Residents near the East Palestine.

Toxic train derailment will get paid after a federal judge approved a class action settlement with Norfolk.

Southern State House Democrats say the GOP dominated Ohio ballot board is too partizan and proposed changes that likely will go nowhere.

And a Portage County Board of elections voted to drop the county sheriff's office from providing election security ideas is next.

Hello and welcome to Ideas.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Those who live within a two mile radius of the East Palestine train disaster can collect up to $70,000 per household for property damage and $25,000 per person for health problems.

After a federal judge this week signed off on a $600 million class action settlement, Democrats have introduced a bill to make big changes the Republican dominated Ohio ballot board.

The Dems say it's too partizan and the language the board has approved for ballot issues is slanted.

Republicans on the board say the language is fair and accurate.

The Portage County Board of Elections will not use the sheriff's department for Election Security after a Facebook post from the sheriff that targets immigrants and Kamala Harris supporters and the monitor overseeing Cleveland's consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice over use of force in the Cleveland Division of Police.

Plans to begin scrutinizing police promotions and discipline.

Joining me to discuss these stories and more on the roundtable this week, Ideastream Public media's criminal justice reporter matt Richmond and Akron Canton reporter Anna Huntsman in Columbus.

Statehouse News bureau chief Karen Kasler.

Let's get ready to roundtable.

A federal judge has approved a $600 million class action settlement in the February 2023 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train that carried hazardous chemicals that leaked from the train and that were burned off in a preemptive move that was deemed unnecessary by the National Transportation Safety Board and Norfolk Southern.

It's important to note here, admits no wrongdoing in the settlement.

Correct.

And that was one of the reasons that some folks were initially hesitant to sign on with it.

There were 55,000 people that did opt into this settlement, but that was one of the main concerns, is that in the settlement, there is no no admitting, no taking any blame for it.

There is coughing up 600 million bucks.

That goes to a pretty broad swath of people, though.

And as I mentioned, it's kind of a graduating scale closest gets, as I mentioned, $70,000 for property, $25,000 per person for possible health issues.

But as it goes out, it gets down to like just a couple hundred bucks in those numbers that you just mentioned are within a two mile radius of the derailment.

But those who are in that 20 mile, you know, kind of on the outskirts of that, they will probably get a couple hundred just depending on how the numbers figure out.

But people have been reporting health concerns throughout this whole process.

Property damage, as you mentioned.

So this could be a big deal for quite a bit of people.

There were some, though, who didn't join as a small percentage, but some who did not join the class action.

Their concerns were, as I mentioned, it wasn't enough money.

It was rushed through.

But the rushed through part is because we don't really know the long term effects of this.

Correct.

And now that the settlement has been approved, they estimate that payments could come within by the end of the year.

So, you know, people say that the people who didn't want to opt in say that they felt that it was too rushed and that they hadn't fully studied all of this.

And we don't know the true impact.

So is that enough money?

Is that really going to deliver the results that they say need be?

But the lawyers in this case say that the folks who did opt in are very happy with this settlement across the board.

Right.

The problem, though, becomes if you find out ten years down the line that there's some serious health concerns that are being caused by this, still, they say, well, we've already given you 25,000 bucks.

And anybody who has paid a medical medical bill knows that that's going to be a fraction of what a bill might be.

Yeah, absolutely.

But I think in the other case, though, again, as I mentioned, the payments are finally going to be able to start coming through.

So people are dealing with stuff right now.

So, you know, there's all kinds of different perspectives here.

But as I mentioned, the lawyers say that the 55,000 claims those folks are, for the most part, happy with this.

Certainly, Democrats at the state House are proposing a bill to make changes to the Republican controlled Ohio ballot board, which decides the language voters see on ballot issues.

Republicans on the board say the language they approved is necessary for voters to understand the true effect of the measures that they're voting on.

And Kiran, the bill proposed includes elements that are similar to what's proposed in issue one.

Basically, they want politicians and lobbyists off the ballot board.

Yeah, The goal is to try to get more bipartisanship in the ballot board in general through the appointment process, but also in the writing of the language.

The bill would, like you said, ban politicians and lobbyists from serving on the ballot board, require more bipartisanship in the approach and the appointment process.

