Two Guardians pitchers pleaded not guilty to charges that they rigged pitches for sports bettors.

Mayor Justin Bibb got an earful about the plan to merge Collinwood and Glenville high schools.

And Canton City Council has pulled the plug on public comments during public meetings.

Ideas is next.

Hello and welcome to ideas.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for joining us.

Two Cleveland Guardians pitcher suspended for months while under criminal investigation.

Were arraigned in federal court this week and could face up to 65 years in prison.

Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz are charged with multiple crimes in connection with an alleged scheme to rig pitches they threw.

So bettors in the know and they could profit on wagers, predicting the characteristics of the pitches.

Mayor Justin Bibb visited Collinwood High School for a town hall session, and got angry reaction this week to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District's plan to merge Collinwood with Glenville High School.

Canton City Council is fed up with public comments during its meetings.

Rather than place restrictions as cities like Akron and Cleveland have done, they eliminated the public comment section of the meetings.

And a state lawmaker wants voters who mail in their ballots to provide a copy of their ID.

Just like in-person, voters must show.

Joining me to discuss all the week's top news from Idea Stream Public Media Akron Canton reporter Anna Huntsman and from the Marshall Project Cleveland, a nonprofit newsroom covering criminal justice.

Editor in Chief Phil Trexler in Columbus statehouse News Bureau Chief Karen Kasler.

Let's get ready to round table.

Guardian star closer Emmanuel Kloss and starting pitcher Luis Ortiz were charged this week with throwing pitches that bettors wagered would happen and profiting from the bets.

Shockingly, class A is accused of engaging in the enterprise for years and even texting and talking on the phone with a coconspirator about it during a game.

The FBI took Ortiz into custody Sunday in Boston.

Federal agents took class into custody yesterday in New York.

Each has been released on bond after entering pleas of not guilty.

Now we had the NBA betting scandal we discussed about a month ago that ensnared former Cavs player Damon Jones and Clevelander Terry Rozier, who played for the Miami Heat.

And I read yesterday that more than a thousand Turkish footballers are accused of gambling ring related shenanigans there.

So the question really is is sports safe?

And Phil, now that we have you back, it was ubiquitous sports gambling right on your phone.

You can bet on not just who will win the game, but will the ball with the ball as he throws it be a strike or a ball?

You got to wonder, where is this going?

Yeah, and there are more examples of those little prop bets, the micro bets that folks can make.

You know, I'm a sports fan.

I dabble in the, in the parlays.

But, you know, I think everybody saw this coming.

You know, there was a reason why, sports was kept a very strict distance from gambling for decades since the beginning.

Because it's the integrity of the game that's at stake.

Right?

So there were all those warning signs, folks were, you know, talking about not only the social impact this to have on families and people.

But also too on the integrity of the game.

And here's a perfect example now of two guys.

And you thought it would never happen because, oh, they make too much money.

They'll never do this.

But here we are.

You know.

Yeah, that's what I'm wondering.

It was almost $1 million, so apparently not a lot of money.

But if the guy makes, Ortiz was making almost $1 million Class-A, it was north of $6 million a year.

And the profiting off of these prop bets for the bettors was $450,000, which meant a percentage of that.

In one case, it was $7,000 for class A and $5,000 for Ortiz.

That's what they got out of this.

It's chump change.

And and peanuts.

Really?

I mean, they're charged with aggravated, bribery, you know, with, wire fraud and, money laundering, but they could have been charged with aggravated stupidity.

I mean, it's just like nobody understands the rationale behind this because it's just there's little bites in the.

It's so easy to get caught.

I mean, these sports books, they monitor this kind of activity.

And when you see somebody making a lot of wagers on a single pitch, it raises all sorts of red flags.

And it's it was just, you know, a matter of time before it was, you know, uncovered, allegedly.

I went through the indictment and it was, it was an interesting indictment.

If you, if you look at it, had had the pictures of the actual pitchers digging into the dirt.

But they went through pitch by pitch and said, here's what he did just beforehand.

And then here's what happened.

And then here's where the money came from.

And what we have heard from the pitchers, though, is that, listen, we're innocent.

And in, in Ortiz's case, he was dragged into this two years into the scheme, allegedly, by Class-A.

But what we heard from class A, too is he was like, oh, they misinterpreted a conversation I was having about, my rooster fighting.

Yeah.

Both people have maintained innocence.

