Welcome to the Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable from Ideastream Publi I'm Stephanie Haney in for Mike McIntyre.

Thanks for being with us.

Despite interruptions from protesters, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District Board of Education approved the cuts we've known were coming.

We have the details on the laying off of hundreds of teachers and administrators as part of CMSDs downsizing pla Statewide ban on the sale of products that contain intoxicating hemp outside of licensed dispensaries like THC beverages no longer being able to be sold in bars, for example, is being challenged in court.

Just yesterday, challengers got a win in a Columbus court following a victory in Sandusky last week.

We'll explain what these rulings might mean for the rest of Ohio.

Doctors and nurses at MetroHealth are pushing to unionize.

Why?

Partly because they want more time with patients.

We've got more on what they're organizing for.

Conversations surrounding a data center plan in Perry Township prompted the developer to hold an open house this week in a high school gym in Stark County, where residents came with questions and concerns about the project.

Idea stream was there.

We'll tell you what we learned, and the number of diseases related to tick bites in Ohio is skyrocketing, potentially including one disease that causes a deadly reaction to red meat.

Experts say the weather has a lot to do with it.

We'll share why.

Joining us on the Roundtable this week, we have in studio from Ideastream Public Media Deputy Editor of News Andrew Meyer.

Andrew, welcome.

Thank you.

Good to be here.

Also, with us we have environmen reporter Zaria Johnson, Zaria.

Thanks for being here.

Happy to be here.

And calling in on video from Columbus.

We have Statehouse News Bureau Chief Karen Kasler.

Hi, Karen.

Hey.

Good morning.

Now, we don't take calls on the Roundtable, but you can weigh in on any topic by sending an email to soi@ideas Now let's get this conversation started.

On Tuesday, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District Board of Education approved cutting more than 300 teachers, administrators and other personnel.

At the meeting, the approval process was interrupted by chanting, boos and protests from students and families upset over the cuts.

The district will also close 29 buildings.

The reason for all of this downsizing is the district is looking to save $150 million over the next three years.

Other large districts in the state are facing similar situations.

Now, Andrew, the CMSD CEO Warren Morgan, has projected cutting 410 more positions.

That's total.

Does that mean more teacher layoffs?

In a word, yes.

What was announced this week and voted on by the Board of Education were the layoffs that have to be enacted.

Now, a lot of those driven by 30-day notices that need to be given to teachers as part of their contracts.

So, this is basically a first bi wave of layoffs.

But Warren Morgan, the CEO of CMSD, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, for Mike McIntyre, who's out there listening somewhere, is that there's going to be more coming, significantly more potentially.

Do we have any idea on the timing of that?

We don't, probably it's going to be at the end of the school year when we'll hear more about it.

There's still a lot more to be done when it comes to administrators.

What was announced this week were educators that was the lion's share of it, about 270, 280, some odd and other 30 or so admins who are based in schools.

What's still to be dealt with are additional administrators, both in the schools and in the central office, and the potential for more educators leading up to this?

Andrew, the district has been criticized for its spending.

Why is that spending?

A number of reasons.

One is that, there were concerns over raises that were given recently in the front office.

There's questions about just what the money is that they have.

That's under state funding.

They're supposed to be getting money, money from the state on a certain, schedule, and they're still getting increases, but they're not the increases that they needed to keep up with rising expenses.

So that's been a bone of contention.

So that probably plays into this next question is why does the CMSD even need to save $150 million?

Well, they don't have the students they once did, and it's been a rolling issue for quite some time.

For decades now, as they've seen student enrollment drop and drop and drop over a few decades.

Where we are now in district enrollment is the mid 30 thousands.

And if you go back 20 years, it was double that.

You go back even further in history.

It was double that again.

So serious contractions.

And with that, they need to contract the, the footprint really of Cleveland Metropolitan schools, it's not just declining enrollment that they're having, to deal with now, but you don't have the students.

You don't need all the buildings.

So, a lot of these reductions are also driven by the fact that they're going to be closing nearly 30 school buildings starting with the fall.

We can't talk about needing to cut money without talking about school funding in general.

So, Karen, I want to ask you about the school funding situation here in Ohio.

There's been some changes to it, including vouchers.

So how is that impacting what's happening here?

Well, school funding was established in the budget that was signed in July.

And you've got K through 12 education, $13.75 billion in the first year, 14, a little over $14 billion in the second.

That also includes about $2.5 billion for vouchers.

And by the way, the Ohio Lottery, which people often talk about as benefiting education, is only about 3.4 million, $1 billion of that.

So, the Ohio Lottery doesn't come close to funding education fully.

Now, state lawmakers have enacted what they say is $2 billion in property tax relief over the next three years.

That includes a tax credit for people who live in the homes they own.

Also capping the growth of inside millage, that's the first ten mills property tax that can grow without voter approval.

Also changing the formula by which guaranteed the school district's guaranteed minimum tax rate is calculated.

I know this gets really complicated, but school funding is really complicated.

And also allowing county budget commissions to reduce the millage of property taxes that have already been approved by voters.

So, it remains to be seen whether taxpayers homeowners will say if that's enough or that they want to see more property tax relief or even the abolishment of property taxes, which is that's an amendment that's, still gathering signatures to get before voters.

And you're right, Karen, it is very complicated.

If you want to see something visually that breaks it down really well.

Conor Morris here at Idea Stream Public Media has done excellent reporting on all of this ins and outs.

So, you can read it and see those numbers.

Excellent summary there from Karen.

Now Andrew, this isn't something that's existing in a vacuum.

What's happening in Cleveland is happening in other places.

Tell us about that.

And a lot of it is driven by what Karen was just talking about, especially with the Fair Funding Formula.

So other districts are dealing with similar constraints.

Canton.

Akron.

Lorain.

