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Crooked River Cast Show 48
53 Plays10 days ago
Crookedrivercast.com
Crookedrivercast@gmail.com
- 6 House GOP vote to block Canadian Tariffs.
- Ohio GOP Says no to Trump but did they?
- Immigration and white privilege.
- Why Dewine is the worst.
- NEO cities vote to oppose ICE. So brave…
- New Russia Township votes no on “Mega Site”.
- Asheville Village denies data center.
- Cuyahoga County has a problem with overtime.
- Two brothers and a mayoral assistant convicted of bribery.
- What to do with Burke Lakefront Airport.
Good Things:
- The days are getting longer.
- Irishtown bend repair is complete.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Show Overview
00:00:12
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the Quicken Rivercast. This is Robert and that guy over there is Tom. And we are two guys just trying to keep track of what is going on in the great state of Ohio. This is show 48 for the week of February 16, 2026.
00:00:25
Speaker
And yep, you guessed it. We got some stuff to discuss.
Valentine's Day Discussions
00:00:31
Speaker
Let's do it.
00:00:39
Speaker
In the morning, my brother from another mother. in the morning. Happy Valentine's Day. How you doing, sweetie? Oh, not as good as you are, sweet cheeks.
00:00:52
Speaker
Valentine's Day today. You got anything special planned? Uh, yeah, we're going to go to a... We didn't plan it. It's just kind of... We didn't have a reservation for anything. So we're going to go to like a local winery here for like a late lunch, early maybe supper or so.
00:01:09
Speaker
Yeah, nothing nothing special. What about you? my Our Valentine's Day was kind culminated this morning when I said, i said, happy Happy Valentine's Day, honey. She said, Happy Valentine's Day. That was about it. Yeah. We don't do a lot for them. We never have.
00:01:26
Speaker
We did early on. i wouldn't say we did a lot, but it was it was always ah a nice dinner and a romantic, I don't know if it's even a romantic evening, an exciting evening.
00:01:39
Speaker
but Put it that way. How romantic can it be? When you have all you when you when you need a you need a day of peer pressure it's to tell your significant other what that you care about. that's I don't. ah Valentine's Day doesn't bother me. It's like all the like sweetest day.
00:01:58
Speaker
It's like, all right. come on. Yeah. But wasn't Valentine's day the same reason that they started it for the similar reasons is like kind of commercial. I know. think. Sweetest day was. Sweetest day was definitely just. Hallmark I think. Yeah. It was kind of like, Hey, there's nothing going on this time of year. We need something.
00:02:14
Speaker
Right. And, and I don't think Valentine's day, I think is, you know what? I never looked it up. How long has, but it's probably been around for a long time. i I just, I like the women in my office. They're like, Oh, what are you doing your wife for Valentine's day? Nothing. Nothing.
00:02:29
Speaker
Why? i said, because you know what? I tell my wife all the time how that I care about her. I don't need public pressure to do it in a holiday. And they you all look at me like, oh, some of them do at least. I go, oh yeah, guess I could see that.
00:02:40
Speaker
yeah And that's why i tell them, if your man only gives you flowers on Valentine's Day, should think about that. Yeah, you know, we can all do better in in that respect, i think. But well Valentine's Day has been observed for over 1,500
Teenage Life & Parenting
00:02:55
Speaker
years. yeah.
00:02:56
Speaker
oh It is the card companies in there. They're old. I mean, Hallmark has been around a long time. It's ah it's an actual saint, you know? Yeah. St. Valentine. Yeah. ah But other than that, where I don't think we actually usually do something with the girls. Yeah. But they are our Valentines.
00:03:16
Speaker
And I don't think we have much. And usually we don't do anything on Valentine's Day because that's just. I'm not, no. I mean, ah without a reservation. we used to do it, but you do have to make a reservation pretty early on.
00:03:28
Speaker
Especially, oh my goodness, on a Saturday evening. Geez. Forget about it. Yeah. Especially when it's on a weekend, Friday. So yeah. It's like, no. But even if it's on like a Thursday, that Saturday is, you know, don't even go to a restaurant because they're slammed.
00:03:42
Speaker
Yep. Yep. So no, I don't know. i don't think we're going I literally just, that's what we did this morning and I'll say something to my kids and that'll be about it. And maybe we'll get an extra treat or something from the grocery store when they go.
00:03:54
Speaker
Extra bowl of ice cream or something. So romantic. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Well for the kids, for the kids. The ice cream is for the kids, not, not for me. What about your oldest daughter? She got somebody that is her Valentine's.
00:04:09
Speaker
Absolutely not. That you know of. Then, oh, I bet she has somebody in mind. ah Over the summer, I know for fact, because over the summer, how homecoming it was, she went with couple of friends, which is very common.
00:04:24
Speaker
Yeah, nowadays, right? no Nothing, no gay, no gay. Just friends that I it know of. wasn't even going there. but I know, I just... I think it's more of a hang now than it is. a hang now, yeah. It's still so somewhat like that, but it...
00:04:38
Speaker
When, you know, 30 years ago or 20 or whatever it is, I think it was more of a stigma. If you went by yourself or with friends, it was kind of like, Ooh, you can't get a date. Now it's just like, eh. I remember a few people doing it, but it it was, uh, Oh, you couldn't get a date. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You were like, you stood out, but now it's very common. And yeah we were at,
00:04:58
Speaker
Oh, i I was giving him a ride to homecoming and my my daughter asked me to take pictures and I was like, oh yeah, I can do that. Cause she never asked. She's always running away from the cameras as most women do. And so i said, okay, yeah you know, we got picked up our friend. We went to one of the lakes over here, Cole Lake over in Brea.
00:05:19
Speaker
Oh yeah. game play And, and, It was freaking a, mo it was a mass mob scene. There was one parking spot. It was just crazy. oh Anyway, we took pictures, got some nice shots, talked to her parents for a little bit. They're her friend's parents. We had a matter of couple, met a couple our friends or this and that. So we're driving back to get grab some meat before we drop them off at homecoming.
00:05:37
Speaker
And her, her, her friend, my daughter's friend gives up the farm and so throws her right under the bus and, and starts talking about the two boys that she likes. ah Nice.
00:05:48
Speaker
She's riveted. Stop it. And I'm like, I'm like, I like you. You can come along anytime.
00:05:56
Speaker
she she was really mess She was messing with her. That was the thing. She was messing with her friend. That was pretty funny. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, she's at that age. ah Yeah, i've i've I prod her occasionally, but no. no noah no one She's probably been at that age for the last couple of years, right? Oh, sure.
00:06:12
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. But she denies it. she doesn't you know Boys are still annoying and smelly, which is why i always tell her. Boys are annoying smelly. Well, you prove it. You don't tell her. Right. I live by example. I show her by example. I'm smelly and rude all the time.
00:06:30
Speaker
But no, nothing yet. i and She's concentrating on driving, and that's that's where we're going with. Oh, good. Have you started that? It's up to her. Oh, she hasn't started yet.
00:06:41
Speaker
She hasn't even asked. I told her the other day we were on driving home. I was like, you know, i think it's kind of weird that you're not asking to drive. And her response was, okay.
00:06:53
Speaker
I said, hey, you know, I'm not going to force you. She got her temp right away. Yeah, in the middle of a blizzard. Well, that's fine. But now I was like, you can drive anywhere now. it's I can actually see my driveway. It's crazy.
00:07:06
Speaker
Yeah. In a few more days, everything's going to be melted. So it'll be a good time to take her out. got Maybe you have to have to push it a little bit. That's me pushing it. and And she'll get there.
00:07:20
Speaker
But I think, so everybody enjoy your Valentine's Day scam and go out and buy cards. Tell your wife you love her. I mean, if you do, if you don't, then don't bother. I do every day. So what's the difference? ah Yeah, I like to, little bit harsh, but hey, you know.
00:07:40
Speaker
Moving on to some actual news stories. i think i think the first one we'll touch on is this GOP, this kind of a national thing, GOP blocks, or the House of Representatives put in a bill to block the Canadian tariffs that Trump put up.
00:07:59
Speaker
And six Republicans crossed the aisle to pass the legislation to block the tariffs. And does this matter much?
00:08:11
Speaker
will it affect the terrorists on Canada? Because Trump's going to veto it.
00:08:19
Speaker
Right? I would think so, yeah. And there's not a majority to
Political Maneuvering & Elections
00:08:25
Speaker
overturn his veto. Right. So it doesn't mean a whole lot, but the reason I kind of kept it in the lineup is because it will make the midterms a bit more interesting. Because there are now some... Is Trump going to primary these Republicans?
00:08:40
Speaker
Some of them deserve to be primary, mind you. I don't know enough. of Well, the listen, are they? I'm coming to the realization that there's no such thing as Democrats and Republicans anymore.
00:08:54
Speaker
It's anti-America America Plus. You're crazy. Yeah, okay. Thomas Massey, you're going to have a hard time primarying him. I think he's well-loved Kentucky.
00:09:06
Speaker
Very well, yeah. ah Kevin Riley, is he really a Republican? California, so not really, no. You're not going to get a, that's from California. ah Don Bacon, I'm not familiar with him. He's from Nebraska. That's a pretty red state, so you maybe can primary him.
00:09:25
Speaker
And Jeff Hurd from Colorado, I don't know. Again, is he really Republican? Yeah, Colorado's kind of funny, right? i'm nine Brian Fitzpatrick from PA. Right. That game rings a bell somehow.
00:09:36
Speaker
Well, he might he you know he might be in one of those purple districts where it's kind of like they can go either way. So I don't know enough about some of these guys. Washington Republican? I mean, unless he's like right on the edge of Idaho or something. Dan Newhouse is a Washington Republican. The final one is Republican Gregory Meeks. He's a Democrat. Democrat from New York. so Yeah, so he's not going to go anywhere.
00:09:59
Speaker
I don't know. this Oh, that's that's who sponsored it. Sorry. Gregory Max is who sponsored it. yeah Yeah, this is just a nothing. It's probably nothing burger, but it does put him on the record for so for opposing Trump.
00:10:14
Speaker
Right, right. Massey's been ah kind of a war path on these tariffs, calling him the taxing authorities in Congress, not in the at the president's. This would still have to go through Senate, right? Right.
00:10:27
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's not going to go anywhere. So yeah it it won't make it past that. Yes. I'm assuming it does. It doesn't matter. Stuff like that. and and a couple of other Graham and McConnell. I don't know how they, they but you don't hear from McConnell anymore.
00:10:43
Speaker
ah So I don't know how he feels about tariffs and Graham. I'm, you know, he, he's a, he's a funny dude, man. A dude I'm using very lightly.
00:10:56
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. Well, it says here, Meek's resolution now heads to the Senate where it appears likely to pass. Really? In October 4 joined all Democrats to vote to terminate Trump's tariffs and on Canada, a measure led by Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat out of Virginia. Those GOP lawmakers were Senator Mitch McConnell, Kentucky, like Massey, Rand Paul,
00:11:21
Speaker
No duh. Susan Collins again. And ah Lisa Murkowski out of Alaska. None of those are surprises. So it could pass. It probably will pass, actually. I don't think it will, but but good thing I think they'll come They need all these people to to vote it to get it passed, it doesn't really matter anyway because he's going to veto it and they don't have see more than 60 votes. So it's basically all to do about grandstanding, mostly the extent. and And all these guys always do, right?
00:11:47
Speaker
I see Nancy's point on the the whole taxing thing. a You know, tariffs, you know, is it a gray area you think or no? Yeah. Yeah. who's Who's responsible for that? It's kind of a gray area. yeah It is because ah if you're, okay, so they always say, ah let me try it. I haven't really thought this totally through, but we we always say free trade, right? But we're never in a situation where it's free trade.
00:12:15
Speaker
we're We're always getting shafted by these countries. So it's he's just kind of hitting them back. yeah And I don't think Congress is strong enough to do that.
00:12:26
Speaker
Yeah, I don't believe Massey's against him. I think he wants, well, he may be in some areas. Oh, no, he is. ah For this, I think he is, yeah. See, my my understanding was his argument was always it's our responsibility to do it. Not necessarily that he wouldn't do with them, just that it's not the president's well okay authority. I don't know. i'm i' This is just, you know, months and months of... Okay, but he knows that wouldn't pass.
00:12:49
Speaker
but Oh, yeah. That's a good point. in And look at what he's look at what he's getting done with these tariffs. There's no way Congress would be able to do what he's doing now because of of the ability to to push these countries and to negotiate on the fly. Mm-hmm.
00:13:06
Speaker
So Yeah. I, I suppose if there's like one person in the, in our country that I want control of tariffs, it would be Trump. i'm I'm sure there's others that would be pretty good at it, but he, he's the guy I want doing that. he's He's the one who's got the twitchy eye. He's got the, yeah he's a, he's got the gonads. He's got the FU money.