Both, legal teams have said that their clients are innocent, so they are pleading not guilty.

They are really fighting this.

And they also have said that, once you once we go through the court proceedings, it will be clear that this is not the case.

Something else I wanted to point out that I feel like hasn't been brought up a lot.

And there's been so many thoughts on this.

I went to an Akron roundtable conversation.

Last I think it was last month with Alex Shepard.

He, writes for The New Republic, and he, specifically covers, sports and sports gambling.

And he was talking about this.

And, you know, we hear all the time about sports, gambling, addictions and who are the people most doing it.

And it's usually young men under 30.

How old are Ortiz and class?

Well, a lot of times we forget how young they are.

26 and 27.

And he pointed that out that they're, you know, they're the prime actually age for this.

So you can't be totally surprised sometimes when these young guys are the ones, you know, at the center of this.

So these prop bets seem to be a big problem.

Karen.

I know governor DeWine was not really for sports gambling in the first place.

Then he wanted to tax the heck out of it.

And and he is someone who has talked about the prop bets and how dangerous they are.

Where does that stand now?

Because there has been a limit placed now.

An agreement for a limit with Major League Baseball on the betting companies about how much you can bet on each of these.

You know, Willie, throw a ball or a strike.

What's the governor saying about that?

Well, when I talked to him about this, which was during the World Series, he had said that after the World Series, he expected that Major League Baseball would have some sort of action when it came to banning prop bets.

He was hoping that they would ban prop bets over $100, he said.

That was where the problem area is now.

The MLB has banned prop bets over $200.

But DeWine has said that that was that that area there that he was most concerned about.

And at the time, they had all but one of the sports gambling operators on board to go ahead and do this.

And DeWine also mentioned to me at the time that the NFL was interested.

They were looking and this was right after the NBA arrests.

And so he said the NBA should be concerned.

All major league sports should be concerned because it really does tarnish the sport.

And gosh, when you think about how great class was and and the performances that we saw from him and now this has happened, it really changes in a way, the way that we look back on him and think he had so much.

He was so amazing.

And yet he was, I guess, allegedly pulled in by this.

You can't dismiss the fact, though, that these are charges because there was extreme betting on those particular things.

Just Phil said they can monitor those and say, wait a minute, how can so many people put a bat on a single pitch?

But you wonder if there were other situations where he was just, on his own?

Because when you look at the plate, one of the playoff series, you know, he kind of melted in that series and it wasn't characteristically himself.

And now you go back and everything is tainted.

Yeah.

And you wonder kind of melted.

He melted.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you wonder if that was on purpose, if somebody was profiting from that, you know, where all that went.

And I guess that's again the stuff that we'll hear about in, in, it's interesting.

In the indictment, they focus on pitchers in 2023 and 2025, but there's nothing in 2024 that at least that I saw.

Which is when all that was happening.

So a lot of people are speculating and so are his teammates.

Yeah.

And to Anna's point about, how gambling, sports, gambling specifically seems to target these young men.

I mean, it's it's sold as easy money, you know, and you see the partnerships the major league sports franchises have had with all of the major league, all major betting companies.

And it just it's pervasive at this point.

So in a way, it's not shocking, but in a way it is because you would expect that these athletes wouldn't want to damage the sport.

They they make plenty of money, all of that.

But it's it's just everywhere.

And I mean, this has been a scandal for baseball going back to the beginning of the game last century, you know.

Yeah.

Well, I'm thinking of the black socks.

Yeah.

But it seemed like it was a lot harder to do back then.

It's not just get on your cell phone and say, I'm going to throw a ball into the dirt and make money on that.

Exactly.

But there really seems to I mean, the idea that gambling is not tied to criminal activity.

I mean, we're seeing that with the NBA investigation here, that there there may be connections here.

And again, it's pervasive.

You can do it like you said over your phone.

Anybody can do it.

And so there are people who allegedly shouldn't be doing it who allegedly are doing it.

Okay I like your use of allegedly you're overusing allegedly.

We're covered.

All right.

Residents of Cleveland's Glenville and Collinwood neighborhoods, along with their council representatives, tore into Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb over the public school district's plan to merge Collinwood and Glenville high schools as part of a broader consolidation that will result in 29 fewer schools in the district.

Collinwood Councilman Mike Polansky said the merger would destabilize the neighborhoods.

fill.

What was Bibbs response to the criticism, particularly from Polanski and Glenville Councilman Kevin Conwell?

