Crooked River Cast Show 33

Transcript

Speaker: Hello and welcome to the Cricket Rivercast. I am Rob and joining me every week is Tom and we are two guys from Northeast Ohio just trying to stay informed about the news in our state. This is show 33 recorded on November 1st, 2025. Another week has gone by and we got some stuff to discuss. So let's go.

Speaker: Are you scared Tom? Were you scared yesterday? Was it spooky for you? Halloween? That was yesterday? Yeah, it was yesterday. You know what? Funny enough, I kind of felt the same way. I'm like, oh yeah, it's Halloween.

Speaker: You know what? We don't get kids around here, so. Neither do actually. Oh, really? Almost none. No kidding. Yeah, it's up the hill, and you know there's oh yeah it's not a whole lot. Got a little...

Speaker: challenge that end streets and all that kind of stuff and so kids I mean we did it first year to move in here and we would get every year we get to two kids maybe three max and most of the day most the evening I would just stand sit in front the door sit in front of TV and eat the candy it was in the bowl I stopped doing that because well yeah yeah you know I be these and stuff yeah insulin resistance um Yeah, no, we don't have a sidewalk and our houses are far from the street and they're far apart.

Speaker: yeah Yeah. no My kids actually go to other close by neighborhoods to go trick or treating. Because it's less hilly and... Less silly.

Speaker: And there's just more kids. There's more houses that are... Yeah. There's more houses that are giving out candy than over here. So yeah that's where they go. No, that's what we used to do when we were young, too.

Speaker: It makes sense. The street that I grew up on, the houses were... Oh, yeah. Farer apart. Not everybody gave candy... And we would just, you know walk from my house down to down to the main road and then cross the street into ah neighborhood that was much easier to fill your bags up with.

Speaker: Yeah, boom, boom, boom. But it's different nowadays. I've done all this over the years. Halloween for me as a kid was time to stock up.

Speaker: You wasn't getting, my parents didn't buy me candy very often. So it was time to go hard and get as much as you can for as long as you can, even at 8.15 and 8.30. If the light was on, we're going.

Speaker: Yeah, we did it too. But nowadays, there are so many treats that are so prevalent everywhere you look. Even ah as much as we try to eliminate them from the house, they're they're at school, they're at friends. I mean, it's everywhere. it's just how How so?

Speaker: It's just candy maybe, I don't know what the difference is It just seems like candy is way more... part of their diet than it was for me or even any of my friends.

Speaker: Like it was very much a treat. Like you get little candy bar every now and again, but you open it open the pantry of most in my house, maybe be a little bit different. Cause I I'm pretty active. We're pretty active in limiting the treats. You know, you get one little thing from the grocery store, you know, limiting it, but, and they they're also pretty good at limiting it themselves, be honest with you. But Even besides that, i would I would imagine when you go into most people's houses that aren't on top of it, I guess, or that worried about it, there's loads of candy.

Speaker: Really? Yeah, I don't. The only time I really got candy, I think, was going to my grandparents' house. Well, and was just going to say, yeah, that's still true. That's still very true. I was going to say. But that's okay. That's one place I used to get it, too. But I would get it.

Speaker: I would get a piece of butterscotch, you know, like maybe a ah cookie, not the whole cake.

Speaker: But, you know, what do you get I mean, that that's one part I don't really care that much about. That's a minor. But I think just in at school, at their friends' houses, it's just tons of junk food. Junk food, junk food.

Speaker: Well, that's funny how we're going to tie. That would segue us right into our next topic, our first topic. But I have I wanted to finish on the Halloween thing because I got some i hope but you're going to be OK with this because I got some scary stuff since you weren't scared that much yesterday.

Speaker: So I just want to warn our our listeners that this is, if you've got small kids in the room, you might. You might want to think about having them leave this one. This one's very, very scary.

Speaker: It's very scary. Here we go. Here's my Halloween clip. Ready? Yep. Happy Halloween, Ohio. Be safe. Get lots of candy. i just put our decorations out. My husband came home. He was really tickled.