00:13:27
Speaker
listen So yeah, that's the other thing that he doesn't need to be bought. Right. So, Yeah. Right. So I think they're like much to do about none going to get vetoed if it even gets past the Senate. And it'll just be something to talk about. They can argue about it throughout the midterms. So yay to that.
00:13:45
Speaker
Moving it on to the next story is more about the GOP. And this one comes from our friends at News Channel 5. GOP leaders say no to Trump election plan.
00:14:00
Speaker
Or did did they really? Did they really? Once again, Trump, um to me, Trump is negotiating and nobody can see it. and um And it's probably a good thing. here's it you know Here's the here's this status quo.
00:14:13
Speaker
Trump says something crazy. Nationalize elections. Everybody grabs their pull pearls and goes, oh, no, they they they go.
00:14:25
Speaker
Freak out, grab your pearls. And then this is a tactic I've seen the left do since I can remember. Then when everybody grabs their pearls, they go, oh, okay, well, how about this much more reasonable, what what we actually want?
00:14:40
Speaker
And everybody goes, oh, this is much better. Okay, we'll vote for that. I feel it's exactly what he's doing here. and let's take a little listen. Have you... um I mean, you feel it's the same way? Because I feel i feel like this this is trump emmo Trump's MO. This is classic.
00:14:59
Speaker
He's going to come out hyperbolic and... Or do you actually think he wants to nationalize the elections? He might actually think that. I don't have an issue with national night nationalizing um federally elected ah officials.
00:15:17
Speaker
Okay. What does nationalizing mean, though? That's my question. A standard that each state has to follow. Okay. We don't have that now. They have the abilities.
00:15:27
Speaker
<unk> No, i i see, here's the thing. each one Each state has their own, like, how many days after the election? how You know, how many mail-in ballots? um What machines are we using? it's it's a It's a bastardized version of...
00:15:44
Speaker
Voting, I mean, yeah you know, it's all over the place. I'm not sure. but they don't Maybe they don't do it enough of it, I think they have the ability to do it. What's that? To to guide the state guide the states through, especially national, federal elections especially.
00:15:58
Speaker
Right. But what do you do on with the locally? See, it's kind of weird because like we got the midterm. So part of that is actually federal, right? Because we'll be like, and then the, there's going to a whole lot of local officials running too for, you know, local offices.
00:16:19
Speaker
So it is tough. I think a good example, I'm trying to remember, it might have been New York who passed a law that illegals can vote.
00:16:31
Speaker
Right. But only for local elections. Okay. But that's a ah split, right? that I'm kind of talking about like more of the um who counts the votes, what counts the votes, when the votes can be placed yeah when you know where How do we collect the votes, I guess? I got you, yeah.
00:16:55
Speaker
that's That's the weirdness where you know you got California who you don't have to show an ID. ah that That's messed up, but I guess that's their right as a state as of now.
00:17:09
Speaker
Right. So let's see. Let's see what Channel 5 has to say. Let's start this clip here. Basically what Trump said and how the Ohio GOP kind of responded to it. And, oh, no, all the restrictions. What are we going to do? The Republicans should say we want to take over. We should take over the voting, the voting and at least.
00:17:30
Speaker
Many, 15 places, the Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. The federal government should get involved. President Donald Trump says that elections should be nationalized. He complains that blue states and cities can't run elections honestly. The state is an agent for the federal government in elections. i don't know why the federal government doesn't do them anyway. While on CNN Wednesday, U.S. Senator John Husted said that Ohio's elections are run well, but pushed for more oversight of other states. They don't have photo ID in California. They don't properly maintain their voter rolls in California. But stepping out of D.C., statehouse leaders are pushing back. Do you think that Ohio should give up power for the president?
00:18:14
Speaker
Well, um the state of Ohio should be in charge of the state of Ohio's elections. I don't think that um ah the states in any way should give up their elections. For for one thing, is federal government going to come in and run a township trustee election? Elections law expert Atiba Ellis says that the president doesn't have the authority to federalize elections. If Congress chooses to make changes regarding federal elections and federal elections only, Congress can do so. The president cannot declare that the Republican Party or whomever can take over elections. What he can do, Ellis says, is push the states to mirror federal law. Congress can set law in regards to federal elections, which states would have to follow. So when you bring these together, there is a bit of unification. House Minority Leader Donny Isaacson warns that this has happened before. Several months ago, the state got rid of a grace period for mail-in ballots to arrive, since the Supreme Court is also addressing that issue. The current leadership in Ohio has been acting on Donald Trump's orders to restrict the right to vote for people. strict Does it make you feel a little bit assured that Puffman said that no, Ohio should not be giving up any power to the feds?
00:19:34
Speaker
Unfortunately, it does not give me a lot of confidence to hear from the people who've passed bill after bill after bill limiting access to the ballot for the people in Ohio. I don't think it should happen. I don't think it will happen. ah All the restrictions. Oh, my gosh.
00:19:49
Speaker
Always. Yeah. I mean, i don't know. I just, everything they said was true. As I said, it's like you have election day and you have federal and you have state stuff happening. So I think the, one of the, what I've, ah the way I've always learned it or understood it in the United States is one of the unique things about United States is we actually have 50 elections. It's not one election. Right.
00:20:16
Speaker
And i think that I think that's a ah big part of the quote-unquote success of the Republic, i guess. but that yeah Because I'm not sure how successful we've been. I mean, we're well pretty successful, but for how long, all that stuff. but Go to England, find out. Yeah. yeah And that makes a lot harder to...
00:20:37
Speaker
to steal an election. Now they've, I think they figured out how to, because when it comes down to most elections, it's five or six States that you have to really push one way. yeah and I mean, there's there's the whole ballot harvesting thing too. You know, it's, it's a hurdle.
00:20:52
Speaker
So they passed the save act, right? That's as part of the, part of this in the house, right? In the house. Right. And that's, it's going to go to the Senate and we're going to see what happens. And that's one of this, that's what's bringing all this up to the surface.
00:21:03
Speaker
Right. that Everybody's kind of freaking out. It's always interesting to hear this argument that your voters won't be able to figure out if, if how to vote, if there's any kind of changes yeah or any kinds of additional checks or balances. My favorite argument is that women will have a harder time to vote. And it's like, Oh, so you're saying they're all too stupid to figure it out.
00:21:25
Speaker
Almost like I planned it. Yes. Um, um, I was, um,
00:21:31
Speaker
I was always, I think I was mistaken. I was always kind of told, you know, all men are created equal, including women. But I think I have been mistaken. And i think I've been informed over and over again, especially when it comes to voting rights and voting laws and registrations that I think I'm wrong.
00:21:49
Speaker
Because apparently what I'm being told is that black people are too stupid to vote. They're too stupid to know how to get an ID, especially black women. That's a double whammy, I'm told.
00:22:00
Speaker
Because if you're a woman and you're black, there's no way in hell you're to be able to figure out how going to vote. Now, some may say, some may say, if women aren't voting anymore.
00:22:13
Speaker
But here's let like let's hear what Scott Jennings had to say on CNN. i always I've been looking for a reason to bring a Scott Jennings clip in because this is kind of how This is kind of how I think you can handle this. And he just kind of he defeats him with one simple word, one simple question. Let's listen to what Scott says on CNN.
00:22:36
Speaker
What voting rights is he taking away from black voters? Oh, if we look at the save act, that's exactly what we're talking about. That is actually going to continue to disenfranchise how overwhelmingly a lot of people of color. now There are so many civil rights organizations that have run the data. If we look at the way that it is going to disenfranchise black voters, it's the same reason why Chuck Schumer called it Jim Crow 2.0. This is the same president. if we want to continue- Jim said hell yeah.
00:23:00
Speaker
I am talking about it. It's the way that you're putting new poll taxes on this when you're making people have. That's what we can call them now. It's ah it's it's kind of an idiom. oh we can If you want to say that people have to prove that they are citizens, that they have to prove with a voter ID. The reality is you're layering what is a constitutional right for the American people and making it harder for people to vote in this country. And it's going to be disenfranchised black voters. Pause this for a second. Hold on.
00:23:28
Speaker
A right for the American people. Sorry. Just the hurdles she's trying to maneuver. Oh my gosh. This is a right for the American people, she says. And you're making it harder.
00:23:43
Speaker
So if it's a right for the American people that you don't want to be taken away, you're saying, then how do we tell who's the American people? How do we tell? We just go, you look American. Continue.
00:23:57
Speaker
That... you're making all these claims. You've yet to lay out how it's hurting anyone, but 76% of black voters think we should show an ID to vote. 80% of Hispanic voters, 83% of the American people.
00:24:10
Speaker
Are you saying that black voters are too dumb to know what's good for them? I mean, it sounds condescending to me. The not about ideas. Act is about So what?
00:24:27
Speaker
it does i Actually, there's an argument to be made that red state voters, women, ah poor white voters could be just as... you think they're dumb too, don't you? Yeah, i mean, that's the thing. I hear these arguments. I've heard them all week long. All week long? My whole life. There's a deflection. Donald's racism. You should be thinking about your constituents. and or you yeah I think they're smart enough to figure out how to register to vote. Hold on, hold on. Most Americans don't have a passport. Many Americans don't have access to their birth certificate. many Many women, a majority of women who change their names for marriage let's have to provide additional proof that they've changed their names in order register. So Scott, why don't you actually respond to the substance of what I'm saying i am and as opposed to making this about something that it's not. It's not just about marriage. It's also about white house and accessories. Let the guy come
00:25:42
Speaker
let the guy come in in offer proof no he still couldn't get past all the the hens on that sta on that panel holy cow do you know you know tom some people don't have passports oh i it's i'm one of them some people some women Some people don't have access to their birth certificate. Now, I immediately go, why?
00:26:08
Speaker
it maybe because you're from another country? ham Maybe? Sorry. Yeah. Don't you just have to call City Hall? That's my question. Yeah. Why don't you have access to your birth certificate? I'm sure there are reasons. Some people, illegals.
00:26:22
Speaker
That's exactly. I'm sure there's some cases where you can't get your birth certificate. But you have to eventually get it. If you have your social security number, I'm sure there's a way to get a copy of it. Yeah, because you kind of needed your birth certificate when you were born to prove that you were born and get a social security number. Or some point, you needed that. think I took my so birth certificate when I got that stupid... ah new driver's license. Oh, with the, um, yeah, with the free travel, whatever travel thing with, with the star on it, you know, like, you know, just to mark everybody. So everybody knows who you are. Yes. Yes. I'm marked.
00:26:55
Speaker
I know I have a two, so it's okay. Uh, I tried to stay away from it, but, uh, laziness took over and I just ended up getting it. So I don't know. I, I, uh,
00:27:08
Speaker
that That's the safe bet. All these restrictions people are to use. So that's what I'm getting at. They told me, they were informing, Democrats have informed me over and over again through my whole life that black people are not capable of figuring out how to get IDs.
00:27:24
Speaker
Well, it's hilarious because now they added women to that too. I mean, it's it's kind of a natural fit. Yeah. Tracks. Tracks.
00:27:33
Speaker
Yeah. So there you go. That's the insane ideology we're dealing with here. i don't get how you knowt this this is not an edge issue. Listen to those numbers. 80%. was just going to say that it's it's hilarious that they keep arguing it when over three quarters of the country sides with it.
00:27:56
Speaker
yeah You know, even blacks. And it's like, yeah, like not even a close margin, not even close. And the thing is, okay, so 75% black population. And what was it like? 93% of wow whites. And yeah I think it was 80 some percent. So 80% of Hispanics, 83% of the total American population. 83%. Oh, okay. Of the total. So it's an 80, 20 issue.
00:28:24
Speaker
And they're, and they're going to argue And they're going to argue. It blows my mind. And there's people out there that still vote for this stuff. They're too stupid to pick up on these things, man.
00:28:39
Speaker
So the Ohio GOP is really just saying, they're like, yeah, come on. It's not going to happen. We know it's not going to happen. But we do need more laws. We do need more oversight because of other states. Because of California, it's it's okay' it's not only that you don't need to show an ID in California.
00:28:55
Speaker
You're not by law allowed to flash your ID at a polling station. Yeah, you get arrested. You get arrested for it or a fine. capture yeah You can get taken a off and and you know whatever. I'm sure it's a slap on the wrist. But still, it's okay, that's a problem.
00:29:09
Speaker
But here's another problem. like They brought up in the clip. They're voter rolls. It's a slap on a wrist to steal $1,000 worth of stuff from a store. I'm sure you get... busted for a showing your driver's license.
