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

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for joining us.

East Cleveland's police department has been wracked with turmoil for years, and officers were convicted of various crimes.

The former chief is now facing 31 felony counts.

The latest issue: public concern is growing about whether enough good officers are left to protect the city.

East Cleveland officials refuse to even say how many cops are on the force.

The temporary protected status of Haitian immigrants in Ohio expired this week.

Thousands now worry about their fate.

Dr.

Amy Acton has called for a conditional moratorium on data centers in Ohio.

Her opponent in the race for governor, Vivek Ramaswamy, said she's parroting his ideas.

Your county fair will surely have rides, funnel cakes, and this year, extra security.

And maybe we should road trip to Mike's Corner Store in Toledo, where a guy bought 2 winning scratch-off lottery tickets, one Worth a million bucks.

Joining me to discuss all of this week's news from News 5 Cleveland, reporter Michelle Jarboe is here.

Hello there.

Hi there.

Good to have you.

And also with us from Ideastream Public Media, our criminal justice reporter Matt Richmond.

Hey, Matt.

Morning, Mike.

Good to have you with us too.

Good to be here.

And in Columbus, a woman who doesn't win the lottery, the lottery wins her.

Ideastream Statehouse News Bureau Chief Karen Kasler.

Good to see you, Karen.

Well, even if I won the lottery, I would still be here.

Yeah, that's true.

I think that is true.

Absolutely.

Good to have you with us.

And you can join us, by the way, as well.

Well by sending an email to soi@ideastream.org.

Let's get ready to roundtable.

How many officers are there in the East Cleveland Police Department?

City leaders won't say, even though it's a matter of public record.

And Matt, you reported on this story.

Tell us about the response that you received when you requested information about staffing.

Uh, yeah, it was more or less no, we don't— based on city policy, we're not going to tell you how many officers we have on, on active duty in East Cleveland.

And, um, I re-sent my, my request and copied and pasted, you know, the passage from the Ohio Attorney General's Sunshine Manual clearly states, you know, you have that a list of everyone employed by any public agency is public record.

So I copied and pasted, sent that back, and didn't hear anything back from them.

When you say Sunshine, they call it the Sunshine Laws because it's bringing light into the darkness, essentially.

It's the open records law.

Its what they need to be able to, to, uh, to tell you.

So the question though started because of a social media post that there was just some concern, and we've talked about, and you've been covering for years, all of the, the criminal convictions in East Cleveland, the lack of the police officers who have been convicted.

And so you would think their ranks have gone down, you'd hope they'd been replaced, but the social media post gave an alarmingly low number for a city that size.

Yeah, it was from a former employee.

Justin Anderson is his name.

And he's someone who sort of viewed as a political enemy or political opponent of the people who are in charge of the city now.

So I think that contributed to their response to his post.

And what he said was, you know, this is a public service warning.

Stay out of East Cleveland.

There are— initially he said it was 3 active duty patrol officers and a single detective, and then he changed it to 4.

And it got a lot of attention.

And so, you know, that's why me and other reporters started checking with the city.

And in fact, reporters from News 5 actually did that, Matt.

And you noted that in your story, that they gave a number that seemed to be pretty accurate because you talked to a source in the city that said, yeah, that's the number right now.

Yeah, it was, you know, that was what they heard.

It wasn't— nobody was clear about it.

But yeah, that it was 6.

And the idea was that there were 2 patrol officers on each shift, each of the 3 shifts every day.

It doesn't seem like we said— doesn't seem like that's enough.

The city should have, it seems, an imperative to answer to the public about what they're doing to make sure that the city is safe.

I know that the sheriff's department helps in some way, but there's no formal agreement, no contract.

Just you might see sheriff's deputies mainly on the weekends in East Cleveland.

Yeah, that was how it was described to me, that, you know, the, the unit that does is now called the Community Support Unit.

And it was the Downtown Safety Patrol.

When they were the Downtown Safety Patrol, it was, you know, every weekend this, this number of deputies and a supervisor were assigned to, to be in downtown Cleveland to patrol.

This is different.

This is the way it was described, was more that there are— this unit is there, they're available, they are in East Cleveland to offer sort of a presence.

But it's not clear when to expect them there.

It's not, you know, it's not nearly as formal as what the Downtown Safety Patrol was.

All right, well, I know you'll continue to pursue that.

We will try to find out how many police officers are there, and as we said, it's a matter of public record.

We could get the names of every officer.

That's, that's our right.

But I think we'll continue to pursue that.

But I would— my advice would be badger them.

Yeah, that's all fair.

That's all we can do.

Okay, very good.

And staying in East Cleveland, some promising news about the city.

The city may be short on police officers, but a new effort seeks to expand the city's housing.

Officials unveiled a revitalization project that targets new homes, upgraded infrastructure, and repairs for current homeowners.

Michelle, it's one part of a 6-part investment in affordable housing in East Cleveland.

Tell us a little bit about that.

Yeah, and for people who don't— might not know quite where this is, this is just over the border from University Circle off of Euclid Avenue.

It's an area that kind of straddles the edge of Cleveland and East Cleveland backing up to Lake View Cemetery.

And there's a 32-acre footprint there where the Cuyahoga Land Bank is serving as what's called a master developer.

So they're like the orchestra conductor for whatever's going to happen in that area.

And they're working with a bunch of partners on construction of new homes, renovations of existing homes, home repair for existing residents, and then investments in infrastructure, green space, and upgraded commercial buildings along Euclid.

All of that is going to take quite a while.

And on Woodlawn Avenue, 7 new homes.

