Welcome to the Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable from Ideastream Public Media.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for being here.

Cuyahoga County voters will be asked to increase their taxes on this year's ballot to fund vital services, and next year to fund public transit.

A Cleveland City Council committee has reversed course, now recommending passage of a contract extension for Flock surveillance cameras, despite some robust public opposition.

Graduate.

Get a job.

Get married.

Have a baby.

Conservative Ohio lawmakers want what they call the “Success Sequence” to be required learning in school.

Lakewoods mayor has amped up criticism of First Energy after even more power outages.

And is it just that it got dark, or is that a black bear at your front door?

Joining me to discuss these stories and the rest of the week's news, both of our deputy editors for news at Ideastream, Andrew Meyer and Glenn Forbes.

Good morning to both of you.

Good morning Mike.

Good morning Mike.

Good to see both of you.

And in Columbus, a mama bear you do not want to mess with, Ideastream Statehouse News Bureau Chief Karen Kasler.

Hello, Karen.

Hey.

Good morning.

Good morning to you, too.

I left you speechless.

Good.

All right.

You can share your comments or questions by emailing soi@ideastream.org.

And let's get ready to roundtable.

Cuyahoga County voters are likely to decide new property taxes on the November ballot to help fund the social safety net and services for people with developmental disabilities.

The county will likely see a renewal with an increase for health and human services.

County Council gave that plan a first reading this week.

Council gave final approval the same day for a separate levy to fund the Board of Developmental Disabilities.

Glenn.

Let's start with the county's Health and Human Services levy.

Executive Chris Ronayne is proposing a 2.5-mill.

I'm sorry, a 2.5 mill increase on top of extendin what they already have, which is a 4.7-mill levy that expires in two years.

Tuesday at the first hearing.

There was a little opposition to that.

Why?

Yeah, there was a fair amount.

It's interesting when we talk about all of these potential tax levies, I'm reminded of the American classic Talladega Nights, if I may.

If you're not first, you're last.

OK, fair.

And, you know, I get it.

I was getting that sense, listening to all this this week.

All these government agencies that are looking for tax dollars.

If you're not kind of first to that public trough, Right.

If you're not first on the ballot, they all kind of know what the other one is doing.

And so they get a little nervous about voters having to face too many of these tax increases.

So the HHS levy in particular, health and human services, there were issues with planning.

Council member Sonny Simon said, well, this is the first time I'm seeing this.

like, you know, you're asking us to approve this.

Not only the renewal but also the increase for the millage.

We haven't seen this planning.

The second thing, there are a couple of issues.

The second thing that council members were upset about was the fact that the funding isn't necessarily going to run out until maybe 2028.

They would do some spending into their reserves in 2027.

And then the other issue that was brought up is if the Democrats win the House, the Senate, nationally, some of these funding issues from the federal government could reverse themselves.

Mike Gallagher and other council members said this could all be different in a year.

So there were some questions about the planning.

There were some questions about the need for this.

And then Councilmember Gallagher also said, look, I'm losing people to Lorain County seemingly every day.

They're overtaxed and already paying the highest sales tax in the county.

Now we're talking about more property tax, right?

And this is this is going to be a tough sell for voters.

And we just, we need to see more on this.

So there was a fair amount of opposition at least at the moment.

So why does the executive and his administration say that we need to have a levy, not only renewal but increase right now?

Well, they did cite some of that federal funding.

The county administrator, David Merryman, who heads up the Health and Human Services department, they're expecting to see a decrease of $9 million in SNAP revenue, which is, you know, the federal food benefits program decrease of $2 million.

He also said all child-serving agencies are seeing these increasing costs for boarding foster care, residential.

They're looking at larger increases down the line.

He also mentioned that the state of Ohio, even though Gov.

Mike DeWine has tried to put more money into child welfare in these areas.

According to David Merriman, Ohio still doesn't put enough money into child welfare.

And he said they're the third most reliant as a county, the third most reliant on local funds for child welfare in the entire country.

So he said the need is there and the need is obvious.

But council thought the timing wasn't correct on this.

Andrew, Chris Ronayne and the county executive talked about the high cost of things right now and the fact that this is why we need at this point to get this secure for the safety net.

You know, the reality is out there, you see it when you go to fill up your car.

You see it when you go to the grocery store And he's saying that this is taking a toll on the money that HHS has.

He's saying that maybe they'll have $3 million left in the kitty by the end of this year, and be tens of millions in the red for 2027.

So when he at the end of the day, he's saying, look, people are relying on this.

This isn't just an add-on, a luxury.

This is a necessity.

This is about living.

What's interesting, Glenn, is that to put the levy on the ballot, you then have to sell the levy.

It's a campaign and he's having trouble selling it to his own county council.

That's certainly part of the issue.

And I think some of the county calculation, right?

In the old, I guess, the old days of housing prices, they'd say, well, this will cost the average, the average homeowner of $100,000.

If you own a $100,000 house, this will cost you $87 a year, which is the figure they came up with.

This is like what?

Yeah.

In addition, council is like, wait a minute.

The average home price in Cuyahoga County is between $220,000 and $250,000.

I think Zillow said 222.

So you're on it.

Why are we?

Why are we using this outdated formula to sell it?

You should at least double it.

So in their mind, if they had said, well, it's going to cost you $170 per year additional, that would make more sense.

Yeah, but they're giving you the per-$100,000.

They are giving people $100,000.

If your house is 400,000 you just multiply it by four.

You could do that.

It's an easy figure, but it's something that that came up because you hear that $100,000 valuation and mostly Sunny Simon brought that up.

Most people are saying, well, how many $100,000 houses Cuyahoga County are there anymore?

