Rooster: Columbus Teachers Are Fed Up
Rooster: Columbus Teachers Are Fed Up
Tony Grossi is still an asshole, former Columbus vice cops sued once again, and more.
The Columbus Blue Jackets face the diabolical Boston Bruins in Beantown in Game 1 of the second round of the NHL playoffs tonight at 7 p.m. on NBC Sports Network.
I’ve undergone my annual transition from vaguely aware of professional hockey to No. 1 CBJ fan. Got my sweatshirt ready to rock, baby, and I’m ready to see what this second round is all about! Looking forward to making all the racist Boston sports fans (repetitive, I know) cry when they get swept by a team that has yet to hoist the Stanley Cup.
COLUMBUS TEACHERS DO THE DAMN THING
Columbus advertises itself as a progressive bastion, which, in Central Ohio — sure.
But if you look past the restaurants and bars with ampersands in their name and our 15,000 breweries, you quickly learn the explosion of mixed-used buildings from out-of-state developers came on the backs of local schoolchildren and teachers.
This fight has been brewing for awhile, and the Columbus Education Association took to the streets with ~1,000 strong at 11 a.m. on a Wednesday to send a message to the fake progressives in City Hall.
From Nick Evans of wosu.org:
[Columbus Education Association President John] Coneglio took particular aim at CoverMyMeds, a Columbus-based health care software company that was acquired in 2017 for $1.3 billion. Coneglio says CoverMyMeds and its downtown headquarters will avoid more than $50 million in property taxes thanks to the abatement it received from the city.
“We cannot continue to return time and time again to individual taxpayers to shoulder the burden of funding our schools while the richest among us don’t help push the cart,” Coneglio says.
Because schools relying on property tax receipts, Coneglio argues those incentives aren’t sustainable.
“Columbus City Schools estimates that from 2000 to 2016, they lost over $148 million in property tax revenue to abatements alone, and that was before CoverMyMeds,” he says.
Fun fact: CoverMyMeds is a subsidiary of McKesson, the sixth most-profitable company in America. It also played a key role in flooding America with highly addictive opioid pills. The City Council and Board of Education awarded CoverMyMeds with a 15-year tax abatement worth roughly $55 million to move its headquarters a few miles away to Franklinton.
Cities racing to the bottom and falling over themselves to throw bags of cash at rich corporations is how business is done in America because our federal government refuses to ban the practice. So 1,200 jobs moving into Franklinton is seen as a win for the area despite it being the opposite of that for local students.
I attended the march, and some of the stories I heard from teachers were horrifying. In my day, art and music teachers had their own rooms. Columbus Public Schools have reduced them to a cart that’s wheeled around the school to various locations. Special education teachers have classes 133% the size of state guidelines. Not to mention crumbling buildings filled with mold.
At least Columbus voters will have a choice in city council elections. Two candidates had wide support at the rally: Liliana Rivera Baiman and Joe Motil.
I spoke with Motil, a 30-year veteran of the labor movement, and he explained it’s the perfect time for Columbus voters to enact change. No Republicans are on the ballot, and it’s not like any of them will be looking to support candidates of the machine that pushed them into extinction.
He wagers 30,000 votes can win the election. That’s not an impossible mission, and I plan on working for both Baiman and Motil this fall. I’m sick of developers who don’t love in Columbus profiteering on the backs of children.
THERE’S A REASON TONY GROSSI IS THE MOST REVILED BROWNS MEDIA MEMBER
It took Baker Mayfield less than one season in Cleveland to realize Tony Grossi is a product of a bygone age and all-around cantankerous asshole.
Odell Beckham Jr. didn’t even need one practice in Cleveland to come to the same conclusion.
From Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com:
Tony Grossi of espncleveland.com posed the question “Hey, Odell: Where are you?’’ in an open letter to the Browns receiver on Tuesday, questioning why he’s not with most of the rest of his teammates at the extra minicamp awarded to new head coaches.
…
In the letter to Beckham, Grossi asks, “Don’t you feel a responsibility to be here?" He adds, “We know you’re in great physical condition. Frankly, I’m a little concerned about your mental condition."
The latter was a reference to Beckham’s Twitter rant on Monday night, mostly against the Giants and GM Dave Gettleman, who indicated Beckham was a culture problem in New York and gave him a chilly sendoff.
Ah yes, the “open letter,” the favorite form of the arrogant writer to proffer unsolicited advice to someone who wouldn’t give them the time of day.
Speculating about a player’s mental health is something usually reserved for anonymous Twitter users with six numbers in their alias and a dog and/or baby avatar. Not something you’d expect from a credentialed member of the media, but hey, that’s just Grossi doing as Grossi does.