00:29:22
Speaker
but Actually, it's not even a slap on her wrist for $900 and below. it's Well, that's what I'm saying. I mean, for a thousand, for a thousand you're like, ah just all get out of here. That's close enough. Go ahead.
00:29:32
Speaker
ah so But the voter rolls, think about the voter rolls in California. We just look at what's what we look at what we see in Ohio with the GOP run government for the last 10 years and the things that they find there are from now, they're not horrible, but there's still dozens and dozens of incorrect people on the voter rolls.
00:29:53
Speaker
Could you just imagine what's going on in Chicago, New York, kind of ah California, or Illinois, not just Chicago, but all of Illinois and so on and so on. Colorado. What state did somebody just get busted for their dog voting?
00:30:08
Speaker
I don't know. i didn't see that. It might have been Virginia. i oh ah man. Should I look it up? Anyways, somebody registered their dog and they got a ballot and voted twice, but they did end up catching them.
00:30:23
Speaker
But they did vote two or three times, I think. Ah, you know, just two or three times.
00:30:31
Speaker
Oh, I do need California. Oh, do well, she's facing six years in prison for allegedly registering her dog to vote and casting mail in ballots. Yeah. So, you know, she's the one who got caught. How many more are there? And they're going to quietly give her an award but after she's done with the case. Right. Right. She's facing six years. Oh, they'll give her.
00:30:55
Speaker
yeah No. 90 days probation or some dumb shit. Yeah. Um, Yeah, California it makes sense. So, yep. tell us ah Tell us what you think about that. What's your opinion on ah voting?
00:31:07
Speaker
What's on Trump's comments and that? Let us know what you're to say. by the way, she only got caught because she posted it on um social media. So, and ah again, it's a woman. California was forced to do something about is basically what you're saying. They probably got lot of...
00:31:23
Speaker
they probably got a lot of ah mail about that from all over the country probably I'd imagine tell us if you're what your or who your dog voted for in the last election at crooked river cast at gmail.com check out the website crooked river cast.com every monday morning along with the show dropping is the blog post There's all of our stories in it, a lot of the clips that we have, all the resources
Immigration Debates & Social Issues
00:31:49
Speaker
we're using. You can go through them and, you know, find out what we're missing or what we're wrong possibly. Or just, you know, like most people do, just email us on how great we are.
00:31:58
Speaker
And if you're really, really interested in it, you can always try to find me on X. Me love cookie! Because who doesn't love cookies? Cook at rivercast.com. We thank you for listening. We appreciate it. Share the show, leave a comment, give us a review. If you don't mind, it really would help spread the word in Ohio.
00:32:20
Speaker
All right. Next, he gets it gets even better. So we've got a few stories here that I kind of lumped them all together on immigration. it kind of started with this first one here.
00:32:31
Speaker
I'm kind of curious why you why you chose this story. um It's not a story. it's an op-ed. Yeah, it's an op-ed. Yeah. yes And it is Laura Johnston, Cleveland.com. What a surprise.
00:32:45
Speaker
Looks like a dude. And it does? She does. Oh, she does. It does? Sorry, it does. And I kind of started reading this just as a guilty, as a kind of a hate hate read, as as you might want to say. and Yeah, yeah.
00:32:58
Speaker
and And then when I started seeing these other kinds of stories pop up that I've, some of them I put away from a couple of weeks ago, for example, Northeast Ohio cities are putting these resolutions in against ICE and there's legislation and on state in the state, in Columbus, three three or four bills stating think they want to you know force local ah local police and sheriff's office to cooperate.
00:33:26
Speaker
So I'm reading this. It starts off with, Laura says, Cleveland, Ohio. I'm a naturalized citizen. For years, I lived in the United States as a resident alien with a green card.
00:33:37
Speaker
I was never asked for my documentation. Oh, wait, you know what? Sorry, this is missing something here. Where is it at? ah Oh, here it is.
00:33:47
Speaker
That's as loud as I thought it was. For many years, I was never asked for my documentation unless I was crossing the border or applying for a job. I was never discriminated against because of my immigration status. would certainly never stop by fellow agents because I have white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes.
00:34:05
Speaker
This is privilege.
00:34:09
Speaker
I can press all the buttons at one time. ah all ah Other Americans born in this country are living in fear of immigration and custom enforcement. In Springfield, where the Trump administration wants to deport Haitian refugees, birthright citizens are carrying proof of citizenship, afraid they'll be confronted by federal agents, all because of their darker skin color. Why are they afraid if they're citizens?
00:34:37
Speaker
Well, because...
00:34:41
Speaker
Donald Trump federal agents are allowed to use race yeah but she's she's saying this I doubt they're afraid um I birthright citizens carrying proof of so citizenship but there's nothing to be afraid of but but but their skin color Okay.
00:35:00
Speaker
So they're being afraid of ask for, if you, let's let's just go a couple more paragraphs here. Federal agents are allowed to use race, language, and location to decide who to stop thanks to september you ah to a September U.S. Supreme Court emergency order that this is called total circumstances. Okay.
00:35:20
Speaker
So if you can't use what they look like, what how they're speaking, accents and language, and where they are, what do you have left what do you what are you just gonna oh it's gonna be better if we just randomly pick people and ask them how does she explain the 160 000 ukrainians that got shipped out well she's apparently on board with your nonsense that they're minorities you know that's probably what it is ukrainians yeah you slavics right ah well okay but you can't tell i know how do you know
00:35:53
Speaker
ah And it means agents can stop cars driven by people who look somehow foreign born or raided Mexican restaurants. Well, I mean, that's kind of common sense.
00:36:06
Speaker
Every time I go into a Mexican restaurant, that's the question that's going through my head. considering that they can't speak English too well. Here, we're getting to the crux of it here. So we go, in the last year, American citizens have american citizens have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased, and shot by immigration agents, according to ProPublica. Oh, it's such a fair and balanced ProPublica, which documented 170 incidents between January and October 2025.
00:36:34
Speaker
A pregnant woman had the door blown off her, are ah that her home blown off, the door her home blown off while democrat ah Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem watched.
00:36:46
Speaker
i I'd like to watch that too. Was she like was she stroking her mustache or pretend mustache? She was like, wow. um I'd like to know who was in the home besides a pregnant. That's it.
00:37:00
Speaker
That's it. There's nobody else there. Just a pregnant woman. She's hiding her rapist husband. or yeah And they were going after the baby in her womb because he was illegal, were saying.
00:37:12
Speaker
They were trying to get her before he was born. that's Maybe that's it. Well, don't they do that and on on that side anyways? What do you mean? Try to get the thing before they're born?
00:37:23
Speaker
Well, yes, they they want to. If you're a liberal? Yeah. they want Isn't that kind of celebrated? Yeah. it's it's they They praise their abortions. Okay, let's see. The um Native Americans have been detained by ICE agents who question the veracity of their tribal identification. Okay.
00:37:43
Speaker
Oh, Native Americans whose ancestors occupied this land well before European explorers, let alone the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Oh, yay, yay. She's going hit all the talking points here. She goes on to, we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.
00:37:59
Speaker
that they are endowed by their creator with certain animal rights. And, you know, this is that secured by the that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men. We know that we know they're saying. I hope you do. You know what?
00:38:12
Speaker
Yeah. This for of mayor Americans, not, not illegals. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And um there's a paragraph here. my favorite line was, I'm going to ignore the fact that the founding documents rejects women and focuses instead on the ideals of democracy. Thank you. I should have totally wanted to point that. I was getting to that and I totally forgot. Oh, i'm sorry. yeah No, no, I flubbed it. I forgot about it. I was looking for something else because it's um the key to what they're saying is she doesn't understand. So here's a quote from...
00:38:44
Speaker
Immigration, ah you know yeah United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS, is restoring integrity to our nation's immigration policies. And as an instituted dynamic change to ensure that only individuals who love America, align with our culture, and share our values are welcome into this country.
00:39:05
Speaker
She says, i don't even know what to do with that last sentence. Well... if they don't align, if they don't love America, if they're not aligned with our culture and they don't share our values, why the hell would we want them here?
00:39:22
Speaker
Why would we want them here? We don't want those people here. Just like every other freaking country in the in the world doesn't want those people here. If you're not going to assimilate... then stay the hell out is basically the whole crux. My point is what the are you even talking about? That's what that thing means. That's what that sentence means.
00:39:40
Speaker
If you're not, if you're not going to assimilate into our culture, which means bring a little bit of yours in, but it's to, to enhance our culture. No, you just want to put yourself in a walled garden. Like, let's say, I don't know, a Somali area in Minnesota where you, everywhere you go is the Somali own business, right?
00:39:59
Speaker
That's not what we're talking about. Talking about assimilating to make our country better. Oh, thank you. That's why I brought this article in here. Cause then they tied this in, this, this is, this is why we can't live with these people.
00:40:14
Speaker
We are so far apart on this issue on on many issues, especially when it comes to immigration, who should be here? Well, she's a fine example of a so-called journalist. That's an activist.
00:40:30
Speaker
I mean, this, this is like so blatantly, uh, blinders. I mean, she's, she's, yeah. yeah It's, it's, it, this is a great example of suicidal empathy.
00:40:46
Speaker
What do you mean by that? You are so empathetic. You're willing to to destroy what you love most. This great country that helps all these people, but you're so empathetic that you're willing to bring everybody here and collapse the entire thing so that nobody gets help.
00:40:58
Speaker
Do you think she's ah empathetic? Really? i don't think that's all I don't believe that one bit. What do you say think? I think she just virtue signals because she wants people to think she's empathetic, but I don't think she is. She's a nimbyist. She would, if if you put these people, and when I say these people, I mean, if you, let's say the street she lived on and you put her in the in the middle of a bunch of Haitians or Somalians, she would be the first to move.
00:41:28
Speaker
Very good point. that she maybe she's a nimb She's a typical nimbyist. She's going to tell others how to feel and that she has empathy, but in reality she doesn't.
00:41:40
Speaker
Very good point. she That's very good possibility. it's i would even I'll go with that. She is appealing to the typical, it's mostly women, but it's not all women, who are so empathetic they don't they can't see the forest through the trees.
00:41:57
Speaker
Well, I think there are a lot of people like that. I just think that many of these journalists, so-called journalists, are not really empathetic. I think they're just virtue signaling. And i know people I know people like that in life.
00:42:15
Speaker
you know if you know they got they got their nice suburban home few hundred thousand dollars and you, if you filled that street up with a bunch of Haitians, they'd be putting that house up for sale.
00:42:28
Speaker
Right. they're They're all empathetic until you go, how many are you taking? Yeah. You got an extra room in your house. how about How's that basement looking? Didn't they do that Martha's Vineyard? Yeah. That's what, I think, DeSantis and Texas, what's his name? Texas, yeah.
00:42:42
Speaker
Yeah. ah Not Adams. ah Not Adams, but yeah. Governor. I forget. Governor Abbott. abbot Abbott. Abbott. Yep. They both did that. Send them Martha's Vineyard. Oh my gosh, did they throw a fit. They got them out of there pretty quick.
00:42:55
Speaker
And the only way this gets through, and the only way these, so again, these bills... that, um, that we're talking about here. Well, actually we'll, well, before we get to that, we'll start with this next one. We'll go with on the immigration issue was the clip that you pulled up and I named it. Why the wine is the worst. and he's almost worse than a democratic governor in some ways because, well, what's cause of this here? Let's just put this up and we'll go.
00:43:27
Speaker
We'll go with, well, I was going to do Chuck first, but we'll do with DeWine. Let's do, why DeWine is the worst. You know, he should get a lot of credit for what he's doing the southern border. And I think, you know, what we've seen in Minneapolis and other places has distracted, frankly, from him getting credit for for for doing that. So I think from a policy point of view, it's the right thing to do. and And I think it's the right thing to do for for many reasons. But I don't know. I mean, we were told a few hours before the speech,
00:43:54
Speaker
Court decision came down. We got a briefing from ICE and they basically said we have no orders or no plans to come in to Springfield. Now, they did say that could change overnight. you know, that could change very quickly.
00:44:08
Speaker
But they said we have no no plans specifically to do any kind of surge into Springfield. We've been talking about this ruling on Monday, and in that ruling, the judge found that it's likely the decision to revoke legal status for Haitians is motivated by, quote, anti-black, anti-Haitian animus. Do you agree with the judge? Look, I'm not going to get what the judge says or the law. The judge is going to have to do what they do. I respect that. We're going respect whatever we end But you see anti-black, anti-Haitian animus? One more time. One more try.
00:44:45
Speaker
Look, i I can't attribute motive motives motives to people what their what their motives are. ah you know I just know that these are contributing people to our community.
