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

I'm Stephanie Haney, in for Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for being with us.

On the table today, we now know more about the firing of the Akron police officer who killed 15-year-old Jazmir Tucker.

We'll tell you why the police union says that was the wrong move.

As the data center debate continues across our state, a forthcoming Canton location has invited the public in for a preview of what's to come, while a leaked memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee shows the GOP's concerns for how this issue might impact the Senate race in Ohio.

Speaking of the Senate, federal support is lacking for Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb's plan to close Burke Lakefront Airport, but he's not backing down.

Also in Cleveland, public library workers are close to striking.

Will they be able to get a deal on the books in time to prevent services being disrupted?

For fans of America's roller coast, we'll fill you in on which Cedar Point staple has been nationally recognized.

In Brook Park, we have the details on how the new Browns Stadium is giving the IX Center yet another reprieve from closing its doors.

And stick around for the end of today's show when we'll share which beloved boy band is coming to Rocket Arena this fall.

With me around the table today, we have Ideastream Public Media's deputy editor of news, Glenn Forbes.

Glenn, welcome.

Good morning.

Thanks for having me.

Happy to have you with us.

We also have Cleveland News Channel 5's Michelle Jarboe.

Michelle, thanks for being with us.

Thanks for having me.

And joining from our Columbus studio, we have Ideastream Statehouse News Bureau Chief Karen Kastler.

Good morning, Karen.

Hey, good morning.

If you want to share your thoughts on anything we're talking about today, you can email us at soi@Ideastream.org, or you can message us on Instagram @thesoundofideas.

Now, first on the table, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb has been calling to close Burke Lakefront Airport for months and has said he won't give up the fight despite new opposition by Republican Ohio U.S.

Senator Bernie Moreno and the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA, who say the dream is, quote, absolutely 100% not going to happen.

Michelle, why is the FAA saying Burke needs to stay open?

Yeah, so I talked to the FAA Administrator Brian Bedford and Senator Moreno in Oberlin last Friday when they were touring an air traffic control facility there, and the FAA says it doesn't have enough airspace across the country as it is.

They're expecting air traffic to double over the next couple of decades.

And the FAA generally is in favor of opening new airports, not closing them.

I don't think that's a surprise.

The bigger surprise was how hard Senator Marino came out swinging against this doubling.

Yeah, that's very interesting there.

Now, Karen, Marino spoke to the Statehouse News Bureau as well this week on his stance.

What did he say there?

Yeah, my colleague Sarah Donaldson asked him about what was going on with Burke.

And, you know, this is something that's been happening for a very, very long long time under discussion.

And he said that the FAA is vehemently opposed to closing Burke Lakefront Airport and that politicians trying to override the experts makes no sense.

So he really did, like Michelle says, come out swinging.

We got an email in now from Darryl in Euclid.

Darryl writes, the initial plans for a closed Burke were pretty underwhelming— outdoor courts, walking trails, and a golf course.

Does the FAA factor in potential end uses in its evaluation of airport closures?

Michelle, is that something that you're able to weigh in on?

Yeah, that we don't really know what the FAA's process is.

In fact, if you talk to city officials, they don't really know what the FAA's process is.

But I do.

I think it's safe to say that future uses are not part of the conversation, that it's really focused on is closing this airport a net benefit to aviation?

Now, what exactly that means, we don't know.

Karen, please.

Yeah, I would add that that's one of the things that Marino actually talked about was potentially future uses.

Manufacturers like Anduril and Joby who are making these drones that can use airports.

he says that that's, you know, part of the issue here in terms of why they chose to build in Columbus for Anduril and Dayton for Joby.

And he said that there's been 14 months of investigation.

That's pretty thorough, he thinks.

And so he's— that's another reason he said what he did.

Well, Glenn Cleveland, city officials are still holding out hope though that they can close Burke.

Tell us about that.

Yeah, and that's not a surprise.

I mean, this was a big campaign issue, or a big issue in Mayor Bibb's administration.

This is obviously something that he wants to do.

His chief of strategy, Jessica Trevisano, told us that this is still the best thing for Cleveland.

It's a lost opportunity, essentially, if Burke is not closed.

It's a lost opportunity for the city, a lost opportunity for residents.

This discussion about what would be done with the space is interesting because you've got people on City Council saying Well, this has to be budget neutral at least.

At the very least, it needs to be budget neutral.

Right now, Burke loses a little less than $2 million a year.

So the idea that this could all be public use green space, that doesn't really fly.

You're going to have to have some sort of entities in there that make some money, right, in order for it to be budget neutral.

The other interesting thing about this is talking about, you know, kind of waiting for the political climate to change.

That can mean a number of different things.

And actually, we've heard county council talk about this, too.

In relation to the Health and Human Services levy.

So obviously we've got midterm elections coming up in November.

Senator Jon Husted also came out against this.

He is running against Sherrod Brown.

So that's one potential domino that could fall.

If Democrats, if they get a friendlier composition, let's say, between the Senate and the House, that could make a difference.

We're talking about the presidency in '28.

And then, of course, Bernie Moreno would be up for an election fight in 2030.

So no pun intended, there's kind of a long runway on this, and there would be anyway, because if they chose to, or even if they did get approval to close Burke, there would likely be lawsuits that would push that even further down.

But this has been a main goal of Mayor Justin Bibb, and so they're not gonna give up so easily.

We do know the city has said they will pursue all options.

So what does that mean, Michelle?

What are the options?

There are 3 pathways potentially to closing Burke.

Yeah, that's correct.

So the first one is to get FAA approval.

Clearly that door is closed.

The second is to get an act of Congress.

Right now that looks highly unlikely to happen, as Glenn alluded to.

Could that change if the political winds change?

Maybe.

The third option is to wait.

