- Violent storms leave a trail of destruction across much of northeast Ohio.

Many are still without power.

The Browns decide whether to take up the city's offer to state, downtown, or pursue a new stadium in Brook Park and Ohio opens for business for recreational marijuana sales ideas is next.

Hello and welcome to Ideas.

I'm Andrew Meyer in for Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for joining us.

Thousands of people are still without power.

After violent thunderstorms, this week's spawn tornadoes and knock down trees and power lines.

First energy says it could be the middle of next week before everyone has power restored.

Will they stay or will they go?

That's the question for the Browns.

As they decide whether to remain at their existing downtown Lakefront stadium or move to nearby Brook Park and build a new dome stadium.

An appeal has been filed after a Franklin County judge allowed House Bill 68 to go into effect that Bill bans gender transition treatment for minors and prevents transgender athletes from competing in girls and women's sports.

And nine months after voters said they wanted recreational marijuana, Ohio allows dispensaries to begin sales.

Joining me this week for the round table from Idea Stream public media reporters, Abby Marshall and Taylor Whiner joining us remotely.

We have State House News Bureau Chief Karen Kassler.

Let's get started.

Extra help has been brought into Northeast Ohio to restore power after destructive thunderstorms raced through the region on Tuesday, the National Weather Service confirmed multiple tornadoes touched down in the storms.

How are they reacting to the news that it's gonna be a while before they could possibly get power back?

- Yeah, and I think that a lot of people look at this as just simply being an inconvenience or something that, you know, is just challenging, but there were some real consequences that these people are facing.

I went out to Lakewood.

Those western suburbs were really hard hit by these power outages and now some of them are hearing they won't have power back until August 14th next week.

And I spoke to someone who had $3,000 worth of insulin in her refrigerator that she may lose.

And she said she couldn't afford to replace.

There was another man that I spoke with that I think we just played the clip on Morning Edition right before this, who was charging his wheelchair and he had to sit there for eight hours and he doesn't know when he's gonna be able to get a charge again.

He's an elderly man who needs to go to the bathroom.

And so there are just some real consequences and, and even just the mundane, like I spoke to a man who was sitting in his parked car, charging his phone, playing a game on his iPad and he's like, I'm just bored outta my mind.

I don't have internet and I didn't have self service out there.

So it's, it's really a challenging situation for a lot of people.

Very frustrating.

But there are real financial and health circumstances that people are facing.

So - You go to the first energy map online if got power and if you have internet connections.

Right.

But if you go to the map, you, you mouse over any of the connection points, mainly in the northern part of their service area.

And each time you click on one it says Wednesday, August 14th, restoration of Power estimated.

But sure I take it first.

Energy is hopeful that they'll have most customers back sooner.

- Yeah.

And I was already seeing anecdotally just on, on Facebook and my own feed of people and friends that I saw getting power turned back on.

I think it's one of those things where it's like, worst case scenario, let's, we're going to have power restored by this.

But I think a lot of people are coming back online, which is great.

But I think that First Energy is saying that this is just one of the worst storms they've had, I think since 1993.

And there are just a lot of obstacles in place for crews that are trying to get this back online.

It's not that they're necessarily working slower than usual, they just said there's so much damage and hazardous conditions that they have to contend with before they can even start work on some of these lines.

- In fact, it's not just the crews from First Energy, all of whom are present.

There were some rumors, some concerns that maybe some of them have been sent South to help with clean up and restoration following Hurricane Debbie.

But First Energy was saying all their crews are here.

And they brought in a lot of contractors as well.

In fact, our producer Lee Barr, on her way up here this morning from where she lives in Stark County, was saying she saw a line of trucks from outta state contractors from West Virginia, from Kentucky, about dozen trucks lined up ready to go this morning.

So yeah, they're assembling them.

They're bringing them in, they're getting them to work.

- Yeah.

And, and they say that these crews are working around the clock overnight.

And that's something I even saw here in Cleveland as well with Cleveland Public Public Power.

But they did say some of the contractors that they would typically use are not available.

'cause they're helping out with Hurricane Debbie in, in the South.

- They've got a lot that they're dealing with.

It's more than just fixing power lines.