In the case of Lorain, they've announced that they're going to be looking at nearly 170 layoffs for the coming school year.

Canton is having to take similar measures in terms of drastic cost cutting.

Even in Akron, there's been discussion of layoffs there.

Nothing yet.

But, the board is back and forth on what they're exactly going to need to do.

Well, I'm glad that you mentioned the Akron school board there, because there's not necessarily alignment between the school board and the superintendent in that particular place right now.

Can you tell us any more about that?

Well, the board had voted earlier this week.

On Monday, they voted 5 to 2 against cutting 17 positions, saying, basically telling the superintendent to come back to them with more ideas, more plans.

At this point, they're not convinced yet that the reduction in a range of educators is absolutely necessary.

And whether or not those cost savings that the district needs can be accomplished by other means.

All right, let's stick with schools for a moment.

The state has launched a new dashboard to track attendance in public schools.

The governor says this will help the state address its chronic absenteeism issue.

And, Karen, I want to talk to you about this.

How big of a deal is the attendance issue in Ohio schools?

Why is this happening?

Well, when you talk to education officials and Gov.

DeWine, he says it's huge.

About 1 in 4 students across the state are chronically absent.

Now, that is an average, because in some districts, it's even worse.

I believe in Lorain, it's about 59% of students are chronically absent.

And that's that.

That's a calculated number.

That's not just a term.

There's actually a number of classes, classes and days that kids miss to be calculated as chronically absent.

And in education, officials will say if kids aren't in school, they can't learn.

And so, the whole point of schoo is to get kids to class so that they can learn the things that they need to learn.

And, so this is something that DeWine talked about in his State of the State speech, and it allows people, taxpayers, parents, whoever wants to, to look up school districts at this tracker, which is at attendance.ohio.gov and see where their school how what their school's attendance is like and about 24% of school districts across the state are not participating in this dashboard yet.

And some of that relates to technical issues, because their data systems don't talk to the state's data systems, because the Department of Education and Workforce is running this whole thing.

But the whole goal is to have everybody online, everybody at some point can go on and look and see where their school district lands in terms of attendance.

When we talk about chronic absenteeism, I remember it's been a while since I've been in school, but when I was in school, you were allowed to miss seven days per grading period.

So, I know we may not know the exact number, but, Karen, I assume chronic absenteeism is more than that.

Any idea how much more than that?

Yeah, it's a couple of days, I think DeWine said that a student missed, like, just a couple of days a month and be considered chronically absent.

And obviously, there are circumstances where chronic absenteeism can be legitimate, you know, illness and things like that.

But it's the repeated chronic absenteeism and the trends that education officials say they're looking for, because one of the things they're hoping that this tracker will do will allow school districts to figure out that they have a chronic absenteeism problem and try to solve it, try to talk to these students and find out what needs to be done to make sure that they're getting to school.

Is it transportation issues?

Is it something else that's happening at home?

You know what's causing these kids to miss so much school?

And that's really the hope is not just to have parents hold districts accountable, because, sure, that's part of it, but also for school districts to look at their numbers and say, what can we do to improve this?

And for the opportunity for these school districts to look at these numbers and kind of be able to, I guess, organize this data in a way, apparently they haven't been able to organize it before.

You need people to participate.

So can you tell us how many districts are participating and how long has the dashboard been up and running?

Well, the dashboard was just launched, and again, about 24% of school districts are not participating.

And that does include some of the bigger ones like Columbus and Cleveland.

And those are districts that have a more extreme chronic absenteeism problem than the 25% rate.

Those are in the 50% range.

And so, you know, getting those districts online will certainly change the overall numbers.

You know, Ohio has about 611 school districts, so 24% are participating.

I, I, I was told that there wouldn't be math in this job, so I have no idea.

But, that's where we are right now.

And again, there's some technical issues that are preventing some school districts from joining in.

But what's interesting about this data is that it is real time.

And typically these were numbers that people would only get on the annual report cards.

And now they can look at these numbers in real time or at least weekly, and see what's happening in their district, rather than waiting until September or October when the annual report cards come out.

And, Karen, you mentioned some of the things that this dashboard is able to reveal is maybe what the reasons are behind.

Are there particular districts that have benefited from this information in order to figure out what is causing the chronic absenteeism?

Yeah.

And DeWine called out a couple of districts in the press conference where he announced that this was being unveiled.

For instance, East Cleveland, he said, is improved their attendance rate.

And he's hoping that school districts will be able to use this data to improve their attendance rate to lower that rate of chronic absenteeism.

So, kids are in school more, when we think about this, too.

And then it makes me wonder what will be available in order to address those needs.

Like if transportation is an issue that's a whole other piece that has to come into the puzzle when it comes to getting kids to school.

Now, Karen, Ohio has public and private schools and provides vouchers for both.

Are both public and private Schools part of the dashboard right now?

DeWine says that these are only public schools that are in this dashboard, and he was specifically asked if private schools will be included at some point.

And he said, that depends on how this goes.

And they'll talk to the private schools and find out what they want to do.

But right now, the goal is to get all public schools online.

And we do have some information.

Our producer, Aya, shared the information with me about what the number is for chronic absenteeism.

It's missing 10% of the current school year or more.

Just so we have that reference point.

All right, Karen, we're going to stick with you on this one.

We have another, topic to talk about.

Now, yesterday there was a legal win for smoke shop owners challenging a new statewide ban on the sale of most hemp products outside of licensed dispensaries.

This is including THC drinks that could previously be sold at breweries and grocery stores.

Now, the changes were both part of Senate Bill 56, and regarding the THC drinks resulted from a line item veto in the bill by Gov.

Mike DeWine.

The resulting final legislation went into effect last month.

So, Karen, there was a ruling in Franklin County limited to two shops that's being watched.

Why is that being watched?

