Support for the statewide broadcast of the state of Ohio comes from medical mutual, providing more than 1.4 million Ohioans peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at Med Mutual dot com slash Ohio by the law offices of Porter, Wright, Morris and Arthur LLP, now with eight locations across the country.

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Moore and Porter Wright dot com and from the Ohio Education Association, representing 124,000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online.

At OHEA DOT ORG An odd year election brings changes at the local level.

Republican lawmakers prepare for next year's congressional races by proposing new maps that leave some stunned, and Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has new members.

I'll chat with the state official who's hit the road for many of these events about his favorite moments this time.

All this weekend, the state of Ohio.

Welcome to the state of Ohio, I'm Karen Kasler.

While there were no statewide issues or candidates on this year's ballot, the last few weeks have been busy for local election officials.

18% more early ballots came in this year than in 2019.

That may have been due, in part because of increased interest in school board races.

There were more than 20 600 candidates running statewide, a 50% jump over four years ago.

Republican U.S. Senate candidates Jane Timken, Mike Gibbons and the wife of Bernie Merino donated to or helped some of them who were running on anti masking anti so-called critical race theory platforms.

While some of those candidates did win, those issues did not bring victory for most of them.

Cleveland got a new mayor and Justin Bibb, the nonprofit executive who beat Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelly and will become the city's fourth black mayor.

Cincinnati's new mayor will be Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Aftab Pure of all who lost the race for Congress in 2018.

But this time beat Democratic former mayor and congressman David Mann.

Pure of all is that city's first Asian-American mayor.

There were two special congressional elections.

Karga County Democratic Party Chair Sean Tell Brown defeated Republican business owner Laverne Gore with 78% of the vote in the 11th District in Cleveland.

Coal lobbyist Mike Carey, who was endorsed by former President Trump and beat ten candidates in the August GOP primary, beat Democratic State Representative Allison Russo in the 15th District in central Ohio.

Kerry won by 16 and a half points, but that was well down from the two to one margin that Steve Stivers, who left office in May, logged in the 2016 and 2020 votes, many among those who voted to change the way Ohio's State House and congressional districts are drawn.

Expected there would be maps for those districts by Election Day of 2021.

There are House and Senate maps approved by just the five Republicans on the Ohio Redistricting Commission, but they're facing a trio of lawsuits, and there is no map for Ohio's congressional delegation, which must shrink from 16 to 15, with the redistricting commission missing a deadline to finish that map last month.

Republicans in the House and Senate proposed two maps this week, and they were a surprise and a shock to Democrats, State House correspondent Andy Chow reports.

Senate Republicans unveiled their proposal for new congressional districts just seconds before holding the first public hearing on the map.

The same thing happened on the other side of the State House when House Republicans rolled out their congressional map.

Democratic lawmakers and voter rights advocates rebuked these moves, saying there was a lack of accountability and transparency in the process.

And I always will ask, who are we working for?

If I can figure.

It out and I'm here?

And what do you think the average Ohioan is going to do.

In the Senate?

Republican Rob McCauley introduced his caucus's map, which only split 14 counties.

Of those counties, three are split into three districts.

That's Franklin, Cuyahoga and Hamilton.

This map truly balances one person, one vote, with 13 districts having exactly 786,630 people and two districts having 786,629.

That is as close as we can get as possible to one person, one vote and that 786, 630 person ratio of representation.

McCauley said.

The Senate Republican proposal puts two sets of incumbents in the same district that two U.S. representatives Bill Johnson, a Republican, and Tim Ryan, a Democrat who's running for the U.S. Senate in one district, and Democrat Joyce Beatty and Republican Jim Jordan, both in another district.

The House Republican map split 13 counties, but four of those counties were divided into three districts.

Also, Franklin, Cuyahoga and Hamilton, along with Summit County.

Part of the criticism with the rollout of the maps was that the Republican caucuses and the House and Senate did not provide the detailed files needed to see where the district lines lie and how they break down politically.

After further analysis by national expert days redistricting, the Senate GOP's proposal for a new congressional district map creates six districts that favor Republicans to districts that favor Democrats and seven districts that lean.