You said some of them are new homes, there's some repairs and other things, but purchasing one of those houses, you, you get some incentives to do that.

That's right.

And, and, you know, you said affordable housing earlier, but I would actually call this like mixed-income housing because there are a number of price points.

But folks who are buying these new homes will have access to a 15-year tax abatement on the new home itself.

They'll have the ability to get a reduced interest rate And they have access to down payment assistance of up to $15,000.

There's also a separate down payment assistance program that's been around for a while in the greater University Circle area for people who work at certain University Circle employers where they can get even more help, say if you're a nurse, for example.

How's the project being funded?

So it's a mix of public, private, and philanthropic funding, and there's still quite a bit of fundraising going on for it.

So, you know, there is money coming from a wide array of partners.

From the state to the regional sewer district to the land bank itself to various foundations and programs focused on things like green energy and sustainability.

We are called— it's called the Circle East neighborhood.

As you said, it's adjacent to University Circle.

What do we expect to see there in the next few years?

So we've got this wave, but we mentioned it's a multi-wave project.

Yeah, so the plan is to work kind of street by street through the district, and the Cuyahoga Land Bank has control over roughly 200 vacant lots over there.

So the ultimate goal is to have, you know, 200 new homes and, you know, these mixed-use commercial buildings along Euclid there.

So we'll just start to see this move along with street upgrades as part of it, you know, new utility infrastructure from things like water lines to EV chargers.

But it's going to take a while and significant additional fundraising.

Okay, great.

Thanks for that update.

Ohio's Democratic candidate for governor, Dr.

Amy Acton, announced this week that she supports a conditional moratorium on new data centers.

Karen, what is a conditional moratorium?

What are the conditions?

Well, her conditions are 100% union labor to build these data centers, which by the way, most of it, and cover 100% of their utility costs.

I'm sorry, I was gonna jump in.

Go ahead.

Most of it is already union labor.

It's like 93%, but this is just sort of solidifying that, that aspect of it.

And it's addressing some Democrats' concerns about data centers because Democrats have been kind of in, at least elected officials who are Democrats have been kind of in that middle where they don't want to necessarily speak out against data centers, but you know, they are concerned about some of the things that other people are concerned about, but the union labor is an issue.

So 100% union labor, 100% covering their, their utility costs.

Also operate with full transparency.

No more nondisclosure agreements, NDAs, and adhere to Ohio's environmental standards and agree to these community benefit agreements, which it's unclear exactly what those are.

So it's really just kind of putting some guardrails on data centers, which state lawmakers have also talked about.

But this is kind of— I would say this is the most specific that either candidate for governor or either candidate for U.S.

senator has gotten in terms of whether they support data centers or not and under what circumstances.

It's not necessarily a ban, but is this something that would make it too hard to build a data center?

Is it essentially saying Ohio is not open to data centers?

Well, the first thing is the question of whether Amy Acton or Vivek Ramaswamy, whoever becomes governor, would have the authority to do all these things, because Acton's statement says that she would take immediate action to support this conditional moratorium.

But in reality, she doesn't have the ability to say, order that all, all construction will be union labor.

So that's the first question.

But I mean, that's been an issue and a question that I think a lot of Republicans especially have had, that if you put too many restrictions on data centers, they're going to go to other states because they're building in Virginia and other places.

And if Ohio wants to continue to be a data center leader, then Ohio has to be as permissive as possible.

But you've got this, this grass— grassroots swell against data centers right now that's really pushing hard because they're concerned about environmental problems.

They're concerned about the jobs that are created.

They're concerned about these NDAs, all of that.

Yeah, we went out and did these library office hours to talk to people about what's important to them in the midterms.

And if we had done that, uh, even a year ago, I don't think data centers would've come up, it was one of the top 5 topics that people brought up time and again.

So certainly something that's— yeah, I think while people talk about, while people talk about affordability and the economy and property taxes, those are all still big issues.

But I feel like data centers is the hottest issue right now.

And for a candidate to get into that, I think is really an important note.

Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign, the Republican running, has said, hey, it's about time.

Amy Acton has said something about this because we've been talking about data centers.

But it's, it's still a little bit muddy exactly where the Ramaswamy campaign does stand on data centers.

He's been supportive, saying that the boom is a good thing.

And he's talked about the need for just high tech and moving into that Silicon Valley of Ohio kind of thing.

But the specifics here, I think it's the first time we've really seen some actual specifics on what either candidate would do if they were elected.

Now, Ramaswamy has been saying for a long time and said months ago that he also supports the idea that data centers should cover their own electricity, that they should do that.

And in fact, his camp, after this plan was rolled out by Amy Acton, said she's parroting his ideas.

Now, I don't think his ideas were 100% union labor and some of the other things, but essentially saying, yeah, she's coming along with what we've been saying the whole time.

Yeah.

And I think that that's obviously a response that he would come up with in the sense that he has talked a little bit about data centers, but not as specifically, and certainly not in terms of what would be the guardrails that he would put in place.

I think that whole idea of utilities, data centers covering 100% of their utility costs, that's an idea that's been talked about for quite a while.

And even some data centers are starting to talk about the energy that they would have to generate.

I mean, you've got this huge project down in Piketon that's on federal land where where this enormous data center will bring along this enormous natural gas facility to power it.

So that's something that I, I could certainly see lawmakers getting into in terms of requiring these new data centers to not just plug into the grid, which I believe some are, at least a couple, but to bring their own power.

And he's even talked about nuclear as a place, as a way to, to power those data centers.

The race is starting to heat up.