So right now Cleveland is limited by some strings attached to federal and state grants that they've received for improvements at Burke over the years, those grant obligations burn off in 2039.

So if the city waited until 2039 and did not take out any more state or federal grants for work at Burke between now and then, then they could file a 30-day notice with the FAA and close the airport.

But that's an expensive proposition.

And as Glenn alluded to, Burke right now as it's operating is losing money.

It's being subsidized by the operations at Hopkins.

That's not coming out of the city's general fund.

But there's a question of how, how much would the airport unit be willing to subsidize Burke over time.

2039, that's 13 years away.

Frank Jackson was mayor for 16 years.

Bibb has been mayor for 4 years, so that puts him at like 17.

So it could happen.

He could still be in office then.

We will see what happens.

Also in Cleveland, public library workers could go on strike starting on Monday if a new deal is not reached with management.

And the union told Ideastream this week that there is still time for a deal.

Glenn, the 2 sides have been meeting, as we mentioned.

What's the union asking for and how have those meetings been going?

Well, this is interesting because we were told that they were meeting until about 3 in the morning, at least for one day this week.

They were going to be back at it, you know, maybe 7 hours later.

We were initially told that, you know, of course the union is going to say we're making major concessions and management is not willing to meet us halfway and all these things.

So that's The first we heard from the Service Employees International.

As you mentioned, the strike time, strike date is Monday at noon.

The— we did hear from the library who said we're offering a 5% wage increase in the first year, 11% over the life of the new contract, $5.5 million in additional wages.

That's the library management standpoint.

It's important to note that the workers have been without a contract for the last 8 months.

So this has been ongoing for a while.

The union, I don't want to characterize if they were optimistic necessarily, but they were realistic.

And look, there's still time to make a deal, which is true.

And they could certainly negotiate through the weekend to see if they can avoid this strike.

But yeah, they're certainly looking for more money.

But the management is saying they're already among the best-paid workers in the state and we're offering these raises.

So it'll be interesting to see if there is a counteroffer from management, which the union says has not happened yet.

Well, complicating this a little bit further is the fact that libraries often lose out on crucial funding when the city of Cleveland offers tax incentives for downtown development.

Glenn, this came up in Cleveland City Council this week, actually, along with the potential strike.

So what was said there?

It did.

Yeah, there was a little interesting synergy there.

Tanmay Shah, who's a new Cleveland councilmember, sworn in this past January, He said, look, libraries should be treated like schools.

They should be exempt from losing this tax money for things like tax increment financing and downtown development, essentially.

And he pointed to this labor dispute and the fact that there's a potential strike on Monday as proof that libraries are struggling financially.

Now, that proposal didn't, didn't go anywhere necessarily.

He brought it up.

The TIF was still approved 13 to 2.

Nobody seconded that motion, but it was interesting to hear in the light of this labor dispute that there are some on council who are looking at this now.

Other council members said, look, we do need to fix library funding.

They do need help.

It just doesn't seem like many of them were willing to do it in this way of providing that exemption.

Sticking with what we talked about to start the show, Burke Lakefront Airport, want to share a couple emails that have come in.

Kevin emailed in saying the economic impact of Burke Lakefront on downtown and Greater Cleveland is not measurable.

There are many uses from sports and medical to business and fight training.

It is 30 minutes to Cleveland Hopkins and 45 minutes to Cuyahoga County.

This would hurt the city in my opinion.

Thank you for sharing that, Kevin.

Also an email in from Steven on the topic of Burke Lakefront Airport and its potential closure.

Joby and other companies like them are making electrical vertical takeoff and landing vehicles.

The keyword there is vertical, so they shouldn't need as much space as horizontal takeoff planes.

Perhaps there's a possibility of a partial closure.

Stephen, thank you for sharing that with us.

Now, for people who like attending the many conventions that come to our area, like the Cleveland Auto or the Home and Garden Shows, you might be happy to know their longtime home, the IX Center, is back in business despite its big farewell earlier this year.

This is thanks to the Haslam Sports Group, Jimmy and Dee Haslam's entity that owns the Cleveland Browns.

Michelle, there has been a lot of back and forth.

With the IX Center on whether it will close, whether it will stay open.

What kind of a deal did the Haslams strike here?

Yeah, so, so we don't have a lot of the details because the parties involved aren't talking much.

The IX Center announcement that came out Wednesday morning notably said nothing about why this is happening or who is involved.

But based on my reporting, Haslam Sports Group recently struck a deal to lease the event space at the IX Center for 3 years.

And my understanding is this is kind of a 3 one-year rolling contracts.

So if there's a reason that the events would need to move out to make way for, say, a major manufacturing business that needed a ton of space, there are opportunities to have conversations around that.

But basically, Haslam Sports Group is coming in, subleasing that space from the developers who control the complex, and that's allowing all of these events to come back instead of having to look at alternative locations.

We know that they are not saying much, as you mentioned, on the IX Center side or on the Haslam Sports Group side.

But we did hear a little something from them.

Can you share what we did hear?

Yeah.

So, a spokesman said the organization is pleased to see the shows continuing in Northeast Ohio.

Beyond that, they've really declined to comment publicly.

And I would say the parties don't have to disclose the terms of their agreement.

So the IX Center is owned by the city of Cleveland, but it is leased to a pair of industrial real estate developers.

They still have about 13 years of term left on their lease.

And that lease gives them broad ability to sublease space there.

And they really don't have to say anything about, you know, to whom or for what.

How did the major show producers feel about this back and forth and eventually this deal that came through?

So the deal— they are ecstatic.

A lot of the show producers had said to me, look, it's just not financially sustainable for us to move to the downtown convention center where we're going to have to shrink our footprints.

We're going to have to have fewer days.

It's hard to load boats and cars in and out of that structure compared to the IX Center.

