This recent Ohio Capital Journal article reminded me of the ongoing quest I have with my nieces to explore as many of the area libraries as possible. It is a great wintertime activity, in particular, and on summer days when its just too hot to have the kids outside in the afternoon. As my elder niece has become a voracious reader she has begun demanding, reasonably so, that we find libraries with comfortable and cushioned reading nooks. Lately, they seem to both like the Fairborn branch the best . - Kumar

The Athens Independent shed some additional light on one form of electricity bill scamming where a customer’s “electric provider was switched without their knowledge,” called “slamming.” This practice isn’t necessarily the most common type of energy provider scam, but it can be hard to tell it’s happened unless you are keeping a close eye on your energy bills and who your provider is.

Unfortunately, other scams can be just as harmful and are oftentimes more pervasive. One of the most popular versions is when solicitors from alternative energy suppliers go door-to-door or set up marketing tables outside businesses and at public events, oftentimes offering purported benefits of switching to their service. Sometimes the benefit is that the supplier claims to be purchasing 100% renewable energy and other times they offer an artificially lower introductory rate that goes up after an intro period, typically substantially.

A couple helpful things to remember when dealing with these “offers”:

If you live in a community with an electricity aggregation program or a municipal electric utility, check out their programs and services because they are likely cheaper, more predictable, and may even include renewable energy.

In the post, “They Studied Our Bodies. They Still Don’t Believe Our Pain,” the Black Appalachian Coalition digs into myths we’ve been taught in part IV of their Who Taught You That series. The video podcast version of the series focuses on Black women who had their bodies violated and subjected to horrific procedures by white doctors in the name of science.

The first part of the series focuses on three Black women, Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey who J Marion Sims, a white man, experimented on without their consent, let alone anesthesia. The three women, who were enslaved, were experimented on for the purpose of extending their childbearing capacity. As enslaved women, any children they bore were enslaved as well, therefore white enslavers pushed for methods to keep enslaved Black women being able to give birth.

In the video podcast, the hosts visit four sculptures designed to honor Anarcha, Lucy, Betsey, and the wombs of the women. The sculptures are powerful depictions of the three women’s bodies, the egregious harm they experienced, and their fierce perseverance through the physical, emotional, and psychological trauma they experienced. The sculptures serve as a new kind of monument to the “Mothers of gynecology” in contrast to the statues of Sims who is wrongly referred to as the “Father” of modern gynecology. The sculptures are located in Montgomery, Alabama as a part of The More Up Campus.

Reading through the headlines across Ohio for the past six months it is clear that land use is one of the most contentious and pervasive issues facing the state. The combination of restrictive utility scale solar laws, de facto fracking permitting, and data centers falling somewhere in between has put additional pressure on communities and in particular private property owners. Not to mention rising property taxes and overall inflation pushing up the cost of living across the country.

These issues have hit farmers and property owners with “desirable” land the hardest. Ideastream recently highlighted the solar dilemma for farmer Wayne Greier, who is saddled with over $1 million in medical debt. Greier found a lifeline with a solar project willing to lease part of his farm land for $540,000 annually. The payments would have helped him recover from debt and ensure his sixth generation farm remained in his family. Solar opposition from others in the township led to a utility scale solar ban and an end to Greier’s pathway out of debt and could force him to sell part of his farm.

When it comes to fracking and data centers, developers also tend to offer financial packages to gain easy access to prime land, or the resources below that land. Fracking is such a well established permitting process in Ohio that even when local opposition arises it is near impossible to prevent development from happening. Data centers represent another challenge for property owners trying to control development in and around them. With fewer state pre-emption laws, local governments have been able to push back far more effectively than with fracking.