That's one of the many issues, but we're seeing now a debut of Amy Acton's first television ad this week.

We've seen many from Ramaswamy.

He's spending a whole lot more money, has raised a lot more money.

But what, now that we have this development, now that the sort of the airway battle is on, airwaves battle is on, what do we see from Amy Acton?

And he also has personal money that he can bring to this campaign as well.

And there's been some reporting that has pointed to how his personal wealth could benefit from data centers.

But that's back on that.

The ad war is finally a 2-sided ad war because we were only seeing Ramaswamy, both him and his PAC have been putting out ads since about March.

He's been putting out ads more introducing himself, more talking about the things that he would do.

His political action committee has been a lot more aggressive in terms of attacking Amy Acton.

So this is not a pushback to those attacks.

This is really kind of an introductory ad that Amy Acton has out there, kind of putting herself out there before voters and showing voters who she is.

The question is, how much did she spend on that ad and where is that ad airing?

I'm told it's certainly airing on digital, it's on social media, but I don't know if it's on TV, if it's on commercial, if it's on cable.

So we're still trying to find out that information, which is important because that's—that tells the reach of the ad and, and who she's potentially going to seek in terms of getting votes from them.

All right.

Getting back to data centers, City Council in Akron decided this week that new data center proposals there must be approved by both the city's Planning Commission and the City Council.

What else does the legislation do, Michelle?

So basically what it does is it defines data centers and then it requires data center projects to get a conditional use permit.

So it creates a process for them.

Akron's Previous zoning, like the zoning language in many cities, just didn't address data centers, which then creates a situation where in industrial areas at least, data centers are allowed by right.

A developer could just come in and do a project like that and not need to jump through a lot of hoops.

In Akron now, projects will have to go through the City Planning Commission and City Council for approval, and the city has stated some expectations for what these projects will include in their applications, you know, the information they'll include, like information about electricity demand, anticipated water use and water discharge, what their backup power systems are, and anticipated noise levels.

So it's saying we want that information, but it doesn't have a rule that says if you don't create your own electricity, you can't have a data center.

It's just basically they have this information with which they can make their decisions.

Right.

It's saying, developer, you need to provide all of this information to us as part of your application, and we have guardrails around this and a process for considering these projects.

We're not rejecting data centers, but we're saying this is the pro— we're creating a process for you to go through.

And this is happening all over.

We've talked just now about Akron in terms of legislation, but then we move to Amherst in Lorain County.

You were at a meeting there where folks were very concerned about a data center proposal and in fact packed the place so much so that They had to use a QR code in order to access the meeting because they couldn't get in.

Yeah, the fire code limitations for the building prevented them from letting more than 60 people in at a time, and there were well over 100 people there.

It was kind of funny.

I was outside for the start and then went in later, but there was one point like everybody is outside on a phone or another device watching the livestream of the meeting, which is like 10 feet away inside a door, which is 10 feet away inside.

And by the way, all of this is powered by a data center.

Good point.

But it was, it was incredible how many people turned out, and everybody who wanted to speak did get a chance to speak.

And then less than 24 hours after the meeting, the city announced that this use variance that the developer was seeking for the project was denied.

This is a proposal to turn 3 existing buildings on a former manufacturing campus into data centers.

So it's not ground-up construction.

It's taking an industrial property that's there and turning it into something else.

But Amherst's position has been, look, data centers are not explicitly allowed in our industrial zoning code.

So you need a use permit and you need to prove that this is really the only compelling thing you could do with this property.

And the zoning board said, nope, we, we don't buy the developer's argument.

So now the developer has to decide whether to appeal.

And the developer being Cervenka Development Partners, LLC.

They're seeking that.

It isn't over.

They can appeal that or there could still be— there's not some blanket no data centers in Amherst.

It's just you have to issue a permit in order for it to happen.

And in this case, the permit was denied.

Yes, that's right.

Amherst does not have a moratorium.

There's been some chatter, in my understanding, among city council members there about whether they should look at a moratorium.

But the mayor told me yesterday he feels like their existing processes are working, as demonstrated by what they went through this week.

And now we'll just have to see if the developer appeals.

Once the decision, the denial of a use variance is issued, the developer has 30 days to file an appeal in court.

Okay.

Temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants ended Monday, meaning thousands in Ohio have lost their work permits.

Also, their driver's licenses are invalid.

Despite rumors, Governor Mike DeWine says he hasn't been informed of any planned ICE raids, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in the state.

Still, the large community of Haitians in central Ohio, and specifically in Springfield near Dayton, worries about its fate.

Karen, DeWine was at the state fair and talked about the fact that I don't think anything imminent is coming, but where does he get that from?

Yeah, DeWine opened the Ohio State Fair this week, and it should be said that DeWine is a huge fan of the Ohio State Fair.

So I think it's interesting that he spent a good half hour with reporters after the fair and after he ate the cream puff and everything to talk about whatever reporters wanted to talk about.

This was one of those issues.

So he was really kind of peppered with questions about TPS expiration and what's gonna happen with Haitians.

There's about 30,000 Haitians in the central Ohio area and 12,000 to 15,000 Haitians in the Springfield area.

That's where a lot of the focus has been because President Trump and Vice President J.D.

Vance really brought attention to that area in the 2024 election.

And, uh, since then there's been a lot of questions about what would happen to that economy out there if indeed TPS expired.

And so it's expired Monday.

There's still, I think, some legal questions about what can be done now that it's expired.

Can— is there anything else that anybody can do?

But Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has not told DeWine, according to him, that they're going to come in.

They don't have any plans to.

