JUSTUS with Jack & Gonzo

In 1974, Ohio’s prison population was 8,400 Ohioan. By 2011, the number grew to 51,000. Are we any safer as a result? Do all these inmates need to remain behind bars? Are we just locking up people without adequate attention being paid to things like education, drug treatment, mental health treatment and cognitive therapy? Our guest, Gary Mohr, former Director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitati...

It’s not intuitively obvious, but discarding DEI can result in even fewer medical professionals serving already underserved communities in rural Ohio. The Trump administration is doing its level best to eliminate DEI on the premise it fosters unlawful discrimination, but as Abraham Graber, Ph. D, points out, DEI promotes diversity and equity so as to achieve better outcomes, and that includes bett...

Bhuwan Pyakurel, a former refugee from Bhutan, resettled in the United States in 2009. He and his family moved to Ohio in 2014 and he became a U.S. citizen in 2015. They bought their first home in Reynoldsburg and immediately became involved in the community. Bhuwan and his wife, Dil, have been married for 14 years and they have two children, Aditi and Dev, both who attend Reynoldsburg Public Scho...

If the mob were doing what President Donald Trump is doing, we’d call it a shakedown. By way of several executive orders, he has accused some of the largest law firms in America of unlawful misconduct and, on his own, determined they violated the law and issued punishment. But if the firms capitulate to his demands, they won’t be punished. Joining us in this discussion is our friend and fellow law...

Almost 200,000 Franklin County residents experience poverty every year. That’s enough to fill the Ohio State University football stadium twice. These residents face myriad challenges, among them: medical debt, lack of access to healthcare, adequate and affordable housing, and affordable childcare. Danielle Sidner, CEO of Rise Together Innovation Institute, explains that RISE is on a mission to har...

President Trump has signed more executive orders in his first 10 days and in his first month in office than any recent president has in their first 100 days. Trump critics say the orders greatly exceed his constitutional authority . Those orders range from tariffs on Mexico, China and Canada, to pauses on foreign aid and crackdowns on illegal immigration to  bans on transgender people se...

Most Americans go to church expecting to hear about salvation, morality and scripture. They don't anticipate hardball political endorsements. But some churches thrive on delivering politics from the pulpit. Sure, pastors are citizens, too. And so in other venues, such as op-eds, blogs, books, and other places of influence, a pastor may speak his mind. Even so, he must jealously guard that influenc...

The judicial system moves at glacial speed, and it isn’t inclined to accept that it’s flawed. Its shortcomings are most glaring with criminal cases. If a convicted person is able to come upon new evidence that wasn’t available during the trial, no matter how significant the evidence may be, the process of getting a new trial is slow and doubtful. There’s no guarantee a new trial will be granted. T...

Two hours before Franklin County Commissioner Kevin Boyce was to be the keynote speaker at the Columbus VA annual MLK lunch, an organizer told Mr. Boyce he could not mention DEI topics or anything deemed "politically charged" due to  President Donald Trump's executive orders limiting DEI  in the federal government. Unwilling to compromise his values, Kevin withdrew from the event. “It wa...

There’s an old English song, “It’s the rich what gets the pleasure. It's the poor what gets the pain.” The song holds true today. We talk with Bill LaFayette, the owner of Regionomics, about the expanding wealth gap in America. In 1980, the income of one percent of Americans was 23 times that of the other 90%. In 2022, the income of the top one percent was 69 times the income of the bottom 90%. In...

With billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos circling in President Trump’s orbit, we are witnessing a new age of extremely wealthy business owners seeking to expand their influence on the government. The robbers barons of the late 19th century—JP Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie—had nothing on these fellows. As we moved into the mid-20th century, the wealthy...

Are immigrants a drain on society, or does America benefit from their presence? It’s a hot topic, with Republic politicians telling lies during the last election about Haitians in Springfield eating dogs and cats—and telling these stories solely for the purpose of political gain. What was really stunning is that those lies resonated with some number of people, and Haitians were threatened with vio...