00:44:56
Speaker
We need them. Our economy needs them. um yeah We want to continue to move to move forward. Is DHS racist? She asked him. He goes, you know, I'm not really going to comment on that.
00:45:09
Speaker
Well,
00:45:12
Speaker
ah yeah I got to use my toys. That's why DeWine is the worst. Because he gets so he gets close. And, ah you know, it app you can't confidently say, Mr. DeWine, that maybe they're not racist.
00:45:31
Speaker
That maybe Governor Noem or Kristi Noem isn't just sitting there twirling her mustache going, get all the brown people. Let's get all the brown people. You are the worst.
00:45:44
Speaker
You are. The worst. Deuce bags. Deuce bags. Deuce bags. Nice. Because, and you might be right on this whole virtue signaling thing, and I think maybe a lot of politicians have come, like DeWine, like, let's say Chuck Schumer, because, man, they had a different story, didn't they, years ago? Oh, yeah.
00:46:08
Speaker
I'm thinking maybe if we lead this we leave these people in office, censor myself there, if we leave these people in office, Long enough. They'll come full circle. They'll come right back around because here's Chuck Schumer 30 years ago, 1996, on in the on the house of this the floor of the Senate. Yeah, he's the Senate, yeah.
00:46:28
Speaker
And talking about a bill that they put an amendment on to restrict... to restrict immigration and just kind of stop fraud through social security numbers. Kind of what we talked about last week with the Jamaican woman who's brought, they're bribing judges in Ohio to get social security numbers so they can use them, get, get work permits and all that stuff. and And Chuck is on the floor of the Senate, you know, saying, well, saying this, here you go All over where we go, people say, well, why can't you stop,
00:47:00
Speaker
illegal immigrants or others from coming here. And the number one answer we give our constituents is when they come here, they can get jobs, get benefits against the law because of fraud.
00:47:12
Speaker
And here the gentleman from Florida has put together the most effective anti-fraud measure we can find without it changing the actions of the government one bit.
00:47:24
Speaker
And we find all this opposition. Ladies and gentlemen of this chamber, what I worry about is that this bill, which started out with good intentions, whether you agree with it or disagree with it, is going to end up being the same kind of thing that the public gets angry with us on.
00:47:42
Speaker
We say we're doing something and we do nothing. Because every time someone makes a rational and small proposal to get something done,
00:47:54
Speaker
People say, well, what about this hypothetical, that hypothetical, etc.? I urge support of this amendment. If you believe you want to stop fraud in immigration, you have no choice but to support this amendment.
00:48:12
Speaker
You know, you it's funny because you could, that goes back to 1996. And you could go to 2008 when Hillary was running and you can go to Obama, probably 2012 or so, basically saying the same stuff.
00:48:29
Speaker
Yeah, Obama's special. Yeah, that's even that far back. You're talking 15 years ago. Yeah, that's what i that's what I mean. It's like you don't even have to go but back that far. I say this because, ah well, because i think most people that are pay attention know, have heard the Hillary stuff and have heard the Obama stuff.
00:48:48
Speaker
But ah I thought this was... Interesting, because you don't hear some of the stuff that these guys that have been there forever have said. he's actively right now saying the exact opposite. Like, this is racist. and Yep.
00:49:01
Speaker
Just like they were saying on the on the CNN with Scott Jennings. I guess if if this was more of a full-time job for us, we could have put a nice thing together of all of them saying something back then and then now.
00:49:17
Speaker
Then we got Sherrod Brown. He pulled up his tweet, his tweet, uh, ex post about, uh, as I traveled to state, I hear same thing that governor DeWine has heard from Ohioans.
00:49:28
Speaker
They're concerned about their Haitian neighbors and about the economic impact. You know, the expiration of the TPS reports, not the TPS for Haitian Americans.
00:49:39
Speaker
But I get, i guarantee you, he, this is a made up statement. I mean, yeah he, he, nobody's telling him that. calling on Governor DeWine and Senators John Husted and Bernie Marino to put Ohio communities first.
00:49:55
Speaker
o Part of the problem with the TPS is there's no exit strategy. Are they going to be temporary protection status for the rest of their lives? And then they and then theyre all their kids are now birthright citizens.
00:50:08
Speaker
That was the goal. Right.
00:50:11
Speaker
That's not how it happened. That's not how your parents, that's not how my my grandparents, great-grandparents came here. it it It is a bad deal. it is horrible for for for the people coming here and the people they're going, you know, the communities they're going to. It's not Yeah, therere now some of these now some of these companies have more people to exploit, so I guess they're happy, according in to Mike DeWine. It's really horrible for the pets.
00:50:34
Speaker
Very, very, it's very horrible, ah especially for the veterinarian industry in Springfield, because they're losing money. and They're closing left and right, heard. They're in decline. And continuing on what we've had now with with all this immigration, the Minnesota stuff going on is you want talk about virtue signaling?
00:50:53
Speaker
Well, here we go. We got Akron city City Council making decisions on controversial on the controversial immigration issue. It's so controversial, 83% the country is for it.
00:51:07
Speaker
How controversial is it? City of Cleveland City Council has passed emergency resolution opposing Ohio ICE legislation and East Cleveland. I kind of threw East Cleveland in there because we're going to talk about them later. Yeah. But let's start with, I guess, Akron.
00:51:25
Speaker
Let's see here.
00:51:28
Speaker
um I guess Akron... I guess, i don't we'll start with them because they deserve, they deserve everything they for having this, this little princess in office. Let's start with Akron makes a decision.
00:51:43
Speaker
and there was clips on all these, but I figured Akron was the best and we'll go through, you know, what kind of, what, what, what they're talking about. you know, I don't want to be forced in the cooperation and, oh my gosh, it's, it's so, it's so controversial.
00:51:56
Speaker
I think what we've seen from these ice surges a across the country is that the way the ice has been deployed has been lawless, has caused a lot of chaos. wallace The Ohio General Assembly is considering three new bills proposed by Republican lawmakers in the Statehouse and one in the Senate that would enlist the assistance of Ohio cities for any potential ice operations.
00:52:21
Speaker
One of the sponsors of the legislation, GOP Representative Josh Williams, issued a statement that reads in part, quote, Ohio should not tolerate policies that deliberately obstruct the removal of criminal illegal aliens from our communities.
00:52:38
Speaker
This resolution tonight is standing in opposition to that state legislation and affirms Akron as a welcoming city. On Monday night, Akron City Council had final discussion on a resolution voicing the city's opposition to any effort by the state that might force the city to participate in federal crackdowns. We're very glad for our federal and state partnerships. very kind They're not these forced things where we're kind of dragooned into doing something. While voicing opposition to any potential ICE operations, the mayor says Akron police and other city departments would not interfere with the work of federal agents. Pussy. and after discussion on Monday night, Akron City Council approved the resolution. For what?
00:53:24
Speaker
Expressing the city's objection to the plan to enlist the aid of cities in immigration enforcement. We don't want to be enlisted in the work of ICE, forced to do the work of ICE.
00:53:37
Speaker
I want to be forced into other things. Yes, very much so. So they've all put in resolutions.
00:53:47
Speaker
so I was trying to say it with straight face. Strongly opposing these. <unk>re strong Strongly against. They are resolutions specifically cited in House Bill 2642 and 281, as well as Senate Bill 172 are now in in the legislature. All of them, according to, i think this is yeah Cleveland City Councilman Conwell, says all of them are to penalize government agencies.
00:54:17
Speaker
and people that do not work with ICE.
00:54:23
Speaker
they learned that They learned this in Minnesota, Conwell explains. In Minnesota, they're not they weren't they are not working with ICE. Oh, they are now. with but But now they're looking at lessons learned, and they, the the Republicans, want to push it on Ohio residents to work with ice and take away their funding and their resources and bully them, bully the people of Ohio to, you know, follow the law.
00:54:52
Speaker
Yeah. So that's, their yes, they do want to punish you. They want to take away. Yes, they they do. um Because these people are stealing from us and they're sucking the system dry.
00:55:04
Speaker
And yeah. So if, if you're getting state funded for your welfare program and you don't want to cooperate with ICE, maybe you don't get any state funding for a welfare program because we're not sure if it's secure. You know, we've got to protect the money of the people.
00:55:18
Speaker
East Cleveland did a similar thing, and they they got some bulletins from from the city. says ah East Cleveland says, if you're U.S. citizen, the city of East Cleveland says, always carry your state ID or driver's license. That's kind of a normal thing. It's kind of what we do. But he does realize there's a lot of black people in East Cleveland, and they don't know how to do that.
00:55:40
Speaker
They don't know how to even get one. um They don't know where the BMW is. a copy of your birth certificate, a passport, or your naturalization papers. If you are legally here, but not yet a citizen, the city says always carry your work authorization card, a copy of your green card, proof of any pending immigration case and any immigration attorney's contact information.
00:56:04
Speaker
Okay, so the green card and the work permit, something you should have on you anyway. And yes, if you if you get as ICE thinks you're not legal and you they ask you for ID and you say you don't have it or no,
00:56:16
Speaker
They're going to take you in until they find out who you are. Just like a cop will when they come up to you and say, hey, what are you doing over here? They pull you over and say, can i have your license? Well, you know, if they have probable cause, they'll just pull you in.
00:56:28
Speaker
City leaders say this legislation comes as a result of recent immigration enforcement actions in Springfield, Ohio.
00:56:37
Speaker
I didn't know they were doing anything there. ah which are particularly impacting the Haitian community and have not, have raised serious concerns around the state. Well, yeah, they're, they're particularly impacting the Haitian community because there's ones on the TPS.
00:56:56
Speaker
We're not talking about immigrants. That's kind of the biggest thing you hear from us. oh immigrants, our immigrant population. Our immigrant population,
00:57:04
Speaker
the problem is the language. The left has made it about immigrants because they believe everybody's an immigrant.
00:57:13
Speaker
So when they come out and say immigrant, I do think people watch the news and ah and all they see is how harsh harsh we're being to these people. And that's that's where the suicidal empathy comes in. And I think these these leaders are, these cities and these councilmen, they're playing right into us. I don't think they actually believe a lot of this, like you're saying.
00:57:36
Speaker
Do you think these cities will do anything? No. Does it matter? No. But it does matter to the voting zombies that they represent. I think if state puts it in a law, i think they kind of have to follow it, don't they? The state law would supersede their local law. wouldn I mean, there's no law. there's they're They're just strongly awarded resolutions.
00:57:58
Speaker
Yeah, I was going to say, there I mean, this is kind of like nothing. They're just kind of virtue signaling to their voters. That's all they're really doing. Yeah. ah Absolutely they are. there' There's nothing they could do. they're they are Now they are a sanctuary sanctuary city.
00:58:13
Speaker
They're a double sanctuary city. I guess, but not really. they're saying They're just saying they're not goingnna help they're not going to but they're not going to try to stop them. Right, but the city or the state is putting legislation to try to force them to engage and to help.
00:58:29
Speaker
ah thought Yeah, but what does that really mean? I i think what that what they're really hoping is that they'll lock them up. yeah but I don't think they're looking for the police department to go help them knock on doors. I think they're looking for people the police to help them, you know, help with arrests maybe and help...
00:58:51
Speaker
put them in a jail cell. What they're asking for in Minnesota, in Minneapolis was who's in your jail, right? Who do you have on warrants? Who do you have warrants for, for violent, for any crimes really, not just violent crimes.
00:59:05
Speaker
You know, the mayor of Cleveland will say violent crimes, violent. crime and well I want somebody selling a heroin or meth or whatever. They should probably get out of the country too, just cause it's not a violent crime. yeah yeah that Yeah, that whole robbery stat that they use for violent crime versus just... Yeah, how many of them have... Right. that they're they're um They're being a little disingenuous with that number there.
00:59:28
Speaker
Very. um ah Yeah, you know...
00:59:34
Speaker
i just lost my train of thought. two team It's gone. Bye-bye. But they are very brave, and i think... I think... so Okay, that's where i was going. So they're asking for cooperation as far as couple things, when I understand it.
00:59:51
Speaker
Let me look at your warrants you have outstanding. Let's investigate those a little further. Who's in your prisons and jails? So we can take those guys out. Right. Or women. They're not discriminating against women.
01:00:03
Speaker
And, um oh yeah, when and when we go to act on one of these removal warrants or whatever they call them, immigration warrants, you need to help us as far as like watch our back maybe, you know, yeah yeah make sure you you don't have to go into the house, but we need your cooperation so that this, so that the people of the city, let's, let me, let let's think about this rationally.
01:00:28
Speaker
So maybe the people of the city don't think that Jack booted thugs and, and Gestapo just come in and federal troops are coming in. Having this local cops there kind eases the, a little bit and keep,
01:00:40
Speaker
that's So what happened in Minnesota? Oh my gosh, the pulling out. Trump lost. He gave up. He's pulling out. As far as I read it, the city and state of Minnesota state and the Minneapolis city of Minneapolis bent the knee.