And while that could be a relief for those Haitians, there's a lot of fear and worry in that part of the state as well as in central Ohio for the possibility that ICE could come and do some of those deportation raids.

They don't have any obligation to call Mike DeWine and say, we're coming, right?

I guess not.

Right.

But I, I think there has been in the past some effort, especially frankly in Republican states, to give a heads up.

But one of the things that has been talked about in that whole discussion of Springfield is the role that Haitians have played in the economy, because many of them were brought to that area by the lure of jobs.

And businesses in that area have said that they really appreciate Haitian workers.

And so now with TPS expired, those work permits that they were issued are invalid.

And DeWine was asked about that.

Will any employers go ahead and keep paying these people, keep them on the job because they won't have any income?

And he said no, he doesn't expect any employer to break the law.

And those workers cannot even file for unemployment because now they are not in this country legally.

So there's going to be an impact in that area, I could imagine.

And some of the pastors that are working in that area to try to help those folks have been very worried about the impact on landlords and on restaurant owners and, and all the other businesses that are associated with what Haitians have been using in terms of services.

And then the Haitian families themselves now have no means to work, no means to drive.

There are decisions they'll have to make, and it would seem that, that leaving where they're going to and the reason they were here and protected in the first place is not a great option either.

Well, and one of the things DeWine talked about was that he isn't even sure how some of these folks would get back to Haiti because right now no US airline is flying into Port-au-Prince because it's so violent there that they're worried that those airline— those airplanes will be shot down.

So he was bringing that up as an example of why he thinks Haiti is hell, which is a direct quote from DeWine.

And when I talked to Carl Ruby, one of the pastors out in Springfield, he said that he's heard that some families are trying to find other countries to go to.

Uh, to try to get out of the United States.

But one of the most heartbreaking parts of this is that there are some families who will be split.

The, the Haitians who had TPS have seen that status expire.

Their children are American-born, and so they're struggling with, do they leave and take their children?

Do they leave and leave their children?

What's going to happen to the kids, right?

And speaking of flights to Port-au-Prince, there aren't those happening, but there are flights that are happening for the purpose of deportation.

There's a private charter service operating out of the Akron-Canton Airport being used to deport immigrants, and Congresswoman Emilia Sykes wants it to stop.

But the airport says it has no power over what a private tenant does.

It has safety concerns and other things that airports worry about, Matt, but, but can't decide what it is that you're going to do with your business.

So that continues at the Akron-Canton Airport.

Yeah, um, sorry, Eastern Air Express is the name of the company, and Beacon Journal said more than 130 flights operated by that charter company worked with federal immigration officials.

They landed at the airport since April, and the flights were serviced by AvFlight, a private fixed-base operator.

So if they need to fly people places, these kinds of services are what do it.

Yeah.

And, you know, the, the, the airport, like, like you said, doesn't really have any control over whether that, that airline can fly outta there.

But, you know, people are, are upset that that's happening in, in Akron.

And in fact, upset so much so that the Ohio Immigrant Alliance plans to protest the flights at the airport entrance on August 1st from 10 to noon.

Let's move on to another story.

2 Democratic state lawmakers wanna give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote in local and legislative elections.

The pair have introduced a joint resolution to put the idea before voters.

I guess if you can drive to the polls, you should be able to go in and vote too, Karen.

Well, and it's 2 Northeast Ohio Democrats, as a matter of fact, Sean Brennan and Chris Glassburn.

They are proposing that the state lower the voting age.

Now, what would happen is it would have to go before state lawmakers and then go to voters as a constitutional amendment.

And states do have the authority to do this.

And these lawmakers say that this will help with voter engagement and try to get younger voters into the whole voting system.

And really participating in democracy.

They claim that among those lower age voters, that the voting registration rate is like 32%.

So they feel like if there's an opportunity where younger voters have, where they know they can vote, they know they can have a say in what's going to happen as they become adults, that they might be more interested in participating.

I would say the cynical response to that is that younger people might be more inclined to on a more liberal path.

And so these are 2 Democratic state lawmakers who say, yeah, let's get the younger people in.

Well, I don't know if that's necessarily the case because you certainly saw a lot of younger voters who, especially younger male voters, who swung toward Trump in 2024.

So I, I'm, I'm not exactly sure, but certainly that is gonna be a criticism.

And of course, the whole idea of is, are 16 and 17-year-olds mature enough to make the decision on who to vote for?

And obviously the argument can be, yeah, we give 'em driver's— They have driver's licenses, they have jobs.

We're sending them to school to learn all sorts of things like AI and, you know, all sorts of things like that.

So why not let them have a role and have a say in what the people who are elected now are gonna be doing going forward?

I hear that concern from a lot of younger voters in general that, hey, we're worried about what lawmakers are doing now because it's gonna affect us down the road.

And so I think that that's part of this.

And this is not a totally new idea.

National groups like Common Cause Ohio or Common Cause USA that have supported this idea of extending the right to vote to 16 and 17-year-olds, basically saying this will help get kids interested in politics.

Marvin sends an email.

He says, I'm not sure yet if I would support lowering the voting age, but I definitely see a contradiction in considering a child old enough to participate in the labor force but not old enough to vote, especially if they're contributing taxes.

That's Marvin's thought.

And I, well, another thing that was Yeah, go ahead.

One, and another thing that I've heard from younger voters too is that they would like to see a cap on voting age because there's a concern about, uh, people who are, are getting up there.

That's just the largest, uh, voting block is people who are older, over 65 in terms of percentage.

Um, they're concerned, these younger voters, that these folks are voting on things that won't affect them down the road like they, like will affect the younger voters.