It's a lot of trees down the power poles that have to be fixed first.

This storm was just wicked.

- Yeah, I think, you know, the first thing they'll tell you is, you know, there's a, there's a number of things that can go wrong when you lose power, right?

So the first thing they have to do is sort of assess the situation, but they can't do that if there are trees blocking the way, if there's maybe an unsafe live wire situation.

So you know, when there's tornadoes and there's high winds that cause a lot of damage.

You actually have to do a lot of cleanup before you can even get to the point where you can start putting poles back up and reconnecting wires.

So yeah, I think it's just gonna take more on the cleanup end first before we can see that power restored.

- Taylor, you spent some time yesterday checking with medical facilities because it's not just homes that have lost power throughout northeast Ohio.

It's not just businesses, but this has had an impact on our health system as well.

What have you found?

- Yeah, well luckily most hospitals are set up for situations like this.

You know, hospitals kind of have to be their disaster centers, right?

When, when disaster strikes, people need to go to hospitals.

So a lot of them have really robust generators.

I did hear one hospital in Willoughby, one of their generators failed, so they had partial power in the hospital and I think that's been restored since.

But yeah, I think, you know, a lot of people don't think about like all the, the smaller places now that you go to for outpatient care, though, that don't have those robust infrastructures in place that the big hospitals do.

And a lot of those lost power especially and sort of the eastern and western suburbs.

So you know, doctor's offices, dentists, rehab centers, clinics, they were all hit hard by the winds and the power outages.

So if you have an appointment for something not urgent, I would recommend calling up your office, making sure they have power.

You know, I know I talked with a couple clinics that have kind of consolidated their services at different locations.

So even if you can't go to your normal office because it's closed, they are still taking patient appointments elsewhere.

So it, it makes sense to call, even if you see the lights are dark, you might still be able to get in to your appointment.

- Monday is the deadline.

The city of Cleveland has given to the Haslam Sports Group on its incentive package to keep the Browns downtown at its current lakefront stadium.

The offer made public last week by Mayor Justin Bibb totals $461 million towards a renovation of the existing site.

Abbey, the Browns say they're still considering both options, but the favored site is Brook Park.

- Yeah, so I was here last week talking about this $461 million incentive package, which is mostly funded by a tax revenue that comes from an expected admission tax increase as ticket prices increase, not an actual increase on the taxes, as well as taxes from syntax, so alcohol, cigarettes, that sort of thing.

So the city is offering what they believe is a fair and good incentive package and the Browns has have not said, they said that they're exploring that offer and they have requested more information to keep considering it.

But as they have released these renderings, they did say in their letter to the public that as they continue to go down this path, Brooks Park seems like a more compelling and attractive option.

So that seems to be, as they release these renderings and that video, the direction that they are leaning toward.

- So the renderings of the Dome Stadium, the whole complex, they're everywhere.

Yeah.

Not one sketch, not even on the back of a napkin of renovations to the existing site downtown.

- Sure.

So yes, we are talking about a $2.4 billion domed stadium in Brook Park.

That's billion with a B as opposed to a $1 billion renovation of the existing stadium that was built in the late nineties.

The team told press that quote, fans already understand how the current stadium fits into the lakefront in the city's master plan, but we felt they needed to see the dome vision in Brook Park.

And so realistically, these kinds of designs cost a lot of money and take a lot of time.

So if that is, you know, something that they're not considering, it would make sense perhaps why they have not released things of that nature and Cleveland.

But when you take a look at this, these renderings, it is a very detailed and expansive campus that you are looking at at Brook Park and the city's renderings of the lakefront plan, which we will get to in a moment, do include the stadium, but it's not a renovation of the stadium necessarily, it's just here's the stadium.

So - Yeah.

Yep.

Here's the stadium.

Let's talk about the Dome Stadium though.

The price tag keeps going up and up and up.

What are you hearing from local leaders when there's the expectation for the public to put up a good chunk of this?

- Sure.

So a lot of residents, you know, there are some residents of course that would love to keep Cleveland downtown and love the support for that.

But there are other residents that are really frustrated because Cleveland, we are the second poorest city in the country.

There are a lot of other problems to be dealt with.

