(soft, ambient music) - Ohio's Jim Jordan has jumped into the race for Speaker of the US House of Representatives.

On the third try the petition summary language for a redistricting overhaul has gained approval.

And hold off on the Instagram reels until you get home.

Police have begun ticketing distracted drivers in Ohio.

"Ideas" is next.

(regal orchestral music) Hello and welcome to "Ideas."

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Jim Jordan, the combative congressman representing Ohio's fourth district, including Ashland and Mansfield, wants to take up the gavel as Speaker of the US House of Representatives replacing ousted Kevin McCarthy.

Jordan is perhaps former President Trump's most ardent defender, and Trump is backing him.

Who's running public education in Ohio right now?

It'd be hard to grade a test with that question because there appears to be no clear answer.

A legal challenge has temporarily blocked a law overhauling education and stripping the state school board of most of its power.

The group trying to take the power to draw district and legislative maps away from politicians now has approved petition language.

They hope to get it before voters next year.

And if you're in the car, put that cell phone down and drive.

The relatively new distracted driving law is now being enforced, no more warnings.

Joining me for the round table today from my Ideastream Public Media, education reporter, Conor Morris, and senior arts reporter, Kabir Bhatia.

In Columbus, State House News Bureau Chief Karen Kasler.

Let's get ready to round table.

Ohio's Jim Jordan jumped quickly into the race for Speaker of the US House of Representatives after a small band of Republicans organized a coup and ousted speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Karen, this would not be the first time Jordan has sought the speakership, including during January's marathon vote to install McCarthy.

- Well, he did seek the speakership in 2018.

But back during that marathon voting session for McCarthy, he actually, Jordan was actually a supporter of McCarthy.

His name had been floated out there.

He got a couple of votes in the early rounds, but in the end, he was a strong supporter of McCarthy.

So this is interesting to see.

He was among the Republicans who voted to keep McCarthy a speaker.

He was not one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy.

And now he said though that he wants to be speaker.

He's positioning himself not only with the Freedom Caucus, which he founded and headed up, the far right extremist caucus among Republicans in the Congress, but trying to get all Republicans on board saying that we need to basically come together.

A letter he put out said, "We were at a critical crossroad in our nation's history.

Now is the time for our Republican conference to come together to keep our promises to Americans."

So he is really, I think, selling himself as a guy who can make it happen and bring everybody together.

- What's interesting is it seems sometimes the way his tone is that he would align with those eight.

He didn't here, which helps him because then he's not seen as part of that outlier group.

But is he really someone that can reach out to moderates?

Because that's the word is, you know, he can get a certain faction, he can get the Trump wing.

Obviously, you got Trump himself.

But can he reach out to moderates, Jim Jordan?

- Well, that's a really good question.

And obviously, reaching out to Democrats is a big part of this.

Bills do sometimes need bipartisan support to pass.

And Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader, has said that house Democrats are committed to that bipartisanship.

And his quote that he put out on X earlier was, "We simply need a partner willing to abandon MAGA extremism."

And that's a phrase that Jeffries keeps using, MAGA extremism, which, for a lot of people, Jim Jordan represents MAGA and MAGA extremism.

And so I don't know how he would be as a real person who could bring, who could bridge the gap and try to bring in more moderates on some of these issues that Republicans wanna push forward.

- Yeah, also when I was asking about moderates, I meant can he get moderate Republicans to say, "Yeah, this is the guy that can unify our party," when his opponent is Steve Scalise, who is a guy who's been in leadership for 10 years and seems to be, though certainly a strong conservative, seems to be more moderate than Jim Jordan does.

- Yeah, right.

I think the question of who's gonna go behind Steve Scalise versus Jim Jordan, we're seeing that line up.

We're seeing that on social media so far.

Republicans from Ohio, Max Miller and Troy Balderson, Mike Carey, Warren Davidson had come out behind Jim Jordan.

Dave Joyce from northeast Ohio tweeted about Steve Scalise and his work on funding the southern border, but did not say anything about Scalise or Jordan as speaker.

So you have to maybe look into that and think, "Well, maybe Jordan is among those who support Scalise."

But this whole thing is gonna be interesting to watch.

I mean, the Ohio Republican party chair, Alex Triantafilou, put out a statement supporting Jim Jordan as speaker, and I don't know if all the Republican congressional delegation will follow on with that or what's gonna happen.

