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

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for joining us.

A judge now says you won't need to prove citizenship to register to vote in an Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles location, and another judge says a U.S.

Postal Service cannot begin implementing new mail in ballot rules pushed by the Trump administration.

Litigation continues, and as midterms approach, confusion over voting rules reigns.

The labor dispute at Cleveland Public Library has a happy ending no strike, a raise for workers and for the first time, paid parental leave.

Cuyahoga County already has tightened its belt, but it'll have to find another notch or two to deal with a projected $40 million deficit.

And Dolly Parton used to visit family in Cleveland, Akron and Willoughby as a child, her second state after Tennessee joins the nation in mourning her passing.

Joining me for the Roundtable today for all of those topics and more from Ideastream public media deputy editor of news Andrew Meyer.

Morning, Andrew.

Hi there.

Mike.

Good to see you.

And from Crain's Cleveland Business, the former other deputy editor of news at Idea and Public Media, and currently executive editor of the August publication Crain's Cleveland Business.

Stephanie Czekalinski, glad to be here.

We got the band back together.

We did.

It feels good.

Good to have both of you here in Columbus.

A woman who destroyed every photo from the year she dressed as Dolly Parton for Halloween Ideastreams Statehouse news bureau chief Karen Kasler.

Hey, Karen, I wish I had.

She would.

She talked about being in costume just in life.

So I wish I had.

Absolutely.

So good to see you and good to have all of you here for the Roundtable.

And you can share your thoughts and join us by sending email to SOI@ideastream.org during the show All right.

Let's get ready to Roundtable.

A federal judge temporarily blocked Ohio from requiring voters to show proof of citizenship when registering at a Bureau of Motor Vehicles office.

The ruling puts the requirement on hold ahead of the October 5th voter registration deadline, as Secretary of State Frank LaRose prepares to appeal, and that adds even more uncertainty to voting rules ahead of the midterms, as the Trump administration rules on Mail-In voting also are the subject of litigation.

In fact, there was news about that last night and earlier this week to and it keeps going back and forth.

Karen, let's start with the proof of citizenship rule in Ohio.

What did the what did the court decide on that?

Well, this was a provision that was added to the transportation budget last year that said that if you are registering to vote at a Bureau of Motor Vehicles, which about third of registrations do come in from the BMV, then you have to prove citizenship.

If you're registering online, which is where two thirds of registrations come from, you don't have to prove citizenship when you register, but your name will be compared against state and federal databases.

So the lawsuit basically said that this was unfair to people who were registering at the BMV, that this violated federal law.

And the judge, Northern District Judge Solomon Oliver, agreed and said that it was an honors burden for people who were registering at the BMV.

And it did break the National Voting Voter Registration Act.

And there's a couple of things in there about, you know, when the driver's license is issued, do you get the opportunity to register to vote then, or should you get the opportunity to register vote, even if you did not get a driver's license yet?

And that's all part of this decision.

But right now, what's happening is that the law is on hold.

So as we go toward the voter registration deadline on October 5th, if you register at the BMV, you do not have to bring citizenship paperwork.

But it should be said very clearly that citizens, only U.S.

citizens can vote in Ohio.

That's in state law.

And voters approved that in the Ohio Constitution in 2024.

I think there was one case of someone who registered to vote who wasn't eligible and wasn't a citizen, who said that the Bureau of Motor Vehicles person offered that to them.

In fact, they the case was dismissed because it was essentially entrapment.

Right.

And, you know, when you discuss voter fraud, you have to reference that voter fraud is extremely rare.

And situations like this are really more almost mistakes than anything else.

Now, of course, once again, if you're not a US citizen, you cannot register to vote.

And you cannot vote in Ohio or most anywhere else.

And this is supposedly trying to solve that problem.

But there really isn't a problem because again, voter fraud is extremely rare.

Right.

They're not saying you can come be a noncitizen and register to vote.

What they're saying is you don't have to have the onerous burden of bringing your citizenship paperwork.

If you want to register at the BMV, right, because your name is still going to go through those state and federal databases to be compared.

So if you are not a citizen, you are not going to be able to register to vote.

Now, Frank LaRose doesn't espouse that point of view.

He says this is a terrible ruling.

What's what's his point of view on this?

Well, his point of view has been the point of view of Republicans who put this into the budget all along.

And it's the idea of upholding the integrity of Ohio's voter rolls, which, again, voter fraud is extremely rare.

LaRose has also said that Ohio does an excellent job.

It's the gold standard of voting processes across the country.

So he said that there's an appeal that's going to be filed because he wants to uphold the integrity of the voter rolls.

And that's why I wonder if we might not see another decision on this before October 5th.

I mean, we're running out of time, but another decision could come down.

So we're looking for that.

Yeah, so much change that can happen just within the month before the voter registration deadline, which is October 5th, and early voting begins, which is October 6th.

Another aspect of this is the national rules on Mail-In voting.

The Trump administration had put in some new rules.

A judge said nope.

The the US Postal Service is not going to implement them.

Then the judge says yes, they could.

And then several days later, just last night, said, no, they're not going to do it for at least two weeks.

That is really not incredibly clear what's going to happen with Mail-In voting.

Yeah, I think that this is going to continue to be litigated, and we see a lot of these kind of things coming right before elections, which is extremely frustrating for groups that are trying to register people to vote, groups that are really trying to get people out to vote, and also voters themselves.

So in Massachusetts, you have this federal district judge who had cleared the way for the Postal Service to go ahead and move forward.

Now she's issued an order basically blocking her own previous order, saying that Democratic led states that ensued, in her words, face irreparable harm or they are required to comply with a likely unconstitutional regulation for which compliance is practically impossible.