01:00:56
Speaker
Is that the way you're reading it? Oh, that's what that's what i what what I was trying to think of ah just a minute ago. I was going to say all it took was for them to start working with the ICE and To let them, in you know, to get the illegals that are in jail or with their warrants and all that. And it took them basically a week.
01:01:19
Speaker
It just, all they needed was some cooperation and there was no scuffles after that. Right. And all sudden, it's all fine. And now they're leaving and people are like, oh, Trump's giving up so quick. Or, you know, the left is celebrating and it's like, no, they got what they wanted.
01:01:35
Speaker
And it just took a few days, really. once Once they were cooperating. Where's the headline? I saw it. It was Channel 3 had a headline. um DHS leaves lee's minneapoli lee Minnesota after two shots.
01:01:52
Speaker
there's No. That's like a couple weeks ago when they were shot. Right. So I fixed it for him and and on on X. DHS is, did I say something like DHS is remov removing the surge after if their city cooperates?
01:02:09
Speaker
Right. That's a state cooperates. Yeah, but they're going to, they're going you know, it's, they're going twist it any way they can to make it sound like they're winning. It's funny because you see these, as we get in, as we get further into the show, we see, start, you know, you know, really getting in depth in what's going on in Ohio politics. And you see the same sources over again. We talk, the main news sources, ah you know, Columbus, Cleveland, Akron, Canton, sometimes Cincinnati, we go out that far.
01:02:34
Speaker
And when I'm on I'm, These news organizations, local news organizations will post something and almost nobody comments. Oh yeah. Nobody. This one, they had like 50 comments and they're all like, you guys suck.
01:02:48
Speaker
So it's channel three news channel three in Cleveland. Yeah. I was like, wow, that's I'm, I'm just here for the ratio. just here Like you normally don't get any comments and all of a sudden. So how's this working out for you? It is quite amazing to me that I'm on X and I i'll i've i have like um i don't know a list of local news that I follow and they really get Yeah.
01:03:10
Speaker
no activity on any of their posts, even views. If like, you I can't see views, but you can tell, I, you know, how many likes or how many, ah repost reposts or anything like that. And it's like, they're lucky to get one or two likes and maybe a repost.
01:03:28
Speaker
Yeah, here it is. Channel three, WKYC breaking news, breaking DHS to end Minnesota operations after two killed, two U S citizens killed. And I helped him out. I said, DHS surge to end after state and local officials cooperate with ICE. Fixed it.
01:03:45
Speaker
So terrible. So terrible. It's... Virtue... They are so brave. telling you. So brave. We'd like to cooperate in certain ways and not all the ways.
01:03:56
Speaker
So please tell us which ways we can cooperate, which are good for us. Please. We'd like to be partners, but not too many partners. Okay. that You get what you deserve, Akron. You get what you deserve with that guy.
01:04:10
Speaker
Moving on. Moving on. Next on our great list of stories. Oh, another another great topic of ours. Data centers. Well, we've been kind of following this along in New Russia Township, which is Lorraine County or Lorraine in Lorraine County out west of Cleveland.
01:04:28
Speaker
They've been fighting, pushing back on mega site. Mega site. It just feels like have to play it when say that.
01:04:40
Speaker
And kind of going around and around with city council, the zoning. And i think, you know, I'm looking at this. Part of the problem is people don't know what the heck is going to go in these on these mega sites.
01:04:52
Speaker
And that's kind of where I kind of came into this story at. It's almost a lot of it is we there's a big, a large unknown when you call it a mega site and you're just to rezone it for an industrial use. And we don't know what's going to go there.
01:05:09
Speaker
How do I approve it as a citizen if i don't know what's going to go there? The other thing that's happening, too, is that word has gotten around where they did build and people aren't happy about it. So I think the word is getting out. Yeah.
01:05:21
Speaker
So they're regardless of what it's going to be like, people are just going to start rejecting this. Like, kick can you put a mega site up? Like, if you cherish your...
01:05:34
Speaker
rural life, can you put a mega site anywhere within a five mile radius, radius of your home and still enjoy that rural life?
01:05:47
Speaker
Right. And that's what, yeah, that's the word. Like you say, the word is out. That would be like we talking, we talked about, what was it last week? The NDAs? That's the NDAs. Yeah. Because they have to be secret for a, because people will, inflates land value if they know it's Google or Apple or whoever else.
01:06:03
Speaker
Yeah. But secondly, it's, it's, ah we don't want to, if it's, if it is meta or Google, we know it's going to be a data center. Right. So the question I have, well, let's listen this clip first. Let's get the clip in here.
01:06:18
Speaker
It is new Russia attention. For months now, we've been covering the prospect of new development near the Lorain County Airport. In July, Commissioner Dave Moore talked about a $67 million dollars state grant, helping build out utilities to accommodate new manufacturing on a more than 1,000-acre megacite. We're building the foundation, and we're opening up our doors and rolling out the red carpet saying we're now ready. And in early October, we heard about Team Neo's efforts to recruit an end user they say would create jobs and support long-term economic development. High-tech manufacturing that's going to get us into the you know the next 50 to 100 years. In the meantime, a groundswell of signs and opposition.
01:06:59
Speaker
Steve Jackson was wrapping up his harvest the last time he talked with us. Now it's a slower season, but he says neighbors are more galvanized than ever. When you enter the township, the sign says, zoned for your protection.
01:07:11
Speaker
This is really simple. We're just asking for our protection.
01:07:16
Speaker
What is high-tech manufacturing? That's my question. They keep saying things like high-tech manufacturing. Does that mean making drones?
01:07:27
Speaker
Or do they consider a data center manufacturing data or ah i ai Would that be high-tech manufacturing? I don't know. What is high-tech manufacturing? It means nothing.
01:07:38
Speaker
Yeah. It's it's it's non a non-starter as far as it's so vague. I know there's a big plant going on in Ohio. They're building a large drone plant, Southern Ohio. So that's high-tech manufacturing because they're going making something.
01:07:54
Speaker
Again, it not that it should matter all that much because ah a large industrial site, matter if that's a data center a manufacturer, it's not great if if it's buttering up against 10 of your acres. No, that's not cool, but at least there's jobs.
01:08:07
Speaker
yeah Well, yeah, at least there would be 100 jobs instead of 8 or 10 or 12. So a data center is way scarier to me. Manufacturer kind of, it you know, that would suck, but...
01:08:19
Speaker
What do you need a mega site for a manufacturer for? I mean, I know the obvious ones that you do need that, like automotive and stuff like that, but what's a mega site manufacturer?
01:08:33
Speaker
i Like, how big is it? So they are... Like how big is the drone yeah place, you know? they are doing The cities are doing this. They're rezoning it so they can get some of this money from the state.
01:08:45
Speaker
And this is money. I think I looked it up real quick. It was $750 million dollars from the 2024-2025 state budget. And this all ties in. It's, what do they call it?
01:08:57
Speaker
I thought I had the the name of the...
01:09:00
Speaker
Name of the organization. i thought it was in the clip, but I must've cut it out. There's an organization that's doing, that's running this Ohio first, Ohio future first or something that affect, but they're out there tied in with jobs, Ohio.
01:09:13
Speaker
Hey, what do you know? And they've got $750 million dollars to give out grants. So lot of communities are rezoning areas. I don't know. Is it who owns this land?
01:09:25
Speaker
If you own this is does this, does this county own the land? Is this, this, it is farmland. kind of confused on how this is going to work, but they're rezoning large areas of it so they can get grant money, start developing, putting in sewers and electrical stuff to make it look very inviting to companies.
01:09:41
Speaker
Right. I don't, so it's, there's, they don't really have a plan other than the plan is to rezone it to see what happens. Yeah. That's bullshit. That's it. Yeah.
01:09:52
Speaker
Again, I see this a lot. You, I've, I've gone to job sites where it's a, it's a, it's a food plant in the middle of nowhere. This woman that ah that's in the story of New Russia, she has two acres in the middle of the proposed development site.
01:10:07
Speaker
It's like, really? you're You're just going to screw her over, man. Yep. She bought the site in 2021. Uh-huh. And with the increased cost from COVID and everything, they've put it up. they She said they put it off.
01:10:20
Speaker
And now they there they will be surrounded by, they have two acres are going be surrounded by this mega site.
01:10:27
Speaker
And now I, I, part of me thinks she, because i think the person in that, that person was a so channel five employee, I believe they they mentioned that part of the clip. Yeah.
01:10:38
Speaker
Yeah. News five employee. Hey, no, part of me is, might be a, maybe self-serving to say, anyone will buy two acres? I got two acres for sale. Can somebody come buy it from me, please? Because she mentions that nobody's asked me to but to sell it. like I think she's talking about the company. Right.
01:10:55
Speaker
Well, you would think that if they're going to propose a site there, that they would just, her land, she hasn't built the house yet, so that's cool. But they would offer her a good good amount for it to get her at least get her money back. I mean, she bought it right at the peak I mean, if if if you're in your real estate, it'd be a great time to get a deal for like for whoever's buying this land because she don't want it. so yeah but it's not great she's She's not in a great ah position to negotiate. you know It sounds like this kind of is dead, right?
01:11:28
Speaker
It is. That's the key. New Russia Township Zoning Commission voted to recommend denying the proposed rezoning of more than 600 acres of land, allowing for the development of a so-called megacite.
01:11:42
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's a recommendation. I think it's still up to the council or to the city officials if they're going to do it or not. yeah Yeah, I know some people out that way. They're going to... I think it's likely to fail, but yeah this this did not kill it.
01:11:57
Speaker
This is just the zoning the commission's recommendation. recommendations i would I would tend to think that they probably most most of the time go with um the recommendation of the zoning committee, but a lot of money at stake here.
01:12:11
Speaker
For who? Oh, for the ah politicians in Lorain County. Oh, yeah. but Okay. but It's part of russia new Russia township. I mean, i guess that's Lorain County. Yeah, it's part of Lorain County. Yeah. Okay.
01:12:25
Speaker
Yeah. Well, it's good news. I like that area. It is good news. I like that area too. If if this winds out, that might be an area i I tend to look a little bit more. Yeah. Not as much snow as the other way.
01:12:37
Speaker
If you go west of Cleveland or east of Cleveland. It's a little boring because it's so flat out that way. yeah But ah I like the fact that the community is sticking together. She even points out, she no I actually want to live here because of what the way the community has stepped up and Right. Push back. And they they packed the city council meetings and this is kind of what you have to do. You got to look out for this stuff. If you're in a rural community, you should be on the lookout constantly for these kinds of things.
01:13:01
Speaker
Whatever local resources you have, your your your local city site or village site or whatever, like they have to post it. And they are they are most of the time getting these through with nobody in attendance at these meetings, almost nobody in these meetings or the or the the the normal people that complain that they don't listen to anyway.
Community Engagement & Environmental Concerns
01:13:20
Speaker
I've friended a couple of people on Facebook that are in that area. They're farmers and boy, they love their, they love their community there out that way. you know, they get involved in all the, all the community events and everything. So it's good to see. Yeah. Makes me want to move there actually. Like, like she was saying.
01:13:43
Speaker
right. And the next real quick, well, more good news in the data center, you know, depending on how, where you're at and stuff. This is another one that city council packed a meeting and it looks like they at least put another data center on pause. This is a proposed 680 acre data center in central Ohio denied by local authorities after concerns, concerned residents pushed back.
01:14:09
Speaker
And this is, What county is this again? Asheville. Asheville. Asheville Village. Yeah. Yeah. It's 15, 20 miles south of Columbus. Yeah. About 17 to be exact as I'm looking at it.
01:14:21
Speaker
And data centers, they've already rezoned part of it. There's a company called, at least they know what the company is in this case. It's Edge Connects. Data Center is what?
01:14:33
Speaker
I was just like looking at why why people are rejecting it. It's like... they're not They're not sharing how much water and power the data center is going to be using. bgo So people are like, yeah, no, get the hell out of here.
01:14:47
Speaker
So data center is made up of 18 major structures. It is to be constructed on 200 acres at S state route 752, 717 miles south of Columbus. After the November meeting, residents learned that the edge ah Edge Connects, a global data center business, has been given 30 year property tax abatement.
01:15:09
Speaker
So how's that helping your community? But the amount of water and input and power the data center would be consuming was not shared with the public, among other details that were asked for.
01:15:20
Speaker
And I think they turned it down... They've paused it because it seems like the 200 acres has already been approved. As their residents weren't buying it, they lined up at the podium and publicly spoke their minds ah about the opponent opposition to the data center, worried that their small town would turn into industrial polluted industrial polluted one.