Speaker: And one of our traditions in our family is actually we had like one of those really giant inflatable, like very early on. Inflatable what? ah Inflatable what, Amy? Okay, let's see. un Before inflatables were a big thing, we had a massive pumpkin, like a Charlie Brown style pumpkin in our yard. And one of my favorite traditions is actually to do Polaroids.

Speaker: Of what, Amy? Come on. No, I'm just i'm not going to leave it there. i'll or Please don't. Of little kids with a giant. Inflatable. pumpkin oh Pumpkin. And give them the photo right there. So we always did Polaroids when my kids were growing up.

Speaker: Oh, my gosh. um I'm never going to be. i'm not going to be able to sleep tonight. I'm just gonna have visions of Amy acting pumpkins and Polaroids.

Speaker: but I guess that is scary. Pretty scary to me. mean, I was I was frightened. I couldn't sleep the other night when I saw that. Amy Acton. Yeah. She has a tradition of Polaroids and pumpkins. That's, we'll just leave it at that.

Speaker: Polaroids and pumpkins. Hmm. Hmm. But the real scary thing is the real scary is she put a pumpkin on her head.

Speaker: Only uncarved pumpkins on her head. Okay. Only uncarved pumpkins. so

Speaker: Sorry, visuals were pretty funny on that. so Moving on. All right. Focus, focus. Because we got some serious stuff going on, Tom. We got a Snap-Opalypse. I practiced it so much and I still couldn't do it.

Speaker: Snap-Opalypse. That's good. Snap-Opalypse. That's what we got, Tom. A Snap-Opalypse going on. Snap-Opalypse. I see. I can't even do it. see I never tried it, though.

Speaker: Snap-Opalypse. Yeah. Just Snap-Opalypse. Yeah. Apocalypse. Snapocalypse. There you go. I could do it that way. Snapocalypse. We got a snap apocalypse.

Speaker: Yeah, that's it. I was trying to be cute, ah but not very. So we've got we got some, I mean, there's nothing new that I missed this morning, right? Like there wasn't like some bill or, I know there's some updates as of late yesterday on this.

Speaker: There was? i was looking. I didn't find anything. The only update I had was they've, And there's a judge that has, obviously didn't pull the story because it was late last night, but it was something they blocked, or they're forcing President Trump to spend some of their emergency funds or something. Oh, some judge.

Speaker: So I'm trying to figure out how that's going to work. Yeah, that's not going work. How does a judge, like, there a, oh, because they were being sued. So somebody sued, that's the, other somebody sued the Trump administration and then the judge ruled that they have to dip into some fund somewhere to at least temporarily fund SNAP benefits or EBT or SNAP benefits and,

Speaker: I'm not sure how they're going to force him to actually pay it out. And there's going to be an appeal and then, you know, it's going to go on for, and it's really only a temporary fix for a couple of weeks. Uh, you know, I think it was till November 14th, right?

Speaker: Yes. That's the, so far that's what I've quickly read was I think two weeks, yeah, November 14th. But on a state level, where There might be other things going on. That's what we've seen. state of Ohio might be doing this. lot of the counties are doing some stuff.

Speaker: um But really what's going on here is is there as people are flipping out because as of today, checks are not going out.

Speaker: for food stamps, which is what SNAP is. It's food stamps, just a rebranded food stamp. And people are flipping out. here's Here's some examples. I just want to give a couple examples of ah some some people kind of getting upset, but they're not too worried. know They're not too worried. Here's the first one.

Speaker: Trump cutting off food stamps right before Thanksgiving batting off, but my people ran out of stores. With the cart full, I bet it's going to be some turkey on my plate. Ham, mashed potatoes, greens, dressing.

Speaker: It's going all be there. Don't worry about it. Hmm. Hmm. Here's a. So. So that's the common theme. She sounded fat.

Speaker: Oh, she was enormous. Yeah. Okay. Enormous. Enormous. Laying down. in bed this here's Here's the theme I've seen. Usually obese women. ah Black and white.

Speaker: And I guess I've seen some some Muslim ones in there, but they weren't overweight, which is kind of interesting. But usually laying down in bed Complaining.

Speaker: Complaining about, and, you know, piercings generally all over the face. And they're all complaining about not getting snapped. And they're all threatening.

