdivisions sprout like soybeans.”

With Jerome Township getting its own new Kroger last year and Canal Winchester plus Delaware slated for openings next year, the Kroger drought is officially over. The floodgates have opened, and they are stocked with produce misting every 12 seconds.

The Grand Opening Circus

This being Powell, people camped out for hours.

Not for eggs. Not for deli meat.

For a Starbucks Bearista cup that,  plot twist, wasn’t even available at the in-store Starbucks.

The ribbon-cutting included mascots (yes, Brutus showed up to bless the aisles), free samples, raffles, and enough crowd energy to make you forget we were talking about a grocery store and not Taylor Swift tickets.

Shoppers arrived from Powell, Dublin, and probably a few people who claim Powell but actually live in Liberty Township. Many, like Ronnia Fort, said they’ll add the new location to their rotation strictly for variety.

A Grocery Lifeline

The new store instantly becomes the closest fresh-food option for thousands of nearby homes.

People like Marcie Lindo, who lives just over a mile away, walked in, saw the overflowing parking lot, and realized Powell just leveled up.

No closures are planned for any other local Kroger stores. This is expansion, not replacement. And if you’ve driven through northern Delaware County lately, that checks out.

The Bigger Picture

This isn’t just a grocery store. It’s another marker of how fast the region is growing and how quickly Columbus’ outer suburbs are turning into small cities of their own. Powell now has the kind of massive, full-service Kroger that usually lands in places like New Albany or Dublin.

And if you’re wondering how long it’ll take before they add a fuel center, a wine bar, or a drive-thru pharmacy shaped like a barn, the answer is probably “already in the works.”

If you’d like, I can also produce a shorter Instagram caption version.

THE BLOOD BATTLE: COLUMBUS’ OTHER FAVORITE WAY TO BEAT MICHIGAN

It’s that time of year when Ohio State and Michigan square off in the most Midwestern competition imaginable: seeing which campus can donate more blood without passing out.

And good news, the Buckeyes are three-time defending champions, which means we’ve been out-bleeding Ann Arbor since 2022. A dynasty, but with snacks and juice boxes.

The 2025 Blood Battle runs from October 22 to November 26, and the goal is simple: donate blood on Ohio State’s campus and keep the trophy where it belongs.

What’s at Stake

Last year, OSU took the title because thousands of students, staff, alumni, and maybe a few people who just wanted a free T-shirt rolled up their sleeves. This year, Michigan wants revenge. And the only thing standing in their way is… you. And everyone you can drag with you.

The Main Event

Ohio Stadium Blood Drive

Tuesday, November 18

11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Ohio Stadium Recruit Room, Gate 30

Every donor walks away with:

• The exclusive 2025 Blood Battle T-shirt

• A shot at OSU–Michigan game tickets or signed Coach Day memorabilia

• Stadium tours

• A meet-and-greet with Brutus

• Free parking (which, honestly, is a prize by itself)

Why Should you Donate?
Blood donations drop every fall just as demand goes up. Winning the Blood Battle is fun, but hospitals in Central Ohio actually rely on this drive to fill critical shortages heading into the holidays.

If you’ve ever complained about long ER wait times or how impossible parking at the Wexner is, here’s a problem you can actually solve in under an hour.

Want In?

Sign up, show up, bleed scarlet, and make sure that Michigan goes home empty-handed.

Let’s give more Blood and Collect more food!

UNITED RIVALS: WHEN BUCKEYES AND WOLVERINES AGREE ON SOMETHING

There’s only one week a year when Ohio State and Michigan fans willingly stand in the same parking lot without shouting at each other. That week is now.

On Thursday, Nov 20, from 4 to 7 p.m., United Way of Central Ohio is hosting the United Rivals Tailgate at Grange Insurance on High Street. The mission is simple. Before the teams fight on the field, the fans fight childhood hunger.

Volunteers will pack 1,000 snack bags for two groups feeding kids over the holidays: Feed the Kids Columbus and St. Stephen’s Community House. It’s the stretch of the year when free and reduced lunch disappears and need spikes, and central Ohio families feel it.

The event comes with the full tailgate starter pack. Food. DJ. Cornhole tournament. A best-dressed fan showdown. Even a Michigan versus Ohio joke contest, because some traditions cannot be suspended. Former Buckeye and NFL lineman Doug Worthington will be there, plus other guests brave enough to stand between these two fan bases.