All right, we've got more to talk about, including more safety at your county fair and the worry about e-bikes.

Now here's Stephanie Haney to look at next week on The Sound of Ideas on WKSU.

Hey there, Mike.

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

On Monday, we kick things off looking at peptides, what they are and why the FDA is weighing in on approving new compounds.

We'll also look at the Odyssey.

It's a 2,500-year-old story and a a summer blockbuster.

So we'll try to understand why this still resonates with people today and how it's raking in millions at the box office.

On Tuesday, we will be looking at the body and stress and how stress impacts our body and our minds with treatment options from medication and therapy to meditation and breathwork.

We'll also hear from part of our 2026 class of summer interns here at Ideastream Public Media.

Then on Wednesday, we look at the plight of the Cleveland sports fan with a new novel, Cleveland Curse.

This is by Dave Eifert.

We'll talk with the author about what some of the things are that have plagued sports fans here in Northeast Ohio.

We wrap things up on Thursday with a conversation about racial health disparities with Dr.

Timothy Goler.

He's a Cleveland native and will be talking at the City Club of Cleveland next week.

He's published a new book in conjunction with the National Institute for African American Health, which is also based here in Cleveland.

Cleveland.

Back to you in the studio, Mike.

Thank you, Stephanie.

And do you guys think that cover was like how they're gonna get rid of the stadium on the lakefront?

They just, just put it up in flames?

That was my first thought.

Uh, not a good sign.

Anyway, hey, I'm Mike McIntyre along with, uh, Michelle Jarboe from News 5 and Matt Richmond from Ideastream.

And in the Statehouse News Bureau, we have Karen Kassler.

And we're going to talk about the news the rest of this show as well.

But a reminder before we get back to the show, take our Ideastream News Quiz.

You can find it on our website at ideastream.org/quiz.

Really fun way to start your Friday.

You'll see a lot of corn dogs, demolition derby, and cops at county fairs in Northeast Ohio.

Security is being beefed up as fair season commences following an incident at last year's Summit County Fair.

Matt, remind us first of all what happened last summer.

So there was a shooting in the parking lot outside the Summit County Fair that a 17-year-old was shot.

And I, you know, my understanding is it was based on like a fight that occurred inside and then kind of continued out in the parking lot.

So it was a targeted shooting.

So we're seeing not just in Summit County, but really throughout the region, and it's fair season, you're going to be seeing them coming every week, that there are new security measures that are, that are being enacted.

Yeah, for Summit County, you know, they compared it to entering a sporting event.

So you'll go through, you know, metal detectors, you'll have your bags checked to check for weapons.

And then when there are special events, concerts and things where they expect larger crowds to come, there'll be an increased presence of law enforcement and they're going to have mounted units there.

For like the Cuyahoga County Fair, which, you know, Summit County ends this weekend and then Cuyahoga County is later in August, they are just going to have kind of a constant presence of law enforcement patrolling.

And I think about David C. Barnett, who used to be our great senior arts reporter here.

And I, yes, DCB.

He and I went to the Cuyahoga County Fair in 2011 to do a story.

And I bought something called fried Kool-Aid.

And what that is, is like a hush puppy, but they put Kool-Aid powder in it.

And so it's like a cherry hush puppy.

It's dried Kool-Aid.

You're gonna ask Karen?

Oh, I thought— No, I was gonna add this year.

Yeah, this year at the state fair, there's an upgrade here to that, or a downgrade depending on your point of view.

Fried catfish.

Fried in Kool-Aid.

Okay, Kool-Aid's part of everything, right?

So, so in this particular hush puppy, I think they gave you 4, and David and I consumed 3, and I said that's enough.

And the other one is still in my office.

Matt, you can come and take a look at it.

It has not— it has aged.

It is, it is like, it's hard, it's kind of shellacked looking, it cracked a little, but it smells like nothing.

And I think one day in a real pinch, when the end times come, crack it open and make Kool-Aid.

I can eat that.

Yeah, that will be what will keep me alive anyway.

Have fun, enjoy something that you can keep in your office for 15 years.

The federal government plans to lease out nearly 3,000 acres of Ohio's only national forest to an oil and gas driller this fall.

Karen, is that a final deal?

They're going to lease it out?

No, the Bureau of Land Management has announced that 41 parcels totaling 2,840 acres in Wayne National Forest will go up for a bid on September 15th.

And those parcels are in Monroe and Washington counties.

So this, this leasing is kind of the first step in the process to help develop federal oil and gas reserves in Wayne National Forest.

Now, I know people are upset about fracking really anywhere, and then we talked about state parks.

Now we're talking about this national property.

What do the environmental advocates say about this proposal at Wayne National Forest?

Well, environmental advocates have long been concerned about any sort of drilling or fracking on state lands, on federal lands.

They have shown up at all sorts of meetings to try to stop this progress from happening.

But the federal— in federal law, they're allowed to go ahead and drill and frack in Wayne National Forest.

But however, just recently, the owners of 4 injection wells, which are storing the waste from oil and gas production, have stopped their operations in Washington County.

ODNR said in an email that they were notified that these owners have stopped stopped these, these injection wells because of real concerns here.

And you've got a big article that came out from the New York Times just in the last week or so talking about the concerns about the water down there and the water quality.

And that's been something that environmentalists and environmental advocates have been just banging the drum on for years.

And we're hearing from advocates as well as some legislators too, that there is a comment period and they want comments.

They want you to make sure that you're heard.

Yeah, and I should mention that, you know, the comment period, a lot of people blow that off thinking, oh, they're not gonna listen to me.

