(upbeat music) - Coming up next on News Depth, Abbey explains taxes in this week's Politics on Point, women's elite sports are breaking the billion dollar barrier.

We have a professional at NASA to answer your questions about her job, and Margaret meets a NASA scientist testing new space materials.

News Depth is now.

(bright upbeat music) Tax season is here.

Hello everybody, I'm Gabriel Kramer.

Thank for joining us.

Taxes are a fee or payment that people must give to the government.

Taxes fund public services like roads, schools and safety.

Everyone, including individuals and companies pay taxes.

For individuals taxes fall into three categories, sales taxes, property taxes and income taxes.

Taxes could be complicated but lucky for us Abbey has a new Politics on Point that helps us break it all down.

- It's tax season again, most of you don't have to pay taxes yet, right?

Taxes can be pretty confusing even for someone like me who has been paying taxes for years, so let's try to figure it out together.

(broadcasting music) First, what are taxes?

Taxes are how the US government gets their funding.

They use taxes to pay for public services like roads, schools, welfare and safety services like the police and military.

Who can pay taxes?

The short answer is everyone.

Everyone who works pays taxes.

Everyone who owns a house or a car, even you have paid taxes if you've ever bought anything at a store.

And companies have to pay taxes too, when they hire someone, when they sell goods, when they buy materials.

But before we make this more complicated than it has to be, today let's only focus on the taxes an individual has to pay.

Let's first separate them into three categories depending on when we pay them.

Taxes that are paid when we buy something are sales taxes.

Taxes that are paid when we already own something are called property taxes.

And taxes that are paid when you get money are income taxes.

When you buy something at a store or pay for a service, you always have to keep in mind that you also have to pay for the sales tax.

The sales tax is usually not attached to the price tag because it's actually different in every state.

45 states in the District of Columbia collect sales tax.

The five states that do not have a sales tax are; Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon.

In Ohio, we pay 5.75% in sales tax.

So if News Hound goes to the store and buys himself a bag of treats for $5, at the checkout lane, he'll have to pay $5.28 after tax.

Property tax collected from everyone who owns a house or land, or everyone who owns a car.

Think of it as permission to keep using the land a house is on and the roads a car drives on.

So it makes sense that the majority of estate's funds comes from property taxes.

The property tax rate varies between states and cities.

Someone who lives in the city of Cleveland pays a different rate than someone who lives in Cleveland Heights, even if the houses are on the same street.

Our final category is income taxes.

These taxes come from a person who has a job, everyone with an income.

Every time an employee gets paid, their employer keeps the percentage of how much they make to give to the government.

But how much do we pay from our paychecks?

Well, it depends on where you live, where you work and how much you make.

For federal taxes, it could be between 10% to 37%.

For state tax in Ohio, it could be between 2.8% to 4%.

And if you live in the city of Cleveland, you pay 2.5%.

Okay, let's try it ourselves with another example.

Let's say News Cat, (cat meowing loudly) lives and works in Cleveland at our local public media station, and she gets paid $1000 a year.

She would pay 10% of her income to the federal government, 2.8% to Ohio, and 2.5% to Cleveland.

So at the end, News Cat brings home $852.93.

Okay, so that wasn't as complicated as I thought it would be.

We all pay our share of taxes to make sure that the country we live in is being taken care of.

- Thank you Abbey.

You're right, it's not actually that scary.

The allocation of taxes is determined by government bodies, including elected officials and legislative bodies, such as Congress.

Allocation is the process of distributing resources.

But sometimes voters don't agree with how the tax revenue is allocated.

Voters in Jackson County, Missouri, by a wide margin rejected a 40 year extension of a sales tax.

The extension would've helped fund a new downtown stadium for baseball's Kansas City Royals.

It would've also helped maintain and repair Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.

But as Dennis Evans reports, there still might be a way for a new proposal to emerge.

- This is the first offer, let's see what else they can come up with.

- [Dennis Voiceover] It's an attitude shared by many in Jackson County, including Mayor Quinton Lucas.

- This has been the topic that centered everything for a while.

Is happy to have an answer.

I think the voters gave us an answer, and the answer from the voters was, you need to go back and do more work.

- [Dennis Voiceover] There is also a need for information.

