Construction Season and Traffic Delays

Welcome to the Sound of Ideas Reporter's round table from IDEA Stream Public Media. I'm Mike McIntyre. I'm so glad you're here. Governor Mike DeWine this week vetoed a bill that mandated photo ID for mail in ballots, and he followed his call for abolishing the death penalty by granting clemency to a death row inmate. The U. S. Supreme Court signed off on the Trump administration's plan to strip protections from Haitian immigrants. How will that impact the substantial population in Springfield? Republican US Senator Bernie Moreno has an unexpected ally in the effort to shore up social security, Democrat Elizabeth Warren . And Cleveland has been raking in cash since it jacked up parking rates. Joining me to discuss these stories and a whole lot more this week . The top news of the week from IDST Public Media, senior arts reporter Kabir Battia, and reporter Gabriel Kramer. Good to have both you guys with us. Hello, happy Friday morning. And happy Friday to you as well, Gabe. I look forward to that every time we're together. And in Columbus , a woman who is currently double parked outside the Ohio State House, Sarah Donaldson of Idea Stream State House News Bureau. Hey, Sarah . Hey, good to be here in Columbus, as you said. Exactly. And double parked. So you just park wherever you want, right? You don't have to worry about parking rates . No, absolutely. Good. That's how it is in Columbus, everybody. All right, you can join us via email SOI at ideastream. org is the way to get through to us. So let's get ready to r ound table. Governor Mike DeWine mixed a bill requiring photo ID for mail in ballot, saying it would create too much hardship for voters. And Sarah, he didn't just get out the veto pen on this one. He used a different pen to crank out a lengthy statement explaining why. So what did he say? Yeah, so Governor DeWine issued this veto just hours before he needed to make a decision, you know, the old kind of pushing it off till the last second, right? But he had pretty strong words for lawmakers on this bill . He said it wouldn't discourage fraud, it wouldn't add any real security measures, and that it would add additional burdens for Ohioans who are trying to vote by mail. And the bill itself was a measure that would have tried to add the photo ID requirements that already exist for voters who are voting in person , either early at the polls on election day would have added those same requirements to mail in voting. But of course there's some complications there because when you vote by mail, you're not meeting with someone to show them your ID. So you would have had to photocopy your ID and send it in or present it to a poll person when you drop off your ballot at the board of elections. You heard some lawmakers like Rob McCauly say that this would have made Ohio the most secure state. What the governor said is we already have secure elections and he said other elections officials agreed with that correct? Yeah, so yes , so that is absolutely the case. This was not just Democratic opposition to this bill . The Association of Election officials in Ohio, they were concerned about the bill. That's a bipartisan group that represents folks who staff the boards of elections in all of Ohio's eighty eight counties and there are a lot of measures in this bill to make getting that photo ID photo copy to the board of elections a reality. You know, libraries and other public buildings would have had to provide free photo copies , which they said was an unfunded mandate. There were other changes. So there were concerns there , as well as with really, when you're talking about photo ID , the association told me when an elections official asks for your ID, you're standing right there and you're showing them your photo ID, right? Right. Not really the same if I mail in a photocopy of my ID. The elections officials were looking at a piece of paper and saying, okay, this is Sarah Donaldson, but I'm not looking at Sarah Donaldson. So there were certainly concerns there. And this was, I should remind you all some politics as well because lawmakers passed this bill at the same time that they passed a resolution to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot to enshrine the current photo ID law into the Constitution. And there were some folks on the right who were saying, I don't want to enshrine what we already have in the Constitution without adding these new restrictions on mail in ballots. You know, it's not just the politicians. The public is concerned too, and was concerned about what this would mean. We do library office hours during this election season or leading up to the midterms to ask people what they want to have covered. And I was out at the Fairview Park, Coyota County Public Library branch and several people said, How would that work I s?ent If in a ph otocopy of my ID, how do they still know it's me? And so there was a lot of questions about that from constituents as well as from the politicians themselves and the elections officials. Here's a question though. How did this thing come to be? There wasn't a bill that said we need to have a photo ID in mail in ballots. There wasn't an original bill with that subject. This got jammed into something about homeless people . Well, I should say, Mike, there was a bill, but it hadn't moved very far. It really hadn't gotten much debate . But this idea came from, again, these folks on the right who said, well, we have this loophole in the law that was passed in earlier this decade that added those photo ID requirements because mail in ballots are not required to have photo ID. So they see it as a loophole. Not everyone sees it as a loophole, but they said that it should be all the same. So it did get the language that got jammed in was not necessarily the language that was in that bill that really didn't get much debate. I mean, this was over the course of forty eight hours, and sometimes that's how lawmaking works here at the Ohio State House. Whether you like it or not, these lawmakers sometimes jam these things in and pass them. And in this situation , I think that there were some folks who had expressed concerns with the bill, who also were concerned with how fast it moved. The association told me they think that this idea is certainly coming back. I don't think we're done hearing about photo ID for mail in ballots, but they're glad to have a breath of relief to kind of figure out the kinks, the questions that you're saying, because there's also concerns with sending a photo copy of your ID in the mail. What if that gets intercepted? I mean, there are a lot of concerns there as well. Is there a chance that this could come back by way of an override of the veto? Yeah, that's a tough one. I asked some Republican lawmakers about that. And I 'm going to talk about my crystal ball, which you know I always talk about, but I'm not feeling it right now. Lawmakers are up for reelection. They're back in their districts. It takes a lot of political willpower to bring them back and they have until December to do a veto override. So they could do it in lame duck after the election. And of course, this bill wouldn't take effect until the twenty twenty seven general election. But I don't know if there's the willpower to do a veto override. The votes on these bills were very close to sixty and you need you don't just need fifty one votes to get a veto override through. All right, this is just a quick question, but