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

I'm Mike McIntyre.

I'm so glad you're here.

Governor Mike DeWine this week vetoed a bill that mandated photo ID for mail-in ballots, and he followed his call for abolishing the death penalty by granting clemency to a death row inmate.

The US Supreme Court signed off on the Trump administration's plan to strip protections from Haitian immigrants.

How will that impact the substantial population in Springfield?

Republican U.S.

Senator Bernie Moreno has an unexpected ally in the effort to shore up Social Security.

Democrat Elizabeth Warren.

And Cleveland has been raking in cash since it jacked up parking rates.

Joining me to discuss these stories and a whole lot more this week.

the top news of the week, from Ideastream Public Media, senior arts reporter Kabir Bhatia and reporter Gabriel Kramer.

Good to have both of you guys with us.

Hello.

Happy Friday and happy Friday to you as well.

Gabe I look forward to that every time we're together.

And in Columbus, a woman who is currently double parked outside the Ohio State House, Sarah Donaldson of Ideasstream's Statehouse News Bureau.

Hey, good to be here in Columbus, as you said.

Exactly.

And double parked.

So you just park wherever you want.

Right.

You don't have to worry about parking rates.

No.

Absolutely.

Good.

That's how it is in Columbus, everybody.

All right.

You can join us via email.

SOI@ideastream.org is the way to get through to us.

So let's get ready to roundtable.

Governor Mike DeWine nixed a bill requiring photo ID for mail-in ballots, saying it would create too much hardship for voters.

And, Sarah, he didn't just get out the veto pen on this one.

He used a different pen to crank out a lengthy statement explaining why.

So what did he say?

Yeah.

So Governor DeWine issued this veto just hours before he needed to make a decision.

You know, the old kind of pushing it off to the last second.

Right.

But he had pretty strong words for lawmakers on this bill.

He said it wouldn't discourage fraud.

It wouldn't add any real security measures, and that it would add additional burdens for Ohioans who were trying to vote by mail.

And the bill itself was a measure that would have tried to add the photo ID requirements that already exist for voters who are voting in person, either early or at the polls on Election Day, would have added those same requirements to mail-in voting.

But of course, there's some complications there, because when you vote by mail, you're not meeting with someone to show them your ID, so you would have had to photocopy your ID and send it in or present it to a poll person when you drop off your ballot at the Board of Elections.

You heard some lawmakers like Rob McColley say that this would have made Ohio the most secure state.

What the governor said is we already have secure elections.

And he said other elections officials agreed with that.

Correct?

Yeah.

So, yes.

So that is absolutely the case.

This was not just Democratic opposition to this bill.

The Association of Election Officials in Ohio, they were concerned about the bill.

That's a bipartisan group that represents the folks who staff the boards of elections in all of Ohio's 88 counties.

And there were a lot of measures in this bill to make getting that photo ID photocopy to the Board of Elections a reality.

You know, libraries and other public buildings would have had to provide free photocopies, which they said was an unfunded mandate.

There were other changes.

So there were concerns there as well as with really when you're talking about photo ID.

The association told me when an elections official asks for your ID, you're standing right there and you're showing them your photo ID, right?

Right.

Not really the same.

If I mail in a photocopy of my ID, the elections officials are looking at a piece of paper and saying, okay, this is Sarah Donaldson, but I'm not looking at Sarah Donaldson.

So there were certainly concerns there.

And this was, I should remind you all some politics as well, because lawmakers passed this bill at the same time that they passed a resolution to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot to enshrine the current photo ID law into the constitution.

And there were some folks on the right who were saying, I don't want to enshrine what we already have in the constitution without adding these new restrictions on mail-in ballots.

You know, it's not just the politicians.

The public is concerned, too, and was concerned about what this would mean.

We do library office hours during this election season or leading up to the midterms to ask people what they want to have covered.

And I was out at the Fairview Park Cuyahoga County Public Library branch, and several people said, how would that work if I sent in a photocopy of my ID?

How do they still know it's me?

And so there was a lot of questions about that from constituents as well as from as, from the the politicians themselves and the elections officials.

Here's a question, though.

How did this thing come to be?

There wasn't a bill that said we need to have a photo ID in mail-in ballots.

There wasn't an original bill with that subject.

This got jammed into something about homeless people.

Well, I should say, Mike, there was a bill, but it hadn't moved very far.

It really hadn't gotten much debate.

But this idea came from, again, these folks on the right who said, well, we have this loophole in the law that was passed in earlier this decade that added those photo ID requirements, because mail-in ballots are not required to have photo ID, so they see it as a loophole.

Not everyone sees it as a loophole, but they said that it should be all the same.

So it did get the language that got jammed in was not necessarily the language that was in that bill.

That really didn't get much debate.

I mean, this was over the course of 48 hours.

And sometimes that's how lawmaking works here at the Ohio Statehouse.

Whether you like it or not, these lawmakers sometimes jam these things in and pass them.

And in this situation, I think that there were some folks who had expressed concerns with the bill who also were concerned with how fast it moved.

The association told me they think that this idea is certainly coming back.

I don't think we're done hearing about photo ID for mail-in ballots, but they're glad to have a breath of relief to kind of figure out the kinks, the questions that you're saying, because there's also concerns with, you know, sending a photocopy of your ID in the mail.

What if that gets intercepted?

I mean, there are a lot of concerns there as well.

Is there a chance that this could come back by way of an override of the veto?

Yeah, that's a tough one.

I asked some Republican lawmakers about that, and I I'm going to talk about my crystal ball, which, you know, I always talk about, but I'm not feeling it right now.

Lawmakers are up for reelection.

They're back in their districts.

It takes a lot of political willpower to bring them back.

And they have until December to do a veto override.

So they could do it in lame duck after the election.

And of course, this bill wouldn't take effect until the 2027 general election.

But I don't know if there's the willpower to do a veto override.

The votes on these bills were very close to 60.

And you need you don't just need 51 votes to get a veto override through.