As to the 2026 midterm elections, since there are only a couple of weeks away.

Right.

And the most controversial part of that order was that it would deliver the Postal Service, deliver mail in ballots only to people on lists of absentee voters that states would have to turn over to the mailing agency beforehand.

That's apparently what the burdensome part of it is.

So what we have now, Karen, as as the election nears, what we're trying to do at Ideastream, what you're trying to do at the Statehouse News Bureau is make sure people have all the information so they can engage as citizens.

And boy, that information is changing.

It is.

It absolutely is.

And it's one of the reasons why there have been advocates who have said that changing the laws during any type of a midterm election or presidential election is extremely frustrating and really could keep people from voting because they're confused about what they can do, because nobody wants to go out and vote and feel like that they're going to potentially break the law if they vote.

But right now for Ohio, Mail-In voting is still allowed.

We have early voting starts, like you said, on October 6th, and Mail-In voting is allowed like President Trump mail mails ballot in.

So you can mail in your ballot in Ohio.

If you applied for one and you receive one, and you do not have to bring those citizenship documents.

If you need to register to vote at the BMV before October 5th, that's the deadline, and you have to register before that.

All right.

We'll continue to provide clarity on that.

We're covering the election with an initiative called listen, engage, vote, and you'll be seeing stories roll out on how to vote and what to bring and all of those things.

As the days get closer.

Cleveland Public Library workers avoided a strike after Service Employees International Union Local 1199 reached a contract agreement with the library system.

Nearly 400 unionized employees had planned to walk off the job Monday, but the deal was reached just before the deadline.

Andrew.

So we had a negotiation that went on for more than a year that the threat of strike was there.

What did we end up coming up with?

Well, there have been a lot of sticking points about increases in pay.

There were some concerns about staffing levels, even guidelines about how to use AI, artificial intelligence, but ultimately they agreed to a 15% average wage increase.

There's also a retroactive wage payment going back to the start of the year, some bonuses that are part of that paid parental leave, which is a biggie, and a few other things that were thrown in there.

One of the other things that union members have been raising concerns about was that there really wasn't a clear path for advancement within the library, so haven't seen the details of that.

That was provided by the Service Employees International Union on the contract.

But that may very well also have been addressed as part of the agreement that was reached.

I know the library leaders said that the workers at the Cleveland Public Library system are already very well paid, and that they now are going to be better paid.

In addition to getting a bonus for this contract, a $500 bonus and a retroactive 5% payment as well.

So it looks like we're not going to have any disruption.

Get your books back on time.

No, I would say they're there.

I would say they're going to be there.

You're going to be able to walk in.

I know there is a plan that if the strike had actually happened, which was supposed to happen this week, if they couldn't come to terms, they had a plan B where they would deal with some basic, essential services outside of libraries.

But you can still go in and take full advantage of everything the various branches have to offer.

Okay, if you want to weigh in on any of the stories we're talking about today.

Feel free to send an email to SOI@Ideastream.org A less harmonious negotiation is still playing out in Lorain County, where unionized job and family service workers have now been on strike for six months without so much as a negotiation meeting recently.

Andrew.

So let's go back to talk about why JFS workers are on strike there.

Well, they're looking for basically more money for wages.

And one of the sticking points is that the JFS has offered a certain amount.

And what the union has said is we want a dollar more for that per hour for every single worker.

It's a big sticking point for them, and it is much more acrimonious, as you mentioned, than the library negotiations.

There have been talks since the month before they went out on strike in February, so there's really been no movement.

Often what you'll see in a labor negotiation, I saw the library of workers is they will march and they will talk about what their issues are, or perhaps what the administration is getting paid as compared to what they're getting paid.

In the case of the JFS workers, they're also going a little more political.

They had a rally this week in which they supported a Democratic candidate for county commission, because the guy who is on the commission isn't playing ball with them, and that is Jeff Riddell, who has been a commissioner for a few years but has had a number of very close elections.

And the union is making this very much about we're not seeing any movement with the county commissioners.

November is coming.

They're going to be on the ballot.

Think about that.

Voters in Lorain County, until they're supporting their supporting Carolyn White to be a county commissioner, Stephanie, Brian Poindexter, who's running against Congressman Max Miller for a Congress seat locally.

He was in attendance as well.

Yes, he was.

And there were a number of Democrats that were at the rally, including Mike Baker, a candidate for state representative in Ohio's 52nd district.

John Kulewicz, a candidate for Ohio's attorney general.

But Poindexter is the one who's of particular interest.

He is a candidate for Ohio's seventh congressional district, and we're watching those district races pretty closely, because the national Democrats in need to pick up a net three seats to take control of the House.

And there are two toss ups in Ohio.

Poindexter is one of them.

And then there's a third down in Cincinnati that's also leans Democrat.

But could be competitive.

Yeah.

And the Miller Poindexter race has clearly drawn national attention.

Miller and his father in law, Bernie Moreno, and his ex-wife were in domestic relations court just this week.

And, you know, you generally don't see in the hallway as a domestic relations court, TV cameras and national reporters.

But that's what we saw.

That's exactly what we saw.

And it's unusual to see them candidly speaking with those people.

But they were definitely making news from the halls.

Absolutely.

All right.

Cuyahoga County leaders are demanding spending cuts across government as projected budget deficits reach more than $37 million.

So the county has already been doing a lot of belt tightening.

It looks like they're going to need another notch or two.

They are.

They made plans to cut out of their 2025 budget.

Those cuts went into effect over a period of time.

But now they're asking, well, it's Chris Ronayne, the county executive, and Dale Miller, the president of council.