there was another issue that was a veto from the governor that we should address. It's about submetering. And we've talked about this before. If you're a third party that's someone's paying their electrical bill to not necessarily AEP, Ohio or another group like that, is it a utility? And the Supreme Court weighed in on that ? Yeah, so the Supreme Court had weighed in on it and lawmakers had said that they wanted to create a legislative structure to kind of implement what the Supreme Court said, but this bill specifically, there were a lot of folks who had raised concerns with it, namely the Ohio Consumers Council . They said that it actually rolled back some of the protection that came from that Supreme Court order . And there were some Democrats largely voted against this bill, and there were also some Republicans who voted against this bill. So DeWine kind of sided with that Consumer Counsel argument when he said, you know, the Supreme Court's already weighed in on this and this actually potentially takes away some protections that the Supreme Court is trying to get those folks who are submitted. Okay . The US Supreme Court, the US Supreme Court, not the state supreme court yesterday green lit the Trump administration's plan to strip temporary protected status from Haitian and Syrian immigrants. Governor DeWine lamented the fact that up to fifteen thousand Haitians living in Springfield legally and more than thirty thousand throughout Central Ohio are now subject to immediate deportation. DeWine and others who supported the protected status say it's unsafe for them to return to Haiti due to violent gangs, a barely functioning government and an economy that 's in chambles. Kabir , what was the reasoning the high court gave for clearing the way for this action? Well, they said essentially judges cannot second guess these federal decisions. They don't have the power to do that. So they're saying this is what we're doing. Six to three they voted. And that's what's going to happen. They also didn't think that anyone would succeed on legal terms if they were going to challenge this. And as you said, supporters have pointed out that now there's in Ohio, there's thousands of families that are subject to immediate deportation. And this is a country that already , a country that already the State Department says we shouldn't be going there because of the violence, kidnapping, political instability, that sort of thing. And Gabe, since the presidential election in twenty twenty four, we've had conversations about the Haitian population, specifically in Springfield , that they were invited there, that they're working there, that they're part of the economy, and that they've had this tem porary protected status for years. Right. So TPS temporary protected status is similar to being a refugee or an asylie in the sense that they were invited here. They were brought here for a certain reason, humanitarian reasons, reasons that are escaping war, reasons for escaping gang violence, you know, some sort of unrest in their native country that the United States said, we're going to bring you here. The difference between those three status ises that with TPS it is meant to be temporary. So you can in a sense understand there's a stronger effort to eliminate or to have these folks no longer be around here , but have the status sunset. Yeah, the yes. So these Haitian folks are worried about what's happening back home. There's gang violence that they're escaping. There's , you know, there were some folks from Haiti who were sent back to Haiti and they were they found violence and some people were murdered and those were supposed to happen. So people are concerned about what might happen to them back home and I understand that that's why things have an extended time time and again. And what Governor DeWine said was, you know, this is not a time to be sending them back there. As Kabir mentioned, it's not a great situation in Haiti. They started here in twenty ten with this status because of the devastation of an earthquake. But as you said, it's been renewed as it's gone along. So it is temporary, but it's temporary and reasons to extend it. Now you have a population in Springfield, which we've mentioned and we've interviewed before. And by the way, this was brought up in the presidential election that there are Haitian immigrants or eating pets and those types of things which it was apocryphal . But now we have this population that the community says is necessary to the community, including Duwine. What happens to them? Is there immediate deportation? Do we know what the fate is? And that's what's scary because they don't really know. I mean, there are advocacy groups that are going to help these people get the legal services that they might need. They're going to hope that Congress will make a decision that will help keep them here temporarily temporarily even longer. But yes, I mean, I think there's going to be an effort to try to get these people to be here long term like you would for a refugee or an Asy because they have made a home here , they have been a part of the local economy. They have been , you know, part of the communities down there. So you know, yes, I mean, you talked about kind of these attacks on what happens to these communities, whether that's claims of things that are not happening, whether they're eating pets or whatever it may be . But on the other side of the coin, you have people who want them to stay. You want them to be here. And we don't know what's going to happen with immigration and customs enforcement. We there's a theory that they'll be sent to Haiti immediately and they'll have to be in fear and concern about where they're will be going from a day to basis when they walk to work or walk to their grocery store wherever they may be. And we think about what happened in Minnesota a few months ago where Ice went there kind of in droves to try to round people up. And there's concern that that might be happening in Springfield. But we don't really know. Sarah, the governor is passionate about this issue and there's a personal reason behind that . Yeah, so he and his wife, the first lady Fran Dwin have a school established in the name of their late daughter died in a car crash, I believe. And so they have had that school for years and it had to shut down when this unrest came up again. And I'm not sure that it's up and running again. I know it had to shut down a couple years ago. So DeWine has been out to Haiti. The First Lady has been out to Haiti. It's certainly very personal for him. Some of it is faith based . So he has been very defensive of this population . He said these folks have been living here legally, and of course their status is now being taken away and he sees it as a mistake. And as we're talking about this an immigration issue, also this week, Ohio bishops delivered a rebuke to the Trump administration over its immigration policy, specifically ending TPS for Haiti. Let's talk about that. The bishops gathered together and said this is unacceptable. Yeah, they said it's unacceptable on moral grounds. They certainly , like others out in Springfield, as well as across the country, it's been a lot of faith based groups who have been providing to these immigrants. And just again, noting like the governor has, that the conditions in Haiti are not good . There's no real defense to take away that TPS status in their eyes because the conditions have not improved in Haiti. And the