Please Stop Raining
Earthquakes, floods and tornadoes rock Ohio, Columbus teachers strike looms, and more.
My old friend, Zach Smith, stopped responding to my Twitter DMs. I’m starting to think he wasn’t sincere about “loving to have me on.” Can’t say I am surprised.
Given that I offered Smith a chance to defend himself, I now have to decide what do with the sizable dossier I collected in preparation for a confrontation that would likely embarrass Ohio State alumni from coast to coast but deliver great content the internet craves.
BIBLICAL WEATHER CONTINUES
While I could do without winter, I always respected Ohio’s weather for not including extreme natural disasters outside the odd tornado and flood.
2019, however, feels different. Take, for example, a 72-hour span in Northeastern Ohio this past weekend.
From Kaylyn Hlavaty of news5cleveland.com:
Areas hit hardest by the flooding include many cities in Summit County, such as Barberton, Copley and Norton. Entire intersections are underwater. News 5's morning crew captured what was left after the heavy rain. The intersection at Norton Avenue and Fourth Street near Barberton High School is closed to traffic because of high water.
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Small earthquake
As if all this rain wasn't enough, a 1.5 earthquake hit Willowick on Sunday night. This one comes on the heels of the 4.2 quake that was centered north of Lake County in Lake Erie last week. More on the small earthquake here.…
The National Weather Service confirmed that not one but two EF-1 tornadoes touched down in Northeast Ohio Sunday: one for about two miles in Cuyahoga County, and the other for about 13 miles in Trumbull County.
Between earthquakes, tornadoes, and flooding becoming a regular occurrence along side the impending crop crisis, Ohio’s government leaders should recognize climate change as the existential threat it has become.
Oh. Wait. That’s right—we just eliminated clean energy standards in a bill that bailed out decrepit nuclear plants and coal plants (including one in Indiana).
Given the current trajectory, I’d rather die in a climate that doesn’t feature three months of winter. In other news, it’s supposed to storm five of the next six days.
COLUMBUS TEACHERS STRIKE LOOMS
Columbus politicians love to brag about the booming local economy. But that means a more expensive standard of living, which is problematic for public school teachers who have seen wages stagnated and cuts to classroom support.
The Columbus Education Association and supporters marched through the downtown streets in May to register their frustration with city leaders. Tonight the shit show calling itself the Board of Education will meet to vote on a plan to import scab labor should the teachers union strike in August.
From Paige Pflegler of wosu.org:
The Columbus Board of Education is expected to vote Tuesday on a contingency plan for a possible teacher strike.
Teachers will see their current union contract expire in August, the day before school year begins. Staff and administrators have been at odds over issues including pay, classroom size, and property tax abatements for developers.
The Columbus Education Association voted to give negotiators permission to issue a 10-day strike notice if necessary. In response, the school board asked for recommendations for a professional service contract that would provide staff in the case of a strike.
The move has angered union members.
The local Democratic machine has robbed schools to pay out-of-state real estate developers, because Americans are consumers at heart and only pretend to care about schools as long as their taxes don’t get raised.
This fight has been a long time coming, and it’s telling the Board’s first move is to look to important scab labor. If Columbus is half as progressive as it pretends, that move backfire as students and support staff refuse to cross the picket line.
When that strike does come, we’ll see how many local politicians will be on the picket line supporting teachers. I don’t think it will be many.
NATIONAL MEDIA OUTLET FINALLY REALIZES YOUNGSTOWN IS BLACK
National outlets have parachuted into the Mahoning Valley to take the pulse of White working-class voters who exclusively eat at a handful of diners that populate the countryside.
They ignore two glaring facts: A majority of American working-class people aren’t white, and a majority of Youngstown, the biggest city in the Valley, has a Black majority.
That drought is over.
From Henry Grabar of slate.com:
It has been a slow half-century since the crisis began. The city’s longtime black residents remember what, in retrospect, look like the good times. On a recent morning, I sat in a bar called the Pit Stop with a group of older, black men who have been meeting for breakfast for more than a decade. “Jack’s Jury,” they call themselves, after Jack Carter, a former Ohio Department of Transportation worker and the group’s mischievous, raspy-voiced patriarch. There were two words I was told not to mention as we sipped coffee: work and Trump.