They're asking every department to reduce expenses by 3.3%.

There are 14 offices of everything that receive money from the Health and Human Services levy.

And they're asked to cut a little bit more.

They're asked to cut 8% more.

Yeah.

I mean, the county is facing a $19.2 million general fund deficit and $18 million shortfall in health and Human services.

They've got a levy that's coming up.

It would be even worse, they say.

And obviously that's what you're going to say when you got a levy on the ballot.

But it'd be even worse if that levy didn't pass.

Yes.

I mean, they're saying that it'll be very deep if we're looking at deep cuts, if the levy doesn't come through in November, the in addition to Health and Human Services, the sheriff's department is being asked to find 6.2 million.

And the fiscal office is looking at just under $1.8 million dollars in cuts.

So they're trying to spread it out.

The prosecutor's office is looking at cuts, common pleas court, Board of elections, public defenders.

They're also being asked to find some savings.

All right.

Like a lot of government agencies, County looking to tighten its belt once again, Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronaye and prosecutor Michael Malley, who have butted heads over a number of issues, have reached a deal on one of them determining the roles of the prosecutor, who is independently elected, and the law director who reports to the executive.

Want to clarify which office handles different legal matters for county government, and they agreed to go to voters with a charter amendment that would replace informal arrangements that have governed the two offices since the county's government was reorganized in 2010.

So one of the many disputes, as I mentioned, the jail being another one of them and the sheriff's autonomy being another.

But on this particular case, what was the sticking point?

They're trying to divide duties and make sure that when that everybody knows who is supposed to be responsible for what.

So and it's very interesting because they've been operating under these sort of memorandums of agreement since 2010.

But the attorney general, like got into the conversation recently and said, you know, this isn't going to hold up in court.

You really need to get some amendment language passed so that things are very clear.

And what they decided was that the county law director is going to be the primary legal advisor for the county executive and the county council, and that means providing legal advice on, you know, questions that might come up and then also handling labor negotiations and contracts.

The prosecutor is the one who will have sole discretion over litigation that's suing on behalf of or defending elected officials and county agencies.

So basically anything that happens in court, that's it should be the prosecutor's office.

But I think one of the things that led to this was that there were council members who were seeking advice from the prosecutor and others saying, hey, that's the law director's job.

So now we've got to clarify.

And by the way, it doesn't preclude them from still asking the prosecutor for their opinion.

Certainly.

I mean, you can still go to the prosecutor's office and say, hey, you know, I need you to weigh in on this.

I don't understand what's going on or what the impacts would be.

But, you know, this is something that voters are likely to see on the November ballot.

County is going to meet next week so that they can approve the clarifications, and then they're going to send it over to voters.

They have to do that by September 4th.

It seems like it'll be non-controversial.

Both sides think this is a good idea.

They've agreed to it, but you never know when a charter amendment might just get a no on the checkbox.

You never know.

People may be frustrated when they look at the ballot language and just not want to go for it.

Yeah, exactly.

All right.

On the topic of cost saving efforts, the palm of school district may face a fiscal emergency.

The district projects its fund balance could go into the negative by 2029.

Andrew, we've talked about Parma and its repeated efforts to get ballot issues past levee issues, and they've failed repeatedly.

People are saying, listen, no more money there.

They're in that spot now.

They're really in that spot.

I mean, you're spending more than you're taking in.

That's their case.

And it's been 15 years than they got since they got a new ask for money passed by voters.

Chickens are coming home to roost.

At this point.

It really seems like it.

And what are the what are their options, they say, for addressing the shortfall?

Well, the options are that you would think it would be going back to the polls again and making another ask.

But the board has been arguing over this to the point where it doesn't look like they're going to get an option for either an property tax or an income tax on the levy for November.

So the next thing is potentially going to the state for some assistance.

And, you know, they're going to be having conversations with the state about whether some form of fiscal distress maybe next.

Yeah.

We'll talk about numbers $16 million shortfall by 2029 projected.

And then the gap gets really big after that if they don't do something about it.

So there are things where people are in fiscal emergency.

They could be in fiscal caution.

Fiscal watch.

Do they do they sort of choose which one of those they want?

I think there's some dialog that goes on initially in the lowest level is fiscal watch, which means, you're not doing a great job here.

And it goes on up to fiscal emergency, at which point the state essentially comes in and takes over day to day operations.

Now let's talk about Barberton because they are going to Def con whatever the higher number is.

DEFCON 5.

But its DEFCON 3 categories.

They are asking for fiscal emergency in Barberton.

Yeah exactly.

And they have been in a state of fiscal caution I believe at this point one of two schools in Ohio, both of them in Summit County that have been in that category.

But at this point, things are dire there.

Another district which has troubled getting new levies passed by voters, and they are potentially looking at fiscal estate going to a state of fiscal emergency at this point.

Got a question from Dante in the Edgewater neighborhood about something we talked about earlier, and I'm not sure we have the answer for this, but I want to put it out there because then we're going to look it up and try to get you an answer at some point, Dante says, do any of you know if other counties in Ohio, especially major metropolitan counties like Franklin and Hamilton, are also facing impending deficits like Cuyahoga is, and he wonders whether it's really part of the General Assembly's decrease in funding to local governments.

I have not been following Hamilton or Franklin County is about their budget.

I have not.

I know that that Cuyahoga County did say that their their general fund revenues were up, but expenses were too.

And so it wasn't that there had been, you know, on a local level, a decrease there.

Got it.

Okay.

Thanks, Dante, for that question.

When we talk about the fiscal issues with schools, though, in response to those, school district consolidations across the region have happened, and Cleveland students return to a much smaller district this year, for example, Akron has shrunk its footprint, too.

