Welcome to the Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable from Ideastream Public Media I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for joining us on this Juneteenth holiday.

Governor Mike DeWine made an unsurprising announcement this week, given that no executions have happened in Ohio since he became governor.

He believes the death penalty should be repealed.

The FBI raided a progressive organization that registers voters in Ohio.

Are the feds fighting fraud?

Or, as critics contend, targeting the left as a crucial midterm election nears?

Cleveland council members gave a cold reception to Flock automated license plate reader cameras.

And 14 and 15 year old workers have to knock off by 7 p.m.

by law.

But a quiet addition to a bill last week extends their hours to 9 p.m.

on weekends.

Is that a good thing?

Joining me to discuss all the week's top news, from Idestream Public Media, environment reporter Zaria Johnson and Akron Canton reporter Anna Huntsman, both in studio with me.

Hello there.

Hi.

Good to have both of you with us.

And in Columbus, a woman who has been clocking out at midnight or later since she was eight years old, Ideastream Statehouse News Bureau Chief Karen Kasler.

Hey, Karen.

Good thing I'm a night owl.

Exactly.

Yeah, I don't I don't think I ever see you early in the morning.

Good point.

All right.

We recorded the show Thursday as we are off for the Juneteenth holiday, so we won't have covered any news breaking Thursday afternoon and beyond.

We also can't incorporate your emails into the show this time, but we'd love to hear from you.

And we do check our messages so feel free to weigh in at SOI at Ideastream.org.

Let's get ready to roundtable.

Governor DeWine announced Tuesday that he opposes the death penalty and wants Ohio lawmakers to repeal it, publicly reversing his position on the issue that he's held for decades.

Karen, what insight do you have on why DeWine changed his mind about this issue?

Well, this has been a long time coming.

And he even said that at the press conference.

But even just the last couple of months, this has been kind of anticipated.

And I have to give a lot of praise to my colleague Sarah Donaldson, because she has been pestering DeWine for months about this, trying to ask when he might have a public stance on the death penalty that he wanted to share.

And he actually told her before he told anybody else that this event this week would be about the death penalty.

And so he kind of walked reporters through his thought process here, that it really goes all the way back to when he helped craft the state's death penalty statute back in 1981.

He said that he thought deterrence was a big part of what the death penalty statute should be about.

And he said, over the years, it's been shown that this the death penalty law, does not deter serious crimes, and he feels like it is not doing its purpose.

It's not serving its purpose for that.

And it's not helping move the process along any more quickly.

I mean, it takes years.

If you do get a conviction for someone to actually be executed or get out of that schedule.

And then of course, that can be delays in that sort of thing.

So he just felt like the time had come for him to say that he was no longer supportive.

It was no secret.

We haven't had an execution since he's been the governor.

He's delayed all of those.

His answer was because we couldn't get the lethal drugs.

Other states do get those.

So a lot of people did not think this was a surprise when he finally made the announcement.

The question is, with six months left in his term, why now?

And to what end?

Well, and I think a lot of people also wondered about his thoughts on the death penalty because he is very devoutly Catholic.

And that's been a pillar of Catholic faith for a while.

And in fact, there have been some Catholic members of the General Assembly who have tried, who have signed on to measures to abolish the death penalty, which we've had a measure to abolish the death penalty introduced in the Statehouse, I think, for the last eight sessions.

I mean, it's been a constant thing that's been talked about, but in other sessions there has been some bipartisan support.

I don't think right now, there was a bill that was talked about that would bring forward abolishment of the death penalty and abolishment of abortion.

I don't know if that ever moved forward at all.

But I think that, you know, this was something that I think a lot of folks wondered if that was the real reason behind DeWine's public announcements, that we couldn't get the drugs.

But he's always been very clear that he didn't want to endanger Ohio Medicaid's ability to get drugs if he somehow greenlighted the use of drugs, that drug companies say they don't want used for executions.

So he could go a step further to show that he's anti-death penalty by commuting the sentences of 100 plus people that are on death row.

He did not do that.

Is there any indication that he might?

Well, yeah, he still has the opportunity to do that.

In fact, when I talked to new Attorney General Andy Wilson about this, and it's interesting because Wilson was appointed by DeWine last month as attorney general when Dave Yost left.

But Wilson said while he respects DeWine's view on this, he is going to continue to uphold the law as it is.

And he feels as a prosecutor, he was a prosecutor prosecuted for death penalty cases, that it's important to have that tool for prosecutors to use.

And so I asked him about the commutations possibility, and he said he's really grateful that DeWine didn't do that because he said it would undo all the work that prosecutors and juries and judges all along the way have done to secure death sentences.

But, you know, that is a possibility.

He could DeWine could decide on his way out the door that he is going to commute death sentences because it's happened before.

I think, it has happened before, I'm pretty sure.

And I think Richard Celeste, back in the, in the 90s or the 80s, I'm losing my history here, but, yeah.

So I think that this is that would of course, leave, then, the decision to the next governor, whoever that is, and the next attorney general, potentially because the attorney general would then have to go into court and argue that under the law, these death sentences should not have been commuted.

So this is a down the road thing, but it could still happen.

And as you mentioned, the current attorney general who was appointed by DeWine favors the death penalty, thinks it's a tool that we should have and has no intention of trying to argue that it should go away.

The other question, then, is the other people that the governor was talking to, which was the legislature, and he said, I urge you to repeal this.

There's a zero chance that will happen in DeWine's term.

Correct?

Well, I yeah, I mean, it's I suppose there's, a non-zero chance.

There's always a chance, you know, but I think it's very, very unlikely.

I mean, you've got leadership in the House, specifically House finance Chair Brian Stewart, who my colleague Sarah Donaldson talked to about this, saying the law is the law, the legislature has spoken.

If there were the votes to change this and abolish the death penalty, it would have been done already.

So it seems very unlikely this is going to move forward in a very short period of time.

But it is interesting to look at the list of people who have come out against the death penalty in the last, you know, 10 or 15 years.

