BREAKING: for months, Ohio's SOS Larose has claimed that he wanted to expand drop boxes in Ohio counties, but that Ohio law prevented him from doing so.
Just now, all three judges in our drop box appeal agreed with us that nothing in Ohio law prevents him from adding more.
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"We agree with the trial court that the Secretary's interpretation of R.C. 3509.05 is not reasonable and that the statute neither prescribes nor prohibits ballot drop boxes at locations other than the boards of elections....
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"...If, as appellees argue, the Secretary wants to permit additional drop boxes, he has the authority to do so and nothing in this decision prohibits him from rescinding Directive 2020-16 and issuing a new directive accordingly."
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Now that the law is clarified....for the third time....as allowing more drop boxes, we call on Frank Larose to make good on his public and private commitment to add drop boxes.
There is still time to add them for the final weeks of this election.
END
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Following the election, Republican officials, from Trump on down, talked non-stop about how the American people are intensely focused on getting by, rising costs and overall economic well-being.
And I don’t disagree with that
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But what staggers me is how those same politicians continue to take proactive steps to make things more difficult, everyday life more costly, and further squeeze everyday Americans who are already struggling.
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It’s happening nationally, as Trump pushes measures that will increase costs on everything from groceries to health care.
And it’s happening at the state level too. In my state of Ohio, trickle-down economics and corruption are leading to
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Whenever Putin and Trump get together, what inevitably happens reminds me of the US-UK summit in the movie “Love Actually.”
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Remember, when the President of the United States (played by Billy Bob Thornton) bullies Hugh Grant, playing the Prime Minister?
Amid the negotiation, the President says: “I'll give you anything you ask for - as long as it's not something I don't want to give.”
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And at the end, that same president tells the press that the meetings were “[v]ery satisfactory indeed. We got what we came for, and our special relationship is still very special.”
That basically sums up all Trump-Putin meetings.
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Amid all this talk of DOGE and tech and data and access, I thought I’d check in with another friend of mine who does this work for a living to hear his thoughts on it all. And share with us what we need to know.
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Here’s what he told me before answering my questions:
“We're witnessing the first I.T.-driven restructuring of government in human history. While there's been some mockery of the young people Musk has employed…
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they are extremely capable (albeit with little to no experience handling government systems).
Having spent decades working at the intersection of digital infrastructure, automation, and organizational strategy, I recognize the profound implications of such a shift.
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Unfortunately, the next DOGE target looks to be the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center.
DOGE apparently informed senior staff to plan to reduce its staff by 50% and funding by 30%.
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Long-time subscribers of mine know this comes right out of Project 2025—and is motivated by anger that NOAA responsibly tracks and studies climate change and its impact on severe weather.
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According to Project 2025, the NOAA "has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity.” Its focus, Project 2025 alleges, “seems designed around the fatal conceit of planning for the unplannable.”
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“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself.
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That, in its essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any…controlling private power."