I-90 west of downtown will be rebuilt, alleviating flooding and following up traffic patterns for three years.

Ohio wants to make highways safer by doubling the number of parking spaces so truckers can pull over and rest.

And J.D.

Vance says Akron, canto and Columbus are lawless cities.

They are pushing back.

Ideas is next.

Hello and welcome to ideas.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you for joining us.

Did you see the massive body of water just a bit south of Lake Eri in the west suburbs this week?

It was I-90 submerged in a deluge.

The road had to be closed.

A rebuild of that section of interstate promises to foul up traffic for years.

But it should mean it will no longer become a marine navigable freeway after a downpour.

Officers from across Ohio and into Canada paid respects this week to slain Lorain police officer Philip Wagner murdered in an ambush last week.

And the head of the Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio warned that Wagner's death was just the latest in what he called a war on police.

Vice president J.D.

Vance spent time in canton decrying lawlessness in Ohio cities, specifically canton, Akron and Columbus.

Leaders in those cities pushed right back, and truckers will have more resting spots in Ohio, while young adult drivers will need more training to get a license.

Joining me for the roundtable today from Ida Stream Public Media, deputy editor of News Andrew Meyer and reporter Abigail Boater in Columbus, Ohio.

Public radio and television statehous News Bureau chief Karen Kasler.

Let's get ready to round table.

Commuters on Cleveland' west side had better have a mug of patience and a cup holder beside them.

$173 million construction project starts Monday, and will impact traffic on Interstate 90 through October of 2028.

Andrew, let's talk about I-90.

It'll impac both directions between Hilliard and West Boulevard.

What's being done there?

As I understand, I think they're taking it down to the studs.

It's everything.

It' everything.

It's the pavement.

It's new drainage, which is going to be good new for anybody who was out there.

This.

I'm telling you, people were literally stopped if you tried to go in.

And, you know, they always say, if you see standing water, don't don't try to go through it.

But there were people and there were wakes on the sides of their cars, and eventually they just closed the road.

And I did go back and look thi morning at some of the photos.

And of course, there's the prerequisite one ca with the water up to its roof.

But he didn't get the message.

Sorry to hear that, but there's going to be new lighting.

It's really a top to bottom makeover of this several mile stretch of highway.

It's a major East-West connector.

It's coming into Cleveland on the west side.

For those who aren't familiar with it, handles a lot of traffi on a daily basis that it does.

And I know neither of you cares because neither of you drive that road.

But it's my way to work every single day.

So I'm a little nervous about, what's going to be happening with the construction.

But there will be lanes open, right?

Yeah.

And I'm sympathetic because they're tearing up eight right now.

So I, you know, I have empathy for you.

Yeah.

They'll keep four lanes o traffic westbound at all times.

Just shifted to the outside.

So one of the lanes will be in the shoulder.

And then eastbound they're keeping three lanes open.

So when we talk about that deluge, I mean it was a lot of rain on Monday.

But we look back and it has been a rainy July.

There's been a lot of rain in northeast Ohio, to call it the, I think it's the wet, hot summer Cleveland style.

Would not be all that inaccurate.

But believe it or not, as much as we've gotten, which is about four inches more than the average at this point in the year, this is not record setting, at least at this point, at least at this point.

There's been about 26 plu inches of rain so far this year.

And that's a lot.

And it has been hot.

It's been very hot.

We're getting a little bit of a respite right now.

But according to the weather forecasters, it's coming back in about a week, so summer's not done with us.

You know who deals with roa construction more than anyone?

Truckers and all that driving can make them tired.

Governor Mike DeWine announced plans this week to build 1400 new long term truck parking spaces so they can pull ove and rest on state owned lands.

Double what already exists.

The goal is to improve highway safety for everyone using the roads.

And Karen, let's talk about how more parking spaces improves highway safety.

Well, there's a serious problem.

According to governor Mike DeWine.

According to the Ohio Department of Transportation law enforcement, the U.S.

Department of Transportation in terms of drowsy semi drivers, they caused over 300 crashes in the last ten years and two of them were fatalities.

And so, I mean, when you start thinking about some of those trucks, including trucks that are double semis, now having some drowsiness issues with their drivers, that's a serious concern.

And there was a U.S.

