Summa health, the largest employer in Summit County, will be acquired by a venture capital firm.

Residents are worried to.

Ohio lawmakers say maybe the state should pay students to come to school.

And the Federal Highway Administration apparently has no sense of humor, telling the Ohio Department of Transportation to tone down its humorous electronic highway signs.

Ideas is next.

Hello and welcome to Ideas.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for joining us.

After largely disappearing for the last two winters, snow and cold returned this week as the temperatures plunged and the flakes fell.

The conditions put focus on Ohio's rising number of homeless people.

Summa health, the largest employer in Summit County, will be acquired by a venture capital firm.

How will that impact employees and patients?

Electronic signs on the highway are good for a chuckle once in a while.

Camp in Ohio State parks not the left lane, for example.

But the feds just don't get it.

And should Ohio Pay Kids to go to school?

A bipartisan bill in Columbus would pay cash for class.

Joining me for this week's roundtable in studio, Sam Allard, a reporter with Axios Cleveland.

Joining me remotely ideastream, public media associate producer for Newscast Josh Boose, and in Columbus, Statehouse News Bureau chief Karen Kasler.

Let's get ready to roundtable.

The subfreezing temperatures and snow this week puts the focus on homeless people whose numbers have been rising in Ohio since 2017.

It's estimated that nearly ten out of every 10,000 Ohioans experienced homelessness in January of last year, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as reported by Axios.

And check out ideastream talk today for a story by Abbie Marshall, who is on the streets talking to people who are living in tents.

They describe rough conditions and temporary shelters, something county executive Chris Ronayne called unacceptable in that story.

Sam, a number of factors are driving the increase in people being unhoused and the end of the pandemic help is one of them.

That's right.

Yeah, that's that's sort of one half of the picture.

The expiration of pandemic assistance and the fact that people just aren't getting paid enough.

Coupled with the fact that housing is just expensive.

As inflation rises, what always rises alongside it is rent.

And one thing that often doesn't is your pay.

And so 60 plus percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.

And in that situation, you're one unexpected expense away from eviction.

So more and more people across the country, not just in Cleveland, are out on the streets and living in shelters.

And we're definitely seeing an increase in rents in northeast Ohio.

Absolutely.

Josh?

Abbie Marshall, as I mentioned, reported on this situation in a story today that we heard on Morning Edition.

We'll hear it again on all Things Considered.

You can check it out right now at ideastream dot org.

The system right now in Cleveland is being stretched to its capacity.

Yeah, we're talking about 250 chronically unhoused people in Cleveland.

The shelters are not only full, but as Abbie reports, people are living in tents around downtown Cleveland and weather like this.

Even now, the city in Cuyahoga County is very aware of this problem.

$2.5 billion was added to the budget to combat homelessness.

They want to decrease it by 25% in the next three years.

So people are aware.

It's not an easy thing to fix, though, with so many different components.

In the city of Cleveland, Mayor Bibb recently hired a senior advisor focused on homelessness.

So people are paying attention to this.

The question is, what is the solution?

We've been talking about this issue for years.

And by the way, it's not just a Cleveland problem, it's an all over problem.

But I'm sure Akron, Canton, all of those areas struggling with the same issues.

One of the solutions is permanent supportive housing, a place where people can live more long term.

Not that not like the shelters, but a place that can be their place.

It's difficult to find those things.

Often you have communities that don't want them.

Shelters are one part of the equation.

One of the ideas of the long discussed development in Lorain that received approval from council this week, but it was far from a sure thing.

Josh The project called Broadway Commons would be for adults who are homeless, including a number of veterans, a certain set aside for veterans there.

But there was a lot of disagreement, a very close vote by council on moving forward with that.

Right.

I mean, this is going to be for people who experience chronic homelessness, there's going to be a lease signed by the people east.

Each person will be screened as well.

But Lorain City Council approved it 6 to 5.

So very close.

A lot of residents do not want it.

A lot of businesses don't want it.

One in particular, Cigna's market, is going to celebrate 100 years at their location this year.

If you're unfamiliar with what that is, that's a a mainstay in downtown Lorain.

And Cigna's was concerned about past panhandling and problems that council members say, look, we do not want beginners to move.

That would be a huge problem.

So a lot of animosity, a lot of concern about this going up.

We had a discussion with the Chronicle Telegram's Clarissa Whittaker Glenn had a discussion with her, and you can find that on our website as well to learn more about that project.