The Royals late switch from the East Village to the crossroads was a major concern and a red flag.

But despite the opposition to the crossroads, many are still open to the talk of a downtown ballpark, but only on the right terms.

- The Royals can now go back to the drawing board.

You know, they come back to the community with a plan in a different location that doesn't devastate a neighborhood.

- [Dennis Voiceover] There is a long road to getting this tax put back on the ballot and lots of questions that need to be answered, satisfying those who want more information is the only way that's gonna happen.

- I think this is a moment that gives us that opportunity, us in government, those of the teams to really answer those questions for that middle group.

And I think that's how you get to a yes.

And I think that's how those teams end up remaining here for the long term.

- Thank you Dennis.

And that brings us to our poll for the week.

Should taxpayers pay for stadiums?

Jump over to our poll page to vote.

You can choose between, yes, the stadium is for the city, or no, the team should pay for it.

And come back next week to check out the results of the poll.

But for now, let's talk about March Madness.

Millions of people were excited to see Caitlin Clark in the Iowa Hawkeyes as they made it to the Final Four in the NCAA women's basketball tournament.

Clark's record setting success is showing how women are continuing to change and elevate the sports world.

2023 saw record revenues for elite women's sports from volleyball to basketball to soccer, and according to Deloitte, women's sports will see further growth in 2024, sets it past the billion dollar barrier level for the first time ever.

Michael Yashida reports.

- [Michael Voiceover] She's one of the biggest names in sports, Caitlin Clark's record setting success on the court and beyond showcasing how women are continuing to take the sports world to new heights.

- This isn't a coincidence.

- [Michael Voiceover] Danette Leighton is the CEO of the Women's Sports Foundation.

Barrier breaker, Billie Jean King started the organization 50 years ago two years after the passing of Title IX.

- You're starting to see this transformation finally, but it takes time.

It takes time to change gender norms.

It takes time for those to understand that we've deserved this for a long time.

- [Michael Voiceover] In 2023, football stadiums were filled setting attendance records for women's volleyball and basketball.

The Women's World Cup also set new highs for attendance and prize money.

And now in 2024, Deloitte predicts revenue generated by women's elite sports will surpass $1 billion for the first time, a total that's up at least 300% from just three years ago.

- In 2021, we'd be having a conversation like, the biggest secret in sports right now is women's sports, that's not the case anymore.

- [Michael Voiceover] Still gaps between women and men's sports remain, from resources and pay to coaching and leadership opportunities, keeping girls involved in youth sports.

- It's not a nice to have, it's a must have for women because those skill sets are lifelong, and I think we're just getting started.

I think we're barely putting our toe in the water as it relates to the potential of women's sports.

- Thank you Michael.

And a big congratulations to the University of Iowa Senior Guard, Caitlyn Clark after a record breaking season.

Last week in Cleveland, Clark was named the 2024 Jersey Mike's Naismith National Player of the Year for the second year in a row.

- I think it's been a special year for women's basketball, so to win this award is really special.

But to be back here playing with my team, I couldn't script it any better.

I know some of 'em are here somewhere back there.

I'm not really sure.

Oh, right there.

Thank you for being here, I love you guys.

This is just as much yours as it is mine.

- Clark is also the only player in NCAA men's or women's basketball history to lead her conference in scoring and assists in four consecutive seasons.

For our Write To Wish this week, we want you to imagine that your class wins a special award, maybe winning classroom of the year, and we want you to write an award acceptance speech for your entire class.

You can use our inbox form online to tell us why your class was the best class this year.

Now, one of the great things about all of our News Depth viewers is how you all go to great lengths to make sure that everyone feels welcome no matter their beliefs, race or disabilities.

It really makes me proud knowing that you all tune in week after week.

This week's A+ Award goes to Mrs. Elena Scott's students at Cuyahoga Heights Middle School and high Schools for taking inclusion to soaring new heights.

World Inclusion Day is celebrated during the first week of March every year.

It's a time when advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities join together to spread the word about the importance of including all people in schools and communities.

An advocate is a person that publicly supports or recommends a particular cause or policy.

Mrs. Scott's class planned a full day of activities to recognize the importance of inclusion for all of the students and teachers at Cuyahoga Heights Middle and high schools.