Department of Transportatio survey, apparently, that asked truck drivers, you know how hard is it to find parking?

And 98% said they've had trouble finding parking, and 70% said they've had to readjus and go over their required hours of service, their rest time to try to find safe parking.

You know, and I don't know if any of you have had this experience, but I've had the most terrifying experience when you're driving the car and you realize, I think I was just asleep.

You know, you're kind of dozing a little bit and drowsy and you're like, oh my gosh.

Like I, you know, you turn off the radio, you put your windows down and you try to get to the to the next exit.

I imagine if this is what you're doing for a career and the kind of material that you're hauling and the size of the vehicle that you're driving, this is this is high stakes.

Absolutely.

And road traffic.

Freight traffic is only expected to increase increase by about 26% by 2045.

So potentially more truckers on the road there is right no a commercial trucking shortage.

But you know that might be part of it that the concern that, you know, how do I make sure that I get the required rest I need and get to safe places where I can park so that I don't go over time and potentially endanger myself as well as other people.

These, areas are going to be they'll have lighting, they'll have bathroom facilities, place to put your trash, those types of things.

Are they new facilities, expansion of existing facilities.

What's going to happen across the state?

Well, let me correct myself for one moment here.

It apparently was 689 crashes in Ohio since 2015.

So a lot of crashes, two fatalities.

And these are areas that the state already owns, land the state already owns at rest stops.

And, the state has also bee repurposing closed way stations for truck parking.

But this is land the state already owns.

But it will spend about $150 million to make sure that there is enough parking to expand parking to basically double the parking available on state owned lands for commercial truck drivers.

And like you just said, more lighting and restroom facilities.

And if you've been to a rest area in Ohio, some of them, the ones that have been redone, are really that they're definitely upgraded.

I mean, you know, our colleague Sarah Donaldson comes from Pennsylvania, and she said, well, our places are palaces compared to what they have in Pennsylvania.

So that's that's kind of a good thing.

We're thinking about taking advantage of the weather this weekend, having the McIntyre famil picnic at one of the rest stops.

We have tables of table.

You're right no 689 crashes in Ohio since 2015.

Caused by drowsy semi-truck drivers, 345 injuries two fatalities.

So that's a lot.

Okay, let's stay behind the wheel for one more story.

Young adults in Ohio are now required to take driver's education training before obtaining their first license.

Used to be if you are over 18 you could just go aced the test and get a license.

But the state budget expanded driver's education to 18 to 20 year olds, including 24 hours in the classroom and eight hours of on the road instruction.

Meeting that mandate, though Karen, might be difficult, there is not a ton of driver's ed availability, and it's not cheap.

Yeah, and I ask, governor Mik DeWine about this at the event where they were announcing the increased traffic spaces or parking spaces for semi truck drivers.

And, you know, he had proposed grants for high schools to bring back driver's ed training to schools.

And that would be funded by marijuana dollars.

But the legislature made some changes there.

But there is still this la that would require that you need to have this training.

And so there is a problem with access.

And, you know, if if you required to get training, but it's hard for you to get training because you live in a rural county where there really isn't a driver's ed school available, or the driver's ed school is busy.

Like when we found out when we were trying to get our son in the driver's training, that he needed to get his driver's license at 16.

You know, these are real issues, and it's not free.

It costs money.

And so DeWine said he's still trying to wor to find extra money in the state budget and available to try to bring it back to high schools or find grants to help people to pay for it.

And, Andrew, we talked about how drivers, drowsy truck drivers cause crashes, but really teens cause a lot of crashes.

Do you know about 70% of, crashes?

Are the fault of teen drivers.

And 34% of those at fault teens had not gotten their driver education, so that' where the rubber hits the road.

Really?

Here?

A lot of those looking at th stats are 18 and 19 year olds.

So that's the justification the governor is looking at in terms of saying it's really got to be up to 20 where you need that driver.

Ed, it's go ahead.

70% of fatal crashes involving teens right now of total crashes.

Gotcha.

And I think the, the idea that that you need more driver education, one of the things that's being pushed, Andrew, is that there' a shortage of driver education.

But the new mandate they think will help.

How would it help get more driver education?

Well, to really good question.