Former governors Bob Taft and Ted Strickland, who had, I think, 24 executions under Taft, 17 under Strickland.

They've both come out against it.

Former wardens of the Lecasville prison, the maximum security prison, have come out against it.

Former attorneys general like Jim Petro.

You've got a whole list of people who were very actively involved in prosecuting the death penalty, who now say they have serious concerns about whether it's being used properly or what the effect is.

So this is it's still a debate here, but DeWine has definitely added his voice to it.

Do you think that the governor has any other surprise announcement to make in the next six months?

Like he doesn't like ice cream, or he's a fan of Michigan football or something like that?

Well, he just held his 50th ice cream social, on his property out in Cedarville.

So I don't think the ice cream thing is going to happen, but yeah, he could.

I mean, he is he's a lame duck governor in the sense that he is on his way out the door.

And he could absolutely.

I mean, he the governor's always had the ability to speak with vetoes.

And also he's got that that podium.

He's he he invites us to press conferences and we go and we listen to him.

So he does have the opportunity to say other things if he wanted to.

So I think that's something to watch from him that maybe he might.

Who knows, maybe he might.

All right.

Thanks for that, Karen.

Members of Cleveland City Council's Safety Committee showed no enthusiasm for extending the city's contract for Flock surveillance cameras this week.

They voted 3 to 1 against the plan.

It doesn't mean it's dead.

The full council can still vote on it.

And Anna committee members grilled the safety director and the assistant police chief.

Let's start with Stephanie Howse Jones, one of the council members, and the concerns that she had about Flock in her neighborhood.

It's not safer, she says.

And there's all these cameras, right?

She said that the city has continued to drop the ball on prevention of incidents like this.

And if you aren't familiar with Flock cameras, they're license plate reading cameras and police say that they're extremely helpful.

And this is police, not just in Cleveland.

Akron has them, too.

Many cities across the country have them now at this point.

They're very helpful because if there's an active investigation where maybe there's a stolen vehicle, police can look up the vehicle description and see the license plate, the ones that kind of dinged in the cameras and where they were.

And so they say it helps them solve cases quicker.

But she's saying Stephanie Howse Jones is saying that the her ward has the most cameras.

And yet residents there still don't feel safe.

So there there are these questions of is it actually making the community safer to have these cameras.

And it was not just Flock cameras.

If you add all the other cameras, there are thousands of cameras in Cleveland, 100 flock cameras, but there are all kinds of other surveillance cameras.

Her neighborhood and Black neighborhoods in Cleveland being the ones that have the most.

And so her point being about that.

The other concern and the concern you heard from this group called Flock No, was that the information can be shared in nefarious ways.

It could be used to track law abiding people.

It can be used for immigration searches or with a bunch of those in Shaker Heights, where immigration was the the main purpose for for searches on those.

The police and the company say that's not going to be the case in Cleveland.

Right.

They maintain that this is only used in certain cases.

They can't just be looking up random license plates whenever they want to.

I mean, they do point out the, you know, people who oppose this do point out that they don't need a warrant.

They can look this up at any time.

But they're maintaining that they don't do that, that this is used in investigations only.

And, they actually the, going forward, Cleveland City Council is going to make sure by tightening restrictions on Flock cameras that you can't just go to another party and give this information out or sell it or sell it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That was an amendment that Mike Polensek put forward.

Well, I think with hopes that it would pass through the committee, the committee still voted no.

Everybody but him voted against it.

Right.

3 to 1.

Now that doesn't mean it's dead.

It's it's still in committee and it can be brought out to the full council.

And Polonsek says that he thinks that would be a good idea to go to the finance committee and have further discussion there.

Because he, he says that this is an important tool.

The Cleveland Police say they use they look up Flock searches 12,000 times a month.

They provided anecdotal instances where it helped them solve a missing person case.

It helps them with stolen vehicle chases.

But one of the council members, Kevin Conwell, was saying, well, these are anecdotes.

Where are the numbers?

Can you show us the numbers of how many times this has led to a successful, you know, case being solved?

I mean, we've seen the problems that Cleveland's having with stolen vehicles, car break ins and things like that.

And it would be nice to see are the numbers, you know, showing that this is this is the way to go that we need to keep having Flock.

They've got a deadline coming up.

The contract with Flock does expire.

The mayor originally was going to just extend this, has the right to do that, for a year then said no I'm going to let council decide.

So council would have to act in the next couple of weeks, but maybe the mayor would still do it on his own.

Who knows.

Yeah, we don't really know.

But that deadline is June 29th, so they have, two weeks to kind of figure this out.

And, you know, it seems like it's very interesting.

It made me think about on my beat in Akron.

It made me want to look and see when Akron's contract is up, because they're having the same issues and concerns.

Their residents are often speaking in council, saying that they feel like they're being tracked, by these Flock cameras and that they're being put in, you know, mostly, Black neighborhoods and things like that to surveil, you know, surveillance for residents.

So, yeah, they they only have a couple weeks left to decide.

So it'll be interesting to see what they do.

Okay.

FBI raids happened this week.

Federal agents seized equipment from the Cleveland office of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a progressive political organization that works on voting access and other issues.

Also fanned out to canvass employees, volunteers, board members at their homes.

Karen, so let's talk about that a little bit.

Is there a big fraud investigation afoot?

Is there any evidence of that kind of thing?

Or as we've heard from a whole lot of critics, this is really an intimidation tactic.

Just before the election.

Yeah.

And we're still waiting for some more details on that.

I gotta give a shout out to my colleague Jo Ingles for being one of the first, the first person in Ohio to report this, this right here.

This is a group that does voter registration drives and that sort of thing.

It's not as high profile as some progressive groups, but it's been attached to a lot of different things over the years.

So there have been folks who have been saying, I've never heard of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, but they've been out there for a while, and they are again trying to draw attention to progressive causes and then also try to register voters.

