(upbeat rock music) - [Gabriel] Coming up next on NewsDepth: Israel has declared war over the Gaza strip.

A university developed a helmet for deaf and hard of hearing football players.

We visit a Cleveland-based independent wrestling organization.

And Margaret tells us about the Monarch butterfly's long journey.

NewsDepth is now.

(upbeat music) One day after the October 7th attack, Israel formally declared war against Hamas.

Hello, I'm Gabriel Kramer and thank you for joining us.

On October 7th, militant organization Hamas attacked Israel from the Gaza strip.

The Gaza strip is a small piece of land located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean sea.

The majority of its population is Palestinian, and the area is often at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Israel-Palestine conflict started because both countries were claiming rights to the same piece of land.

Many people from diverse backgrounds lived there in the past.

Over time, Jewish people and Arabic people strongly connected with the land.

After World War II, Jewish people facing discrimination wanted a homeland in this area and established Israel in 1948.

Palestinians already living there felt their homes were being taken, wanting their own state too.

This led to ongoing conflicts and disagreements about land control.

Today, Palestinian officials say dozens of buildings, including homes, schools and medical institutions have been flattened as a result of Israeli strikes on Gaza.

Ben Wedeman has more on the devastation in the region.

- [Ben] The Gaza city neighborhood once known as Al-Rimal, the Sands reduced to ashes.

Its residents retrieve what they can, which isn't much.

Residents, in shock, are asking, why?

(Yahya speaking in foreign language) - [Ben] I got married this year, says Yahya Al-Ahwal.

What did I do?

What have we done?

You destroyed an entire neighborhood.

He says he never fired a rocket.

Around forty percent of the population of Gaza is under the age of fifteen, according to the CIA.

The information ministry in Gaza reports that nearly 170 buildings have been destroyed, and more than 12,000 residences damaged.

Tens of thousands have fled their homes, seeking refuge in UN schools converted into shelters.

An oven in this bakery in Gaza city has shut down many of the shelves are empty.

Life here was already difficult and now the future looks bleaker than ever.

(Wahiba speaking in foreign language) - [Ben] Gaza will take five years to raise its head after this, says Wahiba Sirsawi, and after five years there will be two or three more wars, it's a catastrophe.

- Thank you Ben.

Across the United States, millions of people have gathered to show support to the people caught in the middle of the conflict.

Cities in Texas, New York, Connecticut, Massachutes, and even here in Ohio, have held rallies in support of both Israel and Palestine.

Reporter Tom Negovan is at a rally in New Jersey that has brought together a number of synagogues and people from all faiths to show solidarity with people in Israel.

A synagogue is the building where a Jewish congregation meets for religious worship.

Tom?

- [Tom] It's a river of blue and white passing through the streets of Livingston.

Thousands marching peacefully under the watchful eye of local police in support of Israel.

- Now the priorities are clear.

Free the captives, and free Gaza and Israel from Hamas once and for all.

(crowd cheering) - [Tom] In the crowd, 89-year-old Mark Schonwetter, a holocaust survivor.

- It's beyond the imagination to see something and live through what I have lived through to see what happens now.

And this makes me so upset.

(congregate chanting) - [Tom] More than 2-dozen area synagogues and community organizations are represented here.

People have come all over the tri-state.

They may not share the same faith but they do share the same message.

- It's important to us to let Israel know that, you know, even thousands of miles away they've got support.

- I think it's fantastic that the community as a whole, Livingston and other communities have come together with the Jewish community.

I think thats wonderful.

We've stood with others and I'm glad they're standing with us.

- Thank you Tom Now let's move on to something a little more energetic.

It is football season after all.

And my favorite team the Cleveland Browns are doing pretty well, at least I think so.

But I am definitely up for tossing around the pig skin if you wanted to meet after school!

No?

All right, if you're too busy that's fine.

Well, Gallaudet University is known for its ground-breaking work for the deaf and hard of hearing.

The school also has an active sports program.

And now a new invention could be a game changer for the team's football players.

Caroline Patrick has more.

- [Caroline] Gallaudet Bison are once again paving the way.

- To know that it actually happened and we made history, it's even better than I thought.

- [Caroline] Gallaudet University and AT&T creating the first 5G connected football helmet for deaf and hard of hearing football players that changes the game.

- The most important thing was, it opened up access to communication.

Important, sometimes I can't get the attention of our quarterback.

- [Caroline] Over the weekend it was used for the first time in the win against the Hilbert College Hawks.

- I think it's mind blowing using this kind of technology, super advanced, especially when you are talking about using it in the game of football.

