Here we go again.

Ohio lawmakers are tasked with redrawing congressional maps with bipartisan approval.

And bipartisanship seems miles away.

Cleveland Heights voters overwhelmingly voted to recall their mayor.

And a Youngstown Catholic high school faces two federal lawsuits alleging cover up of assaults committed by football players.

Ideas is next.

Hello and welcome to ideas.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you for joining us.

Redistricting season kicked off in earnest this week when minority Democrats and the Ohio State House presented their version of congressional district maps.

They say it would even out maps that clearly favor Republicans.

But the speaker of the Ohio House said their map was gerrymandered.

MetroHealth is facing financial trouble, but it's not at risk of closure.

A spokeswoman said, despite Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb suggesting that in an interview with Politico, Ursuline High School in Youngstown is accused of covering up the sexual assault of a football player in a hazing incident and the harassment and physical assault of a female student who refused the advances of a member of the football team.

And Kalil Seren was overwhelmingly recalled as mayor of Cleveland Heights on primary Election Day this week.

Joining me to discuss all the week's top stories from India Street and public media reporter is Abby Marshall and Gabriel Kramer.

In Columbus statehouse News Bureau chief Karen Kasler, let's get ready to round table.

A bipartisan committee of Ohio lawmakers will begin work on a new congressional map for the midterm elections.

They meet on September 22nd with an end of September deadline for a bipartisan supported map.

But is bipartisanship even remotely possible?

This week, Democrats unveiled their own redrawn map, one that would give Republicans a slight advantage in eight districts, with Democrats holding a slight advantage in seven.

Now it's ten Republicans and five Democrats serving in the US House.

The speaker of the Ohio House, who presides over a supermajority of Republicans immediately called the Democratic effort a gerrymander.

Even as Democrats say, the Republican gerrymander is what they're trying to solve.

Karen.

House Speaker Matt Huffman said he was caught off guard by the map and derided it as gerrymandered.

Why?

Well, he said that one of the things that bothered him was that the map had not been given to him before the press conference where Democrats introduced the map to all of us.

And so we hadn't seen the details, the map, he said.

The map was developed in secret.

And so he said, that is not in the spirit of what voters approved in 2018, when they changed the rules on redistricting and a constitutional amendment.

That's exactly what Democrats have accused Republicans of doing in terms of developing maps in secret and not having the opportunity for them to weigh in or for other people to weigh in.

There is a website right now that the legislature has set up for citizens to submit their own maps.

But yeah, you've got those maps that have been submitted.

You've got this Democratic map that Huffman said he hadn't seen beforehand.

And we're still waiting on the Republican map.

And that's most likely going to be the map that would move forward here.

And the deadline coming up at the end of this month will likely not be reached.

As you mentioned in the introduction, because it has to get three quarter.

I'm sorry, 3/5 of the vote from the House and Senate, including half of the legislature's 42 Democrats.

And that just that really seems unlikely at this point.

Right.

So if that doesn't happen, then what happens?

Then?

It goes back to the Ohio Redistricting Commission, which you might recall from 2021 and 2023, is a seven member panel that's once again dominated by Republicans.

But that map, whatever they would agree on, would have to be agreed on by all of the members of the commission, essentially.

Basically, the two Democrats on the commission would have to sign on to it by October 31st, or it gets kicked back to the legislature or again.

Then they have until the end of November to pass a map by a simple majority.

And I think there is a possibility that the redistricting commission could pass a map here, because in the last time that we saw this happen, Democrats on that redistricting commission voted for the map because they were concerned that the map would actually get worse in, in another iteration.

And so maybe there's a chance we have a map here by the end of October, but the process is not going to be over by the end of September.

I think that's pretty clear.

You mentioned the fear, the fear that it would get worse.

And and there is still that fear now, and in fact, a pretty founded one.

There's a national move to essentially gerrymander in favor of Republicans, something that President Trump is pushing.

And there are those in Ohio who say right now it's ten Republican leaning districts.

Likely it could be 12 or 13 of the 15.

Well, I'm not entirely sure the map was drawn to be a ten five map.

I mean, I think that's the way that it has come out in the last two election cycles.

I'm not sure that Republicans really intended it to be that way.

But yeah, you've heard people like Senator Bernie Marino say that a 12 three map is what Ohio should be aiming for when Ohio Republicans who are leading this process should be aiming for.

And of course, that's gerrymandering.

I mean, that that's the the word that keeps being thrown around because the party that's in power tends to draw districts that favor themselves.

