U.S.

Senator Bernie Marino wants to end dual citizenship.

Being an American, he says, is all or nothing.

The Greater Cleveland Regional T Authority will make cuts to close an $11 million budget s And Cleveland City Council has signed off on the de with some tweaks greenlighting t move to Brook Park.

Ideas is next.

Hello and welcome to ideas.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you for joining us.

U.S.

Senator Bernie Marino wants to pass a law saying dual people who are citizens of the United S and another country should have to choose just one.

So their loyalty is not divided.

Not just America first, but Amer The Greater Cleveland Regional T Authority will have to make tough decisions on service cuts to close an $11 million budget s Already set to be eliminated is fi service on busses, trains and How late should 15 year olds work on school nights?

The legislature says 9 p.m.

is f Governor Mike DeWine says the cutoff should be Vetoing the expanded work hours, passed, and Cleveland City Council has s on the exit deal for the Browns.

But many council members say they still aren't happy with the Joining me for the roundtable from Industry and Public Media.

Supervising producer of newscast Glen Forbes and reporter Gabriel Statehouse News Bureau chief Karen Kasler joins us from Colum Let's get ready to round table.

The Greater Cleveland Regional T Authority will make cuts to its sometime next year to close a budget gap of more than $11 mi They're working now to determine what routes will be impacted.

And already the decision has bee to discontinue a free Wi-Fi serv on busses, trains and trolleys.

Glenn, any time there's a potent impact services, advocates are c because those who rely most on RTA are people that really need just for their transportation.

They'll bear the brunt.

The advocates have, have talked about that.

Let's hear a little bit about what they have to say.

Yeah.

Idea streams.

Aria Johnson spoke with Chris Ma He's with Clevelanders for publi And he's talking.

You know, just what you said.

People are using these services to get to work, go to school, doctor's office, grocery store, all that stuff.

His suggestion is, RTA should br levy, possibly, to generate some revenue or, work with other municipal and county resources to offset s It's a complicated we're about kind of halfway through this process, I would say we found out a couple weeks ago that this is what they were cons looking at, more than $11 millio And the vote is coming up in about a week and So, like I said, we're kind of at the halfway poi and we're just starting to get some reaction on what thi And as you mentioned a couple da we found out they'll they'll be discontinuing the Wi- on December 19th.

That's on the busses, trains and Yeah, it.

Gabe, there's still going to be at the Stephanie Tubbs Jones, hu but but that that service on bus and trains had.

It wasn't incredibly expensive, but it's some expensive.

They're going to get rid of that So they're going to get rid of w some Wi-Fi services on busses an are going to keep it at certain like you said, the Stephanie Tub station, downtown, also Tower City, East 55th Street, kind of the more utilized statio Louis Stokes, Windermere and Uni Cedar University to finish that And but I have to yes.

I mean, I'm not an every day use but when I am on RTA, which is p the red line, it's really hard f even get connected to that Wi-Fi So, you know, I'm not a frequent user of that.

And even when it was available, you won't miss it.

Great.

I'm personally.

No.

In addition, I one more was East 79th street station.

Those places will still have Wi- but beyond the Wi-Fi.

Glenn, what we're talking about It collects fares.

The fares do not pay for the service is not nearly enough They're in the midst now of big capital project where they have to buy new train And I remember reporting on this for The Plain Dealer two decades ago when they needed replacing the Red line trains and Green Line and Blue Line and all of those things.

So there's all kinds of costs.

They've got to figure out how to manage those things.

And what ends up happening is the service is reduced.

Either we're not going as far or we're not going as frequently as In addition to that, though, man So there are some other cuts they've already talked about doi Yeah, there there are 56 vacant right now that, they're considering elimin They're talking about reducing o restructuring some of their busi functions, hiring freezes.

And as you mentioned, the servic And that's what gets the most at Those are going to be last, according to their CEO, In Birdsong Terry.

So we won't know those for sever But it's another consistent them I mean, how many times have we h the last couple of months, busin talking about rising health care So that's another expense for them, increases in contractual wages, service contracts, maintenance c We're just, you know, as you men one of the first stories I remember reporting on here at almost eight years ago was this, you know, massive undertaking of replacing these a They used to do kind of this Frankenstein thi where they would take different of different cars and, you know, keep them going for as long as t And they really couldn't do that So as you mentioned, a ton of co And then just, you know, inflation, cost of doing busines the health care costs that I tal it's all kind of caught up to th where they're looking at cutting million here.