All right.

This is just a quick question.

But there was another another issue that that was a veto from the governor that we should address.

It's about sub metering.

And we've talked about this before.

If you're a third party that someone's paying their electrical bill to not necessarily AEP Ohio or another group like that.

Is it a utility?

And the Supreme Court weighed in on that.

Yeah.

So the Supreme Court had weighed in on it, and lawmakers had said that they wanted to create a legislative structure to kind of implement what the Supreme Court said.

But this bill specifically, there were a lot of folks who had raised concerns with it, namely the Ohio Consumers Council.

They said that it actually rolled back some of the protections that came from that Supreme Court order.

And there were some, you know, Democrats largely voted against this bill.

And there were also some Republicans who voted against this bill.

So DeWine kind of sided with that Consumer Council argument when he said, you know, the Supreme Court's already weighed in on this, and this actually potentially takes away some protections that the Supreme Court is trying to get those folks who are submitted.

Okay.

The US Supreme Court, the US Supreme Court, not the state Supreme court, yesterday greenlit the Trump administration's plan to strip temporary protected status from Haitian and Syrian immigrants.

Governor DeWine lamented the fact that up to 15,000 Haitians living in Springfield legally, and more than 30,000 throughout Central Ohio, are now subject to immediate deportation.

DeWine and others who supported the protected status say it's unsafe for them to return to Haiti due to violent gangs, a barely functioning government and an economy that's in shambles.

Kabir, what was the reasoning the High Court gave for clearing the way for this action?

Well, they said, essentially, judges cannot second guess these federal decisions.

They don't have the power to do that.

So they're saying this is what we're doing.

6 to 3.

They voted and that's what's going to happen.

They also didn't think that anyone would succeed on legal terms if they were going to challenge this.

And as you said, supporters have pointed out that now there's, in Ohio, there's thousands of families that are subject to immediate deportation.

And this is a country that already, Haiti, a country that already the State Department says we shouldn't be going there because of the violence, kidnaping, political instability, that sort of thing.

And, Gabe, since the presidential election in 2024, we've had conversations about the Haitian population, specifically in Springfield.

That they were invited there, that they were working there, that they're part of the economy and that they've had this temporary protected status for years.

Right.

So TPS temporary protected status is similar to being a refugee or an asylum in the sense that they were invited here.

They were brought here for a certain reason, humanitarian reasons, reasons that are escaping war, reasons for escaping gang violence, you know, some sort of unrest in their native country that the United States said, we're going to bring you here.

The difference between those three statuses is that with TPS, it is meant to be temporary.

So you can, in a sense, understand why there is a stronger effort to to eliminate or to have these folks no longer be around here but have the status sunset.

You have the.

Yes.

So these Haitian folks are worried about what's happening back home.

There's gang violence that they're escaping.

There's you know, there were some folks from Haiti who were sent back to Haiti.

And they were they, you know, found violence and some people were murdered.

And those were stuff that happened.

So, you know, people are concerned about what might happen to them back home.

And I understand that.

That's why things have been extended time and time again.

And what governor DeWine said was, you know, this is not a time to be sending them back there, as could be or mentioned, it's not a great situation in Haiti.

They started here in 2010 with this status because of the devastation of an earthquake.

But as you said, it's been renewed as it's gone along.

So it is temporary, but it's temporary and reasons to extend it.

Now you have a population in Springfield we've mentioned and we've interviewed before.

And by the way, this was brought up in the presidential election that there are immigrants are eating pets and those types of things, which was apocryphal.

But now we have this population that the community says is necessary to the community, including DeWine.

What happens to them is their immediate deportation.

Do we do we know what the fate is?

And that's what's scary, because I don't really know.

I mean, there are advocacy groups that are going to help these people get the legal services that they might need.

They're going to hope that Congress will make a decision that will help keep them here temporarily, really even longer.

But yes, I mean, I think there's going to be an effort to try to get these people to be here long term, like you would for a refugee or an asylum, because they have made a home here.

They have been a part of the local economy.

They have been, you know, part of the communities down there.

So, you know, yes.

I mean, you talked about kind of these attacks on what happens to these communities, whether that's, you know, claims of of things that are not happening, whether they're eating pets or whatever it may be.

But on the other side of the coin, you have people who want them to stay.

You want them to be here.

And, you know, we don't know what's going to happen with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

We, there's a theory that they will be sent to Haiti immediately, and they'll have to be in fear and concern about where they will be going from a day-to-day basis when they walk to work or walk to the grocery store where it may be.

And we think about what happened in Minnesota a few months ago, where ICE went there kind of in droves to try to round people up.

And there's concern that that might be happening in Springfield, but we don't really know.

Sarah, the governor is passionate about this issue, and there's a personal reason behind that.

Yeah.

So he and his wife, the First Lady Fran DeWine, have a school established in the name of their late daughter who died in a car crash, I believe.

And so they have had that school for years, and it had to shut down when this unrest came up again.

And I'm not sure that it's up and running again.

I know it had to shut down a couple of years ago.

So DeWine has been out to Haiti.

The first lady has been out to Haiti.

It's certainly very personal for him.

Some of it is faith based.

So he has been very defensive of this population, he said.

These folks have been living here legally, and of course, their status is now being taken away.

And he sees it as a mistake.

And as we're talking about this, an immigration issue, also this week, Ohio bishops delivered a rebuke to the Trump administration over its immigration policy, specifically ending TPS for Haiti.

Let's talk about that.

The bishops gathered together and said, this is unacceptable.

Yeah, they said it's unacceptable on moral grounds.

They certainly, like others out in Springfield as well as across the country, it's been a lot of faith based groups who have been providing support to these immigrants.

And just again, noting, like the governor has, that the conditions in Haiti are not good.

There's no real defense to take away that TPS status in their eyes, because the conditions have not improved in Haiti.

And the bishops were well, they may have been following the lead of Pope Leo, who has been vocal about the treatment of immigrants.