bishops were well, they may have been following the lead of Pope Leo, who has been vocal about the treatment of immigrants. I understand that from a picture on social media that I saw that you know the Pope personally? Is that true? I'd love to say I know the Pope personally, but I did get to meet the Pope when I was on my honeymoon. My husband and I were blessed to re ceive the Sposinovelli, which is for newly wed Catholics. So it was pretty cool but I will say the pope and I only shared brief words we did not talk about immigration in America. Okay, fair enough. And by the way, it wasn't like a big crowd in your back. I saw the picture. You're shaking his hand. It was a pretty amazing and special moment. So really cool. All right, moving on, we'll be hearing a lot in the coming months about how to fund upkeep of major publicly owned local sports venues as the SIN tax meant to do that isn't bringing in enough cash. Could a sales tax hike for already high tax ed Cyoga County be proposed down the road, that's one idea. Another that was offered this week by Cuyoga County Council member Michael Gallagher is to use anything left over from the tax for a new county jail and repairs to the existing courthouse to pay for stadium repairs. Gabe, we're going to hear a bunch of ideas coming up. We might again hear about taxing sports betting. We might hear about a million things because they're in the hole. They've they have an obligation to maintain these facilities because they're publicly owned, even though the benefit financially is to the owners of the teams. What is Gallagher's plan specifically? Well, it's to lean on that sales tax. So in twenty twenty three , there was an extension for forty years to have the sales tax remain at eight percent and that's up twenty five percent. And that extra point two five percent was intended to fund the courthouse and to repairs to the Justice Center and the new jail in the jail complaint field. So Gallagher believes that there will be extra funding from that sales tax and wants to lean on that extra funding to help renovate and provide updates to these new stadiums. I mentioned there's a bunch of ideas out there. The county and area sports teams already asked lawmakers in Columbus for the permission to triple or quadruple the SIN tax. They were denied on that. So maybe a raise in the sales tax we're hearing and again I don't have any specific firsthand knowledge of this. There's been some great reporting Kaitlin Durbin at the Plain Dealer and others who have reported about this, but an increase in the sales tax that's already the state's highest . Right. So it's interesting.' Its hard to convince people that they would pay an even higher sales tax, which is why the move from county executive Christina asked the state if they can increase the syntax. It seems like a softer blow in that kind of sense that it doesn't necessarily affect everybody . It's been, I suppose you could say successful in helping provide repairs and updates to stadiums over the last decade or so . But yeah, they'll have to find some way to do this. And what's interesting is hearing, especially from Gallagher is talking about different ideas of how they can get the money. And a lot of times the ideas are, you know, the money will help support Rocket Arena and Progressive Field and the Gateway District, but not necessarily support the Cleveland Brown Stadium as it goes down to Brook Park , I suppose in an effort to say that they're receiving so much from the state already that they should prioritize the other two states . But they're going to have to come up with a plan for that as well. Yes. Public's on the hook for upkeep. Absolutely. All right . Maybe one way to pay for it is just jackup parking, right? Maybe no. Well, I mean, there's success in that, right? There is success in a much smaller scale, but Cleveland has nearly quadrupled its take from street parking since jacking up rates and expanding enforcement hours at the start of the year in Kabir. So just how much money are we talking? The numbers are for the first four months after of the year after the prices were raised. So just this year, January to April one point one seven million dollars , which you compare that to twenty twenty five, the first four months, that's an increase of three hundred seventy percent , which means that they took in like three hundred thousand dollars. So it's a big jump from last year. The changes, and we've talked about these, in fact, there were changes that were very expensive. Now they're just really expensive But the changes have been knocked down a little bit by council, but what basically changed? It went it was from a dollar to one dollar fifty cents per hour for parking. If you stayed longer, you know, you couldn't park there all day, then they bumped that I think from three dollars to four fif hundredty dollars . And then the biggie, the at least that I think a lot of people noticed whether they live in the city or not, after six PM you can't stay overnight and park overnight. They're going to start charging for that. Weekends, they've started charging. This is in parts of the city not the entire city. Right. Some neighborhoods, some downtown. It's different in various parts. It's different. Yeah, they've rolled it out very differently. I mean, I find that out driving around the city. I'm like, oh, it's ten dollars to park here and it was only eight dollars over by work for the same amount of time. So don't you get free parking for your vintage volkswagen? Yeah, what I do, I put on fake plates. I mean, I don't put on fake plates , but yes, long answer to your question that, yes, they did this. And mayor Bib said, this is good for people who just need to park real quick and run inside someplace to shop. You know, all the people going to Halle Brothers to shop, they want to run inside and buy brothers. Yeah. All the people come out after le theyave the Mayany Com?p After they leave the May company and haybees , they're just people, I guess he thinks are running up to the place and they just want to run inside for ten minutes and get something . I always feel compelled to talk about the parking situation in Cleveland every time I'm on the show because I use it a lot. I use this park mobile app to pay for parking. And what's interesting is when the price increase went up, I certainly noticed the numbers and sense, but it's such a passive way of paying for it that in my mind, I'm like, yeah, it's a few bucks, but it is significantly higher in terms of percentage price. And you know, I wonder if just because it's so easy to do that, you know, the price went up and it doesn't seem to affect me, although it does eventually, but I don't notice it right away, then I'm just happy to pay it. Yeah. And what the city is saying is this is a good thing because it creates churn as you were saying, it used to be that after six o'clock on a Friday you could snag a spot and stay there until Monday and so now what are the businesses doing and what you know why can we get some churn and some turnover? So they say that's working and they're not happy that Council has limited what their plans are. But the fact of the matter is it is raking in money too. It is raking in money, not as much as it was, say the first four months of the year, but certainly more than in the past. So yeah, as you said, council, they voted thirteen to two and they said, Mayor Babe, we're going to limit your powers to increase and change the parking