(bright electronic music) - A proposed abortion rights amendment will now head to the November ballot.

Advocates of legalized recreational marijuana have more work to do collecting signatures to make that ballot.

And the August special election on raising the bar for constitutional amendments is drawing big out-of-state money on both sides.

"Ideas" is next.

(dramatic instrumental music) Hello, and welcome to "Ideas."

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for joining us.

State Issue 1, which would raise the threshold for passing constitutional amendments in Ohio to 60% is drawing millions of dollars in out-of-state money on both sides, and debates this week had a bit more urgency because an abortion rights amendment was certified for the November ballot.

Issue 1 will determine how many votes are needed to pass it.

A separate measure to legalize recreational pot fell short of the needed signatures, but backers are confident they'll collect enough in the 10-day window allowed by law.

Food in the Cuyahoga County Jail is so bad, guards said a while back they feared it would lead to unrest and affect their safety.

The county's solution at this point, extend the caterer's contract.

And the I Promise School seeks to educate Akron's most difficult to educate children, but school district and state officials are concerned about recent data suggesting it's not living up to its promise.

We'll discuss those stories this week on the round table.

Joining me from Ideastream Public Media, Glenn Forbes, Supervising Producer of newscasts and health reporter Taylor Wizner.

And in Columbus, reporter Haley Bemiller from the USA Today Network's Ohio Bureau.

Let's get ready to round table.

Voters will decide in November whether to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

This week, Secretary of State, Frank LaRose, certified signatures.

The effort to legalize recreational marijuana fell short, though, but petition gatherers have 10 days to fill the gap and put the statute on the ballot.

The issue now goes before the Ballot Board to determine the language voters will see on the November ballot.

Ohio's the seventh state to put abortion rights protections before voters since the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe versus Wade last year.

Haley, when will the Ballot Board meet?

And remind us who makes up that board.

- So, we don't have a set date yet, but they need to meet 75 days before the election so we're thinking like late August at this point.

There are five members on the Ballot Board.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose heads up that panel.

And then it also includes a mix of Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

Republicans do have a three-person majority on the board.

- And will they then just determine what the language is?

We saw a little bit of this in the Issue 1 language and having to go back at it.

Who proposes the ballot language?

- So the group proposing the abortion amendment has their own proposed ballot language, but the Ballot Board needs to approve that and they get the final say on what goes on the ballot.

So it's possible they'll try to tweak it.

Unclear what that would look like at this point, but they do have that ability.

- We've talked about how it would enshrine abortion rights, but what specifically does it say in regards to abortion protection and those aspects?

- Yeah, so the language basically says that Ohioans have the right to reproductive healthcare, including abortions, also miscarriage care, contraception, that kind of thing.

It's a pretty short amendment.

It's only a couple hundred words.

The only other mention of abortion in there notes that abortion could be banned after fetal viability, but that that can't be the case if, for example, the mother's life was at risk.

- Got it.

The coalition to legalize recreational marijuana still has work to do to make the November ballot.

Petitions gathered for the ballot issue fell 679 signatures short.

That's not a lot, Glenn, and the coalition backing the issue has time, this so-called cure period.

They say they're confident they're gonna get it.

- Yeah, as you mentioned, that's not a lot of signatures to get when you think of how many people are in this state, you know, nearly 12 million.

And the conventional wisdom is you get about double the amount of signatures that you need.

They did do that, but they still fell, I should say, 679 votes short.

They did clear the other requirement, which is getting signatures equal to 1.5% of the vote in the last election for governor in 44 of the 88 counties, and Secretary of State Frank LaRose actually ruled they fulfilled that in 49, so they kind of went above and beyond on that requirement, but they came 679 valid signatures short.

- So you could go to just one place where a lot of people might be in favor of marijuana legalization and get your 700 signatures.

There are a fair amount of dispensaries up here, Mike.

I think, (laughs) you know, but I... - Indeed.

- But I'm saying there... And we should make that point, too.

I mean, you know, medical marijuana has been been legal in the state for some time now.

Michigan has recreational marijuana and so, you know, there's this group we've heard of before to, you know, regulate marijuana like alcohol, and that has been their push, and they're confident that they can get that.