Republican senators said their map would have five GOP districts, eight competitive ones and still two Democratic ones.

The House GOP proposal, according to days redistricting, creates 13 districts that heavily favor Republicans and two districts that favor Democrats.

House Republicans said their map has eight GOP leaning districts, five competitive ones and two Democratic ones.

Voter rights groups are questioning the definition of competitive districts by Republican leaders.

House Republicans were basing competitiveness on districts that split 50.

85% Republican and 45% Democratic.

Kerry Cosman, with all on the line and Anti Gerrymandering Group, funded by the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, says the maps failed to uphold fair representation.

I moved to Columbus to go to school and to start my career, and there is no reason why I should be voting in the same district as my grandparents, who have completely different political interests than I do.

Therefore, ensuring that their vote matters more than mine does based on the way that districts are drawn.

Now that I live in a progressive community and they live in a rural community.

In a back and forth.

Republican Representative Don Jones told Cosman that the map makers need to figure out the dynamics of Ohio's landscape and population because.

Let's face it.

Eastern Ohio and southeastern Ohio makes up 25% of our landmass, but only only has I think about 19% of the population, so we have to do things like that.

Let's be realistic with each other to to get the numbers where they need to be.

I agree, and it is a fact that southeastern Ohio has a small population and a large landmass, but city of Toledo has a small landmass and a large population.

So why is it being split into two sprawling districts as opposed to centralizing its own district and keeping its population as together as possible?

Advocates also note that statewide elections have resulted in about 46% of the vote going to Democratic candidates and 54% going to Republican candidates.

They argue a congressional map that could split 13 Republican districts to twelve Democratic districts does not reflect this political makeup.

More committee hearings will be held on these maps, and a joint committee must be held with public hearings on a proposal.

The Legislature has until the end of the month to approve a map.

A ten year map requires bipartisan approval.

A four year map requires a simple majority vote.

Andy Chow, Statehouse News Bureau.

COVID cases have fallen in Ohio and last month now at just under 3000 confirmed cases a day on average so far in October, compared to a daily confirmed case average of almost 40 950 in September.

But there have been almost twice the number of deaths so far in October than in all of last month 2760 deaths in Ohio so far in October, compared to 1088 in all of September.

Governor Mike DeWine and first Lady Fran DeWine canceled public events until Sunday after they were exposed to COVID by staff members.

Both have been vaccinated and got boosters and have tested negative.

I was actually on my way to Akron and got the call and talked to the doctors and turned right around.

Fran also had a full schedule ahead for the next few days, and so we both decided the best thing to do is just to pull back and not risk exposing someone.

But this week, child sized doses of the Pfizer vaccine for kids five to eleven were authorized by the FDA and recommended by the CDC, and those shots started at Cincinnati's Children's Hospital and several other sites throughout the state.

On Wednesday, I told my friend Kate that that I want to get the vaccine for everybody and that I want everybody to be safe.

The kids have said genuinely, they are so excited, they're so happy.

This is this is a day they've been waiting for and these families.

It's the feeling we had at the beginning of the vaccination rollout.

There's this tremendous sense of relief and gratitude and seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.

So it's been really nice.

Last Saturday, downtown Cleveland was lit up not by the northern lights, which have been visible in some parts of Ohio recently, but by stars of music for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

Our public broadcasting colleagues can be bought here from WKSU in Kent, and Gabriel Kramer from Idea Stream in Cleveland caught the biggest moments on stage and backstage, with performances from and tributes to the class of 2021 Tina Turner, Carole King, The Go-Go's, Jay-Z, The Foo Fighters, Todd Rundgren, Kraftwerk, Charlie Patton, Gil Scott-Heron, L.L.

Cool, J. Billy Preston, Randi Rhodes and Clarence Avant.

There also was state government's best known music sage.

He is Jack March Banks, director of the Ohio Department of Transportation, who's been writing about music for many years and hosts Jazz Sunday on WCBS in Columbus.

I talked to him this week about his favorite parts of the show.

How is it that you have attended so many and how many have you attended and how do you get to go?

How do you, how do you how does this all happen for you?