rates. All right, well, let's talk about something else that may profit create profit for the city of Cleveland. A new tenant may be moving into Cleveland's IX center. City officials say the manufacturer , not yet named, could bring seven hundred jobs and seventy two million dollars in annual payroll. Come here, we don't know much because apparently there's a non disclosure agreement. But we do know it's not a data farm. It's not a data sites. They say it's a manufacturer. Yeah, I mean, with that many jobs, I don't think it would be a data center, but they would take up about a half million square feet of the building and they're thinking one point eight million dollars in new income tax revenue. But as you said, there's a nondisclosure. Nothing has been signed. Brook Park City Council has approved the deal. Cleveland City Council is still looking at it. And the way this got cleared is there was a deal with Brook Park recently. We talked about it on this show where Cleveland would get the taxes from the IX center and fully. And so then there's some incentive to be able to to make this happen. They said we have to be able to get all the taxes from that building. So they undid this old deal that was tied to when we were a hub at the airport and I'm not going to take up the rest of the show explaining it, but yeah, in a nutshell, Cleveland wants to be able to create jobs and get revenue out of that and keep it all to themselves. If we have any times at the end of the show, we'll go back to that and you can give us all the details. Good, I'll change my clothes. Okay , thank you. Greater Cleveland Congregations, a faith based community organization protested outside of a citizens bank branch Thursday saying members vowed to withdraw deposits because of the bank's investments in jails that do business with US immigration and customs enforcement. Gave you over there most of the day yesterday and talking with folks . What was the demand of the group? Well, I first want to say it is interesting that they did this in university sites in front of the Citizens Bank location. You know, the demand is to the CEO of Citizens Bank, not necessarily the tellers who are there at these university highest locations. So it was kind of interesting in the symbolism . But the demand is that they want the citizens financial group to end what they are saying is a two point five billion dollars credit agreement that it has with two companies that operate private prisons and immigrations and customs enforcement Ice jails, Corcivic and the Geo Group. So these two companies operate private prisons and Ice jails apparently have two point five billion dollars in financing Wisins Make. And they want to make them stop. So that's their leverage. The leverage is we've got what do they say that we're going to withdraw So yeah, so greater Cleveland congregations has churches and individual members collectively, whether it's a personal account or an account attached to a bank. They said they have twenty six accounts that they're willing to withdraw all of that money and collectively that's more than one point seven million dollars. So that they're saying is they'll take that money out. And that may seem like a drop in the bucket to citizens bank just have this one region in Ohio to withdraw their money, but they're joining forces with a much larger effort that's more than twenty million dollars of a group of congregations in Boston . And you know, if that gains some traction, that might add up to a dollar amount that citizens bank doesn't want to lose. The Reverend Joanza Colvin of All of that institutional Baptist Church gave voice to this group. You quoted him in your story. What was he saying is the problem with funding these outfits that house people from customs enforcement. Well, him alongside the other thirty seven institutions part of Greater Cleveland Congregations is that like this is inhumane. This is unconstitutional and they wanted to express feeling to me yesterday. You know, Johnson Colben was interesting. He's no stranger to being honor air and he had a really kind of fun quote saying that you're called citizens bank. You'd think that you would be, you know, there for the people. You'd think that you wouldn't want to associate with organizations that work against what they say is basic human rights and constitutional rights . But he also talked about how seven years ago a lot of other banks had a similar , I guess, motion to just to say we're not going to join forces. We're not going to support financially these types of organizations organizations that fund and operate private banks and ice jails. So he gave a list of national banks like Citizens Bank that they said that you should follow their lead like these banks did in twenty nineteen. Yeah. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, fifth third, Sun Trust, JP Morgan Chase. They said , essentially the big ones that you would think about because I mean, the effort right now is only towards Citizens Bank. This is like an international effort and that seems to be the only one people are talking about. And let's just find out what did the bank say. I know you got a statement from them. What was their response to this? Well, I asked them if they are in fact financing these two companies and they wouldn't say yes or they wouldn't say no . But they said like they said this is not the role of banks to set public policy. They said the responsibility on them is to follow the law, apply standards consistently across all client relationships. So basically towing the line and saying that we are there to help anybody no matter what. Okay . We learned this week that Governor DeWine grant ed mercy to a man on death row the first time he's committed a death sentence. sixty four year old Gregory Lot will now serve a life sentence without parole. And when DeWine called on lawmakers to abolish Ohio's death penalty last week, he'd already signed Lot's Clemency Order. Sarah, there are more than a hundred people on death row. So question is is this an indication that in addition to his call for abolishing the death penalty, DeWine may commute the sentences of more than just this one person ? Well, we don't know yet . We do know that the governor wouldn't comment on whether he was going to do mass commutations of all these sentences. It's something that the ACLU of Ohio has been calling him to do , but it does, you know, offer a little bit of a glimpse into the fact that he might and this did this commutation happened, of course, like you said before he made this death penalty announcement . And I also will note that there were some other factors in this case , you know, the victim's family was opposed to this man being executed , and the parole board had also recommended leniency in his case. He had a couple of reprieves. The first came in two thousand two, shortly after the U . S. Supreme Court decided that executing people with intellectual disabilities is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. There was another reprieve granted from DeWine in early twenty twenty, citing a lack of available drugs, which is what he had been saying for all of those things. So he'd had some reprieve during that time. The crime that he committed was a horrific crime. Yeah, so he 's a sixty four year old man and he has intellectual disabilities and this life sentence is because he doused an eighty two year old man in heating lamp oil and then set him on fire. That man died ten