Establish bipartisan co-chairs is about board Right now.

Only the Republican Secretary of State, Frank Rose, is the chair and then would require the entire board to adopt titles for ballot issues, meaning that it couldn't just be a 3 to 2 vote.

It would have to be the entire board agreeing on the title, because that's the first thing you see when you go to vote.

And if they didn't agree on the title, then who decides that?

That's a good question.

I think, you know, the bill is because Republicans are in the super majority in the House and Senate.

This bill really doesn't have much of a chance.

I think Republicans have been pretty happy with the language that has come out of the ballot board.

And so I just I don't know whether this bill will move forward at all.

Right.

Not just the that, but also it's the end of the session.

So chances of this thing getting pedal to the metal is pretty slim.

Yeah, we've got hundreds of bills that have been proposed that are waiting for some action.

Of course, most of them won't see any action.

But yeah, the pipeline is is really blocked up there.

Indeed.

Well, let's talk a little bit about issue one.

One contention in this bill is what voters will see on issue one, that the Democrats say it's misleading.

There's concern opponents are using that confusion now to their advantage.

I saw one of our listeners sent us an email with a photograph and it said Vote No on issue one and gerrymandering.

Yeah, and that's been the complaint about the ballot language, because the ballot language did change a word in the description, the three page description that voters will read before they cast their ballots.

On issue one changed a word from manipulate as and manipulate district lines to gerrymander district lines.

And so that really telegraphs exactly what's happening here is that both sides are arguing that they're their vote.

But we ask to vote no will be a vote on gerrymandering.

And it's very similar to what happened last fall when you started seeing signs regarding issue one then, which was the Reproductive Rights and Abortion Access Amendment, where people were saying vote yes on issue on protect women, vote no on issue one, protect women.

So it's very similar to that.

But citizens, not politicians, has always talked about theirs as being an anti gerrymandering amendment that was part of their lawsuit claiming we're anti gerrymandering.

You put that word in there, you make it sound like we want exactly what we say we don't want what a confusion that's going to cause.

It sounds like to me at the polls.

So if you're somebody that's a proponent of it, you'll want to cut through that confusion.

How does the organization people, not politicians, plan to do that?

Well, citizens, not politicians.

Citizens.

Yeah.

Right now, $19.2 million in ads.

That's primarily how they're going to do it.

And they got a lot of work to do because it is a complicated issue.

It's 26 pages long, I believe, and that's the actual amendment.

The ballot summary is three pages long, but it's complicated.

It requires some explanation.

I mean, the the bottom line is that it would replace the current Ohio redistricting Commission, which is seven elected officials with a 15 member panel each, Republicans, Democrats and independents.

And they would draw the lines based on a formula that is proportional.

And that formula is derived by statewide election results for the last six years.

So it's complicated how all this happens, but that's certainly the plan, is they're going to go to go to the air and convince people through ads.

And the team monitoring Cleveland's consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice will examine how the Cleveland Division of Police discipline is and promotes officers.

The city has been under the terms of the consent decree since 2015.

The city must make satisfactory progress toward repairing the community trust before a federal judge releases it from the consent decree.

And the judge is a person who decides whether it's satisfactory.

Matt This week, the city viewed the most recent Monitor's report as essentially positive and said there was progress being made.

Yeah, so so in these reports that the monitor releases every six months, you know he'll he'll take all 380 or some, you know three close to 400 different individual reforms that the police department agreed to in the in the consent decree.

And give them a rating.

And there are four different categories of noncompliance all the way up to general compliance.

And so the city noted that in that reading system, they didn't have any areas of reform that went backwards in the direction of good compliance, which is is good.

And that's not true in the last in the previous six month reporting period, and that there were 14 upgrades on that sort of scale.

And, you know, I mean, this is relative.

This is after, you know, six months ago when the parties were in court, it was kind of ugly.

There was fighting over access to records, particularly for the monitor.

And they were the monitoring team was very upset that, you know, the city had shut them out from seeing the records that they needed to do to do their job.

So how can you do your job if you don't have access?

Right.

Right.

So, you know, at that hearing, it was, well, we're going backwards or running in place right now.