And so there is frustration from residents and members of city council about handing over more public money to the Browns.

Even though, as I said, the city doesn't expect that that would take away from any city services.

So it will be interested to see, interesting to see how the team plans to leverage money from local state, county governments.

And in the coming days, because we are again talking about a sweeping huge campus.

If you haven't seen these renderings in the videos and you are a Browns fan, go check it out.

- And you can find some of Abby's reporting on that@ideastream.org.

Berk Lakefront Airport was, was considered for half a moment.

It seems like everybody's trying to figure out what to do with Burke Lakefront, but the team said, Nope, non-starter there.

Why is - That?

Yeah, they said that there are some restrictions as it relates to the FAA and also it we, the city is still going through this feasibility study on Burke Lakefront Airport and what can be done with that.

It is a massive chunk of the real estate on the actual lake.

And as the city is looking to redevelop the lake, again, we're gonna talk about the master plan in a moment, but those plans do not include anything right now for Burke Air Front Burke Lakefront Airport.

And - That's a great cue to pivot now to talking about the lakefront plan, or I should say plans.

You've been busy this week, there's a lot Yes I have that you've had to cover, but the city said this week, the day before renderings came out of the possible Brook Park Stadium that's going forward with plans for the lakefront redevelopment with or without the stadium.

- Yeah.

And and as you said, it was ahead of the letter.

They were still pending a response, which again, they put a deadline of when they would like to hear back from the Browns.

The mayor, Justin Bibb, emphasized his commitment to keep the team downtown.

He said that it is vital to the local economy and to build upon investments that are already being made downtown.

But he said that they're moving forward regardless.

Meanwhile, the Browns in their letter said that a lakefront without the Browns may actually be an opportunity for the city because it could free up a lot of real estate for potential other development and purposes.

So the Browns, this bib wants to keep them here, but the Brown said maybe it's actually best if we go - So lakefront redevelopment.

What are some of the big ticket items that the city has in mind?

- Right, so right now it's about public access and equity.

This is a major resource that we have for our city being along a lake and a river, but there is not much access to it.

So the main thing is a pedestrian bridge that will connect from Mall Sea downtown, the grassy parks over the Shoreway to the shore front North Coast harbor where the Brown Stadium is Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Great Lake Science Center.

They're going to build a public beach, they're going to have retail opportunities, hotel, that sort of thing.

And a major part of that too is a redesign of the Shoreway, the highway that cuts off access right now from downtown to the lakefront.

So they're exploring options of reducing that from an eight lane road to a four lane road with a median sidewalks bike lane, re reducing that from 50 miles an hour to 35 miles an hour, really making it so that it can be accessible to more people going forward.

- What's different this time?

Why is Mayor Bibb so confident that he can get it completed?

- Sure, yeah, that, that is a fair thing.

There have been many scraped plans over the years, but Mayor Bibb is really saying that with legislation that they have already passed in place earlier this year, they actually have funding opportunities now.

So they passed what's called a Tax Increment Financing District downtown, which will basically funnel money from increases in property tax over time toward this lakefront plan that is expected to generate anywhere between 3.5 billion to $7 billion over the next 45 years.

So the idea is that by, as downtown continues to build up property, tax taxes go up, the increases in that can be used to increase investment downtown and into these plans.

- While Cleveland waits for the Browns to make a decision over whether or not to stay downtown and the teams existing Lakefront Stadium, the city is moving ahead on a deal to develop the Cuyahoga riverfront.

The city council approved an incentive package worth more than a billion dollars for Bedrock, which is owned by Dan Gilbert, who also owns the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Abby, busy week for you.

As we said, the deal with Bedrock has gotten overshadowed by the talks of the Brown.

So what is the city offering here?

- Yeah, so the city would give some of the funds, which would amount to over a billion dollars generated by that tax increment financing district, which funnels property tax increases towards a project.

And again, we're talking about a multi-billion dollar project that the city needs a developer to help with.

So that would help with the funding of that part of the deal ensures a slew of community benefits for the actual city itself, including jobs, affordable housing options, and money towards city priorities in the future.

- How does the city pay for this?

- Yeah, through that Tax increment financing district.

So it - Do, do you say TIFF Tax Increment financing?