And parking was a big concern for them downtown because the convention center does not have controlled parking.

As far as the journey over the last year, I think the head of the auto show maybe put it best when I was talking to him earlier this week.

He said, I love Cedar Point, I don't like roller coasters.

This has been a roller coaster for the last 12 months and I'm ready to be done.

Can you imagine the lineup of traffic if they're trying to get a bunch of or a bunch of cars into the downtown convention center.

That would be interesting, the ingress-egress of that all.

Speaking of the Haslams though, Michelle, you reported this week about the Cleveland Browns cutting the ribbon on the Stadium Experience Center.

That happened on Monday.

What does that look like?

Yeah, so this is over at the Cross Country Mortgage campus.

This is the Browns headquarters in Berea, and they've got a mixed-use development going on over there, and part of one building has this Stadium Experience Center.

It's their sales center, essentially, where they are going to be making the sales pitch for suites and season tickets.

And they take you through, and it can be a very customized experience.

It's designed for small groups, but part of it is this room they're calling the Immersive Cube that you step into.

And it is kind of like virtual reality without the goggles on.

You stand in there and they can take you to any seat in the stadium and show you what your view would be like.

Now, they wouldn't show us that specific view.

They said, no, this is an intimate experience.

We're reserving that for fans.

But we did see the bird's-eye view of the whole stadium district.

They can take you from, you know, what is your traffic path into the stadium district to here, journey through the mixed-use part of this and come in through the stadium and see the concourses and then down to the field.

So this is for the people who are interested in potentially purchasing these seat licenses.

As I understand it then, and those are planning to be starting to be sold next month.

So what's the price tag look like for that, Michelle?

Yeah, so this is for people who would be going for suites.

You don't need a seat license for a suite or for anybody who wants a seat in the stadium.

And everybody who wants a seat is going to need a seat license.

And for people who don't know what those are, because a lot of people don't, that is a one-time fee you pay to get the right and the obligation to buy season tickets year after year for the same seats.

So if you want season tickets, this is the price of admission.

We don't know yet what specific pricing is, but we have a few details we can look at.

In Buffalo, the Bills just opened their stadium.

They sold out their PSLs at prices ranging from $750 to $50,000 a seat.

That's an open-air stadium in a smaller market.

My expectation is we will see higher pricing at the upper end for the stadium here, at least aspirationally.

And there was a survey last year that Haslam Sports Group and the Browns sent out to season ticket holders kind of testing the waters.

And that survey showed pricing potentially ranging from $550 to $193,000 for PSLs.

Let me show my age here for just a moment, because I remember this debate almost 30 years ago when they were getting ready to open the current stadium.

And originally PSLs were being sold or being billed by the team as an investment opportunity.

Essentially, these licenses will appreciate in value because if you ever want to get rid of your season tickets, well, then somebody else has to buy the PSL.

That never materialized.

I mean, they were never an investment, uh, you know, opportunity really at all.

And I think what Michelle said is important both about Buffalo and Cleveland.

We're talking about 2 different groups of fans, 2 different groups of buyers.

Right.

We're talking about big, you know, major corporations who want to entertain clients who are going to get these field-level seats that are going to be extremely expensive for the normal fans, dog pound people, people who sit in the 500s in the current stadium.

The biggest question is affordability.

Can I keep my tickets when this team moves to this, to this complex?

Don't want to call it a dome.

I think that's the wrong term.

Enclosed stadium.

Thank you.

When they move to this enclosure, can I continue to afford my tickets?

So there's— they're really— look, obviously I understand this is a business.

They are looking for corporations to snatch up these extremely expensive PSLs.

On the other side, there are fans who are concerned about affordability.

The team continues to say there's going to be, you know, for all kinds of people, we're going to have tickets for everybody.

We're going to have tickets.

We're going to have affordability.

You're going to be close to the stadium or close to the field, rather.

Don't worry about it.

But there's a lot of worry among the common fans, of which I am one, about affordability and the ability to keep their tickets, not only because of the price of the tickets, because of the price of these PSLs.

Yeah.

And a couple of things quickly worth noting.

One, current PSL holders, people who bought them at the downtown stadium, will receive a credit on their new PSLs.

But I mean, it Some of them we've talked to find it very painful that they're in the position of having to buy a PSL for a second time.

Number 2, the new stadium will have 2,500 standing room only tickets for NFL games.

So you will not need a PSL for those, but you will not have a seat.

And then number 3, I think it's important for people to know that all the money from the PSL goes toward construction of the stadium.

So this is part of how Haslam Sports Group is covering their private share of building that stadium.

There's obviously some public money going into that project as well, which is— I'm sorry, Stephanie, which is interesting because some of the— sorry, some of the state money is still, you know, held up in the court and all those other things.

You know, the other piece to this is when you talk about public sentiment and you talk about trying to sell people, whether they be companies or regular fans, the team's still not very good.

And we've got a quarterback battle right now between Deshaun Watson and Shedeur Sanders that people aren't particularly thrilled about.

You've got analysts saying it's the worst quarterback room in the NFL.

They have to find a way in the next couple of seasons to start turning that public sentiment into a more favorable— into a more favorable way.

That only happens on the field.

And so it'll be interesting to see.

They've got 3 more seasons at least.

At the downtown stadium.

So can they make some progress?

Can they get some maybe some better goodwill with the fans and a better selling point?

It'll be interesting to see.

Well, I don't think there's anything that hasn't been said on that topic.

And I have a long-standing— Stephanie, I'll keep going.

On a long— as a longstanding, long-suffering Browns fan who now appreciates the Bills Mafia, I'm with you.

Now, on the topic of video surveillance, recent questions and controversies over flock cameras being used by police agencies have prompted 2 separate bills in the Ohio Statehouse aimed at regulating the use of these devices.