So meanwhile, there was the discussion about that levy, but then they did give final approval to put a different levy on the ballot.

This one is for developmental disabilities.

They didn't have the same issues in terms of timing with that one.

It seemed like it mostly came down to planning.

Right.

And like I said, you know, developmental disabilities.

They were first in, they had a longer warning period.

They talked also, of course, about increasing costs.

The other thing was the developmental disabilities administrators had said, if we don't get this levy, we're going to have a waiting li for Medicaid waivers for the first time.

And those are for home health care aides, which their costs are also increasing for that.

So if you have severe disabilities and you're being treated at home, that's what those Medicaid waivers are for.

They don't want to put people on waiting lists for that.

And so I think because of planning and because council had more warning on this, they were kind of first in line.

Council was more approving of their general plan.

That's why that got the green light to be put on the ballot.

And what it would be would be a 2.25-mill levy, an additional one, a new one that would be added to something they've already had, which is a 3.9-mill levy passed in 2005.

So they're saying they need that for the increased Medicaid costs and all the things that you mentioned.

But we'll see now whether both of those will get on the ballot there.

Also with some discussion about maybe there's going to be a tax request to fund upkeep of stadiums.

We don't know details on that yet, but this could be a very big year for asking for taxes.

It seems like weird timing, given that across the state we've got discussions about property taxes.

We've got legislators that are trying to provide relief.

We had an organization that was trying to abolish property taxes, did not succeed for this year, but the atmosphere is a difficult one.

It seems there's a couple of different ways to look at it.

You could say midterm elections.

You might think that Democrats are more motivated to get out to the polls in the midterm elections.

Therefore, they may be more likely to support some of these levies.

But I think the point that some county council members were making is, you know, our constituents are overtaxed already.

We're already going to be asking them for the developmental disabilities levy.

Do we really need this, especially when you're talking about an increase?

Because as you know, Mike, you know, renewal levies have an easier time passing than increased levies.

That's just kind of a fact of, you know, for the electorate.

So there are a lot of issues to consider when you're one of these agencies.

Do you go in November?

Do you go in May?

A lot to consider.

And one of those things is how many other tax levies are on the ballot.

Right.

As we've talked about property taxes, I want to note that it's top of mind for voters, many of whom want vital services, parks, schools and other public needs to be funded, but they feel maxed out on their bills.

A property tax abolishment effort, as I mentioned, failed to reach this year's ballot.

Organizers vow to try again for next year, and lawmakers continue incremental reform as I and other Ideastream Journalists, including these two guys here, have been traveling the region on our library listening tour this summer, part of our Listen, Engage, Vote initiative.

We've heard from many people who are frustrated with property taxes and with the idea to abolish them without a plan for needed government services, and we listened.

So starting July 20, we'll launch Ideastream Explores Property Taxes, a full week focused on property taxes.

We have an event we'd love you to attend.

We're headed to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, a jewel in the Metroparks system funded with voter-approved property taxes.

For the next stop on our Sound of Ideas community tours, you can join us at the zoo on Monday, July 20th at 6:30 p.m.

as we examine property taxes, efforts to provide relief for overburdened property owners, the push to eliminate property taxes, and the ramifications should such an effort succeed.

What happens to your schools, parks, libraries and safety services?

The event is free.

We invite audience input so you'll have a say, but we need you to register in advance.

And you can do that now at Ideastream.

And now on to other taxes, more taxes.

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority will wait until the spring ballot, May 2027, to ask voters for a sales tax increase.

Andrew.

The board considered November, as Glenn said, you know, if you're first, if you're not first, you're last they wouldn't have been first on this particular ballot.

So they said, let's shake and bake in May.

So it's going to be until May.

And part of the reality here is the president of the board, who's also the mayor of Bay Village, said, look, we got 70 days left until early voting starts for November.

Hard to believe that we're already at that point, right, in terms of putting together a viable campaign to sell people on the idea of increasing the sales tax just wasn't enough time, in his opinion.

So May 2027 is when they're considering it.

And now the question is how much?

Yeah.

How much?

Well, that's a good question because theres been one asked by Greater Cleveland RTA for a sales tax.

That was in the 1970s.

That's what it's been since then: 1%.

They're either going to increase it by 0.25%, a quarter percent or a half percent.

And I guess that depends on just how much they think they can get voters to approve and just how much they want to do with it.

The reality is, there are cuts coming in August to service.

That is a reality that's driven by the finances that they have now.

If they don't get one of these sales tax increases approved, they're looking at additional cuts.

If they do get, let's say, the minimum, the quarter percent increase, while they're looking at some service restoration, some service, most of it going to support service and some capital improvements.

But the majority of it looking to really support operations for RTA.

Right.

And the most they're allowed to get is 1.5%.

So the question by state law: Do we go max or do we go 1.25%?

Stark County voters in May turned down a smaller tax increase for its transit system.

I wonder if Cuyahoga is looking at those results.

Probably.

I would have to think so.

When we say a smaller, they wanted to increase their quarter percent sales tax by 0.1%.

That would have been two pennies for every $20 you spend.

Voters didn't like that.

They voted against it by 51%.

And then just recently, this week in Stark County, they decided not to try again this November.

So maybe they're looking at the tea leaves, reading the tea leaves leaves in Stark County and sayin yeah, this really isn't a good time to be asking for this money now, right?

Let's go to the state view here.

The architect of Senate Bill 1, which sought to remove what Republican lawmakers call liberal bias on college campuses, now wants to make it mandatory for students to take an American civic literacy course.

Republican Sen.

Jerry Cirino of Kirtland has introduced Senate Bill 461, which requires the three-credit-hour course.

And if the school has an intellectual diversity center, something created at five universities in the bill, including Cleveland State, the class must be taught through it.