But in Lakewood, opposition is strong to consolidation plan.

Nearly 100 Lakewood parents, students and community members held a protest this week.

District is considering reducing its seven elementary schools to six, and opponents say there has to be a better way.

And Stephanie, when I saw this, I thought, when you look at Cleveland and a number of schools that he closed in other places where we're talking huge percentages of districts that are going away because of decreased enrollment in Lakewood, they're saying, let's take Lincoln Elementary School, make it the preschool central place.

So you're reducing one elementary school and the parents aren't having it?

No, I mean, what they're bumping up against is people's daily commutes.

And in Lakewood, a lot of the debate surrounds how you get to school.

There aren't there aren't busses.

You either walk or you get a ride from your parents.

If you're in school and there is no transportation for students with special needs.

And so a lot of the parents are arguing that making sure that these schools stay open means shorter commutes for all the kids that need to get to school, and the preschool parents particularly concerned as well, because they do it in in the various school locations, which is in your neighborhood, you could walk your child there.

But if you're on one end of Lakewood, way over on the east end of Lakewood, and you have to drive your child to Lincoln, then it's you're right.

It's a now I've got to get in the car and bring them.

They're the preschool students.

Yeah.

And in some cases you're not looking at like huge distances.

I think Lakewood is total of 5.5 square miles maybe six Linear miles.

Three.

Yeah.

Yes.

If you count water.

But, you know, there are a lot of, you know, busy intersections and you're talking about little kids.

Yeah.

You're right.

It was square miles.

I think it's 3.3 linear miles.

I grew up in Lakewood and by the way, walked to Lincoln Elementary School for kindergarten.

And I don't know nowadays if you would let a five year old walk, I don't know what it was nine blocks down Clifton Boulevard, but it is a walkable place and parents still do that.

They're living close enough to schools.

In order to do that, I probably should have gone to McKinley, but that you would have to cross the track.

So that's right.

I ended up at Lincoln.

What is the school district saying about why it needs to make this consolidation?

By the way, they already made this.

They already decided we're doing this consolidation.

Then there was some reprieve in court on this issue.

That's and that's because they were found to have violated the open meetings rule.

And so basically they were told you have to do a do over on this, and you have to do public business in clear view of the public.

And it was found that they didn't.

So now they're going back and doing the same process again.

But the superintendents position is that great.

Enrollment has for kindergarten through fifth graders.

It's fallen by nearly 500 students in the last decade.

And so they have open classrooms.

It's hard for them to staff things appropriately.

And there are redundancies in these different schools.

So they want to consolidate from 7 to 6 elementary schools, which they say would save $600,000 in the first year and then lead to more subsequent savings through staffing reductions and other cuts.

Yeah, like everywhere.

Not enough students in the classrooms to fill that many classrooms is their argument.

The parents are saying it's not just about the number of students, it's about a whole lot of other things.

Let's figure out a different way.

And they think now because they've got to do it again.

Perhaps they'll listen to this and say, okay, even though we decided on that, we're going to slightly redirect and decide something else.

Certainly, that's what the parents and some of the students that support that are hoping you okay, we got plenty more to talk about, including a windfall from Meta as part of its settlement for causing mental health harm to young people with its social media platforms.

Now, here's Ideastreams Stephan Haney with a look at next week on The Sound of Ideas on 89.7 WKSU Steph hey there Mike.

Here's what we have coming up next week on The Sound of Ideas on Monday we'll be talking about climate change impacts here in Northeast Ohio.

This is in light of the fact that the climate clock has recently hit the three year mark, which means we are inside of three years of the point where experts say the Earth will reach the temperature.

That's the critical threshold mentioned in the Paris climate agreement.

And beyond that point, the effects of climate change could become irreversible.

We're talking about this in light of higher temperatures, lower temperatures, more severe weather events with increased severity.

On Tuesday, we'll take a look at recent arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, Ice agents around the country and here in Springfield, Ohio.

This is after the Supreme Court of the United States ruling allowed the Trump administration to end temporary protected status for people across the country.

On Wednesday, we're looking north across the water at retaliatory tariffs that have been announced by Canada.

Canada is Ohio's largest trading partner and a US political ally.

So we'll take a look at the political and economic impact of this move.

And on Thursday, we turn our attention to the Slavic village here in the Greater Cleveland area, where a group called the People's Budget Cleveland have instituted a pilot program.

And this is meant to give the people in the community more control over how money is spent on projects in their neighborhoods.

That's what's coming up next week.

As always, we welcome your input.

You can email us at SOI@ideastream.org Back to you in the studio, Mike.

Thank you, Stephanie.

And you're back now with the Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable from Ideastream Public media.

I'm Ideastreams Executive Editor Mike McIntyre, along with Ideastreams Deputy Editor of News Andrew Meyer and Stephanie, Czekalinski the Executive Editor of Crain's Cleveland Business.

And of course, in Columbus Ideastreams Statehouse News Bureau Chief Karen Kasler is with us.

And a reminder before we get back to the show to take our Ideastream news quiz.

You can find it on our website at Ideastream.org/quiz Ohio is set to receive more than 319 million dollars over the next decade, as part of a massive multi-state settlement with Meta over the harm it has caused children.

The agreement would require new safety measures for children and teens on Facebook and Instagram.

And Karen, let's talk about this.

By the way, there are many suits against many, many of the social media platforms.

This particular one.

Why did the states, including Ohio, sue Meta?

Well, there were 47 states in the District of Columbia that sued, so nearly all the states sued.

They allege that Meta did not protect kids and knowingly designed features that could keep kids used and engaged.