Well you know the I think what the governor' spokesperson who's saying that by requiring up to 20 year olds to get this driver education, you have more of a critical mass now that's going to drive the need for more of these programs.

So the argument is in the rural areas where there just aren't as many 16 and 17 year olds, it's not sustainable to have those programs there.

They're having to look further afield.

There aren't as many.

So there's thinking that this could up the market, increase the saturation o the programs that are available.

But again, you're talking about training that's 24 hours of online classroom training and eight hour behind the wheel.

That's a lot.

Yeah.

And Karen, as I understand it, it's not easy to get certification to be a trainer either.

Yeah.

And I think that it's that behind the wheel stuff that DeWine is really talking about.

And that's obviously the the time spent in the car.

And yeah, it does take some work to get that certification.

And for a while there had been this trend where teenagers were not seeking their driver's license right away.

You didn't have a whole bunch of 15 year olds who are all trying to get their driver's license right away.

Some kids were delaying that.

That number apparently got big enough that some driver's schools did just did not serve certain areas.

And of course, high schools that used to offer drivers training just didn't anymore.

And so now this is potentially I thin could bring some of this back.

But again, it's not going to be free.

It's something that, people have to pay for.

And it is a mandate now that if you're over it, you can't just wait until you're 18 and then g and get your driver's license.

You got to have that training.

Local nonprofit leaders gathered at a public hearing Wednesday to weigh in on what a new foundation created by the sale of Summa Health to the for profit health assurance Transformation Corporation, or CatCo, should focus on.

Let's talk about this.

What is the new foundation that's been created?

It's called, Trailhead Community Foundation of Greater Akron, I believe.

It covers five counties summit, Medina, Portage, stark and Wayne.

Those are counties that Summa Health has is giving services, health care services to And so I spoke with one of the new board members, and she said that, you know, they were thinking about all the amazing nature and trails we have.

And then also the, symbolism of, this being a new start for us, a new start for Suma, a new foundation for the community.

So that's the trailhead.

We're all going to go on this journey together.

So that's the thought behind the name.

And really, the meeting was literally every nonprofit executiv that I know was there, basically just kind of like pitchin themselves, you know, fund us.

And a lot of them mentioned that the federal cuts are really impacting them, making the money from foundations like this, this one more important.

So, yeah, they were basically just hoping to partner with the new foundation.

The some of the big points that came up were behavioral health, care, food, housing.

Those are some of the big ones, the big needs that they say in their area.

And the foundation has a board now, it was created really, it was an order of the attorney general.

But in this sale, there had to be the creation of this foundation.

Yeah, it was something I believ pretty early on, they had said there would still be a charity arm of Summa Health, since that is, the origin of the of the hospital system is to not turn anyone away.

And it is a nonprofit right now.

The sale will make it a for profit hospital.

So this has been, you know, in the talks for a while, I think since around the time that the sale was announced and then Yost's, conditions, because h conditionally approved the sale, it required a couple conditions that, that the foundation will get $15 million in company stock that they have to hold, and that he had some requirements for the board members that they not be connected to summa or hot cocoa, and that they go through a training program.

And then some other news that came out yesterday was that the CEO, who was driving force behind the acquisition, the CEO of Natco, is stepping down.

Yeah, he' going to be a strategic advisor for the CEO of General Catalyst, which is the venture capital firm that owns hot cocoa.

And I was talking with Taylor Wisner because she health reporter.

She's been covering the summa health sale a little bit more than me.

And, she, you know, it was kind of a shock because this is one of the people that had really pushed for the sale, like the purchase o Summa Health had really pushed for this model of venture capital backed health care, kind of shaking up the way that the system works, that people were excited, about to be, you know, in charge and leading the way for this sale.

So it was kind of a surprise.

They're not going to fill the the role of CEO.

So I guess we're just kind of to see how this shakes out.

I think they're hoping to, finish the deal by the end of this year.

So we'll have to see how that shakes out.

Thousands o mourners paid tribute Wednesday to Lorain Police officer Philip Wagner, who died last week after being shot in an ambush while he ate lunch with a fellow officer.

Two other officers were wounded and the gunman was shot dead by police.

Andrew Wagner's life was celebrated as an officer, a husband, a father.

He's a 35 year old guy.

