Welcome to the Sound of Ideas Reporters' Roundtable from Ideastream Public Media.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thanks so much for joining us.

A state appeals court agreed with a lower court ruling that the expanded EdChoice private school voucher program is unconstitutional.

It will remain in place while the Ohio Attorney General appeals the ruling to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Cleveland will make life easier on homeowners who show progress in lead paint remediation in their homes.

Replace the windows, get a bigger window between inspections.

E-bikes are everywhere and sometimes a menace.

State lawmakers are eyeing new regulations.

And it's norovirus season.

Did you know the name comes from our very own Norwalk in Huron County after an outbreak at a school in 1968?

Time for all of us to go to school to learn what it takes to protect ourselves from the winter vomiting disease.

And the Ohio Women's Monument debuted on the grounds of the Ohio Statehouse this week, honoring 100 notable Ohio women.

And joining me to discuss all of this week's news from Ideastream Public Media, Deputy Editor of News Andrew Meyer.

Hey there, Andrew.

Hi there, Mike.

Good to have you with us.

And from Crain's Cleveland Business reporter Abbey Marshall.

Hey, Abbey.

Hey, Mike.

Thank you for coming back in.

Happy to be here.

Appreciate it.

And in Columbus, a notable Ohio woman filling in for another notable Ohio woman, Ideastream's Statehouse News Bureau reporter Sarah Donaldson filling in for Karen Kassler.

Good morning, Sarah.

Good morning, you are too kind.

Very good to see you today, and we will continue this conversation with notable women and a notable guy there too, Andrew Meyer.

You can weigh in via email at soi@ideastream.org.

I've got my phone, I'll be checking emails throughout the show.

Let's get ready to roundtable.

An Ohio appeals court has ruled the state's universal EdChoice voucher program unconstitutional, affirming a lower court decision.

Program will continue operating while the state appeals the decision to the Ohio Supreme Court.

And Sarah, what did the appeals court say was unconstitutional about the program?

What's its problem with it?

Yeah, so in this circumstance, the judge, David Leland, wrote that it violates the Ohio Constitution by funding a separate school system instead of abiding by the Constitution, which the state government has to do and fund a singular public education system, that it lacks state oversight, and that it's unavailable to many rural Ohioans who are footing the bill through it by their— by, you know, putting their tax dollars toward it.

Certainly.

And we— this has become a very partisan issue.

The expansion of school vouchers has been pushed hard by Republican legislators and opposed by many educators, many of whom filed this lawsuit, as well as Democratic lawmakers.

What we heard from Republicans after this ruling was no big surprise because these appeal— appeals court judges were Democrats.

Yeah, that's right.

I mean, there was no real surprise here because the issue has become so partisan.

And I believe this ruling means that there's a stay on the program, but it's going to go to the Ohio Supreme Court.

And the Ohio Supreme Court Court is held by Republicans.

I think it's a— there's only one Democratic justice on the Ohio Supreme Court right now.

Right.

So how many students are in this program?

As I mentioned at the beginning, it started as a very small pilot program in Cleveland because schools were underperforming and you could get outta your bad school and go to a good school.

That was the plan.

Now it's virtually everybody qualifies for some sort of aid.

How many people avail themselves of it?

Yeah, that's right.

It expanded in 2023 from that much smaller program that you were talking about.

And there are currently about 180,000 students in the EdChoice program.

So what happens next?

So like I said, this puts a stay on the program, allowing it to continue as the lawsuit goes to the Ohio Supreme Court.

But the attorney general is also going to appeal.

Attorney general.

Andy Wilson said yesterday that they do plan to appeal this, which sends it to the Supreme Court.

Right.

And I mentioned that this is partisan and there are 2 sides.

We did get feedback and reported on feedback from both the opponents of the voucher expansion as well as supporters of school choice.

So let's hear a little bit about that.

What did the opponents say, the opponents of school vouchers, about this ruling that's coming down on their side?

Yeah, so, um, one of the groups that is, um, suing, or, you know, because this has a lot of schools on the lawsuit, but Vouchers Hurt Ohio, William Phyllis told my colleague Joe Ingalls, um, that the program itself at Choice, he called it a, quote, $1 billion boondoggle to mostly religious schools.

So a lot of the schools that kids are using vouchers to go to have some sort of religious affiliation, although not 100% of them.

Interestingly, I've also— oh, go ahead, I'm sorry.

No, no, no, you go ahead.

That's all right.

Now, interestingly, I've also heard from folks who have said that the school choice voucher program originally was, as I said, for people that were in poor schools to go to better schools.

In this case, there are students who are already in private schools who are now getting state money to continue to be in private schools.

So it isn't necessarily bringing someone out of a lower situation.

It's simply diverting money toward folks who already made the decision to go to private school and religious schools as well.

Yeah.

And some of the religious groups that, you know, obviously have schools or work with schools have certainly been very supportive of these programs.

Groups like the Center for Christian Virtue, of course, the Catholic arms of these schools have certainly been very supportive of this.

So, you know, I know Yitz Frank, who's president of School Choice Ohio, told Joe that they vehemently disagree with the ruling and they're confident that when they appeal it to the Ohio Supreme Court, the Supreme Court will kind of fall on the side of school choice.

And of course, as we've already talked about, the Supreme Court has the partisan makeup that would allow you to assume that they would, um, side with folks on the school choice side.

All right.

Well, we'll keep an eye on that.

I know you all at the Statehouse News Bureau will be covering that closely.

Changes may be coming to Cleveland's lead-safe certification program.

A new approach aims at placing the focus more on high-risk properties and noncompliant landlords while rewarding those following the law by freeing them from frequent testing and certification requirements.

So, Abbey, this is going toward the carrot, not just the stick.

Yeah, absolutely.

And, you know, lead continues to be a major issue.