And so what we know about this from right now and again, the FBI is really not talking about it, is that this is about questionable voter registration forms submitted by Black Fork canvassers, Black Fork being, an arm of this organization through one of the leaders of this organization now, Cuyahoga County Deputy Elections Director Tony Kaloger told signal that officials had no evidence that the questionable registrations led to illegal voting.

But that, of course, is the real concern here.

At least at least the reason that's been kind of given, as to why they went into the, the offices in the first place.

The blowback that we've seen has been universal, it seems, from Democratic officeholders and others.

You have Sherrod Brown that's made a comment about that.

You've had all kinds of, Hakeem Jeffries on the national scale.

And Zaria locally, we had a press conference just yesterday with Shontel Brown, the congresswoman who was also very critical of the whole idea of this, saying it was an intimidation tactic.

Yeah.

She said it was an effort to suppress Black voters in Ohio in particular.

And she said that she and other, other Democratic US state representative to put a letter to the FBI, just trying to figure out the reasoning for this to begin with.

She said this raid is troubling, but also the fact that this is happening, in hundreds of cases across the state.

And the concern is that it's targeted against black voters in particular.

Yeah.

They're going to people's homes are not necessarily.

That's what she said yesterday, that she had heard that they were going to people's homes, questioning whether there was a warrant to do that.

She said that some people were getting phone calls.

They felt like they were being followed.

So and these are people who maybe have volunteered with the organization or like ar currently or have in the past.

And so she's really questioning what legal authority does the FBI have to do something around voter fraud?

She was asking, where was the secretary of state?

Where was the attorney general?

And again, she said she feels like Black voters in particular were being targeted.

And they had seized reportedly seized, some computer equipment and other things.

Where was the warrant?

Like, when can we see all this stuff?

I know reporters have tried to contact the FBI.

These politicians have sent letters to them as well.

We have not gotten a response.

We are we once again, because, Conor Morris and I were covering this yesterday.

We again asked for comment and did not hear back.

So, yeah, they're kind of being pretty tight lipped about this.

Sherrod Brown said that it's a transparent attempt at silencing Ohioans and their ability to vote in free and fair elections.

And you have that basically down the line from Democrats here that are saying this is weaponization on the part of the Trump administration just before a very crucial midterm in Ohio, which is generally very red, but looks like it could be in play in some of these areas.

Yeah.

And the press conference yesterday was at the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, and election officials were there.

County Executive Chris Ronayne was there.

And their message was really just trying to assure voters and anybody who might be watching that, you know, the Board of Elections works year round to make sure that there's integrity in the elections and that everything is fair and safe.

And he, Ronayne, was saying it is safe to vote.

Your vote will count.

And they also mentioned voter fraud is extremely rare in Ohio.

I believe the 2024 numbers were six people were convicted of voter fraud out of 8 million registered Ohio voters.

So there's that message now, too, of don't be afraid to come and vote.

It's your right.

If you're the it's legal and you're registered, please come vote.

Right.

But it's also fair to note that if you're if you have anyone that's registering people to vote, there are going to be wrong names on those.

There are going to be people that move.

There are going to be people that wrote Mickey Mouse.

There's a lot of things going on, and there might even be some fraud in that part of it.

That stuff gets weeded out in the process.

That's what he was saying.

They work year round to do that sort of thing.

So and that's why, I mean, we I feel like we've talked about this on the show so many times about when people are gathering signatures, they have to go way more than the the whatever the number is for the cut off.

They always have to get way more because of people doing things like that.

Sure, they might be writing Mickey Mouse, or they might not be registered to vote in the county that they need to be so.

But that's the work that's being done year round that they said to weed those folks out.

Right.

Let's talk about Akron.

Gun violence victims there will get more than medical treatment at the hospital under a new partnership between the city and medical institutions, the PIVOT Program, Partnership for Intervention, Violence Outreach and Transformation would do what?

Anna?

Do you like that acronym, Mike?

Well, as long as you explain it, I like all acronyms.

Well, I, I don't know, I thought that was kind of creative there, but yes, this program is actually going to the hospital first.

So meeting people where they are right after an incident.

So maybe someone gets shot in a fight or, or something like that.

There's some sort of shooting.

And as they're recovering in the hospital, these counselors, part of this program would actually meet them and possibly do bedside therapy, connect with them right away, talk to them about how they're feeling, and also connect with the family.

So a lot of times this affects families, as you know, it's not just the victim, it's the whole recovery process.

And so they're making those connections right away.

After an incident.

What's interesting to me about this is it isn't just them getting over the trauma of being shot.

Part of the purpose for this is to make sure that they don't go out and retaliate, that there isn't revenge, that if you do that kind of counseling now, maybe you can head off the return shooting, the return volley of bullets At the press conference where this was announced, hospital officials from the, from Summa Health and Cleveland Clinic Akron General, who are part of the partnership, they both spoke and said that that's what they see.

A lot is a victim comes in and then they come in again.

So there's repeat either victims or as you mentioned, they might go out and retaliate.

And so they're saying this is a huge gap that we're seeing to try to, you know, prevent retaliation.

And so these, credible messengers, these, you know, counselors that are going to be there, they're going to be talking them through their anger.

And what's a better way to deal with this than revenge, or by going back out there and doing something?

So giving them the tools they need to make better choices, but also, again, they're connecting with the family.

So maybe it's not the gun violence victim that is feeling that revenge.

Maybe it's somebody in the family.

So they're going to be connecting with them as well and trying to, you know, help them make better choices.

I'd be really interested to hear if therapy helps in a situation like that where you've got, you know, beef and, and there might be even long term situations that we've dealt with in communities.

It doesn't end at discharge from the hospital.

Right.

So they connect with the, victim in the family, and then after that, they can do house visits.

They can encourage them to come into therapy, provide them with resources.

Maybe it's grief counseling or other types of resources and just offering the family and the victim support, because this is a long process to, you know, kind of overcome that.

And I will say to you, it's not necessarily just therapy.