And as you said, I mean, just the amount of signatures, it seems like this will be something that will be on the ballot.

(dramatic music) - With the abortion rights amendment now on the November ballot, the big question is, how many votes will be needed for it to pass?

And that question will be answered on August 8th.

That's when voters will decide State Issue 1, which is drawing big money on both sides from out-of-state donors.

Illinois billionaire Richard Uihlein has spent another $4 million, he'd already kicked in a million, in an effort to pass the constitutional amendment that would raise the threshold for future constitutional amendments to 60%.

It would also require a minimum number of signatures in all 88 Ohio counties to get on the ballot.

The latest campaign filing reports filed yesterday show the campaign to defeat Issue 1 taking in much more money, One Person One Vote.

The opposition brought in about 14.8 million, and Protect Our Constitution pushing for passage raised about 4.85 million.

Haley, the money is coming from out of state to both of these campaigns, the yes and the no.

- Yeah, it was really interesting.

You know, you mentioned Richard Uihlein, and he's been the primary benefactor of the Vote Yes Campaign, and the filings yesterday showed that continues to be the case.

His $4 million contribution was the large majority of what Protect our Constitution brought in.

And then on the vote no side for One Person One Vote, you have a lot of different national organizations chipping in.

The Sixteen Thirty Fund, for example, is just kind of this large progressive dark money group that backs a lot of other progressive causes.

You have the Fairness Project, which deals specifically with ballot measures in states across the country.

You have the Tides Foundation, which is another progressive group based in California.

So a lot of out-of-state groups contributing and then also a lot of out-of-state donors contributing.

You saw donations from like, Washington State, New York, Colorado, Ohio as well, but it is significantly out of state.

- Yeah, I saw in the One Person One Vote, the biggest chunk, 22%, was from Ohio, including a million from the Ohio Education Association, but also big money from D.C. and California.

On the yes side, one thing that jumped out in your coverage, because you're writing from Columbus, but you mentioned Jimmy and Dee Haslam the owners of the Cleveland Browns and the Columbus Crew, it wasn't a huge amount of money, but they put money into the yes side, $50,000.

- Yep, yeah, we tend to see them chipping in to various Republican causes, so not too surprising that they put in some money.

But yeah, it's an interesting mix on both sides, for sure.

- One of the things to note is that this is a report as of July 19th, so there's going to be a ton of last couple of week spending we won't know about until after the election.

- Yeah, it'll be interesting to see when that final picture emerges.

And again, it won't be until September, so voters won't know that until the election is long passed.

But for as much money has come in so far, these last couple weeks are gonna be really critical for both campaigns and you know, separately tracking ad spending, you can see different groups putting more on the airwaves as well.

- You've done some reporting on a poll conducted about Issue 1.

What do those results suggest?

- So the Suffolk University poll that came out a couple weeks ago said that, I think it was about 57% of Ohio likely voters opposed Issue 1, and then there was a good chunk of people still undecided, about 16, 17%.

There's actually a poll that came out this morning from Ohio Northern University that showed that Issue 1 pretty evenly split, but also again, like 16% undecided.

So, you know, we take all polls with a grain of salt, of course, but it is interesting to see the differences between the two.

And then, you know, just on the ground, I know we've been talking to voters a lot the past couple weeks and you know, we've been hearing from a lot of folks who oppose it, but also there are definitely people who are planning to vote yes.

- Glenn at the City Club Forum, the timing was brought up.

The question about, why now?

And the answer from Susan Manchester and from Frank LaRose was, well, we tried to get it on in May and it didn't happen so we moved to August, and the audience didn't seem to be buying that.

They were saying, "Wait a minute, August is still a special election where you know the turnout's gonna be low.

This is something that deserves to be on a November ballot when we're gonna get more people out."

- Yeah, and it's interesting, a couple things that you mentioned there.

One, the idea of getting more people out in November.

State Republicans had been accused during this process of trying to get this on the August ballot so turnout would be low.

I think I would, right now looking a week and a half out or so, if that was the strategy, I don't think it's gonna work because I think there are a lot of people...