So, truly blown away and I can see how it benefits us in a game time situation, so hats off to AT&T for making this happen.

- [Caroline] The helmet allows coaching staff to send plays via a tablet to a digital display located in this visor.

- With this helmet you don't have to look to the sideline to try to see what the coach is saying, you can just focus on the huddle get the play directly from the helmet.

- [Caroline] Quarterback Brandon Washington sees the play and is able to give clear communication to his team.

- Yes, I really think it can change the game for us hard of hearing and deaf people, yes.

- [Shelby] Unlimited possibilities for leveling the playing field, honestly.

It's something that I never could have imagined can happen.

(players grunting) - [Caroline] The University says it shouldn't go unnoticed that Gallaudet invented the modern-day huddle in 1894 - a way to conceal hand signals from another deaf opponent.

- Thank you Caroline.

Once you start being a football fan, you're football fan for life.

Like this World War II veteran from Ohio who recently turned one hundred years old.

The vet is a huge Cincinnati Bengals fan.

We'll not hold him to it.

And his only big wish for his big is for the Bengals to win, something they haven't been able to too often this season.

But another veteran is hoping he can go one step further to arrange for some of the players to meet this decorated centenarian.

Madeline Ottilie has more.

- They usually play pretty good defense.

- [Madeline] Almost two thousand miles away from the action.

- We need a stop here.

- [Madeline] Gordon Haerr honed in on a Bengals win.

- I suffer every time they lose.

- [Madeline] Gordon watches every game at his veteran's home in Georgetown Ohio.

- They tell me I'm 100 now.

- [Paul] You are 100.

- [Madeline] Keeping himself busy, with family, bingo and Bengals.

- I take it too seriously.

But I like to see them win.

- [Madeline] It's a simple pleasure, for someone who about eight decades ago was thrust into combat in World War II.

- [Gordon] I have nightmares still.

I have few friends that were killed that kind of got to me, but I was always lucky I guess.

- [Madeline] Paul Brown, who shares a name with the Bengal's founder, is a veteran too.

When he heard about Gordon he knew he had to meet him.

- It took him 70 years to get his medals.

Some of the stuff he had to do in World War II that, you know, a lot of people wouldn't want to do.

- France gave me their highest medal, the Legion of Honor.

You become a knight.

And you use a title sir.

But no one ever called me sir.

- [Madeline] To thank him for his service Brown had an idea.

Help him meet a player.

- That would probably be a lifetime dream come true.

- [Madeline] So, he drew up this sign to hold up outside Paycor stadium.

- All we're wanting you know is for some of the guys to come see him.

- [Madeline] Which is how we found him.

- [Paul] I've talked, wrote letters and everything, that we've got no good feedback.

- [Madeline] But he's not giving up hope.

- [Paul] We need to get Jamar Chase to sign your jersey.

- Oh, sign my jersey.

- Yeah!

- [Madeline] Neither is Gordon.

- [Gordon] Everybody's been real nice to me.

- [Paul] That's because you're a good man.

A veteran is the largest family in the world.

Whether it be a woman or a man it's family, and we take care of our own.

- Thank you Madeline.

And that brings us to this week's poll.

Which of Ohio's professional sports team is your favorite?

Jump over to our poll page to vote.

If you're watching this online, you can click the box on the side of the screen to take you there.

You can choose between: the Cleveland Browns, the Cavaliers or the Guardians, the Cincinnati FC, the Bengals, or the Reds, or the Columbus Crew, or the Blue Jackets.

Last week, we asked you which STEM field you would like to learn more about.

29% of you said you wanted to learn about careers in Artificial Intelligence.

25% said you were interested in Space Science.

19% of you said you were curious about jobs to do with math.

Another 18% voted for engineering.

And 9% of you said you wanted to learn more about careers in Computer Science.

Thank you for voting.

This will help us find professionals in STEM for our career callout segment.

Okay, I have one more sports-related story I wanted to share with you.

In this installment of Making It, we learn about Absolute Intense Wrestling.

A Cleveland-based, independent wrestling organization that produces live wrestling events across northeast Ohio and they even run a wrestling school.

Let's check it out!

But first and foremost, these are trained professionals, and you mustn't try this at home.

- I'm John Thorne.

This is Absolute Intense Wrestling.

(upbeat rock music) ♪ I think I know a thing or two about you ♪ ♪ I think I know more than you'd want me to ♪ I got involved in wrestling in a very unconventional way.

When I was 15 years old, I found a phone number for a local wrestling promoter in Cleveland named JT Lightning.

He didn't know I was 15 years old.

I called the number.

I said, "Oh, I'd like to rent your wrestling ring."