Speaker: Now, this one here's one, here's one that wasn't from the bed. But I'm just trying to figure out who she's trying to convince this. So here's here's ah here's what I have, ah EBT, seven kids.

Speaker: Okay, you guys. Yes. I am a mother of seven kids. Seven kids. I had my first child at 14 years old. Yes, I had my first child 14 years old.

Speaker: I do not regret it. He is well, healthy, and he's 19 right now. God, praise God. Yes, you guys. I have seven kids, seven different baby daddies. Yeah, seven different baby daddies.

Speaker: I heard it. You heard it right here. She's bragging. Seven different baby daddies. Kind of. Seven kids. Had my first child at age 14. Yes. How much did she get? And do receive 3K, 3,000 in EBT food stamps.

Speaker: Yes. Yes, yes, yes. We are so happy. We are so blessed. We are very thankful. you trying to convince? We are a happy where we're at in life right now. We are happy. Yes, we are happy.

Speaker: Yes, yes, yes. Um... Does that 19-year-old still get... Oh, I bet. Yeah. Oh, I bet she still counts him. and so I don't know if you can or how you can, but... You'd think she'd be loaded, man.

Speaker: but Seven daddies? That's not much... ah assistance there from, uh, needed from one dad. mean, you know what I mean? Yeah.

Speaker: Well, yeah. And honestly, seven different dads should be paying into that $3,000 a month. It is, it is an awful lot of money. It, but for seven kids, that's, I don't don't even know if that's enough to feed seven kids for a month nowadays.

Speaker: That's enough. i mean, well, yeah, it could be enough. um But $100 each kid a week. That's weeks. That's $2,800.

Speaker: that's four weeks that's twenty eight hundred dollars That's enough to feed then And here's a good example of the responsible freeloader. It is enough if it's my tax dollar, damn it. Yes. and here But here's, a I mean, here to your point, here's my, it wasn't going to be my next clip, but it was going to be one of my clips. And and i I have a responsible freeloader. so And and she's to your point, she's saying, yeah, you can you can easily do it.

Speaker: I don't care if I get canceled, but as an EBT mother on a budget of $300 to $400, even when I only had $200, you know what's cheaper than a $3 pack of Little Debbie snacks?

Speaker: A 50-cent can of fucking green beans, okay? You know what's cheaper than three packs of soda? A bunch of cans of 50-cent cans of vegetables, okay? You know what's cheaper than the $150 you spent on chips, sugar, soda, all of that shit?

Speaker: Buying a bunch of meat. Because the amount of snacks that you bought are enough to last you two weeks, and the amount of meat that I bought is enough to last me the entire month of November while I wait for food benefits to fix themselves. I mean, get a job, but bravo.

Speaker: Yeah, or I mean... a better job, but... No, she wasn't in bed. She was in the kitchen, but yes, still had this red hair and piercings. I'm not trying to, you know, but it was just, it's a common theme I'm noticing. So maybe a reason you can't get a job is because of The number one item bought with SNAP is soda.

Speaker: Soda. Yeah. We just talked about this a couple of weeks ago, two ago. they're talking they want to ah they had We had to ask permission to the federal government if we can limit or eliminate sodas and sugary drinks from...

Speaker: I thought that was happening. It was happening, but we have to pass the law and then we have to ask the FDA it so if it's okay because it's a federal program. That was kind of, to me, my my point is like, oh, we can't just do this. We have to ask if we can do this.

Speaker: I mean, sure they they said to the article that most of the time they just yeah they say yes because they agree, but it's still like, to me, you have to, for something as common as common sense as that. Everything's so broken.

Speaker: um So what a lot of people are getting worried about is the threats. Worried is. where where is i Really? Laying in bed with.

Speaker: Well, OK. Well, yeah, but here's here's this guy. He's not laying in bed. He's at his front porch. And man, well. This is what I call the snap, snap, snap, snap apocalypse. Let's go with that snap apocalypse by the numbers. Let's see. how Let's try to figure this one out here.

Speaker: As I know, they done cut off the food stamps and the EBT. So that's 100 percent finna affect everybody that's still in the hood or at least on Section 8. You feel me? We've been on it our whole entire life.