- A couple of emails responding, and these are folks who I would say, not be in the Jordan camp.

John sends an email that says, "It's like a bad dream."

We also have an email from Pat who says, "Another male chauvinist lawbreaker.

Should make people in Ohio cringe, and yet they keep electing him."

And she thinks that that's sickening.

When she mentions lawbreaker, there are a number of allegations.

One is the history with the Ohio State wrestling program where he was an assistant coach where players had been abused there and where he's accused of knowing and remaining silent about that.

Will that come up in this issue?

- Well, it's almost certain to come up.

I don't think you can say the name Jim Jordan without somebody bringing up the allegations about the abuse of, I mean, hundreds of students, of male students back in the '70s and '80s.

Jordan has repeatedly said that he did not know about the sex abuse on the wrestling team, that he had no knowledge of this, but certainly his name has come up repeatedly in coverage and conversations about this, in committee hearings that we've had here at the State House about this.

So there's almost no way to have a conversation about Jim Jordan without those allegations coming up.

- I know you cover the Ohio State House and not Congress in general, but I wonder about your thoughts on this.

And that is Democrats are largely on the sideline here.

They did vote to remove McCarthy.

When it comes to the next speaker, is there any possibility, I've heard this floated, that it would be not somebody that's in the Republican side, that you could get Hakeem Jeffries or someone from outside to come back?

- I just don't know in this partisan environment how that would work.

But we saw something similar happen here in the Ohio State House where the Republican party was split between two Republican candidates for speaker, and Democrats ended up helping get Jason Stephens elected as speaker over Derek Merrin who actually had more Republican votes than Jason Stephens did.

So I don't know that you ever could get a Democrat elected a speaker unless the fracture was so significant to the point where you had maybe even three different groups of Republicans all firmly in their camps.

But it certainly could suggest that somebody could reach out to Democrats and say, "Come on board with me," like Jason Stephens did with Democrats here in Ohio.

(regal orchestral music) - This week, Attorney General Dave Yost approved the summary language for proposed amendment that would take legislative map-making power out of the hands of politicians.

Karen, the next stop is the ballot board, which will decide whether the proposal is one constitutional amendment or more.

And that's a big deal, because if it's more, that means a whole lot more work.

- Right, and it certainly opens the door to the possibility of a defeat.

I mean, back in 2005, there was a package of reforms that groups had put before voters that dealt with campaign finance and redistricting and all that stuff.

and they all got rejected because it was very confusing.

I mean, getting that yes vote can be really a challenge for groups that are trying to convince people to change the constitution, to change the system.

It's easier for people to vote no.

And so more, if you've got more amendments that you're having to manage or more petitions or more issues you're having to manage, getting that yes vote is going to be more of a challenge.

So this is a complicated amendment, and it's certainly the door is possibly open for this to be more than one issue.

But obviously the folks who wanna put this before voters next year want this to be a single issue and wanna be able to focus on.

This is an issue that would take the map-drawing process for Ohio House and Senate districts out of the hands of the seven politicians on the Ohio Redistricting Commission and put it in the hands of 15 citizens who are aligned with Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, and they would draw those maps.

- One of the biggest proponents of this has been former Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor.

She also was involved as a campaign manager that helped initially pass a similar measure in Missouri.

In fact, there's someone who was involved in that has now been staffed in Ohio to get this measure put through.

But the Missouri measure was overturned.

- Yeah, I mean, who knows what's gonna happen here?

And in Ohio has actually voted against putting redistricting in the hands of an independent commission before in 2005.

And the theory then was that maybe voters did not want a bipartisan or a commission that's unaccountable, that's not elected to draw those maps.

Well, we've seen how elected officials have drawn maps, and how the five attempts last year to put maps before the Ohio Supreme Court ended up with the court ruling that those maps were unconstitutionally gerrymandered.

So I think the argument is going to be, is the system as we have it in place right now, working for you, voters, or is there another way to do this that you would prefer, such as a 15-member citizens commission?

It's gonna be a lot of discussion about this as it goes forward definitely.

- All right, and let's just make one other note.

The Redistrict Commission, the Ohio Redistrict Commission passed a set of State House legislative maps with bipartisan support unanimously, but now those maps are being challenged in court.

ACLU says no go.

- Yeah, this is not a surprise.