01:15:40
Speaker
At this time, the first phase of the project, the 200 acres, was already proposed, properly pro properly zoned, meaning the city council's ability to stop or change things is limited.
01:15:53
Speaker
the city leaders did vote to pause any new data center projects for 180 days. However,
01:16:02
Speaker
at least ah at least weeks, at last week's city council meeting on February 2nd, so give many you they've already put this on pause for 180 days. So the the people aren't happy.
01:16:13
Speaker
They've showed up at the city council meetings. They're not happy. And what does EdgeConnect do? um They went to the city of council and asked for 490 acres more.
01:16:24
Speaker
And the city council said, no, no, they definitely shut that down. They wanted to bring it up to an over 680 acre data center campus. Basically puts it in the size of what they're talking about in Lorraine.
01:16:36
Speaker
So that was six, was a thousand acre site in Lorraine. This is almost 700 acres. And um they said no. So right now they're kind of paused and they're kind of in a pickle, I think a little bit.
01:16:51
Speaker
Because they did approve the rezoning already for 200 acres. And they're they're saying the article kind of limited to what they can do at this point. Yeah. they Well, i it sounds like they're going to pull out of this. But that 200 acres, so somebody else could come in and do something.
01:17:06
Speaker
That's what it sounds like. can just rezone it back to something else. Oh, you know what? that That's true. But if they put money into it already... They might not want If they've already got grant money from the state, they may not be able to. They have to give the grant money back or whatever. Well, then give it back.
01:17:21
Speaker
State money. It doesn't matter. It's true. they won they won't They won't figure it out. It'll be years. Yeah. ah It sounds like this project won't go on at all, but but somebody else can come in it the way it stands right now.
01:17:40
Speaker
If they only need 200 acres... Yeah. Well, maybe, maybe they get lucky and get an actual factory or something in there. I mean, crazy that would be. Yeah. I mean, some jobs, actual jobs.
01:17:54
Speaker
Okay. look Good, good for them. they i love I love seeing this. People showing up at city council meetings and making a difference. You can make a difference. I talk to people all day. What are we going to do? Oh, we've got it so good now. What are we going to do? It's, you know, it's kind of not bad here.
01:18:09
Speaker
Well, what what can we really do? This is what you can do. Show up to your city council. All politics are local. And you can make a difference because when nope when three people, the same three people show up at city council meetings month after month, and then all of a sudden 500 people show up, it makes a big difference.
01:18:29
Speaker
It's a big difference. You know what else makes a big difference, Tom? What's that, Rob? Subscribing to the show.
01:18:37
Speaker
Subscribe, share the show with your friends. We really appreciate you listening. We know your time is valuable and we really, really take it seriously in what we do here and and try to not waste your time with with with nonsense.
01:18:49
Speaker
I mean, occasionally we get some nonsense in there. It's always fun, but more nonsense, the better. More nonsense. That's right. Share the show with your friends. Leave us a comment. Give us a review.
01:19:00
Speaker
Check out the blog when the show drops on Monday mornings. CrookedRiverCast.com. Send us your feedback. Send us the stories we're missing. Send us, you know, look at our stories on the blog on Mondays if we're missing something.
01:19:14
Speaker
Let us know. We want to, we need help. We need help. We're just two, two straight white guys. You know, what else are we going to do? We can only do so much, i should say. So, Share the show.
01:19:25
Speaker
Check out the website, quickerrivercast.gmail.com. And on we go. This one's going be a good one, I think. Could have been at the top of a list.
01:19:36
Speaker
And the story is, everybody hold on to their seats because ah the Cuyahoga County officials are are are feuding, apparently.
Financial Management in Cuyahoga County
01:19:48
Speaker
The most powerful officials in Cuyahoga County government are openly feuding because It appears that Caga County has a overtime problem. It might be getting a little bit out of hand. Do remember safety patrol?
01:20:04
Speaker
Downtown safety patrol. talked about it quite a few times. Oh, yeah. remember talking about that. And one of the problems that Caga County executives were complaining about was overtime.
01:20:16
Speaker
And I thought I remember the number being like one and a half million dollars of overtime for the sheriff's department. Something like that. 1.2. I forget. Yeah. And we brought up, I remember bringing up, well, I mean, the county is already like billions of dollars in debt and and they're going on with safety. And we we went on through all this other stuff, you know, are they trained well on this and that.
01:20:36
Speaker
seems like the safety patrol had just the the the the ones that got spit out from not ah not qualified for most city um departments were on the sheriff's department now.
01:20:49
Speaker
And was all kinds of problems going on with that. Well, now, now we got a bigger problem because, County Executive Chris Renane is feuding with the Sheriff of Caga County, which is Patel.
01:21:04
Speaker
First name, I didn't write it down. Sheriff Patel about overtime because, well, let's just listen to the report. We may be able to figure out why Renane is so upset.
01:21:16
Speaker
Point out in the clip here. Here you go. Caga County Overtime, part one.
01:21:24
Speaker
Six people with one thing in common. All made more than $120,000 overtime Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department. Kyle Breeding, a deputy sheriff assigned to the Electronic Monitoring Unit.
01:21:39
Speaker
Martin Greer, Davis Kipper, George Booth, and Rufus Lester, all corrections officers. You tell us, how does that look? If you think that's a lot, before retirement, Deputy Sheriff Joseph Purpar racked up nearly $200,000 in OT. His in twenty twenty four over three hundred grand pay in 2024, over $300,000. $125,000 more than County Executive Chris Ronain's salary. And we have a system of checks and balances that is actually a rubber stamp, literally and figuratively, a rubber stamp. This is one overtime slip for Martin Greer. Stamped, thank you for your efforts this pay period.
01:22:18
Speaker
Next to a smiling bearded guy in a backwards ball cap. Not a good look, you With no signature of management authority approval, we got a problem. Ronane wants to take over the sheriff's purse strings. I hired the sheriff. Yeah, he's know. He's somebody that I believe I should manage. But if he doesn't budge.
01:22:36
Speaker
Yeah, then we have a problem. And we got a problem. Pretty good argument to have sheriff selected. You don't say, huh? Um, let's continue. Let's see here. They have, so how bad is the problem?
01:22:53
Speaker
How bad is the problem? i think we get that in clip two here. go.
01:22:57
Speaker
News 5 investigators crunched overtime numbers for the entire county in 2025. The grand total, nearly $40 million. Of that, $27 million in overtime alone for the Sheriff's Department. Just for the Sheriff's Department. Some employees, including Greer, logged more overtime hours than regular hours.
01:23:16
Speaker
The overtime historically has been a problem. A constant struggle, Councilmember Mike Gallagher says, especially in the jail with call-offs and holidays. And he says overtime accelerates with deputies taking inmates to the hospital.
01:23:31
Speaker
Ideally, you get that done in the jail. The problem with that is, is we don't have a full-time doctor in the evenings and on weekends. You don't probably. reviewed overtime records for budget hearings last fall. Quite honestly, I wasn't overly concerned about what was on this on that sheet. Why not i was Well, I knew it was going to be high. Some of them were Very high.
01:23:54
Speaker
um but But following the rules that were negotiated, the contracts that were negotiated. Now, the relationship between Ronane and the sheriff is strained. Only up until recently has that gone awry. So much so, Prosecutor Michael Malley stepped into the fray. He sent Ronane a cease and desist letter saying he's violating county charter and Ohio law for taking over the sheriff's payroll. What I would say to the prosecutors, stay in your lane. Ronan responded, arguing excessive overtime strains the budget and raises concern about employee fatigue and operational oversight.
01:24:28
Speaker
I think we have a county prosecutor who wants to go back to an old way system. Yes. Wants a separately elected sheriff. Yes. Wants three county commissioners in separate elected offices. But that's not what the voters of Cuyahoga County voted on.
01:24:42
Speaker
Yes, and they made a mistake.
01:24:47
Speaker
Go ahead. Sorry. Oh, that's bullshit. They made a mistake. Yes. Yep. I don't think that's, that stuff was so convoluted when we voted for it. i i I mean, I looked into and I barely knew what I was voting for.
01:24:59
Speaker
Like we changed in the complete county government and there's an executive and this, and he gets appointed by here. Then the next election, we had another one to change it. And the following election, another one to change it. Yeah. They, by fixing it, they made it more complicated.
01:25:10
Speaker
o Fixing it. $27 million dollars of overtime just for the sheriff's department.
01:25:19
Speaker
The sheriff's budget i'm just laughing at the salaries some of these guys are. I mean, they're making a good salary, you know, with ah just regular time. Yeah. Let alone some overtime. Jesus.
01:25:32
Speaker
The total budget for the Sheriff's Department of Coggle County is $205 million. dollars That's what this guy Patel, Sheriff Patel, has control over. More than 10% of their budget is overtime.
01:25:46
Speaker
that's That's kind of a problem. They are expected. No, what they apparently ah anticipated this problem and budgeted in 18 to $19 million dollars of overtime. And they they blew right past that.
01:26:01
Speaker
and they're not even close to that now.
01:26:05
Speaker
And um I think they're good. they So they got budget shortfalls. they like so where do they cut this money? They're borrowing it. That means the county is even farther in debt. And let's final finalize the last clip.
01:26:19
Speaker
And a they they may have ah brought up a good point because he brings it up the end here, Tom. Gallagher says the fix is having both sides come to the table. No. And if you're asking me what side I'm on, I'm on the side of the prosecutor and the sheriff because I think the sheriff should be independent. The sheriff isn't talking to News 5, neither is a Prosecutor O'Malley. No shit, really. He appointed an outside law firm for Patel to sue Ronayne. Who's paying for that? Here we are today fighting a public battle over something that could have been solved, I think.
01:26:52
Speaker
And quite honestly, again, i'll I'll harp on it again. Should elect a sheriff, we wouldn't be sitting here today. On the Taxpayer's Dime. On the Taxpayer's Dime. Finally, someone says it. You think the um sheriff would be talking to the news channel if he was elected? ye Yep.
01:27:09
Speaker
Yeah. I always wonder how to take that. Because I could see not wanting to talk to the news media because, you know, they suck. Well, yeah yeah but you're gonna you're go to try to you're going to try to ah control the narrative.
01:27:22
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. I'm wondering. i don't You know, you're right. Sometimes it's better just to shut up. Yeah, I go back and forth. i don't I don't know. Sometimes you may be better just to wait, maybe wait and see to see what what this how the story plays out, and then you can react to it because But you do look you do look kind of guilty guilty when you don't talk.
01:27:41
Speaker
Right. Even not even no comment or anything. And the thing is, if he was elected, he wouldn't have gone to gotten to this level. It's like the guy says... ah um
01:27:53
Speaker
Ronan? No, the last comment, it was ah Gallagher. calagher He said, yeah, we wouldn't have this problem if we had an elected official. yeah and but And I think somebody who's in control of $205 million, dollars I think really should be an elected official.
01:28:06
Speaker
That's a lot of money to be controlling for the sheriff's department. And yeah, it's pretty it's pretty bad that they're they're openly fighting and now they're suing each other and who's paying for all that?
01:28:19
Speaker
yeah
01:28:22
Speaker
Crazy. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. They suck. I read that. yeah I was just blown away by the amount of dollars there. So I think for a lot of this is... overtime.
01:28:32
Speaker
A lot of this is just lack of staffing, right? There's some of this that just they can they they just can't get enough people maybe or... I doubt it. that's Those are good salaries right there. Yeah.
01:28:44
Speaker
I think you could hire people. But why would you want to if all your buddies are getting more in overtime than... If I can work... I mean, I i see... it's It's totally different because it's you know yeah ah in a manufacturing place. So overtime different.
01:29:02
Speaker
But I see how people love overtime. So if ah if you can get it, I think guys are going to take it. you know I don't know who we're...
01:29:14
Speaker
were they Were these like beat cops, basically? Yeah, street cops. I mean, They weren't detectives or anything. Are they parking their car somewhere and sleeping?
01:29:25
Speaker
Well, I'm sure at times maybe, but I mean, I'm not saying that's what... Take a double shift. You might be doing that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. yeah'm I'm just saying when you're working that much overtime, that's not an easy thing to do. But a lot of these cops, they also, yeah if they're not getting overtime, they're they're going to be looking for... Yeah, they're they're doing... ah Security somewhere. Security traffic for church or event down at the Brown Stadium or wherever. or around But they're going to take advantage...
01:29:54
Speaker
of overtime whenever they can. And I, you know, a lot of, lot of people are like that. So in, in 2023, News 5 investigated, revealing a staffing shortage in the sheriff's department led to deputies being paid nearly $4.5 million dollars in overtime. So in, in two years, ah less than two years, in a year and a half, year and a half to two years, it's tripled.