It looks like steps forward.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, the question now is, is wasn't it not that long ago that the city said, we're done, we've done, we've complied and Judge, you should let us out of this.

And now we're to a point where we're going to get reports on a number of things next year.

Another thing that's getting started next year, we don't seem to be anywhere near close to done.

Yeah, the the city had had made the case that it was much further along, that it was closer to the point where the monitor would step back and the city would just be able to kind of oversee its own progress towards completing the consent decree.

The it seems that the new position, the city's also right now the Monitor is assessing the city's progress in reforms in those three areas crisis intervention, search and seizure and use of force.

And the city argues that those three areas were kind of the primary issues that led to the consent decree.

So if they do well in those assessments and if it's clear that they're following the the reforms that they that they agreed to, that the city is really almost done after.

After that, the monitor at this meeting pointed out that actually the way they read the consent decrees, there are ten areas.

So there's seven areas of assessment after these three that the city will still have to go through.

And then I don't know if this is just needling the city, you said, and then in those seven areas, they're sub areas, so and so on and so on.

And so yeah, but use of force was the the motivating factor.

The reason that this consent decree was arrived at was because of the police's use of force.

So you think if you knocked that one off you really are making progress.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you know this sort of segway you know, the monitor's position is that if you in addition to making these reforms to policy, you have to hold officers accountable if they don't follow the the the reforms.

And so, you know, here this is called Karl Racine.

He talked about how in the next year, after these three assessments are done, they're going to start taking a much closer look at police discipline and then also sort of connected to that police promotions and how how the city is following those policies and making sure that, you know, the officers are actually being held accountable if they break the rules.

One of the things they're saying that they're finished with now and it might just be more clerical type thing in our minds is the policy writing portion of the consent decree.

So all this time was spent basically dealing with policy writing.

Now they're getting into assessment.

Yeah, that's, that's right.

And yeah, it shouldn't be kind of underestimated how how big of a task that was like I close to 400 different reforms it was I pretty much took the policy manual of the department and rewrote it and then had to train officers on all of those, those policies.

And then, you know, part of kind of making it possible for this to work is creating a system where records are kept on all of this and better records than what was being kept before.

So they've also had to get officers to start filling out reports about basically everything that they do.

So it has been a lot of work.

And the Portage County sheriff's statement targeting immigrants and Kamala Harris supporters has prompted the Board of Elections to bar his department from providing election security.

And how will the Portage County Board of Elections handle security if they don't have the sheriff's department?

So there there's a couple different options that they're considering right now.

One is to hire private security or use the Ravenna Police Department at this point.

So let's talk a little bit about about what's happened since the statement that the sheriff made.

Yeah.

So this was reporting from the Akron Beacon Journal obtained through a public records request.

At least 59 complaints were filed with the attorney general's office.

The complaints say things like, well, one couple actually say that they feel like this is equivalent to what was going on with the Nazis in the 1930s.

But others say that they're scared and that seeing this makes them fearful.

Others are saying that they want action taken.

But obviously, as we've heard, the secretary of state says that it didn't violate any laws.

So this is almost 60 people confirmed that have filed these complaints.

Well, he's the chief law enforcement officer, so that's the person that's saying those things.

You can see how some might feel a little freaked out about that.

By the way, kudos for the Beacon Journal.

They got that information from a public records request from the attorney general's office.

So we know what those complaints are.

The sheriff has, though, even though he hasn't apologized or said what he did was wrong, he has taken that post down.

You can't find it now.

Correct?

He took it down.

It was kind of a after the Ohio ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union.

Mike, there you go.

I don't know if it you can't say that it was tied to this, but they're saying that they threatened to take him to court over this and that's when he took the post down.

But as you mentioned, he has not apologized.

He has said that his his words were misinterpreted.

But he did say in a follow up post on his Facebook that is still there, because I saw it in my research for this that elections have consequences.

And he also said on Fox News that this is a, quote, welcome.

The signs are a welcome mat for illegal immigrants, the signs being the Kamala Harris sign.

Yes, right.

So let's talk about that.

Yeah, he's he's we haven't had an interview with him, but Fox News did.

And in that he basically explained himself by saying that I'm still the law enforcement officer, I will enforce laws.

I won't break the laws.

