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“Citizen’s Arrest: Subpoena Powers & Police Accountability”

Tapped to be part of the commission examining the long-simmering controversy over subpoenaing Columbus Police Dept. officers, Rev. Adrian J. Chester says he has “a Biblical mandate” to take a stand. The Greater Beallwood Baptist Church pastor shares his insight into the history of the Public Safety Advisory Commission, its political shortcomings, the need for police accountability...

Sunday Q&A: Donald L. Jordan

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Real Estate Developer, Writer, Literary Philanthropist You have stated that, with the endowment that you established at Columbus State, your wish is to do for the literary arts what the university has done for visual arts and performing arts in recent years. How do you see that vision taking shape?“Actually, I was planning  to do something like this half my life, once I could afford to do it...

Sunday Q&A: Rabbi Beth Schwartz of Temple Israel

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What does International Holocaust Memorial Day every January mean to you and the congregation here at Temple Israel? “In the spring, within the Jewish world, there is an observance called Yom HaShoah, That is timed to coincide with the uprising at the Warsaw ghetto uprising. That’s mostly observed within the Jewish world, but World Holocaust Memorial Day makes everyone stop and think about their...

Scattershot: A Blessing and a Curse

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“Maybe everyday is Saturday morning.”—Drive-By Truckers** One Christmas when I was in junior high, I asked my cool, young Uncle Garrett to give me N.W.A.’s album Straight Outta Compton, at the time making headlines /infuriating Whitey for its track, ‘Fuck tha Police.’ Uncle G came through. But he wanted to listen to it with me, pointing out its Parental Advisory...

Sunday Q&A: Chris Largent

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Executive Director, Chattahoochee River Conservancy What is the biggest threat to the health of the Columbus stretch of the Chattahoochee River?“The biggest threat we see on a regular basis is the litter. The amount of litter we pull from our trash traps as well as our watershed clean-ups — it’s just atrocious.Micro-plastics are becoming a problem as well. And smaller plastic pieces—fish, animals...

Scattershot: Full Moon Ritual

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“Maybe everyday is Saturday morning.”—Drive-By Truckers* BURN, BABY, BURN I’m way too ADD to meditate.I’m well aware of meditation’s many-fold miracles and how it would especially serve to benefit someone as whack as me. Science has shown that this sacred ancient practice increases gray matter in the brain. Specifically, mindful meditation thickens gray matter in the prefrontal...

Sunday Q&A: Florene Dawkins

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Chair, Friends of Ma RaineyCommunity Liaison, Muscogee County School District Is the legacy of Ma Rainey adequately preserved and presented here in Columbus, Georgia?“We’re getting there. We’re on a journey but I do think we’re getting there.We have the house here. The movie [Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom released on Netflix in December] helped.Ma Rainey is known probably all over the world better...

Scattershot: Epiphanies on the Way to Enlightenment

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“Maybe everyday is Saturday morning.”—Drive-By Truckers* A STAR IS BORN One of my favorite new traditions at my church, First Presbyterian, is the celebration of the Feast of the Epiphany — climax of the Christmas season often brushed aside by Protestants but embraced by Catholics happy to keep their holiday lights bright on winter nights — when the Three Wise Men finally found Jesus...