Speaker: You feel I'm saying? Without it, you feel me, more people definitely would have been getting robbed. I ain't even gonna lie. With that being said, I know that the crime rate about to increase by like 5,000 percent. Let's not add the fact that they trying to tax people.

Speaker: 74% on anybody making under 30K. So that's going to automatically boost the crown rate up like another 10,000%. You feel me? It's about to get bad in America, bro. Real bad. So even for the people that's over that mark, it's going get bad for them too.

Speaker: You know i'm saying? But... but America about to turn into a third world playing around like all these people saying they got all this technology, all these millions and billions of dollars. They're to be getting robbed. Like people think they just don't just be comfortable while 70, 80 percent of America just suffering and that people that is doing good, starting to do bad.

Speaker: They're going start picking up crime. going start looking at down. These motherfuckers, they got these Lambos. Lambo. And I'm about to lose my house. And we don't got no food. And we don't got no this. And we all got no that.

Speaker: He ain't got no house. Y'all going to start seeing people run up on people in restaurants, robbing cars. It's about to be a lot more broad daylight shit going on. Mm-hmm. I got technology.

Speaker: Yeah, I got technology.

Speaker: Protect me from that. I have to bring my technology with me. Protect me from that. Oh, don't worry about him. Yeah. that way yeah he's He ain't doing nothing. He ain't doing nothing but sitting on his porch complaining.

Speaker: um But here's a little of logic. Let's put a logic into the, ah into the mix here. Here we go. Here's this. Well, so you can't be racist because he's Asian, right? So here's a, here's a guy who, who kind of thought about this for a second. And it's funny. People are talking about robbing grocery stores because they're not getting their snap benefits.

Speaker: But if you're physically able to go rob a store, that means you're physically able to go get a job.

Speaker: Yeah. That was an Asian guy? Yeah. Chang or Chang? I don't remember. Oh, sorry. but it It couldn't. They all look the same. Damn.

Speaker: Wow. Yeah. um So this guy, now here's here's the solution to this dude here that's talking about, you know, 10,000% increase. And what did he say? ah They're going to tax people at a rate of 75% if you make under $30,000.

Speaker: Like, what do what do you mean? Where does that come from? Like, I can't really figure out where. He was saying 80% of the people were going to start hurting.

Speaker: Yeah, but then he said they're even trying to tax people making under 30 grand 75%. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, his numbers were totally I get you sometimes you can take things of context or not, but I don't even know how you get to.

Speaker: They're going tax the poor people 75%. 30. seventy five percent or But a solution. taxing 74% of nothing is kind of.

Speaker: You get a little bit, but not much. I think there's always a good solution to this, and that would be, well, that'd be grandma. Grandma got grandma got got some advice and and some recipes.

Speaker: Let me tell y'all something. Those is talking about going out there, making them videos, talking about y'all going rob them people's stores because they done cut them snap benefits. Let me tell you something. You go out there, you going to give them folks every legal right to bop you across your head.

Speaker: Baby, they going to be justified in bopping you across your head. You better learn how to cook. Some quick, cheap, easy meals. You could take some tuna, some cream of mushroom, ah peas, and throw some noodles in it. You want to get fancy, crumble some crackers on the top.

Speaker: You got tuna casserole. You can take you some beans. I don't care it's black beans, pinto beans. If you don't know how to make them homemade, you can buy them in a can from the Dollar Tree with some rice, baby, and you got beans and rice. Beans and rice. Get some cornmeal, honey, a little bit of oil. Make some hot skillet cornbread. That sounds good. You take some peanut butter with some jelly and make a sandwich, grilled cheese with some bread, honey, and get your tomato soup. You got a meal and sit down somewhere. Don't go out in them streets because they're going to bop y'all in the head.

Speaker: i love grandma. They're going bop you in the head. are you, crazy? You give them excuse. But, I mean... all this and I'm not sure why we even care. Why are we so worried about all this?

Speaker: I understand. Here's a, here's a, what you talking about. We, yeah. Why, why are we so worried about it? I'm not worried about it. Well, here's, here's some, um, here's some math that are, here's some reasons why we shouldn't really care.

