(Electronic theme music) - Ohio House Republican leaders put the brakes on a fast-track bill that would have allowed COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and would've made it easier to avoid them with exemptions.

The state unsurprisingly missed the first deadline in the effort to redraw congressional districts.

The state legislative district maps they redrew, the Supreme Court will decide whether they're kosher.

And Lordstown Motors, which took over the shuttered General Motors Lordstown plant, intends to sell the building.

"Ideas" is next.

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("Ideas" theme music) - Hello, and welcome to "Ideas."

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for joining us.

Some lawmakers have been trying for months to ban vaccine mandates, but a bill allowing the mandates was put on the fast track by Republican leaders.

It had exemptions that made it easy for people to opt out.

But the plan to pass that quickly was scuttled when Republican leaders hit the brakes this week.

So what now?

And while vaccine exemptions are discussed and other efforts to promote vaccination are considered, Northeast Ohio hospitals are cutting capacity and moving staff to deal with the latest surge in patients, with fewer workers to care for them, due to employee burnout.

And Ohio lawmakers dragged their feet on drawing new state legislative districts that are now being challenged in court because they heavily favor Republicans, still.

Now they've missed the first deadline to draw new congressional district maps.

We'll talk about those stories and much more on this edition of the Reporter's Roundtable.

Joining me this week, managing producer of Ideastream Public Media's health unit, Marlene Harris-Taylor, and Ideastream multiple media producer Gabriel Kramer.

In Columbus, Statehouse News Bureau reporter Andy Chow.

Let's get ready to Roundtable.

All right, Andy, let's talk about this.

We've had a bunch of anti-vax bills that have come up where it says you, you don't, you can't mandate vaccines.

This apparently was some sort of a, an alternative to that that says you can, but there were so many exemptions.

Why was it that the House Speaker and the other Republican leaders were trying to get this to a vote in what appears to be record time?

- So part of the argument is the looming vaccine rule coming from the Federal Government President, Joe Biden, giving out the rule that employers that have more than a hundred employees must mandate the vaccine, or they must subject themselves to weekly, regular testing.

And so that's sort of the looming issue from the federal side, but what we've heard from House Speaker Bob Cupp last week was that he wanted to take all the information that the Republicans and the committees have gathered over people who don't want mandates on any vaccines who want to get rid of the mandates on just the COVID-19 vaccines.

There's also a bill that would just prohibit vaccine mandates just in the public sector, but not the private sector.

There's all types of pieces of legislation out there.

Speaker Cupp said he wanted to take into account all those things and come up with a piece of legislation that he thought would be a compromise that he could reach some sort of consensus with the Republican caucus.

And they thought this exemptions bill, which would codify these exemptions that you usually see at schools and businesses, put that into State law.

And I think they thought that they had something here where maybe they had a consensus in the Republican caucus, but at the last minute, just just moments before the legislators were supposed to enter the Ohio House Chamber, they pulled it from a vote.

- The opposition to it is pretty wide ranging.

We don't know that because there weren't any hearings on it, which you usually have on these kinds of bills.

Instead, this was, you know, let's get it done in two days and not, and not have these hearings, but still, people were heard, the Ohio business community, particularly, which they listened to.

- Yeah and it seems like the really big dagger in the hopes of fast-tracking this bill came in the form of a group calling itself the Ohio Vaccine Coalition just hours before it was set for a House vote, the Ohio Vaccine Coalition released a statement.

And this is a coalition of more than a hundred private businesses and healthcare organizations, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Ohio Manufacturing Association, the Ohio Hospital Association, all these groups were part of this coalition.

They said, "This is not the right bill."

They thought that it was not right for the State.

They thought it went in the wrong direction when it came to recovering from, from the COVID-19 pandemic.

And this is what you get when you try to fast track a bill, sometimes leadership is able to get something through.

This was one of those times where the, the pushback was really widely heard.

And it wasn't just from people who are pro-vaccine, it wasn't just from groups who thought this was in the wrong direction when it comes to public health issues.

It also came from groups that wanted more, these groups that had been calling for prohibitions against vaccine mandates.

They were also against this because of course they feel like it doesn't do enough.

- So we found something to unite them, right, that they're all against.

So, so then the question is what comes next, Andy?

So there'll be some retooling.

There'll be, let's get some more work done on this.

But then who gets the loudest voice in that?

The anti-vaxxers or the ones who say we need fewer exemptions and more people vaccinated.

- It's a great question because the real, the real issue here is what happened in the Republican caucus meeting those minutes before they were supposed to take the floor.