Karen, is the newest proposa from Cirino.

He got the bill passed, but I think he thinks it's not getting the job done Right.

Senate Bill 1 passed and went into effect about a year ago, and Cirino told me he thinks it's doing great.

He doesn't think, for instance, there's a bill that would require more accountability and maybe some financial penalties if universities aren't following it.

He says he doesn't think that's necessary right now.

But this bill, which has just been proposed and likely won't, its chances of passage at this point are pretty low because we're so far along in the legislative session.

This bill would take that required course from Senate Bill 1, that three-credit-hour required course on American civics, and move it to one of these five.

Intellectual diversity centers.

There's the word academic civics centers.

These are at Cleveland State, at Wright State, at Miami University, and the big ones that are at Ohio State and the University of Tole And if you are a student at one of these other schools, public universities that don't have one of these centers, then you still have to take that American Civics course, but that course has to be approved by the directors of those civic centers.

So he really wants to bring that whole civics course idea into those centers and have them really have an influence on what that course is going to look like.

What he's basically saying is it's not enough just to have an intellectual diversity center.

You've got to access it.

You've got to take classes from it.

You've got to have the kinds of courses that this bill is supposed to encourage.

Yeah.

And I mean, Senate Bill 1 was all about the effort by conservatives to crack down on what they felt was liberal indoctrination at public universities.

And so that's where these intellectual diversity centers came from.

I mean, Senate Bill 1 banned mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion training.

It also required alternative views and intellectual diversity as it says in the bill on topics like marriage and abortion and elections.

It also banned faculty strikes and really kind of limited faculties faculty power in certain areas.

And so this is kind of a continuation of that, I think, to try to bring forward this idea that there's a perspective that the conservatives who support Senate Bill 1 don't think is being heard at public universities.

All right.

This course involving American civics is not likely to get passed in this session, as you mentioned, but a number of it could it could, it could it could be thrown into something else.

I mean, the bill itself is unlikely to pass, but when we get into lame duck, you know, all bets are off.

They throw things into other bills that aren't intended for it or labeled.

Who knows?

Isn't that supposed to be illegal of some sort?

I don't know what they did.

Do they go ahead if they have a if they have a common the whole idea has to have a common thread there that goes all the way through the bill.

But certainly these Christmas tree bills that are done in big sessions seem to have a slim connection to each other.

It feels like sometimes that thread is like spider silk, you know, it's so thin.

But there were 14 bills that did get through the legislature, 14 of them that the governor signed this week.

From hardening Medicaid fraud protections to making failure to identify yourself as a passenger during a traffic stop a crime.

He also signed off on a requirement that high schools teach a conservative-backed curriculum known as the Success Sequence, and that is graduate from high school.

At least get a job, get married, and then have children.

So what is the idea of the Success Sequence and why would it become a class?

I think beginning in sixth grade possibly, Yeah.

Sixth grade is when this would actually start.

And this was another thing that was added to a bill.

The bill was about licensing psychologists who were coming into Ohio from other states.

And this was added into that because it had been a separate standalone bill.

It's a formula that's been talked about by largely conservative organizations and groups with the word family in their titles.

The whole idea that if you do that Success Sequence, you are statistically less likely to end up in poverty.

Now, Democrats have said that is fine, but what the formula does not include is the idea that there are other reasons that people end up in poverty.

A lot of people who start out in poverty never get out of poverty.

There are things like wage inflation or wage stagnation and inflation and things like that that keep people from earning lots of money.

And so Democrats were really concerned about the lack of some of these other factors being talked about in success, and also that this would be just another thing that teachers would have to deal with when there's real concern and questions about whether schools are being fully funded.

Got a note from Barb about this particular the idea of teaching children the sequence, she says.

But how about teaching students the importance of financial literacy, getting a good education in order to get a good job living at a decent apartment or home that you can afford before bringing children into their lives.

And she says marriage does not ensure that the parents can afford children, nor should people be shamed for not being married before bringing a child into their life if they can afford it.

That's Barb's point of view.

There is there is a requirement for our financial literacy course in high schools.

But yeah, this is the kind of thing that I think a lot of people look at and say, well, isn't this if you believe in this, this is something that families can talk about, and there are some factors that are left out when you start talking about what makes a person a success and how do they get there?

Because there are a lot of things that come into play.

Yeah, I think her issue was the idea of the institution of marriage being a requirement when she's saying, listen, if you have the financial means, you don't have to be married to have a child.

Interesting point, and I'm sure there's plenty of debate about that.

One other thing I just wanted to get into is that the state passed a law, House Bill 492, which was signed by the governor that said passengers have to identify themselves in a traffic stop.

What's interesting to me is I thought that was a Fourth Amendment issue.

That's a search and seizure issue.

I'm not accused of any crime.

I'm not suspected of any crime.

I'm simply riding in a car.

By the federal standards, by the U.S.

Constitution, I would think that I wouldn't have to produce ID, but the state of Ohio is saying you do.

Yeah.

And this is something I think has gotten a little bit of attention as we got through these 14 bills, because there was this flurry of activity.

DeWine signed all these bills, and now some people are looking at this one in particular.

Ohio courts have repeatedly found that refusing to identify oneself during a traffic stop does not constitute obstructing official business or obstructing official business.

So, you know, yeah.

So I think that though this is the kind of question that people, especially people who are concerned about how their government is using data, might be wondering about.

Right.

Speaking about how government is using data.

Our next topic, Cleveland City Council's Safety Committee, changed its tune, voting 5 to 2 this week to approve a contract extension for Flock surveillance cameras.

Last month, the same committee voted no, and next week the full council will vote.