I mean, this is the same group of people who challenged the maps all of last year based on that they still give Republicans a super majority.

What's interesting this time is these maps got a unanimous vote before the Ohio Redistricting Commission.

The two Democrats on the commission joined the five Republicans in voting for these maps.

And certainly Republicans are saying, "Hey, wait a minute, Democrats are on board with this, why are you suing now?

This was unanimous support."

But these groups are saying that these maps are still gerrymandered.

They want the Ohio Supreme Court to do what they did last year and send the maps back to the Ohio Redistricting Commission.

I am loathed to predict what the Ohio Supreme Court's gonna do other than to note the court is different than it was last year when those unconstitutionally gerrymandered rulings came down.

(regal orchestral music) - Yost issued two reports analyzing how issue one on reproductive rights and issue two, legalizing recreational marijuana, would alter state laws.

Yost says he believes the public doesn't understand what the measures would do.

Karen, is not a standard step for an attorney general to take, is it?

- Yeah, and he said, and it should be noted first of all that Dave Yost identifies as pro-life.

And so is probably, I would think at some point, going to speak out against issue one.

A lot of law enforcement are against the legalization of marijuana, that's issue two.

And so I would expect that Yost, being the state's top cop, so to speak, would be concerned about the legalization of marijuana.

But he said, this is two teams from his office of attorneys and professional staff who looked at these two issues to offer a legal analysis, not a why, but a what, what these two issues would do if they passed.

And the issue two analysis on the marijuana legalization was a little less detailed.

It was, I think four pages long, basically saying it doesn't repeal existing laws, but if you follow the new rules, you're protected.

But it reminded people that the federal law that says marijuana is illegal is still in existence.

And so you could still be prosecuted under federal marijuana laws.

The analysis of issue one was a lot more extensive.

It went through laws that it said issue one would potentially overturn.

And it said that issue one would potentially set a new legal standard that goes beyond the standards that were set in Roe versus Wade and Carey versus Planned Parenthood, who were, those were the two big landmark abortion rights issues that came out before abortion rights were overturned last year.

- Let's talk a little bit about the analysis for issue two, the marijuana statute.

He noted that, while it would allow marijuana use by state law, people could still run into federal law trouble, which sounded kind of ridiculous to me.

Like the feds are gonna come in and arrest somebody because they have a joint.

- Well, that's been the argument though, for people who are opposed to legalization of marijuana, that the federal government still does consider it an illegal substance, and so you can be charged under federal laws.

Now whether that's happening, I mean, you could look at other states and see that, you know, what's happening in other states there.

But the reminder of the legality when it comes to these issues is that, yeah, those laws still exist.

- Thought.

- And I wanna add one more thing about that issue one analysis.

Again, this is on the abortion access and reproductive rights amendment.

One of the arguments that opponents of it have been making is that it will really destroy parental rights and parental consent laws and open the door for all sorts of, not only the overturning of parental consent laws when it comes to abortion, but also other things like gender transition, treatments for minors and things like this.

The analysis specifically says the amendment does not specifically address parental consent, which is interesting 'cause that's definitely a pushback on what the issue one opponents have been saying.

But it does say certainly that would be challenged on the basis of how the amendment was written.

But yeah, there are certainly groups that support issue one who are saying that this whole analysis really kind of tips things in favor of the opposition to issue one rather than any supporters of issue one.

(regal orchestral music) Cleveland Mayor, Justin Bibb this week unveiled a $10 million neighborhood safety fund as part of an effort to curb violence by getting at its root causes.

Bibb says the fund is the first of its kind anywhere.

Conor, the safety fund would go more toward addressing root causes of violence rather than law enforcement.

- Sure, yeah, so this is 10 million from the American Rescue Plan Act fund, so state, or I mean, federal pandemic relief funds that are, you know, dwindling.

But this is Bibb and the city trying to continue to make their argument that you need more than police to kind of address violence and violent crime.

And so it's a broader approach to societal problems, so to speak.

There's gonna be a lot more angles that they could explore with this money then they might not have been able to otherwise.

And there's not really any word yet on what programs it is gonna support because it's kind of an application-based process.

- Yeah, how does that work?

how do you get the money?

- So yeah, I'm looking here my notes real quick.

(chuckles) So it's gonna be an endowment fund, and it's gonna generate additional money over the next, like 25 years ago.