So there's a Credible Messengers program, ongoing in Akron and the same group that's doing this is part of that, and it's people in the community that these folks already know.

It's people they trust.

Maybe it's a pastor, maybe it's somebody who was, you know, living a life on the streets and has now taken a better way.

And so these are folks that they trust.

So it's not just some random therapist that they don't know.

It's actually people that they know and trust because as I mentioned, as part of this program, that's how change happens, is through people that you trust.

Sounds like peacekeepers in Cleveland.

So I'm sure those organizations all throughout communities.

A federal judge in Toledo this week issued a temporary injunction blocking enforcement of a state law banning the sale of THC infused beverages.

Karen, let's start with how long the injunction is and who it applies to.

Well, this was banned back in March in a bill that also sought to make some changes to Ohio's marijuana law.

And so this then these groups that wanted to sell THC infused beverages, which are pretty popular in some of these places, went to court and said, this is hurting our business, essentially.

And so the judge agreed with them, didn't agree on the larger lawsuit, I believe.

But this is only a temporary order, and it only affects those ten businesses that actually went to court.

But it is considered, I think, by those a win for them as they can start.

In fact, they did this week start selling those THC infused beverages again.

Yeah, it's a two week reprieve.

And so they've got to sell a lot in two weeks unless they get, another extension from the judge as they continue to have this wend through.

It's not the first time, though, a judge has issued such an injunction.

There was another lawsuit from another.

And again, it applies only to the ones that actually filed suit in Cleveland.

There are a number of groups, Saucy Seltzer, which is part of Saucy Brew Works, in the Ohio City neighborhood, in the Detroit Shoreway neighborhood.

One of those neighbors combined, Hingetown, let's call it.

And, Titan Logistics Group as well.

It's based in Titan in, in Cleveland and Opportunity Holding Company.

But those ten and then the one from previous to.

So the question is, what is the argument that is making it that these judges issued a temporary restraining order?

It's because why?

Well, the the lawsuit basically claims that, basically that the Federal Commerce Clause gives Congress power to regulate interstate commerce and expose companies to felony prosecution through this.

And so they're concerned about these the ban on out-of-state hemp businesses from selling products in Ohio and then preventing Ohio companies from using hemp that's sourced from other states, which is one thing that the folks who have really been pushing for these kind of bans and these kind of regulations have been saying all along is this hemp is not locally grown, this THC is not locally sourced.

And so Ohioans don't know what they're getting, essentially.

When it comes to, say, marijuana, it's all grown in Ohio.

It's processed in Ohio.

You know what you're getting.

And that's not the case with these.

So yeah.

And you're right, there was another lawsuit out of Sandusky that there was a decision on, but we haven't yet seen a full decision that affects the a permanent decision.

Essentially, this is, like you said, a two week, thing.

And then also at the federal level, there's a ban that's moving forward that, will take effect later on this fall, that there's there's a lot of lobbying groups that are trying to influence federal lawmakers to try to remove that ban and allow these drinks to be sold.

But yeah, that's coming down the road, not just Ohio, but across the country.

All right.

And to be clear, the the other lawsuit was Sandusky County, not Sandusky here, closer to Cleveland.

Lastly, what's interesting too, about this and the reason there's such a fight from these makers and retailers is the business is booming.

The Saucy Brew Works owner was talking about how he's never seen a product grow so quickly and that suddenly that's now been halted.

Yeah.

And I think, you know, you've seen some polling showing that a lot of, especially younger adults are not drinking alcohol as much.

And the argument has been that they're turning to these kinds of products that these kind of products, for a while, they were available just widely available in health food stores and convenience stores, gas stations, things like that, as well as at these breweries that have been offering them as a specific product.

And so there was, you know, a real pushback from these businesses saying, hey, this is stuff that's really selling well that people really like, and now you're trying to ban it while you're trying to ban other things that you think are dangerous.

Hundreds of thousands of Ohio seniors and disabled homeowners who received the homestead tax exemption will see a one-time reduction in their January property tax bills.

They get a little bonus here.

Karen.

Who qualifies for it?

How much is it going to be?

About 710,000 Ohio homeowners who get the homestead tax exemption will be affected by this.

It's about $450 to $475.

That will come in a credit on their January property tax bill.

These are elderly and disabled Ohioans, and it is a one-time thing.

And that's been the key for some lawmakers who raised concerns about this, saying that they want property tax relief, but they want it to be longer term and bigger.

And a one time credit for 710,000 homeowners in Ohio is not enough.

And that's what we've been hearing from people who have been frustrated about property taxes, that they want relief.

That is longer term, that actually shows up on their bill where they can really see it made a difference.

And there are going to be people who are don't think that this is enough of that.

Bride Rose Sweeney, the representative locally here, said it's better than nothing.

That's basically some of the prevailing thought is it's something.

Yeah, exactly.

And, Representative Daniel Troy, who's another one who supported it, said, yeah.

Basically, we need to do something about this.

This is this is something.

But people are going to potentially get upset when they see this credit, and then it disappears in the next property tax bill.

That that's going to be frustrating to people who really do feel like these property tax increases have been out of control, and they want more substantive relief.

And, you know, there's been a lot of questions about why didn't lawmakers go ahead and move to a flat income tax and eventually start talking while they've been talking for a while about eliminating the income tax when it's they also admitted that property taxes are a big, big reason people call their legislators.

So why are legislators not moving more on property taxes that, I think that's a question that will be asking a lot in lame duck session coming up, because lawmakers are gone until after the election.

And good news, in the third week of July, we'll be doing a deep dive on property taxes.

Everybody here at Ideastream is working on stories on that to explain to you what the issues are, why the protests are happening, what could be the alternatives?

We're going to get all that done for you.

Sometime will be, third week of July is when we're going to plan to run a week's worth of coverage on th Time now, though, for a quick break.

Plenty more stories to discuss, including how late young teens should work and a new discount airline is coming to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

But first, here's Stephanie Haney to tell us about what's in the works for next week on The Sound of Ideas.