Well, in, uh, with the Ohio EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency, there was a comment period about data centers discharging wastewater into rivers and streams, and about 7,000 comments against that may have made a difference because EPA decided not to go ahead with that permit that would allow data centers to do that.

So comment periods, are important, and if you're concerned, it's, it's an opportunity to get your voice out there.

All right.

Playhouse Square is exploring new uses for the historic Cleveland Greyhound Terminal after it bought the building and the station closed in February.

And it's right behind our parking garage here.

I see it every day when I come in, and it is a really cool building, Michelle.

Yeah, it's a beautiful building.

It's, it's a pretty well-preserved example of this style of architecture called streamline moderne.

And You know, it's kind of grungy inside after long use as a bus station.

It was grungy a long time ago.

Playhouse Square has done quite a bit of cleanup.

There's still more to do, but I had the opportunity to walk through the building late last week with the CEO of Playhouse Square, and he talked about the possibilities ranging from turning it into a cabaret to a food hall to a mix of entertainment and dining and finding ways to open it up to the outside.

So, you know, maybe there would be a brewery that that would spill out or a cafe with patio space or, you know, just things to encourage people to move around that part of the district, which really is like a back door right now.

And the outside part we're talking about is because there were these bays where the buses came in.

So there's kind of this outdoor-indoor kind of aspect that you might not think about.

Yeah, the bays are, it's like angled parking for the buses and they're covered but open air.

So one thing Playhouse Square CEO Craig Hassall was talking about was, you know, maybe we could do a Christmas market and the vendors would be outside And you could go inside to get food and drink.

Also, the basement is something I don't think anybody's ever been to.

I certainly have not been there.

But he was like, maybe there's a cigar lounge or something you could do down there.

He's really dreaming.

Like, there's a million things it could be, but they haven't focused in on that yet.

I don't know how big of a priority it is.

Do you have any idea about timeline?

So, so Playhouse Square says a full renovation of that building is probably about 3 to 5 years away.

What they're really focused on right now is working, trying to work with the city to improve the public areas around the station.

So figuring out ways to slow down traffic on Chester back there between the parking garage, which a lot of Playhouse Square patrons use to get into the theater district, and that Greyhound station.

Looking at things like streetscaping, looking at things like wider sidewalks.

So the idea here is let's improve the public spaces, make this more walkable while while we're figuring out exactly what this building should be.

That said, Playhouse Square is interested in doing some pop-up programming at that building before it's fully renovated.

So they're looking at things like, could there be an art installation?

Could there be that kind of Christmas market or another type of, you know, artisan market that pops up?

Could there be other kinds of events?

Cool.

Mobile Care Center—I'm sorry—for survivors of sexual and domestic violence has launched a mobile advocacy vehicle.

To bring their services to more residents in Summit and Medina Counties.

And Michelle, I thought this was pretty cool.

Hope & Healing Survivor Resource Center comes to you.

That's, that's right.

And this is an organization that serves more than 5,000 people a year with a focus on survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking.

And, and what they're going to be doing is going out to places like libraries and grocery stores and nonprofits with the idea that these are everyday spaces in the community where they can connect with people rather than requiring people to come to them.

The services they'll provide are what?

Oh, there's a long list.

Safety planning, crisis intervention, court advocacy referrals, community resource navigation, information about their emergency shelter, therapy referrals, support groups, legal, financial, housing.

The list just goes on and on.

And how do you— I mean, it's not like it's an ice cream truck that's just coming by and you're like, oh, hey, but you can kind of request that it travels to various places?

Is there a hotline you can call?

Yeah, the hotline number in case anybody who's listening here is interested is 330-374-1111.

All right, so if you've got issues there in Medina and Summit Counties, that's the number, 330-374-1111.

The Ohio Department of Health says there's a new outbreak of measles in Northeast Ohio, the 3rd in the state this year.

4 people are infected, 3 in Ashtabula County, 1 in Tuscarawas County.

And Matt, I didn't realize that like 4 cases is an outbreak, but it is.

Yeah, 'cause it is so contagious.

And all these 4 cases were among unvaccinated people and they ranged in age from 4 to 30.

Previously, the last outbreaks were in Cuyahoga County and in Franklin County.

And this is a concern, as you mentioned, because it's so contagious.

Ages.

What do parents look out for?

Because it's so rare now that you might not even know.

I remember as a kid I had the measles, and, uh, and I, I remember that very clearly.

But now, I mean, my kids didn't have it.

It's— there's vaccination that many people take part in.

But if— what are the symptoms a parent should be looking out for, or, or a victim?

Um, so, so the big one is, is the rash that usually starts on the face and then spreads to the rest of the body.

But you also see fever, cough, runny nose, red watery eyes.

And I mentioned vaccines.

What is the health department's recommendation regarding vaccination?

So it's, it's 2 doses of the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine.

And they say that that's 97% effective preventing measles in kids and adults.

So MMR, if you've heard of that vaccine, that's what they're saying that you should have 2 doses of that.

Still some folks that are opposed to that.

Perhaps we're seeing increased cases as a result.

The private company FlexJet is upgrading its headquarters at the Cuyahoga County Airport and plans to add almost 1,000 jobs over the next 5 and a half years.

I've heard of FlexJet.

In fact, I know somebody who works there as a pilot and loves the job.

But we're talking about a big expansion now, Michelle.

Yeah, this is a substantial project.

And we reported on this on Monday based on public documents that came out of an Ohio Tax Credit Authority meeting where the Tax Credit Authority approved a job creation incentive for the company.