Talk about some motivated red wolves.

The day started with elementary, middle and high school teachers standing outside of the school and cheering for students as they entered the building.

The teachers were all wearing specially designed shirts that said to the heights of inclusion.

Once the students were in the school, the Red Wolves cheerleaders made a large banner that all students can sign, making a pledge to be inclusive to their classmates.

Inclusive means to include all groups and people.

The students were also given inspirational stickers, but that isn't all.

Mrs. Scott students also worked with the video production students to produce a video featuring staff members sharing how they help their students reach new heights.

All of the students got to watch the video in the high school's auditorium.

The day ended with all of the students and staff in the middle and high schools taking a group photo in the school's football stadium.

Superintendent Evans said that the community is excited to join together to show our support and celebrate World Inclusion Day and look forward to continuing what we do best, helping all students reach new heights.

This week's A+ Award goes to Mrs. Scott's class for advocating for inclusive communities.

Keep up the great work.

Now let's head back to the news.

On March 26th, a container ship hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing it to collapse in the Patapsco River in Baltimore.

The collapse blocked most shipping to and from the Port of Baltimore.

The port is a critical hub for cargo in and out of the United States.

The economic impact of the waterways closure has been estimated at $15 million per day and thousands of jobs.

Tommy Clark tells us more about the far reaching impact of the closure.

- [Tommy Voiceover] 15,000 jobs depend directly on the Port of Baltimore, with more than 100,000 other jobs linked to it.

Scott Cowen represents a couple thousand of those workers.

So this being blocked is, would you say it's worst case scenario?

- Oh, it's catastrophic for us.

- [Tommy Voiceover] The port handles billions of dollars worth of foreign cargo each year.

That includes more cars and trucks than any other US port.

It also manages heavy farm machinery, imported sugar and coal exports.

The extent of the impact hinges on how long the channel is closed.

- There is a quite a few ships that are stuck in the harbor.

There's a bunch of them down at the Anchorage, and some ships have been diverted to other ports.

- Meantime several cruise lines have to reroute operations out of Baltimore.

- It was so surreal, and you know, I watched in horror like I'm sure everyone else did.

- [Tommy Voiceover] The carnival legend left on Sunday set to return in one week.

Carnival now temporarily moving operations to Norfolk.

AAA manager and former police officer, Regina Ali is on board.

- We know that the cruising industry will be impacted out of Baltimore, it's significant.

- [Tommy Voiceover] If the channel isn't cleared by the end of next week, Cowan says things could take a turn for the worse.

- [Cowan Voiceover] The whole state of Maryland's economy is hinged on the port of Baltimore.

- Thank you Tommy.

Maryland is rushing to clean up the wreckage of the Baltimore Bridge.

The federal government announced last week it was given the state $60 million to cover the first steps of the cleanup.

Cleanup efforts include the largest crane on the East Coast that can lift up to 1000 tons, and a team of divers trying to clear out the debris underwater.

A video released by the US Coast Guard shows just how challenging the work is on the Patapsco River.

Mike Hellgren has the latest from officials in Baltimore.

- [Mike Voiceover] Rough weather is again hampering salvage and recovery efforts at the site of the Keybridge collapse.

New video shows the difficulty for divers working in dangerously low visibility.

- [Diver] Just a couple inches beyond my fingertips.

- [Man] Alright, so you can't get to the bottom?

- They have to be guided by detailed verbal instructions and direction from operators and vessels up at the surface.

And what those divers are doing is they're trying to feel those connections.

The sonar, the imagery can show you where things are and how they're laying, but it's really important for us to know how these are connected, if they're connected at all.

- What we are seeing here under the water, where you're now having debris and wreckage that is sitting inside of a channel inside the Patapsco River, much of it collapsed and pancaked with a 50 foot depth is absolutely staggering.

- [Mike Voiceover] Eight commercial vessels have been able to pass through the two alternate channels bypassing the wreckage.

Water testing shows no contaminants, including fuel in the Patapsco, and crews are staging to remove the containers on the dolly, but they must wait for the weather to clear.

- We need to lift those undamaged containers off to give us space to safely operate, to begin to plan to remove portions of the bridge that are also now embedded into the ship.

