New Legislation Expedites Oil Drilling

This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. They can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a fifty page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had opened for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online makes sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability varies eighteen plus . Sad to say that we have reached our summer break and there will not be a podcast next week. We take the week of july fourth off every year. We're turning on july sixth. I'm sure there'll be plenty of news for us to address when we get back. We hope you enjoy the nation's two hundred and fiftieth birthday. It's today in Ohio, the news discussion podcast from cleveland dot com and the Plane dealer. I'm Chris Quinn here with L isa Garvin, Lara Johnston, and Courtney Astofi . And the big story of the day Thursday was, of course, the US Supreme Court's ruling for Donald Trump on the Haitian situation allowing the president to remove their protected status even though returning them to Haiti would put them into fatal danger. That's who our president is. Why did the court rule like it did, Laura and what is Trump's next move? Yeah, well, what is Trump's next move is a big question, and that's what everybody in Springfield is waiting to see. Waiting to find out if they're going to be deported immediately or what is the next step. They're hoping that they can get asylum some other way or that Congress will act . But the Supreme Court ruled six to three on Thursday that the Trump administration can move forward with ending that temporary protected status for Haiti. They said that federal law largely bars judges from reviewing any Department of Homeland Security decision to end those TPS protections , and they concluded that challengers were unlikely to succeed on constitutional claims and claims of racis m. And so this means that thousands of families could face deportation to Haiti, which is not safe at all. There's widespread violence, there's kidnappings, there's political instab ility . The American government says don't go there. If you are going to go there, make sure that you have like your dental records on files that we can identify your body. That is basically how dire this is. There's about fifteen thousand Haitians who live in Springfield, another thirty thousand in central Ohio and they've become a huge part of the economy in the community there . So Anna Savior but yeah get away from the economics of Ohio. Our status is created because we are a beacon of a nation that provides protection to people in danger. And this country is so dangerous that you, like you said, take dental records because you're in trouble. You could die . And we have a president that's saying, yeah, I'm taking that status away . It flies in the face of everything we stand for and he's just a racist who wants to throw non white people out of the country. And there was a crystallizing moment in the reading of these cases yesterday where Sam Alito and the majority are blown off the idea that Trump is a racist and the three liberals on the court started reading his actual statements, which Alito was too much of a coward to do, and to show that are you out of your mind? Everything that comes out of this president's mouth about this situation is racist. We are going to, if he follows through , send thousands of people probably to death and harm because we have a racist president. Right. And because he campaigned on this idea that he's going to break America great again. And apparently that includes wiping out entire communities of people who came here for safe harbor. And that's been the entire I mean you just said America's two hundred fiftieth birthday, right? Let's remember why this country was founded and all of the generations of people who came to this country for a better life for their families, who fled persecution so that they could have a better life. And that's exactly what the Haitians did. And we've been giving them protection since twenty ten because there was a horrible earthquake there and everything became completely unstable. And you're right, this is so bad that it is going to send tens of thousands of people to their desk in Haiti, and who knows what it's going to do to other countries. So let's take a step back in the way back machine to last year when JD Vance and others were just gung ho about throwing anybody out of the country who's not white . They were silent yesterday. And I wonder whether the fear of the midterms, the fear of Donald Trump's completely plummeting public reputation. I mean this the symbol of his failure is that stupid reflecting pool and everything else he does . I wonder if they recognize shipping people to their doom will not go well with the American people in November . This has been a fiction from the start. JD Vance was the big liar about them eating their neighbors' pets. I mean, he is a despicable human being for what he did to the Ohioans he's supposed to represent. They didn't say a word yesterday . That's a really good point . And I wondered about that because like I said, we s Anentnestaver and Josh Gunter to Springfield. There was a big community rally at six PM. There are beautiful photos on Cleveland. com you can go see and they just want answers, right? There was nothing that came out from the federal government about what happens next. And I have a much more cynical view about this, Chris. I think they enjoy the uncertainty. I think they want people to live in fear because they want them to leave on their own and they don't want to say, hey, here's how we're going to proceed. They just want people to be terrified . All people on an asylum refugee status. I think these guys are all afraid. The nation is furious. You're not seeing Trump flags and Trump signs on highways like you did for the past ten years . People are ashamed of what happened under him. He has the grift he did with the one point seven billion dollars was a