Karen, let's talk about the bill from Republican Ohio House Representative Levi Dean, who's hoping to set some ground rules after alleged misuse of these cameras.

So first, can you tell us what kind of misuse has been brought up here and what the representative is proposing?

Well, we're still waiting to see both of those bills.

There is one that was proposed back in March.

Interestingly enough, it was proposed by a representative who was a state trooper.

And now we've got Representative Levi Dean and Senator Al Cutrona who are talking about some of these flock cameras and specifically regulating them, because that's been the complaint, especially from privacy advocates who have been talking about flock cameras and these automatic license plate readers for years, saying that there needs to be more regulation, or at least some regulation.

And you've actually seen communities with protesters coming out and public hearings on these cameras.

And so Levi Dean told my colleague Joe Ingalls that he's working on a bill that would allow police agencies to use the cameras for investigations if they get a warrant.

And it would ban the use of flock cameras or any of these automatic license plate readers assisted by AI from being used by governmental entities and police departments, whether at the state, local, or federal levels.

And that's, that's another question here, is not only how are these cameras being used, but where is the data going?

And is there any— are there any guardrails on that data?

And Senator Cotrona is the other one, and both of these folks are Republican, by the way.

He wants to do something fairly similar, uh, but also adding that the data in the system can only be saved up to 10 days, so it can't be looked back on a month or 2 months later.

And anybody who would be caught using the Flock cameras personally for getting some of this information would be charged with a 4th-degree felony.

Well, that's significant.

We have seen some instances where officers have been accused of looking at the Flock camera data to maybe surveil people in their personal lives.

That's one particular example of misuse that has been alleged there.

Now, Karen, Flock has changed some of its rules due to public outcry against the misuse of data.

What do the lawmakers think of those changes?

Well, obviously they don't think it's enough.

And certainly, again, privacy advocates, uh, civil liberties folks have said it's not enough.

I mean, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio has argued that all these cameras should be just gone.

Now, law enforcement has said that these cameras are useful for tracking stolen vehicles and finding missing people and solving crimes.

The ACLU says, yeah, if you do 24-hour surveillance of everybody, then you're gonna have less crime because people will know they're under surveillance.

So, uh, the ACLU says they know that the idea of getting rid of these cameras is not going to fly at this point, but more rules need to be in place to prevent exactly what you just talked about, and also just the expanded use of these cameras across the country and people not being aware that that's how they're being used.

Glenn, here in the city of Cleveland, on the topic of the flock cameras, we know that a divided city council voted 9 to 6 just on Wednesday to keep using the city's 100 flock cameras for another 6 months.

What have you— that was in July, excuse me, when that happened, so what can you tell us about that decision here in the city of Cleveland?

Well, originally the proposal was for another year, to extend those flock cameras for another year.

I think because of some of these privacy concerns, data sharing concerns, concerns that immigration, federal immigration officials were using these cameras.

Now we've had a report from Joe Ingalls at the Statehouse Bureau that some, they could be used to possibly track women seeking an abortion, you know, all of these things, all of these concerns.

So they cut that contract in half, that extension, if you will, in half from 1 year to 6 months.

That also cut the price tag in half.

They're going to continue to look at all their options, whether that be a different provider, whether that be something different that they can do with FLOC in terms of some of that data sharing.

But as Karen mentioned, you know, a lot of law enforcement, officials and, and city council people who hear about crime all the time from their constituents, they think this is important.

And without a suitable replacement, they're not willing to just get rid of the flock cameras, at least at this point.

But as I mentioned, they did cut that extension time in half.

So we'll be revisiting this in what, about 5 months now?

An email now in on this topic from Patricia in East Cleveland.

Patricia says flock cameras are so unpopular that every camera in Winona, Minnesota disappeared As have many in Toledo and elsewhere.

Patricia, thank you for sharing that comment with us.

It is certainly a controversial topic.

Now to the ongoing data center debate.

A massive data center is being planned for a vacant industrial site in my hometown on Canton's east side.

And this week, residents got a first look at the plans at an open house hosted by the California-based data center developer hoping for this to come to fruition in Canton.

So, Glenn, data centers have become very unpopular among Ohioans.

What are the plans that were showcased in Canton and what did the residents think?

Well, we— the circumstances change, but the concerns are always the same, whether we're talking about Lorain County or the city of Cleveland or now this one in the city of Canton.

Residents always concerned about noise coming from the data centers, property values.

Our Jeff St.

Clair talked to a resident who said, look, I just spent $30,000 on upgrading my house.

I just put a fortune into this.

What's gonna happen to my home value?

A constant, there's concerns when I talk about noise level, there's concerns about a constant hum that comes from some of these data centers.

Now, Panattoni, the developer says, we're gonna adhere to all local ordinances regarding noise and all these things.

And another difference between this plant and the one that was a mega site, I should say, not a data center, but a mega site that was planned for Lorain County was, The Canton plan is that this would be on a former industrial site.

So we've heard some complaints about don't put this in farmland or in the city of Cleveland, don't put this in a more urban area.

This would be on a former industrial site, 324-megawatt hyperscale facility.

The developers are saying, look, this is— these data centers are the workhorse of the digital economy.

Everything we do on the internet goes through a data center.

It's going to create a lot of construction jobs.

I should note the other concern is is they talk about construction jobs, which there certainly will be plenty, but those are temporary.

The concern with data centers, particularly some data centers, is when you talk about longer-term employment, those numbers could be anywhere between 10 or a couple dozen or whatever, as compared to whatever, 600 or so temporary construction jobs.

So long-term employment, also a concern for the residents there.

I should also note construction on the Canton site would be scheduled to begin next year.

670 construction jobs and would take 30 months to complete if, if they get this moving.

Okay.

Well, the data centers conversation is big all over in Ohio, and that extends to Washington, D.C., as the U.S.