If you can’t make it downtown, donating fifty dollars or more gets you a United Rivals shirt shipped to your door. Every dollar helps fill the gap for kids who don’t get to choose which rivalry they were born into.

Click Here to help:

Trivia Answer:

B: 3340

Top of Mind

The nation’s food program is officially caught in the world’s worst bureaucratic ping-pong match.

Late Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the Trump administration, freezing lower court rulings that had ordered full SNAP payments during the federal shutdown. Within hours, the U.S. Department of Agriculture told states to “undo” those payments, or risk losing federal funding altogether.

Ohio hit pause. Wisconsin refused.
Twenty-six states sued. Millions of Americans checked their EBT cards and found nothing.

Here in Franklin County, one in eight residents relies on SNAP. That’s $263 million in benefits suddenly stalled. Food pantries have stepped in where Washington stepped out.
On the Hilltop, My Family Pantry director Saad Ijaz says they’re scrambling to meet the surge, calling restaurants and grocery stores for donations as lines stretch down the block. “People don’t come to these parts of Columbus if they live in the suburbs,” he said. “They aren’t aware of the kind of struggles people have in these parts.

As federal agencies trade memos and lawsuits, local groups are doing what Columbus always does, feeding its own.
Heading into the holidays, demand at food banks can spike 30%, and shelves are already thinning.

If you want to help:

• Donate to Mid-Ohio Food Collective or My Family Pantry

• Drop canned goods in your neighborhood food box

• Or skip one DoorDash order and turn it into dinner for someone else

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: What is the average SNAP benefit per month for an Ohio resident?

A) $190
B) $300
C) $560
D) $375

 Roll With It: Pro Bowling Returns to the Palace

For the first time in 35 years, the pros are coming back to Columbus Square Bowling Palace.

When the PBA Ohio Classic rolls into town on April 5, 2026, it’ll be more than a tournament. It’ll be a time warp. The last time the national tour stopped here, E.T. was still in theaters, Ronald Reagan was in office, and Saturday afternoon bowling on ABC pulled more viewers than college football.

The Palace wasn’t just another bowling alley back then; it was part of the broadcast. Six nationally televised events were filmed there through the 1980s, when bowling’s top names, Pete Weber, Mark Roth, Walter Ray Williams Jr. were household figures. The building itself was built for that kind of spectacle: 68,000 square feet, 64 lanes, and Central Ohio’s largest bowling center, still family-owned and operated since it opened in 1983.

Then, like so many parts of American leisure culture, bowling’s prime-time run faded. The PBA stayed alive, but the cameras didn’t. The Palace turned inward, hosting leagues, OHSAA tournaments, and the kind of birthday parties that smell like pepperoni pizza and burnt neon.

Columbus still found ways to stay on the pro map. Wayne Webb’s Columbus Bowl hosted the PBA Players Championship from 2016 to 2020. Western Bowl held a U.S. Open in 2013. The city never lost its appetite for bowling; it just stopped being televised.

That ends next spring. The PBA’s new TV deal with The CW Network will bring 10 consecutive weeks of live broadcasts under the title “PBA Championship Sundays,” and Columbus gets one of them. The April 5 broadcast will beam the Bowling Palace, and its unapologetic 1980s charm, back onto national screens for the first time in decades.

For anyone who grew up in the glow of those lanes, this return means more than nostalgia. It’s a full-circle moment for a sport that helped define weekend TV and for a venue that never stopped showing up for its community, even when the lights went out.

The lanes are polished, the pins are set, and the Palace is finally back in the game.

Turbulence at John Glenn: The Shutdown Takes Off 

If you were hoping for a smooth trip out of Columbus this weekend, you might want to unpack your bags.

At least five flights were canceled out of John Glenn Columbus International Airport on Sunday, part of a growing national wave of travel disruptions tied to the ongoing federal government shutdown.

The list included routes to D.C., Chicago, and Orlando, the holy trinity of layovers. American and Southwest both pulled flights, leaving travelers stranded, rebooked, or explaining to Grandma that Thanksgiving might have to happen over FaceTime.