Well, this is part of the effort by these retailers to stop Senate Bill 56, which, like you just said, bans the sale of THC beverages and basically bans intoxicating hemp, which is Delta-8.

It was, according to state officials, unregulated.

You can buy it at gas stations and convenience stores.

And that was really concerning, especially to governor Mike DeWine.

He had signed an executive order to stop the sale of these things.

And then finally, this went through, along with some changes to the existing recreational marijuana law.

And so districts or school.

I'm sorry, I'm still back on schools here.

Businesses had tried to stop Senate Bill 56 through a repeal effort.

They wanted to gather signatures to take it to voters that failed.

And now they're trying some lawsuits here.

And those really were filed in many cases before the law took effect on March 20th.

And this is the latest one.

There was one in Sandusky County as well.

That that really kind of helps these businesses keep their product lines going and keep selling what they were selling, saying.

They've said it's unfair that this law was passed and basically wiped out what they were, what they were doing in their business.

But again, like you said, this only affects two businesses.

Happy Harvest and Get Wright.

That's Wright Lounge and those are in Franklin County.

Karen is there any potential that these rulings could be expanded statewide?

Well, when I talked to the head of Ohio's Division of Cannabis Control, Jim Canepa, on our TV show, “The State of Ohio” last week, I asked him about the Sandusky ruling and whether that was going to be expanded statewide, and he said he couldn't talk about it because of pending litigation.

But he said that that's one of the issues that is still being decided in that case, whether that can be expanded to statewide.

And it's interesting because that's one thing that a lot of especially Republican lawmakers have talked about.

They want to see stopped local judges, county judges putting rulings out on state laws that stop those state laws from taking effect.

And you've seen a lot of lawsuits have some success in stopping those laws from taking effect.

I'm thinking specifically of abortion related laws because they've gotten these temporary restraining orders or these injunctions from local judges.

And so, it remains to be seen whether this is going to be one of those that can be expanded statewide.

Karen, we know there's been an effort by breweries to get a grace period for THC beverages reinstated.

Again, that was part of the original Senate bill that was line item vetoed out.

So where does that effort stand?

Well, when you talk about the grace period, it's really kind of the idea that THC beverages are banned at the federal level next year.

And so, a lot of these companies and bars and other places that sell these THC beverages, some of which have become very popular and they're being manufactured across the country, they want to continue to sell those until that federal ban goes into effect.

And there's the hope that their lobbying efforts at the federal level will change that.

So, they're trying to get this change.

But DeWine had vetoed that specific item.

In Senate Bill 56, lawmakers had carved out an exception for those THC beverages.

And DeWine said, nope, this stuff should all be banned.

He vetoed that.

And there's still talk about overriding that veto, but we really haven't seen a specific effort to try to do that yet.

And is the state doing anything?

How is the state proceeding in terms of enforcing this new law, while all these challenges are playing out.

Well, the expectation is that these products are off shelves.

And so, I haven't checked into whether they've sent out, enforcement teams or anything like that.

But the expectation is that these things are not going to be sold in Ohio.

And, you know, when I talked to Canepa for our TV show last week, I, you know, the question of why is this stuff considered so dangerous?

He mentions that in Ohio, marijuana as it is in the recreational aspect, it's grown and manufactured and tested in Ohio.

Whereas intoxicating hemp, including these THC beverages, come from other places and are not tested and so you don't really know what you're getting.

And so that was the the concern about intoxicating hemp, including those THC beverages, is that they're they're just maybe not safe or we don't know what's in them.

All right.

Let's talk about transportation.

Now.

The Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority is looking to save money by reducing service availability by 3%.

In response, members of the public are suggesting putting a levy on the ballot before making cuts to routes.

So, Zaria, tell us about the current challenges and how this proposal plans to offer some financial relief.

Yes.

So by the end of last year, RTA was trying to save a, $11 million in its budget.

And the reason for that is because they had this revenue stabilization fund, essentially, that's money left over from the Covid pandemic that they ended up spending faster than they thought they would.

They attributed that to, rising costs for employee insurance.

But in the end, they are worried about running through that money faster than they thought.

So they're thinking that, these proposed 3% service cuts will save them about $2.5 million each year and just help them sort of spread out the money that they have left at this point.

And for the people who are concerned about public transit, what are they saying?

Yeah.

Connectivity wait times and reliability, those are the major concerns for transit riders and transit advocates here in Cleveland.

They've said that, for a while.

I've been reporting on RTA for a while now, and transit advocates have said that expanding service is what will actually lead to more riders, more, more revenue for RTA and, just a more reliable transit system overall here in Cleveland.

And so they're concerned that by cutting service, it's just going to worsen some issues that they're already experiencing.

And so they're thinking that the answer is a levy.

Why are they thinking a levy is the answer here.

They think that, if the levy were to go through and be it'd be approved that that would, increase our tax revenue without having to cancel service or cut service or reduce service.

And I talked to CEO India Birdsong Terry, when the, service cuts were sort of announced back in December, and she said that it's something that they're looking into or something that they're considering, but if they do pursue it, they want to make sure that it's able to pass.

They don't want to pursue it if they think that it won't go through.

So that's sort of where they are right now with our with the levy.

Okay.

So, if the cuts do happen, what routes will be impacted.

So, this is a little bit weedy.

So, bear with me.

But there's a couple proposals for weekday service cuts.

So that's the Number 78.

Number 78 bus that goes from West 117th to Puritas.

That'll be reduced every 15 minutes to every 30 minutes.

So that'll be coming every 30 minutes instead of every 15.

The same can be said for the Number 86 bus.

And Rocky River to Bagley.

That's going from every 30 minutes to every 60 minutes.

So that's longer wait times between buses.

Weekends.

The bus number 3, Superior will go from every 15 minutes, every 30 minutes longer wait time.