Yeah.

You're right by the way.

They had a whole, area I called it the morgue, but it w where they cannibalized old cars to get parts for the existing ca and keep them running, and they've been doing that for And so you can see what the need Now, it's a public service game.

Is the public going to be able to weigh what kind of reductions there mi The CEO says, yes, India birdson Yes, that they will probably mak the decisions on what routes to have altered or changed or cu by the end of next summer, and hopes to have some sort of public inpu between now and then, although, the, the budget is essentially d in a couple of weeks.

So, you know, that decision will but there'll be opportunity for people to chime in on which routes they need.

Ohio needs to do more to make ro According to advocates for Highw and Auto Safety, a national advo group that released reports on e this week.

Ohio got a flashing yellow or caution rating.

That means speed up really fast beat the red light, doesn't it, You know, no, it does not.

I thought that's what yellow flashing lights mean.

No, not in definitely not in thi And 38 states have this.

So if that's what's happening in look out.

Yeah.

So what is it.

What does i Why are they saying that Ohio doesn't get a green li that we have a flashing yellow c I mean, some things are good, bu a lot of stuff needs to improve, The things that are good, they like the distracted driving the texting law that was put in a couple of years ago.

And, they like the traffic camer Interestingly enough, even though a lot of communities are not using traffic camera lig speed and red light cameras and have really gone back and forth on whether those are a good idea and what kind of restrictions you can put in there.

But the fact that they are allow the group says, is a good thing because the group maintains that that does improve road safe But the real concern, they said, was some of the laws related to kids in cars, you kno requirements that kids are in th seat or in rear facing seats.

That's recommended but not required in some instanc I mean, the age limits are diffe than what this group wants to se And then also the seatbelt laws.

Ohio has a seatbelt law, but it's a secondary enforcement meaning you have to get pulled o for something else.

And this group would like to see a primary enforcement law for an in the car, not just the driver, but anybody else in the car.

Everybody should be buckled up.

You mentioned a number of states got to use, got the the caution.

Rating.

So what does this do to the lawmakers in any state, but particularly in Ohio?

Will they look at this and say, you're right, we need to have a better seatbel We need to have a better not a recommendation, but a requirement for for child Well, in the last session, there was an attempt to try to p the primary seatbelt enforcement and that went nowhere.

And, one of the questions I'd li governor Mike DeWine the next time I see him is if he would indeed want to see that come forward ag because he's talked about that as being a good thing.

I mean, he's talked about a lot safety things as being good thin But, it seems really unlikely in legislature that a primary enfor seatbelt law would go into effec because the argument has been th this is something that, is kind of your choice as I mean, you do have to buckle up but the primary enforcement part what has some people concerned h So it seems unlikely.

But that's the whole point of th is for all states to get a ratin so that individuals can go to those states, and or individuals in those states c lawmakers and say, here is where weaknesses are on our road safet and here is what needs to be cha One other thing that they talked about was, youn and we had a thing in the new tw budget requiring driver education classes for anyone und So it increased it.

You would think that would make more palatable to an organizatio like the safety organization, but they still think a lot more to be done in terms of young dri Yeah, I specifically ask about t because DeWine had been talking how more drivers education for kids under 21, for people under 21 will help those people become better drive And the consensus of this group is that that's not necessarily t because not all driver's ed programs are equal.

Some are really good, some are not so good.

And so what they would like to s is graduated driver's safety pro For instance, you, have a higher minimum wage, a minimum age for a learner's pe or you, have more time supervised drivin You have less time at night that you know, fewer times that you c with passengers in the vehicle when you were a younger driver.

These sorts of things, they say make younger drivers better driv and are more reliable than, say, just increasing driver education when you got one that's just a couple of years away from I'm sure it terrifies you.

You'v You got through.

She has a driver's license.

No.

Oh, no.

No.

Even better, I keep I keep on te my son I had no idea I was that Yeah.