Well, I think I'm currently at nine.

I started in 2005.

I happen to know some people who knew the O'Jays and the O'Jays were getting inducted in New York.

City at the Waldorf Astoria.

Big deal also.

Chrissie Hynde and pretenders were getting inducted that year, so I asked the band Ohio bands and again Chrissie Hine when she was asked about the O'Jays and her band getting inducted versus Ireland.

She said United States to Ireland one in terms of soccer.

But yes, I've been doing this and because I got that initial opportunity, I just begged my way into subsequent inductions and they actually know who I am now because we with WCBS, we're a small station , but because we have done such, I think really generous coverage at, I think, professional and form coverage of the hall.

They keep inviting us back, so we'll keep coming as long as we're alive.

That's how I know you is WCB, where I used to work as well.

Yes.

So this was the first rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cleveland since 2018.

And again, you said you've been to nine of them.

I'm sure it's really hard to compare, but the reviews of this one have been that this was a lot of surprise guests magical performances is how Rolling Stone magazine described it.

How does this rank in terms of all the inductions you've seen?

This is up.

There is in the top two or three I've seen again the one with U2, U2 in The Pretenders and Buddy Guy being inducted by B.B.

King and Eric Clapton up there.

This is in the top three of the ones I've seen.

The other one that compares is really up in Los Angeles, where Public Enemy Donna Summer was inducted posthumously by Jennifer Hudson, who also did a song here at the 2021 in honor of Carole King Aretha Franklin.

She just blew the socks off everyone with her version of Natural Woman.

So what made this one special?

Was there a particular moment that was a real highlight, or was it just one after another after another?

Well, this this ceremony had so many outstanding aspects to it.

You had two women being inducted for the second time Carole King and I mean, Tina Turner, and you had three bands being inducted for the first time on their first ballot the Foo Fighters, the Go-Go's and Jay-Z.

So they all.

Worked with being an all woman, all.

Woman band as well.

So all of that, plus the surprise guest and I have to say L.L.

Cool J.

He topped everyone in terms of showmanship because he brought on J-Lo, Jennifer Lopez and Eminem as surprise guest.

You could hear the audience gasp when you know, and of course, he was incendiary.

I have a new respect for, you know, James Todd Smith.

That's his real name.

And he just really he really just nailed it.

You nailed it.

And his was an early influence award, so it was different than Tina Turner, Carole King.

Those were in a different category, so his performance was an earlier on performance in the show.

Yes, it's early.

Yeah, from what I've read, it was just outstanding.

He brought in dancers out of the audience.

It was over the top in terms of sheer artistry.

Jennifer Hudson, that voice, that voice.

And she was just fantastic in terms of energy, of course.

The Foo Fighters, they they brought it, and even Paul McCartney seemed to be overwhelmed by the moment.

It was such, I think, what made this one so exciting, it was a fantastic class that's still very popular.

And Drew Barrymore, she had the most engaging, heartfelt and drug.

She inducted the Go-Go's and she went from as an actress.

So she went from having her just regular clothes on and to putting on a robe of cold cream and her hair in a towel like the Go-Go's on Beauty and the beat.

So that was that was really something to I was impressed with her, her ability ability as a thespian.

And also, there was a induction of Clarence Avant.

Oh yeah, it's a a special award, and that was apparently a very emotional moment.

Oh yeah, he's 90 years.

Old, 90 years old, still very sharp.

Lionel Richie brought him up and, you know, he made hardened media reporters kind of like, blink back tears because this man, you may not know about him, like, you know about Berry Gordy, but he was a mover.

He still is a mover and shaker.

As an African-American record music business executive signing everybody from Lionel Richie to getting Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis connected with Janet Jackson.

The Black Godfather, as he was now here.

So there were a couple of notable absences Tina Turner and Todd Rundgren, who's been on the ballot.

How many times people have really lobbied for him?

He was actually in Cincinnati.

Yeah, rather than being there.

But there were a lot of celebrities that were there.

Taylor Swift, Eminem, Jennifer Hudson, who you've mentioned Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman, Dave Chappelle again from an Ohio.