years later. So a pretty brutal crime . Most of the people, if not all of the people who are serving on death row or even someone like him whose sentence has been commuted, of course, have committed really gruesome crimes. Right. And this is a local case, Gregory Lott from East Cleveland . None of the citizen led constitutional amendment initiatives will make it to voters this fall. We mentioned one earlier that will make it. That one was because the legislature put that on slightly different process . Conservative, Ohio, which was pushing for an amendment banning banning most data centers in the state announced this week it didn't have enough signatures to make the November ballot. We'll try for november twenty twenty seven instead. Same for an amendment abolishing property taxes and another on equal rights. There will still be an amendment as I mentioned on this fall's ballot, the one placed by the legislature to codify voter identification requirements in person. Lawmakers don't need to circulate petitions to get something on the ballot. And Sarah, the Data Center amendment push was a volunteer based effort, like the property tax abolishment drive . It's having trouble coming up with enough signatures. Not a real surprise, though. Not at all . It's very, very hard for citizens to get something on the ballot and lawmakers say that that's obviously intentional. They want to they say they want to protect the Constitution and that it should be hard to amend Ohio's Constitution. But lawmakers certainly have an easier route to get things on the ballot if they have something that they all agree on because it's just that a larger majority of both chambers have to pass that resolution, but volunteer efforts usually struggle. It's very expensive to get on the ballot. There are requirements beyond just getting these four hundred something thousand signatures. A lot of these groups aim for more like six hundred thousand or eight hundred thousand because they need to get a certain number of valid signatures. Right. And people spell their names wrong, put the address wrong, all of that. So not really very surprising. The signatures they've gathered, though, can roll over. They get to save those, add to them. Now they could more problematic because more time goes by, people may move and those types of things and they would be invalid. But they can keep those. There's one state lawmaker, though who says that shouldn't be the case. They should expire and you should have to start again. Yeah, I think that's just in line with lawmakers have A expressed that it should be hard to amend the Constitution. And while the process is already not easy, I think lawmakers have seen , like we have all seen, this increase in groups trying to make the ballot simply because you saw the success of the abortion rights amendment back in twenty twenty three . So I think that lawmakers have, you know, they tried to make it harder to amend the Constitution in August of twenty twenty three and failed, but there have certainly those concerns have not gone away But it is, like you said , these signatures expire. There are a lot of groups like you ran through who have pushed off trying to make the ballot this year. I think the Secretary of State Office said that there are at least six petitions out there. And I will note that some this is not the first time this has happened. There was a group circulating petitions to get the minimum wage increased and they said, well, we're going to try again for next year and then they kind of just disappeared and didn't try again. So we'll see . State Senator Jerry Sarino is somebody by the way who says there should be a twelve month or an eighteen month or some other deadline than what exists now. We'll keep an eye on that for sure. I know the State House News Bureau will. Time now for a quick break, and when we return, there are plenty more stories to discuss, including more headaches for drivers. Seriously, there are more barrels and cars lately on the roads. And an unlikely alliance looking to shore up social security. First, though, here's Stephanie Haney to tell us about what's in the works for next week on the Sound of Ideas. Stephanie. Hi there, Mike. Here's what we have coming up next week on the Sound of Ideas. You may have heard America has a birthday coming up two hundred fifty and years. So on Monday, we'll start with a pulse check on how people are feeling about this moment with a diverse panel of Ohians. We'll also talk with Story Corps, founder and president Dave Is ay about a project they have going on called Connect two hundred fifty where they'll be bringing together people from around the country from different backgrounds to have extended conversations about this moment in our history. On Tuesday, we've gota st Aredams Connor Morris with us talking about the consolidation underway at the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. And we'll also learn about the language of Esperanto. This is meant to be a secondary language that's meant to be politically neutral and foster international understanding and peace, and it has connections to Cleveland dating back to the nineteen thirties. On Wednesday, we'll be filling you in on the rulings that have been coming out from the United States Supreme Court. We hope to be able to have a conversation about what's happening with birthright citizenship if that ruling does come out . And on Thursday, we'll be bringing you information about a pilot program related to Medicare. Ohio is one of six states participating in this program that's introduc ing artificial intelligence and pre authorizations to Medicare , and the results have been leading to some criticism. Of course, everything is subject to change with breaking news as always. Back to you in the studio, Mike. Sounds great stuff, and storycore always makes me cry. I almost cried hearing the word storycore. So that's gonna be a great show. And you are back now. It's not a ideas reporters round table from ideas and public media. I'm Mike McIntyre, executive editor here, and I'm join ed this week by IDSTREM reporters Gabriel Kramer and Kabir Batya. In Columbus from the IDEASTREM State House News Bureau, we have Sarah Donaldson as well. And I invite you to not just listen and watch, but play along. Baking the weekly Ideastrem News quiz , you can find it on our homepage at ideasream. org. Send me a note to tell me what your score was. And you're hearing this right. Senator Bernie Marino, a Trump aligned Republican and Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat for whom Trump has a special derisive nickname , have teamed up to shore up social security. The two serve on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and they agree the way to get more money into the system and bolster benefits is to lift the cap on income for which the Social Security tax is collected. Sarah, let's talk about that. First of all, what an alliance? I saw their piece and they addressed it directly in their op ed in the New York Times saying, yeah, you might not expect us to be together, but we both believe that this is an important issue and this is how to go at it. What's the focus and why is it on this issue at this very moment ? Well, I think that there is absolutely concerned that if Congress doesn't act , social security benefits are going to be depleted in less than a decade at this point, which means that folks who are getting social security benefits may see their benefits