Cleveland's airport director reinforced this week his opinion that the planned Brown Stadium complex near Hopkins Airport would pose a safety hazard.

A grassroots effort to keep Akron safe over the Labor Day holiday weekend paid off, and a group of Northeast Ohio teachers won a chunk of the Powerball jackpot.

Ideas is next.

Hello and welcome to ideas I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you for joining us.

The Browns begin their season at home against the Bengals Sunday.

And home means Huntington Bank field on the lakefront in downtown Cleveland.

Will home after 2028 be a bit farther south in Brook Park?

The battle over that question kicked off more than a year ago.

And the action heated up this week, as the Cleveland Hopkins airport director said a new complex would pose a safety hazard due to its height.

And Dennis Kucinich, who has a state lawmaker, authored the model law to make it harder for teams to leave cities in Ohio, filed a lawsuit against both sides, the city and the Browns to stop the move.

A grassroots effort to keep Akron peaceful over the Labor Day holiday weekend was a success, according to police.

Basketball relay races and block parties provided an alternative to street violence, Joining me to discuss all the week's top news from Idea Stream public Media health reporter Stephen Lengyel and Akron Canton reporter Anna Huntsman in Columbus.

Statehouse news Bureau chief Karen Kasler let's get ready to round table.

Cleveland's director of airports said he stands by his declaration that a Browns proposed new stadium complex in Brook Park, near Hopkins Airport, would pose a safety hazard.

Bryant Francis didn't say specifically what those safety concerns are or how it squares with the Federal aviation administrations issuance of a no hazard finding.

So the question is, how does the airport director reconcile that when the FAA says it isn't a problem?

Yeah.

It's, it's very it's very interesting conversation going on right now because the FAA, the Federal Aviation Administration, before you get on me, Mike, said if they have a hazard light on it, basically.

So that should be fine.

That pilot should be able to recognize it.

But yes, Odot then says we're going to deny this permit unless you make it shorter or move it to a different location.

So I think ultimately the FAA should have the final say.

But Odot is in conversations right now with the Browns, and we don't we don't know when those are going to conclude.

What's interesting is that the city obviously is opposed to the Browns moving out of downtown for many reasons, for many reasons.

And the airport director works for the city, the mayor and the city is in control of the airport.

So people immediately assumed, okay, well, he's part of the administration.

He's speaking on behalf of the mayor.

But he was very clear to say, and I'm not sure a lot of people that are on the other side believed him, that this isn't coming from the mayor.

This is my experience as an airport director saying that this is a safety issue.

Yeah, he was very clear.

This this opinion is mine and mine alone.

But of course, you know, as you mentioned, there is probably speculation about all of that.

But as you mentioned, he has been writing these letters, for several months at this point to the Ohio Department of Transportation.

So it's not like this is coming out of nowhere.

But of course, this saga has been going on for is it almost two years now?

A year?

Yeah.

So since since we learned that they were going to purchase the property there.

So Odot is now saying there's not a hard deadline.

They're going to keep talking with the Browns.

Bryant says he's not involved in those conversations, but that apparently could just continue the the Odot might eventually usually what they'll do is they defer to whoever the local authority is.

So if the local airport has a problem, they're going to deny the permit.

But it could possibly be that they break that tradition.

Possibly.

Yeah.

I mean, who knows at this point, because there was supposed to be a deadline on Tuesday for the Browns to formally file an appeal or, you know, to have this decision come about.

But then when reporters checked in with Odot, Odot said, actually, there there is no deadline at this point.

We're just having these conversations and working toward a solution.

So your guess is as good as mine at this point, Mike.

All right.

We know, Karen, that the state is paying into this $600 million in unclaimed funds, the governor, governor Mike DeWine keeping tabs on that, will we assume so?

We just haven't seen governor Mike DeWine for a while.

He's been doing a lot of events outside of Columbus.

And so we haven't had a chance to really talk to him.

In fact, the last time I talked to him was over the phone like, a week and a half, two weeks ago, I think it was, so he had said he's going to keep tabs on it, of course.

And it was really kind of his idea to create this Sports and cultural facilities Fund, not his idea to use unclaimed funds for that.

He had wanted to use a doubling of the tax on sports gambling operators.

But, obviously there's this lawsuit that, two former Democratic lawmakers have pushed forward on.

And so, you know, there's there's some things happening in this space, but nothing yet.

I think a lot of this is is kind of in a holding pattern, so to speak, is we're talking about airplanes.

So they're good.

And and I appreciate that.