Federal officials say the chaos may just be getting started. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy (yes, the former Real World guy turned cabinet member) warned that air travel could “slow to minimal levels” in the coming weeks as TSA agents and air traffic controllers work without pay, or stop showing up entirely. Nearly 3,000 flights were canceled nationwide on Nov. 9 alone, with another 1,500 the following day.

So far, TSA lines at John Glenn have remained surprisingly normal, but travelers are already feeling the ripple effects from canceled connections and tighter schedules.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” one traveler told ABC6. “A little structure would be nice.”

Meanwhile, flight reductions are expected to ramp up from 4% to 10% across 40 major airports, just in time for the holiday travel season. Columbus isn’t on that list yet, but good luck finding a connecting flight that isn’t.

If you’re flying this week, check flycolumbus.com before you head out. Or better yet, drive. At least I-71 doesn’t shut down when Congress does

The Vanity of the Plate

Ohio’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles, protector of the open road and occasional arbiter of free speech, is being sued, again, over what people are allowed to say on their license plates.

A Lakewood man’s request for “GAY” and a Strongsville man’s request for “MUSLIM” were both denied under the state’s vanity plate rules, which prohibit anything that’s “profane, sexually explicit, advocates lawlessness, or could provoke a violent response.”

Apparently, that includes words describing an identity.

It’s not the first time the BMV’s approval algorithm has gone off the rails. The agency once banned “H8OHIO,” “IH8OHIO,” and “H8MYST8” for being too negative about the state, but approved “LUV OH” and “LUVN OH.” You can get “STR8” and “CIS,” but not “GAY,” “QUEER,” or “LESBIAN.” Bureaucracy, but make it moral philosophy.

Cleveland attorney Brian Bardwell is representing both cases, calling the system “arbitrary and discriminatory.” The BMV, for its part, rejects around 800 plate requests a year, which is apparently enough to justify its own censorship department.

This follows another lawsuit filed by Jeffrey Wonser of Heath, who wanted the plate “F46 LGB” a reference to President Biden (the 46th) and the coded conservative slogan “Let’s Go Brandon.” The BMV said no, first for being “potentially inappropriate,” then for being “obscene or scatological.” Wonser called the process “a largely arbitrary censorship regime,” and the lawsuit cites the rejection of “TIGSUX” (deemed likely to incite football violence) as evidence.

All this traces back to a 2003 settlement, when a man sued the BMV after his plate “RDRAGE” was denied for promoting aggression. The state lost, agreed to clear up its standards, and then just kept moving the goalposts.

The new lawsuits argue the rules are so vague they’re unconstitutional, a claim that might actually hold up if the case doesn’t get stuck in a bureaucratic loop like the plates themselves.

Somewhere, someone is still driving around with “LUV OH.” Everyone else is still waiting for their turn to offend the BMV.

Trivia Answer:

A: $190 I know, shocking, right?

Top of Mind

THE SCARLET VOTER GUIDE

Tomorrow, Columbus votes. For parks. For potholes. For people who will inevitably tweet “honored to serve.”
Here’s everything you need to know before you get in line behind that one guy who forgot his ID.

WHEN AND WHERE TO VOTE

Election Day: Tuesday, November 4
Hours: 6:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Early voting: Over. You had your chance.

Polling place lookup: vote.franklincountyohio.gov
Bring: A valid photo ID, Ohio driver’s license, state ID, passport, or military ID.
If it’s expired or from Planet Fitness, it doesn’t count.

If you forget your ID, you can still vote provisionally, but you’ll need to show up later with proof you exist.

WHAT’S NEW THIS YEAR

• District elections: For the first time in modern history, Columbus voters actually have City Council districts. Candidates have to live near the people they represent. Bold idea.
  

• Stricter ID rules: The days of voting with a utility bill are gone. Bring a government-issued plastic with your face on it.
  

• Property taxes: Expect to see a few “renewals” that feel suspiciously like raises.

WHO CAN VOTE FOR WHAT

• Citywide voters: City Council District 7 and all five Columbus bond issues.
  

• County voters: The Zoo and ADAMH levies.
  