However, what I said was this.

Here's how you misinterpreted.

I don't know how you can misinterpret human locus, but he he elaborated on that.

Yeah, correct.

And he also said that he is hearing from folks in the county.

They're asking him, are we going to be like Springfield?

And they're concerned that an influx of illegal immigrants are going to come to Portage County.

And so he's just saying, as the chief law enforcement officer, he felt that he needed to say something and again, that elections, quote, have consequences.

We are now paying more attention, obviously, to the Koski and the Portage County Sheriff's Department.

So we're seeing a number of other stories, Matt, that might have flown a little bit under the radar separate from the Facebook controversy.

He and the department are facing a federal lawsuit over a traffic stop last year and allegations that deputies fabricated drug evidence against the two men taken into custody.

Yeah, this one is pretty stunning.

They they pulled somebody over for not having a driver's license and rearview mirrors and, you know, there's a few steps along the the kind of the story that makes you wonder what is going on.

First, they brought a drug sniffing dog there.

The dog alerted that there were drugs in there.

Turned out later there were no drugs on the dog and there was baby powder in the backseat, just like on the floor, drying up some some moisture.

And apparently the deputies vacuumed it up, went and I don't know what they did, but they said it well, they said that it was cocaine or or meth.

I'm not sure which.

But then later, when it went to a state lab, the state lab said, no, this is not drugs.

And so and so the charges were dropped.

So there's a lot of issues.

So they're facing a suit now over.

Yes, they violated someone's rights by saying that baby powder or carpet cleaner or whatever it was was was drugs.

Yeah.

In addition, there's a complaint filed against the Koski from two people who claim they performed work for the sheriff's reelection campaign while they were in the jail.

Yeah, that, you know, I mean, it's not uncommon for people with charges to go out and do like community service type type work.

He apparently brought a couple of people who were being held in the jail to build like a sort of a campaign stand at the county fair.

And then, you know, I think they were putting in signs also.

They were doing works specifically for him related to his sort of political campaigns.

You hear the old bromide about people who are incarcerated making license plates.

Instead, they're making yard signs or straight or picking up trash on the side of the highway.

Exactly.

I know that's been an issue in a lot of political campaigns.

Cuyahoga County had a lot of experience with staffs of people being made to on on work time campaign.

But they have a cache of inmates do that is is interesting yeah it's pretty it's pretty bad that's true yeah indeed if indeed it's true.

How has the sheriff responded to this besides the the interview we saw on Fox News?

Is anyone is there been an interview or anything like that?

I have not seen a response.

This declined interviews with multiple media outlets.

All the stories I'm seeing include the Fox eight story said he declined interviews with us, but he went on Fox News.

Right.

The National a national and the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a national nonprofit, filed criminal charges against former President Donald Trump and Senator J.D.

Vance for comments about Haitian immigrants in Springfield.

Both candidates have amplified unfounded claims that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield.

Carrion The group that's utilizing the state law, they says, that allow they say, that allows them to file criminal complaint complaints.

Is that something people agree with?

I know that supposed genre, the civil rights lawyer from Cleveland is the one that's that's furthering this.

Is there a thought from legal experts or state officials that a citizen or group like this could file criminal charges?

And I was trying to do some research on that, too, to try to find out if this had ever been used before.

And I'm I couldn't find anything.

But again, I am not a lawyer, as I say many times on this show.

But I think it's an interesting tactic because the group is saying through some old Chandra that the First Amendment rights of Trump and Vance don't go far enough to cover what happened in the wake of the comments that they made.

There have been bomb threats, that people have been threatened and there's been aggravated, menacing and all of this stuff because of those comments.

Now, you've heard, for instance, J.D.

Vance say that there's no way to connect him.

It would be unfair to say that his comments incited violence.

But the claim of this is that because of those comments, there were people who were threatened in the community and that First Amendment rights don't cover that event.

Eventually it'll be a Clark County municipal judge who decides whether warrants will be issued, whether there's probable cause.

Yeah, they're seeking to have arrest warrants for Trump and Vance.

I got to tell you, that sounds like it's pretty far afield.

Yeah, and I don't it kind of goes along with the question about whether Trump will come to Springfield.