So so we're talking about the lawsuits you're referring to are about using the unclaimed funds.

Yes.

There's another lawsuit that we teased at the beginning of this segment, Anna, and that is former congressman, former Cleveland mayor, and at the time, a state lawmaker, an Ohio senator who authored the model law.

He has now filed suit not just against the Browns, but against the city as well.

What is he contending in this, by the way?

Massive lawsuit, 640 something pages.

He's essentially saying that the city failed to argue well enough that the model law should be put in place here.

The the city failed to properly argue its case to have it enforced.

So kind of interesting here why a former mayor is is coming down so hard on, you know, the current mayor.

But he also is asking for the judge to enforce the model law.

So it's.

Yeah, as you mentioned, it's not just, you know, asking the judge, it's also asking this or I guess, calling out the city and saying they should have done more to enforce this.

And, Karen, the model law is half a page long.

That is 600 and 49.5 pages less than the complaint that Kucinich filed.

Yeah, there have long been concerns about the model lobbying vague and unconstitutional.

It's a law from 1996 that, of course, tried to prevent Art Modell from moving the Browns to Baltimore.

And, there was a clarification or an update, whatever you want to call it in the budget about how the model law applies now to teams that are trying to move out of state, not teams that are trying to move within the state.

And I don't know that that clarification is really satisfied a lot of people, because I think there are still some people who feel that it's still too vague.

And so you've got Kucinich now, and I'm not surprised that he got involved here.

Dennis Kucinich has always been very interested in active cities like this activities, activities.

And so, you know, I think it's interesting that he has asked the court to kind of allow him to act on behalf of taxpayers here, and that he wants the team to he wants to has limbs to be forced to sell the team either immediately or right after their lease goes up in February of 2029.

I think it is.

So I don't know how this will be received, but it's certainly a very interesting lawsuit.

Like you said, 600 and almost 650 pages.

It's a lot.

Yeah, I forgot to mention that the city is moving forward with lakefront plans without the Browns Stadium.

They're kind of just saying at this point, we're just, you know, whatever you guys are going to do, we're going to start, you know, looking for people who might be interested in developing on the lakefront.

And in this lawsuit, Kucinich is trying to stop the city from even doing that.

So just so the Browns Stadium is going to be there.

Plan on it.

Yeah.

Don't don't tell me what you're going to do without it, which basically is a surrender, right?

In his view.

Interestingly, too, the model law being changed by the legislature, that really seems literally like moving the goalposts.

Karen and Justin Herdman, the former, U.S.

attorney who's been working for the city, made that argument as well.

Yeah.

And this, of course, the change happened very, very late in the budget process after there was already the approval from the Senate for the $600 million in unclaimed funds to be used in, in toward the Browns Stadium.

So this was kind of a last minute thing.

I remember it was, oh my gosh, it was like 1:00 in the morning that we were listening to this.

And that kind of made me go, wait, what are we doing now with the model law?

Right.

So it was a it was a very sudden change.

And like, I think I like I said, I think a lot of people are still kind of feeling that it may not have clarified and settled some of the questions about the vagueness of the law.

Akron police say a grassroots effort to reduce violence over the long Labor Day holiday weekend worked.

Community groups provided several events throughout the weekend for teens and families as part of Street Peace 25. seems like it was a successful effort with a bunch of different groups.

Yes.

So we had the Akron Urban League involved, Freedom Block, which is a local community organizing association, and also Heip helping young people elevate.

Look that one up for you.

My family was thinking on me about it.

So a couple different groups organize this.

And so as you mentioned, they had different activities throughout the weekend.

One that I thought was super neat was on Sunday.

They took, some young folks down to canton for the black College Football Hall of Fame classic, and they said a lot of them had never been to a college football game before.

So that was really fun for them.

And then on Monday, there were block parties throughout the city.

And this is, an effort that a lot of community groups are moving toward in Akron right now, which is, kind of focusing more on some of the social determinants that, they say are kind of leading to crime or, violence.

So kind of addressing, you know, community policing and giving the young folks something to do, having, you know, a safe place for them to just kind of hang out and have fun.

This is something that's been, a big deal across the city.

And as you mentioned, it does sound like crime and was down over the weekend.

Of course, it wasn't totally, you know, gone away.

But the the police said that this was a really successful effort and it is, common on these long holiday weekends and Labor Day included.

Yeah.

To have more violence.

So, so the idea that it was contained makes a difference.

It isn't like any other normal weekend.