It's something that the city has had to address.

And even though the rates are declining of lead poisoning in children, I believe it's down to, as of last October, about 16%, which was down from a percentage the year before.

That's still 16%.

Of those elevated blood levels in children.

And so 1% is too high.

1%.

Any amount is too high.

And that's kind of been the city's focus.

But the issue is, is there has been talk for some time about making sure that this legislation, this 2019 law about making sure landlords are getting this remediation effort, has teeth.

This doesn't necessarily put teeth behind it, but it puts an incentive behind landlords actually making sure that their properties are compliant, because so far only about 30% of rentals in Cleveland have complied with that existing law.

They were making everyone get these certifications every year.

They have to pay for it.

It's $500.

What they're saying now is if you've done some great things like replace windows and doors, the things where most of this lead comes from, then you get a longer window for you to then have to have another certification.

Your certification lasts longer, and we want to really go after those who haven't done anything to their properties yet.

Those are the ones we need to put the screws to.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

So right now it's on a 2-year cycle, and so the department is proposing that they expand that certification cycle based on, as you said, the amount of remediation that's done.

So if you— all certificates will move to a 3-year cycle, but if you've replaced your windows, you'll get a 5-year certificate.

And then if you replace your windows, your porch, and your doors, you'll get a 10-year certificate.

So it'll make sure that by removing any potential lead poisoning, any potential lead paint poisoning, you'll have more of a grace period before you have to pay to get someone else to come in and, and take a look at that.

Now, this isn't law yet.

City Council is considering this.

So what's the next step?

Yeah, so it'll move through that committee process and then it will be voted on by the full body.

That is, that was introduced this Monday, so likely next week before council makes their final vote, it will then go into effect.

Okay.

It's cold and flu season, yes, but there's another virus that makes the rounds this time of year and it is nasty.

Winter vomiting disease.

How's that sound?

Anybody want a note of that?

I have, I have had this before.

It is brutal.

It is no good.

And here as a public health service, we're going to talk about what you can do to yourself from the norovirus, which by the way got its name from an outbreak at a Norwalk, Ohio school in the late 1960s.

So, and we hear about it, Andrew, a lot on cruise ships.

People come back because they're in those tight quarters and get norovirus.

And the same thing is true come wintertime.

Usually this is a time of year when we start to see the cases emerge and then they peak as we move through February.

And it's because we're all inside, we're all grouped together, and it is easily transmissible.

Not just by normal means, but also it can be aerosolized, which means that if you've got it and you cough, you sneeze, it's out there and you can breathe it in and you can get it that way.

And it remains active for a relatively long amount of time.

So it's, it can be pretty easy to pick it up.

I don't want it.

I don't want it either.

Okay.

And so if I don't, yeah, if I don't want it, the question is, what do I do?

Now, I remember during COVID times and it became controversial.

You got to do the Purell.

You got to do that, of course.

But also the controversial part was it was expected that you would wear a mask.

Should people be masking up to avoid norovirus?

It's not a bad idea if you are in a household with somebody who may have it or does have it.

That's definitely one thing.

But also one of the things I learned from our reporting this week is that I was making jokes about the, you know, doing that little rub before you, you know, make sure your hands are clean.

That's not going to cut it.

You actually have to use warm water and soap, a lot of it, to really make sure you're reducing any contaminants you may have on yourself.

So the story that Laskowski reported says wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands.

Pretty much, yep.

That's pretty much it.

Also, I mean, it sounds horrible enough as it is, the winter vomiting disease.

It's also diarrhea.

But there's problems that come as a result of that in terms of dehydration.

It's not just the unsavoriness of doing that, but the idea that it dehydrates your body.

And that's a really significant concern, especially if you're in an at-risk group, but really for everybody because it can come on suddenly.

You may not realize it, but suddenly things may seem a little off, you may seem a little off to people around you.

If there's any concern whatsoever, you should definitely stay hydrated.

They say sports drinks, avoid caffeine, avoid alcohol.

But also, if you have any concerns at all, reach out to your medical professional right away.

And if you're feeling sick and if you've got a little bit of winter vomiting disease, you might want to just— Don't bring it to the office.

Stay away from other folks.

Okay, we can work from home, some of us.

And otherwise, maybe it's time to use that PTO.

Yes.

All right.

Ohio lawmakers are proposing statewide rules for electric bikes, also known as e-bikes and scooters.

And Sarah, I know you wish we would be bringing you in on winter vomiting disease, but we're not.

We're talking about e-bikes.

They have electric motors.

Some can go really fast, causing issues on sidewalks and roads.

And lawmakers are considering new age limits, helmet requirements, and speed restrictions.

So why are they recommending those types of things?

What's the problem across the state that people are identifying?

Sarah?

Yeah, before I answer your question, I do just want to put it on the record that I would also like to avoid the winter vomiting disease.

Just want to put that out there.

But as for the safety requirements that are being suggested here at the State House, so these bills would require all e-bike and e-scooter riders to wear helmets.

It would limit the speeds that you could do on them to 10 miles per hour on shared use paths.

So, you know, running and biking trails and 5 miles per hour on sidewalks.

And then Notably, it would ban kids under 14 from using them, and kids under 12 couldn't use them with companions under 21.

So, you know, kind of a range of restrictions there on these, you know, transportation devices that really haven't been restricted up until this point.

There are different classes of e-bikes, right?

Yes.

So Class 3 e-bikes can reach speeds of 20 miles per hour with motor assistance.

Those would— you would have to have a driver's license to ride on those, or at least a learner's permit.

And owners of personal e-bikes and e-scooters would also have to pay a $25 registration fee and display a sticker.

My husband owns an e-bike, so I've learned a lot about all that through his own e-bike experience.

Yeah, I've been thinking a lot about your husband because he wrote the story that we talked about at the beginning of this show.