And that's part of why there have been this effort to try to move to some other way of drawing those maps, to have an independent commission or a nonpartisan citizens panel or something like that.

But yeah, I mean, this is typically what happens.

But Democrats in Ohio has not have not been in power in a very, very long time.

So it has been Republicans who have been drawing the lines and they've been favoring themselves typically.

Now, you mentioned that the Democrats are calling it a gerrymander.

What we have now, the Supreme Court twice said that the maps were not constitutional, eventually said they were.

When when you got the bipartisan vote.

But we also heard the governor of Ohio say the process is not good.

The maps are not what they should be.

And last year, when issue one was on the ballot and issue one said, you know, we're going to redo this, take it out of the hands of lawmakers.

It failed.

But before that happened, the governor said, if you defeat this, I will do everything in my power to give us a better process, one that's more like Iowa, which has a different process where lawmakers aren't involved in the very beginning of it.

This week, he really lost steam on that argument.

Yeah, he has said that instead of going with him, with him leading an effort like taking a ballot issue to voters or something like that, he said the best way to do this is through the legislature, to go to state lawmakers and suggest that an Iowa style independent legislative commission would be the way to draw those maps.

But yeah, he he's kind of said, he wants to see that happen, but he really feels that lawmakers have to do that.

But and that does kind of push back.

On what he had said before the vote last fall, which had been if voters turned down that citizens, not politicians proposal, that would have created this independent commission.

If voters turn that down, that he would lead this effort to try to get an Iowa style commission together to draw these maps.

And that's that's that there doesn't appear to be any move toward that right now, especially with those key deadlines ahead.

There's just no time for something like that, even if there were an appetite potentially.

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, in an interview with Politico, said the impact of Medicaid cuts may mean MetroHealth, the safety net, hospital for Cuyahoga County, would go out of business.

Was that hyperbole?

While Metro Health is facing financial woes, its spokeswoman said the doors aren't closing.

Abbey Metro Health did not respond directly to Bibbs comments, but said to the community it's not going anywhere.

Yeah, you know, a spokesperson said that they have no plans to close right now.

Obviously we are seeing some financial troubles happening in Metro Health and how they're dealing with things as it relates to possibly these cuts.

But they said they're they're not planning to go anywhere right now.

So what was the mayor going on about then?

I mean, I understand the argument is you don't want to see cuts in Medicaid.

It will hurt, people who need the care.

And he's making that argument.

But to then take the next step and say, and our hospital system, which is a pretty massive system may close seems like an unrealistic claim at this point.

Does he mean some time down the line?

Has he said anything about this?

He could, This is office to our Taylor Wisner that reported on this story.

They declined to comment further on what he meant by that, but he kind of has been on a while, multiple press conferences that I've covered, events that he's been at where he has really taken aim at President Donald Trump's cuts to various programs, not just Medicaid, but, you know, HUD assisted programs and how it will impact cities like Cleveland.

So perhaps that's what he's speaking to, to make people understand the severity of what he sees the situation, as in the interview with with Politico, not with a local outlet.

He's getting a lot of those because of his role with the Democratic Mayors Association.

Right.

Yes.

He, is you know, he's kind of the face of what the Democratic Party, I think is trying to take a look at as a rising star within the party, I believe, is what Politico called him.

You know, he's young.

We're seeing a change of face, perhaps within the Democratic Party and what people want to see.

So he has been getting a lot of a national attention on that level.

Karen, let me ask you, the trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid over a decade are predicted to devastate rural health care.

A rural health care fund will send billions to the states, and lawmakers are already squabbling over who should get that money, basically not places like Metro Health.

Yeah, we're seeing support for rural hospitals getting that money from Republican Senators John Husted and Bernie Marino.

And, they've been pointing to the mega bill that Republicans have called the one big beautiful bill as bring in more money.

And also potentially putting some guardrails on how that money is spent, because, I mean, Bernie Marino said before the city Club that Medicaid spending is growing.

And we've heard that.

I mean, that goes back decades where you've heard that, Medicaid is the PAC man of the budgeted.

And so there's going to be things like work requirements and, some other payment and things like this.

But yeah, the the question of whether, where do you where do you move that money?

Because you got three quarters, almost of rural hospitals in Ohio that are really, really struggling financially.

But you also have urban hospitals that rely on Medicaid, struggling financially.

So I think that watching this all shake out and some of the things in that mega bill are, are on further timelines too.