Now you're getting into my my household issues.

My son, who's 13, I keep saying going to get his license before my daughter who's in coll who's going to be who's 20.

Okay.

So you know, that's safe.

I suppose that's the safest thin You know what's crazy though?

I've heard that from from more p that I talked to that kids aren't getting their d licenses as much as they used to There seems to be anecdotally, there's this seems to be this in in, late teens, early 20s, young people not getting their l for a variety of reasons, I suppose I'm not going to specu or er, yeah, what my daughters m but it just seems like there are as many kids, late teens and early 20s driving.

U.S.

Senator Bernie Marino says the time has come to dual citizenship.

Being an American, he declared, is all or nothing.

He's pushing legislation that would prevent U.S.

citizens from holding citizenshi in another country.

So if you're an American citizen and have Irish citizenship, for or my neighbor who has Italian c because your grandmother was bor well, you have to pick just one.

Karen, this is not just an Ameri I know in Japan, it's single cit There's a number of other countries as w But why is Marino pushing this?

And by the way, he emigrated, from Colombia, and decided to be a U.S.

citizen.

Just U.S.

citizen.

What is his reasoning for making this a law?

I think he said that he was five when his family immigrated from Colombia, and that at 18, he decided to become an American And he did, an interview with my Sara Donaldson yesterday about this whole thing, saying this is a wrinkle in the the law does not actually force to renounce your previous citize When you become a citizen, you, verbalize that.

But that's not what the law is s So he says his bill will basical fix that, which is what he calle a loophole, and makes it so that when you do become a naturalized you give up your previous citize Now, I don't it's very hard to find estimates on how many people in this country have dual or multiple citizenshi It could be 500,000.

That's one estimate I've seen all the way up to 5 mi But certainly there are people who are affected by this who have made a decision potenti that they want to retain that multiple citizenship for a And this would basically tell th you can't do that anymore.

You have to decide one or the ot Yeah, that's what you said.

When you become naturalized, then you'd give up your other ci But I know a whole lot of people that have been born American cit and are working toward getting their citizenship somewh It takes years in order to do th The question that Dan has, and it goes to that point in in he says, if you just don't tell you're a citizen of Ireland, how is he going to find out?

And how is the government going That's one of the problems with this is there isn't a database o also a citizen somewhere else.

Yeah.

That's the that's the whole idea that we do just how many people in this cou have multiple citizenship.

There's no database, there's no tracking of this.

So I don't know if this is somet that would create that.

But it is, I think, especially i where you've got a lot of immigr people who have come here from a the world, you're going to have who are in these concentrations where there are dual citizens and or multiple citizens.

So, you know, this this does definitely affect them All right.

Here's an email from John in Ken He says just because Marino made a shortsighted decision doesn't mean he has the right to the rest of us do the same.

Don't Melania and Barron Trump hold dual citizenship?

Elon Musk has triple citizenship with the US, Canada and South Af Will Marino demand they renounce their citizens status to other c Well, and I think that's been, y all the arguments about citizens and birthright citizenship and things like that.

There have been those points that have been made that, hey, there are people who are, you know, a high profile people who are and would be affected by this.

So this this does, as far as I k Melania Trump does hold dual citizenship in the United States and Sloveni So, you know, this is this is so that could potentially affect he All right.

Another thought and this from Tony and Theresa.

And they say, essentially the health care issu the ACA subsidies needs to be ap etc.. And he said, in that case, perhaps rich peopl and I know this is a case, if you're a dual citizen, you might be able to get health care in another country without, strings attached.

Gabe, how is this a switch from the current policy?

Well, the current policy is is kind of made pretty clear tha you know, if you are a U.S.

citizen and you want to have cit elsewhere, you have citizenship It's not a threat to your curren citizenship.

There was a Supreme Court case in 1952 that stated that distinc the it says, quoting the concept citizenship, recognizes that a person may have an exerci rights of nationality in two cou and be subject to responsibilities in both.

So I spoke with people in the pa who are, U.S.

citizens and citizens elsewhere, particularly Mexico, who were ex to be able to vote in both count who are passionate about both co maybe handle business, both coun on land or property, both countr and have, you know, just a strong affiliation for bo And actually, you know, I spoke with one of those people just in the last couple days because I was curious what they thought about this.