Vocal opponents of the license plate reading cameras contend that they can be and have been used to violate rights, while some people say in police in particular that they're vital crime fighting tools.

So, Glenn, what changed between the safety committee's first meeting and then this meeting where one of the members actually switched votes from no to yes, but the committee has now recommended approval.

Yeah, that was Kevin Conwell who said that he was given better data on Flocks usefulnes I think there are a couple things going on here.

One is that most council members say the number one complaint they get from constituents is about crime.

And if there isn't anything true, if the police say this is useful and they're catching more people because of this and this is there's nothing, you know, really to replace it.

Yet they feel like that.

They can't, you know, just completely get rid of it.

I think the other big thing, though, is that they kind of have their commitment here.

Instead of a year contract, it's six months instead of $250,000 is $125,000.

It almost makes it looking at it.

It almost makes it more of like an interim period where they can kind of see how this goes.

There were also some changes made.

Immigration searches blocked.

Cleveland police verified they implemented a filter blocking federal agencies using local cameras for immigration enforcement queries.

No selling or sharing data.

This was another big issue.

The contract would strictly forbid Flock from selling, sharing or allowing outside networks to take some data from Cleveland.

So some of these concerns were addressed.

But again, I think without a suitable replacement, I think in some council members mind and kind of making this six months rather than a year, it gives them a little more time to consider this.

It's clear it's clearly not ironclad because we see that recently released records showed close to 2000 searches of Cleveland's Flock, data related to Ice or immigration.

Then there's a filter that's put on.

Flock is pushing against this and saying, you know, we're going to make sure to block this kind of stuff.

But people are saying, wait a minute.

It's been done.

It can be done.

It Big Brothers there, the information is there.

Anyone can access it.

The Flock says that's not the case, but that's where the debate continues to roil.

Right.

And you said it.

I mean, big Brother, you've got the group called Flock No.

Right.

It's that and and they're saying mispronounce this.

Yeah.

I had to be careful.

I had to take a brief pause there just to make sure.

Be that as it may, they said, look, it's already been used for these purposes.

This is more than license plate readers like that.

That characterization is false.

That's what critics are saying.

They're just reading license plates.

They're just doing this like, no, they're capturing your every move.

And this is, you know, we're being overly surveilled here.

And some of these are being used for purposes that are that it's not what it's designed for.

The police chief, Annie Todd, the prosecutor, Michael O'Malley, both have said your neighborhoods will be less safe if we don't have this tool, that this is something we can use.

You've got to trust us to use it properly.

We've got Steven with an email saying I'm sympathetic to the argument for having the information available in legitimate circumstances.

Perhaps a good way to balance that with privacy concerns would be to put the Flock system in the control of the courts, require an approval process for access.

So that's Stevens point of view.

We'll continue to follow that issue.

But I thought it was interesting, Andrew, when I was watching my national news the other night on, I think it was on ABC news, they had video of the golf course near where you play, but not the place you play, but not regularly.

Foxs Den.

Yeah.

In in Hudson, where a car is zipping down the fairway as it's running after away from police.

And they said it on the national news that it had been identified.

The reason they were able to note that the suspect was there by a Flock camera.

So they're pointing out the fact that this is something, first of all, that ruins fairways, but also that leads police to suspects.

And all started with a Flock camera in Stow spotting this car and learning the police about this.

It was a wild chase that involved a big crash just to the north in Hudson.

The guy got out, ran, carjacked another car that led them through the golf course, hit a Summit Metroparks cruiser, and finally, finally they got the guy.

And he's been accused of a very serious crime.

He was accused of attempted murder.

So this is somebody that they were looking for.

So they're pointing out that Flock helped us catch this particular person.

And that's where the debate continues.

All right.

Lakewood officials are asking state regulators to investigate First Energy again after another round of prolonged power outages left thousands of customers without electricity during last week's extreme heat.

And Glenn, Meghan George, the mayor there, submitted another complaint to the PUC, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, and she mentioned it on the Sound of Ideas as we had a whole discussion digging into this.

What is it that she's calling for?

Well, she wants more significant and direct fines to First Energy, possibly refunds for rate for for ratepayers and things like that.

Maybe an escrow system that would withhold ratepayers utility bill payments until some of these improvements are made.

It's interesting because the initial state investigation from the Public Utilities Commission did see that a lot of these previous outages, this has been going on for a couple of years now at least, were caused by equipment or line failures, not weather related events.

And Mayor George also pointed out this time she was told that it was issues at the Lauderdale substation, which was not in the previous report.

So like this is a new issue.

She's saying with the equipment.

This was not specifically addressed in the previous corrective actions outlined by the PUC.

And so because of that, because of these new it's like basically there's more equipment failures or more issues with the equipment than we thought.

You need to take another look at this and perhaps impose more, you know, fines and punishments and things like that, but also come up with a more comprehensive plan to replace some of this aging equipment.

And the mayor is saying, we don't have any choice.

We have to have First Energy.

It's the only provider here.

She actually talked about the city exploring ways to generate its own power.

So there are a lot of frustration that's there.

And our Gabriel Kramer was out talking to business owners and to people who live in Lakewood.

The frustration is high amongst all of them.

What is First Energy saying?

What's its response?

Well, just real quick.

We had heard about stuff like this to at at the West Side Market when the West Side Market in Cleveland was having Cleveland public power, which is Cleveland Public Power, which is having some of these issues and vendors having to throw away food.

It's not only are they losing sales because they have to be closed, but they're losing their inventory.

So rude food, formerly called rude food and pie, I still call it that sometimes rude.

Who did talk to Gabriel Cramer?

They tried to get creative, like, hey, we're going to have these outdoor cookouts.

We're going to do breakfast for dinner.