This was something that was supposed to come to a vote and something was said, or several things were said, in that caucus meeting that led Bob Cupp, the Speaker of the House to say, "No, this isn't the right way to go."

And so what we are hearing is that, again, it's not enough for the people who want widespread bans on COVID or on vaccine mandates.

And it's not enough for people who want to see progress in the public health sphere.

And it's not enough for people who want to see more rights for private businesses.

So exactly what needs to be done, that remains to be seen.

And again, that's the whole issue here with not having a committee process where you usually do iron out the details, where you do hear from the different sides.

And they say, "Well listen, this issue wasn't addressed, that issue wasn't addressed."

We as reporters had several questions about the bills and it didn't seem to have answers to some of the questions that we had.

So, the sense we're getting from Republican leadership is that they still believe that this is the vehicle that they can move forward.

They just need to tinker with it a little bit more.

I think they think that they can pull the right lever levers to really thread that needle within their caucus to get the support that they need.

- While all this is happening, Marlene, there's the debate about vaccines, about exemptions, about bans on mandates, et cetera, Northeast Ohio is struggling.

The hospitals here are struggling to meet the demand for medical care created by the latest surge.

So let's talk a little bit about that.

We heard earlier in the week about Summa Health, reducing capacity, some of the hospitals, I've heard of a number of people that I know who've said, "Hey, I had this elective thing scheduled and they called and said 'Let's put that off.'"

So we're, we're in that position now.

- [Marlene] We're here now.

We've been talking for a while about how the hospitals in the Southern part of Ohio were really getting slammed.

But here in Northeast Ohio, in the Northern part of Ohio, things were still relatively calm.

Well, the wave has actually moved up to Northeast Ohio now.

And the question is, are we at the peak right now?

You hear some experts saying that we are at the peak.

So this is the worst of it.

And we'll start to see it come down in a few weeks, because that seems to be the pattern in the rest of the country.

But in the meantime, we have to get through this peak and that's what hospitals are facing right now.

So you're right.

There's some hospitals, Summa Healthcare, UH, even Cleveland Clinic and some parts more over in the Akron area.

They have been reducing bed capacity, which seems counterintuitive.

It's like, if you've got more people coming in, why are you reducing bed capacity?

But the reason they're doing that is because they don't have the staff and they want to move the staff around to areas where they're most needed.

- [Mike] Where is the staff?

Why don't they have the staff?

- Well, part of it is just the staff is worn out from this pandemic.

I mean look how long we've been fighting this thing now and imagine if you are a nurse or a doctor or a person that delivers trays into a room, and you've been dealing with this pandemic and worried about your own health, worried about your family's health, the changing sentiment of the public.

Remember when they were all heroes and we were cheering them?

And now there was a story that came out this week, that hospital personnel are having to fight people, that people are attacking them when they, when they tell a family member your person has COVID, they don't want to believe it, and they want to fight the nurse.

So they're just dealing with unbelievable circumstances.

So there's been that attrition because of that, but you've also had the people who've decided, "Hey, I'm going to take a different job."

Nurses have an option of doing a traveling nursing and some other things that they don't have to be in a hospital setting.

So a lot of nurses are going that route.

And that's one reason that there's an acute shortage in nurses.

And I'm hearing, there's just not as many people going to school, but I did want to make one comment on what Andy was talking about before, in terms of, you know, that was a great question you asked, Mike, about who's going to be the loudest voice in the room when the Republicans decide what they're going to do about the mandates across the State, because, you know, you said they've listened to business.

And this time it looks like at least the business leaders in the State were able to get them to say, "Hey, let's hold up for a minute."

But we've seen many times in the past few months, where the Republican caucus, the Conservatives in Columbus have not listened to business leaders across the State where they've said, "No, let's not do this."

They haven't even listened to hospital leaders across the State.

So, you know, we'll see.

- [Gabriel] Okay.

You know, Mike, when we talk about the, the nurse shortage, one thing I hear anecdotally is that the traveling nursing is very attractive to nurses.

And one of the big, I mean, it sounds kind of fun to be able to travel, but also the idea that it's, it's a more lucrative position to take.

So hospitals are losing staff to, to travel nurse nurses who want to travel instead.

And then when they want to hire travel nurses, it actually costs them more to hire them.

So they're spending more money in the long run, which means their salary pool is essentially has to try to extend a little farther than it normally can.

- [Mike] We're also looking at emergency services being impacted, not just to reduce capacity in a hospital for elective services, but if you have an emergency, it may be longer for you to get an ambulance to you or for that ambulance to bring you to the place that perhaps you wanted to be treated.