• Township/School voters: Depends on where you live, Blendon, Mifflin, Whitehall, Jonathan Alder, Olentangy, and Westerville all have local measures.
  Check your sample ballot: voteohio.gov

CITY COUNCIL – DISTRICT 7

(Downtown, German Village, Brewery District, Franklinton, Milo Groden, and more)

Tiara Ross

• Assistant City Attorney, Property Action Team.
  

• Priorities: Violence prevention, transparency, and racial and economic equity.
  

• Backed by unions and people who like their city attorneys visible.
  

Jesse Vogel

• Immigration attorney.
  

• Platform: eviction defense, property tax relief, fare-free COTA.
  

• Endorsed by AFSCME and probably your public defender.
  

Summary: Ross is the inside favorite; Vogel’s the reformer with bus fare on his mind.

COLUMBUS SCHOOL BOARD

Six candidates, one very large budget deficit.

Patrick Katzenmeyer, Jermaine Kennedy, Janeece Keyes, Mounir Lynch, Kimberley Mason, Antoinette Miranda

They’ll be deciding on school budgets, staffing cuts, and whether your neighborhood school gets AC before 2030.
Forums have focused on teacher pay, safety, and district transparency.

HOW IT HITS YOUR WALLET

COUNTY AND CITYWIDE ISSUES

ADAMH Levy, Mental Health Renewal and Increase

Keeps crisis hotlines, addiction recovery, and prevention programs funded. Renewal plus a bump to cover rising demand.
Vote YES if you like functioning social services; NO if you believe mental health is a luxury.

Zoo Levy, Renewal

Funds the Columbus Zoo & Aquarium. Keeps animal habitats clean, research funded, and kids distracted.
Costs less than one latte a month.

COLUMBUS BOND ISSUES

The city wants nearly $2 billion in new bonds, borrowed money for public projects.
City Hall promises “no new taxes,” which is technically true; it’s the debt we’ll repay later.

1. Safety, Health & Infrastructure: Police, fire stations, and basic services.
   

2. Recreation & Parks: Playgrounds, trails, and maybe another pickleball court.
   

3. Public Service: Streets, trash, sidewalks, plows.
   

4. Neighborhood Development: Affordable housing and “revitalization” (aka construction).
   

5. Public Utilities: Water, sewer, and the infrastructure no one Instagrams.
   

🏘 LOCAL BALLOT ISSUES

Whitehall: A cluster of referendums on new housing tax breaks. Residents are trying to stop “Fairway Cliffs,” a proposed development with fancy branding and fewer taxes.

Blendon & Mifflin Townships: Police levies to boost staffing and funding.

School Districts:

• Jonathan Alder and Olentangy want bonds for new buildings.
  

• Westerville wants a 0.75% income tax for operating costs.

HOW TO DOUBLE-CHECK YOUR BALLOT

Confirm your registration, polling place, and sample ballot here:
👉 vote.franklincountyohio.gov
👉 voteohio.gov

QUICK PICKS: YOUR 60-SECOND CHEAT SHEET

• City Council: Ross vs. Vogel: lawyer vs. lawyer, insider vs. reformer.
  

• School Board: Six candidates, same old budget crisis.
  

• County Levies: Mental health + zoo = small tax, big impact.
  

• City Bonds: Columbus wants $1.9 billion to fix itself.
  

• Townships/Schools: More cops, newer schools, higher taxes.
  

Voting is Important 

Because Columbus is booming, but growth without governance turns into gridlock.
Because your neighborhood deserves more than “out of service” signs and “underfunded” excuses.
And because if you don’t vote, someone who thinks “Trees are DEI” Probably will.

I hope this helps. 

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: In 2023 (a non-major election year), what percentage of registered voters voted in Franklin County?

A) 33%
B) 78%
C) 49%
D) 56%

SNAP DECISION LEAVES OHIO FAMILIES HUNGRY FOR ANSWERS

For more than 1.5 million Ohioans, the first of the month usually means one thing: the grocery budget reloads. But this month, the checkout line came with confusion instead of relief.

As the federal government stumbled into another funding lapse, two judges, one in Massachusetts, one in Rhode Island, ordered the USDA to use $5 billion in emergency funds to keep SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) alive. That should have kept the money flowing. In practice, Ohio food banks say it’s already too late.