Senate race between Democratic candidate Sherrod Brown and Republican candidate Jon Husted is heating up over data centers, with Brown attacking Husted in ads calling him the face of data centers.

News came out this week in a memo obtained by Axios that members of the national Republican Party are concerned that Brown's attack strategy is working against Husted.

Karen, how is Husted responding to the growing backlash against data centers and Brown's attacks against him, naming him the face of data centers?

Well, it's clear that data centers have become one of the hottest issues in the campaigns that are coming up for the midterms.

I mean, affordability is still a big lingering issue and a lot of people care about that.

But data centers, it's one of those flashpoint issues that people have really seized on.

And Husted has said in previous interviews that he thinks the data center industry has done a bad job of communicating the benefits of data centers.

And obviously now he is the target of Sherrod Brown's ad campaign, which has gotten a lot of momentum here in terms of focusing on Husted as you said, the face of data centers in Ohio.

And Sherrod Brown noticed that or calls that out because of Husted's work as lieutenant governor and aggressively luring data centers to Ohio, which we saw a lot of that until the tide really kind of turned, the public tide turned against data centers.

That memo from the National Republican Senate Committee is really interesting because it specifically targets this race in Ohio, though data centers, that's an issue around the country, but specifically this race in Ohio and says that data centers are the anchor hanging around Husted's neck and suggesting that he could lose the race.

And that, of course, would put the Senate's Republican majority in danger.

So they're obviously concerned about this issue as having a— having real traction with voters.

The Statehouse reported this week that Brown stands on data centers, Karen, has evolved compared to a decade ago.

How so?

Well, and I think a lot of folks have kind of altered their status or recalibrated their status and their positions on data centers as this, as this debate has been going on.

Sherrod Brown was not invited to groundbreakings and things like that for data centers because when he was a Democrat in the U.S.

Senate, he just wasn't invited by Republicans who were celebrating these things here in Ohio.

But he has praised them.

At least he praised an Amazon Web Services investment in 2015.

Saying that this was a good thing.

So over time, though, he has definitely moved more toward the concerns about data centers, possible moratorium about data centers.

We're still waiting to hear some of the specifics here, but a lot of data center regulation is really at the state and local level.

And so I think that that's something to watch in, say, the governor's race where we've got both Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat Amy Acton both putting out their proposed rules and regulations on data centers because it's, it's just a huge issue.

All right, now when it comes to the issue of federal funding, the city of Cleveland has been warned that it needs to shape up.

A new report says Cleveland City Council must change the way it spends millions of dollars in community development block grants used for community projects or risk losing millions of dollars in annual funding.

This is according to a memo from the Taft law firm.

So Glenn, what is the city currently doing that the government has flagged as improper?

Yeah, first of all, let me just say great to have Sean McDonnell here at Ideastream who now reporting on this stuff for our organization, which is great.

He messaged me yesterday.

He says, hey, I think I got this memo.

This is a good story.

Yeah, let's go with this.

Let's talk about it on the roundtable too.

The main issue that federal agencies are looking at here is the fact that Cleveland distributes maybe about $7 million to the council to basically spend the way they see fit.

And Councilmember Kris Harsh, he previously worked at a community development corporation.

He understands these dollars.

Back in May, he kind of was warning council about this.

He says, we must make— we're the only city in America that does this.

We have to change the way we distribute these funds.

So lo and behold, they do get a letter from HUD saying that, you know, if you don't change the way, if you don't come up with a new process to distribute these community development block grants, you're gonna lose the funding.

Their stance is if you just give the money to council members to distribute the way they see fit, that doesn't really give the public an opportunity to decide how these funds are spent.

So that's the issue now.

Blaine Griffin, president of council, says we just got this memo, we're going to take a look at it.

They don't want to use the community development corporations, which are funded heavily by some of these grants, and you'll see them in different neighborhoods.

They have until the spring, as I mentioned, to come up with kind of a new process.

To look at this.

And if they can't figure this out within the next 2 years, non-compliance could result in no future funding or even potentially clawback of some of these awarded funds.

Very high stakes there.

Thank you, Glenn.

Now, across the state, there's been a change to how people can update the information on their driver's licenses and state ID cards.

People seeking to change the gender on their driver's license or state ID can no longer use the process that's been accepted at the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles for nearly 2 decades.

The agency will continue to change gender markers, but only with an updated birth certificate or passport present at an appointment to do so.

Karen, prior to this change, there was a form that could be used that was in place since 2009.

Why the change away from using this form?

Well, I think the interesting thing about the change and why— and was really the when, because this goes along with a change in state law that was done in the budget last year.

And so So, the budget went into effect, these parts of the budget went into effect in October, so it's kind of surprising in a way that this is now the case.

It was the state's largest LGBTQ rights group, Equality Ohio, that actually found out about this change.

And it was a sudden change, because again, that form, like you said, has been used for— since 2009.

And that form was just a simplified way to have a medical or healthcare provider sign the form and submit it to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles to have that gender marker changed.

And so now, like you said, it has to be an updated birth certificate.

And advocates say that that's a serious problem because that's an extra step, it costs money, and not all counties do it in Ohio, do those updated birth certificates.

So it won't be as easy for people who are transitioning or, or anybody who wants to change their gender marker on driver's licenses and state IDs.

It's not as easy as it was before.

And it's just one more step in the whole process.

There's also a concern about whether this could be a voter suppression move, and Equality Ohio has advised that the gender marker on your driver's license is not related to voting, but certainly there are people who are worried that this is just targeting transgender individuals.

So what is the process like then, Karen, because there will now be this additional step in order to change your gender marker?

You'll have get it changed on your birth certificate.

Is the process to do that the same in every county in Ohio?

Well, that's it.

Not every county does updated birth certificates.