We're going to do all this different stuff.

But they're basically saying, hey, we've lost so much money, $25,000 in sales, the staff lost $10,000 in wages.

And so, you know, this is is truly a business issue.

First Energy was apologetic and said that they were, you know, working to try to fix this.

And they're like, hey, you can get free water over here if you need it and all this other stuff.

And that sometimes falls on deaf ears.

Or does it?

Yeah.

It's not not satisfying to business owners and residents there in Lakewood.

All right.

And it's not just First Energy.

We mentioned Cleveland Public Power way back with the West Side Market.

But over that weekend as well, over last week, there were outages that affected the happy dog and had to close on Saturday and lose its sales.

And also proof public House, a brand new restaurant in Ohio City, which put out a Facebook note saying we hope to be back up and running.

They were the next day.

But basically, if you have not been here, you got to get here and you got to do it this month, because some of these restaurants margins are if we don't make it this month, we don't make it.

And so you see a lot of that happening.

It's First Energy Cleveland public power, all of that.

There was a lot of energy need because of the heat being so high and people using air conditioning.

But got to get that figured out.

The grid.

And not only that, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio recently rejecting a First Energy proposal that would have given them more time, essentially to restore power in some of these areas.

And they're saying before being out of compliance, before being out of compliance.

And the PUC said, basically, look, you have a plan put forward for these improvements.

Let's get moving on the plan.

Let's get moving forward on these improvements.

And then you say you shouldn't need the extra time.

So we're not going to grant you this proposal.

All right.

We're going to talk about one more utility thing and then take our break to hear from Stephanie Haney about what's coming up on The Sound of Ideas.

Next week, canton City Council is considering spending nearly $200,000 on a study to determine whether the city's water, sewer and sanitation rates are fair in comparison to other utilities in the region.

Andrew, it doesn't know already.

It doesn't know it went to a better idea.

It says it's got some outdated practices.

The issue there is they raised rates just in February, about 15% for water, 13.5 for sanitation for sewer rather I'm sorry, 15 for sewer, 13.5 for water.

But the issue is that not everybody pays the same rates.

Households take it on the nose.

There are big breaks for industrial use.

And so you combine that with outdated practices and a need for a comprehensive look.

And the public services director says, you know, we really need to look at the whole thing, and we need to bring in a consultant to the tune of just under 200 grand.

Just ask the ratepayers.

They're going to tell you it's too high, too high, right, to know if I've ever I mean, and that's what one council member is saying.

Why do we need to spend 200,000 on this?

Right.

Interesting.

All right.

Well, we'll definitely be following that story.

And on one of our previous stories, Darryl sends an email.

He says the Human Services levy request the to, along with future stadium request and funding a new jail complex.

Won't this make Cuyahoga County too expensive for folks to say?

Interesting point, Daryl and Council member Michael Gallagher says.

He says I'm losing people at a Rain County almost every day.

All right, we'll leave it at that.

And we have many more stories to talk about on this week's Reporters Roundtable, including a move by the city of Akron to reject the liquor license renewal for a Highland Square bar.

But first, here's Stephanie Haney with a look at next week on The Sound of Ideas.

Hey there, Mike.

Here's what we have coming up next week on The Sound of Ideas.

Monday, we bring you our latest installment of our Talking Foreign Policy series.

This time, we're looking at U.S.

involvement in NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

This is after President Donald Trump spent time in Turkey last week with fellow member organizations.

On Tuesday, we are talking about new animal species in Northeast Ohio, both in the wild and at the Akron Zoo.

We'll also bring you a conversation with a Case Western Reserve University professor and author of a new book on the origins of white supremacy and the ways that it continues to manifest in modern society.

On Wednesday, the U.S.

men's national team may be out of the running in the World Cup, but the quarterfinals are still well underway here in the United States.

We'll talk about that and about the future of professional soccer, which is on the horizon here in Northeast Ohio.

On Thursday, we'll round things out looking at infectious diseases from parasites and insects, everything from West Nile to a nasty stomach bug that you do not want to get.

We'll also bring you the buzz about a new be sanctuary in Medina, and it is the return of our shuffle podcast with Ideastreams Amanda Rabinowitz, back to you in the studio.

Mike.

Thank you.

Stephanie, is there a stomach bug you do want to get?

Ideally, you don't want this one you really don't want.

We don't want any nasty stuff for sure.

And you are back now with the Sound of Ideas reporters roundtable from Ideast Public Media, and I'm Executive Editor Mike McIntyre, along with Ideastreams deputy editors for news Andrew Meyer and Glenn Forbes, and Ideastreams Statehouse News Bureau chief Karen Kasler.

By the way, I just called them Glenndrew.

Their one person, Glenndrew, is here.

It's our reporters are familiar with that term.

Yes.

A reminder before we get back to the show.

Take our Ideastream news quiz, if you will.

You can find it on our website.

Ideastream.or Fun way to cap your week of news consumption.

A funeral service will be held today for written police Sergeant Scott Reese killed Sunday night responding to a disturbance call.

Reese was shot dead, as was a mother and daughter in the house, police said.

A suspect died by suicide there as well.

And Glenn, do we know what prompted this shooting, this domestic violence incident?

Yeah, I was just going to say, you know, obviously a domestic situation don't know a ton about the motive because, you know, the suspected shooter, as investigators say, died by suicide.

But the sheriff, Tom Ballinger, did say that he had known that there was some kind of continuing issues between this couple who was estranged.

You know, they're still looking into it, but it's seems like, you know, kind of putting two and two together, a domestic situation.

And as soon as they arrived, shots were being fired at police officers.

Andrew, when these tragedies impact small towns, it seems more intensified sometimes, obviously, for families and for people that that know, folks, it's always at the height.