The messaging from top brass also touched on how he died.

And the fact that he and so many other police officers face these danger and it's really, really tough.

As you mentioned, there are increasing incidents of these attacks on police.

The head of the state Fraternal Order Police was very blunt in his statements at the memorial service, echoing what he said the day of the shooting.

He said that he called the attac He said that everybody who was there was still dealing with this fog of grief.

And it was so critical not to stop remembering Officer Philip Wagner as the hero that he was.

He is the third officer to die in the line of duty in less than two years.

And that includes another ambush style shooting in Euclid last year.

And I'm talking about in Northeast Ohio.

But yeah, three in the last couple of years and including the officer in Euclid also a Cleveland police officer, was fatally shot while trying to arrest a man who had been accuse of shooting his own grandmother in the face with a stolen gun.

So, these are dangerous.

These are.

It's always a dangerous profession, but it seems like it's particularly tough time for the police.

We have talked a lot and had programs on the side of ideas about th efforts of the police department to restore ranks in Cleveland and Akron and other places.

One of them is pay raises.

Others or, you know, other kinds of changes of requirements that they've had.

But you wonder if this kind of thing makes it more difficult to recruit police.

There's been so much attention on it.

It's hard to believe that it's not making it more difficult.

You have thousands of people in attendance at this week's memorial.

Many of them officers from across the state and across the countr paying tribute to Philip Wagner.

It's it's th first and foremost on their mind what what the dangers are that they're facing, given the issues that they see.

What they hear from the state, president of the, I'm sorry of the Fraternal Order Police.

They have to feel under under attack.

We have an email from Jason, and he prefaces it by saying we don't condone the killing of anyone for any reason, but he's talking about a broader topic, not Phillip Wagner, who was shot while sitting and eating lunch in his car.

But he says the polic have created their own problems.

It's not all cops, but the bad ones are never called out by the good ones and rarely if ever, face real consequences.

No one is above the law, and that should include the people that are tasked with enforcing it.

Taking responsibility will cultivate respect from the community.

It's a broade question, really, about the way policing or act with the community and the trust that the community have with police.

Again not that any result should be, violence or the murder of anyone, but but I think he's pointing to a broader problem.

We've seen this play out in, in Akron and, and I think one of the counters for that, what the force in Akron is looking at, led by the mayor and the police chief there, are trying to ge the police back out and engaged with the community, see a lot more park and walks going on.

Officers getting out, getting face time with the community.

So they start to reestablish build up.

That level of trust that is waning has waned.

And respecting the point that Jason made, I don't thin that this particular, assailant would have been swayed by walks in the park that police are having with the community.

Abigail.

Police found some very disturbing details when they searched the gunman's vehicle.

This wasn't just he had one gun on him and wanted to commit this one crime.

It looked like he was.

He was loaded for Armageddon.

Yeah, that.

He had a 100 pounds of explosives in his car that investigators say were powerful enough to cause a devastating blast if they had been detonated.

They're even talking about, you know, the exchange of gunfire that they had, if that had, like, hit the car in a certain way.

What could have happene with that amount of explosives?

And he had more firearm and ammunition in his car than what he had used in the ambus and what he had as explosives.

The substances legal in Ohio.

Not the way he had it.

Yeah.

So it's called Tanner.

Tanner, right?

It's sold in sporting goods stores and gun shops in Ohio, and often used i small quantities in long range target practice.

Yeah, it makes a little explosion when you hit the target.

Yeah.

So you can see where it hit.

So it's legal to purchas and possess in its unmixed form, but transporting it once it's mixed with an aluminum catalyst and prepared, which is how it was found in his car, is illegal.

Vice president J.D.

Vance was in Ohio to tou President Trump's budget bill, which includes all kinds of provisions, paving the way for the administration's domestic agenda.

During a stop at metallic steel near canton, Vance decried what he called lawlessness in citie like Akron, Canton and Columbus, claiming policing is lax, crime is rampant.

Positions at the leader in Akron and other communities.

But we talked to the one in Akron, disputed vehemently.

Andrew.

Akron, in particular, pushed back on his narrative and business owners there a push back to now.

You know, the mayor is saying the downtown is thriving.

It's safe.