I think that Equality Ohio said that they know of at least 8 counties, but not every county does that.

And so if your county doesn't do that, you have to find a county that will.

And it's just the whole process of applying for your old birth certificate and, and filing for the new one takes some time.

And if you thought that you just had to fill out this form and have your provider sign it, then this is, uh, kind of a surprise.

Well, there is much more to talk about today, including service cuts by the Greater Cleveland RTA and which big-name artists are coming to Rocket Arena.

For now, here is Ideastream's producer extraordinaire Drew Maziasz with a preview of what's coming up next week on The Sound of Ideas on 89.7 WKSU.

Hi, Drew.

Hey, Stephanie.

Here's a look at what's ahead for The Sound of Ideas next week.

Monday, we bring you a discussion about what a decline in school vaccination rates means for the classroom.

Tuesday, we bring you another installment in our Easy Day Away series.

This time, we visit the prehistoric burial mounds located in southern Ohio.

Wednesday, a deeper dive into the federal and state changes to the SNAP program.

Those are being brought about by the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill.

And Thursday, a discussion about challenges to public education.

That's a discussion with the president-elect of the National Education Association.

Of course, all of those stories are subject to change based on breaking news.

And now back to you in the studio.

Thank you for the rundown, Drew.

You are back with the Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable from Ideastream Public Media.

I'm Stephanie Haney in for Ideastream Executive Editor Mike McIntyre, along with Ideastream's Glenn Forbes and our Statehouse News Bureau Chief Karen Kessler, as well as News 5 Cleveland's Michelle Jarboe.

A reminder before we get back to the show, you can take our Ideastream news quiz to test out how up to date you are on what's been happening in Northeast Ohio this week.

You can find the news quiz on our website at Ideastream.org/quiz.

Now to Akron, where new information gathered by the Akron Beacon Journal through a public record request gives more insight into Akron Mayor Shammas Maliks decision last week to fire the officer who fatally shot 15-year-old Jazmir Tucker.

City officials found Akron police officer Davon Fields violated 9 rules and procedures in 2 separate incidents: the 2024 killing of Tucker and an allegation that Fields committed sexual assault this year.

Glenn, what more do we know about the violations committed by Fields?

Yeah, there was particular concern among the, uh, Shammas Malik administration that, uh, medical aid was not provided for about 7, 8 minutes after the this shooting.

There were body cam violations, not turning it on at the right time.

He also made clear that this was not just about Officer Fields' conduct during this shooting.

He did say that there were separate issues that they were concerned about, and we find out that that's the allegation that Fields committed sexual assault this year.

The other interesting part about this is that Malik also made a point to say that he found issues with the internal investigation He wanted to— he said it raised serious concerns with the analysis.

The conclusions were unsupported by the weight of the evidence.

The state also investigated and was not going to, you know, recommended a no-bill, essentially not charging Officer Field.

So he's not being criminally charged for his conduct.

Now we get to what the union thinks.

And of course, the union is going to defend the officer.

That's what they're there for.

But the union's also skeptical about about the timing of this firing coinciding with an announced settlement with the Jazmir Tucker family.

The union also noted that they did not sign off on this, nor did Police Chief Brian Harding.

So he said— the union saying this was solely the decision of Shammas Malik and Public Safety Director— they call him the Chief of Public Safety, Craig Morgan.

So they're basically saying we were not consulted on this, we did not sign off on this.

They've started a GoFundMe for Officer Fields, and, and they say that that's doing very well.

So you've got different sides here as usual, but a little— obviously, you know, there's a little more consternation about this because of the settlement and because the union's saying not only did we not sign off on this, the chief of police didn't sign off on this termination.

Either.

Speaking of the chief of police, we do know that he is currently looking for another job.

Glenn, what do we know about that?

Is there any connection to this?

Yeah, uh, Josh Booth at Ideastream was able to confirm that, uh, Brian Harding is under consideration.

Chief Brian Harding, the current Akron police chief, is under consideration for the Copley, uh, township, the new chief, which will be selected in September.

He is a candidate for that job.

So we have not heard from Chief Harding on you know, his stance on this.

But again, we talk about timing and how things are kind of interesting due to the timing.

This is one as well.

So we'll continue to take a look at Copley Township and be in touch with them as they go through their process to decide their new chief.

And Akron has gone through a fair amount of police chiefs in the last 4 to 5 years.

So could be more turnover there.

We'll have to wait and see what happens.

We do know that it looks like Copley is hoping to make that decision by September.

So that should be something we should know relatively soon.

Yeah, it's coming up.

Stay tuned.

We will stay tuned, certainly.

Back to Cleveland now and a tragic story involving the Greater Cleveland RTA this week.

Dr.

Flounsay Caver, Deputy General Manager of Operations for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority, was found dead on Tuesday in Virginia.

He was 50 years old.

Glenn, what do we know about what happened there?

Yeah, this was a planned trip to Virginia and this was one of those days where, you know, I will remember this for a long time because I was in the middle of a meeting with Zaria Johnson here at Ideastream who covers RTA every day for us and has been commenting on these— rather, reporting on these proposed cuts from the agency.

And I just said to her, I was like, well, what else is going on?

Everything good?

Do you need to vent about anything?

And then I go, oh my gosh, we just got this email from RTA.

Flounsay Caver is missing in Virginia.

It just changed the entire tone of the conversation, the entire tone of the day.

Something that she covers every day, somebody that she sees these quite often.

So Hampton Police in Virginia and, and the State Police in Virginia, he was reported as a critically missing adult the night before.

That afternoon, Tuesday afternoon, his, his body was found.

They said he was experiencing some severe personal stress.

He was visiting with family, recently celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary.

Uh, it's just a, a terrible story all around, and of course, the rest of the, the team at Greater Cleveland RTA and the executives very shaken up about this.