turning point for a whole lot of people that are that are paying high gas prices. They can't afford groceries and the guy they thought was a decent leader is stealing one point seven billion dollars so he can buy it for his pay friends . I think people are really angry with this administration. I think that's why John Houston and Bernie Moreno have both gotten behind movements in the past week that are very anti Trump. Not an anti rich. Yeah . You just wouldn't have seen. So I'm, I think they're all silent. We ought to grab them. We ought to go to Bernie Marino and go to John Houston and go to all these people that were loud mouths a year ago about immigration and say, Do you want the Haitians removed from Ohio? Do you want to send people back to certain death? And see what they say now because the midterms are coming and America is not in a happy mood. I think we've said this on this podcast twice already this week, right? These are your representatives. Go talk to them at parades, at fairs, at rallies, wherever you see them and ask them their take on this because you're right, Chris, they need to be held accountable. I think there's a core group of people that just feel angry at the world and want to kick people out. I mean, I got an email last week inviting me to deport myself . So there's still people who believe in Trump and think that he is saving the world somehow. But I hope that you are right and that the vast majority of us have seen through the Charlatan and the antics and just want to treat people with decency . Well, we need to get them on the record. And if they won't talk about it, we'll have to say Bernie Moreno won't say what he thinks should happen to the Haitians in Ohio. They're the representatives. Speak up. He represents them. They're part of his constituency . You're listening to today in Ohio . One Ohio official is unabashed in trying to save the Haitians, Lisa. Mike DeWine is more familiar with Haiti than almost any elected official in America. And he took the gloves off yesterday. What did he say? Yeah, he didn't mint any words. Governor DeWine said this ending of TPS status for Haitians and Syrians too . It's bad for refugees and bad for Ohio. He said the situation in Haiti today is worse than it's ever been. No one who knows anything about Haiti can dispute that. And of course, he's done a lot of mission work there. So he's a Haiti expert . DeWine said that even the Feds are advising people not to travel to Haiti. And as we discussed in the previous story, violent gangs run most of the country, the economy's in shambles, the government is barely functioning, but he says, there's not much Ohio can do. He says, We have to follow the law and the legal opinion . The state did extend drivers licenses and driver's license renewal for TPS while the legal challenge was pending. That now expires july sixth. So after july sixth , Haitians will not be able to renew their Ohio driver's license. So that means they can't get a valid work permit. DeWine says this ruling makes them instantly unemployable. They contribute to the Ohio economy, he says, they filled jobs, they bought homes, and it's really going to hurt. And you know, I can't imagine ten thousand people leaving one city . Those are going to be empty homes, empty businesses , you know, lower, you know , traffic businesses . The one out that DeWine hopes will happen. We have one of the houses of Congress has voted bipartisan to extend the status by three years, which Congress has a right to do if the I think the Senate is yet to vote, but if the Senate does the same thing and they send that bill to the president . If he vetoed that, that I think there would be hell to pay in Congress. That's the one hope for saving these people from what is a cruel fate otherwise , and I just don't want our country to be doing that kind of cruelty. Yeah, I heard Trump's borders are Tom Home and yesterday say, Oh, everything's fine in Haiti. You know, conditions are fine to send them back. Really? They're not fine. That's just a lie. It's amazing how much the lie to stand behind what they say. Look at the nonsense they've put out this week on the reflecting pool , even they blew it. They poured paint manoeuvre onto fresh paint. I mean, they destroyed the work, but it's vandals, it's vandals. And you know, look, look, and they provide some grainy pictures that show nothing. You're listening to today in Ohio. Dewine is feeling feisty this week. It appears, Courtney. We talked yesterday about his veto of a photo ID bill for absentee voting. He vetoed a second bill as well on submetering. Why? Yes. So this issue of submetering, that's where landlords or third party companies buy electricity for an entire apartment complex and then tenants get billed individually . Now folks that backed house bill one hundred seventy and three that ultimately got vetoed , they say that it would have created clear rules and consumer protections for people living in submeter apartments and similar housing situations , but DeWine here is saying that the bill would have legitimized a business model that he's calling fundamentally flawed. His concern was that the protections in the bill were not as strong as protections that regular utility customers get . And we know that opponents of submedering say, you know, renters often don't get the same rights as other utility customers, right? They may not be able to access income based payment plans, can't file complaints with the Puco or rely on the same shutoff protections everyone else gets during crazy weather . But DeWin's veto here ultimately means that in Ohio Supreme Court ruling from April stays in place. And that ruling said submeteering companies are effective ly utilities and should be regulated in the same way with the same kind of protection for renters. And zooming out, you know, DeWine's veto here got praise from Democrats, including Representative Tristan Rayder. He said this veto is a win for fairness because the bill would have weakened protections