And so I'm just interested to see what happens with that money and where it finally does end up going versus where people were saying it was going to go or where people were hoping it was going to go.

Abby, back to Metro Health, I know that, the mayor has said it may close.

They're saying we're not going to close, but the fact of the matter is, they're in some serious financial trouble even before the Medicaid cuts come be.

They've been giving out tons of charity care.

They want to try to reduce that.

And they've made other measures to to to try to save money.

Yeah.

In July they laid off 125 administrative staff employees.

They said there's rising costs for uninsured patients.

The expected Medicaid cuts that were coming, their financial report showed that uncompensated care nearly doubled in 2022 from $180 million to $369 million in 2024.

So they said they're looking at possibly limiting, how much free or reduced care that they can provide for uninsured who they consider middle income patients, and just looking at ways to kind of survive what they are already experiencing, but expect further with those Medicaid cuts.

One of the things they're going to push for is to try to register people to get into a health care plan, an exchange plan, something that would cover them, not the free care that they're getting now.

Right.

Ursuline High School and the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown now face two federal lawsuits.

The first, filed last week, accuses the diocese, the school, the football team and coaches of covering up the sexual assault of a player during a hazing ritual.

The second, filed this week, alleges a football player harassed and physically assaulted a female student who rejected the player's demand for sex.

Gabe, what are the allegations being made in this most recent lawsuit?

It's so the first one obviously was a was a team issue, but now we're talking about somebody who's not on the team.

And in a, you know, a possible physical assault.

Right.

So and bear with me because the details of the allegations are tough to hear.

But Cleveland attorney, Chandra said that what had happened is a male student was harassing a female student after a gym class and had repeated requests for, for sex, repeated requests for nude photos.

And then one day after gym class, picked up the student, threw it on the ground and dragged her across the football field, about 30 yards and left serious injuries and a big burn mark on her back.

So the lawsuits now are they're dual lawsuits.

Both of them contend that the issue from the administrative point, from the school's point is they did nothing about it.

They basically covered up these allegations.

Right.

And you're not hearing a lot from the diocese or you're not hearing a lot from the school.

We know that from the first suits, the, head football coach was suspended and that other coaches were, are not with the team any longer.

Some players have voluntarily left the team, but, yeah, I think that they're people are failures in efforts to cover these things up, especially when both things that we're hearing about in September are things that happened over the summer.

I mean, the the situation we just heard about, about this one student attacking a female student happened during a after a summer gym class.

And then, you know, we are hearing about these this lawsuit filed, regarding a football team after a summer camp.

So all this is happening months later.

So, Yeah, I think what people are concerned about the school that really taking action against, these students is tough to hear.

But tell me about that first allegation.

A summer football camp and a player being hazed.

Yes.

So what was considered a, an initiation kind of an hazing initiation, fraternity style?

The the allegations are that several football players, attacked and sexually harassed a or sexually assaulted another player to kind of initiate him into the team.

And while one person was attacking them, the others were recording and they got posted online for, for everyone to see.

Yeah, this was become a national story.

What's interesting, too, is that there's an upcoming game against Warren G. Harding High School, another against Akron, Saint Vincent, Saint Mary.

Both of them have been canceled by those schools as a result of what's going on.

Yeah.

I mean, I think, they're Austintown Fitch is also scheduled to play against Ursuline.

So a lot of these teams are refraining from playing them.

You know, I think there are people who are saying, well, what does this mean for the playoff implications?

There are bigger things to worry about for these students than whether or not they make the playoffs, which is certainly a privilege.

So, you know, I yes, I think teams out of respect for what's happening for the allegations, potential victims here, teams are refraining from wanting to play.

So who knows?

Honestly, at this point, when the next game, our sun will play.

Cleveland Heights Mayor Kahlil Seren was recalled in an overwhelming vote, 82%, and the process for removing him will begin when the primary results are certified later this month.

And Gabe, let's talk about the process for removing sarin.

He acknowledged that's what the voters wanted.

He said he thinks it's a mistake, but it doesn't sound like he will, you know, refuse to leave or something of that nature.

But we have a certification that happens later this month.

And then what happens?

Right.

So the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections will officially certify the votes, and that will happen on September 25th.

So right now what we're seeing in the results is quote unquote unofficial.

So then after that, the law department in Cleveland Heights will make that official.

And Seren has until October 1st to step out of office.

City Council President Tony Cuda, according to the city charter, will serve as interim mayor for the next October.