You find - People Yes, - My paid acronym.

Acronym.

So high rolling back in their heads.

- Yes, yes.

So that's what it is.

Yeah, it, it sounds really boring perhaps, but it is actually very important when, when you talk about funding these massive projects, it is a way for the city to not necessarily lose money, but funnel money toward these massive development projects In the future.

- Council has been adamant that neighborhoods can't be left out as downtown is developed.

So where are the community benefits that are part of this?

- Yeah, so as I mentioned there, there will be jobs, affordable housing.

Bedrock also agreed to spend $25 million towards city projects in the future, as well as $15 million for neighborhoods outside of Cleveland.

The deal also stipulates that at least 30% of contractors are women or minority owned with the hiring goal of 40%.

- The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio has filed an appeal over our Franklin County judges' ruling that upheld House Bill 68, the law bans gender transition treatments for minors and prohibits transgender athletes from competing in girls and women's sports.

Karen, what did the Franklin County judge say in his decision in upholding HB 68?

- Well, the bottom line was he said that it could go into effect because it did not violate what's known as the single subject rule for legislation.

And also it did not violate Ohio's constitution under the Healthcare Freedom Amendment, which was approved by voters a few years ago.

But it's really interesting to kind of dig into this ruling and I talked to a couple of people about it, including our friend Ken Schneck with the Buckeye Flame.

And there's some really interesting elements of this.

For instance, the whole idea of it didn't violate the single subject rule.

What House Bill 68 does is it combines two different pieces of legislation, one bans trans athletes and girls in women's sports.

And the other, which is the part of the lawsuit, was banning minors access to gender transition treatment.

And so both of those things are in-House Bill 68 and the judge wrote that at first it appears that there's disunity here, but the law relates specifically to parental rights with respect to dare to parents, transgender children, and also trans girls and women's rights to interscholastic sporting activities.

And so he wrote specifically the law compels this court to conclude the act contains a common purpose or relationship, namely the general assemblies regulation of transgender individuals.

That's pretty amazing.

He also writes, no matter how abhor that may be, to some it is a legitimate subject for purposes of the single subject rule.

He also suggests that the recourse is for people to go vote and that the court did what it had to do.

So - Karen, this isn't the last say on this.

It's gonna be appealed, right?

- Absolutely.

It's already been appealed to the 10th District Court of Appeals.

That's the next step to the Ohio Supreme Court.

And it's been clear all along.

I mean this is a state law and so the Ohio Supreme Court is where state laws typically end up when there's litigation over them.

And there's a couple of issues involved in this, not just the substance of House Bill 68, but then there's also this other part that Republican Attorney General Daves had gone to the Ohio Supreme Court as this case was first filed, asking the court to not allow the local judge to block the law from going into effect.

He said that Judge Michael Holbrook overstepped his authority by blocking that law from going into effect.

And that's something that I've seen state lawmakers also looking into about whether they could do anything regarding local judges pausing laws while they are being litigated.

And, and that's been a big thing.

For instance, every piece of abortion related legislation has been paused while litigation continues.

And so that's a, that's a big deal here as well.

But this is all certainly gonna go to the Ohio Supreme Court, which will decide certainly on house Bill 68.

Right now the court is four three Republicans and there are three seats on the Ohio Supreme Court that are up this fall.

- What about the bearing that this could have on other legislation currently being considered by the legislature, namely the, so-called Bathroom bill?

- Well that's certainly something that some Republican lawmakers have wanted to move forward.

I believe it's passed a house committee.

It's, it's the kind of thing that I could expect to see going forward in lame duck.

I mean, lawmakers are not scheduled to be back at the State House before the election.

There were some questions about whether they were gonna come back and deal with redistricting and, and whether they were gonna try to pass their own plan to compete with the one that voters are gonna decide in November, but they are not coming back.

And so I would imagine that that's the kind of thing that would move forward in special session or in lame duck sessions.

So we'll have to wait to see.

But certainly the idea of single subject rule being upheld by a local judge that potentially gives them maybe more leeway in adding in ideas that may seem to be disconnected, but that the argument could be made that they actually are connected.