He's a reporter for the Columbus Dispatch and covered the Ohio Supreme Court ruling.

Very well, by the way.

What a team, huh?

What a reporting family.

What's the timeline?

Yeah.

Yes.

What's the timeline for the legislation?

So, you know, this is late in the General Assembly.

So I always tell everybody that when stuff gets introduced this late, it likely has a much smaller chance of passing this General Assembly because when lawmakers come back in November after the election, they're going to cram a bunch of stuff and then they're going to go home for the holidays.

But lawmakers really want to get this done still before the spring because As the weather gets nice, they say e-bikes and e-scooters will be back on the roads in big numbers.

For sure.

Got a note from Susan in Willoughby Hills.

She says, I wonder how many parents check to see if there are regulations for e-bikes.

Too many kids don't wear helmets and use the motor in places that are not appropriate.

I have an adult tricycle, but I don't plan to ride it on the highways.

That's Susan's point of view.

So, uh, good point.

And she's saying parents ought to check and make sure that the kids are following whatever rules there might be.

All right, moving on.

Corrections officers at the Cuyahoga County Jail are now required to administer CPR in serious medical emergencies.

The mandate follows a series of deaths inside the jail in recent years, at least half of which involved inadequate medical care or failure to begin CPR in a timely manner.

And I read the reporting on this, Abbey, from the Marshall Project, and I said to myself, hold on a minute, common sense says someone goes into cardiac arrest or their heart stops beating in a jail, you begin immediately to administer CPR.

We know that in public, and we go and get the machine if there's one hanging on the wall, but at the very least do CPR.

In the jail, this just wasn't the procedure?

Yeah, before that, the, the old handbook basically said that CPR was only required in the event of seizure or suicide.

So now it has updated to say that officers must check for signs of life within 10 seconds of finding someone unresponsive, activate the alarm, secure the unit, and start attempting that CPR from the jump.

And this, as you said, came from like a harrowing series from the Marshall Project where they've done a series of reporting on these deaths inside the jail.

And like you said, a lot of them was because of a— a lot of them were due to inadequate medical care or failure to administer prompt CPR.

What the folks that work there are saying is it isn't policy.

We don't have that policy now.

Apparently, at least it's in the handbook.

The question is, is that the policy statewide?

Are other jails places where people don't know whether they should administer CPR?

Yeah, well, backing up to the Cuyahoga County Jail, apparently advocates were saying that this was— it's not the standard yet, even though it's in the handbook.

It was a change that was made, but only new hires were required of that.

So a vast majority of the people working in the jail were not aware that this was the updated policy.

So there is still some confusion within the jail.

Yeah, nobody looks back at a handbook after you get hired, right?

I mean, you have it when you get hired.

Those are the folks that are being informed of it, but no one's going back 5 years later and saying, what does the handbook say about— Right.

And as of mid-September, according to one of the lawyers on this case, they were talking about how it hadn't even been updated yet to the third-party system that was used to update policies and procedures.

But yeah, in response to your question about the actual jails, a spokesperson for the Ohio Prison System, which is the— they set the standards for the jails, said mandatory corrections officer training includes instruction for CPR.

However, the Marshall Project reviewed some records and found that Cuyahoga County Jail has routinely failed to train its officers in CPR.

I thought it was interesting that the legal counsel and president of the Corrections Officers Union said he didn't even know that this was a rule and the rule had changed in the handbook until someone brought it to his attention.

Yeah.

And it's, it's something that I think that they're having to reconcile with.

They've had 20 deaths since 2020.

Several of those, as we mentioned, are due to inadequate medical care.

And it's something that's coming through the court system.

So Cuyahoga County Jail is currently involved in a pending case in which a person who died, her family is seeking $50 million in, in in fees for, for her death.

Yeah.

All right.

We've got another story for you.

Cleveland State University will offer free tuition to students whose income and grades qualify starting next fall.

So, Abbey, who qualifies for that program?

So that's full-time Ohio residents that come from households earning $125,000 or less annually.

Students must be a spring 2027 graduate with a 3.0 GPA.

And I want to note that that actually is a really large range of folks.

About 73% of Ohio households earn $125,000 annually or less.

So that is a large qualifying group of people.

Right.

I got a note from James who looked into this a little closer, and our Connor Morris has covered it as well.

You can see that on our website, ideastream.org.

He says, looking into the Cleveland State free tuition offer, it's not that great of a deal for lower-income families.

The university doesn't kick in anything until after all of your other grants and scholarships are taken into account.

Then you still need to cover room and board, which is more than tuition.

So it helps, but most likely people will still need to borrow $10,000 to $15,000 a year.

The fact of the matter is it is last dollar money.

So if you have grants and other things, that goes in first.

CSU makes up the difference.

And as noted, it doesn't cover that room and board and books.

And anyone that's gone to a 4-year college knows how expensive that is.

And that's part of the reason that the university says this will actually be profitable and make sense.

It'll cost about $500,000 annually, but they're expecting expecting, because that would theoretically increase the amount of students enrolling, more people will be then going to these dorms and paying for the meal plan.

And so they're saying that that will actually help the institution make more money.

And we know that this has been a university that has struggled in recent years with funding and kind of the path forward.

As most universities have, most public ones for sure.

There was never a claim that this was a free ride for everybody.

What they said was free tuition and it's last dollar tuition.

Where is that money coming from?

So that is coming through their— they're saying that it's coming through their existing sources of their own funds and through a philanthropic endowment that they're making available for this.

They're also going to leverage federal, state, and local scholarships to make it financially feasible.

All right, good news for Cleveland State this week.

In addition to last Friday, they announced this free tuition program, they received a $10 million gift that'll overhaul how they teach business.