- Yeah, We saw that happen in Summa, right?

In, in the Akron area, right?

We had, you know, a public official complaining that the, the EMS folks are getting held up at the hospital because they bring in the patient and they have to stay with that patient until they're handed over to somebody in the ER and the ER folks are scrambling.

So it's causing this chain reaction, that was, I think, unanticipated by many.

And imagine you're the person who just shows up at the ER.

ERs are notorious for, you know, you're sitting in the waiting room for a couple hours anyway.

So that's why one of the reasons that they're telling folks, if you think you have COVID and you want to be tested, don't go to the ER, go to the doctor's office, go to urgent care, go somewhere else because the ERs are being slammed right now as we're in the middle of this wave.

- Andy, Marlene mentioned that we're we could be at the peak and maybe there's some good news in terms of the State numbers that that might show that the Ohio Department of Health's report yesterday, for example, might show that that we're sort of on the downside.

- Yeah.

When you look at the case numbers, the new case numbers day by day, you usually want to look at the numbers on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, because those are when most are reported to the State.

And when you do start to see sort of a leveling off in those case numbers that is a reflection that maybe things are going in the right direction.

There is a hope among healthcare leaders and from State leaders that we might be in that peak right now.

And we might start to see sort of a plateauing off and there's hope that maybe things might look a little better in November.

But again, who knows at this point, and it's really hard to tell.

- Booster shots are another topic.

We talked a little bit about this last week, but the Pfizer vaccine booster shots arrived in Northeast Ohio this week, to have Department of Health release guidance on who should consider getting the third shot, those 65 and older residents in long-term care settings, people 50 to 64 with certain underlying medications should receive the booster.

But there's still a lot of questions out there, Marlene, where someone says, "Okay, well, do I qualify?

I have diabetes, is that good?

Or, or, I qualify.

How do I then get it?"

I know that that your team dug in on that.

- Yeah.

I mean it, I was amazed at how quickly, once the guidance came from the CDC and the State, how quickly places started offering them.

I mean, CVS CVS started offering right away.

My mom who lives over in Toledo, who just turned 90, she had her booster shot already.

- And what a party it was.

I saw the pictures.

- We had a big party for my mom for turning 90.

Thanks, Mike.

But yeah.

- [Mike] Yeah.

She's a supermodel as is everybody in your family according to the pictures.

- Thank you, you got me blushing, Mike.

But yeah, she got her booster shot this week.

So yeah, so particularly it was for older people, people over 65.

So if you're in that group, you can get the booster shot.

But, you have to wait six months after you had your original shot.

And it's only the Pfizer vaccine right now.

So if you have Moderna, if you had J & J you sorta have to wait on the sidelines at the moment, because.

- [Mike] You gotta stay in the same - [Marlene] Stay, well, we, we're not sure.

They're, they're doing clinical trials right now and tests to see if you can mix and match the vaccines, but the jury's still out on whether you can mix and match, but they may come in a couple of weeks and say, "Hey, it's okay."

But right now you can't, you stay on the sidelines.

Also, they wanted to make sure that people on the front lines, people like healthcare workers, people like teachers, like the EMS folks we're talking about, that they're able to get boosters.

'Cause if you think about it, the first batch of people who received the vaccines, when they first rolled out, it was that group.

So you would imagine they're past the six month mark now at this point.

There are certain health conditions and one of them is a catch-all in many ways.

Obesity is one of the underlying conditions.

So there's a whole lot of folks who can fit in under that obesity category.

So I can't sit here and name all of them for you, Mike, but they're out there and they're readily available on the, on the State's website, but there are many, many medical conditions in which you can qualify.

So some people have said, basically, anybody can get a booster if you want it, because almost everybody will fit under one of these health conditions, but you have to wait six months.

And it's only Pfizer right now.

- [Mike[ And we're talking about boosters, but the fact is there are still many in communities who are not vaccinated.

In Cleveland, for example.

39.2% of residents are fully vaccinated according to data from the City's health department.

- Oh my God.

I was shocked by that number.

I really was.

I thought we were doing better than that locally.

And part of it is because we get these regular updates from the County and we don't get as many updates from the City of Cleveland's health department, which is a separate entity.

And also the County said this week that the numbers for minorities in the County is they're still very, very low.

I mean, African-Americans just over that 40% mark and Hispanics, I believe it was about 45% Hispanics Latino population locally in Cuyahoga County, which is far below the over 50% number overall for the population.

So there's still work to do as it's, it's a little confusing though, because I'm hearing on the national level that the disparities between minorities and the general population have, have pretty much been wiped out nationally.