I understand that from a picture on social media that I saw, that, you know the Pope personally.

Is that true?

I'd love to say I know the Pope personally, but I did get to meet the Pope when I was on my honeymoon.

My husband and I were blessed to receive the Sposi Novelli, which is for newlywed Catholics, so it was pretty cool.

But I will say the Pope and I only shared brief words.

We did not talk about immigration in America.

Okay, fair enough.

And by the way, it wasn't like a big crowd and you're in the back.

I saw the picture.

You're shaking his hand.

It was a pretty amazing and special moment.

So really cool.

All right, moving on.

We'll be hearing a lot in the coming months about how to fund upkeep of major, publicly owned local sports venues, as the sin tax meant to do that isn't bringing in enough cash.

Could a sales tax hike for already high taxed Cuyahoga County be proposed down the road?

That's one idea.

Another, that was offered this week by Cuyahoga County Councilmember Michael Gallagher is to use anything left over from the tax for a new county jail and repairs to the existing courthouse to pay for stadium repairs.

Gabe, we're going to hear a bunch of ideas coming up there.

Might we might again hear about taxing sports betting.

We might hear about a million things because they're in the hole.

They have an obligation to maintain these facilities because they're publicly owned, even though the benefit financially is to the owners of the teams.

What is Gallagher's plan specifically?

Well, it's to lean on that sales tax.

So in 2023, there was an extension for 40 years to have the sales tax remain at 8%, and that's up .25%.

And that extra .25 percent was intended to fund the courthouse and to, you know, repairs to the Justice Center and the new jail in the jail complex.

So Gallagher believes that there will be extra funding from that sales tax and wants to lean on that extra funding to help renovate and provide updates to these stadiums.

I mentioned there's a bunch of ideas out there.

The county and area sports teams already asked lawmakers in Columbus for the permission to triple or quadruple the sin tax.

They were denied on that.

So maybe a raise on the sales tax we're hearing.

And again, I don't have any specific firsthand knowledge of this.

There's been some great reporting.

Caitlin Durbin at The Plain Dealer and others who have reported about this, but an increase in the sales tax, that's already the state's highest.

Right.

So it's interesting.

It's hard to convince people that they would pay an even higher sales tax, which is why the move from the county executive to ask the state if they can increase the sin tax.

It seems like a softer blow in that kind of sense, that it doesn't necessarily affect everybody.

It's been, I suppose you could say, successful in helping provide repairs and updates to stadiums over the last decade or so.

But yeah, they'll have to find some way to do this.

And what's interesting is hearing, especially from Gallagher, is talking about different ideas of how they can get the money.

And a lot of times the ideas are, you know, the money will help support Rocket Arena and Progressive Field and the Gateway District, but not necessarily support the Cleveland Browns Stadium as it goes down to Brook Park.

I suppose in an effort to say that they're receiving so much from the state already that they should prioritize the other two stadiums, but they're going to have to come up with a plan for that as well.

Yes, public is on the hook for upkeep.

Absolutely.

All right.

Maybe one way to pay for it is just jack up parking, right?

Maybe.

No.

Well, I mean, there's success in that right now.

There is on a much smaller scale, but Cleveland has nearly quadrupled its take from street parking since jacking up rates and expanding enforcement hours at the start of the year.

Kabir.

So just how much money are we talking?

And the numbers are for the first four months after of the year after the prices were raised.

So just this year, January to April, $1.17 million, which you compare that to 2025, the first four months, that's an increase of 370%, which means that they took in like $300,000.

So it's a it's a big jump from last year.

And so the changes and we've talked about these in fact there were there were changes that were very expensive.

Now they're just really expensive.

But but the changes have, have have been knocked down a little bit by council.

But what basically changed it went it was from a dollar to $1.50 per hour for parking.

If you stayed longer, you know you couldn't park there all day.

Then they bumped that I think from $3 to $4.50.

And then the biggie, the at least that I think a lot of people noticed, whether they live in the city or not.

After 6 p.m., you can't stay overnight and park overnight.

They're going to start charging for that.

Weekends they've started charging.

This is in parts of the city, not the entire city, right?

Some neighborhoods, some downtown.

It's not.

It's different in various parts.

It's different.

Yeah.

They've rolled it out very differently.

I mean, I find that out driving around the city, I'm like, oh, it's $10 to park here.

And it was only $8 over by work for the same amount of time.

So don't you get free parking for your vintage Volkswagen?

Yeah.

What I do, I put on fake plates.

I mean, I don't put on fake plates, but yes, long, long answer to your question that yes, they did this.

And Mayor Bibb said this is good for people who just need to park real quick and run inside someplace to shop.

You know, all the people going to Halle Brothers to shop, they want to run inside and buy .

Yeah.

All the people coming down, they leave the May Company.

After they leave the May Company, And Higbee's.

I guess he thinks they're running up to the place and they just want to run inside for ten minutes and get something.

I always feel compelled to talk about the parking situation in Cleveland every time I'm on the show, because I use it a lot.

I use this Park Mobile app to pay for parking.

And what's interesting is when the price increase went up, I certainly noticed the numbers and cents, but it's such a passive way of paying for it that in my mind I'm like, yeah, it's a few bucks, but it is significantly higher in terms of percentage price.

And, you know, I wonder if just because it's so easy to do that, you know, the price went up and it doesn't seem to affect me, although it does eventually, but I don't notice it right away that I'm just happy to pay it.

Yeah.

And what the city is saying is this is a good thing because it creates churn, as you were saying, it used to be that after 6:00 on a Friday, you could snag a spot and stay there until Monday.

And so now what are the businesses doing and why?

Why can we get some churn and some turnover.

So they say that's working and they're not happy that council has limited what their plans are.

But the fact of the matter is it is raking in money to it is raking in money.

Not as much as it was, say, the first four months of the year, but certainly more than in the past.

So yeah, as you said, council voted 13 to 2 and they said, Mayor Bibb, we're going to limit your powers to increase and change the parking rates.