Yeah, so they— that comes from the Ahujas, um, and that is a $10 million gift, as you said, to the business school.

And it's kind of as they're going to retool how they're looking at how AI is changing business and industry.

That is something that is obviously rapidly changing the workforce, so it's going to help retool some of that curriculum.

Um, and Governor Mike DeWine was there to talk about how this is going to help the overall workforce in Ohio as they're bringing in companies.

This has been a a talking point for him and many other local leaders as everyone is kind of competing for a workforce as we're facing this demographic cliff.

How do we train up skilled workers for industries that we actually have and need?

Everyone just calls it Ahuja anyway, but it actually will have a different name.

The Monte Ahuja College of Business is now the Ahuja College of Business and Entrepreneurship.

Great.

All right.

There you go.

$10 million for renaming rights.

Yeah, right.

Exactly.

His own name, but actually dropping A first name.

It's a family thing.

Northeast Ohio is set to become the nation's submarine repair shop.

President Trump announced in a campaign stop in Youngstown that Cleveland will be the home of a new facility to manufacture and repair parts of U.S.

military submarines.

So what do we know about the location, the timeline of the project?

And it sounds like great news for Cleveland, Sarah.

Right now, very little.

And some of this is coming from Abby's outlet Crain's.

But according to Trump's announcement, he says it's going to be right here in Ohio, in Cleveland.

And reportedly the facility will be 46,000 square feet.

But I don't believe the city of Cleveland has any specific details on the plan.

We know a little bit about who would build it, right?

Yeah, it sounds like Cleveland-based Bartlett Maritime has pushed for a submarine repair facility in Northeast Ohio, had also pitched facilities in Lorain and Lordstown.

But the company couldn't confirm if it's obtained the Navy's approval.

And it looks like they'll have plenty of work to do.

The president issued a memorandum about rebuilding the U.S.

Navy and the nation's shipbuilding base.

Part of that is submarines as well.

Yeah, the part related to the submarine component center states that within 90 days of the memo, a plan will be submitted to the president to receive new and refurbish old components and parts as required by the submarine repair industrial base.

Okay, we got plenty more to talk about, including more No Kings rallies planned for this weekend and the princes of progressive field, the Cleveland Guardians.

Now here's Sound of Ideas host Stephanie Haney to preview what we'll bring you next week on The Sound of Ideas on 89.7 WKSU.

Hey, Steph.

Hello, Mike.

Here's what we have coming up next week on The Sound of Ideas.

Monday, we're kicking off with our series, The Law of the Land, and we're going to meet Ricky Jackson.

This is a man who was wrongfully imprisoned for 39 years, starting at the age of 18.

We'll talk with him about his life before, during, and after imprisonment, and we'll talk with his legal team from the Ohio Innocence Project about getting him free and resources post-release.

On Tuesday, we are taking a look at the upcoming midterm election, and we're looking at the power of your vote, trying to understand exactly what it means when you cast your ballot.

And we're also looking at the implications of the races that people will be voting on this year.

On Wednesday, we turn our conversation to the Ohio 13th Congressional District.

We're sharing conversations that were held at the Akron Press Club with the 2 major party candidates, incumbent Democrat Emilia Sykes and challenger Republican Carey Coleman.

And we'll round things out on Thursday talking about technology in the Middle East.

We'll talk to someone who attended the world's largest technology conference in Saudi Arabia, and we'll also hear about U.S.

investment in technology related to the Middle East and the artificial intelligence landscape there and how that fits into the global economy.

Back to you in the studio.

Thanks so much, Steph.

And you guys, Steph was last night with the Sound of Ideas team at the Cleveland Magazine's party for Best of Cleveland.

The show, The Sound of Ideas, including this program, were named the best podcast radio show.

She bought candy to give out to the patrons of this.

What do you think the candies were that she gave out?

It's an NPR audience.

Nerds and Smarties, which I thought was pretty good.

So welcome back, all you Nerds and Smarties.

We appreciate you being with us.

Here on the Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable from Ideastream Public Media.

I'm Ideastream's editor-in-chief, Mike McIntyre.

I'm joined today by Ideastream's Andrew Meyer and Crain's Cleveland Business's Abbey Marshall.

Ideastream's Statehouse news reporter Sarah Donaldson joins us from Columbus.

And if you haven't taken the news quiz yet, you should do it.

It's fun.

Find it on our website, ideastream.org/quiz.

Another round of No Kings rallies will take place Saturday across Northeast Ohio, across the state, and nationwide.

This time the focus is on voting as the November 3rd midterm election approaches.

And Andrew, let's talk about where some of the local events will take place.

So in Cleveland, we're looking at rallies again at Kamms Corner and at Market Square Park.

I know there's one scheduled for the gazebo in downtown Kent, about 30 locations across Northeast Ohio.

Notably, Akron's not doing one this time around.

But wherever you are, if you're at a No Kings rally, as you said, the big push is with elections 2 and a half weeks away, pretty much a get-out-the-vote.

And for those unfamiliar, No Kings is referring to what?

No Kings is basically referring to the fact that it's a coalition of national groups that wants to bring people together to remind them the belief that the political power resides with them, not within kings, not within monarchs.

And they've identified the president as being king-like or trying to be that way, and so So there's a big divide there where people are saying, hold on a minute, he's no king, he's the president exercising his power.

The folks who are protesting are saying, no, no, he's trying to be authoritarian and we're against that.

They have, and notably this is the 4th No Kings rally since the organization formed to do these.

One of the things that we've heard previously with the other 3 is, well, that's great, you're seeing a great turnout from your base, but then what?

So this is the first one that I think is directly connected with an opportunity not just to show up and show your belief in your signs and your shouts, but to actually motivate towards the polls.

Right.

As we all know, signs don't vote.

Signs don't.

People do.

Exactly.