And for people who aren't familiar with this business, the big thing they do is they offer fractional jet ownership.

So an individual, wealthy individual, or a business can buy a share of a plane.

Oh, okay.

It's not like you just get the wheel.

You get to use some of the plane.

Yeah.

And then we all bring things and put them together.

No.

So you buy a stake in a plane And that gets you a certain number of hours annually along with the staff to, you know, fly the plane, maintain it, repair it, et cetera.

And it seems like this type of business is really growing.

So over the next few years, the company plans to expand its maintenance and repair operations here and invest in a new hangar and office space.

And they've been continually investing in their facilities over there.

They opened their current headquarters building a few years ago.

And when we were out there on Monday, there was active construction going on on parts of the complex.

So people, basically, if you can afford a jet, you would probably buy one.

If you can't but still can afford to fly charter and private, this is what you'd do.

So you'd have this many hours and you're going to be flying to wherever your business is or those types of things.

And they're on call and ready for you?

Yes.

And I mean, there may be people who can afford a jet who choose to do this anyway because then they don't have to deal with the that everything involved in owning a jet, right?

You know, it's, it's like, do you wanna own a boat or have a friend who has a boat?

And is that the choice that you made, Karen, that you decided to go fractiona Well, as a matter of fact, my, my late husband worked for a fractional jet operator outta Cuyahoga County.

And so I was just trying to figure out if that's the same one or not.

But it's an interesting business model, isn't it?

That you're rich enough to have a private plane, but not so rich, or you're rich enough to not have to fly commercial, but not so rich that you have your own plane.

Right.

And, and, and Bill, was a, was he a pilot for, for the fractional flight?

He absolutely was for 17 years.

Pretty cool job.

Yep.

All right.

Well, it's expanding here in Cleveland.

Wasn't bad.

Yeah.

Very good.

All right.

He always used to talk about the view from his office was really good.

I bet it was.

Yeah.

At 20,000 feet for sure.

I think they go that high.

I don't know how big.

Listen, don't get on me.

I don't know anything about aviation.All right.

Somewhere up in the sky.

All right, a child riding an e-bike suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries after colliding with a semi-truck in Westlake this week, another in a long line of accidents that has folks worried about the safety of electric-powered bicycles.

Matt, this incident further fuels the debate about whether e-bikes, scooters are safe, who should be using them, should there be more regulation.

But this is— we've got a— we're working on a story on this right now, but we're seeing more and more of these things crop— Yeah, and there's, you know, the Solon Schools took a step to ban a certain type of e-bike, the throttle-equipped e-bike, from their campuses.

Strongsville and Brook Park have adopted helmet requirements, which it's amazing to me that there aren't requirements for everybody because some of these can go up to close to 30 miles an hour.

Yeah, let's explain what an e-bike is.

So it's a bike.

It has pedals.

So you can pedal it, but it also has an electric motor.

And can zoom.

So conceivably, when I first heard of these many years ago, it was because you're going to go on a long bike ride and there might be some hills and you're not Lance Armstrong, and so you want to be able to use the boost to get you up a hill.

But now we're seeing people use them kind of like what mopeds used to be.

Yeah, and that's the— I mean, there's some where it's a pedal and then it just sort of assists your pedaling, but these throttle-equipped ones are separate from the pedals, and it's where you, you know, you have a throttle to give you yourself a separate power.

So we're seeing a lot of people start to talk about these bans, etc.

Hospital officials, doctors, emergency room folks, they're calling— they're calling out an alarm as well.

Yeah, according to MetroHealth, e-bike-related emergency visits rose from 17 in 2023 to 42 in 2024.

And in the first months of 2025, they treated 36 victims of, of e-bikes, of e-bike crashes.

And that's, you know, that's the riders and then pedestrians on the sidewalk because there continues to be— continues to be an issue with people riding them on sidewalks.

Yeah.

You know, I'm headed to Illinois on Sunday for a funeral next week, a family funeral.

And it was a delayed funeral because there was a young person in the small town in Illinois where they live who was on an e-bike and was killed in a traffic accident.

This is happening all over the country and people there are obviously And the reason the funeral was delayed, because the whole town is coming out for this funeral.

But there's also all this concern about how safe these things are when kids can get on them and go, as you said, 30 miles an hour.

Yeah, yeah.

And, you know, as a bike rider, I would always say that the big risk is from motor, is from vehicles, is from cars and trucks.

They're the unsafe, you drivers on the road.

But these are very new and they go very fast.

And it's not clear that kind of there's been a new sort of training or new rules that are in place for these now that they're almost replacing bikes among younger people.

I have a note here from Susan in Willowick.

She says, I see a lot of violations of e-bike by kids.

I think parents just give the bikes to the kids without checking the local or state ordinances.

Are there some ordinances?

Are there some?

Rules in regards to e-bikes?

Yeah, I mean, particularly about riding on sidewalks, but those aren't enforced.

At least they aren't down in downtown Cleveland.

They certainly aren't.

And I don't know if you need licenses for them.

I mean, maybe the throttle ones, or maybe there's some different type of thing.

But if you see a pedal on a thing, it could be considered just a bicycle, even if it has some boost.

Yeah.

Our associate digital producer Christian Petrilla is following this story.

I mentioned that we're working on on it.

If you have any questions or thoughts, you yourself, we'd love to hear from you.

You can email us, soi@ideastream.org, and you can direct message us on Instagram or Facebook, and that's @TheSoundOfIdeas.

The email again is soi@ideastream.org.