And I'm wondering why there's still this issue locally.

I don't know if the numbers are just lagging and we haven't caught up with the data yet.

Or if we have a particular issue here in Cuyahoga County.

("Ideas" theme music) - Ohio lawmakers missed yesterday's deadline, no surprise there, for the redrawing of congressional districts.

The State will lose one seat in Congress as a result of the 2020 census.

How will the rest be carved up?

Partisanly ,it appears.

Andy, Democrats did introduce a map Wednesday that would lead to a congressional delegation pretty much evenly split between the two parties, not quite, but a little more balanced.

That didn't get very far though.

- No, it didn't get very far.

And the Senate Democrats actually did the same thing when it came to the state legislative maps, they said, "Well, if they're not going to get together with the Republicans to do it, then they'll just put out their own maps."

And what the Senate Democrats have tried to do with these maps twice now is to prove that it can be done, that that the State can achieve what's known as proportionality among voters.

So they take the statewide election results over the course of the past 10 years to see how many people voted for Democrats.

How many people voted for Republicans?

The Republicans have gotten more votes over the past couple of years by a split of about 54% to 46%.

So the question is how do congressional maps split from there?

And like you said, Republican leadership did not get together to put out any type of map to even try to get the legislature to approve any type of ten-year map.

So now the process, again goes back to the Ohio Redistricting Commission, which is already facing three lawsuits based on the maps that they just approved for the state legislative districts.

- So, missing the deadline has no consequences, right?

- You know, it could have consequences and that's the thing.

What we've seen in these lawsuits that have come up and what we've heard from groups that could pose lawsuits in the future on these congressional district maps is that missing this deadline could be a point in their argument to say that that maybe the leaders didn't get together in good faith, that the leaders didn't try to even follow the Constitution when it came to these deadlines.

What we saw from the Republican Legislature, we asked about these congressional district maps for the past two weeks, and we just really saw no movement, heard no action.

It seems like that they were already punting it to the Ohio Redistricting Commission.

So the fact that that was sort of the approach that they were taking from the very beginning could come up in a lawsuit.

At this point, though, it doesn't really mean much, especially because it's in the Constitution that because they missed the deadline, it now goes to this commission.

- Let's talk about those lawsuits real quickly.

They, the, because of the legislative maps, there was lawsuits filed.

And we've, we talked about those last week.

The Supreme Court is going to take them up.

They're going to make a decision before the end of the year.

They put very strict deadlines in place and said, "Don't even ask for extensions 'cause we're not even going to consider it, told the clerk, you know, throw those ones out."

So we're going to get a decision on that quickly.

The Supreme Court includes in its body, Pat DeWine, who is the son of the Governor.

The Governor is one of the members of the commission that approved these maps.

So you would think he would recuse himself.

He has said that he will not, what is what's behind that?

And will that become a louder issue?

- I think it could become a louder issue.

Now, Ohio Supreme Court Justice, Pat DeWine has said that because Governor DeWine, his father, was just one of seven members of the Redistricting Commission that it's not as big of a deal for him, for Pat DeWine.

See, it's even confusing for us to say Pat DeWine and Mike DeWine, when we're talking about this, that, that it's not as big of a deal as if Pat DeWine were sitting on a court case when it came to the, the Mike DeWine administration.

He's saying that just the fact that the governor is only one member of a bigger panel, Pat DeWine believes that it's still okay for him to sit on the court to, to still decide on this case.

And just to flash back to when Pat DeWine ran for office as for the Supreme Court, this was a major question that Democrats brought up.

They thought that that was a conflict of interest to have the son of the Governor beyond the Ohio Supreme Court, two different branches of governments that are supposed to check and balance each other.

("Ideas" theme music) - Lordstown Motors announced Thursday night it's in discussions to sell the former General Motors plant to Foxconn Technology Group of Taiwan.

Foxconn is the world's largest assembler of the Apple iPhone and is getting into the electric vehicle manufacturing business, possibly building Lordstown's endurance pickup truck.

Gabe, how many times can it change for the people of Lordstown and for that general area?

This is the place where the President, President Trump had said, "Don't sell your house.

Things are going to be better here."

Then GM leaves, then Lordstown comes in and says, "We're a savior, Lordstown Motors," and now is selling part of it.

It's just a, I would think people there have got to have a little bit of whiplash.

- Well for the people in Mahoning Valley I think it's absolutely fair to say, for them to think.

"Well, let's see, let's see."

It's, it's easy to be skeptical.