01:30:21
Speaker
It's more than, no, it's quadrupled. It's quadrupled in year and don't know what staffing shortage means. I mean, like, I know what it means. Double shifts, yeah.
01:30:32
Speaker
I'm just saying, I guess, like, in my situation, like, some of the, you know, there were guys that just didn't want to work overtime, so what they did was hire more people.
01:30:44
Speaker
Right. And yeah because they they don't, they would rather give people, guys, ah like in certain situations, it's better to give overtime because you don't want to hire people because it might not be busy. Might be permanent. And it's actually cheaper and in some ways. in the long run. Because you've got to train that person and all that stuff. Train and there's, you know, benefits and stuff like that. So, um...
01:31:04
Speaker
But this is a little different. You know, I mean, this this isn't like just 10 hours a week of overtime. This is this is a ah this sounds like they're they're making they're doing thirty forty hours of overtime a week And and we've I think we found the the major problem with that Rene has with it. Ronane.
01:31:25
Speaker
Ronane or something like that. It's because the cops make it more than he is by like a hundred and some thousand dollars. Well, that might have raised his eyebrow. It might have. But he literally shows in the clip, if you watch the news report, book at Rivercast.com, that he pulls he pulls up the paper and shows it when they're talking about this the rubber stamp.
01:31:43
Speaker
It's a green stamp. Green stamp with, you know, thank you for blah, blah, blah. Thank you for your... cooperation or whatever your hours this week or something and it's literally got a picture a silly picture of a guy with his hat on back on side did did it um with no signature did it show how many hours somebody worked on that slip i didn't notice it okay it it probably does i am curious to know how many hours people are getting i mean because that's a that's freaking crazy but what happened since 2023
01:32:14
Speaker
That made it go from $4.5 million to $27 million. dollars What happened? Did they lose a bunch of people? oh wait. You know, the downtown, the the county sheriff is now going, they've expanded their coverage. They're doing more stuff. They want to they want to take the downtown safety patrol that was just for Cleveland and they want to put it through that entire county.
01:32:36
Speaker
Maybe that's part of it. Something changed. Yeah, this a big jump. Oh, it was from 20, the overtime was for 2022. So yeah, in two, two to three years, it's quadrupled.
01:32:47
Speaker
How the heck does that happen? couple of did a few guys retire? That's what i mean. Well, I didn't hire anybody. Can they not hire anybody? Is there not enough cops? I just don't believe that. I know, I know, i know it's, there's a stigma around it, but yeah you can, these guys are making good money. You can get some good cops. Yeah.
01:33:03
Speaker
Yeah. ah that's but these are deputies they were saying the top deputy made more than $255,000 after earning $150,000 in So he earned $255,000 he was making $105,000 a year. That's good money. I mean without the overtime that's yeah good money. And he made $150,000 in overtime. Right. I mean just overtime pays good money. Yeah.
01:33:26
Speaker
Damn good money. I'm like am I too old to be a good sheriff's deputy? little bit. Yeah a little bit. ah If I would have known that I might have taken a different job. Route here, man.
01:33:37
Speaker
that's That's like crazy good money there. And then you have fatigue. How many hours on the job are they? this Does this have a lot to do with, i have anything to do with their... The way they're handling situations when they're tired and working, you know, they're on hours 17 their day. And a lot of it's sitting, but it's stressful. That's the, that's the job is stressful. Yeah, no, I know. that's, there's a safety concern in that burnout.
01:34:01
Speaker
um yeah Burnout's not a fucking, oops, I'll take that out. Burnout's not a problem. They're working overtime.
01:34:14
Speaker
Yes, it's well worth their money. But yeah, yeah eventually, i think I've seen in my case, but but if you're me if you're doubling your salary, I don't think it's as much of a problem. Yeah. But think about this.
01:34:27
Speaker
Keep this in mind. They are currently looking and building a new jail 25 20 minutes away wait minute. ah wait a minute Oh, did find out? think I think might be wrong on that.
01:34:39
Speaker
I'm not sure. Here's what I think. There's a court downtown and then there's a jail being built in Garfield Heights in Cogga County. I'm pretty sure they're going go from Cogga County or from Garfield Heights to Cleveland and back again every time they have to go to a court ah appearance. More overtime.
01:34:58
Speaker
More overtime, baby. got to bump up to $40 million of overtime. Yeah, man. It's only going to get worse. So what do you do? i I think, okay, maybe, maybe here's, I mean, I know, him I know this is crazy. i know it's crazy, but they didn't mention one of the problems is ah taking people to the doctor because they just, they don't have full-time doctor.
01:35:21
Speaker
I'm thinking for a million dollars a year, you can hire a couple of full-time doctors. You think? And how much overtime could we save?
01:35:31
Speaker
But then again, Sheriff Patel, You know, how much overtime did he get? Doesn't mention that. That's true. That is true. six but You got to take care your guys. and Maybe he doesn't get overtime if he's just he might strictly salary or something. I don't know.
01:35:49
Speaker
Joseph Purpar racked up nearly $200,000 in overtime. his total pay in as they say was over $125,000 year, hundred and twenty four hundred and twenty five thousand dollars more than so how did i how did this guy who makes a hundred thousand dollars a year let's say he makes one hundred and twenty five a year To make over $300,000. He did $200,000 in overtime. Yeah.
01:36:11
Speaker
he he did two hundred in overtime yeah so they're making about He did overtime. i mean, i but a time and a half You got time in half, but are they working Sundays making doing double? I mean, not Sundays, but i you know past a certain amount of hours, are they getting double time? I don't know.
01:36:35
Speaker
yeah it's Or ah you know holidays, you you forget about how, you know I don't know how this works with for the sheriff's department, but holiday pay and so stuff, don't know. And that's one of the things they talk about. ah you know If you're already short-staffed and someone takes a day, and then you got to work extra hours. and there's oh Yeah, we get that. But again, 2022, it 4.3 million.
01:36:54
Speaker
four point three million And now it's 27 million. Kind of one crazy, crazy. 27.3 to be exact.
01:37:05
Speaker
And we'll just keep an eye on that cause it's going to be, it's, it's a good segue into how we need an elected sheriff and not somebody picked by the county executor. It just doesn't work.
01:37:23
Speaker
They need to be accountable to the people. and And now that they're not talking and they're fighting each other, now it's even more important, my opinion.
Corruption & Fraud in Local Government
01:37:29
Speaker
But it would take that guy sitting in the chair, Rene, to change it, I think, right?
01:37:34
Speaker
I don't know. how to How do we change that? I'd have to look into that. but It has to go back to the to the people to vote for it. yeah Where does it start? you know yeah Does it start with petition? can you know That kind of stuff.
01:37:46
Speaker
We'll see. We shall see. i ah So apparently... the this's the last thing I'll say about it because apparently the Caga County Board of Executors was okay with, you know,
01:38:00
Speaker
Officer Vajusi, can't forget that name, you know, driving down the street a hundred miles an hour or driving in a car hundred miles an hour with and his rifle out the window, ready to throw rounds down range in the middle of the city because they, because why? Because the guy had a warrant or or the next one where he gets out of his car and within three steps out of his car, he's throwing, he's shooting at teenagers running through a field.
01:38:27
Speaker
I thought I saw a gun. well I get it. But I mean, you know, this happens three or four times. Oh, yeah. We'll talk about the ah chases that kill people. That was okay.
01:38:39
Speaker
But when you start making more money than the county executor, now we got to stop it. okay Yeah. All right. I bought enough of that. ah The county. um Next is a little peek behind the curtain.
01:38:57
Speaker
how how do How do budgets get so out of control? how do How does corruption happen, even on the local level? So here's the story. Two brothers, I'm trying to find, is there there's a joke somewhere in there?
01:39:09
Speaker
Two Arabs and a mayoral assistant walk into a bar with $10 million. dollars i don't know. In East Cleveland. In East Cleveland, yeah. A pair of brothers, ex-Cleveland aide, mayoral aide, convicted of bribery of ten in a $10 million dollars bribery scheme.
01:39:28
Speaker
And i I wasn't even going to get a good going to get a clip on this, except I tried to pronounce their names. And I was like, well, I could just butcher them, but what I want to know what they actually sound like. So I started doing little digging.
01:39:43
Speaker
And what I actually found was a little bit interesting. there This is the third story in three years on this these guys. And the weird thing is they're all they've all come out in February.
01:39:56
Speaker
February 24, February 25, and February 26. Not sure what that means, but seems weird. i need to try to say these names, can't I? You can try, yeah.
01:40:08
Speaker
Zubair Mehmet Abdur Razak Al-Zubar and Muzammel Mohamed Al-Zubar and Michael Smedley. Michael Smedley. Yeah. And the white guy, Michael Speddy. Pretty damn close. Pretty damn close.
01:40:29
Speaker
But I like he has Zubari twice. Zubari and Mette Abu Razara al-Zubari. Zubari, Zubari. um let's so Let's hear what this is. am Tom Smith Tom.
01:40:40
Speaker
i'm Tom Smith Tom. This is ah East Cleveland briberly Bribery, News Channel 3.
01:40:49
Speaker
These Cleveland-born brothers, 41-year-old Zubair Mehmet Abdur Razak al-Zubair and his 30-year-old brother, Muzumil Muhammad al-Zubair, facing a 22-count indictment for multiple alleged fraud and money laundering schemes. This 35-page indictment details each charge, including money laundering, wire fraud, and theft of government funds from June 2020. to August of 2023, claiming they tricked a victims out of nearly $10 million. Zubair claimed to be a prince married to a princess in the United Arab Emirates, yeah often using the title, quote, His Excellency in his correspondences.
01:41:30
Speaker
He lived in the UAE from 2008 to 2020. He falsely claimed he was extraordinarily wealthy with connections to leaders in multiple foreign countries.
01:41:41
Speaker
His brother, Musumil, claimed to be a hedge fund manager, but the court documents say he was not registered and his only education was from watching YouTube videos. The two are owners of Dubai Bridge Investments.
01:41:54
Speaker
Their website says they're from East Cleveland, headquartered in both Dubai and North America, and call themselves international economic advisors to the city of East Cleveland and the mayor. What? I've never heard of that position, nor has anyone else know that I've talked to at City Hall. No kidding.
01:42:10
Speaker
Justin Anderson is the former East Cleveland deputy clerk of council. He says the brothers and their family are well known in East Cleveland. and Their dad worked at the rec center for years. You had two people who grew up poor in East Cleveland, like most of the people here, who were faking to be associated with the royal family.
01:42:32
Speaker
And that's what the shock was. Prosecutors say in one scheme, they claim to own Nila Park in East Cleveland, GE Lighting's headquarters, taking roughly $3 million dollars from a cryptocurrency miner from China, looking to bring equipment to the site, even touring the campus with the victim, taking them to East Cleveland Mayor Brandon King's office to sign a contract.
01:42:56
Speaker
Yeah, i to be reminded listeners that the East Cleveland mayor in the middle, as this began, was already being investigated in 2024. I think it was 24.
01:43:08
Speaker
And I'm sure nothing to do with this because the only, they only signed papers in his fricking office at one point. They had actually, um, gotten, they got somebody to, I mean, millions of dollars they said they owned Neela park, the, the GE lighting place over in Cleveland. Like, who how does, how does this happen?
01:43:36
Speaker
How does somebody, how's a mayoral aid appoint these guys as international economic advisors to the, to the city of East Cleveland and people fall for it.
01:43:51
Speaker
They heard Cleveland, I guess that's all they heard. So the mayoral aid, Puts these guys up as advisors to the city of Cleveland.
01:44:01
Speaker
But my question here is, as you heard in the clip, these two are well known that they they've lived in East Cleveland for quite some time. Their dad worked at the rec center for years, as he says.
01:44:13
Speaker
Somebody knew. oh yeah. They knew. The mayor the mayor knew.
01:44:21
Speaker
And so they've got a bunch of charges, conspiracy to commit fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering, theft of government funds, on and on and on. um Conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right, meaning you're government official.
01:44:38
Speaker
Wow. It's pretty good. So they, um, case details, they basically took about $3 million dollars from a crypto miner in China. I think that was the one they talked about. Yeah. Nila park and nobody from GE, GE confirmed. We didn't have anything to do with it. We didn't know this was even happening. He just, he did. So he went to your campus and took somebody on a tour for $3 million. dollars Oh, actually it says, uh,
01:45:07
Speaker
GE Lighting confirmed to News 3 2024 that they had spoken to the brothers. So excuse me, I'm wrong. They spoken to the brothers about the possibility possible sale two years prior, but stated nothing ever came from the contract contact.