This is the most, you know, attention I've seen to an August election maybe ever.

It's been a long time.

You see yard signs and just kind of the buzz around it, like you said, the community tour was packed.

Just kind of the buzz around this leads me to believe that, you know, are we gonna get 50%?

Probably not, but will you get a higher number than, what, single digits or even 25%?

I think so.

I think this has people's attention.

And you know, Rob Walgate, we wanna talk a little bit about the fact that this is not just a partisan issue.

It's not all Republicans on one side and all Democrats on the other side.

There's former Attorney General Betty Montgomery on the no side of this and so is Rob Walgate, who I've known for a long time.

The American Policy Roundtable Vice President, conservative guy, but a policy guy.

And he says, you know, "This is a power grab.

This is hypocrisy," which a lot of people are kind of feeling that way, too, that they took the step to kind of ban these special elections, but then said, "Oh no, just kidding.

We want to kind of get this one in before November."

The thing I'm trying to figure out, Mike, is, the only Republican who can, or excuse me, the only Democrat who could win statewide, is Sherrod Brown, seemingly.

Republicans sweep every other statewide office.

How is this one gonna turn out?

Because you have this state that seemingly is moving further to the right, but now there's this idea that not all Republicans are really supportive of this, especially the smaller government crowd, things of that nature.

So how will this stack up not only to the abortion vote in November, but how will it compare to other kind of sweeps or, you know, kind of easy elections that statewide Republicans have had?

This seems like it's setting up to be a little different.

- Glenn mentioned that it's a little more bipartisan than some folks might think.

At that City Club event, Haley, we saw the former Attorney General Betty Montgomery in the opposition side sitting along with former Governor Dick Celeste, a Democrat, and then of course Frank LaRose and State Rep Susan Manchester were Republicans who were on the yes side.

But when you're talking in Columbus, it seems like the legislators are all yes.

All the Republicans in the legislature are yes.

But are you hearing more of that Republican voice that's against this?

Or are there any Democrats that are for it?

- Well, going back to the poll for a second, we did see that there was some bipartisan opposition to Issue 1.

You know, I can't remember the exact percentage, but there was a chunk of Republicans and supporters of former President Donald Trump who said that they would not support Issue 1.

You know, on the ground, the folks that we've talked to, at least, have pretty much aligned with party lines.

We have bumped into some Republicans who say that they aren't for this, that they don't like what they're seeing.

And then if you look at the coalition, the One Person One Vote, you know, they have some interesting allies, the Libertarian Party of Ohio, for example, opposes Issue 1, which makes sense in a lot of ways 'cause they are like the epitome of, you know, small government, stay out of our lives.

So it is interesting, and I do think, you know, while a lot of Republican elected officials oppose Issue 1, you know, there is kind of this small government argument to be made that could appeal to some conservatives.

- Interesting that Betty Montgomery, as I said, was the only Republican opposition on that panel, and she really took it, I thought, to Frank LaRose and to Susan Manchester.

And basically her point was, this isn't just about the 60% threshold, which she might even support, but the fact that the signature requirement, which is now 5% of the turnout of the last gubernatorial election in all 88 counties as well as an August election, which she thought was purposeful for low turnout and to try to head off the abortion amendment, that putting all of that together meant really what you're trying to say is you don't want the Constitution to ever be amended.

Did you...

It seems as though the talk about that, Haley, is heating up.

We're hearing a lot more focused debate in these last couple of weeks.

- Yeah, and I think, you know, in some ways from the beginning, while the 60% grabs a lot of headlines and is sort of the easiest thing to explain, I think that the changes to the signature gathering process would make it extremely difficult to even put anything on the ballot and would really make Ohio an outlier.

You know, you see other states that have the ability for citizens to put things on the ballot, and there are some requirements for signatures, you know, X amount in legislative districts or X amount in this number of counties, but no other state requires, you know, petitioners to get signatures from all 88 counties so Ohio would be kind of on its own level with that if Issue 1 passes.

- Though, LaRose points out that most states don't have citizen-initiated amendment abilities for their constitutions.