November, December.

His term ends December 31st.

So Sarah got recalled where there are only three months left in his term.

And Tony Cuda said in a statement late Tuesday night, this is not about making big change.

It's about just steadying the ship for the next few months.

So he will serve until January 31st and then on the first is when the next mayor will serve for four years.

And there was also a primary, for mayor on the ballot.

And two of the city council members who are running emerged from that.

Right.

So there were five candidates total, the two candidates that got first and second place that will run against each other in November are the two candidates that were from council, Jim Petrus and Davina Russell.

They were they had a pretty commanding lead for first second place, but their votes were pretty neck and neck.

I think unofficially, it was only 41 votes that separated the two.

So a very tight race.

And I think there's a lot to wonder about how the votes that went to the other three candidates will divide amongst those two here in the next six weeks.

82% for the recall, though, is pretty resounding yes.

It wasn't and it wasn't the low turnout that you saw in Cleveland where it was, you know, single digits.

There was a quarter of the people that that were registered, voted in the cities of Cuyahoga County that had primary elections.

Only two of them had double digit voter turnout.

So, I mean, single digits in Cleveland.

East Cleveland was the was the city with 12% voter turnout, 24% in Cleveland Heights.

So people I mean, 24% isn't incredibly high.

But when you think about how people are turning out elsewhere, that's pretty high.

And when you consider the amount of votes that Khalil Sharon got or the people who voted for the recall, it's about the same amount of people, a little more than 6000 people who voted for Aaron in the primary election of 2021.

So, you know, people really turned out for the recall, it seemed like where people were going to show up.

They weren't necessarily showing up for the primary.

They're probably showing up for for the recall vote.

Cleveland City Council incumbents on the ballot in Tuesday's dismally low turnout primary all moved on to the November ballot.

But in two races in November, someone currently on council will lose their seat as it's reduced from 17 to 15 members, while in another two wards, the lack of an incumbent in the race guarantees a new face will be joining council.

Abbi, let's start with the races without incumbents.

The new Ward seven, which includes parts of downtown Chelsea, Austin Davis and Mohamed Farage, vie for his seat for that.

Yes.

So, Council member Kerry McCormack, who currently represents Ward three.

Again, we just went through a redistricting process.

I'm going to try to avoid drawing a lot of numbers, but it most closely resembles new Ward seven, which is Ohio City, Tremont, parts of Detroit Shore Way.

So all those near West Side neighborhoods and then the flats downtown.

And Kerry McCormack said earlier this year, I am not going to run for reelection.

And he wasn't going to do the thing that a lot of council members in the past have said, where they appoint someone and then that person has the advantage of running as an incumbent in the November election.

So this really paved the way for two people to come in.

I actually interviewed both of these, candidates last week, Austin Davis and Mohamed Faraj.

They're both attorneys.

Austin Davis most recently served as the senior policy advisor to Mayor Justin Bibb.

Before he really focused on this campaign and took a step away from that.

Interesting.

And Kerry McCormack, like you said, was not going to appoint somebody who could then run with incumbency.

But he waited until the election was over and said, yeah, I'm out of here.

I'm appointing someone.

Yeah.

So yesterday, he announced that he will be leaving.

October 3rd will be his last day.

So he did, you know, nominate someone Council has to approve, to fill the rest of his term.

So again, that three month period through the end of the year, but that that person, Lauren Welch, who is an RTA board member and the interim director of communications for, say, Cleveland, she is not going to be on that November ballot.

So she really will just be there for three months.

And Carrie told me that part of the reason that he waited, was he didn't want to appoint someone was because he wanted the residents.

After a decade of him serving on council to really, he wanted the candidates to come in and talk to residents about what the problems are and have residents bring about what they want in a candidate and have that thoughtful discussion, rather than just having someone that's been around forever.

He's pretty close with the administration and he's you said Austin Davis is a big administration guy, but we haven't heard an endorsement yet from Carrie.

So I did ask him yesterday if he planned to endorse, and he said he wasn't sure, but he did call both of the candidates really smart and bright.

And he really likes that.

They're all, you know, I live in Ward seven, as does Gabe and I.

Both of both of them have come to my front door.

So I let him know that, and he said he really likes to hear that.

They're kind of pounding the pavement and doing, doing outreach in the community.

Too bad you guys didn't have any babies to kiss.

Yeah, I had it.

I had my my corgi was jumping all over, you know, I'd like to see them kissing.