And so this is a multi-state settlement.

$17.1 billion in Ohio gets, like you said, 319 million of that.

And there's also a part in this.

You mentioned the other lawsuits.

There was a lawsuit against Cambridge Analytics, which was this political consulting firm that was getting information, harvesting information from Facebook users through personality quizzes.

And that's part of this as well.

There's a settlement about $75 million.

I think that that's what Meta has to start paying in within 30 days if it's approved.

And then also there's this Cambridge Analytica settlement That's part of what Ohio will get as well.

So this is two different areas here that are covered.

But it still gets to the idea of that.

These companies were potentially getting data on people maybe without their knowledge.

So it was the data harvesting, but also the idea that they were addicting kids to social media.

They were doing things that made kids addicted to it, which then had a very bad effect on their mental health.

Yeah.

The argument in the case about Meta was that the platform really does contribute to mental health harming kids.

It contributes to eating disorders and bullying and some of these other things.

And so that was really a big underlying point here in this lawsuit.

And the settlement with Meta then again, goes to, you know, like 47 states.

And so this is this is a really, really big potential settlement here that kind of tries to address some of the concerns that states had had, especially about how Meta really targets kids and keeps them coming back.

In addition to the money penalty, the settlement calls for stronger age verification, safer age appropriate content controls, stronger parental controls, and the disabling of social comparison features, as you mentioned, like beauty features, filters and visible light counts.

The kinds of things you look at and say, well, you know, the popular kid has 200 likes and I have 30.

I'm a loser.

And you get to this self-perpetuating negativity that social media can feed into for young people.

Yeah.

And I think that is really where the concerns about what effect these things have on kids mental health comes from.

And so we're talking about Facebook and Instagram specifically here.

And you know, there's a combined two our daily time limit for kids and night time limits and things that you just mentioned there.

I know there are some adults on social media who have been joking that they would like these restrictions on themselves, because certainly there are adults that spend way too much time online.

But this really helps parents who are trying to allow their kids to be on social media, but really want to restrict that and keep kids away from the things that could be very harmful.

But, you know, we're waiting to see what the final result of this is going to be, both in the settlement and then how this affects kids down the road.

And you are so right, Karen.

We've got to be cognizant of that ourselves.

I go home and I say, I'm just going to look at my Instagram Reels for a minute, and an hour later I said I could have been reading a book now work on three hours, three hours later.

Okay, not three for me, but an hour's a lot of time.

Karen, thank you so much for that information.

Moving on.

A national environmental group is suing the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency, claiming that the EPA approved weakened pollution limits for major industrial facilities in Greater Cleveland.

Stephanie.

The National Resources Defense Council is challenging the EPA's approval of Ohio's plan.

And what they're basically saying is you had stronger alternatives available to you and you didn't use them.

You basically let these companies off the hook a little bit.

Sure.

I mean, what we're talking about here is air pollution as well, I should specify.

But according to the filing, the agency relied on studies that were submitted by the companies and, you know, didn't require those stronger controls that the studies themselves showed were possible.

So, you know, they're fighting it.

We talk about a number of companies that were named in this.

Can you point to who some of them are?

Yeah.

Cleveland Cliffs, the steel manufacturer, PPG industries, Lubrizol, Henkel and Owens Corning were all on the list, so we'll wait to see how this shakes out.

It'll be interesting.

And what is the National Resources Defense Council calling for?

What does they want to have happen?

I mean, they want to see those stronger options exercised.

And, you know, this is all happening sort of in in that backdrop of, I believe the EPA said that Cleveland's air quality measures were in attainment.

We were moving in the right direction.

But the lung Association, I think gives us an F. So there's some, you know, disagreement over how well we're doing in terms of air pollution.

Right.

So they want the court to overturn what the EPA has done, put in stronger requirements as well as reporting requirements.

Yes.

Okay.

Les Wexner is stepping down as chair of Ohio State's Wexner Medical Center.

Robert Schottenstein, president of M1 homes.

is it M1, or MI?

is set to become the new chair.

MI Homes Okay, you would know you're in Columbus.

Karen, let's talk about first of all, how I think MI is M1.

But secondly, what's changing with Wexner role at the medical center?

And does this have anything to do with all the publicity that he's been getting, Negative, so in the last year over the Jeffrey Epstein case?

Well, I can see how you got M1 because it's M/I and the I looks like a one so absolutely understandable there.

So yeah.

Well what happens here is that Les Wexner has really come under fire for ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Wexner was mentioned like 800 times in the Epstein files.

There was an investigation that actually brought members of Congress to New Albany, which just outside of Columbus, to question Les Wexner because he's in his 80s and so wasn't able to travel to DC.

And so this has been something that's been building for a while there.

Ohio State has gotten hundreds of requests to remove Wexner name from various buildings that his name is on.

I mean, he is he was until 2023, the largest single donor in Ohio State history, giving $100 million to just the Wexner Medical Center, $200 million to Ohio State overall.

And so that's why his name is everywhere.

But there's been some real questions from students, from alumni, from others in the community, why his name is still there when there are these ties to Epstein, though Wexler has said he did not do anything wrong.

And this this decision to have his to be changing his role is not related to that.

According to the folks that did that, the change in leadership, he's still going to be the emeritus board chair, right?

Yeah.

And that's as of a vote next month by the board of trustees.

And so he's still there, but in a less visible role.

And I mean, you can say whatever is being said with regard to this was not related to what's been happening with the concerns about Wexler's ties to Epstein.

But you have to wonder if that's not at least part of the decision that Wexner may now again, Wexner is in his 80s, so certainly that could be part of it.

But this is this is what's happening now.

