Ohio Attorney General to college administrators: Discriminate and YOU will be personally liable

Making the law mean something again
Making the law mean something again

Bring a gun to a knife fight: In what is certain to become the most powerful deterrent to leftist bigotry in academia, Ohio attorney general Dave Yost has notified the administrators in his state’s public colleges that “qualified immunity” will not be available to them if they are personally sued for discriminating against any individuals and lose.

Employees found guilty of such practices as employing application essays to discern an applicant’s race “might not be protected by qualified immunity, a doctrine that protects public officials from being personally liable in certain situations,” Yost wrote, according to The Dispatch. “Any attempt to invoke that doctrine would likely be frivolous, and my office may be unable to raise any qualified immunity defense on your employees’ behalf,” Yost wrote.

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Ohio local authorities approves land sale for future private astronaut training facility

The local city council in Brook Park, Ohio, yesterday approved by a vote of 7-0 the purchase of nearly thirteen acres by the British company Blue Abyess to allow it to quickly build its proposed private astronaut training facility.

The Brook Park location will be built around a very large, 150-foot deep, multi-level pool. It’s an area that can replicate what life would be like in outer space and allow for the necessary training, dubbed astronaut boot camp for space exploration. “They’re not swimming pools. They’re aimed at industry, whether that’s marine offshore energy, maritime defense, subsea technology, human performance in extreme environments, or how do humans cope with green space environments,” Vickers said.

Officials say this project could be a huge economic driver, potentially bringing more than 100 jobs to the area.
In addition, it will likely generate major interest from tourists.

The facility will also include a hotel for those private astronauts, whether commercial or tourist. Located next to the Glenn Research Center, the company hopes to provide its services to both the public and NASA.

Pushback: HOA demands flag be removed; Neighbors rally and raise their own flags

Banned by Cumberland Crossing HOA
Free speech banned by Cumberland Crossing HOA.

Bring a gun to a knife fight: When the Cumberland Crossing HOA in Ohio demanded that resident Thomas DiSario take down the thin blue line flag he had been flying for five years to honor his son — who had been a policeman killed in the line of duty — he not only refused, all his neighbors rallied in support by raising their own flags throughout the neighborhood.

Some neighbors in a subdivision near Etna are making a statement after a resident was told to take down his “thin blue line flag” by the Homeowner’s Association. The HOA told him to remove it, calling it a political statement.

“I applaud them for it and it’s growing. You see more flags out every few days, you see a few more flags and blue light bulbs,” said Kathy Riddle, neighbor.

More and more neighbors in Cumberland Crossing are mounting thin blue line flags outside their homes. “We wanted to show respect for our neighbor. And we appreciate the service that his family member gave,” said Riddle.

It appears that the HOA demanded the flag’s removal after one complaint, and claimed the reason for doing so was simply because “It is a political statement.” The image below shows the text from the HOA letter, clearly indicating that its reasons for demanding the flag’s removal was an attempt by the HOA to ban political speech.
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Worker fired because lesbian was bothered by his Christianity.

Fascists: A factory worker in Ohio has lost his job merely because he talked about his Christian faith with a lesbian and she complained to management.

Rouston had spent the past 13 years as a material handler for Middletown, Ohio-based Precision Strip, and he was well known for sharing his Christian faith with everyone at the company. So it was not unusual that he did so in the form of a message to a new employee, who happened to be lesbian. Rouston and this particular colleague got into a discussion – outside work hours over Facebook – about whether Christians hate homosexuals, and in an attempt to demonstrate that Christians do not hate homosexuals, Rouston – who lives in nearby Monroe, Ohio – recommended that she see the film Audacity, which was actually produced for the purpose of addressing that very issue.

And that’s where Rouston’s trouble started, leading all the way up to his termination for making her “uncomfortable”: Routson was told that he was terminated not because of his faith, but for making his co-workers “uncomfortable.”

In other words, he was told by his boss that, because this was what the lesbian wanted, he was forbidden when not at work from discussing his religion with anyone. When he didn’t obey this absurd demand, he was fired. Do you think the company would have fired the lesbian if she had started advocating homosexual politics off work and a Christian complained? Not a chance.

Once again, we need to note that at no point did anyone prevent the homosexual person from practicing their lifestyle. All the Christian wanted was the freedom to express his opinion, as guaranteed by the first amendment. In today’s American, controlled by the leftwing state religion, such freedom unfortunately no longer exists.

Ohio wedding photographer threatened with legal action over beliefs

Here we go again: A Christian wedding photography now faces legal action because she declined photographing a same-sex marriage.

Although the [same-sex] couple filed the complaint, Ohio is one of 13 states that does not allow same-sex marriages, and Bexley is also a municipality that does not prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Additionally, the Bexley Chamber of Commerce does not prohibit its members from discriminating based on sexual orientation.

The Bexley Chamber of Commerce issued a statement through Facebook on Monday condemning Schmackers’ refusal of service. The post continued by stating that board members have decided that the chamber’s policy must be changed so that this type of “discrimination” does not happen again.

Damn right. These evil Christians have got to be squelched and destroyed. They have no right to their religion. In fact, maybe we should round them up and put them in camps! That will show them that we believe in tolerance and freedom!

Ohio teachers threaten strike because they are being switched to Obamacare

Finding out what’s in it: Teachers in Reynoldsburg, Ohio have announced that they will go on strike rather than accept a school contract offer that takes them off employer health insurance and forces them onto Obamacare.

The school board says it wants to give cash payments to teachers to buy their own health insurance on the “new state insurance market.” Ohio did not set up a state exchange which means teachers would need to purchase their insurance through the federal exchange under this plan.

That federal exchange is Obamacare.

The comments at the link are entertaining, as they all recognize the irony of this story: These teachers and this union almost certainly supported Obamacare and Obama. They did it brainlessly, for partisan reasons, without considering for one second the real life consequences of the law their Democratic lords were writing and passing, consequences that conservatives desperately tried to explain to them. Now they have to live with it, and they don’t like it.

The sad part of this, however, is that you can safely rely on them to still vote Democrat in the next election. If you are brainless once, what will make you have a brain later?

According to Ohio’s Insurance Department, Obamacare will cause healthcare rates to rise next year by 88 percent.

Finding out what’s in it: According to Ohio’s Insurance Department, Obamacare will cause healthcare rates to rise next year by 88 percent.

What are the drivers of the increase? According to Milliman, the two biggest drivers are (1) risk pool composition changes, such as forcing the young to subsidize the old, and the healthy to subsidize the sick; and (2) Obamacare’s required expansion of insurance benefits, particularly its mandated reductions in deductibles and co-pays.

This is a significant concept to understand. Some people have the impression that the main reason that rates are going up under Obamacare is because of the law’s requirement that insurers cover people with pre-existing conditions. But that accounts for only a fraction—around a quarter—of the rate hike. The rest comes from all the other things that Obamacare does, such as forcing people to buy richer insurance benefits; to buy products with all sorts of add-ons they might not need; to pay Obamacare’s premium tax; and to pay a lot more, if they’re young, to subsidize older individuals.

In other words, you won’t be able to buy the plan you want. Obamacare forces you to buy a more expensive plan, even if you don’t need it.