The same for number 10 East 105 to Lakeshore every 15 minutes.

Every 30 minutes.

And that's a big difference.

Yeah.

Every 30 minutes to every 60, 60 minutes.

I'm sure every 15 to 30 is a big difference too.

I know when I leave the house in my car 15 minutes later than I was planning to.

Yeah, it throws off my day.

Yeah, exactly.

That is that is significant.

Okay, so Zaria, the proposal also includes changes to the waterfront line and the B-Line Trolley.

Tell us about that.

Yes.

So, the B-Line Trolley, and the Waterfront Line will be discontinued.

B-Line Trolley will be discontin if this goes through, altogether, the Waterfront Line will only operate for special events.

And there's also the bus Number 19-B to Broadway that goes from Downtown Cleveland to Southgate and Maple Heights.

That's also proposed to be discontinued.

So those buses wouldn't run at all.

If this proposed service reduction goes through.

Okay.

So, the transit riders and the advocates are talking about the levy, the RTA is saying we need to explore this.

So what happens now?

When will these cuts take effect?

Yeah.

So we had well, RTA had public hearings earlier this week, but the public comment on this overall service reduction will be open until April 27th.

So that's about ten days from now.

After that, the final proposed cuts will be presented to the RTA board next month.

RTA will then vote on it, and then whatever they vote to approve will take effect in August.

So, there's a lot of attention on GC, RTA and what it's trying to do and stay in the black, but it's not the only transit agency in Northeast Ohio that's dealing with similar issues.

For instance, in Stark County, SARTA, the agency that handles mass transit there, has a levy on the upcoming May 5th ballot where it's going to be asking for an increase in its contribution from income taxes.

So, other agencies across the state are dealing with similar issues, maybe not as severe as do you see RTA, but the revenue stream is limited to in terms of where they can look to get the support.

That's a great reminder, Andrew, for our audience, the primary elections aren't just for primary contests.

There are a lot of issues on the ballots that will be coming up on May 5th.

So, if you're able to get on out and vote.

All right, now to the medical world, a group of physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants at MetroHealth are moving to unionize.

They say this is over growing workloads and less time with patients.

So, Andrew, tell us, what do the organizers want at MetroHealth?

Well, they're looking to unionize.

So, they have a better saying what's going on there?

They feel like the focus is on seeing patients and cutting down on the time that they have to actually spend the quality time they need to address patients needs, and they want to make sure that they're getting the time they need.

And also having a say in how things are conducted.

And what has Metro Health said about the things that they're saying?

It's a pretty boilerplate statement.

If you take a look at it, said, you know, of course we're concerned about what the staff has to say and we'll listen to what they have to say.

But it was pretty much that was the start and the end of it.

We've seen similar efforts for unionization across Northeast Ohio in the last year.

Can you tell us about some of those?

Well, there was a move, not I can't recall exactly where it is with University Hospitals with staff.

And, they also pushed for unionization.

At this point, to the people who are involved with that were actually fired.

You know, of course, the University Hospitals says it has nothing to do with the fact that they're leading that unionization effort.

But there's that pushback, push and pull there that's going on.

Are we seeing a trend?

I don't know, about 10% of medical staff, I think.

Is the figure a little more than that across the country are unionized at this point.

So, there are concerns about the financials when it comes to what's more important?

Is it about the bottom line or about patient care?

And we do know that there was some success for behavioral health nervous nurses at MetroHealth.

They were able to unionize last year.

That was over safety concerns.

So, what's next for this group of Metro health medical providers?

I guess it's continuing the organization efforts.

Yeah.

And they'll be, holding a rally on April 28th at MetroHealth's main campus as well.

Seems to be the most immediate next step at this point.

We'll watch out for that and continue to follow it.

Now to Stark County, my hometown, the development company behind a planned data center in Perry Township and Stark County, held an open house this week to field questions from residents concerned about the project.

The project will bring a 240- megawatt data center to a 100 acre site in Perry Township.

This is at Faircrest Street SW and Kropf Avenue SW.

This is right around the corner from Petros Lake Park.

If you're familiar with the area.

Zaria you were there and a lot of people had asked who's data center?

This is in Perry Township.

What do we know about that?

Yeah.

So we, there seem to be a little bit of a lack of clarity from residents I spoke with in terms of, like, who's going to own the data center.

The whole point of this open house was for the developer to be able to engage directly with residents and talk to them about, answer questions that they might have or address concerns residents might have.

And this seemed to be the first time that residents had the opportunity to go to the developer directly.

But when I talked to residents that I spoke with, they couldn't really get an answer about who would own the data center or who's coming into the data center, or what the data center would be doing in their community.

So that seems to be a little bit unclear.

And that did contribute to some dissatisfaction I, heard about from residents that attended.

Not all of them, obviously, but a good amount of the ones that I spoke with just weren't satisfied with the format of the open house, with how it how it, how it ran, the answers they were getting and even the lack of seating, in the space was a bit of an issue for some of the older residents who felt like, it wasn't accessible for them if they wanted to sit down and chat for a while.

So, there was a lot of, unanswered questions from ownership to water consumption, water use, noise pollution, all of the things that come with a potential data center project coming to the community.

How many developers responded to some of the not how many.

Excuse me?

How have the developers responded to some of the concerns raised by the residents?

Yeah, I was able to talk to, a developer on the project, Adam Kramer, and he told me that the goal of this project is to be a good neighbor in, Perry Township.

They want to be as, quiet as possible.

They want to abide by all of their permitting with the EPA.

So, they told me when it came to wastewater, they would be cleaner than typical industrial wastewater in the area.

They said that noise wouldn't be any louder than 65dB.

He said that's about as loud as a dishwasher running.

They use backup generators that are cleaner than standard.

