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The .info Spent a Night in Jail, Which Is Not a Metaphor

Ohio politics already has plenty of odd birds, but this week, one of them actually spent the night in jail.
D.J. Byrnes, better known online as The Rooster, was arrested Monday, June 1st, at the Ohio Statehouse by the Ohio State Highway Patrol on an outstanding misdemeanor warrant for telecommunications harassment.

Byrnes, a political blogger on Substack, is known for confronting politicians in the halls of Columbus City Hall, Ohio State University, and the Statehouse, which is to say he has made a career out of being exactly where public officials would probably prefer he wasn’t.

The case appears to center on an alleged text exchange with State Sen. Jerry Cirino, a Republican from Kirtland. According to Byrnes’ colleague Max Littman, the issue stems from Byrnes allegedly texting Cirino an image of cartoon character Shrek’s p***s.

The warrant says Byrnes sent photos to a victim identified as “J.C.” Littman also shared what he said was a text exchange between Byrnes and Cirino, including the image, followed by Cirino’s alleged reply: “I don’t know who this is, but I’m certain you’re a moron.”

I’m not saying we support every method, but we certainly support anyone attempting to keep the perennially dishonest, honest.

Thoughts?

Ohio’s Data Center Boom Hits the “Wait, Are We Sure About This?” Phase

Ohio has spent years selling itself as the Silicon Heartland. Data centers. AI. Server farms rising from former farmland like somebody asked ChatGPT to design a cornfield with no corn.

This week, Ohioans showed up at the Statehouse with a reasonable question: what exactly are we giving up to power all of this?

At a June 1 hearing before a new bipartisan Select Committee on Data Centers, 35+ residents signed up to speak and another 70 submitted written testimony. Their concerns: water use, energy demand, tax breaks, loss of rural land, and whether Ohio is building the future or just turning itself into a very large charging brick.

The pushback isn’t just neighbors yelling at zoning boards anymore. A grassroots effort is collecting signatures for a constitutional amendment to ban large data centers, uniting Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, farmers, and environmentalists, which is impressive considering most of those groups can barely agree on what temperature to set the thermostat.

One striking moment came from 12-year-old Samuel Menges of Lorain County, who told lawmakers he wants to be a farmer and doesn’t want Ohio to lose more farmland to massive developments.

Data centers aren’t imaginary villains. They power the internet, cloud, AI, streaming, search, and every modern convenience we pretend is weightless. But they’re not weightless. They require land, power, water, and in Ohio, a whole lot of public generosity.

Ohio has the sixth-most data centers in the country: 232 statewide.

137 in central Ohio alone.

Meta’s New Albany site, now being expanded, sits on 766 acres, more than a square mile. That’s not “just a building.”

Even Gov. Mike DeWine tapped the brakes, pausing a tax break that reportedly cost nearly $1.6 billion last year.

Ohio wants to be part of the future. That part makes sense. But maybe the future should answer a few questions before it gets another 1,000 acres and a tax incentive.

Thoughts?

The Would Like You to Name a Baby Giraffe, and the only option Is Tim…

The Columbus Zoo has a new baby Masai giraffe, and naturally, the public has been handed the sacred responsibility of choosing his name.
The male calf was born March 10 in the Heart of Africa region to 15-year-old Zuri, and after a few months of getting to know him, the zoo has narrowed the name choices down to four: BJ St. Pierre, Jasper, Patches, and Tim. Voting runs through June 15, with the winning name set to be announced on June 21, also known as World Giraffe Day.
Let’s review the candidates.

BJ St. Pierre is named after his father, Bobbie, with what the zoo calls “a distinguished twist.” Very elegant. Very country club. Very “this giraffe has opinions about linen.”

Jasper is inspired by the gemstone, a nod to the calf’s natural patterns. Solid choice. Respectable. Feels like he might own a bookstore.

Patches is the obvious cute option, since giraffes do, in fact, come pre-patched.

And then there’s Tim. broke down why this is the only option. ⬇️