01:45:24
Speaker
Hmm. Wow. These guys are pretty good. Like actually, and they try to take advantage of COVID money and so on and so forth. ah So apparently they're saying he gave him this marital aid, Smiley, smit Smiley, Smiley, whatever.
01:45:38
Speaker
Gave them this position in return. He got dinners and Cavs tickets. Yeah, i'm I'm sure that's it. I'm sure it's Cavs tickets. That was it, I'm sure. Yeah, just Cav tickets.
01:45:53
Speaker
So they're they've been indicted. They're facing jail time. It's just City of Cleveland. This is their first, I think City of East Cleveland is their first time, like, I think,
01:46:06
Speaker
Governing themselves? like This is our first mayor. This guy was their first mayor, I thought, or something. No. No? I don't think so. Was that Cleveland Heights, maybe? Cleveland Heights just got, well, just got rid of their first mayor and got a new one. but That's what it was. Okay, so Cleveland Heights had the first, it was one of those cities, had it was the first time they had a mayor and they they had a scandal in the first one. Yeah, that was with the wife and all that. Yeah, okay.
01:46:29
Speaker
This one, the scandal, and this one was somebody that, that mayor was, Oh, what was happening with him? But anyways, there was an interim mayor that didn't want to leave. Right. Remember that? Yeah. I mean, she's back in.
01:46:43
Speaker
Yeah. they ah they actually Yeah. Because the city charter said if if the mayor's under investigation, this happens. But if he's not fit to be mayor, then this happens. And they were both like, they had two mayors. Yeah. What could go wrong with two mayors?
01:46:55
Speaker
Twice as much. Yeah. So I thought that was fun. Like, this is how it happens. That's all it takes is all you have to do is get a little bit. All they got was we're international advisors to the city of East Cleveland.
01:47:08
Speaker
I can't get away with that though. don't the right skin color and I don't wear those kinds of clothes. No, I, I can't, no, you can't claim to be an Arabian prince. Interesting. I think you could pull it off, Tom.
01:47:21
Speaker
just need to lot of tanning. Lots of tanning. Maybe. Maybe. I think that's about all I have for this one. Yeah, I think that's about we got for this one. Next one, we'll through. wouldn't be able to pronounce my own name.
01:47:34
Speaker
well You did a way better job than I would have done. You got pretty damn close. I did all right, actually. did pretty close. I was, you know, I even heard the names and I'm like, yeah, no, I'm not going to try. Except just to make fun of them.
01:47:47
Speaker
A letters. lot of letters. A lot of letters. I mean, this dude's name is, it's for. Muzamel Mohamed El Zubar. It's got four different names. Let's get a ring to it. Muzamel Mohamed El Zubar.
01:48:00
Speaker
You're pretty good at I think you could pull it off, Tom. I think you're you're selling yourself short. Okay, I'm going to go for it. No pun intended. ah Next, we'll move on. Why you?
01:48:11
Speaker
I'm such a jerk. Well, from two brothers to what to do with Burke Lakefront Airport. I had to sit there in my list of stories for a little while, and then you posted the one, and I'm oh, now we can talk about it.
Economic Development & Infrastructure
01:48:28
Speaker
Well, as they're talking about what to do with Burke Lakefront Airport, this story comes out and basically says, Burke Lakefront costs the city of Cleveland a million dollars a year.
01:48:40
Speaker
Burke Lakefront loses a million dollars a year. Mm-hmm. And you could actually turn that around. You could turn that around. So last year, actually, they lost 1.7 million, but they averaged $900 million dollars in red every year. 900,000. 900,000, yeah, sorry. 900,000 in the red every year. I'd like to know why last year was somewhat almost double.
01:49:02
Speaker
It's almost double what it normally is. Big question on why. maybe me Maybe they see the red on the wall just trying to get out what they can from the... They had a lot of overtime. A lot of overtime to watch all the parked cars. Because apparently that's but the biggest revenue source for Birk Lake Front Airport is 660 parking spaces used by downtown workers who are visitors of the Rock Hall and Brown Stadium.
01:49:24
Speaker
That's their biggest source of revenue. The only argument I can see that could possibly sway me, and it really doesn't, is the use of this airport for medical flights. Because you've got Cleveland Clinic really close.
01:49:37
Speaker
What's the closest airp closest local airport is Caga County Airport, which is, I think, like Richmond Heights or what was that area? Something like that, yeah. Not too much farther. I mean, so you've got 15, 20 minutes to get from Burke to so to Cleveland Clinic. It's probably 20 to 30 minutes to get from there to Cleveland Clinic.
01:49:54
Speaker
So that would be the only thing I could see that they bring up is medical flights because it is kind of convenient. But it is 450 acres of prime lakefront real estate. The only problem I have is i don't trust the city of Cleveland to do anything with it.
01:50:08
Speaker
But what they're saying is you could bring in over $3 million in tax benefits to the city each year. You could have a $4 million dollars turnaround. You go from a $1 million dollar loss to a $3.5 million dollar benefit every year.
01:50:22
Speaker
Now, that's giving the city a lot of credit. So not too. Yeah. and This has been talked about for a long time. Our whole lives, basically. Yeah. And they go through it's kind of an interesting story. If you look at, we got we'll have a video from YouTube, which was one of the things I've been saving. And then you popped in the scene magazine or seen scene, scene.com, scene magazine, scene.com story, which course is, you know, they get paid by the words. So it's like 9,000 words long, but it has does have some stuff in it about how Burke came about. You know, basically they they show pictures in the video of it.
01:50:54
Speaker
had one airstrip. They basically started by dumping, dumping dirt into the lake to, to add more land. And he just kept going. yeah I thought it was a dump, right? Uh, some type of a fill could have been. I know the Brown stadium was, maybe this is the same. It's all the same kind of part. Okay.
01:51:13
Speaker
I think that's, they always say that's one of the part, one of the reasons they never put a dome up is that it was too heavy. It would sink, which would be great for the Brown stadium.
01:51:22
Speaker
i mean, at least you have some excitement there, right? Watching it sink. We've been doing that anyways. Yeah, we yeah exactly. And now they're just they're purposely sinking it into a large hole in Brook Park.
01:51:36
Speaker
And that's basically the story, i guess. What are they going to do with it? They're trying to decide with it. They're going to have open up for public debate. Should we keep an airport there that loses a million dollars a year for a bunch of millionaires to come in so they have to take a shorter ride into Cleveland?
01:51:51
Speaker
i mean, it is Cleveland, so how many millionaires actually come here? Or should we demolish it and start all over again? I think, I mean, really, if you just level it and put it back to grass, you save a million dollars a year.
01:52:07
Speaker
I say, winner, winner, chicken dinner.
01:52:12
Speaker
And that brings us to, of course, the best part of the day. We bring good things to life. And literally, the best part of the year is now because...
01:52:28
Speaker
Sunsets are getting longer. every Every month right now, we're getting like 25 minutes back of our day. 34 minutes in February and January. Nice. and on And so by the end of, no, Sunday, this Sunday, that the 15th?
01:52:50
Speaker
The sun will set in Cleveland at 6
01:52:56
Speaker
see This is probably better.
01:53:00
Speaker
That's probably more fitting. Which will mark... Go ahead. I was going to say it's starting to feel feel better. The latest sunset it will be... the Yeah, it is already. You can tell like because I'm eating dinner in and it's still... I'm like, oh, it's I don't have to eat dinner yet.
01:53:14
Speaker
Oh, wait. Yeah, yeah. ah since It'll be the longest sunset since November 1st. Shocker, this happens every year. Oh, okay. Yeah. And by the end of ah ah end of this month, sunset will occur at 6.15. So days are coming back. And then might think March 8th is daylight saving time where we jump ahead.
01:53:37
Speaker
Boom. like good Like good communists do. Boom.
01:53:43
Speaker
And that's that's the story. So check it out. You know, it's you know good news. Good news. Getting our days back. Summertime is coming. Ooh, it's good news. I mean, just keep it going. Half hour a month, we're good.
01:53:56
Speaker
Yeah, I like the longer days. I just yeah definitely like i don't like them when they go to 930, I guess. Screw up my whole, for the next three weeks. We're working on that. We're working on that.
01:54:07
Speaker
Probably going be, last thing Trump does is just sign an executive order is saying, we're going to use... Great Greenwich time or something. um next other Next on our list here is a port of Cleveland.
01:54:23
Speaker
i did I did see this story coming up and I was kind of looking at it, waiting for it to finalize. The port of Cleveland is about to, they've finished up their stabilizingization stabilization of the Irish town bend, which first of all, racist.
01:54:38
Speaker
Okay. I'm very offended because I'm part Irish. They didn't call it leprechaun bend. They didn't call it drunk ass Irishman bend. That would have been better. more at least At least it's descriptive. Ginger bend. Ginger bend.
01:54:52
Speaker
Ginger bend. ah They've been working on this $65 million dollars project to secure Cuyahoga County or chicagoga county river caga River's hillside and formally hands the site to Cleveland Metro Parks beginning to begin work on the 25-acre public park.
01:55:10
Speaker
So this is a part of the Cuyahoga River, which is located along the Cuyahoga River between West 25th Street and Superior Detroit Bridge. and Columbia Road, named for the Irish immigrants who had settled in this area starting more than 175 years ago.
01:55:27
Speaker
And it's quite astonishing the amount of money and effort we spend to keep nature at bay. Because this is just, our normal this is the normal normal thing rivers do. They change, they never stay the same. But unfortunately, we've got lots of infrastructure.
01:55:42
Speaker
And it's not really, they're not doing it just to put a park in. it would if they would allow this to collapse, it would have blocked the river. You wouldn't have got any commerce to the river. a So it would really hurt the local economy and stuff like that. So it was a grant apparently from somewhere and they're finishing it up and they're going have, now you're going to have park there. And Metro parks do a really good job. They do a really good job. So it,
01:56:08
Speaker
I don't know if this is going to a part, but I know they're putting more and more, we talked about it show or something, but they they're putting more and more areas to access the river from these parks. Maybe this will be one of them. I don't know. Where you can actually put your your canoe or whatever, or your kayak in the water.
01:56:22
Speaker
a little Yeah, we've talked about that before. um Yeah, it could be. Yeah. But maybe not because you might get run over by a gravel tanker. at That could be fun.
01:56:33
Speaker
Yeah, it'd be fun to... I seen one. My dad worked at shooters at security for a while and went down there one time. with him for something. he had to get something. and He was, I was eating lunch there. And so Shooters is like right at the end of the, ah right almost right at the mouth of the Cog River in Lake Erie, right before that the drawbridge, here like goes up and down. And there's a ah little connector there that comes out and they swing the boat around. They go right out to the lake. Somebody had moored their boat.
01:57:03
Speaker
directly in the way of the, and they were beeping the horn, they were coming off. So he wasn't working, but he got off and they unmoored the boat, pulled it down the dock. Cause it would have just, it came within a foot of the dock, the boat, two two or three feet of the dock. It would have creamed it.
01:57:17
Speaker
This thing was massive. It's even a big one, but it was just like, I remember when I was a kid too, so it probably felt even bigger, but I'm like, you know, i thought, you know, this bar looks like it's in the way of these boats. Cause yeah.
01:57:28
Speaker
but It was pretty cool. But yeah, they, uh, I'm not sure I want to be in the water when one of those goes by. No. Make your day baby very interesting. Very interesting. But it'd be cool. Check it out when they get done with it. Probably next couple of years, I'll be done with it.
01:57:39
Speaker
It's a walking past 25 acres plot. It's pretty nice. Yeah. And it's about, that's about almost 10 blocks. I think, I mean, I think a block is like an acre or no, like a couple of acres. I forget exactly. I remember I was looking at a plot of land. and it was 30 acres and I was like trying to figure out. And it's like, it's basically 30 acres is like 10 blocks. Okay.
01:58:03
Speaker
So this is close to like, yeah, that's nice. It's the, so $65 million hillside stabilization effort is the first step in the broader $100 million dollars initiative to transform the Irish town bend to a 25 acre public park and community amenities with new through Franklin Boulevard and West 25th to Columbus road that is due to reopen any day now. So it's kind of cool stabilizing the hillside and making things better tax dollars at work.
01:58:31
Speaker
And on that note, i think that's all we have for to- today. Yep, checking off. Check, check, check. And I really, I really think, I really thank everybody for listening.
01:58:43
Speaker
and We do this every week. It's a lot of work and we enjoy it. And when we get feedback from our listeners, it makes it makes it even more enjoyable. It makes it very rewarding. So we thank you. Send us your feedback, crookedrivercast.gmail.com. Check out the blog on Mondays when the show drops, crookedrivercast.com.
01:59:01
Speaker
And thank you for listening. Peace.