I think one of the keys for these community groups is the credibility that they have in the neighborhood.

If I swooped in and said, hey, idea of streams having a basketball tournament, let's do this.

I mean, no offense, Mike, I'm not going to happen because I know these folks do work in their community.

They they are people who are respected.

That seems to be the answer.

And it's interesting because we're talking about this at a time when on the federal level, we're sending armed guards into Washington, DC and talks about, Chicago and and many other cities, particularly ones that are led by Democratic mayors like Cleveland, like Akron, are keeping an eye on that, too.

Will they deploy, you know, military force?

And maybe the solution isn't that it's the people with credibility in the neighborhood doing things like this.

Yeah.

Some of the, folks who were there working with the kids and the youth, they have said that they've had experiences with law enforcement before.

They have maybe had experience in gangs.

And so they have that unique credibility to to talk with the young kids and tell them what to look for and how to, you know, deal with your stress and deal with your conflict, in healthier ways than, you know, violence.

And I mentioned it might be on the mayor's minds.

In fact, we know it is on Justin Bibbs mind the mayor of Cleveland, he gave an interview to a Substack called The Bulwark, where he addressed the potential of guard troops in the city.

He's also president of the Democratic Mayors Association.

But but he's talked about it.

He's he's got it on his mind.

Yeah.

Something he said in particular is that, many of the mayors are, are black.

And so it seems like it's targeted at, you know, these Democratic mayors.

Is that code for black mayors is something he said in this interview.

And he also said, you know, that he's been hearing what mayors from big and small cities are thinking.

And a lot of people are concerned about this potentially coming their way.

Sherwin Williams told employees this week that company matches for 401 K. Retirement plans will be temporarily suspended.

Workers were informed of the change in an email this week.

The company had provided a 6% match on employee contributions, but the company's sales have slumped and that appears to be the one of the driving factors for this.

Stephen, what are some of the other factors that drove the decision by Sherwin Williams?

Well, sure.

CEO Heidi Pettit said there were several factors for suspending this, including housing affordability, inflation as well as tariffs, and that she expects this situation to continue into 2026.

Stephen, Sherwin-Williams has made similar moves in the past, so this isn't, you know, just a sudden thing.

There have been these kind of, tightening measures, right, exactly.

Twice before actually entering the financial crisis of 2009.

And during Covid, the Covid pandemic, Covid 19 pandemic, as well.

They had done this before.

And I've heard some people that work for Sherwin Williams that are like, wait a minute.

First, they're making everybody work in the office.

So there's no more of that flexibility this year.

Starting next year.

Now they're taking away our 401 K. They're wondering you know, are they are they trying to get us to leave.

Is that what the story is?

And this all does come as it's new headquarters is now cleared to have people move in.

It paints an interesting picture.

Mike.

Sorry.

Everyone else is making puns.

Okay, here we go.

Sorry, I flew right over my head.

Okay.

Anyways, yeah.

So.

And I will mention two there million square foot office building just got its occupancy permit the other day, so after some hiccups.

Yeah, right.

Big ones.

Yeah.

So that is happening.

And then as you mentioned, the employees are going to have to start working in the office next year, starting January 1st.

So, this is all lots of lots of stuff happening, at Sherwin Williams.

But it'll be interesting to see how this pans out.

It sounds like it's going to be temporary, but at the same time, you know, if if they're expecting the economic headwinds to continue into next year, I mean, we'll see how long this lasts.

Yeah.

And I, I obviously we hope Sherwin Williams is successful because this is, is an important, huge employer in Cleveland.

And building that building was iconic for our skyline.

You want them to have success and and, looking at this, obviously there's going to be some, employees there that are worried about losing their match.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District is working on a plan to, once and for all, eliminate raw sewage being dumped into Lake Erie at Edgewater Beach during heavy rains.

There has been a lot of work in many in the last many years to reduce over fall the outfall, which was built in the 1880s.

It jettisons combined stormwater and raw waste into Lake Erie onto the beach.

When the main stormwater tunnels are overwhelmed during heavy rainfall.

Incidents have been reduced greatly due to mitigation efforts, as I just mentioned, but they still happen several times a year.

And now, Anna, there's an idea that maybe would make it easier zero times a year.

Yeah, if it would pan out.

The idea is to build a new tunnel.

So 10 to 12ft in diameter.

Actually, beneath the park.

And so that would reroute the overflow before it reaches the existing place.

And the the interesting thing about this is that the, the current plan is that it would be done in the next couple of years.

So it's not like this is a long term.