Speaker: um I have a question though. Why do you care so much about people getting food benefits? You do know they put it back into the economy, right? It's basically like free money. It's like free money. Because the money was never printed in the first place.

Speaker: So they're taking like digital air money and putting it on a card. Digital air money. That upsets you. Digital air money upsets you. Hypothetical dollars upset you because it just goes right back into the economy like I said. So what you should be mad at is the money that's being spent on like, you know, not your community, the people who knew it.

Speaker: What about how your money goes to politicians who don't literally don't work for you? They don't do anything for you. They take away. They work for you. they take away things from you. they're They're working for you. are you talking about?

Speaker: You're right. They're not working for me. to're working for you. Because people like you vote. And man, there's so much there is so much good stuff out there. And the

Speaker: people pointing out just just the cost of nails in some of these videos some of these women. And they're complaining about not getting EBT. And a lot of people are are you know out there going, well,

Speaker: Yeah, they're not they're they're so pissed because they're selling this stuff and they're not going to be able to sell it anymore. These EBT cards. Yeah, a lot of them. I watched a video. It was pulled back to Ohio. i watched the video. I didn't pull it the clip because the music, the background music. I mean, that like that dude had some background music, but wasn't that bad that I played. But this person, so this is a but a reporter interviewing somebody in Springfield, Ohio. and

Speaker: What do we know about Springfield, Ohio, Tom?

Speaker: I don't know. There's some pets missing, I think. They're eating the dogs. They're eating people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating they're eating the pets.

Speaker: Exactly. I was scrambling to get to it as well. I know. I was looking for it. You got there first. I didn't mean i totally he had that planned, and I totally missed it.

Speaker: So they're eating the dogs. They're eating the cats. but they're also doing it with tens of thousands of dollars in EBT cash. So this person is saying that she works at the grocery store.

Speaker: And when these people come in, they're dropping carts full, multiple carts full of food, dressed, way better than you know anybody who works at this store. And they're they're Haitian immigrants, Haitian illegal immigrants.

Speaker: And when they look at their receipt, because when you do, when you i guess when you, in a lot of places or all places, when you use your EBT card for SNAP, you get a report at the on the ticket of how much you have left in your account.

Speaker: right And there's pictures of this online. And this woman is saying, you know, i want in one case, a woman had $13,000 EBT money. What? and And $29,000 of EBT cash.

Speaker: There's EBT for food stamps, which is SNAP. And they also give you EBT cash, which is like welfare, which is more like pay your bills and, you know, get your ha hair done and nails done, extensions and piercings and red hair and purple hair.

Speaker: Yes, and there's multiple pictures of this online of people taking pictures. There's one case, I think it Walmart. The guy's got video. and I don't know when this was, unless was recent or not. But four carts of food that was ordered online, and then they canceled it.

Speaker: So they had $1,000 of food in these carts that they pulled and they were ringing out. I guess so says they canceled it. I'm not sure with that. but But when you see the receipts, $1,000 of food, and underneath it, it's they still had like $10,000 worth of abbt cash EBT or EBT funds.

Speaker: I don't know if it's related. You know what drives my ah my parents mad with Snap or EBT? When they go shopping, now, they're pretty frugal about a lot of things.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. As that generation would be. Yeah. Yeah. When they're shopping, I guess, you know, because when my parents are shopping, they're going through like, the let's say the meat section. They're looking at the price, how much it is a pound, how much it is for this item.

Speaker: And they're really paying attention to the prices. But when they see people with snap benefits, they're not even looking at the price. They're just throwing stuff in ah in the cart.

Speaker: And I'm wondering if that has us you know if that's happening more than I ever even thought, what you just talked about. Yeah. yeah people Because how can you shop like that?

Speaker: I mean, are are you just just have no clue on how to manage money? Obviously, that's part of the problem, but... So if you, but this, this to me is a common theme when it comes to these, things these types of things.

Speaker: and And I can go even away from EBT or snap. And I, I saw this when I was growing up.

Speaker: If you were given a car, you usually trashed it. But if you had to buy the car or work to buy the car, you really kept it usually better than if you were given the car. So what I saw was, yeah, not as obviously, and this is broad brush. This is not on everybody, but in general, I always saw if you were allotted a car, if you were given a car by your parents, you usually trashed it.