all around . The bill was in the works before the Supreme Court ruling. So I understand why they were trying to work on a solution that wasn't wasn't perfect. But once the Supreme Court ruled, they should have gone back to the drawing board instead of passing it and sending it to the wine. The summitering situation is an abomination. It really mistreats people who can at least afford it. It was always bad law to take advantage of people like that. And the people in the legislature are supposed to protect people. But as we see time and time again, they're in bed with electric utilities and anybody who's in the power industry. So they didn't create a full protection . Dewine is saying, go back and create full protection . Well, on the other side of this, the bill's sponsor, representative Dave Thomas out of Ash bula County. He's a Republican, and he said the bill was meant to complement that Supreme Court ruling from April not override it. His position is that the court ultimately left questions unanswered, including how broadly the ruling applies here and whether it covers landlords who handle the submed themselves. But that's nonsense. This sticks it to the renters still. He should be shamed of himself. He should put together a bill that gives them the same rights you and I have had forever and that's it. That's the only answer. Stop playing around. He's still giving a bone to people who abuse renters. Fix it. That's what the wine said, and he's right . You're listening to today in Ohio . Eczema is unpredictable , but you can flare less with epgly , a once monthly treatment for moderate disappe earczema . After an initial four month or longer dosing phase, about four in ten people taking Emplys achieved itch relief and glare or almost clear skin at sixteen weeks, and most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year, with monthly dosing. 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Dewine long ago revamped the way we teach reading. This takes on the M in STEM. How, Laura? Well, there are new math instruction requirements and mandates that student remediation happen when they have poor performance on the state report card . So this is for public and charter schools. You got to provide free tutoring for kids, additional instruction time, extended learning opportunities and all sorts of other interventions to kids who score at the lowest level on the Ohio State test or diagnostic assessments in math and English. And this is important because people have been saying for years that our math scores are dropping, not just in comparison to the rest of the world, but also to our past . So this is going to be a focus now. The Ohio Department of Educational Workforce needs to review math textbooks and curricul um and create lists of high quality core curriculums so schools know what to use and they'll use evidence based math intervention programs. Anybody who's a parent who's out there listening, I feel you. I do not know how to help my kids with math anymore. I feel like they've completely revamped how they teach it. And it's one of those things that if you don't use it every day, like you're just like, this is all Greek to me . Yeah, and it's nice that they're thinking about the kids that get left behind here. That's what this is really about for the people that are having trouble. We're going to we're going to put it into the law that you have to help them . It's a good sign . It is a good sign. And there was a recent change in the state law. I only found out about through my kids that if you score on the highest level in the state test, then you automatically get put into an honors program for the next year. So they're really trying to push kids who have the aptitude ahead and then help the kids who are falling behind so that we are improving in math. And it's nice to see this focus because as we know, we don't know what the world is going to look like for workforce in the future, but being good at math and understanding those concepts will really help everybody in the real world. All right, you're listening to today in Ohio. Ohio lawmakers have yet to pass a bill on keeping kids safe online because they have not chosen which of two paths to head down. What are the options, Lisa? Yeah, there are two competing bills. So the first one is Senate Bill one hundred and sixty seven. This one would make app stores the main gatekeeper and have a screening process to ensure that kids can't get to an inappropriate content without parental knowledge. The app stores would have to seek that parental consent via a centralized system before any child under sixteen can download apps. Now this one is supported by Meta, which is the parent company of Facebook . Meta says that this one, you know, app stores are the best place for age verification. They say parents would only have to do it once with that centralized system instead of one app at a time. And they say that the other bill that we'll talk about next is a parenting and privacy nightmare. So this next bill is Senate Bill one hundred and seventy five. This ensures that apps know a child's age range, whether it be under thirteen, thirteen to sixteen, sixteen to eighteen, eighteen or older, and use that data to determine the features, settings, or restrictions. Now this one is supported by Google. This bill was also sponsored by Republican Senator Tom Patton of Strongsville. Google Managing Director Matthew Bye says this bill rightly focuses on apps that offer different experiences for kids and adults like social media. They said there are no unnecessary burdens for app developers in this bill and it avoids requiring kids to upload birth certificates, driver license lic enses or other sensitive data . Yeah, I don't love the idea of kids having to upload sensitive data. In the end, this becomes down to how much the parent s help enforce it because no matter what they pass , if the parents don't buy it, the parents can always help the kids bypass it . And this is a tough one. I don't