cut. So I think that that has been a pressing issue and Congress definitely needs to act to avoid that from happening. Yeah, just perfect timing, right when I'm thinking about retiring myself in that time frame, the next ten years . Let's talk about what exactly they're asking. When I say lift on the cap , what happens now and what would they propose? So they are proposing raising or eliminating the cap altogether on taxable earnings while maintaining the current benefit structure. So benefits are calculated based on the full contribution base and that would lead to higher monthly social security benefits for individuals who earn more than the current earnings base. I know that's a little confusing. I'm still learning about it myself because Mike I am far away from retirement. You got a while . But studies say that that would inject three trillion into the program over the next decade. And of course that twenty thirty two date is kind of when there's concerns about depletion. Interestingly, so what happens now is you make one hundred eighty four thousand five hundred dollars a year , which I think the two of you are both over, right? Gabe and computer in times two, yeah . But if you make one hundred eighty four thousand five hundred dollars a year, you're taxed on every one of those dollars. Everything you make over it, they don't collect the social security tax. And so if you lift the cap and someone makes five hundred thousand dollars, that's where more money comes in. And their reasoning is that in their op ed, the wealthiest Americans who have benefited the most from America's opportunities should contribute the same percentage of their income as a factory worker in Chilicothy or a teacher in Worcester Mass . And it notes, why should a middle class nurse pay a larger share of her paycheck than a wealthy corporate lawyer? It's doubly unfair in an economy in which top earners wages over time have pulled far ahead of those of the average worker. So basically continue to pay that tax on all of your income or a greater percentage than one hundred eighty four thousand five hundred dollars a year . We'll see how that pans out , but I was taken aback by that partnership. It wasn't just a Republican and a Democrat. It was a pretty polarizing combination. I feel like we used to see this a lot more. People from opposite sides of the aisle figuring this is good for the country , not just this is good for my party. So it's nice that they're doing that again. For sure. First Energy can't have longer and more frequent power outages and still fall within reliability standards after the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio sided with angry customers and rejected the company's request for more leeway. Kabir, the PUCO says it received an ear full from customers . We reported on that here, but basically they were saying, listen, don't make it easier for them to leave our power off longer. This was also alliances all across the board, customers, municipalities, politicians , consumer advocates, all of them said the way that you measure the effectiveness of this is the frequency of the outages and the length of the outages. And please don't roll back those standards so that the outages can be longer or more frequent. Nobody wants that. Why would they? Right, and Gade. I just want to know that there was literally an outage two days ago in the west side of Cleveland from First Energy. So it's frequent. Yeah, lake Lakewood gets it all the time. On Reddit, every hour, somebody who's posting anything yet, anybody else got power yet ? H Inutts, I think we had one yesterday. So what would the argument be? And I've heard from the fact after we've had a conversation on this show, I got an email from folks at First Endguard. What is their argument for wanting to have this more leeway? They say they've, you know, invested in their power grid, but at the same time, they're dealing with heavier rains, worse weather, and even things like trees falling outside of the trimming zone and taking power lines down. So they're saying , look, we're investing, but we've got all these natural factors that we can't really control that are making these things more frequent and having them last longer. Now this doesn't mean they can't have the outages, it just means they're going to get dinged for it and told that they're out of the reliability standard so they don't have it's not an easier patch to stay within reliability . And just for as a gauge, they have one hundred thirty five minutes. They wanted to increase that to one hundred fifty amount of time to fix it. So that extra fifteen minutes, I guess they really felt they could have used that, but it's not going to happen, at least not right now. Okay . Everyone who drives anywhere in Northeast Ohio will tell you what a nightmare this construction season is from local roadways to virtually every highway, orange barrels and glowing red tail lights are the norm. Now add this. The east ninth street exit on Cleveland's Inner Belt access from the eastbound lanes is closing through October. Can we just take the helicopter into work, Gabe? Honestly it's funny. I am stunned how often people are just dependent on ninth street . You know, I live just south of downtown , so I do take that exit often, but when it's packed and lined up, like especially after a guardian's game or a cavs game, it just takes something else. I mean, it's so easy to go around and take something else, but people are just so dependent on ninth street. So Odaud is saying, take it every next, take somewhere else. Yeah, but that's the problem. So take something else. I'm the take something else guy. So I get off at Ontario before to ninth Street, right? Go down and hang a right and I'll get to ninth street anyway and pass that and get to where I'm going for work. But now everyone's going to be doing that because ninth streets going to be closed. So now my exit is the one that's going to be packed. So you thought you had this cool secret. Everyone's all of our listeners now know that they're going to follow your car into work . But it is a scenic route. I mean not to not to keep selling your route, but like you take, you know, you take Ontario and you turn right on Carnegie, that infamous corner that if Karen was here, she'd cl ap four and then you turn right now you're in ninth street, you turn left and now you're back down to where you would have been. But there are other alternates . It is going to be a pain for sure. It's going to be very annoying for a lot of people, but yeah, learn the map, the streets are numbered and you'll find another way to get in out of the city. Speaking of pain, that's another one of my secrets. You just stay in the left lane, go all the way to superior, get off the superior exit, hang a right off that exit. Yes, get on pain and come back. Yes. Okay. So another one of my secrets. Now everyone else is going to be there too. The project Kabir ninety is coming as a massive project. Also is underway on ' seventy seven. Drivers really don't have any free and clear options. I get up and I go up the street from where I am and right at the top of my street, half of that street is closed down. The locals, I'm sure in Hudson, it's the same. I'm sure in Tremont, you've got plenty gabe. But man, it's been a frustrating traffic season . And up here, this the I ninety project , that's not ending till twenty thirty two. So to give people a sense of how long that is, that's six years. Six years