Stephanie?

We kick things off Monday, hearing from the candidates for Ohio State Auditor, Republican Frank LaRose, and Democrat Annette Blackwell in interviews organized by the Akron Press Club.

Then we'll talk about U.S.

and India relations with an expert who will be speaking at an event hosted by the Cleveland Council on World Affairs on Tuesday.

We are talking about aging well and what we can do in our younger years in order to be more comfortable as we get older.

We follow that conversation to its natural conclusion on Wednesday when we talk about end of life options.

This is as human composting is coming to Ohio.

Also on Wednesday, we'll preview the Tri-C Jazz Festival, and we'll wrap things up on Thursday looking at co-ops and the employee owned business model, both in general and also in the food scene in our latest installment of the menu in partnership with Cleveland Magazine.

Of course, as always, this is all subject to change if there is breaking news.

Back to you in the studio, Mike.

Thanks so much, Stephanie, and you are back with the Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable from Ideastream Public Media.

I'm Mike McIntyre, executive editor at Ideastream, joined this week by Ideastream's Zaria Johnson and Anna Huntsman.

And in Columbus, from the Ideast Statehouse News Bureau, Karen Kasler.

Did you take the Ideastream news quiz yet today?

Each week, hundreds of people join me in testing their knowledge of the week's news.

I got eight out of eight last week and the week before.

I'm on a roll right now.

Thank you.

I missed one three weeks ago.

I think it wasn't on the show.

That's fine, but I think most of the topics should be on the show.

There might be 1 or 2 that aren't.

Anyway.

You can find it on our homepage ideastream.org.

Send me a note, tell me your score.

You can also have that sent to your inbox.

So I get it every Friday morning, somewhere around 830 just before the show.

Since we're pre taping this, I haven't yet taken that yet, but we can't brag.

Yeah, but I'll let you know how I did last week.

All right.

Akron wants to make it easier to build houses in the city and is seeking feedback on zoning changes aimed at accommodating that.

And, Anna, zoning might be the most boring thing in the world to talk about.

How do I make this more interesting?

Should I do a rap?

No, no-rapper zone.

I have no zoning rap.

But honing my thoughts about zoning.

Okay, you can.

Okay, I like your flow.

What are some of the changes being considered?

Rap it now.

Reducing or eliminating?

Sorry.

No.

It's, these changes have been talked about before because there's been a lot of talk about housing in Akron recently.

They just wrapped up a civic assembly where these delegates came together and did some research on what could improve housing in Akron, what's needed.

And they put forth these recommendations, and these were part of the recommendations.

But before Mayor Shammas Malik introduces the changes to city council, he wants to get resident feedback on them.

So essentially the nutshell of it would it makes it it allows for denser housing.

So it would change the minimum lot size requirements.

So if you have two homes and then maybe there was a house there before, but it's been torn down and it's not enough space right now for what's needed in the current zoning, that would help allow for maybe smaller homes or a mother in law suite, things like that.

So kind of more unique ways of housing.

The other thing is that it would allow for more units on parcels, where they're not allowed right now.

So maybe triplexes, duplexes again, the mother in law suite type of situation.

The final, proposal actually has to do with current homes that are older.

So they have, their conditions are grandfathered in.

So right now there's certain rules that have to apply to the house in order for people to make changes to it.

So maybe revamp it added, maybe there's an old store where they want to have apartments in the, in the top.

There's some, kind of restrictive zoning.

So they want to change that, make it easier for those who are grandfathered in to be able to have creative housing in them.

So what can people do to influence this?

They want feedback, but we're not planning experts.

I don't know the zoning code, What?

I didn't do a good enough job there.

You know?

I mean, right now I have some knowledge, but I don't know if I have enough to suggest what the city council should do, but, yeah, what the city should do.

But is there, what kind of feedback are they looking for?

They actually have a really, interactive, they call it a story map.

So it's this interactive web page where they go in-depth on this.

So I just gave you the nuts and bolts of those proposals, but they go fully in-depth and they explain, some examples of how people are going through the Planning Commission, trying to, you know, add an addition to their house so that they can have an apartment there, but they get blocked because of the zoning.

So they go in depth on that.

It's on the zoning tab on Akron's website.

You can also just contact the zoning office directly after you look through them and give feedback.

Okay.

Well, I'll do that now that I'm an expert.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

I don't live in Akron, but but I'm sure they would love your input.

You sure?

All right.

More than 2000 family based green card applications are pending approval at the Cleveland office of the U.S.

Citizenship and Immigration Service.

And Zaria, what's causing this big backlog in applications?

It's a combination of, this pause in approvals from the US citizen, U.S.

Citizenship and Immigration Services, along with this, like frequent change to immigration policy coming from the Trump administration.

There's a study from Manifest Law.

They're a firm, a law firm based in New York.

And they're basically saying that this combination is contributing to the overall back backlog, making it so that people who have applicant applications pending are just waiting longer for them to get approved.

And we have a bunch of different kinds of green cards.

I'm sure.

Tell me about a family based green card.

Yeah, the family based green card essentially allows a person to apply for a permanent residency in the US by having a family member who already lives here, who's already a citizen, or some sort of permanent resident that could be a spouse, a parent, or a child.

According to the study from Manifest Law, about 42% of green card approvals that come through Cleveland are, these family based green cards.

And, last year, these these approvals increased by 73% across the country compared to, 2015, 2015.

But at the same time, I think there's been a 101% increase in the denials.

And a green card being lawful permanent residency.

You're not a citizen, but you're you're legally here during that time.

So people who are waiting, I would think, are feeling pretty apprehensive.

Pretty, pretty nervous.

Yeah.

And there's been, again, some changes in the Trump administration's policies where, now people who are waiting have to go back to the country that they're from, while the application is pending, outstanding.

Some extreme cases, but it does lead to some doubt and concerns for people who are waiting, whether or not it'll get approved at all or if it'll just take longer.