He said, "Sure, 300 bucks and you gotta put me on the show."

Didn't ask any questions, had no idea how old I was.

He was just looking to make us 300 bucks.

We put on a wrestling show, completely untrained of just high school people in a wrestling ring.

JT Lightning when he arrived, he did not turn around and leave.

He understood what we were trying to do.

So he worked with us.

You know, he set the ring up.

We rented the gym, we put on a show, and I've been involved in wrestling ever since that day.

- This is my home promotion AIW.

And I'm really the, I'm the gold standard of the women's division.

So when they bring in big name women, I always wrestle them.

I'm always paid here.

Every time I wrestle, I'm always paid because at the end of the day, it's still a job.

You know, I'm still coming to work for with whatever promotion that I'm working for.

- I wanted to do wrestling.

I wanted to present my version of independent wrestling.

That's really all it was.

I never thought of it as being business.

We wanted to do wrestling.

We figured out how to do wrestling.

And then it's really evolved from there.

I mean, the school came along I think in like 2014, 2015.

But now since we started the wrestling school, it's becomes almost like a system, right?

Like so your graduation is, you get a match on an AIW show.

(upbeat rock music) (audience cheering) We're always looking to kind of add a little bit more to the show, right?

Because I understand that, you know, some of these people that we're putting on our, you know, we're putting in matches, they're not household names because they're starting from scratch right here in the AIW Academy.

So I like to try to find like a legend or a meet and greet person or something to where the average wrestling fan, like the average wrestling fan will come to see X-Pac, or Abdullah the Butcher, or Larry Zbyszko or any one of these legends that we book.

And then the idea is, is that gets 'em through the door and then the wrestling gets them to come back again.

We want Cleveland to be a destination for professional wrestling.

And that's always our goal.

Like I do it because I want Cleveland independent wrestling to matter.

(upbeat rock music) - Special thanks to producer Ideastream producer, Ygal Kaufman, for sharing that story with us.

Other than football, what else comes to mind when you think about fall?

Pumpkin spice, everything halloween, the leaves changing, and Monarch butterflies starting their yearly migration to the south.

In this Spot on Science, we learn with Margaret about migration and see the stages of metamorphosis up close.

She speaks with Amy Roskilly from the Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District about the butterflies' long journey.

(bright funky music) - When you see Monarch butterflies you probably don't imagine them as very strong insects.

I mean, they're pretty but those wings are so flimsy, right?

Well, you might wanna take a closer look because these guys make quite the journey during their cross continent migration.

To find out more I invited Amy Roskilly from the Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District to the studio.

I started by asking her to talk about the long journey these little butterflies take.

(rocket whooshes) (soft music) - [Amy] Sure, well right now in the fall they're making their journey from Canada all the way down to Mexico, which is about 3,000 miles they're flying.

- [Margaret] That's so far.

- It's amazing.

- And Ohio is one of their big first pit stops coming from Mexico.

- [Amy] Yeah, so they're flying from Canada all the way over Lake Erie onto the shores of, here in Cleveland, and so they need some time to rest and to refuel before they start up their journey again and make it over to Mexico.

- [Margaret] And now, those are big adult butterflies that are making the journey but you brought in some great examples of what the butterflies- - I did.

- are like before they get their wings.

- Yeah.

- So why don't you start us off, so it starts as an egg, obviously.

- [Amy] Right, it starts as an egg and then it moves to various stages of caterpillars.

So right here we have a smaller caterpillar.

- [Margaret] Yeah, he's pretty tiny.

- [Amy] Pretty tiny, although they're super tiny when they first emerge, like you can barely see them.

This one right here is about ready to go.

That's about at its fifth stage, they shed their skin.

And then when they get about that big they go into, they crawl up high, and they turn into a J formation, I could show you guys right here.

- [Margaret] Oh, wow.

- [Amy] And they'll be like that for about a day or so and then they're going to turn, it's really cool, they're gonna turn into a chrysalis.

- [Margaret] Wow.

- [Amy] Meaning that the caterpillar will be no more and it will look like this.

- [Margaret] I didn't realize that they would be so shiny like that, it looks like a little Christmas ornament.

- [Amy] It does, it does.

And I'm not sure of the relevance of the gold beading on it but it looks pretty fancy, you know?

(both chuckling) And so they're like this for probably about two weeks or so, 10 to 14 days, and then, and they're going through a major transformation, again, the caterpillar is no longer, all those parts are being absorbed and turning into a butterfly.

- That's amazing.

- Yeah.

- [Margaret] A lot of the attention gets put on big beautiful butterflies but there are these really important plants that you were telling me about.