Yeah, I you know, this is something nobody likes at Collinwood High School is a legend.

Legendary high school in the city.

I attended East High and West Tech, and both of those schools have gone away.

And, I yeah, the fact that you have, I think it was 96 kids who are enrolled in a high school that once held thousands of kids.

Yeah.

It's just economically, it doesn't make any sense.

That was eye opening, and that was what his response was.

His response was, listen, the students are gone.

Yeah.

So we need to get to take some action.

What they were saying was, yeah, but this is from years of your disinvestment in these neighborhoods.

That's why there are fewer kids that this is the result of, of you meaning the government's, or the administration's actions.

Yeah.

And it's you know, that could be a fair argument there.

But the fact is, is that the schools, you know, just they're I hate to say it, but it's you can't open a whole school just for 96 kids.

Right?

I get the fear of the charter schools coming in and taking over and making the situation even worse.

But they have invested in Glenville is kind of considered now the, you know, the marquee school of the city.

And, yeah, it's bad.

You know, microlensing has come out again.

So he is, you know, pro con what he's known for, that, his support for the school.

But, yeah, it's it's, it's times are changing kind of story.

Eventually there will be a new school that will house the two of them.

They're moving into Glenville.

If this plan is enacted by the school board and then eventually a new school, they haven't said exactly where a new building will be built to.

How is this, this joint school?

So what happens to the old buildings is a question.

And there are a number of buildings that are owned by the school district that don't have uses today.

There are some that have been turned into housing.

You could probably you could live in your old classroom.

Yeah.

There are some that have been turned in.

There's one that's a manufacturing center and all kinds of stuff, but there are still many that are fallow.

The question is, what will happen to not just Collinwood, but the other schools that will be, vacated in this instance, charter schools get first crack at it.

That's one of the concerns parents had is that if you have charter schools, move in and we then continue to dilute the public schools and the money going to public schools for students, and that'll on impact the Collinwood slash Glenville School that ever happens there.

So yeah, it's it's a it's a tough situation that you know that they're going to have to address one of the things that, that I heard from that meeting and I hadn't considered this, but that someone mentioned one of the residents said the two schools have always been rivals, that they're not going to get along to rivals in sports, but then also mentioned, the rivals academically, athletically.

And they have rival gangs.

Yeah.

So there was this concern about safety.

How is that dealt with.

Well, that's you're going to have to have a lot of conversations there.

But it is true.

I mean, they have been historically rivals on the football field, on the basketball court.

And, you know, these are kids from the neighborhood who have disputes outside of the classroom.

I don't think that's an exaggeration.

And and that is a it is a consideration that you're going to be putting, you know, rival rivals, gangs, perhaps in the same building.

And that's again, going to be a challenge that they'll have to, to, address.

Yeah.

I think the mayor said we're going to we are, as you said, we're gonna have conversation.

We're going to talk through.

This is a process that goes involved in this, that, you know, there's going to be, police as well, as, as they have outside of buildings, those types of things.

So they clearly are aware of it.

And we'll see where that particularly moves.

Canton City Council has cut public comments from its meetings, citing safety concerns and threats on social media.

And because, they say many commenters stray from topics relevant to council.

Many public bodies have strict rules for comments such as time limits and requirements to sign up in advance.

Cleveland City Council recently tightened its rules.

Akron did as well.

Canton's decision to cut comments, though, has disappointed residents.

So anyone who's ever covered a regular council meeting and all of us have noticed the comment, can be a real pain.

They often feature the same people saying the same things that prompt no action for council members or entertainment, depending on how you look.

It can be that too.

But if you're a council member hearing this week in and week out, you know they're turning their ears off.

None of this is going to lead to any action, but no one ever says, let's just cut the comments.

What's what's going on in canton where they decided to eliminate.

Right.

And so, you know, I'm every other week I'm in Akron City Council.

And so I've seen this and you know, a year or so ago they decided to limit it to ten speakers per meeting.

And they also moved it to where if you are commenting on an agenda specific item, they have those now at 5:00 instead of 630.

So there are ways that other councils have kind of helped, you know, regulate this.

But as you mentioned, canton just decided, nope.

We're going to pause it.

We're going to let people cool off is actually what they said.

Okay.

And during the meeting, they, they mentioned some of the topics that have been raised very, you know, nothing to do with, with not just canton, but also, sometimes I've heard from residents, people will come there with valid concerns, but it's not something that a council member themselves can address, which you hear in other councils as well.