But here we see written the entire community really taking this heart, really a sense of community, because it is such a small community, just over 6000 people living there.

And the stories that are coming out after this horrible event, the mayor saying, you know, I, I remember going to school with the mom who was killed.

I remember going to parties, birthday parties with her, the sergeant who was killed, Sergeant Scott Reese, somebody who was known in the community.

It's not just the interaction that you have when they respond to a call, but you see them day in and day out.

You know, these people, they are part of the fabric of the community.

And that's why it's particularly particularly hard here in Richmond.

Funeral, funeral service me today.

And I'm sure that will be tough.

And as well, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police has repeated his call for safety, for law enforcement and really going into a domestic violence situation.

And we've seen that in Cleveland in a number of cases, is perhaps one of the most dangerous spots for a police officer to be.

Absolutely.

And, you know, one of the sad coincidences about this, I mentioned the sheriff, Tom Bollinger.

He was a stabbing victim just just about a month ago.

I mean, there was an incident where where he was he was stabbed.

You talked about Cleveland and, of course, in Lorain last summer, Philip Wagner was officer there was was fatally ambushed.

So this hit Lorain hard as well.

Just kind of as a reminder, you know, less than a year later, another another agency dealing with a tragedy like this.

It's just it's it's been a tough week certainly for law enforcement.

And briefly we do want to note to that a canine officer was also injured.

But the veterinarian surgeon said that Vic, the three year old Belgian Malinois.

Is that how you pronounce it?

I think you got that right.

Is one lucky pup.

So we'll be okay?

Yeah.

Vic was released and they don't know yet, but his handler is hoping he may be put back into duty.

That's not on the horizon anytime soon, but it's a possibility.

So that is one piece of good news from this.

I don't know if you can put a dog on desk duty for a while, but I would probably would give up some treats, give it a break and some trailer rubs shirt that Akron City Council wants the city to deny the liquor license of Highland Tavern, citing ongoing safety concerns and repeated police calls connected to the bar.

And Andrew Council's vote to object to the bar's license renewal doesn't mean it can't be a bar now.

It means it's going to be a little bit more of an obstruction down the line.

But part of their problem was there was some issues at Highland Square.

All of the bars cooperated and said, we're going to close early and make sure that these problems go away.

Except this one, it's been a building problem in Highland Square where they've been dealing with large crowds that American civics course, which culminated in a shooting on June 7th.

Fortunately, nobody was killed, but somebody was hurt pretty badly the following week, the mayor said, got in touch with bards and said, look, we need to really, really rein things in here.

We would appreciate it if you close at 11:00.

Everybody complied at first except for Highland Tavern.

Finally on Friday, the day before the day of the closures, they relent, said we will also close, but it's rubbing the city the wrong way.

And so where do we stand now that it doesn't immediately lose its license?

But it has to go through the state.

And now there's an objection.

It goes to a state agency to review the permit.

It's going to be a months long process.

The council member who represents that area, Fran Wilson, is not happy about Highland Tavern, but he's not or they are not also at the moment saying, you know, Highland got to go.

But hopefully the next step is Highland Tavern coming to the table and having productive conversations about being a good steward of the neighborhood.

Okay.

A draft rule being considered by the Ohio Casino Control Commission would block sports bettors from charging their wagers to credit cards.

And, Karen, what needs to happen before this is finalized?

And do you think it's likely to happen?

Well, the rule still needs to go through the Common Sense Initiative, which is this thing that was created to kind of try to cut down on regulations and make sure that regulations aren't repeating themselves in state code, and also the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, which is part of the whole process of of moving things through.

It takes a long time and a lot of different agencies are involved.

But what's interesting here is the sports betting industry only filed one minor objection to the rule.

So it seems very likely that this will be approved.

And if not, there would certainly be some questions.

But I think what's interesting here too, is that you can use credit cards to play the Ohio Lottery, but you potentially would not be able to use credit cards to gamble on sports in.

The idea on this is one of the worst things for a better to do is to gamble with money you don't have in your pocket, and so you can't afford to lose it.

When you're going on a credit card and you have, say, a $10,000 limit, you've just lost $10,000 you don't have, which exacerbates what's already a growing problem for for gambling.

But what's interesting to me, too, though, is that when I've gone to the casino here, the Jack Casino in Cleveland, there's a cash machine right there.

So you don't have to use your credit card.

You just go over and pull 500 bucks out, and now you've got your wager.

Yeah.

And really, only a handful of states that allow sports betting do allow credit cards to be used for exactly that reason.

I mean, it really just kind of puts the gas on for people who are already potentially spending money that they don't have.

But yeah, the idea that you could just walk up to a cash machine and take a cash advance or access your checking account or savings account or whatever, that option still exists.

Don't ask me how I know this, okay?

How don't you know this?

But there are there are pretty sizable fees attached to credit card deposits in a lot of these sportsbooks.

So not only are you putting, it's not like, oh, I'm going to put it on my credit card to get the points.

You're not only are you putting on your credit card, but you're also losing the money in the fees that are tacked on, either by your bank or whatever.

So there are pretty large fees associated with this.

You're losing even more money than what you're depositing if you want to look at it that way.

So it's not so much just, you know, trying to get credit card points or whatever.

To your point, I think it's truly money that in most cases they don't have, because then you're paying the additional fee on top of that deposit.

Did you put your money on Kylian Mbappe and France or on Lionel Messi and Argentina?

Okay.

No, no no comment, no comment.

I did okay yesterday.

Let's just let's just say that I've never met on a sports event and neither has Glenn as far as we know.

No, don't ask me how I know.

Kids in Northeast Ohio will soon have 24 over seven access to free, text based mental health support as part of a new partnership between Akron Children's Hospital and Sonar Mental Health.