- [Amy] Yeah, so the Monarch butterflies can only lay their eggs on Milkweed.

Swamp Milkweed, common Milkweed, there's probably maybe 8 to 10 different varieties they can lay on.

They tend to prefer common Milkweed.

And the reason they can lay on there is because when the caterpillars emerge that's the only plant that they can eat to survive.

- And is there a lot of Milkweed around or is it hard for them to figure out where to go?

- [Amy] It's hard for them to figure out where to go.

So the Monarch population has declined by about 80% in the past 20 years and the main reason is because of loss of habitat.

Not finding the Milkweed they need to lay their eggs.

- [Margaret] You were telling me that we can play an important role in getting more Milkweed.

- [Amy] Yeah, so we are doing a collection of common Milkweed pods and we have some here to show you today.

In these pods are Milkweed seeds and in them, they're very fuzzy too, and what this does is the seed right there with the fuzzy stuff on it called the Koma, that takes the seed away to be planted somewhere else.

So we are collecting those and you can drop them off at collection points at various Soil and Water Conservation Districts across Ohio.

And we take them and we give them to the Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative who processes the seeds, takes all that fuzzy stuff off of there, and then they package them and they return those seeds and use them for different habitats.

- Excellent.

- All across Ohio - [Margaret] I'm gonna have to go out to my garden and see what I can find.

- [Amy] Please do.

Yeah.

And we definitely want people to pick them where they're permitted to pick them, whether it's your yard or you have permission from your neighbor.

If you're going into a park system ask the naturalist, we don't want people picking them where they shouldn't be picking them.

- [Margaret] Definitely, definitely.

Well thank you so much for coming and sharing.

- Thank you for having me.

- Hmm, thank you Margaret!

I didn't know my garden could make such a big impact.

Now in California, a community in Hollywood Hills is doing its part to help save endangered Monarch butterflies.

The species was on the brink of extinction in 2020, but their numbers are improving.

Joy Benedict has more on what's being done to make sure they continue to take flight.

- [Joy] There's something in the air in the Hollywood Hills, as the blooming is a beacon for the butterfly.

- [Stephan] One, two, three.

Something should be coming out of her.

You saw the egg?

- Oh my god.

Yeah.

The Monarch butterflies are laying eggs and flying high but its not by accident or even by nature.

It's a plan by this community as the Monarch, is on the endangered species list.

- [Stephan] We have one little guy left.

- [Joy] Stephan Pine is raising his Monarchs inside!

- They're beautiful insects and we care about, you know, beautiful little insects.

We don't want them to go extinct.

- [Joy] He says when the Hollywood Knolls Garden Club started telling everyone about the need for Milkweed to keep the butterflies alive, he got two small plants and ended up with two dozen caterpillars.

- It looked like an alien takeover at one point when you had all of them just going to town on our plants.

They literally chewed them to the nubs of the stalks.

- [Joy] With the temperatures rising, he brought his tiny plants and tiny caterpillars inside.

- We had so many caterpillars, I had to go around the neighborhood and find random Milkweed plants and steal leaves to keep our caterpillars fed.

- They can smell Milkweed for upto two miles away.

- [Joy] Charles Malki is the co-chair of the Garden Club and owns a plant product company.

He handed out Milkweed to his neighbors as its the only plant the Monarch caterpillar can eat.

- It's shocking that they've hit the endangered species list last year.

We all need to take that additional step to support their population by dedicating some of our real estate to them.

- [Joy] Especially since this was once their habitat.

- [Charles] Our homes have taken away from their real estate.

- [Joy] But scientists says its not construction killing this winged tiger, its the herbicide that kills the Milkweed and the pesticide that stops the flight.

- How bad a shape are they in?

- It's been really bad.

We probably have only about one percent of the Monarchs that we would have seen forty years ago.

- [Joy] Doctor Jeff Holmquist is an ecologist at UCLA.

He says we also can't rule out the affect of climate change.

- As the climate changes we may start to have more of these mismatches between plants and the insects that depend on them.

- [Joy] Butterflies migrate based on the temperature, but the warmth can be deceiving allowing them to fly to their next location too soon.

- So they've left this coastal over wintering habitat, gone inland to find Milkweed and oops, little to no Milkweed there so that a problem.

- [Joy] Which gives this community just one more reason to plant it.

- This here is a seed pod and you can see the beautiful seed.

- [Joy] And it's beautiful friend, the orange and black banded fluttering staple of fall, which this community hopes will soar for generations to come.

- Thank you Joy.

One of the things I really like to do to relax is gardening, no.