Speaker: If your parents were forcing to pay some of it or all of it, whatever, you took better care of it because it's your money. This goes, to out to a lot it's section eight housing why what do i care about the house it's not mine i don't pay for it i don't work to pay for it it and this is why would i care about how much it costs it doesn't matter as long as i know how much i have and as long as i know i can fill up three carts of food and it's never over what i have in the in the state in the account then what do i care right it's it yeah it's irres it makes you irresponsible because it's not your money and

Speaker: I mean, this is part of the part of the issue when it's when when you're not. Well, I guess what I'm getting at, wouldn't you want to get more for the ah amount you have?

Speaker: You know, you know, yeah I see that. I see that. And that's a good point. I just think when you have more than you ever need. Yeah. Why why would you, I mean, yes, at some point maybe, but I think, I think my, guess my point is necessity is really what brings that to the front, to the forefront for most people.

Speaker: Because if you had more money, if if budget was no option, when you go to the grocery store, would you look at the price?

Speaker: Not necessarily. I mean, maybe you would if you came from nothing and worked, but if you have always been given, if you if you were born with a silver spoon in your mouth, when you go to the store, do you worry, when you go to the restaurant, do you worry about the prices on the menu?

Speaker: no No, really high-end restaurants don't even have prices on the menu. Yeah, Because they used to. Yeah, that's different. Yeah, it's not the same. But I mean, like this, I guess if I have a limited amount to spend, I want to get the most I can for my money.

Speaker: Yeah. I'm not in a situation where I got to... My wife does it, but i'm when i if I go shopping, I'm kind of just whatever looks good to me, I'm getting. We're not in most position it's a to really worry about that stuff.

Speaker: But there was a time where I needed to like go to the go shopping, and I'm like, well, I have this much. what how How do I fill up my shopping cart as best as I can for that much?

Speaker: Regardless, I've never been on any type of benefits, but, you know, if I worked that week and i had other bills that I had to take care of, i maybe I only had, you know, 75 bucks for groceries or what you know whatever.

Speaker: I don't know. and there And because you're in on limited budget, but i think these people, they don't. there's ah There's many that probably don't know or or you you know know how to do that. or I don't know. I guess not knowing is is is a cop out, but they don't care.

Speaker: i guess they don't i just don't care. And I think a lot of that maybe have to do with that they have more than they can spend in a lot of cases. Maybe not every case. That's what I'm wondering about. Like what you were talking about, people having all this all this stuff on their, all this credit on their EBT card. and Yeah.

Speaker: Do they have more than they can really spend? if That blows my mind. I never never even considered that. If you drop $1,000 on groceries and you still have thousands of dollars.

Speaker: Right, right. you you're you're youre You don't have to worry about how much. it I wish I had that EBT card. ge yeah I mean, i i'm as a kid, i was we were on food stamps for a short time.

Speaker: And umm i'm ah first of all, the one thing that sticks in my head is how embarrassed my parents were. Oh, yeah, sure. They were horrified and mortified that they had to go to the, because at the time, you actually had the booklet, and you had to rip them out of the book. It was traveler's checks almost. yeah Yeah, that is something something where um we're we're missing in society at this point. Shame. Yeah. Bring back shaming, because public shaming, because you should be embarrassed to use that stuff. Now, they advertise it on the radio. Yeah, yeah. Why would they advertise it on the radio?

Speaker: Because they have so much money in the system, they can't give it away fast enough. They're overfunded. That's the only reason they're at. They're spending money on advertising. It's like, well, it's like it's kind of a fun, like I wouldn't want to shame anybody that, that needs it. But if, if they're living off of it as, as a lifestyle, I think that they should be shamed.

Speaker: And at this point we're on generation after generation has lived on this system because it's taught, it's taught.

Speaker: You're teaching your children how to be slaves to the system. Because as you see now, your life is not in your hands. Because you're so reliant on the government. And this is the one thing that nobody's talking about.

Speaker: we I mean, we haven't got into

Speaker: 1.4 million Ohioans are on EBT or on SNAP, I should say. Say that again. 1.4 million Ohioans. ah you You know, across the country, there's 42 million.