All right.

Well, let's talk about something else that may profit, create profit for, the city of Cleveland.

A new tenant may be moving into Cleveland's IX center.

City officials say the manufacturer, not yet named, could bring 700 jobs and $72 million in annual payroll.

Kabir, we don't know much because apparently there's a non-disclosure agreement.

But we do know it's not a data farm.

It's not a data.

One of those.

They say it's a manufacturer.

Yeah.

I mean, with that many jobs, I don't think it would be a data center, but they would take up about a half million square feet of the building, and they're thinking $1.8 million in new income tax revenue.

But as you said, there's a non-disclosure.

Nothing has been signed.

Brook Park City Council has approved the deal.

Cleveland City Council is still looking at it.

And the way this got cleared is there is a deal with Brook Park recently.

We talked about it on this show where Cleveland would get the taxes from the center and fully.

And so then there's some incentive to be able to to make this happen.

They said, we have to be able to get all the taxes from that building.

So they undid this whole deal that was tied to when we were a hub at the airport.

And I'm not going to take up the rest of the show explaining it.

But yeah, in a nutshell, Cleveland wants to be able to create jobs and get revenue out of that and keep it all to themselves.

If we have any time at the end of the show, we'll go back to that and you can give us all the details.

Good.

I'll change my clothes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Greater Cleveland Congregations, a faith based community organization, protested outside of a Citizen's Bank branch Thursday, saying members vow to withdraw deposits because of the bank's investments in jails that do business with U.S.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Gabe, you were there most of the day yesterday and talking with folks.

What was the demand of the group?

Well, I first want to say it is interesting that they did this in University Heights in front of the Citizens Bank location.

You know, the demand is to the CEO of citizens Bank, not necessarily the tellers who are there at this University Heights location, So it was kind of interesting in the symbolism, but the demand is that they want the Citizens Financial Group to end what they are saying is a $2.5 billion credit agreement that it has with two companies that operate private prisons and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE jails, Core Civic and the Geo Group.

So these two companies operate private prisons, and ICE jails apparently have $2.5 billion in financing within the bank.

And they want to make them stop.

So that's their leverage.

Leverage is we've got what did they say they're going to withdraw.

So yeah.

So Greater Cleveland Congregations has churches and individual members collectively, whether it's a personal account or an account attached to a bank.

They said they have 26 accounts, that they are willing to withdraw all of that money.

And collectively that's more than $1.7 million.

So that they're saying is they'll take that money out.

And that may seem like a drop in the bucket to Citizens Bank just have this one region in Ohio to withdraw their money, but they're joining forces with a much larger effort that's more than $20 million.

And of a group of congregations in Boston.

And, you know, if that gains some traction, that might add up to a dollar amount that Citizens Bank doesn't want to lose.

The Rev.

Jwanza Colvin of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church gave voice to this group.

You quoted him in your story.

What what was he saying is the problem with funding these outfits that house people from Customs Enforcement?

Well, him, alongside the other 37 institutions, part of Greater Cleveland Congregations.

Is that like this is inhumane.

This is unconstitutional.

They wanted to express that feeling to me yesterday.

You know, Jwanza Colvin was interesting.

He's you know, he's no stranger to being on our air.

And he had a really kind of fun quote saying that you're called Citizens Bank.

You'd think that you would be, you know, there for the people you'd think that you wouldn't want to associate with organizations that work against what they say is basic human rights and constitutional rights.

But he also talked about how seven years ago, a lot of other banks had a had a similar, I guess, motion to just to say, we're not going to join forces, we're not going to support financially these types of organizations, organizations that fund and operate private banks and ICE jails.

So, you know, he gave a list of national banks like Citizens Bank that they said they should follow their lead like these banks did in 2019.

Yeah.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Fifth Third, Sun Trust, JPMorgan Chase.

They said essentially the big ones that you would think about because, I mean, the effort right now is only toward Citizens Bank.

This is like an a national effort.

And that seems to be the only one people are talking about.

And let's just find out what the bank says.

I know you got a statement from them.

What was their response to this?

Well, I asked them if they are in fact financing these two companies and they wouldn't say yes or they wouldn't say no.

But they said like this.

They said, this is not the role of banks to set public policy.

They said the responsibility on them is to follow the law, apply standards consistently across all client relationships.

So basically towing the line and saying that we are there to help anybody no matter what.

Okay.

We learned this week that Governor DeWine granted mercy to a man on death row the first time he's commuted a death sentence.

64-year-old Gregory Lott will now serve a life sentence without parole.

And when DeWine called on lawmakers to abolish Ohio's death penalty last week, he'd already signed Lott's clemency order.

Sarah.

Sarah.

There are more than 100 people on death row.

So question is, is this an indication that in addition to his call for abolishing the death penalty, DeWine may commute the sentences of more than just this one person?

Well, we don't know yet.

We do know that the governor wouldn't comment on whether he was going to do mass commutations of all these sentences.

It's something that the ACLU of Ohio has been calling him to do.

But it does, you know, offer a little bit of a glimpse into the fact that he might.

And this did this commutation happened Of course, like you said before, he made this death penalty announcement.

And I also will note that there were some other factors in this case.

You know, the victim's family was opposed to this man being executed.

And the parole board had also recommended leniency in his case.

He had had a couple of reprieves.

The first came in 2002, shortly after the US Supreme Court decided that executing people with intellectual disabilities is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment.

There's another reprieve granted from DeWine in early 2020, citing a lack of available drugs, which is what he had been saying for all of those things.

So he'd had some reprieve during that time.

The crime that he committed was a horrific crime.

Yeah.

So he he's a 64 year old man and he has intellectual disabilities.

And this life sentence is because he doused an 82 year old man and in heating lamp will and then set him on fire.

That man died ten days later.

So a pretty brutal crime.

Most of the people, if not all of the people who are serving on death row, or even someone like him whose sentence has been commuted, of course, have committed really gruesome crimes.