- Baltimore city leaders authorized $1 million for workers impacted by the tragedy to supplement their incomes while the port remains closed.

- This money is just an initial move, it is not nearly enough to cover all the businesses or the workers who will be impacted.

- Thank you Mike.

Last episode, we talked all about space and we wanted you to send in your questions for a NASA professional for our career call out segment.

We'll soon be hearing from Emily Belovich, an electrical and computer engineer at the NASA Glenn Research Center.

NASA is trying to advance electric and hybrid electric aircraft, and Emily's work involves developing algorithms to increase the efficiency of those motors on those aircraft.

An electrical and computer engineer is a professional who specializes in the design development testing and implementation of electrical and computer systems, components and technologies.

The field combines principles of electrical engineering with aspects of computer science to create innovative solutions for a wide range of applications.

Engineers have to be good at math and science.

They have to be creative and have good problem solving skills.

Engineering jobs at NASA require a bachelor's degree and sometimes a master's degree.

The average salary for a NASA engineer is about $115,000 per year.

Now let's turn it to Emily Belovich She's here to answer some of your questions about her job.

(gentle upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Emily Belovich, and I work as an Electrical Engineer at the NASA Glenn Research Center.

Let's answer your questions about my job.

Adaline from Gilles-Sweet in Fairview Park wants to know, why did you choose this job?

Well, I work at NASA as an electrical engineer.

So I wanted to become an electrical engineer because I liked math.

Also, when I was in school, I got to do an activity where I wrote code on the computer to make LED light turn on and off and blink slow or fast.

I thought that was really cool.

And then when I was in college, I worked as an intern at several different places before coming to NASA.

But my internship at NASA was the most fun, both because of the projects I got to work on and the people I got to work with.

So I've stayed at NASA ever since.

Zoe from Olmsted Falls Intermediate School in Olmsted Falls asks, what's the hardest part of your job?

So I work at the NASA Glenn Research Center, and the key word there is research.

We're trying to do research and we're doing things that no one has ever done before.

This can be challenging because if I get stuck or I have a question, I can't use Google to find the answer, and I get stuck a lot.

Things don't work a lot, but that's okay.

That's all part of working in a research environment.

Corryn from Sherwood Elementary School in Cincinnati asks, I would like to ask, what part of your job is your favorite and why?

So I might be biased, but I think I have the best job in the world.

I love math and I love writing code, and I feel really lucky that I get to do that at work every day.

I mentioned that working in a research environment is really hard because things don't work a lot, but that makes it really exciting when we're testing in the lab and things finally do work.

And I also work with an amazing team of really smart and hardworking people who are always there to support me and help me when I get stuck.

Christopher from Ashtabula writes, I am a homeschooled boy and 13 years old.

I have had major struggles throughout my life.

My question is, what struggles did you have to overcome and how hard was it to do these things?

For me, I would say that I struggled during engineering school.

I was surrounded by a lot of really smart people and sometimes I felt like I wasn't good enough.

I will be the first to admit that I am not the smartest person in the room, but even though I'm not the smartest person, I still work really hard.

So I have two pieces of advice for you about overcoming challenges.

The first is that working hard matters a lot more than being smart.

And the second is that asking for help is not a sign of weakness.

Remembering these things has helped me a lot, and I hope they help you too.

- Thank you Emily.

And thank you to all of you who sent in questions for our segment.

Last week we also asked you who your favorite Ohio astronaut was.

65% of you said your favorite astronaut was Neil Armstrong from Wapakoneta, Ohio.

And about 11% of you voted for Judy Resnick from Akron, who was also an electrical engineer.

9% of you said you like Sunita Williams from Euclid.

Another 9% of you said your favorite astronaut was someone else, and 6% of you voted for John Glenn, whom the NASA Glenn Research Center is named after.

Of course, it takes more than just astronauts to make it to the moon or Mars or anywhere else in the space.

It takes a whole team of scientists and engineers.

In this week's Spot on Science, Margaret meets one woman on the NASA team who's making it happen.

Margaret.

(upbeat music) - Cotton shirt, polyester blazer, metal microphone, glass glasses.

Everything is made up of materials and each meets a specific need.

I wouldn't want to wear a metal jacket and well, cotton glasses just wouldn't work.