And to be clear, it's just his board chairmanship.

He's not his name is not coming off of anything.

No.

And there have been, again, there's a whole office at Ohio State that's been dealing with all of these concerns from people saying that his name does not belong on these buildings, but with the amount of money he's given, that's why his name is there.

And so, so far, nothing has changed.

But he moves into a different role in the Wexner Center, the medical center board of trustees.

All right.

You brought up earlier, when we talk about Meta, the idea of adults having the issue of being addicted as well.

And Tom agrees with you on that.

In an email, he says, what I find interesting is that all of the things that were found to be addictive to kids are also addictive to adults.

We are former kids, after all.

Where's our settlement money?

He says, I'd like the option to turn off endless scroll and adjust my algorithm to make their sites less addictive.

One way to do that in the toughest way.

Put the phone down.

Right?

All right.

More than 300 million federal dollars are coming to Ohio's rural communities as part of an effort to improve pharmacy connectivity and patient care.

Andrew, it's called the Rural Health Transformation Fund.

What is it?

How will the money be spent?

Well, part of the money is going to be focused on going to pharmacies in rural health areas that need to be better connected when it comes to access to patient medical records, medication management and care coordination.

There was a study that came out from Ohio State a couple of years ago that looked at pharmacy deserts, just like there are health care deserts across the country and in Ohio.

The same is true for pharmacies.

So this is really going to be focusing in on those rural areas where communities are underserved at best.

Maybe they have some independent pharmacies that may not have all the tools that they need, and help give them the money to be better connected so they can help better manage patient care.

And the vast majority of counties in Ohio are rural, 70 of 88.

Yeah.

And I think back to the beginning of the opioid crisis, where people might be getting prescriptions from one place and then another, and pharmacies don't know what each other is doing.

So this might also be a way to help solve that problem.

I think there's a preconception, if you live in an urban or suburban area, that there is a CVS or a Rite Aid every few blocks away, but Rite Aid has gone out of business.

It declared bankruptcy a few years ago.

CVS a couple of years ago announced nationwide it was closing 900 pharmacies.

This is particularly hard hit areas that are underserved.

So it is filling a should be feeling a critical need.

All right.

Let's talk about housing.

Future property tax revenue will help fund housing development on Cleveland's east side as part of a plan recently approved by city council.

And it's the latest use, Stephanie, of tax increment financing.

We saw big district short a quarter shore which is downtown.

This one specifically for East Side neighborhoods.

Yeah, exactly.

There are two districts in Cleveland.

This is an instrument that cities use to spur investment in development.

It's very common in places like Chicago.

But here we're getting our second one.

Council voted to create this district.

It's going to cover parts of Hough, Saint Clair, Superior Central.

And what it does is it sets a base for the value of the property taxes.

And then it says anything that comes in from new development above this gets set aside, and we're going to use that money to invest in things like infrastructure.

So roads and sewers.

And the idea is that those investments then make the area more attractive, it attracts more investment, and the entire community is uplifted right there, just basically taking the profits, plowing it back into the business essentially.

And so then they make it more attractive than you get more development and more money that cycles back through it.

It's part of what the mayor calls his Housing Innovation district plan.

That's right.

The city is trying to invest in the East Side, which has a lot of vacant lots and has been affected by disinvestment and redlining for generations.

And what he's hoping is that, you know, the changes that they're making, which include you know, waiving permitting fees for new homes in the neighborhood and making changes to the zoning code so that it's easier to build in these areas, launching pilot programs to build homes and renovate storefronts, that that this is going to attract not only home builders, but also employers to the area, which also includes the midline.

Yeah, it was interesting because the big debate at City council, when they had the tax increment financing district for downtown, it was it's all about downtown.

What about the east side.

And you often hear from East Side Council representatives, look at how great the West side is doing.

And what about us?

This seems to be the answer to the what about us?

Yes.

I mean, there are I mean, there are 2800 vacant lots.

Most of those are residential.

In those, I think it's Hough in Saint Clair.

I don't even think that includes central.

And then you have the midline, which is 350 acres of industrial.

And so they're really trying to make a concerted effort to bring people over onto that side of town.

We're seeing first investment in the industrial side.

The MMY modular home builder is slated to open up on Central Avenue in the I'm going to butcher the name the (Wellman-Seaver) Building on Central Avenue.

Do you remember what the that manufacturers.

I'll let that stand.

It was before my time I apologize.

All right.

In more housing news, Akron is launching a new program to help first time homebuyers afford a down payment.

Andrew, that's the biggest thing when you when you finally are getting ready to to get a home and you might be able to qualify for financing, well, then you're going to come up with a scratch.

You got to get the nut.

You got to have the nut put down that down payment.

And what Akron is doing is it's providing a small group to start with, basically a down payment assistance.

35 families will be eligible for up to $7,500 each in forgivable loan assistance.

Now the trade off is you got to be a first time home buyer.

You got to have written pre pre-approval for a fixed rate 30 year mortgage.

And this is the part that I really appreciate, is you got to take eight hours of education on what it takes to be a home buyer responsible.

I remember doing this a few decades ago when I bought my first home, and it was really helpful because you're taking out a loan with a lot of zeros.

After that number, it can be really intimidating.

So the education is really helpful in understanding how something that seems daunting can be really not daunting and help you get your piece of the American dream.

It helps to be an expert carpenter like you too going to be taking over a home.

I think a butter knife is a tool.

The tool.

But you you're able to build a ramp, right?

Right tool for the right job.

The nice thing about this is it's a small chunk of change, their tapping into money that they've gotten from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, $300,000, but they're hoping to go back for more later to expand the program.

All right.