Oh h. Yeah.

He did say.

He didn't get the response he had hoped.

But you know, most of the people from out of town.

Jennifer Lopez, Christina.

And two, I know you saw who were Paul McCartney, who had skipped his own induction as a member of the Beatles, but had come back for his four other inductions and Questlove?

Yes.

And there was there was that you've got a picture.

Yes.

They were very generous with their time backstage, and I have to give props to Mick Foley, our photographer who came up from WCB.

He has a way of bumping into Paul.

He bumped into Paul back in 2015, when Paul was there.

And Ringo?

And how do you just bump into one of the most famous people in the world?

They're were just all gathering back there.

They just wander backstage and the press room is usually right behind the stage.

And so if you walk out at the right time, you can see about 20 celebrities, all at the same time.

Does it ever like overwhelm you?

I mean, you've been doing this for a long time, but are you ever starstruck at all?

Yeah, I was star struck by Jennifer Palmer by Jennifer Hudson, of course, by Angela Bassett, who actually is more attractive in person than she is on screen.

And that's saying something.

I ask you a question about Marian Anderson.

Would you do a biopic if you just looked at me real funny?

I think I would say, OK, that was a dumb question.

Like Tina Turner, so.

She could do Marian Anderson.

She could play.

Well, let me ask you a bigger picture kind of question here with people accessing music so differently than they did when the artists who are being inducted now were coming up and with a lot of artists independent, not signing record deals, not going through that traditional route of being on the radio, that sort of thing.

Does the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame still have the same influence and impact that it did before?

I think music is multigenerational.

And while the latest generation of artists may not have the same track to success that the past ones have the multigenerational aspect of music where you see twelve year olds, you know, geeking out and sing prince and exhibit, I think the Rock Hall will have relevance, at least to the mid part of this century.

I really do.

They're actually expanding it.

And people were scarfing down Murchison merchandise like you wouldn't believe maybe $50 million for this this year's haul in terms of economic impact for the city of Cleveland and generally, the Rock Hall produces about $199 million of economic benefit for the Greater Cleveland area, so I think it's going to be relevant for at least another.

25 to 30 years, as long as I'm alive, I'll be going.

Now, you're a jazz guy, though.

Yeah, I still go, This is your import.

Oh yes, I actually grew up on rhythm and blues and old school Motown.

But my first love what I do that myself was rock and roll.

I'm one of the few kids who knew what Creem magazine was when I was 15 years old, and I've been subscribing to Rolling Stone since I was in college, so I've always loved rock and roll.

In addition to jazz, I love all music.

As Duke Ellington says, there's only two kinds of music good music and the other kind.

Well, let me ask you, you had talked about doing, you're the director of what I'm talked about, doing some soundtracks at some sites.

I mean, is that something you that Ohio has a really strong history of not only being the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the being the place where the term rock and roll originated.

But a lot of bands, a lot of a lot of influential musicians have come from Ohio.

In fact, Dave Grohl, when he got up for inductions there, his induction speech said, Hey, I'm from Ohio.

He was born in Warren, Ohio.

A lot of people don't know that.

I didn't know that.

Yeah.

Dave Grohl or he's a Buckeye by birth Foo Fighters leader.

But we are.

We have put together a soundtrack at our rest areas.

Ohio Department of Transportation on the direction and leadership of Governor DeWine.

We are upgrading our rest areas, and part of what we want to do is make people know about our wonderful musical history.

And we will have music playing.

In fact, I think we have in a couple of our rest areas soundtracks playing in the background of Ohio artists only, and it's quite a soundtrack from Johnny Paycheck to nine Inch Nails.

Wow, that's great.

Well, as a director, vote on I do want to ask you here while you're here, we're transitioning into a different season, just leaving, going from fall into winter here, how our road construction projects going.

Are you on track?

Are things behind?

How's the gas tax helping you fund those?

Is it still continuing to fund those projects?

Of course we suffered like everybody else during the COVID, you know, scourge and our revenues fell off, but we are rebounding.

And the Chris, the money we received at the beginning of this year really helped to keep keep us whole.