Staying with the election, former President Barack Obama is making his first appearance in Ohio since 2018 to campaign for Democratic candidates Sherrod Brown for U.S.

Senate and Dr.

Amy Acton for governor, the Democratic candidates there.

Obama won the state in 2008 and 2012.

In the presidential elections, but Ohio has shifted solidly red over the last decade.

And Sarah, what does it say about how competitive these races have become that Obama, who also was in a number of other states, is coming to Northeast Ohio?

Yeah, I think it says that Democrats do believe that they have a shot in Ohio.

Of course, we've all seen the polls, and I've become loath to trust the polls because polls have shown Democrats ahead and Republicans have pulled out wins in Ohio in recent cycles.

But certainly national Democrats are paying attention, and that these races, both the race for U.S.

Senate between Jon Husted and Sherrod Brown and the race for governor between Vivek Ramaswamy and Amy Acton, are likely going to be very close.

And also that, you know, I imagine that Obama specifically going to Cleveland is in an effort to rally turnout in Cleveland, which has certainly seen some depressed turnout in the most urban Ohio's urban cores have seen depressed turnout in recent cycles.

So, right, earlier I was mentioning too that when President Trump talked about the submarine repair shop becoming Cleveland, he was saying that from Youngstown at a rally there, and he's had several rallies in Northeast Ohio.

So what we're seeing here is the current president, a former president, there's a national surrogate argument going on here for these races.

Shows you how important they are.

Yeah, absolutely.

And it's interesting because Trump has made multiple trips to Ohio.

He's making a trip to Kentucky that is right on the border of Kentucky and Ohio and in the Cincinnati media market in the coming days.

Um, and Vice President J.D.

Vance has been here as well.

So certainly Republicans are pulling out all the stops.

They're dumping resources into the state.

But now with Obama coming, it sounds like Democrats are too.

And we all know Kentucky, Andrew, is a suburb of Cincinnati.

No.

Andrew's from Louisville, so I'm allowed to say that.

Which is not— I'm from Cincinnati, so I can also.

I want to dispel the notion that Louisville is right across the river from Cincinnati.

I've heard that too many times.

No, come on.

Fair enough.

Depends on how many bourbons you have.

I will say from up here in Columbus, he is going to Northern Kentucky, which is technically in some ways suburban Cincinnati.

Very much so.

Very good.

One more thing for you.

Bob sends in an email, Sarah.

He says, Uh, we know all but one justice identifies as Republican.

How and why is it possible to predict the rulings that our top court will make simply by looking at their party affiliation?

Bob thinks that's wrong.

I think what you were saying is what most people are thinking and the ideological lines that happen here.

Absolutely.

And I should note too that, um, there's been a shift at the Supreme Court because of legislative motion that has added an R or a D next to the justices' names when they run.

So although some of them may identify as Republican, Republican or Democrat, you know, these races have become in of themselves more partisan.

All right.

And if you would like to weigh in, go to soi@ideastream.org, shoot us an email there.

That's what I'm monitoring throughout the show, and we'll get your feedback involved in the conversation.

There's been national interest in the death penalty lately with the botched execution of a Tennessee woman on September 30th and calls from the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, to livestream a firing squad execution.

It was announced yesterday that the livestream will not happen, but family will be invited to witness the shooting death.

Republican gubernatorial candidate for governor Vivek Ramaswamy said if elected, he intends to resume executions in Ohio, which have been paused the entire time Governor Mike DeWine has been in office.

Sarah, what else did Ramaswamy say, and how does that differ from any previous remarks he's made regarding capital punishment?

Yeah, so he also weighed in.

He was speaking at a forum with my colleague Karen Kastler at the Columbus Metropolitan Club, so she was moderating that.

He also weighed in specifically on Tennessee, said we'll never repeat the mistakes of Tennessee in Ohio.

That being said, Ohio has had botched executions in the past, but he said that he's open-minded to methods other than lethal injection that have been successfully used in the past.

So of course, there have been bills in the legislature to expand the methods that Ohio could use for executions.

I'm referring specifically to nitrogen hypoxia, or using nitrogen gas that's been used in other states very recently.

And also, there was a bill to add firing squad back several GAs ago.

Ramaswamy has made comments on the death penalty before, certainly, but he's generally been in the camp of resuming executions.

And that would be a big change, of course, from Governor Mike DeWine, who has essentially had a de facto moratorium on executions all 8 years as governor.

All right.

Don't think you can come on this show and get away with initials or acronyms.

A GA is a General Assembly, is that correct?

That is correct.

Now we all know.

Thank you for keeping me honest.

So Ramaswamy's remarks talking about being open to different forms of the death penalty differ from the governor.

One of the reasons the governor said we're not having executions is because we don't have a proper way to do it, the proper medications that would induce a death that isn't cruel or unusual punishment.

Also, the governor clearly has a pro-life, including death penalty, bent on this.

But, but Ramaswamy's point of view would be far different than, than DeWine's.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think he's come out more strongly in these recent comments about it.

And he's certainly paying attention to the legislature because the legislature is— there is some split in this.

I mean, there are some Republicans who fall in that same line of thinking as DeWine that DeWine has only recently come out and publicly opposed use of the death penalty, saying that he feels that the moral justification for capital punishment no longer exists because it's no longer a deterrent.

But certainly, some of these lawmakers who have pushed for methods like nitrogen hypoxia are among some of Ramaswamy's biggest supporters.

Maybe one of the ways, one of the methods would be having to watch political ads for day after day after day.

All right, bad joke, but I'm tired of the political ads.

side, done with it.

,Soon they'll be over.

November 4th, we won't see them anymore.

Willoughby East Lake City Schools has placed an income tax levy on the November ballot in an effort to avoid major budget cuts, layoffs, and school consolidations.