I mean, I guess it's still a long term, but it's not like it's taking, you know, a couple different years.

But they are it requires a lot of collaboration with the Metroparks, because Edgewater Beach is a metro park.

So they're in conversations about that now.

But that is the idea is to build a new tunnel under the park.

Yeah.

And by the way, it's a metro park that you can be proud of.

And I can remember before the the Metroparks took it over, what a how tragic it was at Edgewater Beach.

So there's a lot to to love about it.

But I don't love the fact that raw sewage goes into the.

I was surprised that the overflows were, so excessive even in the 70s, like 40 to 50 times a year.

And now it's just been, I mean, three this summer, but it's only a couple times now.

So.

So there are improvements.

I mean, there's been many, you know, different projects for the years.

And there's a consent decree doesn't involve Edgewater, but, you know, they've been really working to improve it.

Yeah.

I've said any time, any times or too many times like that, Steve, I was just going to say not exactly a Chamber of Commerce sort of picture their sewage flowing out into the to the lake or onto the beach.

Right.

Good to see that they're changing that.

And that happens in a number of aging cities.

We talked about water mains.

It's also how to deal with sewage.

And in fact in Cleveland there has been a consent decree about wastewater.

They have been building these giant caverns, really, Anna, to hold back wastewater when there is huge storm events.

But that didn't include this Edgewater project.

Correct.

So it's not part of that $3 billion consent decree that they have with the U.S.?

That's called Project Clean Lake.

I think they're about halfway through.

I think they have to do 25 different projects there at about 16 there.

As I mentioned, there's just been other improvements throughout the years.

Akron also under consent decree, will say they are, almost at 25 out of their 26.

So as you mentioned this, Cleveland is not unique, but, yeah, there's the it actually is like they store the sewage for a little bit with this project.

Clean Lake.

Northeastern Ohio doctors say they're seeing a surge in prescriptions for weight loss medications for teenagers and young adults.

Ozempic.

And with govi originally developed for diabetes, have grown in popularity as weight loss drugs.

But it was interesting that Taylor Wisner Steven reported on this.

The surge in prescription follows guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics that apparently children or young people can have these.

Right, exactly.

And the idea is that if, if you have youth who meet certain criteria and, you know, if they are 12 or older, they have a BMI of that at or above 95% of average that they can be prescribed for this.

And the idea is that if they meet this criteria, this will benefit their health.

It helps avoid certain, chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, certain kinds of cancer.

So it is beneficial for their health.

And it's worth doing according to doctors like, doctor Courtney Pad, who's an adolescent medicine and obesity medicine specialist at UAH.

Just like with adults, this is not just take the drug and you'll lose weight.

There still are recommendations for healthy eating, for exercise and all of those things for young people, right?

This in no way, takes the place of nutrition or exercise.

It's meant to supplement that.

To help with that.

Do we know if insurance will cover that?

If it's just for weight loss and it's for children?

I mean, I think people will probably have to navigate that on their own.

Right.

I'm not entirely sure.

But I do think, as with any medication, as it becomes more, accepted and certainly is, it follows the guidelines of institutions like the American Academy of Pediatrics.

It begins to be covered by insurance over time.

On a really hot or really cold day, would you allow a utility company to adjust your thermostat or other appliances to help manage peak demand?

I mean, they wouldn't come into your house, but they could control it remotely.

Would you opt in?

Karen, some people are saying it sounds Big Brother ish, but you do have to opt in.

But how would it work?

Yeah, it would it would be in times of peak demand, hot days of the year, that kind of thing.

And, it would potentially cycle use of certain appliances, like if you're running the washing machine or a dishwasher or something like that.

And all this is related to growing concerns about demand, especially from data centers and the possibility of what happens if we don't address this in some way.

There was a bill that was proposed, last General Assembly that would have required people to opt out, and that did not go anywhere.

Now, this bill would allow people to opt in.

So if the folks are, opting into this, the proposal allows them to do that.

Republican state Rep Roy Clopton Stein from Paulding County in northwest Ohio, who is behind this as a state, needs solutions because power shortages are likely in the future.

Yeah, he's concerned about things like rolling blackouts and things that could be happening, because, again, the pressure that we're getting from data centers, we've got a lot here in central Ohio, and Ohio's really been trying to market itself as a place for data centers and high tech industries to site.

And so if you get that, you have to do something because there's going to be increased demand here.

And so he's calling this a creative thing that potentially allows the state to get ahead of this.