That will only run a few hours out of the year and shouldn't contribute as much to air quality concerns that residents are thinking.

He also said that there's studies that show that data centers could, use excess capacity on the grid and maybe decrease out-of-pocket costs for residents at home when it comes to their electric bills.

And he also said that this project will pay the most, taxes than any industry in Stark County.

So, it could bring some tax benefits and economic revenue in that way, too.

So, he emphasized that they want to have a minimal effect on the community, but he said that it does take time to sort of build that trust and to show that that's what could end up happening here.

We have a note from our producer in that there was reporting in the Canton Repository that Stark County officials did confirm that it will be an Amazon facility that's coming to the Perry Township area.

And, Andrew, we're increasingly seeing pushback on these sites, including in Perry in Lake County.

Perry.

Yes.

And what's proposed there is a six building data center campus.

It's in the heart of the community.

Some of the pushback is, hey, we've got this huge nuclear plant here.

We want to make more sense to put it right next to their tap into the power.

It's more aligned with the use there.

But there is significant concern about the data centers in towns and townships and communities and where they are located now.

The other part of it is on the flip side, when it's, you know, sorry, was talking about this as far as tax revenue, one of the ways that, makes it a slightly easier sell, at least as far as government officials are concerned, is something called a Joint Economic Development District.

JEDD.

Get my Mike McIntyre's listening going.

Really, really got JEDD.

The gist of it is you've got surrounding communities, adjacent communities, all in on one district where essentially they all have a piece of the pie, a piece of the benefit from the tax revenue that comes from it makes it a slightly easier sell for, placing, you know, development period, not just data centers, but development in a specific area.

Because when it comes to impacts, those surrounding communities all know that there's going to be some payoff for being part of that.

We talk about push back to these projects.

We're not kidding.

There are significant efforts to this, Karen.

There's an effort to get a statewide ban on certain data centers before voters, and that's just getting into the process of gathering the signatures.

So, the governor doesn't sound like he's a fan of this.

Why?

Well, he we were asking him this week about, this effort to ban data centers, which this is an all volunteer effort, kind of like the abolish the property tax movement, where this group just got the signature, the approval to go get signatures just a couple weeks ago.

They need 413,487 valid signatures by July 1st from half of Ohio's counties, which is a lot.

And, DeWine said that he's just not real thrilled with this because he says that the legislature is where these issues should be taken up.

And when I followed up with him saying, well, there are a lot of these folks who say they've talked to state lawmakers or they're frustrated with the legislature because they're not doing what they're hoping that the legislature would do.

And he said, well, he just doesn't like when these things go to the ballot, because there's nuances that can be found out during the hearing process in the legislature that just aren't covered in ballot issues.

I mean, this one in particular would ban all data centers over 25MW, and that's what it would do.

So, if that becomes a constitutional amendment that makes the law in Ohio without voters changing it, I'm checking my notes here.

That was over 25MW.

This is 240MW for Perry Township, and there were plenty of residents, standing outside collecting signatures for that very petition.

And that was top of mind.

This this data center will be way bigger than what that, proposed amendment is trying to, cap for data centers.

So that's top of mind for Stark County residents, for sure.

And, Karen, you mentioned that DeWine had said leave it to the lawmakers, but people are frustrated.

There might not be any activity happening.

There.

Are the lawmakers saying or doing anything related to looking at data centers and if there should be a ban on them in the state of Ohio.

Well, one particular thing that revolves around data centers is this tax break the data centers get for their construction costs.

And DeWine wants to keep that tax break.

He vetoed that in the budget, the elimination of that tax break.

And lawmakers have talked about overriding that veto.

So that's one thing.

But there's also about seven bills that are out there that would deal with data centers in some way or another, including one that would require that would basically ban data centers.

Limit and new data center construction.

So, there are some pieces of legislation out there, Republican and Democrat sponsored that.

You know, you've got people on both sides of the aisle saying that they're very concerned and they want local people to have more of a say in these huge facilities coming into these areas.

Definitely a story we will continue to be following here at Ideastream Public Media.

Now, there are plenty of stories still on the table to talk about here on the Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable, including the fact that judges are now able to endorse candidates in elections.

More on that in a moment.

We'll take a quick break now to hear from my colleague, Sound of Ideas coordinating producer Drew Maziasz.

He has a preview for us of what's planned for next week on the Monday through Thursday show, including a bigger conversation on something we already touched on here today.

Hi Drew.

Thanks so much, Stephanie.

Here's a look at what we're working on of next week for The Sound of Ideas.

It's Earth Week, so we're focusing on environmental topics Monday: We've seen some severe storms rolling through Northeast Ohio, so we'll learn more about storm preparedness.

Tuesday: We'll talk about animal migrations and the importance of Northeast Ohio's wetlands.

Wednesday: Tree canopies are great and we'll learn how to preserve Northeast Ohio's tree canopy.

And Thursday: Join us for another episode of our Shuffle podcast.

As always, send us your ideas.

Send us your thoughts.

Our email is soi@ideastream.org.

Now back over to you in the studio.

Drew riding his bike around the office.

Perfect way to highlight our environmentally focused shows.

He rides to work every day when the weather cooperates.

Just so everybody knows.

Thank you very much, Drew.

It's a great line-up next week.

As always, I hope you join us for the first part of the week.

And Mike McIntyre will be back here on Friday for the Roundtable.

Speaking of regularly scheduled programing, as he is your regularly scheduled host here on the Reporters Roundtable, we invite you to try our Ideastr News Quiz.

It publishes every Friday and tests your knowledge of stories this week from Idestream Public the Statehouse News Bureau team, and The Ohio Newsroom.

You'll find it on our website at ideastream.org.

If you're just joining us, you're with the Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable.

I'm Stephanie Haney, in this week for Mike McIntyre.

With me in studio, we have Ideas Johnson and Andrew Meyer.