I know in Akron, a lot of the times, a council member will say, I'll talk with you after the meeting.

We'll point you to the right place where you can get this solved.

But apparently that's not happening either.

So they might be talking about state or federal policy or some other type of thing that really isn't germane.

No, it's even something that the county commissioners have jurisdiction over.

So I'm hearing from residents that instead of saying, hey, we'll stay after and we'll connect you with the county commissioner there.

I mean, I've heard that they kind of roll their eyes or they just don't respond at all to that person.

So, that's why residents are really concerned here because they're saying, hey, there are things we could be doing instead, you know, educating folks about what council actually does, versus just nobody can speak now.

And we've heard the council majority leader saying that people are basically using that to perform for social media.

It's not for any constructive thing.

But they also talked about hostility and threats and concerns that they have over that.

What do they mean by that?

So what I'm hearing is that there was a council live, somebody was livestreaming, the council meeting and some there was some sort of threat against council members commented on social media.

And then there were reports that all city employees were going to be targeted in some sort of threat.

So the safety kind of came up and they said, we we need to pause, let people cool off because we're getting these threats.

But some folks are saying, well, if the threats were all online, you know, that it wasn't happening during a council meeting, although it has, I've heard, gotten really heated at times.

And, folks, it really, actually might get started.

Over the last two years.

But there was a really controversial thing the city did where they banned basically, people sleeping outside and homeless encampments.

So there were a lot of folks that were really heated about that recently.

So there is some hope, I'm told that comments could come back.

You called it a cooling off period, which makes me think that at some point perhaps it would return.

Apparently.

The council members are saying we'll revisit it soon.

I know that there actually, there were only two dissenting votes to this, and one of them was Lewis G of ACS, who is going to be the council president next year.

So some residents are saying we're actually kind of hopeful that with him kind of as the, you know, the leader, that this will be implemented at least when council votes on its new, rules next year.

So it's not a forever thing as far as we know, but it would be interesting to see what they kind of come up with if they're going to go with some restrictions going forward, or if they just kind of let it be the free for all that it has been.

And that's interesting.

The guy who will be the council leader is one of the votes that was against us.

So that's what.

Yes.

Yeah.

Okay.

The Marshall Project Cleveland recently published an investigation into the Mohican Youth Center in Perryville and Ashland County.

It's Ohio's largest residential treatment facility for youth with behavioral or mental health problems.

And there have been numerous reports over the last year drawing huge emergency response of chaos in the facility with fighting property damage and inadequate policies to deal with it.

So, Phil, let's talk about what Brittany Hayler laid out in the in the specifics of the chaos.

What was happening there?

Yeah.

You know, a little bit of a historical context I think is required.

Years ago, the state tried to to shut down Mohican.

There was issues of fighting, basically a lack of institutional control going over there that, you know, there's a lot of fights.

Some describe them as riots.

You know, the staff is overwhelmed.

You know, these are kids who come from from very challenged backgrounds, either referred to by the juvenile court or referred, through the foster care system.

So these are some of the, you know, big challenges.

These are young children who face a lot of difficulties in their life, and they're all housed together.

And in the middle of this, park out there in, rural Ashland County.

So they try to shut it down.

They failed.

New owners came in about a year ago.

There was some optimism that things were going to improve, that, you know, that, yes, there were issues in the past, but now we're going to move forward.

Brittney's reporting found that it's still the same old chaos that we had, seen in the past.

You know, multiple riots just in the past year.

Kids fighting, kids taking, you know, legs from chairs and using them as weapons.

Bed posts.

Bedpost.

Yeah.

You know, kids are getting hurt, staffs getting hurt.

There's a reluctance to call 911 because of all that, you know, that involves of, you know, public records and whatnot.

So, yeah, let's it's a challenge system.

Yeah.

Let's dig into that because, you would think if this is going on, a teacher will call 911 or anybody who's there and they have.

And what these what's alleged here that the, the owners were telling them no one calls 911 unless you check with one of the three bosses.

So the bosses have to approve a call to 911.

Even though somebody might be witnessing something that needs A911 call.

Yeah.

You know, you gotta get them multiple layers of approval there.

You know, it goes back to what was happening prior is that there were a high volume of 911 calls whenever something bad happened.

Staff would call 911, but then they get dinged for it in the, in the reviews, the inspections.