Ye You know, this is a I'll give you an example, one pe who strongly aligns with the GOP recognizes that, you know, this is probably something that the president or may want to move forward with.

That's what they said.

And when you think about the fir and their son both being dual citizens, I kind of get what he's saying.

Yeah.

Good points.

All right.

And there are several countries I mentioned quickly, Japan.

But, Glenn, there are a number of countries that that restrict dual citizens Yeah.

Japan's somewhat of an outlier when you look at this list.

And this was, done by global con Henley and Partners, China, Cuba India, Singapore, Japan, as you Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, citing concerns about national l which is kind of what's the issu That's that's the issue that tha talking about, security risks, a legal complexity.

You know, politicians wouldn't g would they?

I mean, you know, come on.

Cleveland City Council this week signed off on the exit for the Browns, in which the tea for demolition of the current st and makes other payments totaling $100 million.

Current timeline would have the open the season in the new stadi in the fall of 2029, but there's some provisions wher if they went a little bit longer there'd be some payment to the c McLennan Council really dug into this deal.

It was negotiated between Mayor Justin Bibb and th and they made some tweaks, made some changes, but before that they really I mean, they got into it deep.

This was a long council committe There were lots of criticism and holdouts who will never vote for and Mike Polansky and Brian Case but in the end it was passed.

What kind of tweaks were there?

So, a couple things.

It was that we've heard a lot ab $25 million payment that the sum you know, was going to pay this according to the deal.

Some of that was shifted.

It was supposed to be 25 million to the lakefront.

Now, that's 20 million, still paid out over five years.

The neighborhoods are to receive 25 million over over ten years.

The administration is really hop jump starts that lakefront devel They say, hey, we can start using this money no This is a big deal.

We're going to help, mitigate the impact to downtown businesse And, you know, you can relate it to two businesses in the flats, announcing this week that they're going to close.

And so the question is, well, aren't things going to get worse I mean, frontrunner is closed.

Right, right.

Inferno and Inferno, which used to be Dante's Inferno Marguerita ville is going to be for the winter, closed for the s or, you know, the flats is taken it on the chi But you think about all of the b related to the football, right?

And people we know people before and after certainly early in the season when the weather's warmer and maybe there's a little more interest in the te You see a lot of people, migrating down to the flats, like I said before and after tho But so that's one of the questio And the administration's respons is, well, hey, we've got this mo And we can get started on this n And help some of these businesse You mentioned council and some of the contention here.

I think more than just polenta can Casey felt but they were somewhat, you know, kept in the dark.

I mean, this announcement of thi kind of came out of nowhere to t that they weren't, you know, being apprized of what was going and they were still trying to fi to keep the team.

But, you know, talking about con we have in the newsroom.

And I think a lot of people who are interested in this are having this conversatio What leverage do you really have after the lease expires?

Right.

And so the the position of the administrati is we've got to in some ways take what we can get.

This is $100 million.

And in fact, they said to counci this is unprecedented.

We got 100 million done.

The whole deal is $100 million in various ways.

That payment you talked about the demolition and some other th but let's basically they were sa let's secure this win.

We're in the fourth quarter.

This is a big win for Cleveland.

You mean a win based on a loss.

Exactly.

You know, and I don't want to sa taking what you can get but kind of taking what you can I mean, again, the way the lease was written, the 30 year lease back in, you k it expires after the 2028 season There's no guarantee you're going to win these court There's no guarantee, that they you know, get anything, after this lease e What is the leverage that you re when the lease expires, as it's And I think that's the position of the administrator.

And, council was certainly hoping for more.

They were hoping for more for the neighborhoods, but there was no guarantee.

So you passed the deal, gave the demolition of the stadi is a big part of this.

It needs to go away so we can re the lakefront.

Has homes have agreed to pay for And what happens if it costs more than they estim Right.

So it's about $30 million that is estimated to tear down that stadium and open up space for whatever can be develo And that's the interesting thing if it ends up being more and tha they are wrong about the estimat up being 31, 32, however many million dollars they're on the hook for it.

Okay.

So they have to pay for th In addition, if they need to stay in the stad because construction takes longe there are provisions there where they're going to pay the c Glenn.