On video from Columbus, we have Statehouse News Bureau Chief Karen Kasler.

You can join the conversation by emailing us at soi@ideatream.

Or you can send us a message on Instagram.

We're at the Sound of Ideas.

Now let's talk about something that is unique to Ohio, the only state in the country now where judges and judicial candidates can now officially explicitly make political endorsements.

This is after the Ohio Supreme Court struck down a long standing rule, finding it, finding that it violated First Amendment free speech rights.

So, Andrew, tell us about the case that prompted this decision.

This is involving, Judge Rudduck.

Yes.

And this is in Clinton County.

And the issue came up when the judge wanted to support his son, who was running for municipal court.

That's evidently a no-no.

Because it's a political endorsement.

And it got kicked to the Supreme Court, which is what, the body that hears issues concerning discipline, violations of ethics, rules by judges in Ohio, ultimately ending up in the Supreme Court here, where it was decided that that ban on political speech is in violation of his free speech rights.

And unconstitutional.

So, at this point, I think the ruling would suggest that now it's open season for judges to make political endorsements, and that's raising some concerns.

And it's a little bit of a slippery slope, because I know it was just a few years ago where we moved in Ohio from judges being nonpartisan on the ballot.

And you now get to see what party they're affiliated with.

And it's raising concerns about, well, are judges really unbiased when they're sitting on the bench.

Or are they bringing their political perspectives to the table when they're ruling?

Certainly, lots of consideration there.

And Ohio is very unique in that, you know, there are a couple other states that do it, but Ohio is, have a limited number of states that has that party affiliation on the ballot for statewide offices.

This particular issue, as you mentioned, it was a primary election.

Primary elections judges have those party affiliations, even if you're not statewide in the state of Ohio.

So did the judge in this case before it even made it to the Ohio Supreme Court.

Did he face any consequences?

Well, there was potential for some sanctions They actually did not happen.

But, more importantly or just as importantly, his son didn't end up winning that election.

So, there's that part of it as well.

Oh, and the judge, we're talking about has since retired after four decades on the bench, nearly four decades.

Something else that was interesting about this is that in the majority opinion, Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy said that it would have been prudent if the judge had not posted on social media.

Yes, but still, she said, yeah, this is unconstitutional, which is, I guess, ironic.

The thing that the one dissenting voice in the ruling, which was Pat Fisher, they said that why are we even talking about this?

That was essentially this.

It wasn't brought up the constitutionality by either side in the argument.

So is it a overreach by the Supreme Court?

Conveniently using it as a case to extend the political, say for judges?

Yeah, it's hard to say.

But, you know, Fisher did make that argument in his dissent.

Lots of questions there.

And we have, since this ruling came down already seeing judges making endorsements here in Ohio.

Now, I had a conversation about this topic earlier this week with retired Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor and former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Michael Donnelly.

This was part of a broader conversation about protecting the rule of law that was on Tuesday in our Law of the Land series on the Sound of Ideas.

And then also later that same day at a panel moderated for the City Club of Cleveland.

So, you can find both of those on the Ideastream Public Media YouTube page.

Now to a different aspect of Ohio's correctional institutions and the whole system we have going on here.

We learned a bit more about the price tag for a new Cuyahoga County Jail in Garfield Heights this week.

The county could spend up to $894 million on the new jail.

This is based on a proposed guaranteed maximum price presented to Cuyahoga County Council this week.

That includes $802 million in construction costs and 92 million in expenses, like permitting and utilities covered by the county.

Any time I hear construction and guaranteed maximum cost, I am immediately skeptical.

Having survived through a renovation myself very recently.

Andrew, do we have a timeline yet for the project in terms of this construction?

Well, essentially it's as soon as possible.

The project manager for the new jail is saying that we got to get the bonds lined up, all the financing.

But once that's in place, it's go time.

And they are really eager to get the shovel in the ground because, as everybody knows, the more you wait, the higher the cost overruns go.

So, at this point, he's actually set a date.

June.

That's what they're that's what they're pushing for.

All right, well, County Council paused issuing bonds on this, though.

This was after a dispute between the executive county judges and the county prosecutor.

But that seems to be worked out.

It seems to be worked out.

And that was quite a pause, because it's been years and years that they've been fighting over this.

The solution was or the, the hinge point was really the fact that we're talking about a new jail in Garfield Heights.

But what about the courts, which are also located in the Justice Center?

The Justice Center is a little old, worn, little threadbare.

It's not the most attractive building from the outside.

It's a Brutalist architecture.

I was I've never been on the inside, never had reason to go on the inside.

But I was talking with Matt Richmond, our criminal justice reporter, yesterday, and said, so tell me a little bit about it.

He said, well, the elevators are rickety.

There's no natural light on the inside.

It needs a lot of TLC.

So, the judge's the prosecutor been arguing, threatening to sue, saying you got to make investments in this if you're not going to give us a new space at least make the investment.

So as part of this agreement, $150 million is going to go towards doing a little fixing up at the Justice Center, at least in the short term.

There's no long-term solution for what might replace the courts, but at least in the short term, it's going to get the attention that the building needs to keep it really a workable space.

All right, a different development story now, one, with a little less certainty, it seems Cleveland City Council members remain skeptical about the Bibb administration's push to close Burke Lakefront Airport and redevelop that prime waterfront real estate.

City council concerns came up on Wednesday at its fourth and potentially final hearing on the administration's plans.

Any decision on the future of Burke is a long way off.

Without quick help to speed up the process from Congress intervening there.

Even so, last month the design drawings were released showing what could go in the space, but those were described as conversation starters and not finalized renderings.

So, a key question here, Andrew, the council has said that they're not really sure whether private money can be the main funding source for this project.

Because it's going to take a heck of a lot of investment.