Love to hear your thoughts about e-bikes and any concerns that you might have, and Christian maybe can get back in touch with you as we're reporting that story out.

It is official, Northeast Ohio is finally getting an IKEA, though it's a scaled-down version of the mega stores in the Columbus and Pittsburgh areas.

Still, people in Cleveland geeked out over the announcement that IKEA will bring its self-assembled furniture and Swedish meatballs to Westlake's Crocker Park.

Michelle, because it's a smaller facility, will there be little tiny meatballs?

I think the meatballs will be regular meatballs, not little tiny miniature meatballs.

I think for some people in Northeast Ohio, this was probably the biggest news story of the week because, you know, I've been covering real estate in this market for a long time now, and IKEA has seemed to be at the top of almost everybody's retail wish list.

I've heard it for years, and we were real close to getting one in Brooklyn at one point, and I think somewhere else in Northeastern— Garfield Heights.

Garfield Heights.

And it was, yeah, the way people talked about it is like, we have to have this IKEA.

And now you have, you can get online and order anything you want from anywhere, and yet they still want this store.

Store.

That's right.

And this store, it's going to go in the former Dick's Sporting Goods space at Crocker Park, which has a parking garage attached to the back of it.

So there's some parking right there.

But this is going to be about an 80,000-square-foot store.

So to put that in perspective for people, the one in Columbus is like 345,000 square feet.

So this is less than a quarter of the size.

But IKEA is saying, you know, you'll still be able to buy and walk home.

Drive home with, you know, smaller home goods, textiles, you know, lighting, other accessories.

And then there will be a lot of other home furnishing items that are on display there that you could order in store for pickup or delivery.

So like that larger furniture, you may be able to look at, but you won't be able to buy it and take it home with you that day.

So you mentioned you've covered real estate forever and people go nuts over this.

What is What is it about IKEA that makes people, that it becomes like sort of part of the cultural zeitgeist, not just another Walmart?

I think it's probably a combination of the design and the pricing and the experience, the store experience, you know, whether it's walking through the showroom or being in that cafeteria area or pulling things down off the shelves in the more like warehouse part of it.

But I mean, if you go online, there are people who have all sorts of creative hacks for IKEA furniture, things you can do, you know, assemble the furniture the right way, but then maybe move it around in different ways or combine pieces.

So there's just a really large following.

Well, I assemble that furniture the wrong way every time.

Wait, how many screws were there?

Whatever.

All right, let's talk about lottery right now.

I once won $5 on a scratch-off lottery ticket that I got as a gift, and I was over the moon.

$5.

Bucks is a coffee and a donut.

But it appears it takes a little more to get folks excited nowadays.

Like, how about a billion bucks?

The Mega Millions lottery pot has topped that number 14 times, including once in each of the last 3 years.

And Karen, you had Joe Ingalls out in your bureau do a story about how that $800 million, which was won by a Florida lottery player on Tuesday, It didn't get a whole, as, as much excitement because apparently we're not excited about anything but a billion bucks.

Yeah, $800 million.

So what?

You know, I mean, it really is kind of amazing.

I, I, it's, but yeah, the lottery, the Ohio Lottery told Joe that, yeah, until the jackpot reaches that billion dollar level, that the ticket sales really don't spike until then, which is really kind of amazing when you think about it.

Because I mean, what you'd walk away with, even with $800 million, I mean, I mean, that's, that's a, a pretty, pretty good chunk of change, huh?

Yeah, it's not bad.

You could buy your own jet, I think, probably with that.

Yeah.

Uh, I'd be fine winning.

I'd be fine winning $25,000, which is what a guy in Toledo did on a $50 scratch-off ticket this week.

It was the second ticket he bought because he was feeling lucky.

The first $50 scratch-off, a million bucks.

Any of you guys wanna go to Mike's corner store in Toledo today?

Clearly we're spending our money on the wrong things.

Yes.

$50 on a lottery ticket.

This guy is now a millionaire.

Not, Not bad.

I kind of like that.

All right.

Would you guys do it?

Would you spend $50?

When you're hot, you're hot.

Yeah, I guess so.

But I don't think I'd spend $50 on such a ticket.

I, I would not win.

Okay.

I have no luck.

Fair enough.

All right.

That's all for today.

Uh, thank you very much for coming in, Michelle.

Appreciate talking with you as well, Matt and Karen.

Take care.

Good to talk with you.

Go Guardians.

All right.

Go Guardians.

If you missed any part of today's show, you can hear a rebroadcast tonight at 9 on 89.7 WKSU.

You can find it on a podcast app of your choice and on the Ideastream Public Media YouTube Watch the television version tonight at 5 on WVIZ PBS.

And to get the last word on today's topics, send an email to soi@ideastream.org.

That's the same place where you can send your email about e-bikes.

You can find us on Instagram.

We're @soundofideas as well.

And Monday on The Sound of Ideas, join guest host Drew Maziasz as he leads a conversation about peptides.

Some call them the fountain of youth.

Some doctors are raising the alarm.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for listening and watching, and stay safe.

Safe.

And the music world, the Irish community, and really anyone who loves meaningful music from a wonderful soul are mourning the passing of Glen Hansard this week.

The Dublin-born singer-songwriter died in a motorcycle accident there.

It's a huge loss.

The former street busker who went on to win an Oscar for his song with Markéta Hrglova, Falling Slowly, never forgot about the people on the streets.

And so we close today with a final toast, Hansard himself a cappella singing the centuries-old Scottish folk The Parting Glass.

And of all the money that e'er I spent, I spent it in good company.

And of all the harm that e'er I've done, alas, it was to none but me.