know how you come up with a workable plan. Well, one of the persons that we talked to said, you know, you're asking like small time app developers that maybe have only developed a couple of apps to be the gatekeeper for those apps. And it kind of makes sense on one level, but yeah, neither of them are great . Yeah, it's it's tough. I don't know how you do it, but we do know it needs to be done . You're listening to today in Ohio . With the Vake Ramaswami and Amy Acton steadfastly refusing to state positions on issues of concern to Ohioans , we ask our readers how they'll choose their candidate in November. The problem is neither candidate has any kind of a record to look at because they've never been elected before . Courtney, what did the readers tell us ? Well, they're going to go back to some baseline ways to determine who to tick the box for in November. Readers told us they're going to vote by party here. They're going to be voting based on Trump. Namely, a lot of folks said they're going to be voting against Trump with an act and vote. You know, other people told us they're going to vote based on just the biography and what we do know of their their past. They're going to look at things like character, trust and with act and especially what they remember from the COVID years when she was leading our state's response . We heard from three hundred folks who told us this. So if Acton and Ramaswami keep avoiding specifics on things like vouchers, data centers, property taxes, childcare, election laws , all the hot topics Ohioans are interested in , we're just gonna default to that party box and related things like history here. Yeah, they're not happy that their candidates aren't talking . That with the overriding theme was to us, keep pushing them. Don't let them not answer the questions. And we're doing our damnedest to get them to answer questions. But this, but I was surprised at how strong the second sentiment was and it came from Republicans and Democrats. I don't care about anything else but the connection to Trump. I am voting against anybody that gets the benefiction from him. He's a disaster. He's wrecking our country. Trump has lost so much of the middle, and people just are ready to blanket out. That's why the Republicans screwed up here. They should not have endorsed Ramaswami. They should have let Dave Yost run in a primary because I think Dave Yost would have beaten Ramaswami who is damn near invisible right now and probably would have been a much better candidate against Amy Acton . Yeah, Chris, it's clear here Ohioans want like real answers about real issues , you know, they want to deb ates, forums, public appearances where candidates can be pressed directly beyond even just like you said, their preference to have the media really try and hold them to account on these answers. But at some point with the candidates not engag ing in really talking about Ohio issues , you know, folks are just kind of going to default to their red or blue lanes . You're listening to today in Ohio. It looks like that Cleveland Clinic um Tara Center is to go despite some weak opposition. Laura, what's the latest? The Cleveland Clinic has a master plan to overhaul its main campus to make room for that level one trauma center. The American College of Surgeons is a professional organization that sets some criteria for trauma centers and they have given them the go ahead to start with the kind of a temporary phase of this. And we don't know exactly what that'll look like . It'll be within the existing emergency department. There won't be like a separate building for it, but they're going to have to expand , build new. We don't know the details of that, but they are going forward after the group looked at the clinic's readiness, they reviewed the proposed plans and they evaluated the level of investment for the project . They don't really take into account the fierce opposition from something like Metro Health . I don't think there was any chance once the clinic said they were going to do this that anything would block them from doing it. And there are a bunch of people saying why would you oppose them investing this much money in the health of this part of Cleveland . How can it be a bad thing to have a Cleveland Clinic Trauma one center? You know they'll be good at it . And I just I don't think any of the resistance is slowing them down at all . It's pretty lame and this will happen and we'll see how it all plays out and they are looking this is a whole master plan, right? So they're not just shoehorning the level one trauma center in. So they are taking into account this creating a more welcoming campus, one that's not closed off from the surrounding neighborhoods, one that mitigates traffic issues because if you ever try to drive through Carnegie at a bad time, it's rough, right? So it's good that they're taking a holistic look at the hospital and the neighborhood and what is best moving forward . Well, in their record for research, you wonder might happen if they're operating at Trauma One Center , what they can learn through research saving people in the most dire of situations. I mean, in some ways, this could be a very exciting development in the treatment of the most severely injured. That's a really good point. I don't think that's been part of the conversation at all. It's just been like, well, we have one, so why do they need it? Yeah, it's very much been parochial arguments. And I just every time it comes up and I've talked to people, they don't want to go on the record and scream it, but they're saying, who in their right mind is going to say we don't want the Cleveland Clinic to invest this kind of money in a destitute Cleveland neighborhood? And treat, treat people who live there. Right, exactly, because a lot of the clinic specialties are people from across the country, right? If not around the world coming for heart care or whatever, but this will treat the most dire injuries and trauma right here in Cleveland. It is for