And then, the final part is it is basically a done deal, but it isn't entirely a done dea Dennis Kucinich spent an hour talking to council, basically sa come on, guys, let's stay in the But there are still some obstacl to this deal being finished.

There are.

And one of the provisions of the was the city of Cleveland.

And the team that has sports Gro dropping their lawsuits, you know, the suit and the count basically against each other.

But there are other lawsuits tha controlled by the city of Clevel You mentioned Dennis Kucinich.

There's a taxpayer suit in the C County Common Pleas Court brough Dennis Kucinich attempting to block that move, that mentions the model law, that state lawmakers tweaked.

And also, former Ohio attorney g Mark, Dan has a lawsuit that is out there about the stat the use of the state's unclaimed that $600 million in unclaimed f The current attorney general, Da says, hey, using this money is l And, there's actually a hearing for Monday at federal in federal in Columbus to further discuss this issue of the unclaimed fund One of the things I'm curious ab and I have no answers for is how and we talked about RTA earlier, going to be RTA access to this p And there's talk about a station being right there.

Is that going to happen?

I mean, right now we're fans primarily Park in the Muni lot d That's right.

At a at a stop.

And I'm curious, is there going a new stop down and down in Broo And I know that there is, for the airport, but, you know, a few miles away, I do Yeah.

And even more, interestingly, is how much it's going to cost to park there when you go to the Muni lot with a certain expense, how much are they going to be to to this place that is owned by t Yeah.

And what is the parking cost goi And all of the logistics of going to a game, and will people be able to afford to go to games?

We heard about personal seat lic this week and all of that.

I know I mentioned a couple week there haven't been too many, goo at the new stadium, but it was kind of a throwback parking in the Muni lot and maki that walk along along the lakefr It is never going to be the same Once they do this and that.

That is kind of sad.

Y Governor DeWine vetoed a bill that would have expanded 14 and 15 year olds could work throughout the school year, from to 9 p.m.. The legislature approved the exp which Democrats opposed on the g it was a way for businesses to s cheap labor because teens get pa less than the minimum wage that adults get paid.

The governor thinks young kids shouldn't be working late, excep working on their homework.

Karen, he vetoed the bill.

He said it wasn't in the public Yeah.

And this is one where, you know, sometimes he does tip his hand o what he's going to do.

If you can read between the line I ask him a couple of weeks ago when this was actually sent to h because he has ten days, includi or not including Sunday, to sign And, he I asked him, you know, are you going to veto this?

He said he wouldn't talk about i but he did note that learning to work is importa but he was concerned about the h and how the law would work.

And so that's pretty much what he said in his veto stateme that he is very concerned the law appears to be working no That basically stops kids from who are 14 and 15 from working p during a school night, he said.

There's a balance here between learning to work and learning those skills and earning money and that sort plus the importance of studying and keeping ahead on schoolwork.

So he really said that the current law strikes tha and that he saw no reason to change from the current law.

Yet it was widely supported.

Yeah, I mean, it did it wasn't a directly party line I mean, it was a Republican sponsored bill.

There were some Democrats who st and said they were concerned abo this really wouldn't help with t for certain in-demand jobs in Oh and that the longer working hour could have an effect on kids.

But, Republicans had said this w with staffing shortages that, some businesses continue t Yeah.

And so, you know, that's that's what the Well, they have a supermajority.

What about the idea of a veto ov Well, in a way, I mean, I could it happening, certainly because it passed the House and the Senate by veto proof maj But federal law, the federal Fai Standards Act would have to chan for this to go into effect.

So in a way, overriding his veto would be just a, a move that wouldn't have any real impa the federal law potentially woul And they did also at the same ti pass a resolution urging Congres to change that federal law.

DeWine has no say on resolutions like that, because they are not they're not laws.

They don't have the force of law So it's kind of like this was a, that kind of said, we'd like this to happen, but it really can't happen until happens on the federal level.

Monday on The Sound of Ideas on seven KSU.

We'll explore the culture of hazing that exists in sports and what legal responsibility the school has to step in.

It's the latest in host Stephanie Haney's Law of the lan I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thanks so much for watching and