And as I mentioned, Cuyahoga County executive Chris Rene, who said that the shelter situation being full and those in inadequate, he called those on unacceptable.

Sam, he says he wants to reduce homelessness by 25% in the next three years.

It's pretty ambitious.

It is, especially given the situation on the ground.

I remember in November, Chris Westrick, the director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, said that the waiting list at the family shelter system was 47 families long and on the verge of collapse.

So it might take a little bit more than $2.5 million, to be frank.

Summa Health, the largest employer in Summit County, announced Wednesday it'll be acquired by the venture capital firm Health Assurance Transformation Corporation, or Hat Co.

The transaction, which could be completed by the end of the year, would change summa health from a nonprofit to a for profit hospital system.

And it's got a lot of people nervous.

Josh I think there's worry about a for profit company possibly putting profits before patients, but there's also the thought that this could bring a needed infusion of cash.

Yeah, and I think that's the you know, it's valid.

ATCO is a startup.

There's very little knowledge about this company, about the company's priorities, its values.

Since they are for profit, they're not going to be required to provide certain services for communities in need.

So, yeah, a lot of people are saying, wait just a second here.

How is this going to impact the community or at least an aspect of the community that really does need it?

We had a couple of emails prior to this show saying, I hope you're going to talk about this and the impact it'll have, because this is certainly a story that's resonating in Summit County and really we won't know until it happens exactly what the impact will be.

But certainly a lot of people are worried about it.

The Harvard Business School study, the impact of acquisitions like this found that there are some real upsides.

There are downsides.

DO Yeah.

Benefits, like you mentioned, make new capital possible upgrades changes to their infrastructure because they're going to have more money.

But increased costs for patients is something that the Harvard Business School mentioned, reduced hospital staffing as well as cutting services that would benefit those low income populations or communities of color.

There was also a study that I looked at by OSU for profit hospitals were more likely than nonprofits to be in communities with greater economic and health needs, so they had lower rates of health insurance in a lot of these communities.

They had more employment in a lot of these communities.

And poor health outcomes are health outcomes.

So it's going to be challenging to see how the community reacts to this and just who will be helped.

And when you when you think about it, if if it's a business and it's meant to make profit, how will that help people that have difficulty paying?

Yeah, that's going to be the big question here.

I mean, it's, you know, some money from the transactions are going to go to this from the transaction of the sale, I should say, are going to go to this community foundation.

It's going to be created, but it's very vague.

I mean, the foundation says it's going to increase focused investment in the social detriments of health, determined entities.

Yeah, that benefits the greater Akron area.

So very, very vague.

How is this going to benefit the community?

And, you know, a lot of people don't know our concert.

Sam, just.

A quick note here.

Mike CATCo, the company you mentioned, is a subsidiary of the venture capital firm General Catalyst.

And it just emerged it's not like it has a track record or anything.

And as we know about venture capital firms, their priorities tend to be profits, not patients.

And just anecdotally, I posted the story on my Twitter account and without exception, every response from residents in Akron was concern, skepticism, fear.

No one was excited about this.

It assuming these were people in Akron, were representing themselves directly.

Yeah.

And that tracks with the feedback we got prior to the show.

People are very unsettled by it, nervous about it, worried about it.

And many have already said they don't think it's going to work very well.

CATCo is one of their biggest things is technology.

They believe that with technology they can achieve cost savings and deliver better care.

We'll see.

One also, by the way, it's not the largest employer in Summit County yet.

It's some help.

Okay.

Summa health is the largest employer there.

So the question is, you know, with technology, what does that do to employment as well?

So it's not just patients, it's the health care system itself and the employees that work there.

We'll keep an eye on that, certainly as our reporters continue to cover Northeast Ohio and covers human health.

Congressman Bill Johnson will resign from his seat representing Ohio's sixth District on Sunday and he'll take the reins of Youngstown State University as president on Monday.

Students plan a walkout in protest.

Karen Summit.

Why?

As you including a former president of the school less Cochrane want Governor DeWine to step in to rescind the hiring and remove most of the trustees.

DeWine says he's doing neither.

Yeah, he talked to The Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com about that, saying that Youngstown State trustees were the ones who made this decision and he doesn't have any inclination to override their judgment.

Obviously, the feedback that they've gotten, the very negative feedback, the very public and outspoken feedback they've gotten on this as pushing a lot of people to wonder what can be done.