We're seeing more of these kinds of tax requests as property levies have become more difficult to pass.

Andrew, what happens if this income tax levy fails?

Well, you mentioned consolidation.

What the district is looking at doing is consolidating to one high school and consolidating to one middle school.

There will undoubtedly be the need for other cuts and, and cost savings as well.

This happens in every school district and every year.

Why is the Willoughby-Eastlake story different or interesting?

Well, what it is, is once again we're seeing an attempt with the November election for school districts to find an alternate means for raising the money to put money in the coffers.

One of the big differences from the May election, a number of districts in Northeast Ohio tried putting income tax levies on the ballot.

Most of them were not successful.

The difference in language we're hearing this time, including in Willoughby Eastlake, is an earned income tax levy, making it clear that this is going to apply to people who are earning wages, not to people who are on Social Security, but to any additional income that's coming from investments, things of that ilk, hoping to make it a little more palatable as that additional source of money for districts like Willoughby, Eastlake that need to keep their schools going at the level that people are looking for them to be at.

And if it succeeds, you'll be sure to see that in school districts.

I think you will.

There are other districts that are also careful to mention the language earned income tax levy.

So we'll see if that makes makes any more of a difference this time around than it may.

What kind of money is it looking to generate as opposed to a property tax levy?

An additional $14 million.

$10 million would go to operating costs and $4 million would go to not major capital improvements, but basically upkeep.

Okay.

Cleveland's trash collectors may soon have the power to write civil fines for illegal dumping and littering that they witness while they're on the job, part of the city's broader effort to clean up neighborhoods and punish scofflaws.

And Abbey, it seems to reason that the people who would see this would be the people who are out picking up trash.

They're seeing the scofflaws.

So we're talking about empowering them.

Yeah.

Currently they can write civil tickets for things like setting out an excessive amount of trash or leaving their cans out for too long.

But right now, the way the law is written is that only police officers can write those tickets for illegal dumping and littering.

So this will, as you said, give the people that are actually out and about, the trash collectors, the ability to impose fines on people that are doing this illegal dumping, which I have heard a lot about in my time covering City Hall.

It's a major issue.

You know that too from cleanup efforts, all of that.

But it would seem to me that you still have to witness it.

You still have to know who did it, that you could have a lot at the end of a street full of tires and trash and everything else.

And unless you had a video camera on these folks and a way to see them, you wouldn't know it.

Cleveland's still got a big problem with, with dumping.

Police, yeah, have to do that.

But as you know, a million other things police have to do as well.

Totally.

And yeah, you're, you're, you're correct.

The changing of the city code would allow them to write up to a $1,000 ticket for dumping that they witness, or if they see a vehicle dumping trash or littering.

But yeah, it doesn't necessarily fix that specific problem.

But yes, it's at least a step in the right direction to hopefully make people think twice before dumping whatever it is they're going to dump.

And what's the timeline for that?

Yeah, so that was proposed this week.

So similar to other legislation, it has to go through the committee process and go up for a full vote maybe in the next week.

All right.

Cuyahoga County Council is moving forward with a plan to pump $12 million over 5 years into a new behavioral health crisis center in Cleveland.

So where's the money coming from?

Let's talk.

We mentioned this a couple of weeks ago on the show, the idea of this crisis center.

But now we're talking about some money being pumped in by the Where's it coming from?

Yeah, so that 3-year funding is going to come from the county's opioid settlement fund.

And earlier this year, as you might recall, council approved $7 million in opioid settlement funding to help pay for construction of this recovery center.

And they're expecting to pass this in the next 2 weeks.

3 years.

And how will it expand after the— how will it exist after the 3 years?

Yeah, so they're going to count on funding from state through Medicaid to make up the gap once that county money runs out.

All right, and what kind of services would this kind of crisis center provide?

Yeah, so the first floor is a walk-in crisis center that's already open.

They're going— they have a substance use withdrawal management unit expected to open later next year on the second floor, as well as an outpatient healthcare clinic on the third floor.

So getting those folks the help that they need.

And how is it better than what we have now?

Do we have nothing now?

Is it— I mean, we've been hearing about diversion centers and crisis centers and the need for them for more than a decade in this town.

Yeah, so with this, police officers will not need to call ahead before they bring someone to the facility.

That location opened in 2021.

They're expecting to run out of funding this week.

So this will be something where if someone is experiencing a crisis, they can just be brought to the center instead of needing to call ahead and say, oh, is there space?

Oh, can we get help today?

Excellent.

Case Western Reserve University's dental school has received a $15 million donation to improve oral healthcare for people with special needs.

Andrew, that's a need I really hadn't thought much about and clearly is an important one.

Where does the money come from?

Well, the money's coming from a very generous donation from Bill and Chloe Cornell.

Bill Cornell, a pediatric dentist for 50 years who not only, you know, helped who knows how many kids with their teeth, but also trained dentists for much of his career.

He and his wife are giving Case Western Reserve $15 million towards this effort.

And when we talk about helping children with special needs, there are certain techniques that might need to be used that might not be used in others.

What specifically would this kind of training be?

Well, I think we take for granted, a lot of us, that we go to the dentist and maybe we squirm in the chair, but we can control ourselves.

But it's everything from providing a more calming environment to, where it is needed, sedation so that the dentist can effectively help the kids they're working with.

And when does the services begin?

When does the clinic open?

They are looking to get it going pretty shortly in a startup space, and then they'll expand it.

So it'll be early next year when they will be— it looks like they'll be starting to open up and help kids.

Okay.

Ohio University is facing a federal lawsuit that claims it failed to properly investigate sexual harassment complaints made by an employee at WOUB Public Media.

The lawsuit alleges the university's response allowed the harassment to continue.

Sarah, let's talk about that.

Who filed the lawsuit?

What is it alleged there?