- Yeah, Ohio is one of 17, I think.

And that is, you know, certainly an argument that's come up.

Opponents will say, well, you know, Ohio's been ahead of the curve in this case and we should continue to be ahead of the curve and not hamstring the process like they think Issue 1 would do.

- Yeah, Glenn, Dick Celeste said, "It's a proud history.

Ohio should be proud of the fact they had it."

And earlier in our forum, Mike Curtin the former publisher, associate publisher of "The Dispatch" and former editor there was talking about how in Southern states there wasn't an ability to amend constitutions because of slavery.

And people didn't want there to be amendments that would impede any of that.

So there's a whole lot of deeper discussion that would happen.

- Citizen-initiated amendments have been around for 110 years in Ohio.

Ohio voters have approved 19 of those 71 citizen-initiated amendments, and 10 of them have gotten to that 60% mark.

And then to make it a little more recent, since 1990, there have been 33 constitutional amendments approved.

Six of those passed with less than 60%.

So that's a little perspective on some of the numbers there.

(dramatic music) - Cuyahoga County extended the contract for the vendor that supplies food for the county jail.

The county council granted the extension despite previous concerns about the quality of the food.

Glenn, there might be a reason for this 'cause you're trying to work through a new contract, et cetera, but when you look at it on its face, we had a complaint that food was horrible there, so bad that guards said, "We fear for our safety because people who aren't fed decent food don't comply and respond, and we might be in some trouble."

And so the answer is, extend the contract for the chef.

- This is so interesting to me.

I've been here at Ideastream Public Media for a little more than five years, and I think the Cuyahoga County Jail has been the issue that I have covered the most consistently.

I mean, there's always something with the jail, and until a new jail is built, which we don't know when that's gonna be.

There was another couple hearings on that this week.

Until a new jail is built and there's more, I guess, amenities or it's modernized or whatever, this issue is going to continue to prop up.

Michael Gallagher, who's a member of Cuyahoga County Council, said, "Well, maybe some of this food quality issue is related to the facility itself."

The problem is twofold.

You mentioned that the guards fear for their safety because prisoners are less likely to comply with lockdown if the food is terrible.

It's like just one more thing, right?

If the food is you know, really that terrible, they're gonna have a harder time controlling the inmates.

That's one issue.

The other issue is this, the company they contract with, Trinity Services Group says, "Hey, we're understaffed."

Everybody's understaffed, right?

We hear that consistently.

When they are understaffed, that means the guards actually have to step in and kind of help with food service so that's taking away from some other things, maybe, that they should be doing so there's this, you know, kind of triage effect or whatever where you've got people in places maybe where they shouldn't be.

So it's interesting that all these issues are kind of converging and the one consistent issue is, we need a new county jail, whether it's renovated at the existing location or whether it's a new building.

It seems like all of these issues are gonna continue to crop up until that one major issue is solved.

- I think they should build a new jail and a Chipotle inside.

- There you go.

- Would that work?

- I remember several years ago there were complaints that Subway was providing some meals for local jails, and people were upset about it, but it was the most cost-effective way.

And it wasn't like the Subway you would necessarily order at the Subway shop.

It was a little different.

But there were, I remember police chiefs or county sheriffs saying, "You know, again, this is the most cost-effective way that we can do this, and there are state standards that we have to follow, and it meets those standards."

(dramatic music) - The I Promise School promises to work with Akron's struggling students with the goal of helping them catch up with their peers by eighth grade, but are they achieving that promise?

The Akron Board of Education and the state of Ohio have expressed concerns.

Recent data shows none of the incoming eighth graders has passed a math proficiency test in the last three years.

Black students and students with disabilities at I Promise are testing in the bottom 5% of all Black and disabled students in the state.

Question is, is there cause for alarm?

Glenn, the Akron school officials seem alarmed.

- They seem alarmed.

They seem a little, more than a little bothered by the fact that maybe this is the first time they're seeing any numbers from the I Promise School in four years.

Important to note that the I Promise School exclusively takes in kids that are about two years behind, about two years of their grade level behind.