ago, we were right in the thick of COVID. Remember? Thank you. So that's how long it's going to take. I remember one of these projects they ann,ounced when it was going to end and my dad was a route that he took. And I thought, I'm going to be retiring when this is done. Not just him. Anyway , yeah, lots of stuff happening. They're replacing the bridges over four hundred twenty two, East twenty second Street, East fourteenth Street, so there's going to be a lot for there's going to be a lot forever. Well, if gird up and if you live in Tremont like some of us do, start walking to work. Honestly, yeah, I mean there's a lot easier for me. Or like Drew Mazy, just hop on your bike. By the way, I was just gonna say exactly. All right. Sheriffs from around Northeast Ohio lobbied Cuyoga County Council in support of a proposed charter amendment that would return the sheriff to an elected position in Cyoga County. The county sheriff is now appointed by a county executive as prescribed in the county charter and gave an argument against an appointed sheriff is that it creates a revolving door . What is that argument? Well, in Cuyjoga County , between let's see twenty nineteen and twenty twenty three , it had five different people holding the position between Clifford Pinkney and currently Harold Pratel. So it does I mean when you know people have the ability to leave if they want. executive has the ability to, I guess, replace them if they feel that 's necessary. But it leaves the power on the county executive and their people rather than, you know, the people, rather than people who can vote on it. Yeah, the people did vote on this on a charter. Right. So there is a charter for the county that says that the sheriff should be appointed. But we saw all these other sheriffs, and by the way, that's unique in Tijoga County across the state. It's the only county in the state that has this . So we saw these other sheriffs come in and say, really it's an accountability measure. That there should be an elected sheriff because that makes them more accountable to the public. Yeah, they feel more obligated to the people that bolder them in power is kind of the suggestion. You know, I talked to a reporter Matt Richmond about this a couple days ago and he was talking about how, you know, in Cuyahoga County, which is more populated, there are police departments all over the county that are taking care of every inch of Cairo County. But you go to some other counties in Ohio and the sheriff's office is the only law enforcement for some parts of those counties townships and townships and stuff like that. So it is a little bit unique in that regard, but I mean there's other, counties Franklin and Hamilton that are also densely populated, so it's a little bit different there . So yeah, I mean, I understand the idea, but also what's been happening is there's been kind of a disag reement between county executive and the sheriff over who se call is what call. And that's things like budgeting, especially so you know, there's they're kind of butting heads and if you're elected by the people rather than the executive , then you're not having to argue with the executives so much about how to spend the dollars, right? And there's also an amendment regarding who controls the budget, and there are several others, six total constitutional amendments thatn Ccouil's talking about our Matt Richmond will keep his eye on all of those and will continue to offer coverage there. fifteen Akron public school employees slated for layoff next month due to budget constraints will remain on the payroll. So there were seventeen that were going to be laid off . Now fifteen are staying maybe going to adjacent jobs in the district Kabir. Yeah, they're coming back to positions that were vacant or that are vacant. So fifteen of them they were going to be out on july first, but instead they're going to bring them back that' s six intervention specialists. They work with students with disabilities. And that's a very close relationship that they have. So it's important when they've got those people to pair them up . Four, they call them learning resource center technicians. They work in the libraries . Six deans of students, they're essentially assistant principals, and then there is an art therapist and she's actually going to be doing some subwork, that sort of thing, finishing her teaching credentials, and then she might be back after that. But yeah, fifteen of the seventeen will be coming back to the district. So how are they then saving the money that they needed? We heard that they needed to cut eleven million dollars by the end of the fiscal year . The goal has moved even higher than that next year. But if they're bringing everybody back and didn't really cut them, is it ? How has that happened? Well, because there's positions now that are vacant through various reasons, resignations, retirements, that sort of thing. So they were able to find the money because they don't have to spend it on those extra fifteen employees. Okay. Governor DeWine has a number of bills to consider after a flurry of legislative activity by lawmakers before they recessed for their summer break. One of those measures establishes how and when police agencies can use drones. And that's been a big discussion here in Cleveland as well. Sarah, this bill had widespread support for its passage. What exactly does it do? Yeah, so basically it, like you said, it sets up rules for how government agencies, specifically police officers, police officers can use drones , sets reservations if they need a warrant to go into a house, they basically need to go through some of the same procedures to use a drone. Now there are some exemptions to that rule, but it did have bipartisan support. It was a Republican bill , but you know, there were Democrats who were supportive of as well, just saying as technology advances, the state really needs to set up guardrails for this type of technology. The ACLU, the American Civil Liber ty Union is one of the organizations that wants the governor to veto this . What's their concern? Yeah, they like the ACLU of Ohio often does. They're raising first amendment concern s. They are concerned that this bill specifically, even though it sets up those guardrails for police departments, they're worried that it gives governments, police agencies more leeway than it gives citizens on how drones are used , and they're also concerned about the data that it collects. They're concerned about potential privacy violations. I saw that they thought it could allow because it's public record, one person to spy on another , and that would not be a good thing . No it would not . All right , waterway and reservoir park in Maslen will be restored with the help of seven hundred fifty thousand dollars in state funding. It'll be used to begin phase two of the project . And Gabe, what is Phase two and talk about the timeline for this project? So they're hoping that this starts this coming spring in twenty twenty seven will be finished by the fall, but it should bring a new pond to this park that people are calling the resi, and then phase three is going to update and improve and provide amenities to what they're calling a historic pump house. But that's down the road. It's interesting because it seems like this tiny little minor story, right? Of this reservoir, the resi in Maslen. I bet you it's the most important story to people that live in Maslen or somewhere near around there. Yeah, I