Yeah, and off the top, I will note that I went to Ohio University and worked for a period of time at WOUB, but was there prior to when this happened.

So Caitlin Moeller, a WOUB employee, alleges that beginning in 2023, the station's former general manager, Mark Brewer, made unwelcome sexual advances, touched and kissed her without permission, and made inappropriate inappropriate comments about her body.

Brewer resigned in March 2026.

So how did the university respond to that, the initial reports?

Um, so, so her supervisor filed a report with OU's Office of Civil Rights Compliance in June 2025, and the lawsuit alleges that although an official contacted Moeller several times to check on her welfare, the university didn't conduct a formal investigation or contact Brewer at that time, and the matter was closed.

Closed.

Eventually there was another claim that she had.

She went to police with another incident, uh, and Brewer was investigated and did resign, correct?

Yeah, so she filed a formal sexual harassment complaint in September 2025 after an incident in which Brewer allegedly insisted on meeting with her alone.

That complaint led to an investigation and a disciplinary hearing scheduled for March 2026, which is around the time that Brewer resigned.

He resigned after the second day of that hearing.

All right, the university, by the way, OUB is trying to cover this as news.

The university has no comment.

Brewer told the station that he was not aware of the lawsuit, so it stands there.

Meanwhile, OU has launched a sexual misconduct resources and reporting website.

It's available to all the students, faculty, and staff.

How will that work?

Yeah, so it's got information for mandatory reporters and different resources.

Um, the goal is to make it easier for individuals to make reports and connect with resources for the help that they need.

It also has information about an amnesty policy.

What is that?

Yeah, so students who participate in the reporting process, whether they are the person who complained, they're the person who respond, they're witnesses, they're not going to be charged with alcohol or drug-related violations in the student code of conduct that come out in that process.

So of course, sometimes students who are either, you know, victims or witnesses are sometimes underage and may have been participating in alcohol or drug drug use, but this provides that amnesty.

Okay.

A regional training center for first responders may soon, soon come to East Palestine, the village at the center of a train derailment in 2023 that led to the evacuation of thousands of residents, months of environmental cleanup after a toxic plume burned there.

Andrew, what will the training center offer?

How will people use it?

Who will use it?

Well, it's going to be geared towards first responders, and it's especially going to benefit volunteer firefighters We know from our own extensive reporting, a project that our team of reporters and editors produced early in the year, Sound the Alarm, Abbey Marshall was part of that effort, that there are volunteer firefighters populate 70% of fire departments across Ohio.

They are under-resourced.

Of course, they're volunteers, so maybe they get a token amount of money.

When the East Palestine Fire Department showed up at that derailment, they were underprepared.

I would say even unprepared for what was facing them.

This is meant to help give volunteer firefighters across Ohio a valuable tool in being prepared, not just for derailments, but for mass casualty events and other catastrophes so that they can better handle them and be safe while doing it.

Doing it.

Big chunk of change is coming from Norfolk Southern for this, but we don't know what the other funding is yet.

Yeah, about $20 million or so coming from Norfolk Southern.

It's a partnership with Youngstown State University.

Notably, there was originally supposed to be some sort of training center that came out of the settlement with Norfolk Southern with the village of East Palestine.

January of last year, they said we can't really find a place for this in East Palestine, so it got put on the back burner.

It was resurrected back about a year ago, and this is a formality.

Now, the big thing that we don't know this point is exactly where it's going to be located.

But what officials said yesterday, it's going to be in or near East Palestine.

And earlier you said Abbey had done some of that reporting for us.

Are you saying she used to work here?

She might have.

For a minute.

Yeah.

Very proud of Abbey doing a great job at Crain's now too.

And so is Bob.

Bob sends us a note and says, thank you for inviting Abbey.

She's a highly credible and well-informed reporter.

Oh, thanks, Bob.

So thank you, Bob.

And you're absolutely correct.

That's my plant.

No, I'm just kidding.

Bob, isn't your dad named Bob?

No, I'm just kidding.

Cleveland City Council is preparing to extend the city's moratorium on data centers for another 90 days.

Council originally passed a 3-month moratorium in the summer pausing construction of new standalone data centers in the city as it worked toward regulations.

So what has the city accomplished in the last 90 days?

Why does it just want to make it another 90 without a full policy?

Yeah, so perhaps you recall the original proposal was for a full year, which was quartered down to 3 months because they said they don't want to just drag things out for the sake of dragging things out.

Obviously, they have had conversations with folks on both sides.

There's been an internal working group at City Hall that has been developing policy and an external working group convened by City Council's Brian Casey that has engaged leaders across a large spray of opinions when it comes to data centers— folks that are very against them, folks that are for them, for economic development.

So I'm actually meeting with Kate Nielsen, who is the senior strategist kind of convening these efforts, later this afternoon to, to learn more about what's going on.

But in addition to those working groups, they've also held 3 public hearings with folks to get input, which, as you can imagine, many folks went to because people have a lot of opinions about data centers and AI as it continues to pop up.

So this gives them a little bit more time to continue this work that you're going to be reporting on?

Yeah, the idea is, is that when a data If the data center proposal would come through, the city does not have the proper zoning or policies in place to define what a data center is.

The city zoning code is old, and so they want to make sure those laws clearly outline certain specifications for what a hyperscale data center is versus, you know, existing little computer things that the Cleveland Clinic and the city of Cleveland used already for for mass amounts of data.

All right.

Relatedly, Perry Village Council has approved a 1-year pause on new data center applications, but the moratorium exempts a 200-acre data center campus that's already been proposed.

So that'll happen, but then a moratorium on all the rest?

Yeah.

So that is 6 buildings, each 250,000 square feet.

Huge.

Huge.

Yeah.

That's 200 acres of former nursery property.