Clevelanders. You're listening to today in Ohio. One last dwind bill signing today. We always say Ohio elected leaders are Bull Holden to oil and gas interest . What's the latest evidence that DeWine and Company will put those interests ahead of the voters' interest single time? Courtney . DeWine just signed a bill that makes it easier , that makes it faster to drill for oil and gas in Ohio, including under state parks and wildlife areas. So the Senate bill two hundred and nineteen, it's a big rewrite of Ohio's drilling rules. The gas industry says it's a long overdue modernization , but environmental groups see it very differently. They say it's a gift to oil and gas companies because of how much it speeds up these approvals here. It also shortens public review , they say, and could push more state owned land towards fracking with essentially less scrutiny from the state . This passed with on near party line votes and DeWin signed it, even though pieces of it look a lot like things he vetoed last year. One provision in particular lets oil and gas leases run for five years instead of three . And that's what DeWine was hung up on last year. But his spokesman said they made it more workable , and essentially that's why Duwine has signed on to it now. But let's zoom in a little bit here . Another provision in this gives ODNR and other state agencies sixty days to finalize approved oil and gas leases . And for expedited requests, the state has to okay it or say no within a week. So it's really trying to move these requests through. It is amazing when you look at history how many times state and federal government goes with the wealthy corporations over the interests of the people. It happened again with Supreme Court yesterday. They ruled that all those lawsuits over roundup are done . They they're giving Monsanto a huge , huge win despite all these people that are providing evidence that roundup is causing cancer. They wiped it off the books. It happens over and over again every time Dwine and the legislatures had a chance to give something to the oil and gas industry or the tobacco industry or the liquor industry, they do it even though it's harmful to people. And this is another case. You don't need to speed this process up and ultimately you are going to have a disaster at one of our treasured parks . I mean, when you are talking about public land, there are big changes coming here. The oil and gas land management commission is now going to have ninety days to decide on nominations to frack those public lands. That's half of what it was before. It used to be one hundred and eighty days. I'm surprised they're not putting data centers in the park at this point . The way they're just taking them is another resource to rape , to reward their wealthy donors. It's a sad state and shame on Mike DeWine. He's got six months, less than six months left doing this kind of nonsense. You're listening to today in Ohi . Everybody knows East Cleveland needs whatever help it can get to raise its residents from poverty . How is AT and T or how are AT and T and Jobs, Ohio helping here, Lisa? Yeah, those two organizations announced the launch of AT and T Fiber Service in East Cleveland. This is part of an ongoing effort to expand high speed internet access to poverty stricken areas . AT and T will also donate fifty refurbished laptops to residents who complete a digital literacy course that will be offered at the East Cleveland Library . And they've also pledged, this is nationwide. They've pledged to spend five billion dollars to help twenty five million Americans access and maintain high speed internet by twenty thirty . Yeah, it's it's great that they're stepping in. I'm glad to see Jobs, Ohio doing some good things. You get the impression that Jobs, Ohio is on a publicity tour or public relations tour. Yes, they are because suddenly there's a whole lot of people looking at them saying, you're way too secretive. We want to know what you're up to. Yeah, it was telling you the other day I saw a commercial for Jobs Ohio, but you didn't know it was a Jobs Ohio ad until the last two seconds when they flashed the logo . It's interesting that all of a sudden the legislature thinks there needs to be more transparency. We've been saying that since it was created . And the transparency might show us they've done a great job. We just we have no way of verifying. So but good for this E,ast Cleveland needs help. I've thought for a long time that the best course for East Cleveland would be to merge with Cleveland Heights. I think there's a lot of potential there and the people there would get a quality government and quality services and the union of the two would lead to a positive change even if it required an investment. I don't see any other way out for East Cleveland. I don't either. But the last time they tried the merger, you know, East Cleveland I if I recall correctly wanted to keep their city, you know, or, you know, their council in place . And yeah, they did. That was a merger with Cleveland No, where they would have been one of a bunch of awards. I think if they merge with somebody like Cleveland Heights, they would still have the significant voice in and everything. It would I just think it would be a huge boon for both towns that Cleveland Heights needs some economic development potential. It's built out. East Cleveland has that potential, but it doesn't have a government that could get it done. No one is going to invest there given the history of corruption. But you put those two together, the people there get quality services and you get a bigger city, which counts more when you're going for huddles . You're listening to today in Ohio. That's it for the week of news. That's it until july sixth. Like I said at the top, we'll be taking a break next week. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks Laura. Thanks Courtney. Thank you for sticking with us all these episodes . We'll return a week for Monday. Have a happy twenty fiftieth US birthday