Andrew, it's interesting to me, we hear about how mental health issues with young people are on the rise.

Anxiety is off the charts.

Those types of issues, it looks like they're looking for a solution that says full access, and a solution that something other than going and finding something on your own.

Using an AI chatbot.

This is an interesting idea to plug a significant gap in mental health support for kids.

Currently, there's about a 30 day gap.

If you've got a kid who needs to see someone to get them in to talk to them, this is a text based app where no, you're not getting on a phone and talking to them, but the texting is with a real person.

It is not about something where you're getting an AI chatbot to give you maybe information that's on target, maybe not.

And the conversations can be as long as they need to be.

If it's something that can be solved in five minutes, great.

If it takes a few hours, they're there to continue that text.

A certain point, they do have a cutoff where they will say, okay, let's take a break.

Get out, get some fresh air, go outside and just, you know, chill for a moment.

But they're there to plug that significant gap in mental health services support.

You wonder if that's something that will be expanded to other hospitals.

The access.

But the whole worry is that it is AI.

And they're saying, for sure this is not you're they are saying that is not the AI, that there's a human being on the other end who is responding to the text messages that are coming in.

And you would think the text messages might then lead to the actual in-person appointments and the further treatment.

Again, I see it as potential to plug the gap that's there.

I think the question is, will it become the well, okay, here's your 30 day.

You know, Band-Aid, if you will, without looking for ways to close up that 30 day gap and get people, get the kids in who need to see somebody right away getting them in.

All right, let's hit the gas and get a bunch more stories in here.

In the next ten minutes.

The Bezos Earth Fund has granted $10 million to Cleveland to turn vacant lots into green spaces.

The fund is a charitable organization created by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sanchez.

Bezos and the Western Reserve Land Conservancy will be the local administrator of that.

Grant and Glenn, this isn't like putting lots together so you can build a business or something.

These are all disparate lots scattered throughout the city.

What they're saying is they're eyesores and we can make them better.

Yeah.

The fund is designed to obviously award this money, but the idea is community design, parks, beautiful large scale green spaces, immersive outdoor areas.

That's coming from the Bezos fund.

When you read Steve Litt an idea, you learn a lot.

So I encourage everybody to do it.

When you edit him, you do too.

That's really what St.

Clair-Superior and Hough neighborhoods, more than half of all parcels in those neighborhoods are empty.

And that's according.

That's according to the news release.

But I also saw that in the article by by Steve.

Right.

$10 million over three years to clean up 600 publicly owned parcels.

This has been an issue, obviously, in Cleveland.

Also, 11,000 residential demolitions occurred between 2007 and 2015.

In Cleveland, large areas scarred by decades of population losses and deindustrialization.

Again, that's from that's from Steve Lit.

But yeah, the idea is Cleveland was one of eight cities to get this award.

And again, the idea is green space designed parks, outdoor areas.

So yeah, it's not just one block of land.

It's designed to spread out through these neighborhoods that have been hard hit.

And 10 million bucks is nothing to sneeze at.

That's right.

Pregnant families in parts of Cleveland will receive direct cash payments as part of a new effort to reduce infant mortality and improve maternal health.

The program launches this fall, and I was surprised to see this, Glenn, because often you hear programs where it's like, we'll provide you supplies or those type of thing.

This is literally cash in pocket, cash in pocket.

And it's a one time payment, $1,500 during the pregnancy, but then $500 each month for the baby's first six months.

So that adds up $4,500.

I'm not a math major, but I think that's correct.

And this is a Michigan based program and they're partnering with First Year Cleveland.

You look, in 2023, Cleveland's infant mortality rate 13.7 infant deaths per every 1000 babies born.

That's more than double the national rate.

So the need is is certainly there.

And, you know, food, housing, transportation, quality health care.

I mean, that's number one, especially when moms pregnant and you've got a newborn that quality health care is obviously very, very important.

All right.

Ohio faith leaders have urged governor Mike DeWine to take additional steps to protect voting rights and reassure voters that the state's elections are secure ahead of the midterms this fall.

Karen, how did last month's FBI raid on an organization of voting registration organization?

How did that lead to this effort?

Well, I think there's been some overlap in Faith leaders and the Ohio Organizing Collaborative and the Ohio Organizing Collaborative really says that they feel like they were targeted in this raid because they are registering people to vote.

And so the the faith leaders are saying that it's time for government officials to really come forward and say that Ohio's elections are secure, which we hear a lot of, but we also hear the pushback from President Trump and others saying that the elections can be stolen or they can be rigged, or, you know, you've got people who shouldn't be voting or voting.

And voter fraud is not a real issue here, of course.

And so this group wants a little bit more forcefulness on that.

And they're also concerned about a call from Steve Bannon who used to work in the white House, conservative podcaster talking about Ice agents being stationed at every polling place in November.

And they're very concerned about that.

That's something that the white House has said.

They've dismissed that.

Secretary of state Frank Larose has said that's hypothetical, and he doesn't even want to talk about it.

But obviously, that's something that is a real concern for people who want to make sure that everybody who can vote this fall actually gets a chance to and is not intimidated or disenfranchized.

And I would expect that the pastors are making this argument themselves as well.

But they're conscripting the governor and they want him just to use the bully pulpit for this.

Yeah.

And I think you're seeing some groups I mean, groups have always been doing this to try to urge DeWine to veto certain legislation and all that thing.

But, you know, DeWine is at the tail end of his eight years in office.

And I think that there was maybe an attempt to try to pull him in.

I mean, he he made a statement about the death penalty recently, for instance, in his concerns about that.