And this is a local case.

Gregory Lott is from East Cleveland.

None of the citizen- led constitutional amendment initiatives will make it to voters this fall.

We mentioned one that will make it.

That one was because the legislature put that on in a slightly different process.

Conserve Ohio, which was pushing for an amendment banning banning most data centers in the state, announced this week it didn't have enough signatures to make the November ballot.

They'll try for November 2027 instead.

Same for an amendment abolishing property taxes and another on equal rights.

There will still be the amendment as I mentioned on this fall's ballot, the one placed by the legislature to codify voter identification requirements in person.

Lawmakers don't need to circulate petition to get something on the ballot.

And, Sarah, the data center amendment push was a volunteer based effort.

Like the property tax abolishment drive.

It's having trouble coming up with enough signatures.

Not a real surprise, though.

Not at all.

It's very, very hard for citizens to get something on the ballot.

And lawmakers say that that's obviously intentional.

They want to they say they want to protect the Constitution and that it should be hard to amend Ohio's constitution.

But lawmakers certainly have an easier route to get things on the ballot if they have something that they all agree on, because it's just that a larger majority of both chambers have to pass that resolution.

But volunteer efforts usually struggle.

It's very expensive to get on the ballot.

There are requirements beyond just getting these 400 something thousand signatures.

A lot of these groups aim for more like 600,000 or 800,000, because they need to get a certain number of valid signatures and people spell their names wrong, put the address wrong, all of that.

So not really very surprising.

The signatures they've gathered though can roll over.

They get to save those, add to them.

Now they could more problematic because more time goes by, people may move and those types of things and they would be invalid, but they can keep those.

There is one state lawmaker, though, who says that shouldn't be the case.

They should expire and you should have to start again.

Yeah, I think that's just in line with lawmakers have a expressed that it should be hard to amend the Constitution.

And while the process is already not easy, I think lawmakers have seen, like we have all seen, this increase in groups trying to make the ballot simply because you saw the success of the abortion rights amendment back in 2023.

So I think that lawmakers, you know, they tried to make it harder to amend the Constitution in August of 2023 and failed.

But there have certainly those concerns have not gone away.

But it is, like you said, these signatures expire.

There are a lot of groups like you ran through who have pushed off trying to make the ballot this year.

I think the Secretary of State's office said that there are at least six petitions out there, and I will know that this is not the first time this has happened.

There was a group circulating petitions to get the minimum wage increased, and they said, well, we're going to try again for next year.

And then they kind of just disappeared and didn't try again.

So we'll see.

State Sen.

Jerry Cirino is somebody, by the way, who says there should be a 12 month or an 18 month or some other deadline than than what exists now.

We'll keep an eye on that for sure.

I know the Statehouse News Bureau will.

Time now for a quick break.

And when we return, there are plenty more stories to discuss, including more headaches for drivers.

Seriously, there are more barrels than cars lately on the roads.

And an unlikely alliance looking to shore up Social Security.

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

Stephanie.

Hi there Mike.

Here's what we have coming up next week on The Sound of Ideas.

You may have heard America has a birthday coming up: 250 years.

So on Monday, we'll start with a pulse check on how people are feeling about this moment with a diverse panel of Ohioans.

We'll also talk with StoryCorps founder and president Dave Isay about a project they have going on called Connect 250, where they'll be bringing together people from around the country, from different backgrounds, to have extended conversations about this moment in our history.

On Tuesday, we've got Ideastream's Conor Morris with us talking about the consolidation underway at the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.

And we'll also learn about the language of Esperanto.

This is meant to be a secondary language that's meant to be politically neutral and foster international understanding and peace.

And it has connections to Cleveland dating back to the 1930s.

On Wednesday, we'll be filling you in on the rulings that have been coming out from the United States Supreme Court.

We hope to be able to have a conversation about what's happening with birthright citizenship.

If that ruling does come out.

And on Thursday, we'll be bringing you information about a pilot program related to Medicare.

Ohio is one of six states participating in this program that's introducing artificial intelligence and pre-ordering to Medicare, and the results have been leading to some criticism.

Of course, everything is subject to change with breaking news.

As always.

Back to you in the studio, Mike.

Sounds great Steph.

And StoryCorps always makes me cry.

I almost cried hearing the word StoryCorps.

So that's going to be a great show.

And you are back now with the Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable from Ideastream Public Media.

I'm Mike McIntyre, executive editor here, and I'm joined this week by Idea stream reporters Gabriel Kramer and Kabir Bhatia and in Columbus, from the Idea stream Statehouse News Bureau, we have Sarah Donaldson as well.

And I invite you to not just listen and watch, but play along by taking the weekly Ideastream News Quiz.

You can find it on our home page at Ideastream.org.

Send me a note, tell me what your score was.

And you're hearing this right.

Senator Bernie Moreno, a Trump aligned Republican, and Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat for whom Trump has a special derisive nickname, have teamed up to shore up Social Security.

The two serve on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and they agree the way to get more money into the system and bolster benefits is to lift the cap on income for which the Social Security tax is collected.

Sarah, let's talk about that.

First of all, what an alliance.

I saw their piece and they addressed it directly in their Op-Ed in the New York Times saying, yeah, you might not expect us to be together, but we both believe that this is an important issue and this is how to go at it.

What's the focus and why is it on this issue at this very moment?

Well, I think that there is absolutely concern that if Congress doesn't act, Social Security benefits are going to be depleted in less than a decade at this point, which means that folks who are getting Social Security benefits may see their benefits cut.

So I think that that has been a pressing issue, and Congress definitely needs to act to avoid that from happening.

Yeah, just perfect timing, right?

When I'm thinking about retiring myself in that time frame the next ten years.

Let's talk about what exactly they're asking.

When I say lift on the cap, what happens now and what would they propose?

So they are proposing raising or eliminating the cap all together on taxable earnings while maintaining the current benefit structure.

So benefits are calculated based on the full contribution base.