The Ohio Supreme Court has again rejected a lawsuit seeking the payment of $900 million in pandemic unemployment benefits to hundreds of thousands of Ohioans.

And, Karen, when I hear that, I say pandemic employment, unemployment benefits.

Well, that was for many years ago, actually.

That's what the court is saying to that.

The issue is now moot.

And I should say, I've said this before.

I've been here for 22 years.

Before that I was in Cleveland.

I have never gotten more calls, emails and questions about any other story have ever done before.

This one, this is the one I get constant.

I mean, I probably get a call every at least a month, every month from people who are potentially standing to benefit from this lawsuit.

Now, this lawsuits been going on for quite a while.

It was filed in 2021, right around the time that Ohio ended its participation in this federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.

It was governor Mike DeWine under pressure from the business community, saying that these checks, these $300 weekly checks are going to end.

Even though the federal program wasn't set to end until September 2021.

And that's kind of the core of the lawsuit that was filed by Democratic former Attorney General Marc Dann on behalf of about 300,000 Ohioans.

He says that DeWine did not have the authority to do that.

Only the state legislature could do that.

And so he says, now that the Supreme Court has ruled that the case is moot because, like you said, it's the program closed.

It ended in 2021.

He said he's going to try to get it reconsidered, because there's a real question here about separation of powers and the governor's authority to do something versus state lawmakers authority to do something.

What they're saying, though, is, listen, that was years ago.

It's over with the programs done.

But what Marc Dann is saying, the lawyer for this is that.

No, wait a minute.

That money still should be owed to them because the authority wasn't there in order to end it.

We're talking about not a massive amount of money, but 300 bucks a month for the period that this was closed down adds up.

Well, it's $300 a week.

It's we're talking so we're talking about.

Yeah, about $3,000 for people who were unemployed during the pandemic who were part of this program.

And again, the calls and emails I get from people who really say they could use that money and are really kind of hanging on to the possibility that they might get it.

Now, Dann says the money is stil there at the federal level.

All Ohio has to do is ask for the money.

But this lawsuit continues back and forth and with the Supreme Court now for the second time, saying that the lawsuit is moot, the case is moot because the program ended.

I don't know where.

I don't know how much hope this group has that the Supreme Court is going to go along with what Marc Dann and these 300,000 Ohioans are saying about this money.

All right.

Prepare for the avalanche of emails and voicemails.

Karen.

Indeed.

All right.

A new PGA event is coming to Akron's Firestone Country Club next year, replacing the long running senior PGA event.

The championship.

It's a partnership with the LeBron James Family Foundation.

And Andrew, we talked about how for many, many years, Firestone hosted a PGA event.

This is kind of a PGA event.

It's kind of an event.

You're not going to see Rory or Scottie there, but this is a really nice bridge year event where it's a two day invitational.

It's part of the PGA Pathway to Progression development program, which really looks to inspire aspiring golfers from communities that are historically underrepresented.

underrepresented had a conversation with the head of the Northern Ohio Golf Charities and Foundation a month ago.

Actually last few weeks ago, talking about what's next for a tour event, she said, you know, the tour is pretty well set for the next year, so this is a great bridge event.

While they continue to focus on getting the pros back here at Firestone Country Club, so you won't see Xander or Ricky or Wyndham either.

I can go on.

No, you can go on.

Please do so.

So what's interesting about this too, is that the LeBron James Family Foundation, it fits into basically the mission of the I Promise notion there.

But also LeBron like became a golf nut in the last year.

And this is something I learned with this announcement that I didn't know he had his own YouTube golf channel.

So I'm going to be tuning in.

And he's not the guy's great at everything.

He's not great at golf, he's probably better than I am.

And he's played for a year and I've played for 30.

But I see other celebrities like Steph Curry, who, when they're at golf outings, will sort of emulate the LeBron swing, which is not classic and make a little fun of each other.

But part of this is really what his passion is now as well.

And it's really great to see how he's expanding, looking for opportunity, opportunities to expand what how I promise.

His foundation's initiative continues to give back to the community in Akron.

Absolutely.

All right.

We talked a lot about the embarrassment Browns fans felt when the team signed a quarterback accused of multiple instances of sexual misconduct.

Well, the San Francisco 49ers may have topped them with owner Jed York, a Youngstown native who investigators say used the pseudonym Joe to arrange to pay $160 for sexual activities with a woman that he would meet in an East Palestine trailer park.

He was arrested in East Palestine originally on prostitution related charges, pleaded no contest to lesser misdemeanors.

And Stephanie, I'm putting this in here just because it is so bizarre.

He's the owner of the football team, obviously was owned by his family and passed down.

But to be involved in this and it was caught by the human trafficking force in the Youngstown area.

Yeah, it's a baffling development.

This is.

He became the teams principal owner in 2024.

It's a real good team.

It's been you know.

Yeah.

Well, you know to my, my way of of knowing things.

But you know it's been to the Super Bowl three times under his leadership.

There's Coach Shanahan.

There's the general manager John Lynch that have been in place since 2017.

This is a this is a storied situation.

It's an embarrassment.

He as I noted though, pleaded to the lesser misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and possessing criminal tools.

He had one day in jail for both offenses.

They were served concurrently.

Fined a $1150.

This is not essentially the damage to him now.

Is his embarrassment into his reputation?

Yeah, it is a hit to a to a reputation.

Certainly.

I wanted to understand a little bit about this family.

They were the first the, the the beginning idea of shopping centers in Youngstown, Ohio.

I didn't know that that the Youngstown innovation, but the DeBartolo family know the name of been owners of the 49ers for years.