The Ohio Association of Foodbanks estimates a $263 million monthly gap statewide, with the average recipient getting about $190 a month, money that usually lands before the calendar flips. Even if the rulings hold, payments could take 48 to 72 hours to process, creating a dangerous lag for families already living day to day.

The Mid-Ohio Food Collective and pantries across Franklin County have sounded the alarm, warning of “unprecedented need.” Some food banks were forced to close their doors temporarily on November 1 as shelves ran dry and demand spiked. “When benefits are delayed, families lose more than assistance; they lose stability,” said Worthington Resource Pantry Director Nick Linkenhoker.

SNAP serves one in eight Franklin County residents, and every dollar in food stamps is estimated to stretch nearly nine times farther than food pantry meals. Which means when SNAP stumbles, every relief agency buckles.

City and state leaders, including Mayor Ginther, Governor DeWine, and The Columbus Foundation, have rushed emergency funding to local organizations. But as the Trump administration’s shutdown drags on, contingency funds can only cover 60% of national SNAP needs for a single month.

The irony? The program literally designed to prevent hunger, is now waiting in line itself.

HOW TO HELP

Don’t overthink it. Families are waiting, shelves are empty, and the Mid-Ohio Food Collective needs help now.

Every dollar donated turns into five dollars of food, that goes a lot further then you dropping off an old can of green beans.

Give directly at midohiofoodbank.org/donate or find a local pantry at ohiofoodbanks.org.

Football is Life

The Columbus Crew beat that ass!

After dropping Game 1 of the “Hell Is Real” playoff series last week, the Crew came back Saturday at Lower.com Field and lit up the scoreboard like a Sunday sermon, winning 4–0 in front of a delirious home crowd, and, yes, Ted Lasso’s own Danny Rojas was there to witness it. (Football is life, but apparently so is Columbus.)

Max Arfsten opened the scoring in the 33rd minute, breezing past Cincinnati’s defense like they’d just remembered they still live in Ohio’s second-favorite city. Moments later, Cincy’s Yuya Kubo picked up two yellows and a red, gifting Columbus a one-man advantage and an all-access pass to their backline. Dylan Chambost bent in a free kick for the ages to make it 2–0 by halftime.

In the second half, Andres Herrera and Jacen Russell-Rowe added goals three and four, turning “Hell Is Real” into more of a group therapy session for FC Cincinnati. The Crew finished with 19 shots to Cincy’s one, proving that sometimes stats do tell the story.

Game 3 kicks off Nov. 8 in Cincinnati, where the Crew will try to finish the job and punch their ticket to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Cristo Fernandez AKA Danny Rojas, from the just wonderful show Ted Lasso, showed up to cheer on the crew as they put that beat down on Cincinnati

Hemp Updates

In a rare act of bipartisan clarity, the Ohio Senate voted 32–0 to reject the House’s version of Senate Bill 56, a piece of legislation that somehow managed to make everyone mad, weed advocates, hemp sellers, and lawmakers alike.

This was supposed to be the grand “cleanup” bill after voters passed Issue 2 last year, legalizing recreational marijuana with 57% support. Instead, the House rewrote it into something that looked more like a buzzkill than reform.

The bill would’ve capped THC levels in marijuana flower at 35% and extracts at 70%, made out-of-state weed “contraband,” and banned smoking almost anywhere fun. It also tried to regulate hemp by slapping on a 10% sales tax and limiting who could sell THC drinks, 5mg at bars, 10mg in stores.

Supporters called it “safety.” Opponents called it “micromanaging the munchies.”

Even the Senate couldn’t stomach it. Lawmakers said the House version “failed to close the loophole for synthetic THC” and left “too many problems to fix.” Translation: this bill was a contact high of bad drafting.

The ACLU of Ohio didn’t mince words either, calling it “a rebuke of the people and businesses that legalized marijuana in the first place.”

Now, the bill heads back to the drawing board, or, more specifically, to a conference committee where legislators will try to patch it together again. Meanwhile, Governor DeWine’s ban on intoxicating hemp remains blocked in court until December, leaving Ohio’s weed world in limbo.

For now, adult-use marijuana is still legal, hemp drinks are still controversial, and the Ohio Statehouse continues to prove that writing cannabis law is the one thing they can’t do bluntly.

Trivia Answer:

C: 49% in major election years, the average is 70%