And I think when you look at this DeWine interview, you think that he wants this to be over, that when Johnson takes office, that should be the end of it.

But obviously there's a walkout planned and the people who are upset about this are truly upset.

They point out that Johnson doesn't have any experience as a college administrator.

He actually supported Donald Trump and the whole Stop the Steal 2020 election being stolen.

All of those all of those lies.

And so there's some real concern here about what kind of an administrator he's going to be.

Not to mention, he has had a voting record that is anti LGBTQ plus.

And the actor Ed O'Neill said he wants his name removed.

He's returning his diploma from Youngstown State University.

And he said, just imagine if you were an LGBTQ student or faculty member and this was the person coming in as president.

He said he was embarrassed about it.

Yeah, I think that's a concern here.

And especially when you are in a time here.

We've got things like Senate Bill 83, which is the bill that would seek to make some major changes to higher education in terms of banning most diversity equity and inclusion programs and guaranteeing what the bill calls intellectual diversity on certain topics, specifically marriage and electoral policies and immigration and things like that.

There's a real concern about this kind of very targeted agenda coming in to a college or university.

Karen The many people point out the fact that it has no experience, but Mike DeWine said, well, hey, what about the previous president, Jim Tressel?

I think people knew Jim Tressel in a different way.

I mean, as the former coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes who led the Ohio State Buckeyes to a national championship football, that is just to be clear, I think he had a reputation of that was much different.

I mean, yes, Tressel had left Ohio State because of a scandal involving tattoos and memorabilia and all that, which, by the way, I think when you look at what's going on and say the University of Michigan, it kind of seems not comparable here.

But I think Tressel, he had roots in northeast Ohio.

He, I think, had a different reputation coming in than Bill Johnson does.

And Ohio lawmakers are considering paying students to go to school as truancy rates are sky high.

Karen, one of the sponsor of the bill, State Representative Danny Isaacson, a Democrat from Cincinnati, points at the pandemic as a factor in raising absenteeism, interest and truancy.

Yeah, Danny Isaacson told a committee that heard this bill this week that it was 15% attendance.

Kids who missed school before pandemic.

Chronic absenteeism to 31% in the most recent school year.

And you can see those numbers in the state's report cards.

And there's a real concern about people, kids who are chronically absent from school, not kids who miss a couple of days here and there, but chronically absent because they're missing opportunities for learning.

They there's been a lot of learning loss since the pandemic that has not been really recovered yet.

And so that affects the kid, that affects the teacher, that affects the school.

It affects all of these things.

And so getting kids into school on a regular basis and getting them to graduation.

That's the whole point of this pilot program.

And it is bipartisan, which I think is interesting to note.

Danny Isaacson, a Democrat partnering with the Republican bill Seitz.

It was a longtime member of the Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio Senate.

These two people probably don't agree on anything other than potentially this.

It's interesting because some people might sit there and go, what I simply would say, are you kidding?

You're paying students to go to school?

Bill Seitz says, listen, we've done all kinds of incentive programs.

They just haven't worked.

So how about cold, hard cash?

Yeah, I mean, and certainly working.

Yes he is is phrase was you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, you know and that's what he says they're trying to do.

They're trying to move this forward with some real concrete thing beyond just pizza day or playground activities or whatever.

Now, one of the questions that was raised in the committee by Josh Williams, who's a Republican from Toledo, said, why are we going to pay kids to follow the law?

Because the law says they have to be in school.

And then his quote was, quote, I mean, are we going to get to the point where we are paying rapists not to rape?

Which was a really stunning thing to say here, especially when we're talking about trying to incentivize kids to do something that will help them in the long run.

It's really kind of kind of a shocking thing for him to have said, I think.

Sam the simple reply to this might be kind of the back in my day reply would be schools compulsory.

You've got to go.

How?

How can we pay students to go to school?

But what we're talking about is a huge problem and trying to find a way.

Maybe this isn't it, maybe it is, but a way to solve that problem.

Yeah, I actually didn't realize the number was that high.

30 plus percent chronically absent is a crisis.

And I mean, I applaud innovative thinking here.

You got to got to find some way to get kids back in school because that's that's going to we're going to see real ramifications down the line.

And Karen, speaking of ramifications down the line, they're saying this will save money in the long run.

Yeah, I was just going to note that there's about one and a half million dollars that's been set aside for this initial pilot project.