I mean, you've seen all these changes and, and when GM moved out, you know, workers had to move up their lives and to have this promise, we gotta plant here, manufacturing, and that you're still are nowhere close to having the amount of people working there that were working there before.

So, you know, I think it's easy for people to say, "You know what, let's, let's, let's wait till there's actual proof" but economists will get excited about this.

It's kind of a glimmer of hope for the area after being disappointed and, you know, all the mishaps that Lordstown Motors has had.

- This Foxconn, you know.

I scratched my head at first when I'm like, wait a minute.

So are they going to make cell phones now in the former GM plant?

But this Foxconn Corporation has been looking to move into electric vehicles.

And in fact, there was a discussion in Wisconsin about a facility there.

- Well, Lordstown Motors gets a few things, you know, for one that they get capital out of this.

So that's, that's something that they desperately were, were in need of.

They also get some supply chain expertise and manufacturing expertise.

You know, this is a company, Foxconn is a company with some manufacturing clout, whether or not it's in, in making cell phones, they've been trying to reach into the electronic vehicle, the EV world.

And part of the reason is because they have a good relationship with Apple, the largest manufacturer of iPhones.

Apple wants to get in the field of making electric vehicles.

We're talking potentially years from now, obviously, but you know, Foxconn wants to be that company.

So if they can manufacture vehicles in Lordstown or in Wisconsin, they had, you know, they purchased a facility in Wisconsin.

They were hoping to get some subsidies from the government to help continuing manufacturing there.

They didn't get those subsidies.

So that facility is still up in the air.

But to be able to prove to Apple that we are in this field of manufacturing cars is kind of the leg that they want to get so that they can prove to Apple, hey, we can also be your manufacturer, not just of iPhones, but also vehicles as well.

- You mentioned the infusion of cash for Lordstown Motors.

They needed it.

They're, they're hurting.

- Yeah, they were, they were on the verge.

I mean, they were, they, they were desperate for this.

They were looking for this partnership and this was a lifeline that they desperately needed.

("Ideas" theme music) - Ohio has the second highest proportion of children with elevated levels of lead in their blood among all states.

According to a study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Associations, JAMA Pediatrics.

Marlene, no surprise in Cleveland, as we've been talking about this problem, fighting it there've been legislative efforts in the city council realm that have not yet really taken hold, are, are progressing though.

But it's troubling to see that number compared to other states for the entire State of Ohio.

- Yeah, you're right.

There was no surprise that we were high on the list, but I have to tell you, it was like a punch in the gut.

That we're like number two in the country, really, but there was a glimmer of good news in that study, Mike, and it was a really good study, I should say.

They looked at like a million samples from kids.

That's a really good study, but the glimmer of hope is when Lisa Ryan, our health reporter spoke with the, one of the medical directors at Quest Diagnostics.

He said, "Even though this is bad and it's really bad as actually the numbers are coming down."

So that's the little, you know, little glimmer of hope there is that it's getting better, even though we're still bad.

- Yeah I think what it also points out is this is still a huge public health problem that needs to be dealt with.

- Absolutely and I'm glad you mentioned the efforts locally that are in place that haven't quite taken off and come to fruition, but it's been a big focus locally and everybody knows it's a problem and everybody's on deck to try to work on it.

So I, I feel pretty confident we're going to work on this issue.

("Ideas" theme music) - Severance Hall is becoming Severance Music Center.

Not to be confused with Severance Town Center.

The Cleveland Orchestra announced the new name along with a $50 million gift from the Jack Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation.

It's its biggest ever.

The orchestra is performance space will be known as the Mandel Concert Hall What's prompted this was an amazing $50 million gift to the orchestra.

- [Marlene] What a wonderful gift.

But I think you're right, Mike, I think most people will still call it Severance Hall.

People will call it what they've known it.

Maybe the younger generation as they come up and they learn that new name, but the old heads.

- What about the younger generation, Gabe?

Severance?

- Yeah, but let me point this out.

I still call it the L. Brown Stadium.

I know they're going something weird but it doesn't matter what they're calling, I'm gonna call it that.

- [Mike] Andy.

- [Marlene] People call stuff what they wanna call it.

- [Mike] Andy can you get down with just Severance or Severance Music Center?

- Sure, I can say either or.

- [Mike] Okay.

Well, there you go.

I think we've solved the problem And that's all the round table we have for you tonight.

Coming up Monday on the Sound of Ideas on 90.3 WCPN, Rick Jackson.

We'll look at the popularity of employee-owned businesses.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for watching and stay safe.

(Electronic outro music) - Brought to you by Westfield, offering insurance to protect what's yours.

Grow your business and achieve your dreams.