The Bibb administration's arguing that it's going to be about a $600 million redevelopment.

And I think that's an interesting figure since, you know, there are all these different ideas of what could be there a golf course, a massive athletic complex, maybe housing, who knows what else.

But you know, a lot of ideas there, a lot of money, and private investment.

I think there's a lot of skepticism that's been said outwardly by council saying it's not there's no way you're going to get that much private investment to make it all possible.

I like the quote from Council member Mike Polensek, who said that if he believe that developers are just going to come in and build a park on their own dime, then he also believes in the Easter Bunny.

All right.

Well, Zaria, despite the doubts of council, the mayor and his team say this can be done with private dollars.

Why are they saying that?

Yeah, they're thinking that if they pick low cost but high profit developments to put on the property, like Andrew is mentioning that that would generate enough revenue through tax dollars.

So, like the golf course or the sports center that are I guess, potential proposed ideas at this point could generate as much as $2.5 million in tax revenue, which, they said is more than five times what the airport is making today.

That's significant.

All right.

So sorry.

Cleveland City Council members also question whether any redevelopment will serve residents.

What are they wondering about there?

Yeah.

Council member Charles Slife said that they want to make sure that this is something that residents support can access, can utilize, and that it will benefit the city's budget at the end of the day.

So, they want to make sure that the, the, redevelopment is at least cost neutral, if not an economic win for the city.

We did talk about this in length at our most recent Sound of Ideas Community Tour.

That's something you can find at ideastream.org if you want to he that conversation.

Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb was a part of that conversation.

There were also people who were opposed to it.

One person particularly opposed to it, Northeast Ohio Pilots Association President Ned Parks.

There was a council member there and also the leader of the North Coast Waterfront Development Corporation.

So, you can check that out again Ideastream, for example, you can find that there.

Now, it has been a turbulent weather week across Northeast Ohio with round after round of severe storms.

One storm on Wednesday brought torrential rain and some serious hail.

One of the worst hit areas in Solon.

You're seeing video of that on your screen.

If you're watching us on your TVs or the Ohio Channel or the Ideastream Public Media YouTube page.

Buildings and cars were seriously damaged from golf ball sized hail.

My girlfriend's husband was caught in one of these storms driving back in this mess.

Absolutely.

While that car is going to need a lot of work where either of you, Andrew, Zaria, caught in any of the storms this week?

Fortunately, no.

Yeah.

No, I was inside.

Thankfully, some I love being outdoors, but not in this case.

I'll tell you what, my dog was not enjoying it.

You know we're in Lakewood, but it's like he had sort of a sixth sense of what was going on in Solon.

I was not even aware.

So Andrew, vehicles and roofs suffered a lot of damage, really quite significant.

Concentrated in Solon and Bedford.

The city manager of Bedford, told cleveland.com that he had been speaking with one of the auto dealerships along Bedford's Auto Mile about the after effects and the owner basically told him that said, if a car wasn't in the showroom, it was damaged in some way, and that's thousands of vehicles that were potentially impacted.

As for roofs, I have my own experience.

Not from this one, but I had to have a roofer out a few weeks ago.

I called and they didn't get back to me.

An email, I said, you know, I'd like to get an estimate.

Finally called a week later, he said, you got to understand, it's been a busy year.

We'll get to you when we can.

And this was before this most recent storm.

So, I don't know if there's some good that come, come out of this, but roofers are certainly, staying very busy.

I'll tell you why.

People who fix fences might be busy, too.

A couple weeks ago, my fence completely ripped off the hinges of a wooden post and it took about half that wouldn't post with it.

I was shocked the people who were doing work at my house were not like, all right, well, let's keep the fence closed next time, everybody.

Zaria the weather can be unpredictable in Ohio, but these hailstorms, like the one we saw, pretty rare and big hailstones.

What can you tell us about the actual size?

So as the storm moved, moved east, the hail increased in size.

So, I think in Parma Heights, it was about 1 to 1.25in in diam That's about the size of a golf ball.

But by the time it reached Seven Hills, it was 2-inches in diameter.

The hardest hit areas stretched from Cuyahoga County through Trumbull County.

And like we mentioned, Solon seemed to get the worst of it, according to the National Weather Service.

I'll tell you what.

According to my anecdotal information, it has been whiplash this month, particularly when it comes to the weather.

It's, you know, pouring down rain.

One minute it's freezing cold, another minute it's super hot.

Another minute.

Zaria.

You're an environmental reporter.

So, what are you hearing from experts about severe weather and the changes we're seeing?

Yeah, well, I have to give credit to our intern, Jonathan Beard.

He talked to the National Weather Service a couple weeks ago, and meteorologists said that these severe storms are common for this time of year.

It's typical for spring and summer conditions.

And basically, what we're seeing is a clash of cold air in the atmosphere, mixing with warm air leading to the perfect storm for these severe storms that were experiencing now.

But I've talked to some local officials throughout my time here at Ideastream who have said that the increase of, greenhouse gas emissions contribute to, warmer, wetter, wilder weather conditions here in Northeast Ohio.

So, we're not seeing things like wildfires necessarily, but severe storms are becoming more common.

And, some federal reporting from the Fifth National Climate Assessment that came out in 2023 predicted fluctuating wet and dry conditions, increased heavy rain, increased stormwater runoff and warmer weather that could lead to, some short dry spells in between those wet days.

And, well, maybe the hail helped clear out some of the ticks in Ohio.

Let's hope.

Maybe, I don't know, maybe.

But ticks are everywhere in Ohio right now.

And where there are ticks, there's the potential for tick-borne illnesses like Lyme disease.

Ohio has seen a rapid increase in cases from 40 or so in 2010, to more than 2800 That is bananas.

Karen.

Statehouse reporter Joe Ingles reported on this.