Speaker: yeah That is one in eight, basically one in eight. So nobody's asking the question, to in my my opinion, on how why are there all these people on benefits and how do we get them off of them?

Speaker: You're worried about how do we get them more benefits? How do we get them off these benefits? It's not supposed to be a lifestyle. All right. So we'll go mean, we've got, i mean we've got Right now, that I think the state of Ohio is is providing $25 million in food assistance as a ah it emergency funds for any loss of SNAP benefits for right now.

Speaker: That's what they're saying. $7 million to go across to food banks around the state and $18 million in emergency relief benefits for more than 63,000 residents. other story is

Speaker: ah so the other story is Ohio, which has 1.4 million residents receiving benefits are watching. others kind So wait a minute, I'm getting confused now.

Speaker: State of Ohio is giving 25 million. Why is it only for 63,000? recipients. and Okay. um So this question all, but nobody's asking, how can we stop this?

Speaker: I am, I'm, I'm thinking of, I'm, I'm talking i know how. Yeah. Government shutdown. Government shutdown will do it.

Speaker: i It it brings ah brings up something that I was talking about with a friend a couple weeks ago. Or no, it was less than a couple weeks ago because this was looming. This was why their topic came up. And we were talking about a friend of a friend.

Speaker: So a friend of my friend.

Speaker: And we'll call him Bob. So Bob family who, or a human resource, we'll call them. What? Yeah, who is a kid who is married, who is divorced.

Speaker: But while they're married, they adopted a couple of kids, two or three, I think. I think there were like,

Speaker: less for I think for lack of a better term, there were like troubled babies from crack heads and stuff, kind of that kind of thing. You know, they were so small babies. So theyre they the whole point of this is they're. Okay. Bob has what kids?

Speaker: He has one kid. One kid. who has got divorced, who got married and adopted a couple of kids. kid already got divorced. yeah Oh, i I see. Okay. I'm getting a little. so Yeah. No, thank you.

Speaker: Because umm if you're confused, I'm sure everybody else is confused. So I have a friend, friend of a friend named Bob. He has a kid who was, who got married, adopted two, maybe three kids.

Speaker: These are, these are not, these are kids that are troubled. So I guess more power to them ah for doing that. They're not divorced. So they have split custody. So Bob's kid is a college educated person and her ex is ex.

Speaker: Their ex is not and on a bunch of benefits.

Speaker: So there's this, the stress that he has because his grandkids are on government funding, government welfare. They're on SNAP. And they're not going to get it.

Speaker: And he's very upset at Donald Trump.

Speaker: Yes. and But they're doing, it sounds like they're doing okay. Well, no. what So they're split. They're split up. They split custody. And the ex doesn't have a job.

Speaker: But Bob does. Thank you. My point. Thank you. So he's very upset because he's now going to have to pitch in. Right. So I'm talking to my friend and and he's like, well, you can see why Bob would be upset. I go, I get that. I go, I said, but isn't it, isn't that his responsibility?

Speaker: Like, isn't that like, how has that fallen to us? Like, it's your kids, it's your grandkids. Why does, no, yeah that is your responsibility. And the fact that we have these programs is why you don't think it is your responsibility.

Speaker: Right. There's a, dirt something else has happened too. And I think it's it's more here in the U.S. The grandparents have really kind of disconnected themselves. one Like, I think it's the boomer generation.

Speaker: They really disconnected themselves from their kids after the kids moved out. Where they feel like they don't have a ah responsibility anymore.

Speaker: I don't think that's really happened in other countries. No, I don't think it does. And I don't, that's not a good thing. No, because that is your, that is the part, that is the whole, I mean, one of the biggest advantages to a nuclear family and all that stuff is you have a fallback because it's not the community's responsibility when you get in hard times to just jump on assistance. No, it's to ask your family.

Speaker: And that's, some of these people online, you know, you're, They're complaining because they're so cold-hearted. How can you be so heartless with all these children? it's It's children, Tom.

Speaker: For the children. and And my question is always, how much did you give? How many have you fed? um I'm sure there's plenty of these people out there that would gladly take a few nights on your couch, you know, just until they get on their feet.