And that would lead to higher monthly Social Security benefits for individuals who earn more than the current earnings base.

I know that's a little confusing.

I'm still learning about it myself because, Mike, I am far away from retiring.

You got a while, but studies say that that would inject 3 trillion into the program over the next decade.

And of course, that 2032 date is kind of when there's concerns about depletion.

Interestingly.

So what happens now is you make $184,500 a year, which I think the two of you are both over.

Right?

Gabe and Kabir.

Combined times two.

Yeah, but if you make $184,500 a year, taxed on every one of those dollars, everything you make over it, they don't collect the Social Security tax.

And so if you lift the cap and someone makes $500,000, that's where more money comes in.

And their reasoning is that if in the in their op ed, the wealthiest Americans who have benefited the most from America's opportunities should contribute the same percentage of their income as a factory worker in Chillicothe or a teacher in Worcester, Mass.

And it notes, why should a middle class nurse pay a larger share of her paycheck than a wealthy corporate lawyer?

It's doubly unfair in an economy in which top earners wages, over time, have pulled far ahead of those of the average worker.

So basically continue to pay that tax on all of your income, or a greater percentage than the $184,500 a year.

We'll see how that pans out.

But but I was taken aback by that, by that partnership.

It wasn't just a Republican and a Democrat.

It was a pretty polarizing combination.

I feel like we used to see this a lot more people from opposite sides of the aisle figuring this is good for the country, not just this is good for my party.

So it's nice that they're doing that again, for sure.

First Energy can't have longer and more frequent power outages and still fall within reliability standards after the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio sided with angry customers and rejected the company's requests for more leeway.

Kabir, the PUCO, says it received an earful from customers.

We reported on that here, but basically they were saying, listen, don't make it easier for them to leave our power off longer.

This was also alliances all across the board customers, municipalities, politicians, consumer advocates.

All of them said the way that you measure the effectiveness of this is the frequency of the outages and the length of the outages.

And please don't roll back those standards so that the outages can be longer or more frequent.

Nobody wants that.

Why would they?

Right.

And, Gabe, I just want to know that there was literally an outage two days ago in the West Side of Cleveland from First Energy.

So it's frequent.

Yeah, Lakewood gets it all the time.

On Reddit every hour somebody was posting anything yet?

Anybody else got power yet in Hudson?

I think we had one yesterday.

So.

So what would the argument be?

And I've heard from the fact after we've had a conversation on this show, I got an email from folks at First Energy.

What is their argument for wanting to have this more leeway?

They say they've, you know, invested in their power grid, but at the same time they're dealing with heavier rains, worse weather, and even things like trees falling outside of the trimming zone and, you know, taking power lines down.

So they're saying, look, we're investing, but we've got all these natural factors that we can't really control that are making these things more frequent and having them last longer.

Now, this doesn't mean they can't have the outages.

It just means they're going to get dinged for it and told that they're out of the reliability standard.

So they don't have it's not an easier path to stay within reliability and just just for as a gauge, they have 135 minutes.

They wanted to increase that to 150.

The amount of time to to fix it.

So that extra 15 minutes, I guess they really felt they could have used that.

But it's not going to happen, at least not right now.

Okay, everyone who drives anywhere in Northeast Ohio will tell you what a nightmare this construction season is.

From local roadways to virtually every highway, orange barrels and glowing red taillights are the norm.

Now add this: The East ninth Street exit on Cleveland's inner belt, accessed from the eastbound lanes, is closing through October.

Can we just take the helicopter in to work?

Gabe, honestly, it's funny.

I am stunned how often people are just dependent on Ninth Street.

You know, I live just south of downtown, so I do take that exit often, but when it's packed and lined up, like, especially after a Guardians game or a Cavs game, it just take something else.

I mean, it's so easy to go around and take something else, but people are just so dependent on Ninth Street.

So ODOT is saying take it from exit, take somewhere else.

Yeah, but that's the problem.

So take something else.

I'm a take something else guy.

So I get off at Ontario before to Ninth Street.

Right.

Go down and hang it right.

And I'll get to Ninth Street anyway.

And pass that and get it.

Get to where I'm going for work.

But now everyone is going to be doing that because Ninth Street is going to be closed.

So now my exit is the one that's going to be packed.

So you thought you had this cool secret?

I had everyone's all all of our listeners now know that they're going to follow your car in to work, but it is a scenic route.

I mean, not to not to keep selling your route, but like, you take, you know, you take Ontario and you turn right on Carnegie, that infamous corner that if Karen was here, she'd clap for.

And then you turn right now you're on Ninth Street, you turn left, and now you're back down to where you would have been.

But there are other alternates.

It is going to be a pain for sure.

It's going to be very annoying for a lot of people.

But I learned the map.

The streets are numbered and you'll find another way to get in out of the city.

Speaking of pain, that's another one of my secrets.

You just stay in the left lane, go all the way to Superior.

Get off the Superior exit.

Hang a right off that exit.

Get on Payne and come back.

Yes.

Okay, so another.

Another one of my secrets.

Now everyone else is going to be there.

The project.

on 90 is coming as a massive project also is underway on 77.

Drivers really don't have any free and clear options.

I get up and I go up the street from where I am, and right at the top of my street, half of that street is closed down.

The locals, I'm sure in Hudson it's the same.

I'm sure in Tremont you've got plenty, Gabe.

But man, it's been a frustrating traffic season.

And up here, this the I-90 project that's not ending until 2032.

So to give people a sense of how long that is, that's six years.

Six years ago we were right in the thick of Covid, remember?

Thank you.

So that's how long it's going to take.

I remember one of these projects they announced when it was going to end, and my dad was a route that he took.

And I thought, I'm going to be retiring when this is done.

Not just him anyway.

Yeah, lots of stuff happening there.

Replacing the bridges over for 22 East 22nd Street, East 14th Street.

So there's going to be a lot for the there's going to be a lot forever.

Well gird up.