They say, you know, it's gonna be about 13 million, you know, in additional money that they're gonna kind of generate.

They're gonna be doing, you know, one million in grants per year for the first couple years is what they're thinking.

And they're hoping that, so folks will apply to this and there'll be a process where those proposals will be vetted.

The city will kind of decide, you know, if they like it or not.

And I'm sure council will will get a pass at that as well to determine how it ultimately looks.

- Trying to get at the root causes is something everyone has been talking about, is not easy to do.

- No.

- But you know, one of the issues is, and this is something that Dr. Edward Barksdale at Rainbow Babies and Children has said is, you know, if people are hungry, crime is gonna go up.

If these types of things, so I mean, it could be as simple as feeding everyone with $10 million, but it isn't that simple.

- Sure, and there was reference to, I mean, like housing even, so this could be very broad.

We're not entirely sure yet.

But one thing that was mentioned I think was like, you know, support for youth.

So mentoring potentially was one thing that was referenced.

You know, there are so many different ways that you could go about this.

This could look like what's known as violence interrupters.

So folks from neighborhoods who potentially have been incarcerated in the past who have lived experience who could go out and talk to people, to youth about their lives and about, you know, choices that they make.

You know, again, yeah, it could be food, housing, as I mentioned.

You know, so it really could run the gamut for sure.

(regal orchestral music) - Cleveland City Council voted to increase penalties for parents and guardians whose children violate curfew in response to young people committing crimes, including car thefts.

Kabir, Ideastream's Matt Richmond reported that, while the legislation passed, support for it was lukewarm.

- Lukewarm's a good word for it.

Some of the council people basically said, "You know, I don't know that this is a problem in my ward."

Or conversely, if it is a problem, I hope the police are not as concerned with this or not going to be, I don't wanna use the word, I almost used a word that would get me in trouble.

- So don't use it.

- I won't use it then.

But they said we'd like the police to go easy on this, I think is what Joe Jones said, he's ward one.

So it did pass, but you know, usually you see very spirited, "I wanna get on this, co-sponsor me on this, I would."

But this was a little bit of debate and people weren't thrilled with it.

- Well, the ACLU says curfews in general raise civil rights questions.

What do they mean by that?

- Well, they felt that this is infringing on people's rights, whether it's free speech or to be more serious, unnecessary detainment even, or detainment, that basically being told you're in your house, stay there, don't come out of your house.

Now, we had to do a lot of that, a lot of people did over the last three years with COVID, but this is a different kettle of faith, the ACLU feels, that maybe, even though it's young people involved, that it could be, it's onerous.

And also since it's penalizing the parents.

- There are also questions as to whether curfews actually do much to curb crime.

Do we know?

- Well, there's studies on and vocal people on both sides.

So the study from 2016 said that, you know, it doesn't do a whole lot.

I will point out that I just mentioned COVID, 2016 almost feels like a different planet at this point.

We've been through a lot.

So certainly that that survey has merit, that the curfews may not be so effective.

But on the other side of it, you've got lawmakers saying, this kind of gives parents a backstop, kind of, you know, cements their rules that they have for you need to be home when I say you need to be home.

(regal orchestral music) - The control over Ohio's public education system remains in flux after a Franklin County judge delayed a decision on a lawsuit challenging the overhaul of the State Board of Education.

The law is now blocked until October 20th.

What's going on in Ohio education, Karen?

- Well, schools are open, (chuckles) kids are going to school.

I mean, on the ground, there isn't I think a whole lot of difference in what happened from Monday to Tuesday, which is Tuesday was the day, according to Governor Mike DeWine and other Republican leaders, that's when at midnight, the Ohio Department of Education ceased to exist.

That the budget provision that eliminated the Ohio Department of Education kicked in, and it also created the New Department of Education and Workforce, which is an entity that is supposed to be headed up by an appointee of Governor DeWine, somebody who would be in his cabinet and also would take on the academic standards and policy roles that the State Supreme Court has had since 1953.

And so DeWine did an unusual Monday evening press conference where he said, "Hey, the Department of Education is dying at midnight.

This new agency, the Ohio Department of Educational Workforce will be created.

But there is this court order, and that court order keeps me from appointing the new head and transferring those power.

So I'm gonna let this entity be created so that we can still pay schools money so they can write paychecks and we can still process voucher applications, but I'm not gonna do the other things that the court order I feel says I can't do."