And yeah, the shopping mall magnates from the Youngstown region.

Spotted lantern, spotted lanternflies are back in northeast Ohio.

And you know what that means start squashing, squishing, stomping, and smashing.

The bugs are invasive and no bueno.

Andrew, what's going on?

Well they're back.

Basically, the issue is there are no natural predators where the best thing next best thing, I guess you'd say.

And because of that, they're here to stay.

And they're not harmful, but they are real nuisance.

Well, they are in some ways harmful.

I mean, they're not going to immediately kill vegetation, but in their numbers when they start harvesting and they they eat a lot of sap when they start going, they can weaken plants and eventually make them susceptible.

They particularly like grapevines.

So people who are trying to grow grapes and make wine are a little bit worried about them.

And we have a robust wine industry here in Northeast Ohio, so it is something of significant concern.

They also leave all kinds of gross muck around called honeydew.

Honeydew no not the good honeydew.

It sounds nice, but it isn't so.

So what we're told.

And we've gone over this for the last couple of years.

And for some people, it's hard to imagine that this is what you ought to do, because it's not a bad looking bug when it's fully formed.

It's got these beige wings and these dots, but you're supposed to stop them, smash them, as you said.

And if you see the honeydew, if you see that goo on a surface, under a leaf, on a hard surface, scrape it off, put it in a bag, seal it up.

That's that's the best we can do in terms of controlling them for the moment.

Yeah, those are the eggs.

If you see them on the trunk of your car or something else, those are the will eventually hatch into spotted lanternfly.

They are not native to here.

They are invasive species.

They're hitchhikers.

They've got tiny little thumbs.

Are they opposable?

I don't want to know.

Anyway, you got to squash them.

So we're just giving you that public service announcement.

Now is the time to get rid of the spotted spotted lanternfly.

I saw some kid going around with a little badminton racket and having a great time when we were over in Shaker Heights a year or so ago.

So many ways to get that done.

All right.

And let's talk about Dolly Parton.

Country singer songwriter Dolly Parton died Tuesday at the age of 80 following a brief battle with cancer.

Karen, nearly a half million children in Ohio, ages five and under, are enrolled in Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

And it's a big issue here for the literacy cooperative in Cleveland as well.

It just seems like one of those programs and governor DeWine espouses as well, that just does so much good.

Yeah, he actually started Ohio's participation in the program when he was elected in 2019.

He said his wife, Fran DeWine, now the first lady, really wanted to do this.

And now Ohio leads the nation in terms of kids enrolled in the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which sends kids a book up until age five.

And Ohio has the ability, as created, the ability for parents to apply for their kids to get those books when they're in the hospital having the child.

So it's we have about 400 and 430,000 kids who are enrolled.

And I can't tell you how often governor Mike DeWine talks about this.

He mentions this in almost every major speech.

I think he's mentioned it in every state of the state.

He was at an event in Piketon talking about economic opportunity in Ohio and mentioned it then.

That was just this week.

So he really is very proud of what Ohio has done with the Dolly Parton imagination library and the DeWines are unabashed fans of Dolly Parton.

They named the the springer spaniel they got during Covid, Dolly, and they said they named it for her.

By the way, it's not just a book, it's a book a month.

And this really encourages people to read to their children, to read with their children.

We know how important that is for development, but it's one of many things that Dolly Parton has done.

And there's a big Ohio connection, by the way, she used to visit family in Cleveland, Akron and Willoughby and called Ohio her second state.

You can get a specialty plate in Ohio, Karen.

A license plate for that honors Dolly Parton and Imagination Library to.

Yeah.

And I think that I'm trying to remember if that was already out there.

I think that was out there before she passed away this week.

But it's really neat.

I'll be interested to see how many people potentially do sign up for that, because I think some of the proceeds do go to the Imagination Library.

And she's actually said her family said, you know, in lieu of flowers or anything, that donations to the causes that she supported were is what they would prefer.

So the outpouring of the tributes and the wonderful stories about her and her inspirational outlook on life and everything have been just amazing to see.

It's a sad loss, but boy, people really, really love to talk about her, right?

For sure.

And by the way, Patterson Fruit Farm tomorrow in Chesterland hosting Dolly Day just in time for fall.

So there's all kinds of activities there.

So you might want to check that out on their website.

And I also want to note just before we go, there was also a passing of another terrific talent, Tim Curry.

The actor died at the age of 80.

Hes loved for his performances in Clue, IT, Home Alone 2 You remember that and probably known him best for Frank-N-Furter the 1975 cult classic in that classic, The Rocky Horror Picture Show which used to show at the Westwood Theater in Lakewood at midnight, I think on Fridays, Friday or Saturday nights, Andrew long running Rocky Horror Ohio, Connection.

and they still do it monthly at the Cedar Lee Kent Stage, occasionally does performances.

I will say I went to 13 Midnight Movies of Rocky Horror when I was a teen.

I kept track Okay, Were you dressed?

No comment.

All right.

We'll leave a no comment.

Great way to end a news show with no comment.

And thank you so much, Andrew Meyer and Stephanie Czekalinski.

Welcome back.

Glad to have you here.

Glad to be here.

And as well, Karen, thank you for being here.

Hey, Go Guardians.

Yeah, theyre all right.

Ever since we all went and they lost, they've won seven straight games, so it worked out just fine.

All right, if you missed any part of today's show, you can hear a rebroadcast.

You can hear a rebroadcast tonight at 9:00 on 89.7 WKSU You can find it on any podcast app of your choice.

And you can listen.

You can check out the TV version tonight at five on WVIZ PBS.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for being with us today.

And now our closing song for today, Little Sparrow by Dolly Parton.