And again, there's two prongs of it to combat chronic absenteeism, but also to get those graduation rates up.

But the point is that if you get kids to graduation and get them out of school, they've they've completed their education.

They're likely to do better and they're likely to less to need less from the state in terms of social services funding.

And certainly there's a connection between a lack of education and the criminal justice system.

I mean, these are things that both the Republican and Democrat involved in this bill have said are potentially things that could be improved if we keep these kids in school.

And you got to find a way to do that.

For kids who want instant gratification, they don't want to wait that they can't see the finish line at 18 or whatever.

They see the monthly incentive that they might get from this program potentially.

So I think that's that's the real background of this.

And Clevelanders say the city's parks and recreation centers are poorly maintained, and that's why they avoid using them.

The finding is part of a survey ordered up by the city administration and conducted last summer as the city developed a master plan to address the issues.

Basically, if you ask people why they don't frequent a place and they say it's because the place is kind of a dump, well, that's telling.

Sure is.

Yes.

You're referring to the master plan, 15 year master plan for Parks and Rec, first in the city's history.

There's a Philly based landscape firm called Olin Studios.

They're presenting the results of this survey on Monday, the Cleveland City Council that will inform their long range plan and their strategic plan, sort of the three phases of this this procedure, which will determine the sources of funding.

But it's pretty basic, though, if you have a rec center and it's not well-maintained, people notice that.

Yeah, right.

I mean, this all goes back to funding, though.

I mean, there's just not enough money to to upkeep these.

You'll notice that people had a lot better stance on the city's parks than the rec centers.

Only 23% of people said their local rec center was in excellent or good condition.

And a new housing development in Cleveland's Glenville neighborhood will incorporate a tragic event in the city's civil rights history.

The Cleveland Planning Commission has made memorializing the 1964 death of civil rights activist Reverend Bruce W Klunder a requirement for the development's approval.

Sam Klunder was a founding member of CORE, the Congress for Racial Equity Desegregation of schools with a very contentious issue.

That's right.

This was in 1964.

And thanks by the way, for including this story today.

This is this is a story that I encountered as a young reporter for seen reading Daniel Kerr's derelict paradise.

Absolutely.

In many other places in Cleveland, civil rights history.

27 year old guy.

He's a minister from Oregon and as you say, co-founder of Congress for Racial Equity, which was established in the early sixties to fight school segregation.

And you have to remember, this was this was two years before the Hough riots, three years before the election of Carl Stokes.

Racial tension and animus was extreme in Cleveland at that time.

Police brutality off the charts.

The east side of Cleveland was overpopulated.

Extremely dense.

A powder keg atmosphere.

And the schools on the east side, overwhelmingly black, were overcrowded.

The West Side, white schools where there's plenty of vacant space.

So they were bussing black students to the west side.

Now, to appease the angry white parents, they the school district said we'll build more black schools on the east side.

And Core was founded to protest that that development.

Klunder, along with a few others, went to that.

This is the site of Stephen E Howe Elementary School in Glenville.

A few of them lay down in front of the bulldozer.

Klunder laid down behind it, and the driver of the bulldozer was unaware, backed up, killing him instantly.

So tragic.

Yeah.

Real tragic situation.

3000 people came out to to the vigil the next day.

It became kind of a rallying cry moment in Cleveland.

Civil rights story in the sixties prefigured the Huff riots in many ways.

The Stephen E Howe Elementary School was built even after that.

It was indeed, although it was firebombed in the Huff riots.

And it stayed as a school and a building there.

And it was torn down a little more than ten years ago.

That's right.

It's been vacant parcels there for a decade.

And so in this development, any idea how there might be some way to pay tribute to Bruce Klunder?

Well, in the first place, they'll have a what sounds like a Ohio historical marker.

You've seen the plaques kind of around the city, a kind of standard historical marker, although I believe they mention this at the Planning Commission meeting, there has there was a tree planted to honor him and they'd like to incorporate that as well, either include the plaque nearby or have some sort of inclusion in the local civil rights trail, incorporated it into pedestrian walkways and so forth.

Governor Mike DeWine urged lawmakers this week to take action to prevent miners from accessing intoxicating hemp known as Delta eight, that's readily sold in gas stations and retail stores.

Karen Governor DeWine urged lawmakers this week to take action to prevent miners from accessing intoxicating hemp known as Delta eight.