And large commercial companies do this at large.

Commercial law providers and or users do this.

And so this is he's trying to adapt that basically to consumers.

And again you have to opt into it.

But you know, I could see that, this is where you're kind of saying on a hot day you will agree not to run your washing machine because the demand is so much greater because everybody's trying to run their air conditioner and all that other stuff.

So but on a hot day, I might have it set at 74 on my AC, and they may come in and make it 77 and the question is, what's the benefit for the customer?

I can understand the collective benefit, but how are individuals going to benefit by opting into these things?

Well, I think, if there would there could be future financial incentives down the line here.

And so I think that's one of the things that is being looked at.

But again, there's the more, I guess than an incentive is, is potentially the concern that if this isn't done, if there aren't enough people who get involved in this, that we could face some bigger issues like rolling blackouts and things as demand continues to grow.

I mean, a lot of this is related to whether we need to build more energy, energy creation plants, power plants, that sort of thing.

Those are down the road, though that's not a quick solution.

And so you've got lawmakers who are looking at energy and saying, we've got to do something to address the need that we can see right now and the need that is being proje A state lawmaker wants Ohio's big amusement parks, like Cedar Point to tell people before they buy a ticket, which rides aren't working.

He hopes the parks will comply without a law.

But what he's talking about is not when you're in the park and they say, oh, your favorite ride isn't working.

He wants you to have that information ahead of time.

So maybe you don't go to Cedar Point that day or Kings Island.

Right, Karen?

Yeah.

I mean, when tickets cost $50 plus parking.

Plus, if you get the pass that allows you to jump the line, that's a lot of extra money.

You know, this is an expensive outing for people.

And he says that the parks have that information.

They're showing it on their apps.

When you're in the park, why not show it to people who are not in the park yet, and maybe they'll decide to come a different day.

So one of the parks say, they say, well, we're already providing that information, but they're providing it in a very narrow window.

Right.

And I think that that's the real question for Brennan is that he says he's a season ticket holder.

He loves going to the parks, specifically Cedar Point.

And so he says, you know, he's not trying to demean or denounce them in any way.

But he says this would potentially not only help consumers, people who want to go to the park and have a good time, but also for the parks to provide a better experience.

Now, the parks say this information is available on their apps and, the status right, the ride status information is there when you're in the park.

Do we need, something to give us a notice that sirens curse is down?

Can we just assume that, you know, I'm in a Facebook group about Cedar Point, and that is all that they talk about right now.

So.

Well, I remember back in my day, all you had was a blue streak in the mine ride.

So deal with it, people.

Ten teachers from Crestview Elementary School in Ashland won $1 million in the August 6th Powerball drawing.

They missed out, though, on the actual Powerball.

it's a win, right?

No, they missed out on the actual Powerball itself, which by the way, I would be like so close.

Like I'd be the only person in the world not happy with $1 million.

That doesn't surprise.

Yeah.

Because, each teacher will get $72,000 after taxes, which ain't retire young Money, but it's not too shabby either.

The Powerball hasn't had a jackpot winner since late May.

Saturday's drawing is estimated at $1.7 billion.

Whether it be before taxes.

Lump sum is 770 million.

I mean, are you going to get it?

Of course I am.

I never play the lottery.

But if you're talking 1.4 billion, so that leads to the question, what would you do with $1.4 billion or 770 million and then pay some taxes, of course, wouldn't be working here, Mike.

What are you going to do with $1.4 billion, Stephen?

I would buy an island in the Florida Keys and disappears.

What I would do.

All right.

Very good.

Change your name?

I would hope so.

We can't find you there.

Yeah, exactly.

Okay.

Here you go.

Karen.

Kasler.

Well, my son told me he wants to buy the Guardians, so I think you might be able to do it for.

I know, I'm not sure, John.

He might need to buy some players as well.

Yeah, but, Hey, that sounds fun.

You know, I'll tell you what I would do is I would give $1 million to every employee of industry and public media.

That's what I do.

So I would have to keep my job until you do that.

And then I could be worth playing.

And then I'd give 10 million to the organization because, I believe in public media.

So there.

Was that the right answer?

Yeah.

Okay.

That was a lot better than mine.

Good job.

Mike.

Monday on The Sound of Ideas on 89 seven, KSU host Stephanie Haney leads a discussion on the history of Cleveland's efforts to desegregate its public schools.

Then she turns our attention to what's new in cancer research at the Cleveland Clinic.

After its annual Lozano fundraising drive, I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you for watching and stay safe.