That would get my vote.

Yeah.

The other race with no incumbents is Ward 11.

So that Ward 11, which most closely matches Jennie Spencer's current ward 15, again, near West Side Detroit Shores area, she announced that she was also not going to be seeking reelection, and it appears that she will be finishing out her term through the end of the year.

But that did not have a primary because only two candidates, filed to run.

So that's attorney Andrew von Arosa, and a Edgewater resident, community activist, Nikki Hudson.

And like I mentioned the other day on Sunday videos, I will be, you know, doing these voter guides and making sure I'm reaching out to candidates.

So if you have a question, you can reach out to me and let me know.

And I will ask people, but it will be really nice to see some newcomers coming into the race and kind of giving that fresh blood to council.

All right.

And then let's talk about the, sort of the clash between incumbents in Ward five and in Ward ten.

One of the incumbents is going to be gone.

Yes.

So we had in the primary, Richard Starr and Rebecca Moore, they'll advance, star.

Actually, basically, because of the redistricting process, Moore's current ward got split up into a bunch of different wards.

So she decided to run ultimately in new Ward five, which is where Richard Starr is sitting there, both first term, can heard they're both first term council people, but they will run against each other in the primary least we saw Richard Starr come out pretty heavily on top.

So it'll be interesting to see how that shakes out when there isn't another candidate.

And that campaigning starts, I guess, in earnest for November.

And then in new Ward ten, we'll have longtime Council member Mike Polinsky, facing off against Anthony Harrison after they've been pushed into the same district as well.

And council leadership, which comes with money.

Yes.

Have picked the two that they're backing.

Yeah.

So Council President Blaine Griffin controls what's called the council leadership fund, which basically doles out money to campaigns of his allies.

So he has said he's backing Starr.

And, Harrison as well.

Okay.

And the new Ward 12, an incumbent will be defending his seat for the first time.

Danny Kelly represents Ward 11, but was appointed to that seat.

Now it's going to be Ward 12.

But he did emerge from the primary.

Yes.

Lots of numbers.

Again, with the shifting boundaries and all that.

But Danny Kelly, he was, like I mentioned earlier, some council members in years past would step down and appoint, their successor.

And Danny Kelly was such a case.

So he is going to be facing his first election.

And he did come out on top on that primary, but he will have to defend that seat, against Tanmay Shah, who has the endorsement of some, left leaning and progressive parties in locally and nationally.

This week, a public school in Akron banned metal water bottles like Stanley and Yeti and other brands that are akin to fashion statements for young people.

Administrators say they're a safety hazard.

Only clear water bottles will be allowed.

More than 20 students at Firestone Community Learning Center protested the ban before school Monday, clanging their water bottles like cowbells.

Others voiced their concern at an Akron Board of Education meeting or on social media.

Gabe, why are they banning these insulated metal things?

Because somebody's going to hit somebody with it, or because you can't see what's inside.

Well, I think you can't see what's inside.

So I mean, we've all heard stories of people.

Oh, you got a metal bottle here, so you don't know what's inside of it.

It could be something that it you, me tickling it.

Okay, good.

But it could be something that students, you know, could be bringing in something that shouldn't be allowed.

You know, the Akron Public Schools has unfortunately had a lot of issues with students and safety lately.

But yeah, it could be a it could be used like a weapon.

So I understand that there's, you know, a lot of concern and people want to ban it and just have clear bottles so you can see what's inside.

And also clear bottles are generally made of plastic.

It won't hurt as much.

You get bang another head with it.

Yeah.

Right.

But you still don't know what's in a clear bottle like clear liquids.

But I think what they're saying too, is you can put things that aren't liquid, I guess, inside a bottle and conceal something, and it just takes too much to do.

That I thought was really interesting.

And with a daughter being around your age.

Abby, you live with those things.

Those those big water bottles.

No one doesn't have one.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, after the show, we can test Gabe.

How hard, how hard it goes over their head.

What's nice?

I keep losing them at airports and hotels.

So they're.

Oh, yeah, it's emotional support.

Water bottle.

Yeah, yeah, I got it.

Monday on the Sound of Ideas on 89 seven KSU.

As the widespread use of artificial intelligence puts new demands on the power grid, tech leaders are looking to alternative energy sources to keep up.

Could nuclear power be the answer?

Jeff Saint Clair is in for Stephanie Haiti, and he'll lead a conversation on that topic.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for watching.

And stay safe.