So the company says that there will be about 200 permanent jobs with annual wages of $80,000 or more.

And that is kind of this tension that we're seeing right now, is that the city of Cleveland says, hey, we want to make sure that we are similar to other groups as well that are doing these— other cities, I mean— doing these data center moratoriums.

Hey, we want to make sure we're not hindering any economic development or potential job creations for folks.

But what those jobs actually are remains to be seen.

So they're just making sure everyone is taking the time to ensure that people are protected and that they're getting some sort of community benefit from these companies coming in.

Cleveland Guardians beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3 to 2 Thursday on a majestic 2-run blast by Petey Halpin.

By the way, what a bat flip by that kid after he hit that home run.

And great pitching from starter Gavin Big Rig Williams and the entire bullpen.

The Guards have a 2 games to 1 lead in the American League Championship Series with game 4 slated for this evening, though the weather may have something to say about that.

They won 4 of their last 6 playoff games since trailing the Chicago White Sox 2-0.

And Andrew, tell us a little bit about the notable events of the game.

Well, I mean, you look at just the performance that Gavin Williams has had.

I was reading Major League Baseball site this morning, and this is a quote from that.

He's made the jump from a great starter to a truly elite one this postseason.

And I mean, his ERA in yesterday's game was 2.16, 33 strikeouts he's had overall.

It's phenomenal.

He's just burning it up.

So I went yesterday for work.

Oh yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

And what an atmosphere.

And I remember this, I covered for the Plain Dealer the '95, '97, and 2016 World Series runs.

The sports guys did all the heavy lifting on the sports page.

I did the front page stuff.

Stories.

And it had that feeling yesterday, just like it did then, the feeling of this camaraderie in the stands and people all high-fiving people they don't know.

It was just amazing to meet all these new friends.

I met a mom and her daughter from Canton, and my daughter was there with her friend, and I ended up sneaking down to where their seats are for a little while.

It was just a cool feeling.

What I loved was the other day in one of the local games, our Ygal Kaufman has been covering the fan reacts inside and outside the stadium.

And after one of the games, he actually saw Travis Kelce over there.

And it's like Travis was a kid in a candy shop.

He was— there was such joy in that.

It's just— it's nice.

Yeah, it was really cool.

It was really nice.

And, you know, the big moment was this Petey Halpin bat flip.

But I think the big moment was my daughter Mo.

Yes.

Who is a very assertive young lady and got the guy who came down with the OHIO letters to pick her and her friend and the couple I talked about in front of us.

The mother and daughter there, and they went over and did the hold up the OHIO during Hang on Sloopy, and then she shredded the I like a guitar and got on the big scoreboard.

So that's been our social media for the last 12 hours or so.

All right.

But really cool stuff, and maybe she's a good luck charm.

Anyone wants to bring her to the game tonight, I'm sure she'd be up for it.

And since Karen's not here today, go Guards.

Exactly, go Guards.

No Karen, so we need to do that.

Real quick, not the most earth-shattering news, but the most eligible bachelor Chiller in Cleveland apparently is off the market.

Mayor Bibb is getting married.

He is getting married, yes.

Sean McDonald here at Ideastream got that scoop.

He looked at marriage licenses and he has applied, so he's going to get married this fall.

All right.

Okay.

The Ohio Women's Monument was unveiled on the grounds of the Columbus Statehouse this week.

The monument honors about 100 notable women such as Joanne Davidson, the first woman to serve as Speaker of the Ohio House.

Sarah, tell us about who some of the other women honored are.

Yeah, so the astronaut Judy Resnik and the suffragist Belle Sherwin, both from Northeast Ohio, and Sherwin was also the former president of the League of Women Voters, are among those also recognized.

Who created this monument?

Yeah, so the artist is Brenda Council.

She is based in, I believe, North Carolina, and she's worked out of a studio in Zanesville, but she also created a pretty cool— I was looking at some of her work— a pretty cool statue of Harriet Beecher Stowe that's in Mandarin, Florida.

Hmm.

Now it honors particular women, but it also carries a message, one of which there's a figure holding a sign saying equal pay for equal work.

Ohio does not have an equal pay for equal work law on the books at the moment.

So part of this is some sort of advocacy as well.

Yeah, it was.

That was an interesting piece that I know my colleague Joe Ingalls was asking about yesterday because there were plenty of people gathered for the, um, or it might have been 2 days ago at this point, plenty of people gathered for the ribbon cutting, both men and women.

I know she asked Governor Mike DeWine about that equal pay for equal work sign and he said it might be a little more aspirational than, you know, memorial.

But, um, generally just a really cool monument to see as someone who works at the Statehouse and out of the Statehouse It's been, you know, encased in a huge curtain for months.

So nice to be able to finally see what was behind the curtain.

Well, equal pay for equal work is common sense.

Let's just get that done.

Okay.

Also, is Karen Kastler honored?

And if not, why not?

I don't think that Karen Kastler's name— but you know what?

There is one statue that has not— there's, there's a space for another statue.

So maybe I'll start making the case to get Karen Kastler on that last statue.

You got partners on this set too.

We'll definitely Definitely do that.

And Sarah, thanks so much for joining us today.

Appreciate you having— you being with us.

Thanks.

Thanks for having me.

And Andrew Meyer and Abbey Marshall as well.

Good to have all of you with us.

Good to be here.

All right.

And that's all for today.

If you missed any part of today's show, check out the rebroadcast tonight at 9 on 89.7 WKSU.

Access the podcast or check out the Ideastream Public Media YouTube page.

And catch the TV show tonight at 5 on WVIZ PBS.

Monday on The Sound of Ideas, we'll talk with Ricky Jackson, a man who was wrongly imprisoned for almost 40 years and hear from his Ohio Innocence Project legal team about how they were able to free him and resources available post-release.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for listening and stay safe.