EXCLUSIVE: Three Friends Form New Venture to Tell Story of Central Ohio Businesses Battered by COVID Restrictions

It was spring of 2020 and three friends were sitting in their regular gathering place in the Short North – the district just north of downtown Columbus.

“We were looking around at all these businesses downtown; boarded up, closed or empty – more employees than customers,” said Lad Dilgard, a management consultant and real estate investor.

He continued “behind every one of those is a story; the story of an entrepreneur, manager, supplier, landlord, employees and customers. There are horror stories going on. COVID-craziness with all the lockdowns.  We wanted to give businesses some visibility. What they’re going through and the collateral damage they are suffering.”

Fast forward to March 2021 – after weekly Saturday morning sessions during which one of the three buddies would bring breakfast and another lunch, the trio released a short film under the banner of their own production company, Fire Owl – Behind the Mandates: Untold stories of local businesses.

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Commentary: Trumpism—Without Trump?

Six weeks ago, Americans were assured that Donald Trump had left the presidency on January 20, 2021 disgraced and forever ruined politically. 

Trump was the first president to be impeached twice, and first to be tried as a private citizen when out of office. He was the first to be impeached without the chief justice of the United States presiding over his trial.

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Child Migration Quickly Overwhelming Biden Administration’s Resources, Internal Documents Show

The number of child migrants crossing the United States’ southern border is quickly exceeding the federal government’s ability to hold them, internal documents from the Department of Health and Human Services show.

In the final week of February, Border Patrol referred an average of 321 children a day to HHS custody, according to Axios, which first reported the documents’ findings. Child migrant crossings averaged 203 per day in late January, and just 47 a day during the first week of 2021.

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House Passes Partisan Election Bill with Zero Republican Votes

The House of Representatives late Wednesday passed HR 1, an expansive government ethics and voting rights bill that would implement a series of anti-corruption reforms and require states to adopt various voting reforms, such as no-excuse absentee voting and automatic voter registration.

The bill, titled the “For the People Act of 2021,” passed with the support of all but one Democratic member and over total Republican opposition. Included in it are provisions outlawing partisan gerrymandering, requiring same-day voter registration nationwide and mandating that states provide ballot drop boxes ahead of future elections.

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Commentary: Promoting Myths About Police Won’t Make Us Safer

The House of Representatives passed the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021” this week, the bill’s proponents rightly decry pernicious stereotyping and generalizing based on race.

Yet many of those who rightly condemn such dangerous biases, and the lies they are built upon, make misleading claims of their own to advance another reckless bigotry — anti-police bias.

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New Jobless Claims Increase Slightly to 745,000

The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims increased slightly to 745,000 last week as the economy continued to suffer the effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to the Department of Labor.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics figure released Thursday represented an increase in the number of new jobless claims compared to the week ending Feb. 20, in which there were 736,000 new jobless claims reported. That number was revised up from the 730,000 jobless claims initially reported last week.

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Alabama Senate Passes Bill Criminalizing Trans Surgeries, Puberty Blockers for Minors

The Alabama state Senate voted Tuesday to criminalize performing gender transition surgeries or hormone therapy on minors who identify as transgender.

Under the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, doctors would be prohibited from treating Alabama minors with hormone therapy, surgery, or puberty blockers “intended to alter the minor child’s gender or delay puberty.”

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Durham File: A Documentary Roadmap to Special Counsel Probe of Rogue FBI Pursuit of Trump

Freed from his double duty as Connecticut’s chief federal prosecutor, Special Counsel John Durham is zeroing in on the final phase of his far-reaching investigation into whether FBI officials or others committed crimes while conducting the Russia collusion probe, such as misleading federal judges or Congress.

All expectations were that Durham would wrap up his probe with final indictments and/or a report last fall after a plea deal was reached with former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who admitted he falsified a document submitted to substantiate an application for a surveillance warrant targeting the Trump campaign.

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U.S. Marshals Contract with Private Prison Ends, Inmates Have Nowhere to Go in Ohio

President Joe Biden is facing his first hurdle in ending contracts with private prisons, a major campaign promise aimed at the progressive wing of the Democrat Party. 

“The Biden administration’s push to end contracts with private prisons has left federal authorities in Cleveland scrambling to find ways to house nearly 800 inmates,” according to a report by Cleveland.com.

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