It's readily sold in gas stations, retail stores.

You need no medical marijuana card for it.

This idea from DeWine comes after Ohio's new recreational marijuana law took effect, allowing people 21 and older to purchase cannabis.

They're still working on the rules for that.

But Delta eight, THC, some people call it diet weed.

Yeah.

And DeWine, this is the second time he's spoken out about Delta eight in this month.

So he's very concerned about this.

And in fact, his public safety director, Andy Wilson, enlisted 215 year olds to go out and buy Delta eight wherever they could, gas stations, wherever they could find it.

And they brought it back.

And DeWine featured these products at his press conference.

And there are certainly some questions about the flavors that are involved and whether these gummies that look like candy are being marketed toward kids.

And so that's what DeWine DeWine whenever he talks about cracking down on things like this and flavor tobacco and everything, it's always about the concern for children.

And so he's asking state lawmakers to do something about this right now.

He says as governor, he can't do anything, that local police can't do anything because it's legal.

And so if lawmakers want to see this change, they need to pass legislation.

There is a standalone bill that would do some of this, not an outright ban in Ohio, but certainly set some limits.

But also, DeWine wants to see some limits on the medical marijuana, the recreational marijuana law that was passed.

The Senate has passed some rules that would allow recreational marijuana to be sold at medical dispensaries that exist already.

And DeWine points out that, yeah, marijuana is legal in Ohio, but it's not legal to buy it anywhere.

And there are some real questions about what's going to happen with all of this structure.

I mean, that's been the concern all along.

But Delta eight is is legal to buy pretty much anywhere.

I got a call from a father in Ohio, a city of young adults and teenagers said he's very concerned about Delta.

Want more details on it?

And the fact is, the FDA warned in 2022 about growing, concerned about medical problems.

Some users have reported in the production of of Delta eight THC there could be harmful chemicals used.

No one knows what's in this stuff because it's not approved by the FDA.

So there is a lot of there are a lot of people, including DeWine, concerned about what's in these products when it comes to legal marijuana.

You would think those things obviously would be regulated.

You'd know what's in that product, but you don't know what's in this one.

Right.

And the regulation issue is a real concern here because there are rules in the recreational marijuana laws and everything that's being surrounding that that would put some regulation on it.

And Delta eight just right now isn't.

Now, of course, there are retailers who sell it who say a crackdown would kill their businesses, which we've heard before with regard to flavored tobacco and vapes and all this stuff.

So the question is whether legislators are going to act and the Senate is supposed to come back next week.

Their only obligation right now that I can see is the overriding of the veto that DeWine had on the bill that would ban gender transition treatment for minors and trans youth from girl sports.

But nothing else on the medical marijuana rules, which now sit in the house.

I get a chuckle when I see Programable electric signs on the highway with funny messages like visiting in-laws Slow down, get there late.

But the Federal Highway Administration just doesn't get it and wants to humor tone down.

Sam they said it's you're too funny, it's too glib.

There's local references.

People might not get it.

And so be careful on on being so funny, fellas.

Too bad.

I mean, you know, if if we got to get people to stop texting and driving, maybe giving them some entertainment in the highway signs is one way to do it.

But Karen, their their problem was if it's a local reference, you might not get it.

Or if it's a movie you haven't seen, you might not get it.

By the way, isn't that all humor?

Yeah.

And I mean, when I talked to Matt Bruning at ODOT about this and he mentioned that there was a sign put up, Life is for Jill, Drive Slow.

And of course we all know that as a reference to a Christmas story, but some people might not.

So the FHA is saying you need to be careful, be mindful of how humor and wordplay is being used.

And not everybody gets your joke.

So I did a piece for NPR about that.

You can find it on their website.

Here's a way the buzzkill feds issued a recommendation to ODOT.

This is what they said.

They said, Stop the playing, displaying messages with, quote, obscure meaning references to popular culture that are intended to be humorous or otherwise use nonstandard syntax for a traffic control device.

What?

That's the federal government.

Come on, let's have you got to learn how to read bureaucratic.

You must not invite any of them to.

Hilarity is what this is what?

I don't get it.

Monday on the sound of ideas on 80 97w ksu.

We've gotten a lot of requests, so we'll bring you an encore presentation of our annual show on the best book to read on the New Year.

The Sound of Ideas team will spend the day in a retreat discussing ways to make the show even more relevant to your life.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for watching.

And stay safe.