Turns out when you need a very specific material, say for a spacesuit or a rocket, there are material scientists who go to work inventing what's needed.

PhD researcher, Tiffany Williams is a material scientist at the NASA Glenn Research Center.

She focuses specifically on polymers for extreme environments.

She stopped by the studio to tell me all about her work.

I started by asking her what exactly is a polymer?

- Think of a polymer as a macro molecule.

So you have small molecules, an example of that is salt, like sodium chloride or water, H2O.

But a polymer is actually a macromolecule.

And so on an atomic level, think of a pot of cooked spaghetti noodles.

Just a lots of entanglements.

And so similar to how spaghetti noodles are prepared, if they're undercooked, they would tend to be a little stiffer, or if they're overcooked, they could be very fragile and soft.

That's the same thing that we kind of do with polymers when we process them.

Depending on how we process them, they can either be stiffer or more flexible or more heat tolerant.

- Well, let's take a look at some of the examples that you brought in.

- Right.

So the first demonstration that I wanted to show is the difference between the mass.

Both of those materials have a similar strength, but the polymer matrix composite is about 70 to 80% lighter.

- [Margaret] Yeah, this metal here feels a lot heavier.

- Right.

And one of the major benefits for using polymer matrix composites is the fact that they're lightweight, they have a much higher strength to weight ratio than a metal.

So that helps with fuel consumption and also cost savings, which would help us reduce the cost of space travel.

- Yeah, I could imagine it would be a lot easier to fly into space with this light polymer than it would with this heavy metal.

- Yes, it's definitely for better efficiency.

- And then what about these two that you brought in?

- So another benefit to using polymer matrix composites is the tailor ability.

If you look at this piece of glass fiber reinforced composite, the fibers are lined up in this zero degree direction.

So if you try to bend that, you'll see that it's very stiff.

- [Margaret] Yeah, that does not bend.

- But if you try to twist it, it's very, very easy to twist in the torsional direction.

But if you look at this material and try to twist it in the same direction it's very stiff, but if you try to bend it-- - [Margaret] yeah, that's not going.

- Right, but if you try to bend it, it's much more flexible.

That's because the fibers in this composite is laid up in this crisscross formation.

So basically the direction where the fibers are laid is where the stiffness will be.

So we can tailor the stiffness and the structure in the directions where we anticipate the highest loads.

- Very neat.

And so do you have any advice for a young person who might be interested in science, especially girls?

- Yes.

I always say be willing to embrace challenges.

Many times when we try to attempt our experiments the first time in the lab, the first few attempts may not be completely successful.

But the important thing is to just learn from your mistakes, just like in life.

But learning from mistakes is a part of the learning curve, and that helps you to become an expert.

The next thing that I recommend is, enjoy solving problems and being curious and asking lots of questions.

Finding out why things or how things work the way they do.

- Excellent.

Well, thank you so much for answering my questions today.

- No problem.

You're welcome.

- Thanks.

- You know what Margaret?

That is super neat.

Thank you so much.

Okay, I think we've given News Hound enough time to find us a good animal story for the petting zoo.

Take it away News Hound.

(drum music) (dog barking) - [Gabriel Voiceover] Hey there News Hound, so you've been our cuteness correspondent for a little while, but we don't know you that well.

Can you tell us, I don't know, what's your favorite snack?

Cheese.

Oh, I like cheese too.

So what story do you have for us today?

Whoa, a story about a parrot that got stuck high up in a tree, but luckily his human had his favorite snack to help catch him, Doritos.

To learn more about that hungry bird, click the Petting Zoo button on our website.

(gentle music) - Thanks as always News Hound.

Well, that's all the time we have for today, but you can keep the conversation going and there are plenty of ways for you to stay in touch with us.

You can write to us, we're at 1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio.

Our zip code here is 44115.

You can email us at newsdepth@ideastream.org.

Plus you can catch all of our special segments on YouTube.

Hit subscribe if you're old enough so you don't miss out on any of our new videos.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Gabriel Kramer.

We'll see you right back here next week.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Announcer] New Depth is made possible by Grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.

Clear call outs featured in News Depth are funded by the Ohio Broadcast Media Commission.

(upbeat music)