And no, I’m not keen on NFL players settling scores on Twitter, but hey — plenty of characters have done much weirder things than post online and succeeded as a wide receiver in the NFL.
I’m not fretting unless it’s Week 7 and OBJ is carrying himself like Dwayne Bowe, who I still can’t believe avoided embezzlement charges during his one disastrous year in the Sleeve.
KAHOOTS DANCERS LOOK FOR THE LAST LAUGH AGAINST DISGRACED VICE UNIT
Columbus city government’s fecklessness in refusing to rein in a wildly corrupt vice unit until it illegally targeted one of President Deals’ most vocal critics and murdered a 120-pound sex worker will likely result in the city taxpayers doling out another bag of cash for the idiotic actions of a couple of cops.
From Bethany Bruner of dispatch.com:
Six women who were charged by detectives Steven Rosser and Whitney Lancaster have filed a lawsuit seeking monetary damages.
Six women who worked as dancers at a strip club and were charged by two Columbus vice detectives who have since been suspended have filed a federal lawsuit against the officers.
All six of the women worked at Kahoots Gentlemen’s Club, at 4522 Kenny Road on the Northwest Side, in 2017 or 2018 and were arrested by either detective Whitney Lancaster or detective Steven Rosser, both of whom worked for the Police Division’s now-disbanded vice unit.
According to the lawsuit, filed April 16 in U.S. District Court in Columbus by attorney David Goldstein, the women and Kahoots were targeted by Lancaster and Rosser as retaliation for the firing of a bouncer who allegedly worked as an informant for Rosser.
No wonder these clowns thought they could e-mail about their plan to arrest Stormy Daniels and get away with it. They had clearly been intimidating strippers for years!
OHIO: THE WORST STATE FOR UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS
Ohio Republican lawmakers love to grandstand about how they support immigrants who want to come to America “the right way,” as if their syphilitic great-grandfather didn’t stowaway on a merchant ship to put a sea between him and his seven bastard children.
Of course none of them want to make it easier to immigrate to America, which means migrants will do what they have done since the inception of our country… risk it all for the betterment of their family.
And while our state voted for the racist billionaire who campaigned on building a 2,200-mile concrete wall and making Mexico pay for it, Ohio is actually the worst state for undocumented workers.
From Lynn Tramonte of medium.com:
The report focuses on state policies as of 2014 in nine categories across five areas: public health and welfare, higher education, labor and employment, access to driver licensing and government ID card programs, and enforcement of the federal Secure Communities program — all of which influence the health of immigrants and their families.
The researchers rated each state’s policies as “inclusive” (supporting health and well-being) or “exclusive” (harming health and well-being). Scores, which ranged from +1 to -1 for each category, were then tallied for an overall rating for each state. The average total score was -2.5 points.
Ohio’s ranking? Dead last. From charging immigrants exorbitant college tuition rates to blocking access to a basic driver’s license and suppressing labor rights, our policies and actors collaborate to keep immigrants in the margins.
Seems like attracting immigrants would be a win for a state that’s declined in population over the last 50 years, but what do I know?
WHITEHALL TEEN WINS RUMBLE WITH GOOSE, LOSES NEXT ROUND TO THE POLICE
Teenagers are as powerful as they are dumb. No story may better illustrate that phenomenon than this one.
From Ted Hart of nbc4.com:
Andre Teague, 18, was holding a rolled up shirt in his hands when police stopped him early in the morning of April 17. When he dropped the shirt, two large eggs fell out and hit the pavement.
Police had received a call earlier that morning of a man hitting a goose.
On police bodycam video, Teague initially says he got the eggs from the grocery store where he works. Police say he eventually confessed to taking the eggs from the nest and admits to taking a swing at the angry goose.
“It came charging at me,” Teague tells the officer in a police report. “I wanted to pet it or whatever and then it bite (sic) me. So i just ...wanted to take one of the eggs to see if it hatch over at my house.”
Geese are some of the fiercest birds alive when it comes to protecting their young… and this teen just killed it with one punch? And then he thought the move was taking the eggs back to his house to raise the young he had just made orphans?
Like I said: Incredibly powerful and stupid. I’m glad I survived my formative years without killing myself, my friends, or a mother goose.
THOSE WMDs. How to throw your life away.. Maximum security prisoners debated Cambridge University students about nuclear weapons — and won… The man who sailed around the world with a chicken… Feds probe Illinois governor, first lady… This was supposed to be a story about an anti-vaccine rally and a sedated bear. Then it got weird.