There's been some stricter, I guess the the policies have been more strict on people.

So, like, if they miss a box or check something off incorrectly in the past, they'd have an opportunity to correct that and resubmit.

But moving forward, it seems like that'll be a flat out denial.

So it's creating a lot of stress for people who are working to apply.

For sure.

Young teenage employees can work later on weekends after provision was added to an education bill passed by the legislature last week.

Karen, I thought bills were supposed to be a single subject.

This had nothing to do with that.

Oh, that's a whole.

You don't show on that as a joke, right?

Yeah, there's a lot.

Exactly one.

And in this time of year, this time of year, and then also later in the year when we get into lame duck, you'll see a lot of bills that seem to have a bunch of things that don't have a lot in common in them, but there's always supposedly one through line here, and this one is about education, essentially.

And so this bill would, for instance, this bill also increases the number of appointed members of the state school board to eight, which is interesting because the budget last year reduced them to five.

So we're kind of in this, revolving door here when it comes to the state Board of Education.

But this part that you're asking about allows small employers to schedule 14 and 15 year olds till 9:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, and any day a school is not scheduled the next morning rather than 7:00.

So it does allow for longer working hours for 14 and 15 year olds.

And DeWine did veto legislation about this last year, saying that he wanted to get a balance between school and work, that kids should have the opportunity to work.

But school is their job, essentially, at first.

And so apparently there was some compromise language, that went through, and we'll find out if he agreed with it.

So originally there was a push to extend it and that was vetoed.

What we're hearing is from the business end of it, they need the young workers.

What we're hearing from people oppose this.

This is bad for young kids to work until the end.

When you say young 14 and 15 year olds to work until 9:00, the provision here, though, is it's on a Friday or Saturday night or any day when there's no school the next day.

So it shouldn't be interfering with their classwork.

Yeah.

And the one that DeWine vetoed back last year would have allowed minors in that age group to work those hours.

Any time of the year that they had parental approval.

So this is a little bit more restrained and constrained than the previous bill that he vetoed.

And this one, you know, it has a lot of other things in there.

So we're waiting to see he is not given any hints and rarely does if he's going to veto pieces of legislation.

So I, I imagine that this was a compromise that he felt was okay.

But yeah, you the the backlash against this from people saying this is, child labor laws and this is a terrible way to increase your workforce versus businesses saying we need these workers.

These are, you know, usually part time workers.

We just need them to work later in the day.

So it's been really a push and pull between those two forces.

And in fact, this would affect smaller businesses, not larger ones.

Those are those are have different rules.

Yeah.

That's covered by the federal Labor Standards Act, that large employers can't, aren't part of this.

But there is an effort at the federal level to change the Fair Labor Standards Act.

You've got Republicans who want to basically allow for more kids to be able to work at larger employers.

So we kind of wait to see what happens with that.

But there is an attempt to try to change that law at the federal level, which of course would change the law here in Ohio, potentially.

I do know that things have changed.

I remember being 15 and working at Madison Square Lanes on Friday nights until closing.

So midnight, something like that.

I guess that's not that's not kosher.

Yeah.

I mean, and I think a lot of people have stories like that, and certainly kids who grew up on farms and that sort of thing will tell you, yeah, you work, you work when the work is there.

But, I think the goal was always to make sure that kids have the opportunity to be kids and to go to school and to learn and then join the workforce when it's a little bit more appropriate for them to be out, say, till closing.

Okay.

I'm sorry, you guys, for my old man, get off my lawn moment.

That's okay.

We're used to it.

Yeah.

All right.

Cheating in school has become big business in Ohio.

Lawmakers want to crack down on the companies that help students scam the system.

The Senate passed a bill that won't be revised until, revisit, actually, until after the November election.

But, Karen, tell me about Senate Bill 311, starting with the focus on cheating.

This is another bill that has an awful lot of moving parts to it.

The cheating part is probably not the most consequential part, but it's certainly a big attention getter here.

And it would basically crack down on these cheating for hire services that, this is these are groups that, people or organizations that are hired to prepare, sell or complete schoolwork, exams, papers, that sort of thing.

And you've got some lawmakers saying that this is indeed, like you said, big business.

That people are using this and this would allow for civil actions with penalties up to $5,000 per violation.

And affected schools and credentialing bodies could also sue for damages as well and fees as well.

So this really seeks to go after these cheating for hire services that lawmakers say people are using, but not the students.

I'm sure they got to talk to the principal.

But in terms of this law, it applies to those that are selling them the test.

Now, let's move on to what you consider to be the most consequential part of this bill, which is what?

Well, I think there are a lot of different things.

There's about six major parts of this bill, but this idea of use school buildings and school, you know, selling school buildings, school buildings that have lower enrollment numbers.

This allows for more transparency and access around those on unused school buildings, and basically uses a 60% enrollment threshold so that's tied to building capacity or recent peak enrollment.

So it would require districts to offer qualifying unused facilities for sale or lease to private schools, charter schools, STEM schools, that sort of thing.

And it also bars districts from just tearing down or repurposing unused facilities for non educational, non educational purposes before going through the required offering process.

So this really helps you know, charter schools, private schools acquire properties that the bill says are unused.

When you reach under that 60% enrollment potentially right.

Lakewood is looking to help businesses offer gender gender neutral restrooms.

How are they doing that?

Zaria?

What is the what's the plan in Lakewood?

So they're, working with businesses to make sure that they have, they get support in switching over their signage from a men's restroom and a women's restroom to that gender neutral signage.

Ward three Council member Cindy Strebig said that she proposed the idea to Lakewood's Youth Council and that they were in favor because they did a bunch of research that found that switching over to the signage might be more inclusive to LGBTQ plus people, but also seniors, parents, children who might be waiting in a line for, let's say, the women's restroom when there could be a stall in the men's restroom.

Amen to that.

Right.

Amen.

If you've ever gone to a place and there's a line a mile long for the women's room and the men have a turnstile.

Exactly.