Do police officers get it right more often than not when it comes to shooting a suspected threat? Are police trained adequately in terms of simulated scenarios and stressful situations? Are small police departments able to access the same level of training as police departments in large metropolitan areas? Do people suspected of a crime, who fail to comply with police commands, bear responsibility...

Guessing the outcomes of cases brought before the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) can be challenging, and, sometimes, the court's decisions leave you scratching your head. Jack and Gonzo discuss our current court’s propensity to rule in favor of popular conservative causes. If the casinos in Vegas took bets on how SCOTUS were to decide a case, the odds makers probably wouldn't give lon...

Does the First Amendment give us the right to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater? No, and this is one of the very few restrictions on free speech in America. Jack and Gonzo discuss the importance of free speech with Nico Perrino, Executive Vice President of FIRE. Founded in 1999 as the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, FIRE has worked to advance the cause of free speech and the values...

Lawyers know how difficult it can be to represent a client with developmental disabilities and how ill equipped our justice system is to protect them. Our guest, McCracken Poston, Jr., is a practicing criminal defense attorney and former member of the Georgia House of Representatives. He just published his new  book “Zenith Man: death, love and redemption in a Ge...

Ever think about the social determinants of health? At the top of the list: zip codes. Neighborhoods can differ dramatically in terms of safety, education, housing, green space, grocery stores, etc. When you lack these things—a world where options are limited—stress sets in, and the sole focus is just getting through each day; there’s no planning for the future. It shouldn’t be a surprise that goo...

The U.S. Supreme Court has been in the news lately and not because of its popularity. The court’s recent decisions reflect more ideology than neutral analysis and a disregard for the ramifications of those decisions. Certain decisions are not supported by the text of the Constitution, even though some of the justices regard themselves as “textualists.” Some justices display an arrogance that is di...

Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net-worth Americans who are committed to making all Americans, including themselves, better off by building a more prosperous, stable, and inclusive nation. The group focuses on promoting public policy solutions that encourage political equality, guarantee a sustaining wage for working Americans, and ensure that millionaires, billionaires, and corporations...

Dr. James, an OB/GYN and pediatrician, has spent his professional life trying to achieve equality in birth outcomes. Everyone should receive equal medical care, but that’snot the case in America. According to the Centers for Disease Control’s latest report on infant mortallity, babies born to Black women have teh hightest mortality rate. In addition, Black mothers report they aren’t treated as wel...

Everyone regards humility as a virtue, but how many of us appreciate its importance or, more importantly, how the absence of humility impedes societal discourse and hurts personal relationships. When we allow overconfidence bias and the Dunning-Kruger effect to control us, we are far too quick to offer opinions, no matter how little we might know, and refuse to listen. It’s as if we’re spring-load...

Where do teens in Central Ohio turn when they are scared and feel alone? A teen might have been booted from home after disclosing he’s gay. Sometimes parents are evicted and want a safe place for their daughter to stay. Anger, depression, mood disorders and myriad other problems drive teens to a dark place where they feel alone. Huckleberry House provides safety for teens in crisis. No matter the...

Imagine life in Vinton County, Ohio—13,000 people spread across 450 square miles, with little in the way of resources. No Kroger, Giant Eagle or other big box stores, only Family Dollar and Dollar General stores. No emergency medical center. Just one health center with a single dentist who’s booked six to nine months out, and one or two primary care physicians. No behavioral care physician, no obs...

There’s a little-known truth: public health saved your life today and you probably don't even know it. Public health makes our lives safer and helps us live longer, but its many successes largely go unrecognized. No small wonder it’s called “the invisibleshield” in a PBS documentary that aired last month. Former Director of the Ohio Department of Health, Amy Acton, M.D., discusses the important ro...

Should the minimum wage pay enough so that workers can be self-sufficient? If not, why not? Large employers, like Walmart and Kroger, pay wages that exceed Ohio’s minimum wage but yet barely keep a person above the federal poverty level. Isn’t there a conflict between capitalism and society’s obligation to protect the most vulnerable workers? Listen to our conversation with Bill LaFayette, owner o...