And if you live in Tremont like some of us do, start walking to work.

Honestly.

Yeah.

I mean there's lots easy for me or like Drew Maziasz, hop on your bike.

Bicycle.

I was just going to, like.

All right.

Sheriffs from around Northeast Ohio lobbied Cuyahoga County Council in support of a proposed charter amendment that would return the sheriff to an elected position in Cuyahoga County.

The county sheriff is now appointed by the county executive as prescribed in the county charter, and gave an argument against an appointed sheriff is that it creates a revolving door.

What is that argument?

Well, in Cuyahoga County between let me see, 2019 and 2023, it had five different people holding the position between Clifford Pinkney and currently Harold Pratel.

So it does I mean, when, you know, people have the ability to leave if they want, you know, the the executive has the ability to, I guess, replace them if they feel that that's necessary.

But it leaves the power on the county executive and their people rather than, you know, the people rather than people who can vote on it.

Yeah, the people did vote on this on a charter.

Right.

So there is a charter for the county.

It says that the sheriff should be appointed.

But we saw all these other sheriffs.

And by the way, that's unique in Cuyahoga County across the state.

It's the only county in the state that has this.

So so we saw these other sheriffs come in and say, really, it's an accountability measure that there should be an elected sheriff because that makes them more accountable to the public.

Yeah, they feel more obligated to the people that voted them in.

The power is kind of the suggestion.

You know, I talked to reporter Matt Richmond about this a couple days ago, and he was talking about how, you know, in in Cuyahoga County, which is more densely populated, there are police departments all over the county that are taking care of every, every inch of county.

But you go to some other counties in Ohio, and the sheriff's office is the only law enforcement for some parts of those counties, townships and township and stuff like that.

So it is a little bit unique in that regard.

But I mean, there's other counties, Franklin and Hamilton that are also densely populated.

So it's a little bit different there.

So yeah, I mean I understand, you know, the idea, but also what, what what's been happening is there's been kind of a disagreement between county executive and the sheriff over who whose call is what call.

And that's things like budgeting especially.

So, you know, there's they're kind of butting heads.

And if you're elected by the people rather than the executive, then you're not having to argue with these so much about how to spend the dollars.

Right.

And there's also an amendment regarding who controls the budget.

And there are several others.

Six total constitutional amendment that council is talking about our Matt Richmond will keep his eye on all of those and will continue to offer coverage there.

15 Akron Public School employees slated for layoff next month due to budget constraints will remain on the payroll, so there were 17 that were going to be laid off.

Now 15 are staying maybe going to adjacent jobs in the district.

Kabir?

Yeah, they're coming back to positions that were vacant or that are vacant.

So 15 of them, they were going to be out on July 1st, but instead they're going to bring them back.

That's six intervention specialists.

They work with students with disabilities.

And that's a very close relationship that they have.

So it's important when they've got those people to to pair them up for they call them learning resource center technicians.

They work in the libraries, six deans of students, they're essentially assistant principals.

And then there is an art therapist, and she's actually going to be doing some sub work, that sort of thing, finishing her teaching credentials.

And then she might be back after that.

But yeah, 15 of the 17 will be coming back to the district.

So how are they then saving the money that they need to save?

We heard that they needed to cut $11 million by the end of the fiscal year.

The goal was moved even higher than that next year.

But if they're bringing everybody back and didn't really cut them, is it?

How is that happening?

Because there's positions now that are vacant through various reasons resignations, retirements, that sort of thing.

So they were able to find the money because they don't have to spend it on those extra 15 employees.

Okay.

Governor DeWine has a number of bills to consider after a flurry of legislative activity by lawmakers before they recessed for their summer break.

One of those measures establishes how and when police agencies can use drones.

And that's been a big discussion here in Cleveland as well, Sarah, this bill had widespread support for its passage.

What exactly does it do?

Yeah.

So basically, like you said, it sets up roles for how government agencies, specifically peace officers, police officers can use drones, sets reservations.

If they need a warrant to go into a house, they basically need to go through some of the scene procedures to use a drone.

Now, there are some exemptions to that rule, but it did have bipartisan support.

It was a Republican bill.

But, you know, there were Democrats who were supportive of as well.

Just saying, as technology advances, the state really needs to set up guardrails for this type of technology.

The ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union, is one of the organizations that wants the governor to veto this.

What's their concern?

Yeah, they, like the ACLU of Ohio, often does are raising First Amendment concerns.

They are concerned that this bill specifically, even though it sets up those guardrails for police departments, they're worried that it gives governments, police agencies more leeway than it gives citizens on how drones are used.

And they're also concerned about the data that it collects.

They're concerned about potential privacy violations.

I saw that they thought it could allow because it's public record, one person to spy on another, and that would not be a good thing.

No, it would not.

All right.

A waterway at Reservoir Park in Massillon will be restored with the help of $750,000 in state funding.

It'll be used to begin phase two of the project.

And, Gabe, what is phase two?

And talk about the timeline for this project.

So they're hoping that this starts this coming spring in 2027, will be finished by the fall, but it should bring a new pond to this park that people are calling the Rezzy.

And then phase three is going to update and improve and provide amenities to what they're calling a historic pump house.

But that's down the road.

It's interesting because, you know, it seems like this tiny little minor story, right?

There's a reservoir in Massillon.

I bet you it's the most important story to people that live in Massillon or somewhere near around there.

Yeah.

I mean, if you're from that area, I mean, it sounds like this is very popular.

It sounds like people love this thing.

I mean, if I can imagine, you know, the kind of the the parks amenities I grew up with or around in Medina, I'd be certainly excited to see them improve and get better.

So I have to imagine that people, in Massillon are pretty excited about this because it's getting a lot of money.

I mean, you know, the city just got this $750,000 funding for this project.

In total, it's going to be about $2 million, 1.8, up to $2.1 million estimated for this with all the phases.

And that's you know, that's not that's that's a lot of money.

So it's going to be something that I think locals should be excited about.