It's the sort of thing where he points to the newly renovated lock three in downtown and all the safe, family friendly events that are taking place over the summer as as proof that it's a complete counter to what the Vice president had said.

Also you have business owners saying you're not doing us any favor, mister Vice President, by stating these myths.

Truths about what the reality is in cities like Akron.

Akron has put a lot of work in its public safety agenda, and you've covere that as well as Anna Huntsman, Abigail and Andrew.

You've, led led that coverage that there's been a key on looking at public safety and letting the public kno that that's what you're doing.

Exactly.

You know, they've launched, a team that goes out credible messengers to try and defuze situations.

They've awarded grants throughout the city to, a plethora of organizations all geared at countering youth violence, providing an alternative for kids, especially kids in the city.

Something to keep them occupied, keep them fulfilled, keep them, from a different path.

Karen, it's interesting that Vance zeroed in on the word lawlessness.

It's the same word that, a relative of his who' running for mayor of Cincinnati used to describe an incident there where, there were a couple of people that were attacked.

There was racial connotations to that.

A woman who was knocked out.

It's something that you'r seeing a lot of the, politicians keen on that.

You know, there weren't police there and taking an isolated incident and saying, look at that lawlessness.

That is that' what's going on in our cities.

Even if it is an isolated incident.

Yeah.

Republican lawmakers and politicians have been saying this.

I mean, we've heard it about Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland New York City, Washington, D.C.

over and over again.

We've heard the allegations that these cities are lawless by Republicans who are running for offic or have been elected to office.

And I don't think it's an accident that these are cities run by Democrats.

And so I think that there's been this push to identify cities as being lawless, even though there certainly are area where there might be problems.

But, I mean, it's it's calling an entire city lawless is is a talking point the Republicans have been using for a while here.

And a lot of the videos that you've seen, I mean, remember, social media operates on algorithms.

And so you're seeing a lot of videos that are getting a lot of traction because they are showin one side versus the other side.

There are a lot of things that are not being shown in some of these fights.

Not that there's any excuse for violence, but there are other circumstances that are off and not making it through the viral cycle that, more violent and, and more, emotionally charged videos that ar I mean, the video is nauseating.

And when these, of course, happened, we're not saying, oh, well, geez, don't look at that.

This doesn't happen in our city.

So the question is, if you play that and you see it over and over again, do you think that any time you drive to downtown Cincinnati or downtown, anywhere, there's going to be some sort of racial attack and this kind of thing is going to happen rather than, you know, this was a horrible incident, but crime is down generally, and you know, that that's a broader discussion, that it seems it's difficult i these emotional times to have.

The state sales tax holiday, which started as a three day event covering school supplies and clothes, is now two weeks and includes just about everything under 500 bucks.

It begins today, the last two four weeks, up from ten days last year, three days at its inception.

Almost everything under 500 bucks qualifies for the exemption there.

Price limits right there.

500 bucks is a limit.

Yes.

And if you buy something, i costs more than $500, say $550.

You'll pay sales tax on the entire $550, not just the $50 over a 500.

So that's an important distinction here.

Restaurants are included, which I think is interesting.

They were included last year.

That message didn't get out to all restaurants, so some restaurants actually did have to refun the sales tax that they charged.

But everything on the restaurant bill except for alcohol under $500, that's covere too, on the sales tax holiday.

Yeah, that's just odd to me.

Like, so the back to school dinner.

Yeah.

Right.

Well, you know, I mean I it's it's definitely expanded from just a back to school to now anything goes except for alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and also two exemptions I think are interestin watercraft and motor vehicles.

Try to find me a boat or a car that's under $500.

That's not one you're goin to want to pilot, I'll tell you.

That's for sure.

What about the cost of this?

How will the state, cover that?

Well, the state cover those sales taxes, especially, you know, not just sales tax, but also local sales taxes.

And, last year, they were way under $450 million below what they had estimated the cost to be.

So they've got this money now that they can expand it to 14 days, which they've chosen to do.

And so we'll just see how man people take advantage of this.

Monday on Th Sound of Ideas on 89 seven Wksu, Andrew Meyer is in the host chair to discuss efforts in Akron to improve the relationship between police and the community and to reduce juvenile crime.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for watching and stay safe.