So I think there was an attempt there to kind of streamline that process.

But but it it doesn't, you know, help the situation when you need multiple approvals in order to, call just a simple 9 to 1 call.

So we see that the one of the teachers that Brittany talked to, she spoke out, they had quit.

We saw a strain on the emergency first responders.

How is the community responding to this community?

I think initially it was probably hopeful, you know, disappointed that the state, you know, lost in their attempt to provide greater oversight there and shut it down, but also to I what we were hearing, what Brittany heard was, you know, there's a lot of runaways going on.

There's some break ins.

The, I think the neighbors are concerned also, too, about the safety of the children.

You know, there's a vast force there.

And, you know, kids, you just can't run away and and hide in a forest.

I mean, there's all sorts of things that could go wrong there.

So I think it just comes basically down to the lack of institutional control is what is what is happening here.

So how does anyone get a handle on that?

Where do we stand now?

Is the state moving in?

Is there going to be more regulations or can we just expect, 911 calls every two months because of riots?

Yeah, I think, you know, I think we're going to see certainly our reporting is brought attention to this situation that.

No, it's it's not, not improved.

I know, Brittany has heard from lawmakers about different changes that could cou we're not done with our report, and I'll just put it that way.

Yeah.

A Republican sponsored bill introduced this week in the Ohio House would require people using mail in ballots to also provide a copy of their photo identification.

State representative Ron Ferguson, of Winterville in Jefferson County, says it would make the absentee vote by mail process more secure.

So what what does he say is the problem that he's trying to solve, and how will this solve it?

Well, he talks about the difference between voting in person versus voting by mail and saying, when you vote in person, you do have to show your photo ID, so it's more secure to do that.

And so he wants to provide a way to secure that for mail in absentee voting as well.

Now, Jen Miller, who's the executive director of the League of Women Voters of Ohio, says this is not needed, that voters already have to give verifiable information when they request a ballot and when they return it.

And she's worried about, obviously, voters being disenfranchized through this.

And it still goes back to the idea that we've even heard from Republican Secretary of State Frank Rose that Ohio's voting system is very safe, it's very accurate, it's very secure.

And they're probably, by my count, about 30 bills that are currently in the legislature that deal with elections in some way.

And a handful of those specifically deal with things like voter registration and photo ID and absentee voting.

So it's I know Republicans have talked about this being making sure and closing all the loopholes, but typically Democrats are the ones saying this is potentially keeping some people who are using the system, which is working well from being able to use it.

Got an email from Bob who says that does the historically corrupt, illegally gerrymandered Ohio State House really want to throw out 3000 valid Cuyahoga County ballots, just one out of Ohio's 88 counties?

He says.

We know that both Republicans and Democratic voters use absentee ballots.

Incumbents who voted for that legislation could face strong primary challenges and general election headwinds due to their obvious attempt to disenfranchize their own constituents.

So he's obviously siding with what you just described as the Democrats who say people will be disenfranchized.

But the idea is, as you mentioned before, you do have to show an ID if you vote at the polls.

So shouldn't you have to vote showing ID if you're voting in another way?

Yeah.

And I believe there's a part of this bill that would require organizations that offer mail in ballot applications to also offer these free photocopy copies of the ID that they are requiring here.

So, you know, obviously there's a little bit of trying to work all this stuff out here, but this comes, you know, there was a bill that was passed by the Ohio Senate, just a couple of I guess it was last week.

Maybe I'm losing track of time because that would, require that absentee ballots be in-house at boards of elections on election night and eliminate that four day grace period that right now is being offered for people who are returning their ballots by mail, that they've carved out an exception for overseas and military voters.

They are not covered by this.

But basically the requirement would be that if you mail your ballot in, it has to be in-house, not just postmarked, but in-house by Election Day.

And it's the same argument here that it's going to potentially disenfranchize voters who put their ballot in the mail and thought it was going to be okay.

You know, maybe they put it in the mail a month ago and and it didn't get there.

So, this is just more kind of moving around with some of the election laws, though.

Governor Mike DeWine has said he wants to see real evidence of why these things are needed before he signs another election related law.

We'll just have to see on that.

Monday on The Sound of Ideas on 89 seven Wksu, Stephanie Haney will lead a discussion into prop betting, the kind of bets at the center of the class, and Ortiz indictment and how they're impacting sports.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for watching.

And stay safe.