All right.

No more Frogger for runners in Downtown Cleveland.

Construction on the Cleveland Memorial Bridges Loop has begun.

The biking and walking trail will run behind Tower City on Huron Road separated from traffic by barriers.

The project also includes another trail on Ontario Street.

We had our Stephen Litt give us all the details about this when it was announced months back, but now we finally have the construction going on this and Kabir, how does it meet a community need?

Well, if you picture it, it's kind of.

Well, it's a loop and it's almost a 5K.

So when people are coming running on the bridges, no problem.

But behind Tower City, the side that stay with me here, the side that is close to the river that does not have a good place for running, no sidewalks or anything.

So that's where they're going to be putting this in.

And if people can't picture it, it's kind of behind the old post office or behind where Hard Rock Cafe was, where the Megabus used to stop that whole area.

That's not, you know, people just zip through there.

So for runners, it's been a problem.

Now they're going to be able to actually run through there safely and then on to Ontario as well.

More construction, more construction, lots of road closures, changes, that sort of thing.

But this one's not going to these closures will affect cars, but the end result will be for runners and that and bikers.

And that's going to be completed in November okay.

So not November of eight years from now this November.

No.

But in a few years there's a fourth phase to this.

And that's going to be a few years from now after they deal with Irishtown Bend.

Okay.

Terrific.

Ferrara's Imported Foods, a Mayfield Heights community establishment since the late 1950s, has closed its doors.

That's a blow coming on the heels, too, of Schwabel's Bakery in Youngstown announcing its demise.

Others.

Whenever this happens, I remember when Sokolowski's closed and you've just recently written about that, Gabe, a neighbor of yours and friends of mine as well, when these kind of community institutions closed.

Big deal.

Oh, absolutely.

I think we're sad to see these institutions close.

Jack's Deli over on the East Side as well.

Closed.

And, you know, I think yeah, I mean, they're just you're kind of your neighborhood staples.

And it's a piece of Cleveland history.

You want them to last forever.

You think they're going to last forever, like you said?

I mean, so is a is a place that I'm still not over.

I mean, I'm still yearning and craving this provision.

I have to admit to myself I'll never get them ever again.

But yeah, I think, you know, people are certainly sad to see their their neighborhood favorites go away.

Yeah.

And I'm sure you all have a neighborhood favorite that's not there anymore.

If you have a neighborhood favorite that's still there.

My advice?

Visit.

Spend your money there.

Make sure that they stay open.

All right.

Your pocket book.

Exactly.

If you missed Union Pacific's Big Boy, the massive steam engine that rolled through town a couple of weeks back, you'll have another chance to check out a big old train this weekend.

The American Freedom Train is coming to the Flats on Saturday in celebration of the country's 250th birthday, and I know that Big Boy is actually coming back too in July, I think July 13th.

It's rolling through town is going to stop in Rocky River too.

But what's special about this one this weekend?

So this is one of 20 trains of its kind.

It's a T1 class steam locomotive, but it's it's also a large steam engine.

And those those don't get a lot of a lot of use in this one hasn't been available for, you know, people to view in the public in more than 20 years.

So, you know, as the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, birthday, whatever you want to call it.

You know, I think a big part of the history was a railroad construction.

And people are very excited to see these trains coming out of the neighborhood.

When the Big Boy first came through.

And it's like I said, I'll be coming back after the holiday, the Independence Day holiday.

People lined up in droves to see this thing.

I mean, even in Tremont, where I live.

You know, there's the Towpath Trail, people.

There was hundreds of people there, and the train didn't even stop.

It just drove through.

People were there just to see it pass by and hear it choo choo and whatever, and see the steam if they even could.

But it was pretty impressive to see how excited people are about that train.

They'll be just as excited about this one.

How many chugs acompany a choo choo?

I don't know.

Chugga chugga chugga choo choo.

Three.

Three.

Two.

Three.

Too many, that's metric.

You want two.

Okay.

I actually just heard the whistle.

I live in Rocky River a couple of blocks away from the tracks, and it was just cool to hear it, so I'm definitely gonna see it when it comes through.

All right.

Finally.

Look, I'm used to last minute losses and the goal by Turkey last night in stoppage time, the 98th minute, sealing a 3-2 victory over the U.S.

Men's National Team was a gut punch, but it was the group stage of the World Cup.

The U.S.

had already advanced, something manager Mauricio Pochettino hammered home in the post-game press conference.

So not perfect.

But Gabe, the US is advancing.

There are times when they don't even make the World Cup and times when they don't get out of the group stage, right?

So it's kind of like with this match and I use the word match because I can, like it wasn't the most crucial match to win.

They had a lot of I guess.

Yeah, only three guys had started a World Cup game before.

So yes.

But you know well excited to see them move on.

And you know they use that gut punch to motivate them through there.

You know.

And they have home kit advantage throughout the rest of the the look at you with all the lingo.

Can I say so they will be playing by the way on Wednesday against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

And we'll see how that one goes.

I know everyone will be in front of their television sets and that is all for today.

Thank you Sarah, appreciate talking to you today.

Yeah, it was good to be here.

Thanks.

All right.

Enjoy your weekend.

And my thanks to both of you, Gabe and Kabir.

Monday on The Sound of Ideas.

Everyday Northeast Ohioans discuss life in America ahead of the country's 250th anniversary on radio.

This show airs tonight at nine on 89.7 WKSU.

You can listen any time to the podcast, or check out our video stream on the Ideastream Public Media YouTube page.

We also have a robust Instagram page @TheSoundofIdeas.

We're off next week for the 4th of July holiday.

On radio, we'll have an NPR special on how to celebrate the big birthday.

And on TV, enjoy an episode of Ancient Invisible Cities.

Focusing on Athens, Greece, not Ohio, Bobcat fans.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thanks so much for listening and watching and stay Safe.

And our closing song today, the official song of the 2026 World Cup, Dai Dai by Shakira and Burna Boy.