What are some of the reasons for this increase in tick borne illnesses in Ohio?

Well, I got to tell you, this one is a personal one for me too, because my son got bit by a tick and got Lyme disease, and it is nothing to mess around with.

We ended up in Children's Hospital because of it.

So, this is a very serious illness.

And the problem is that some of these ticks, these deer ticks that do Lyme disease, they cause Lyme disease, they're tiny.

They're like the size of a poppy seed.

They're really, really little.

And for a while they were primarily in the northeast part of the United States.

But yeah, they're coming back to Ohio.

They're they're moving into Ohio.

And that's because of increasing temperatures, more humidity, reduced duration of extreme cold in the winter.

All that, according to Doctor Bruce Vanderhoff, the director of the Ohio Department of Health.

And he said that Ohio's forests have seen some regrowth, which is great news, of course, but that also potentially increases tick populations.

And as people move into more wooded areas, that increases the possibility that you're going to run into one of these ticks.

The amount of ticks reported back in the early 2010s, 40 to now, 2800 last year.

Karen, I have to ask you, is better reporting any type of a factor here in terms of these number of tick cases, tick tick disease cases, we're talking about, I think better reporting as well as more, seeking of treatment because Lyme disease is a it can sometimes mask is something else.

I mean it can be confusing to a person.

I mean, I know when I took my son to the hospital and they said, could he have gotten bit by a tick?

He could have Lyme disease.

I'm like, no, that couldn't have happened.

Well, it did.

And so I think that that's part of this year.

But you know, that that is something to at least keep an eye on because once you start reporting more data than it looks like, the problem is getting worse.

But the problem may have been there all along.

When we talk about awareness of things that can happen if you get bit by a tick.

Karen, Ohio does track some tick related illnesses, but not all of them.

Like, for example, there are cases where people develop a potentially deadly allergy to red meat after getting bit by a tick.

What can you tell us about this?

Yeah, that's called Alpha-gal syndrome.

And Vanderhoff was asked about that.

He said that Ohio's not tracking that yet, but that is caused by black-legged or western black-legged ticks.

And Ohio is aware of the prevalence of these in some parts of the country and is keeping an eye on them.

And that's something I mean, you know, Lyme disease, again, is serious.

But this a potentially life threatening allergy to meat is for a lot of people really, really concerning.

And something that they'd like to know more about.

That was just absolutely wild for me to learn that and just it's and there's no cure for it from what I understand.

That's according to the Mayo Clinic and these symptoms, they can just manifest over time.

So anyway, absolutely wild.

Pay attention to what's going on.

Do a check to do a tick check that you're out in the forested areas.

Okay.

Speaking of being out in the beautiful scenery here in Northeast Ohio, two locomotives taking visitors on trips for the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad will soon be powered by electric batteries instead of diesel.

The nonprofit railroad says the swap should be complete in about a year by next spring, Zaria, the railroad says this is both an economic and sustainability issue.

Why yes.

So obviously switching from diesel to electric will help them reduce emissions from these two rail cars in particular.

But CVSR president, Larry Stevens, says that this will also help them save money because these trains need to be inspected every 90 days by the Federal Railroad Administration.

During that time, they're down for a week while they're going through all these safety checks.

And so that's like less time that the trains can be out running, but also changing the filters on these trains cost $5,000 alone.

So, it'll just help reduce the sort of maintenance cost and the amount of time that these trains have to be down for inspection as well.

I think a lot of times when people hear about switching to something that's more, friendly for the environment, they think you're going to lose power.

But that's not the case here.

And that was the really interesting piece of the story.

So, the horsepower on the curren diesel powered engines, has decreased over the years.

And now is about is that about 1200 horsepower altogether?

But these battery powered locomotives will increase that power to 1800, so, it'll actually be able to move a little bit faster.

It might be a more exciting ride.

Will there be special equipment that's needed to charge these locomotives?

No, and that's another I would think you need a massive EV charger, but, they're saying that they can be they can use the same, common electric chargers that EVs electric vehicles use.

So, they don't need to put in any massive train size charger.

They can just use whatever, you know, a Tesla or, an electric Prius might be using out in the parking lot.

That is fascinating.

All right.

Thanks, everyone, for keeping the conversation going today.

Zaria Johnson and Andrew Meyer here from Ideastream Public Media.

Thanks for being here.

We appreciate it.

Will be here.

And Karen Kasler, thanks for calling in from Columbus.

We appreciate it.

Absolutely.

Go Guardians!

Go Guardians indeed.

And go Cavs right!

All right.

That wraps up the show for today.

We want to thank our audience for being with us today.

If you missed any part of today's show will air a rebroadcast tonight at 9 p.m.

on 89-7 WKSU.

You can also find every episode of The Sound of Ideas, including the Friday Reporters Roundtable wherever you get your podcasts and on the Ideastream Public Media YouTube page, and you can catch the television version of this show tonight at 5 p.m.

on PBS WVIZ, and again on Sunday at 10:30 a.m.

Hello!

If you're watching us on TV!

To get the last word on today's topics, you can email us at soi@ideastream.org You can find us on Instagram as well.

We're at The Sound of Ideas Monday on The Sound of Ideas, we kick off a week of environmental topics as Drew told us, that starts with disaster storm preparation.

Very timely, seeing as how we're in prime season for severe weather.

As we talked about here today on the Reporters Roundtable, I'm Stephanie Haney in for Mike McIntyre.

Thank you for keeping the conversation going.

Have a great weekend.

We'll see you on Monday.

And as we say goodbye, we leave you with Jethro Tull and “Locomotive Breath.” In the shuffling madness.

Of the locomotive breath Runs the all-time loser Headlong to his death Oh, he feels the piston scrapin Steam breaking on his brow Old Charlie stole the handle And the train it wont stop, Oh no way to slow down Noooooo