This used to be a white bar. “Ten years ago, I couldn’t walk in here,” said Carl Bryant, a former TV newsman. The group is on its fifth location, after three previous meeting spots closed and one was sold.
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[Tre] Lewis was one of those people who did not vote for president, for the first time in his adult life. He has plenty to say about why he finds Donald Trump appalling: his comments about women, his deportation of a local Jordanian business owner, his petty feuds. But he found little to like in Hillary Clinton; he told me that he felt she was hiding something. Other black voters in Youngstown told me they didn’t like her stance on trade or abortion, or remembered her “superpredators” speech, or her husband’s crime and welfare bills.
“They need to give a sense of reality, not false hope,” said Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, when we spoke on the phone about how the Democrats could counter Trump’s appeal in the county. “The reality is we have tough economic issues. But in a place like Youngstown, Ohio, we don’t just want a campaign speech every 3½ years.” I asked the mayor which presidential candidates he liked, and he did not hesitate: “Tim Ryan” —the local congressmen, who is currently polling at 0.5 percent. “He understands what we’re going through.”
God Bless Black voters. They saw right through President Deals’ bullshit.
Unfortunately for the Democrats, our party sachems got behind an automaton whose best feature was that she wasn’t a criminal game-show host with a speed addiction.
I’d like to think we have learned the lesson of nominating a bland centrist against an inveterate liar like President Deals, but Joe Biden has been campaigning for over a month and hasn’t been drummed out in embarrassment.
DELAWARE DENIED DOME ENTRY
Delaware County built a $1 million dome in the State Park to protect campers if a tornado touched down. That sounds cool and good as long as campers can access the dome if there lives are in danger.
From Dean Narciso of dispatch.com:
DELAWARE — Officials wanted to know why dozens of campers were left soaked and stranded after the electronic door locks on a $1 million tornado shelter failed to unlock during an actual tornado warning.
The reinforced concrete of the new dome-shaped shelter at Delaware State Park is designed to withstand hurricane-force winds and save lives — but only if you can get inside.
On Saturday night, Stacy Cummings and her three daughters from Huron County were in their camper when the first warning sounded around 10 p.m. They immediately drove about a quarter-mile to the shelter and were greeted with a downpour, whaling sirens and a full parking lot.
Her daughter, Annie, 20, fell face down while running to the door. It was locked.
About 20 people were huddled at the dark entrance wondering why it wasn’t open. Annie cut her fingers after jumping to reach a metal latch.
Woof. Good thing the dome’s services weren’t needed, because if disaster had struck there would be a line of trial lawyers lined up to Marion ready to bankrupt Delaware County for negligent deaths.
But spending $1 million on a dome that doesn’t work in times of disaster isn’t a great look nonetheless.
OHIO TOWNS: STILL HARD TO PRONOUNCE
Ohio sits on stolen Indigenous land and in its heyday was a hotspot for immigrants, so we have a hodgepodge of wild-ass names that sound nothing like they look.
Here are some examples.
From Andrea Reeves of cincinnati.com:
Cheviot
SHI-vee-uht ... but also SHE-vee-uht
The "e" is pronounced as an "i," according to some. Others insist it's pronounced as it is spelled. A call to city hall revealed the same: Some pronounce it one way, others prefer the other.
Having two pronunciations for your town name is damn near the most Ohio thing I’ve ever read.
Louisville
LOO-iss-vill
If you're going to visit this Ohio town, which sits northeast of Canton, and you're used to the (very) specific way you are directed to pronounce the Kentucky version (LOU-uh-vuhl) by Louisville, Kentucky, natives, you're going to have to re-learn. This town is pronounced just like it looks.
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Gnadenhutten
NAYD-uhn-huh-ten
Doesn't this sound like some kind of German pastry? Is it just us? Now we're hungry.
Russia being pronounced “Roo-she” infuriated me when I first heard it. Absolutely no reason for that to be pronounced that way. Same with Houston (How-ston).
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