- Ohio began its recreational marijuana sales this week on Tuesday 98, dispensaries previously granted operating licenses to sell marijuana products for medical use were allowed to begin selling to recreational customers.

Taylor, you were actually out at dispensary on Tuesday.

What'd you see in the first day of sales?

- Yeah, well I, a Tuesday early morning, I wasn't expecting to see as many people as I did.

So I think that gets at the sort of enthusiasm people have for this, for this kind of momentous day where marijuana without a medical card you, you can buy recreational marijuana.

So yeah, there was a line around the block when I showed up that quickly moved inside.

They kind of wove the line through the, the building.

But, and and basically part of that was because it takes a little bit of time to help people make their purchase.

Their IDs had to be checked twice at the dispensary I was at and then they go into a room and yeah, pick out what it is they wanna buy.

And so that takes a little bit about a little bit of time.

It's not just like going in grocery store and picking your selection.

But yeah, I mean I think just the general feedback was like, people say that this has been a long time coming.

They feel marijuana should be legal and they're pleasantly surprised.

I heard from a couple people that it actually happened here in Ohio - So far, Karen, it's the medical use infrastructure that sounds ominous, that's been involved in the recreational market.

Will the state be approving licenses for recreational vendors?

At some points?

- I believe that's already in process.

And one of the things I need to mention here is Taylor was out in northeast Ohio and one of the places that I think she was at also featured rep Republican representative Jamie Callender, who is a longtime advocate for legalized marijuana.

He cut the ribbon at one of those places.

I can't remember which dispensary he was at, but it's just, yeah, it's really kind of, yeah, it's just really kind of interesting that here you have a Republican representative who has indeed proposed legislation to legalize recreational marijuana before.

But again, a Republican representative out there very proudly celebrating the launch of sales for recreational marijuana.

- Taylor recreational marijuana is legal now in Ohio.

You can go to dispensary and you can buy some, but that doesn't mean it's always gonna sit well with your employer.

What do people really need to be aware of now?

- Yeah, so similar to the medical marijuana law we had in Ohio, this new recreational marijuana law does not permit or accommodate marijuana use, you know, in your everyday life.

So your employer can still drug test you and fire you if they don't want you to be using marijuana.

So be sure you know your employer's policy, I guess before you go and do that.

- Karen, one last thing on this story.

Not all Ohio Republican lawmakers have been very happy with the statute now that recreational sales have actually started.

Do you expect them to try to make any changes going forward?

- Well, once again, I think that's an answer for the lame duck session.

Governor Mike DeWine has been calling for lawmakers to do something about Delta eight, which he's called diet, diet hemp, diet weed, whatever, you know, intoxicating hemp, that's what it is.

And so this is not regulated by marijuana laws, but it's available at convenience stores and vape shops and that sort of thing.

DeWine wants lawmakers to do something about the availability of that.

Lawmakers have so far not really shown a whole lot of interest in doing anything in terms of changing the law that voters approved last fall, that now legal sales are allowed under.

There's been some bills that would try to restrict home grow that potentially could even require licenses for people who won't wanna home grow.

But so far nothing's changed.

It could happen in lame duck.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see, which is not a great answer, especially for people who are already taking advantage of the law and wanna continue to do so.

- It's the end of an era at Cedar Point.

I know it feels like we say that every few years the amusement park has announced it's taking one of its classic coasters out of service this time it's not something on the rails, but something on the waves that's coming to an end Snake River falls.

It's gonna be taken outta service at the end of this season.

Karen, you like amusement parks.

You've been to Cedar Point at least a few times.

Are you a fan of Snake River Falls?

- I'm not a fan of water rides, I just don't like getting wet.

And I understand this one was a little bit different, but you know, I'm, I'm, I'm not a real big fan of the water rides, so I'm interested to see what they end up doing.

I know there's a lot of frustration among Cedar Point fans over top throw Dragster two.

So there's, that's been a lot of conversation around Cedar Point this year - And certainly Cedar Point, tight lipped about what comes next.

They say you'll have to wait Monday on the Sound of Ideas on 89 7 WKSU.

We'll talk about the Ohio Country, a new podcast from WYSO, tracing the history of Ohio's native people.

I'm Andrew Meyer in for Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for watching.