So the dispute though is did the court order stop this whole process from even moving forward at all?

Did the court order stop the Ohio Department of Education's death at midnight on Tuesday?

And that's what we're still waiting to hear on.

- Yeah, is it dead or not?

Do we know?

It's past Tuesday?

- I don't know.

(chuckles) - I mean, according to- - Somebody checked the vitals.

- According to the administration, it is dead.

And this new Department of Education and Workforce is in effect.

I talked to Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted for our TV show, "The State of Ohio" this weekend, and that's the stance that he and other Republicans are taking that we need to move forward on this agency so that the daily business of schools can continue and then the court battle will work itself out.

- Conor, how is this playing out in local school districts who are looking at the state?

Same kind of culture wars, by the way, we're seeing in local districts, we saw at the state level.

Is there reaction to that, or is it, as Karen said, you don't really see it once you're in the classroom?

Do you see it when you're in the local boardroom?

- Yeah, nobody's really said anything that I've seen, you know, over the last week.

I think that this is a very nebulous kind of almost like war of the words almost where, you know, DeWine on Monday did I think offer, I think needed clarity to folks when he said, "Look, paychecks are still gonna be going out, voucher applications are still gonna be signed."

So, you know, I think that's as far as people really care about, as long as, you know, the essential operations of local school districts continue.

You know, now where this puts the state board, I mean, it looks like they're still gonna be able to do some of the basic state board stuff that, you know, would not have been taken over by this new Department of Education and Workforce.

You know, some like education licenses and things like that.

I'm not sure when their next meeting is, unfortunately.

So I think they meet like once a month or something like that, so- - I think they're meeting next week actually.

- Yeah, so, you know, we'll have to see what that meeting looks like.

I'd be interested to check that out.

(regal orchestral music) - Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel.

But if you wanna punch up that Doors song on your phone while you're cruising down the highway, it may cost you.

Police are now enforcing Ohio's new distracted driving law.

It means drivers can be ticketed for holding a cell phone or electronic device while driving.

- But yeah, there are exceptions in the law for people who are over 18, which Mike, I assume you're over 18.

- Yes.

- You can hold your phone if you're stopped at a red light or you're parked, you can use the GPS features on your phone.

You can use your phone to report an emergency, those kind of things.

But if you're under 18, can't do any of that, even hands free.

And the whole point of this was there was a six-month period from when the time the law passed, and now it is in effect to get the word out to people that there are things that you are not supposed to be doing while you're driving, and one of them is texting.

And so this has been a crusade that DeWine has been on for several years here.

He's been very concerned about this, and not just because they wanna write more tickets.

They wanna stop these crashes where distracted driving as clearly involved.

- And it's a primary offense.

So if they see you, it doesn't mean that you also have to be speeding or you ran a red light and we saw you with a phone, that's a second ticket.

It's just, if I see you with your phone, you're cruising down the street, I'm pulling you over.

- And that's gonna be difficult potentially to enforce, because I mean, on the freeway, can you really see if someone's on the phone?

I mean, you can guess, but certainly in city traffic, you could look at somebody across the way and see that they are on their phone.

So I'll be interested to see what the ticket and citation numbers look like because of this law.

(regal orchestral music) - The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and museum is getting bigger, as the organization broke ground this week on a 50,000 square foot, 135-plus million dollar expansion.

It'll increase the Rock Hall size by a third.

The Rock Hall is very cool, but it also felt somehow small to me.

- Well now it'll feel bigger because, as we know, every year there's more inductees, more memorabilia to house, more signatures and that sort of thing to show.

Now they're gonna have more event space, more educational space, more performance space, because that stage outside, you can only use a part of the year, obviously.

So now they'll have a theater inside.

- It's an iconic building.

It'll still kind of look the same, the way this is planned- - Yeah - Is kind of, you'll still see the pyramid.

- You'll still see it.

It's sort of, the pyramid will not be the main entrance, but this kind of takes the geometric cues from the original design by I.M.

Pei who passed away, so he didn't work on this, of course.

And it expands on those, and it's a very tough job, but they somehow did it.

(regal orchestral music) - Monday on the "Sound of Ideas" on 897 WKSU we'll look at northeast Ohio's tech sector through the lens of several conferences happening this week.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thanks so much for watching, and stay safe.

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