So if it was labeled either use now, of course it would be.

It wouldn't be.

There might be some restrictions that have to single use bathrooms, those types of things.

What the city is doing is they'll they'll give you the signage.

It'll make it easy for you.

Exactly.

They want to make sure that any business who is able, who is interested and willing to participate, has the opportunity to do so.

Strebig said that, they don't know exactly how much it'll cost, but even if they're able to just get a dozen businesses to participate in, that'll be money well spent in making these restrooms more inclusive for people overall.

All right.

Akron is the rubber capital of the world, and it has a long history as a polymer center.

It's looking to invest even bigger in the sector.

A 100 year old building on University of Akron's campus will soon be demolished to make way for a new polymer pilot adjacent to the National Polymer Innovation Center, part of a much bigger redevelopment project.

Tell us about that, Anna.

The Lincoln Mill redevelopment plan.

Yeah, this came through, council earlier this week, and it's a basically a plan for the, that area and then the kind of acreage around there, it's kind of an interesting area of town.

It's, on the east edge of downtown.

It's where Central Hower High School, the building is no longer an operating high school.

And it's kind of interesting.

There's some dilapidated buildings.

There's a church that had a fire, back in 2018, and it's just still there, being rebuilt now.

For a while it didn't look like anything was happening there.

And so they basically are saying, well, you know, we want this to be the kind of epicenter of our, polymer, you know, industry and the innovations there.

So let's make this look nicer essentially is is kind of my read of it.

So they're going to be revamping, renovating some of those old buildings, demolishing some of them landscaping projects, kind of just making it a better area so that hopefully it can encourage people to actually move their business here and like they've done in Cleveland with the riverfront and the waterfront, they would be using a tax increment financing district, which is essentially the money you plow into it continues to flow back into it.

Yeah.

And that's what this plan allows for.

So it kind of outlines those goals and allows the city to be able to use those funds for it.

And yeah, so that was approved through council and now just kind of waiting to see, the final deal on the, the innovation center that we were talking about.

But that's kind of where it stands.

I mean, Tony Troppe, who owns a lot of the buildings in Akron, including in that area.

He said he wants that to be an innovation corridor.

So, you know, you get right off Rt.

8 and there you are.

You're at the innovation corridor.

And it's 40, 40 acres, 25 of which is on the University of Akron campus.

But we're talking about a pretty big project.

Absolutely.

And so again, it's just kind of beautifying the area, but also outlining those goals, because again, in this polymer pilot facility, they this is going to be a test facility essentially for the polymers that are being made.

And so businesses can, you know, come in and test out their products there.

So they in order to get more people to to be there, they want to make it look nicer and have more opportunities there, right?

Barberton Mayor William Judge abruptly resigned Monday following an effort by city council to remove him from office.

City Council President Shorter Griffin was sworn into office the next day.

So what's behind this?

It's been a lot of smoke.

Yeah, and now we see that he's resigned.

There was actually a deal that was kind of cut where he did resign at some point.

In September.

The initial deal was he would agree to resign in September.

But he said basically in a prepared statement that he felt like even if he fought the allegations and won, which he felt that he would, but he felt like it would tarnish his reputation with city council going forward, because they've kind of been at this for a couple months now.

And we don't really know what we know.

It's something over allegations of wrongdoing with him and his supervisory role.

But because it was a apparently a draft reports, city council doesn't have access to it, so it's not public record.

And now they're citing attorney client privilege.

So we don't really know what's in that report.

We don't know what he's accused of.

We don't know what he's accused of.

Exactly.

So I can't really say anything because it would be hearsay.

He said/she said, and I'm not going to do that.

But that's all that has been said by city council is it was something to do with his supervisory role over city employees.

Okay, so the council president moves into that seat.

What happens to his open seat?

So the another city council member moved into that seat, and now I believe it was a Ward 5 council member.

And so now they're taking applications for a new Ward 5 council member.

So a little bit of shifting goin ideas about whether shorter Griffin will have different plans for, the office of mayor than, than, William Judge did, or is it just, you know, sort of maintaining status quo?

That's what he says for now is to, you know, we're in this new era, this new chapter.

We want to put the past behind us and just continue to see the city grow.

So I'm not sure maybe I'll have to start going to Barberton City Council meetings.

Mike.

And and really see what's going on there.

You can eat some chicken.

I can eat some chicken.

Yeah, yeah, it's really good out there.

If you don't know Barberton chicken you should check it out.

You should check it out for sure.

The Greater Cleveland Food Bank broke ground this week on a community resource center slated to open next year on Cleveland's West Side.

We already know about the East side and how successful, the food bank has been there.

This property on Lorain is a Community Resource Center.

How will that serve residents differently than what's already existing?

So it's basically covering more than just access to food.

Obviously, the resource center can provide food, but also things like benefits, assistance, health, connect, connections to health care, housing, employment and education services, things like that.

But it'll also connect residents and families directly to resources that could help them achieve long term stability on their on their own, so that eventually they won't necessarily need to be coming back to the resource center to get those things rolling.

And it's the East Side.

The other is on Waterloo Road.

I mean, it's the West Side.

The other is on Waterloo Road on the East Side.

Tell us about how that resource center, which is again, not just a place to receive food, how has how has that been?

Has it been successful?

Yeah.

Greater Cleveland Food Bank is saying that, they've served more than 35,000 people within the first nine months.

That resource center was open.

That one opened in November 2023.

And they're saying that it became a national model for food banks and community resource centers, across the country.

So it's pretty successful here.

They're trying to model that again on the West Side with this new one, and maybe it'll become a second national model.

Yeah, that's a good idea.

If you have something that other people in the nation are trying to replicate, maybe you should replicate it.

Right?

Exactly.

Just do the same thing and then do the same thing again and again and keep helping people.

And how are they doing that on the West Side?

How did they pick that site.

How did they pay for it?

Yeah.

So, they say they chose the site based on community need.