I like to sit in a garden, no.

I like to cook with freshly grown herbs and vegetables from the garden, no.

I like to look at butterflies in the garden.

Well, at any rate, all of those things are really relaxing and we met with a group of students who found a way to do all of those things!

The Garden Club at Berea-Midpark Middle School invited us to see the garden they planted and happen to be this week's A+ award winners.

Indie and Hannah told us that the idea for a garden club started a few years ago when they were in sixth grade social studies with Mr. Pearl.

You see, their school had a courtyard that really wasn't in great shape and they wanted to do something to make the space a bit more usable.

Indie took on the role of garden master and recruited a few of her classmates to spend time in the courtyard over this past summer recreating the space.

The garden has even been designated as a "certified schoolyard habitat!"

Lucas told us that they wanted to make the courtyard inviting for students, teachers, and butterflies!

They planted a wide variety of herbs and vegetables that the family consumer science classes are using in their recipes.

Things like peppers, basil, onions, and cabbages.

I don't know about you, but that's making me pretty getting hungry!

That's not all, Evelyn told us that they also planted a few native species to help pollinators and Monarch butterflies as they migrate.

Pollinators are insects, like bees and butterflies, that help spread pollen.

Brooklynn explained that they planted black-eyed Susans and Milkweed to attract the butterflies.

A lot of the flowers they planted are perennials.

A perennial is a plant that lives more than two years without needing to be replanted.

The group told us that they were really proud of their work.

They found it motivating to know that they will be leaving something behind as a legacy for their hard work.

They're hoping that teachers and students find the courtyard to be a relaxing place to learn.

Well, here at Newsdepth headquarters, we're pretty sure they are a success because when we were there we saw two teachers relaxing and about 15 students eating lunch!

The Garden Club also wanted to give a titan shoutout to Grace church for donating all of the plants.

This week's A+ award goes to the Garden Club at Berea-Midpark Middle School.

Keep up the great work.

And now it's time to hear from you!

For this week's write-in question, we want to hear your ideas for how you can help migrating butterflies in your community?

Send us your answers using the inbox form online or via email.

And if you add a drawing, we might be able to show it on next episode.

Just like a lot of you did last week.

We asked you to tell us about an invasive species in your community.

Let's see what you found out by opening up our inbox.

Aaron from Meadowlawn Intermediate in Sandusky sent us this interpretation of the spotted laternfly: I think the invasive species may need to go but we still don't know which are bad and which are good but the lanternfly will be starting to lay their eggs anytime soon.

Maria from Rushwood Elementary School in Sagamore Hills also saw the spotted lanternfly: Dear NewsDepth, an invasive species in my community is the spotted lanternfly.

It was found in 2020 in Jefferson County, Ohio and was spotted in Cleveland in 2021.

They can be destructive and have killed plants from feeding on their sap.

Michael from Bath Elementary School in Akron sent us this drawing and said: Dear NewsDepth, my invasive species is the American bittersweet.

It is invasive because it chokes out wood plants.

It has red bulbs on the tip of it.

It is a vine type of plant and wraps around other plants.

That is why my plant is invasive.

Chloe from Gilles Sweet Elementary in Fairview Park also sent a drawing.

This is the Chinese praying mantis.

It's invasive to Ohio.

They kill plants.

They came from China.

They are very, very bad for us, but hard to tell if it is one or a different species.

That makes this a bad invasive species.

And Caydan from Bexley City School in Bexley told us about an invasive fish.

Dear NewsDepth, an invasive species in my community is a bighead carp.

A bighead carp is invasive because they lay hundreds of thousands of eggs at a time and then the native species quickly die off.

They are also invasive because they cause damage when they lay their eggs.

Thanks to everyone who wrote in!

I can't wait to read next week's answers.

Now it's time for everyone's favorite canine, Newshound!

Let's see what he has for us in this week's petting zoo.

(playful music) (dog barks) Hey there Newshound!

Go fetch us a new story!

Good catch Newshound!

So what did you find today?

Okay, it's a story about runaway cows.

To check out the full story click the Petting Zoo thumbnail at the bottom of this episode page.

Thanks Newshound!

Good work as always!

I think we're out of time for today, but let's keep the conversation going because we always want to hear from you and there are plenty of ways you can stay in touch with us.

You can write to us, we're at 1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio.

Our zip code here is 44115.

You can email us at newsdepth@ideastream.org, or you can tweet us, our handle is @NewsDepthOhio.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Gabriel Kramer and we'll see you right back here next week.

(upbeat music) - [Kid Speaker] NewDepth is made possible by grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.

(upbeat music)