You know, if there's an arrest warrant when he come to Springfield, you know, it seems very unlikely.

I mean, Springfield and that Clark County area is pretty Republican.

But the question does remain, though, whether Trump will come to Springfield, because that's still out there.

He's talked about wanting to do it.

The mayor has said that would be a strain on resources that are already strained.

But I guess we have to wait and see whether he actually is going to come.

Matt, we're familiar with Sabo Chandra and the Chandra Law firm.

They represented Tamir Rice's family.

And this this case kind of makes me think of the the charges against Donald Trump in the January six case where, you know, they're saying things that he said, particularly at the rally.

Right.

Right.

Before people went up to the Capitol, led to led led to what would followed.

And, you know, I've I've read elsewhere that this is a First Amendment issue, that he has a right to say whatever he wants.

And it's interesting to see there's you know, since he came on the political scene, there's been this question of is he ever going to be held accountable for the things he says.

I heard Governor Mike DeWine, who has been a stark, staunch defender of Springfield and saying these statements are not true and outlandish, has said basically that life is slowly returning to normal in Springfield, though I saw some video the other day of a of a meeting.

I don't know if this was I think it was real, but somebody who got up and and spoke and it was clearly someone who was doing comedy who said they were with the Vance campaign and then started spouting stuff that was just ridiculous.

And did you see this, Karen, at all?

I did not.

But I will tell you that the Springfield City Commission did meet under increased security this week, and apparently there was a crowd outside waiting to come in.

So I think that is true, that life is slowly getting back to normal.

I don't think we've heard a lot about a lot of the hoax bomb threats that had been happening before.

But certainly people in the community, both the Haitian community members who feel that they've been threatened and also people in the Springfield area who are concerned about the strain on housing and education and public services, that it's still very real to them.

And to Republican lawmakers in Ohio want to crack down on how imitation meat and egg products are branded.

Manufactures couldn't use words like burger, egg or omelet when labeling lab grown and plant based, even insect based proteins.

So is this a big deal or is it a nothing burger?

Oh, well, it did pass in Iowa with bipartisan support.

And Ohio is a heavy agriculture state.

So this is definitely designed to really help the meat and meat and poultry industries and really push back on the plant based versions of those products.

But what I'm wondering is what's another word for Burger?

Because burger wouldn't be allowed.

Patty wouldn't be allowed and he's not allowed.

Nope.

Really?

Also, yeah.

What's another word for omelet?

I mean, what would one of the other words here is?

All right, let's wait a minute.

We've got Ana here, so let's.

Ana, let you finish.

What's another.

Sorry.

All right.

All right, Kanye, what is what's another word for Burger That isn't Patty?

What what can you call it?

What we call an omelet?

I mean, you can't say egg either.

So what they're what they're basically think about it for a second.

What they're driving at, Karen, is you can't call like, a beyond burger when it's not really now, you can't call it a burger.

You have to call it something else because it's plant based.

Yes.

One of the sponsors of the bill, Representative Roy Clop and Stein said that these are Petri dish proteins.

And so they would have to be branded as such because they're not burgers.

They're not burgers made for meat or turkey.

They're not eggs are almost made from eggs.

They're made from plant based protein.

So it's and also it's pretty serious because universities and K-through-12 schools, they could not purchase these products because they would be considered misbranded.

Right.

So the schools how Department of Health would have to exclude the products from women, infants and children, or the work program, which often is known as food stamps, colleges, schools couldn't do it.

And you mentioned Iowa has already done this.

Do we do we see any impact from that?

I don't think so at this moment.

The question, of course, is, as we mentioned earlier in the show, whether this will join the pipeline of bills that could potentially get through a very busy lame duck session if it turns out to be that I have to say thank you to Helen, who I knew would come through.

All right.

She says a new name would be protein rounds.

That's a for a burger and an appetizer.

Okay.

You want to know?

It sounds less appetizing.

I think she means this for sausage.

It would be breakfast logs Monday on the Sound of Ideas on 89 seven, KSU Jenny Hammel will lead a conversation on entrepreneurship and motherhood.

Mom, Trooper Nurse What are the challenges in starting a business while raising a family, and what resources are there for working parents?

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for watching.

And stay safe.