There's, 192,000 income eligible residents who live within five miles of the Lorain site, and about 52,000 of those residents aren't getting help from services that already exist.

So the need there is pretty great.

The gap there is great.

And they purchased the property, with American Rescue Plan Act dollars.

So that's how they're funding it.

And the need is 200% of poverty or below, so that many people live near that area.

So certainly, an area that needs serving.

Exactly right.

Discount airline carrier Avelo Airlines is coming to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport starting today.

And I looked at that and I said, Anna, where's it going?

Well, I'll tell you, I mean, we're not going somewhere sunny.

Well, I have thoughts about this.

Okay.

Tell and I can tell you a little bit more.

So New Concord, North Carolina and New Haven, Connecticut are the two stops.

Maybe there's some sun there.

So I had the same thought as you.

I was like, Interesting.

These places.

So I was looking into it.

So it's an ultra low cost carrier.

And kind of the model behind these these places is not only is it, you know, you, have to pay for pretty much everything.

And this one offers no in-flight entertainment, no food or beverage service except water bottles, if you ask.

But the destinations are kind of they're like adjacent to big cities and big destinations.

So this North Carolina city is right by Charlotte.

So the thought is you can go there.

If you're trying to get Charlotte, you can go there instead and maybe rent a car and drive there.

Same with New Haven, Connecticut.

I mean, New Haven's cool on its own, but it's near.

I think it's within two hours driving of the New York and New Jersey airport.

So it might be like going to, Akron Canton Airport when you want to come to Cleveland.

Yeah, nearby and might be a better deal.

I would think you can also get connecting flights in some of those places to other spots as well.

When you say ultra low cost, you have a that's actually what they're called.

I didn't I didn't come up with that.

Do you have a personal item?

It literally is like a little backpack.

If you want to bring on a even a carry on, that's you got to pay 40 bucks.

I think if you actually want to sit in the seat, you have to pay.

I don't know.

Yes, you do have to pay to sit in the seat.

And I looked it up.

And their average price is typically between 59 to $100 per ticket.

So, I don't know if you try to buy flights.

Lately, that's pretty, pretty cheap.

Yeah.

And you can for that price too.

You can pick one where no one's going to be sitting in the middle seat, but you can.

You want a middle seat in the back.

It's like 40 something, right?

You can pay extra to get a middle seat, in between you free.

I like to get the middle seat just to see the look on the faces of the people in the aisle and the window.

Hi, folks.

Sorry.

It's.

Yeah.

That's funny.

Well, these ultra low cost carriers have really, been expanding over the years.

I mean, another one is, actually, Breeze might be considered just a regular low cost carrier, but anyway, they have been expanding so much at Akron Canton Airport, and they have some similar destinations to, Avelo.

Allegiant is another one.

Again, low cost carrier.

They really have been expanding quite a bit, both at Akron, Canton and Cleveland.

And I think that just shows that's what passengers maybe these days are wanting.

If you've got, you know, there's so many everything is going on.

Just get me there.

Just give me there.

Yeah.

Today is Juneteenth, often called the nation's second Independence Day, marking the day in 1865 when the last enslaved people in Texas were informed of their freedom two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.

Many communities in Northeast Ohio are commemorating this day with events, some we talked about with community leaders and historian on Wednesday's Sound of Ideas.

You can check it out on our website.

Ideastream.org/soi.

And it's interesting.

We got the day off here and a lot of people do.

It's a federal holiday as well.

Some people don't.

Sorry.

It's interesting to me that I think some people still have no idea what Juneteenth is.

Yeah, I'll be honest.

I didn't know what Juneteenth was until it became a national.

Until you got a day.

Yeah.

I was like, oh, this is so awesome.

And then I found out that people in the South, primarily had been celebrating it since it became a holiday for them in the South.

And I was like, wow, now I have FOMO.

I've been missing out.

I have to do all this work to catch up.

So I will be at the festival here in Cleveland.

I'm trying to invite people.

My mom's not off work, unfortunately, so she'll be working, but I'll be there and I'm looking forward to it.

Which it's interesting to me is we're celebrating, not the Emancipation Proclamation, which is two years prior to that.

But literally when someone finally found out two years later, That sticks with me.

The idea that it took two years to get to Galveston, Texas, to say, by the way, this thing was signed two years ago and you're free.

Yeah, that's what sticks with me, too.

And I think that's important to remember when you're at home or when you're at the festival.

Just enjoying the the day off.

We need to recognize that the Emancipation Proclamation freed people.

But there is still at least two years of people who still didn't know that they were free and they were still doing the work unpaid, the unpaid labor that they were, they thought they were required to do or forced to do so when you mention festivals in Cleveland, there will be a celebration of the soldiers, Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Public Square today from 11 to 3.

So if you're checking us out Friday early, it's today, 11:00 am till 3 p.m.

At the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, admission is discounted today.

There will be events from 10 to 5.

The Akron Urban League is hosting a celebration at the Freedom Block this evening and tomorrow.

The celebration will take place from 11 to 6.

The city of Medina is hosting its fifth annual Juneteenth celebration in Medina Public Square Saturday from 10 to 3.

So all kinds of opportunities throughout the region.

And that's going to do it for us today.

Zaria, thank you so much for being with us today.

And Anna as well.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Glad to be here and good talking with you as well.

Karen.

Have a great weekend.

You too.

All right.

Monday on the Sound of Ideas, we'll hear from the candidates for Ohio Auditor, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Maple Heights Mayor Annette Blackwell, who spoke in two separate forums to our Andrew Meyer at the Akron Press Club.

If you missed any part of today's show, you can hear a rebroadcast tonight at nine on 89.7 WKSU, or find it on any podcast app and on the Ideastream Public Media YouTube page.

Also, find us on Instagram at the Sound of Ideas.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for listening and watching and stay safe.

And we celebrate this Juneteenth with what has become known as the Black American National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing.

This version performed a few years back by the Spelman Glee Club for our friends at Minnesota Public Radio.

(SINGING)