However, the idea is you bring these kids in in second, third, fourth grade, they should be showing improvement by eighth grade.

At least be caught up or maybe be not as far behind as when they were brought in.

Akron Public Schools pays about the same amount for the I Promise schools as they do for the other schools.

The difference is 1.4 million from the LeBron James Family Foundation, which is supposed to pay for more teachers, more tutoring, these wraparound services that we hear about.

And the fact that this approach, at least so far, doesn't seem to be working is a concern.

And they do have some new leadership coming in and things like that, but I think it's, again, it's kind of a twofold issue.

One is performance.

When we talk about an issue for the school board, one is performance, two is the fact that this is the first time they've been seeing these numbers, and they are not good.

- "Give it some time" is what the I Promise folks say, that these are very difficult to achieve goals and we need some time to get them done.

Is there a thought that, you know, all the great feeling about the I Promise School and all the great feeling about LeBron James and that foundation, is there going to be that kind of patience?

- Well, I think so.

I mean, this is a pretty large investment not only from the public schools and LeBron James Family Foundation, but there's a lot of things planned for this kind of I promise neighborhood, the I Promise Village there.

Some of the numbers are encouraging.

Last year's fifth grade class had double the number of students proficient in reading from when they were in fourth grade.

That six to 13% doesn't sound like a lot, but it is double.

Last year's sixth graders did lose ground, however, so there are some reasons to maybe be optimistic, and I think, I don't know if there's much choice right now other than to be patient, although I'm sure the school board will have a little more oversight of these issues.

- And the state, too, as I mentioned, is stepping in.

They are putting it on a watch list for added targeted support and improvement because of the numbers with Black students and disabled students as well.

So we'll certainly keep an eye on how I Promise continues to develop.

(dramatic music) Insulin is already expensive and the City of Cleveland claims it was made even more expensive because drug makers, pharmacy managers, and corporate conglomerates schemed to overcharge by millions of dollars since 2008.

The city sued 20 defendants including Eli Lilly and CVS this week.

The city says it's the first lawsuit of its kind in the country.

The defendants say it's meritless.

Glenn, what's the city alleging exactly?

- Yeah, what's interesting about this, they're bringing up the RICO Act.

They're talking, and that stands for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, but we've seen that come up a lot in these corruption or conspiracy cases or whatever.

They're alleging civil conspiracy, unjust enrichment.

They wanna recover compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorney fees.

They say diabetic medications are among the highest costs under the city's prescription benefit plan.

Now, you mentioned CVS.

CVS came out and say, pharmaceutical companies alone are responsible for this.

Us, you know, retail pharmacies, we don't have anything to do with this.

In fact, their spokesman said, "There's nothing in our agreements that prevent drug manufacturers from lowering the prices of these insulin products."

So that is the statement from CVS.

- Taylor, let me ask you, though.

Lilly says, "Hey, the lawsuit ignores the fact you can purchase monthly prescriptions of Lilly insulin for $35 or less whether you're insured or use commercial insurance or uninsured."

They're basically saying, hey, it's in line right now.

And the lawyers on the other side of this, on the city side are saying, "Yeah, there's some historical money we need to recoup."

- Yeah, yeah.

I mean, if you just look at, you know, the price of insulin has increased substantially in recent years.

You know, 1,000%, you know, increase, and the city's just not buying, you know, the argument that, you know, that it's fair for these pharmaceutical companies to set these prices that really could cause substantial, you know, funding issues for the city just to pay these plans and let alone, you know, people who need the medications who can't afford it.

It's gonna be interesting to see how this plays out, especially as it's, we're the first city in the country to pursue this kind of legal action.

- Interesting that the lawyers for the city, too, have experience with insulin dependency, one of whom is an insulin-dependent diabetic, the other of whom is the parent of one.

So when they're being told these things from the defendants, they're saying, "Listen, we kinda know how this works."

So it'll be interesting to see how that continues to play out legally.

(dramatic music) Monday on "The Sound of Ideas" on WKSU, we'll discuss how electric vehicle technology can benefit Northeast Ohio's economy.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for watching and stay safe.

(bright instrumental music) (warm electronic music)