And so maybe, you know, one of the things that's important to note here is that there is an amendment that's on the ballot this fall that would require a photo ID for in-person voting, and that's already in state law, but it require that in the Constitution.

And I think there's some real concern about that.

And whether that's something that really we need to have in the Constitution and vote on it this fall.

Okay.

Remember when we were talking about nasty stomach bugs?

Everybody?

Sadly, yes.

Let's get back to that again.

If you're loading up on summer fruits and vegetables, be sure to wash them well before eating.

That's the top line advice from the Ohio Department of Health on a stomach bug that is making people sick in Ohio and nationwide.

And Andrew, what do we know about how many people are getting sick by this?

So far, the Ohio Department of Health says as of last week, 177 cases reported, most of them outside of northeast Ohio.

Just four cases of Cyclospora in Cuyahoga and Summit counties going.

I haven't heard anything about this.

Well, if you're paying attention to the news on a daily basis, you probably seen something about explosive diarrhea.

Yeah, that's that's what you were just dying to say, that I was.

Yeah, that, you know, if nothing else, my day is made.

Do you need the qualifier that it's explosive?

I mean, I get I, you know, I think that's why it's a particularly nasty bug.

Yeah.

Because it is explosive.

And those numbers that you're talking about are people who have been diagnosed with that.

But I happen to know somebody my wife works with, somebody I believe that was very sick earlier this week.

And who knows, maybe that's what it was sort of like back in the early days of Covid, before people knew what Covid was.

People had been sick for a while, and it's like, maybe that's what you had.

Doctor Bruce Vanderhoff, who's the director of the Ohio Department of Health, says it is a very serious illness.

It's not necessarily deadly and it can be treated with antibiotics, but if you get it, you got to take care of yourself because it can dehydrate you.

You should seek emergency medical care.

It needs to be taken seriously.

So wash your vegetables, wash your fruits, peel them if you can.

Those types of things storage, all of that.

Okay.

Got a couple of minutes here real quick because Glenn will want to talk about this.

The Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell agreed to a four year contract extension worth $273 million this week, one of the biggest and expected moves for the Cavs this offseason.

Expected because they had hoped to do this, it could have been next year.

He could have cashed in a lot more if he waited, got another $80 million, shows kind of his commitment, he says.

I love it here, but this isn't just about him.

Now that this has happened, James Harden is kind of hovering and might have a new contract.

But all of this is because of a familiar name that brought us something in 2016.

We made it 55 minutes without mentioning LeBron, but mention him.

James.

Yes, all indications are it certainly seems like he's LeBron is likely to come back.

It's nice to have Donovan Mitchell here a guy who actually wants to be here.

Yeah.

And a great player.

And people are saying the greatest in Cavs history aside from LeBron James.

But LeBron in his 40s coming back perhaps his son joining the team as well.

When you look at it seems like a package deal doesn't it.

It does.

And when you look at that you wonder does that bring the magic back?

Is that in some ways and you're the sports guy and give me 30s on this.

Do the Cavaliers become more than Eastern Conference Finals losers in that case and almost to the to the championship when they have this combination.

This is a business right.

And this is a good business move for the Cavaliers.

Could be a good basketball move for the Cavaliers because they have flamed out in the playoffs.

This kind of core they've done this to themselves.

They've kind of opened this up as an issue.

Dean Wade off to Philadelphia.

He's kind of a small forward a stretch guy.

Something that LeBron could possibly play.

But if you talk about LeBron and even like a former Cavs enemy like Draymond Green, you're talking about a championship pedigree and some toughness right.

We've talked about this team needing toughness.

So here we are.

I've been I've had LeBron fatigue for 15 years and ready for some more.

It continues.

All right.

Last story.

Black bear sightings have been cropping up across the Cleveland area over the last week.

Security and doorbell cameras captured video of bear sightings in Pepper Pike, Garfield Heights, Cuyahoga Heights.

Not clear if it's the same bear, although according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, black bears do have a large habitat range.

It's considered endangered in Ohio.

The black bear owner says black bears have been repopulating in the state over the last decade.

They're generally frightened, Andrew, of people, so that's good news.

That is good news, right?

It's not necessarily that they're coming to to eat you.

But don't poke the bear.

Don't poke the bear.

That is good advice.

Yeah.

So that's it.

Black bears are all around us.

Be careful.

Make sure you secure your trash cans as well as bird and pet food.

Don't give them something to come searching for.

And that is the best advice for today.

And that is all of what we have for today.

And I appreciate all of you being here, particularly Andrew, Glenn, I know you've got a lot of busy work today to make sure that we have stories for this afternoon and for Monday as well.

So thanks for being with me today.

Thanks for having me.

And also, Karen, really appreciate you being here.

Thanks.

Absolutely.

And I also want to send a good wish out to super producer Leigh Barr.

It's her last Sound of Ideas.

She's moving on to other things at Ideastream, but she's been amazing.

Yeah you're right.

And I was going to do that actually.

Myself and Leigh Great work.

Aya, Cathey who's been assisting Leigh, will be coming on as the main producer of the roundtable.

But Leigh will continue to help us on our digital realm as a coordinating producer there.

Monday, we're going to bring you an installment of our quarterly series, Talking Foreign Policy, this time looking at the United States involvement in NATO.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization missed any part of today's show.

You can hear a rebroadcast tonight at nine on 89.7 WKSU.

Find it on any podcast app and you can check out the Ideastream Public Media YouTube page and watch the TV show of this show tonight at five on WVIZ, PBS.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for listening and watching and stay safe, and our closing song by the great Paul Westerberg has some clever wordplay on the Second Amendment.

Hey, we may have bears roaming the neighborhood, but at least they're not packing heat.

Here's “The Right to Arm Bears” music