Mayor Justin Bibb commented as well that he was, you know, one of his mentors, essentially a colleague.

Everybody was saying that they were heartbroken as both a friend and a former colleague that, that they have now lost.

Our thoughts are certainly with his family, loved ones, and co-workers.

And we do know professionally the Greater Cleveland RTA has been managing Other challenges this week, we know that service cuts are taking effect, leaving many long-term riders looking for new ways to get to work.

So continuing the work as they're dealing with this tragedy in the office.

Michelle, tell us what's happening behind the service cuts.

Sure.

So the RTA is facing a budget deficit, and the reason behind that, it's a mix of rising costs and some longstanding ridership declines that don't seem like they're going to improve anytime soon.

There could be more cuts coming?

Yes, that's possible.

The Transit Authority is already considering another round of cuts, and they're trying to figure out how to plug budget holes.

So there is a conversation about putting a sales tax increase on the ballot in May to try to prevent additional service disruptions.

And we do know at this time the RTA's free B Line trolley, that was discontinued on Sunday.

Other lines have reduced their frequency.

About the future cuts.

Michelle, is there anything to be done to avoid the potential of the future cuts?

Yeah, so that's the sales tax increase that they've been having a conversation about.

That would be a levy that would go on the ballot, and they're talking about a quarter percent or a half percent sales tax hike.

They looked at doing this in November, decided that that was a little too aggressive of a timeline, so now they're discussing putting it on the ballot in the spring.

Okay, we'll keep an eye out on that as well.

Thank you, Michelle.

Here is news out of Columbus from the Ohio Supreme Court.

One of 2 lawsuits filed in hopes of overturning Ohio's voter-approved reproductive rights amendment has been dismissed unanimously by the court.

Karen, this case was dismissed without an opinion by the Supreme Court's 6 Republicans and 1 Democrat.

Tell us more about the lawsuit.

Well, this is a really interesting case.

I think there are 2 lawsuits that were filed by people who want to see the 2023 voter-approved constitutional amendment that guarantees reproductive rights and abortion access.

They want to see that overturned.

One of them is in Butler County still, so that's still working its way through.

The other is this Youngstown area common pleas and juvenile court judge, a Republican, who filed a lawsuit saying that this amendment took away his authority when it comes to parental notification and minors seeking abortions.

And so he sued Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose and then Attorney General Dave Yost, who are both Republicans and also strongly opposed this amendment.

And he said that he sued them because they were the ones who approved the ballot language that went before voters, and then voters approve the amendment.

Well, the Supreme Court has pushed back, and it's unanimous.

So 6 Republicans and 1 Democrat agreed not to hear this lawsuit.

And I just think that's kind of significant here as you start to see some of these lawsuits moving up toward the Ohio Supreme Court, where a lot of the issues surrounding the amendment will be decided.

And that other lawsuit that you mentioned in Butler County, Karen, anything to follow there?

What's happening with that claim?

Well, that's a lawsuit that's filed by abortion opponents such as Faith to Action, which is headed up by former Ohio Right to Life leader Janet Folger Porter, and also 2 state representatives, Levi Dean and Jennifer Gross, who are both very conservative state representatives.

That lawsuit is still in Butler County, and it basically says that what happened with that amendment couldn't legally happen because it would potentially overturn so many parts of state law that really they feel should be decided individually.

There are lawsuits that are moving through the courts that are filed by abortion rights supporters who are trying to challenge certain things like the 24-hour waiting period, the requirement to bury or cremate fetal remains, and the ban on prescribing abortion-inducing drugs through telemedicine.

Those are now moving their way through the courts, but they are trying to overturn those existing state laws.

Because there are a couple of ways to get laws on the books that are in conflict with that constitutional amendment.

One would be action by Congress, and another way is to go through the courts.

Thank you for giving us the update on that, Karen.

Now, in Geauga County, a nonprofit fire department is missing over $1 million, and investigators say the money was stolen to cover the fire official's gambling losses.

Former treasurer and assistant chief of the Hambden Township Fire Department, Richard Vandevander, was indicted by a Geauga County grand jury this week on 5 felony charges, as prosecutors say he embezzled $1.6 million over 3 and a half years.

That's from January 2023 to May of this year.

Now, Vandevander has pled not guilty to the charges.

Michelle, some of this stolen money, $800,000, came from a state grant that was going toward a new fire station.

How do prosecutors say he was able to pull this off?

My colleague Scott Noel has been covering this, and he reported earlier this week that, um, this official used a series of transfers and checks that he wrote to himself in order to take the money, um, that he's accused forging signatures in cases where the checks needed additional signatures, and then basically hiding what he was doing by providing financial information from a QuickBooks system that omitted those transfers and checks that were payable to him.

Now, other than the pleading of not guilty, do we know what Vandevander has said about the charges and what's happening next with this case?

So he was arraigned Monday afternoon, and that's where he pled not guilty to the felony charges.

There hasn't been a lot of other information about his side of of this story out there yet.

But the prosecutors are saying this investigation remains ongoing.

They believe he was the only person who committed the theft, but they plan to continue looking at every aspect of this case.

People did say that he has cooperated with investigators throughout the investigation.

And now there's some controversy over the land that was bought for the new fire station as well.

Michelle, tell us about that.

Yeah, so, so, and this appears to be a separate investigation, but there's some controversy over the fact that apparently the fire department bought the land for the fire station from one of the township trustees or a company affiliated with one of the township trustees, and there are questions about, you know, who knew that was happening and when and if the transaction was properly vetted.

So now all of this is burbling up at once.

And the Hamden fire chief is also the Jogger County sheriff, Scott Hildebrand.

So some interesting things going on.

Initially, it was reported that there was enough state funding to kind of continue this project for the fire station.

It would still be built.