We had a $1.7 billion program this year.

I have to congratulate all of our contractors and our and our workers.

They work throughout the pandemic.

We are on track to finish all of our projects on time this upcoming end of November, which is the end of the season, and we're looking forward to all over a 1 billion dollar program for 2022.

And as we've discussed here before, the pandemic actually gave ODOT a little bit of a breathing room because people weren't traveling as much.

It gave you an opportunity to make sure that some of those projects stayed on track.

And we were able to do things in terms of maintenance of traffic and opening up more lanes for work.

But at the same time, there was a recklessness that, you know, fell upon the entire populace, with people driving fast and driving recklessly and driving distracted.

I can't emphasize that enough that really made it more dangerous for everyone out there.

I think Secretary Boudreau's George just mentioned that there were 18,000 people killed in 2021 alone, so we are really asking people to move, slow down and move over when they see those flashing lights out there because our workers and our contractors want to come home to their families just like you do.

And one final question is decided not to use a deicer that is made of brine from vertical oil and gas wells.

What was the decision?

Why did you decide to move away from that?

That decision was made by me.

Again, we think the science backs up our claim that it's not dangerous, but that the public feels uncomfortable about it is not worth the the savings.

And again, we have other means of deicing roads that are are safe, that are environmentally friendly.

So if we have other ways of doing it, we really don't need to use that product.

Why do it keep it, keep the public happy.

And circle back around and planning on going next year?

I understand it's going to be in L.A., I think, are you planning on going next year to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction?

Well, L.A. is not all that great because Nokia is a huge arena.

What was great about Mortgage Rocket Fieldhouse that is large, it gives you that arena rock feel.

And new.

Brand new Nokia is huge and is so big you think you're in the Middle Earth and Lord of Rings is that big.

So.

And I've done it before.

I was out there in 2013 for again, I said one of the best where you had rush and and the Public Enemy and others and ducked and Quincy Jones in 2013, again at the top three.

But this one this past year in the top three right here in Cleveland does this so.

So to answer your question, maybe I don't know L.A.

I think I might wait for Cleveland again in 2023.

Now, of course, this wasn't live.

That will be a broadcast on HBO Max, as I understand it.

But do you think like what you saw would maybe convince people that this is something that?

Could be shown live that Cleveland is where it should be or is there still going to be this struggle?

Do you think.

That's up to the people who manage the money out of New York?

But I think the sheer authenticity, the energy, everybody that got on stage, I could see them looking up and looking around at all the energy and law they were getting from the crowd.

So to me, just cut down some of the profanity.

Tell people that you know, you can't cause, get out there and do your thing.

And I think there's an argument for it being broadcast live.

We end this week with a bittersweet tribute.

Jim Audie, arguably the dean of the State House Press Corps in Ohio, has finished his distinguished career.

He became a familiar face and voice during Governor Mike DeWine's daily COVID press conferences last year, often asking the first question and occasionally with a bit of his often hilarious bone dry sarcasm .

But Audie has been on the State House beat since 1980, when he partnered with Bill Cohen to start the Statehouse News Bureau for Ohio Public Radio and Television for the past 33 years.

Audi's flawless delivery and encyclopedic wisdom on elections policy and government issues, and occasionally some other stuff were showcased on HBO in Dayton.

His retirement is a huge loss for us and the audience, but he deserves the time off.

And that's it for this week for my colleagues at the Statehouse News Bureau of Ohio Public Radio and Television.

Thanks for watching.

Please check out our web site at State News dot org, and you can follow us and show on Facebook and Twitter.

And please join us again next time for the state of Ohio.

one.

Support for the statewide broadcast of the state of Ohio comes from medical mutual, providing more than 1.4 million Ohioans peace of mind with a selection of health insurance plans online at Med Mutual dot com slash Ohio by the law offices of Porter, Wright, Morris and Arthur LLP, now with eight locations across the country.

Porter Wright is a legal partner with a new perspective to the business community.

Moore and Porter Wright dot com and from the Ohio Education Association, representing 124,000 members who work to inspire their students to think creatively and experience the joy of learning online at ohea dot org.