mean, if you're from that area, I mean, it sounds like this is very popular. It sounds like people love this thing. I mean, if I can imagine, you know, kind the of the park cemenities I grew up with around in Medina, I'd be certainly excited to see them improve and get better. So yeah, I have to imagine that people Maslen are pretty excited about this because it's getting a lot of money. I mean, you know, the city just got this seven hundred fifty thousand dollars funding for this project. In total , it's going to be about two million dollars. One point eight up to two point one million dollars estimated for this with all the phases and that's, you know, that's not that's a lot of money. So it's going to be something I think locals should be excited about. All right . No more frogger for runners in downtown Cleveland. Construction on the Cleveland Memorial Bridge' loosp has begun . The biking and walking trail will run behind Tower City on Huron Road, separated from traffic by barriers. The project also includes another trail on Ontario Street. We had our Steven Litt give us all the details about this when it was announced months back, but now we finally have the construction going on this in Kabir . How does it meet a community need? Well, if you picture it's kind of well it's a loop and it's almost a five K. So when people are coming running on the bridges, no problem, but behind Tower City, the side that stay with me here. So the side that is close to the river , that does not have a good place for running. No sidewalks or anything. So that's where they're going to be putting this in. And if people can't picture it, it's kind of behind the old post office or behind where Hard Rock Cafe was, where the megabus used to stop. That whole area that's not, you know, people just zip through there. So for runners, it's been a problem. Now they're going to be able to actually run through there safely and then onto Ontario as well. More construction. More construction, lots of road closures, changes, that sort of thing, but this one's not going to these closures will affect cars, but the end result will be for runners and that and bikers and that's going to be completed in November. Okay, so not November of eight years from now this November. No, but in a few years there's a fourth phase to this and that's going to be a few years from now after they deal with Irishownt Bend. Okay , terrific . Ferrara's imported foods and Mayfield Heights community establishment since the late nineteen fifties has closed its doors. That's a blow coming on the heels too of Schwevel's bakery in Yongstown announcing its dem . Others whenever this happens, I remember when Sokolawski's closed and you've just recently written about that gave a neighbor of yours and friends of mine as well . When these kind of community institutions close . Big deal. Oh, absolutely. I think we're we're sad to see these institutions close. Jack's deli over on these side as well closed. And you know, I think yeah, I mean, they're just you're kind of your neighborhood staples and it's a piece of Cleveland history. You want them to last forever, you think they're going to last forever. Like you said, I mean, Soklaowski's is a place that I'm still not over. I mean, I'm still yearning and craving those progresses and I have to admit to myself, I'll never get them ever again. But yeah, I think people are certainly sad to see their neighborhood favorites go away. Yeah. And I'm sure you all have a neighborhood favorite that's not there anymore. If you have a neighborhood favorite that's still there, my advice , visit. Spend your money there, make sure that they stay open . All right, your pocketbook. Exactly. If you missed Union Pacific's Big Boy, the massive steam engine that rolled through town a couple of weeks back, you'll have another chance to check out a big old train this weekend. The American Freedom Train is coming to the flats on Saturday in celebration of the country's two hundred fiftieth birthday. And I know that Big Boy is actually coming back to in July, I think july thirteenth it's rolling through town stop in Rocky River too. But what's special about this one this weekend? So this is one of twenty trains of its kind . It's a T one class steam locomotive , but it's also a large steam engine and those don't get a lot of use and this one hasn't been available for people to view in the public in more than twenty years. So as the United States celebrates its two hundred fiftieth anniversary birthday, whatever you want to call it, you know, I think a big part of the history was a railroad construction. People are very excited to see these trains coming out of the neighborhood. When the big boy first came through and it's like said it'll be coming back after the holiday independence day holiday , people lined up in droves to see this thing. I mean, even in Tremont where I live, you know, there's a topass trail, people there was hundreds of people there and the train didn't even stop. It just drove through. People were there just to see it pass by and hear it choo choo and whatever and see the steam if they even could. But it was pretty impressive to see how excited people are about that train. They'll be just as excited about this one. How many chuggas accompany at ChuChu? I don't know Chuga Chug chau ChguaC chhu,ug. Too many, that's metric. You want two. . I actually just heard the whistle. I live in Rocky River a couple of blocks away from the tracks and it was just cool to hear it. So I'm definitely gonna see it when it comes through. All right, finally, look, I'm used to last minute losses and the goal by Turkey last night in stoppage time to ninety eighth minute sealing a three to victory of the US men's national team. It was a gut punch, but it was the group stage of the World Cup and the US had already advanced something manager at Mauricio Pochino hammered home in the post game press conference. So not perfect, but gave , the US is advancing. There are times when they don't even make the world cup. There are times when they don't get out of the group stage. Right. So it's kind of like with this match it was and I use the word match because I can. Like it wasn't the most crucial match to win. They had a lot of I guess three guys had started a World Cup Yeah game before they're but you know we were excited to see them move on and you know they, use that gunut pch to motivate them through their, you know, and they have home kit advantage throughout the rest of the country. Look at you with all the lingo can I say so they will be playing by the way on Wednesday against Bosnia and Herzegovina and we,'ll see how that one goes. I know everyone will be in front of their television sets. And that is all for today. Thank you, Sarah. Appreciate talking to you today. Yeah, it was good to be here. Thanks. All right, enjoy your weekend. And my thanks to both of you, Gabe and Kab ir. Monday on the sound of ideas everyday Northeast Ohioans discuss life in America ahead of the country's two hundred fiftieth anniversary. On radio, this show re airs tonight at nine on eighty nine seven WKSU you can listen anytime to the podcast or check out our video stream on the IDEA Stream Public Media YouTube page. We also have a robust Instagram page at the Sound of Ideas. We're off next week for the Fourth of July holiday on radio or an NPR special on how to celebrate the big birthday and on TV enjoy an episode of Ancient Invisible Cities focused on Athens