But I will note that the county has had to give an advance to Hambden, I believe $100,000 in advance to cover their expenses, and another one might be needed this fall.

So there's still some money being moved around in Geauga County.

But as you mentioned, these investigations are ongoing as well.

I think we'll see a lot more stories about this.

We will certainly be looking to follow it for sure.

Now, we know a lot of people are experiencing financial challenges right now.

Last year, more than 300,000 Ohioans had their electricity shut off for not being able to pay their bills on time.

And this comes from an annual report that looked into the state's 6 electric utilities.

Karen, how did this year's numbers compare to previous years?

Well, I want to give a shout out to our friend Kathy Ann Kowalski for kind of opening the door on this.

She's been on The Sound of Ideas talking about energy and electricity issues.

But this is an annual report that that regulated utilities have to file with the Public Utilities Commission indicating how many people were disconnected for nonpayment.

And the numbers are getting bigger.

And that's in some ways not a surprise because electricity costs are rising and people have been complaining about this for some time.

But also, when I talked to the Ohio Consumers Council, which is the state agency that advocates for ratepayers in rate cases before the PUCO, the Consumers Council— Maureen Willis said that she's worried about the fact that you can disconnect companies can just disconnect with a flip of the switch.

They don't have to send somebody out and read the meter and that sort of thing.

And so it makes it easier for disconnections to happen.

She feels that that could be one of the reasons why disconnections are going up.

But utilities are saying, hey, this is their last resort, they don't want to do this, and that there are payment options available for people who are in that group.

About 344,000 Ohio households were disconnected for lack of payment from June of 2021 May of 2025 to May of 2026.

And what are ratepayer advocates saying about this, Karen?

Well, again, they're concerned about the cost of electricity.

And remember, the power bill is not just the cost of electricity, but also there's transmission costs and distribution costs.

And those costs, those last 2, are set by the utilities.

And so there's just some real concerns about how to make sure that people can still afford to do all this and make sure that there aren't any excessive charges when they do pay and are reconnected.

What are the utilities saying about this difficulty for people?

Well, again, that they're just saying that this is just one of those things.

They don't want to do this.

This is not something that they look forward to, that they're concerned about what the effect is on people.

And in the wintertime, there is a lot— there are a lot fewer disconnections just because of concerns about, you know, how cold it is.

But they mentioned that there are payment assistance offered, payment assistance programs offered.

Well, it is still the summer, thankfully not the wintertime yet, and as summer has been winding down, you might be thinking about making one more trip out to Cedar Point.

If you do that, you will be able to take advantage of a coaster that has received a special designation.

Here's an update on a Cedar Point staple.

The Corkscrew is being recognized as a landmark coaster by the American Coaster Enthusiasts Club.

This is reserved for coasters that changed coaster history sparked industry trends, or achieved legendary status.

Karen, tell us about the Corkscrew.

What made it so unique when it was unveiled in 1976?

Well, the Corkscrew is just really one of those like old-school rides.

And I, as a person who goes, has really enjoyed Cedar Point over time, it's, it's just one of those that kind of just brings back some good memories.

And, um, I, I'm trying to remember exactly what the specifics are, why it's so unique, but I think it's really cool because you have so many big coasters that have been constructed, so many massive mega coasters, and this is just kind of like I said, an old-school one that just whips you around a little bit, and it's just so much fun.

It's one of the first ones I think I ever rode.

There you go.

It was record-breaking when it came out.

Top speed of 48 miles per hour, a peak of 85 feet, coverage of around 2,050 feet in 2 minutes.

Well, if you compare that to like Millennium— when you compare that to Millennium Force or Top Thrill 2 or something like that, it's just really kind kind of— it's almost quaint, but it was just— it's a great ride.

Sure.

And as it is the summer, I might be starting to feel a little hot in here in the studio.

Maybe that's because the Jonas Brothers announced their new Burning Up tour this week.

They'll have a stop at Cleveland's Rocket Arena in October, part of a 45-city North American tour.

Michelle, this is peak nostalgia for younger millennials and Gen Z. The tour is actually paying homage to the 2008-2009 tour, which was also called Burning They come— they came out with a new Camp Rock movie this year.

This is after years after it first came out on the Disney Channel.

What do you think is driving this reboot?

Well, it seems like there's a lot of this going on right now with like early '90s and 2000s— or with '90s and early 2000s culture resurfacing, you know, from wide-leg jeans to Hilary Duff touring and the Backstreet Boys coming back.

I have to say, I'm gonna show my age here.

I'm probably like more elder millennial and feel a little Gen X. I don't know that I've ever listen to a Jonas Brothers song.

Thank you for that.

Honestly, that's good to hear.

They're very popular.

We'll depend on the younger people in the newsroom to fill us in.

All right.

Thank you to my colleagues for being here with us today.

NewsChannel 5's Michelle Jarboe, Ideastream's Glenn Forbes, and Ideastream Statehouse News Bureau's Karen Kastler joining us on the studio in Columbus.

That rounds up today's edition of The Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable.

If you missed any part of the show, there's a rebroadcast tonight at 9 on 89.7.

You can get us wherever you get your podcasts and also on the Ideastream YouTube page.

You can catch the TV version tonight at 5 on WVIZ PBS.

As always, you can get us your last word by emailing us at soi@Ideastream.org, or you can find us on Instagram @TheSoundOfIdeas.

Monday, it is back-to-school season, but less kindergartners than ever have their vaccines.

That's in the midst of the worst year for measles since 1991.

We'll talk to doctors and public health officials about what's driving this and how to keep communities safe.

I'm Stephanie Haney, in today for Mike McIntyre.

Thank you for being with us on the Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable.

I'll talk to you again on Monday.

And now for our closing song for today, none other than the Jonas Brothers themselves.

Here's Burning Up.

SINGING