Speaker: That's the problem. where're where's Where's the families? Where's where's the the extended family? Where's the church? Where's the community, the local community? They're all gone for the most part, I think.

Speaker: And I think the biggest one of the biggest reasons is the bigger the government gets, the less charitable we get as people. Because why? Ah, there's a program for that. Yeah. we don't need gets it It's okay.

Speaker: You never found out why they got divorced, did you? that's another thing no I did not I did not I don't know him that well to even get into that so yeah yeah again I was just hearing it because he him and I get into it Bob that is about politics every once a while and

Speaker: You know, he's she's just an anti-Trump person, which is fine. We can we can have conversations. Yeah, that's all right. That's where he revolves around. And my my point is always pointing out, like, it's, you know, anyway. Well, I was actually going to mention, like, I'm kind of curious about the divorce.

Speaker: And only only from, ah okay, so they adopted two or three kids, as far as you know. Sounds like it, yeah. Okay, and then they get a divorce. Now, Is it a, did, did they get a no fault divorce?

Speaker: And I think that's a huge problem in this country. I think that's Ohio. i don't think there's. There is, i think that's way Ohio does divorce. Well, ah and our country does it.

Speaker: Yeah. I think it's state, but most states are no fault now. Yeah. California started that. It doesn't matter if you cheat on your spouse, you still have a complete, you still equal chance of getting custody of kids.

Speaker: I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about back in the day they used to, yeah, okay. But back in the day that you weren't allowed to get divorced unless somebody did something wrong.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah, right. And I think too many too many of these couples are just getting divorced just because, don't know, some douchebag wants something extra or some, you know, slut did something she wasn't supposed to.

Speaker: And I think there's just too many couples breaking. Yeah, too many couples now getting into divorce. And I'm just like... I don't care when if somebody gets divorced if they don't have any kids.

Speaker: At that point, it doesn't really matter. But when you have like two or three kids that you adopted for God, for Christ's sake, yeah ah how do you get a divorce?

Speaker: I don't know. and That's messed up. and so Yeah, it's a lot but it's so you're right, because it's a lot of reasons why people need to be on SNAP and food stamps. It's because they make bad choices in their lives, and that's kind of where i'm getting at. How do we teach people not to make these bad choices?

Speaker: Don't let them get divorced. It's cultural, but it's not even... That's thing. That's one way. Most of these that are generational have been taught, this is how you do. This is what you do. as I've seen that mom and dad do it. That's what I was like, oh, the children. I go, no, the parents. The parents are doing this to their kids. What are you talking about?

Speaker: And ah like for the, let's, before I get into the next one, let me just ask this question. What did we do before food stamps and how many people starved before food stamps?

Speaker: ah virtually none, as far as I can tell. It didn't really happen. Not in America. Before food stamps. You know why? Because the community took care of its own. You had the community, you had churches, which is basically the community also. You had charities.

Speaker: it Your neighbor it was your biggest fear. You know, family, yeah friends, neighbor, church, community. And you never you went you never needed to get any further than that because that's four that's what, three or four backups? Yeah.

Speaker: Mm-hmm. But I truly believe that we're getting so far away from that because nobody thinks they need to. Because you see, when when when big stuff happens, the American people are very charitable.

Speaker: But the government will kill that. And it seems like, it feels like to me like they have. And I think that's our, our, why do you want to give to a charity if if the government's taking care of it, you know? When the government's feeding the charity anyway.

Speaker: Yeah. Well, yeah. In a lot of cases. So it seems as though the state of Ohio is going to pony up some money out of rainy day fund or wherever they're going to try to pull out of and and least get some temporary help for, and again, we're going to play the worst of the worst, but there are a lot of people that ah do rely on this as a safety net, elderly, ah rural in inner city and rural areas. It happens everywhere. Disabled. Disabled, yes. there There are some very legitimate reasons to have a safety net, but this has always been my problem with the safety net is people taking advantage of it.

Speaker: And it's it's it's it's in our nature to do it. It's what we do as freaking humans. So it's like, it all starts with good intentions, but politicians and the and the citizens will take advantage of it for their own reasons.

Speaker: It brings me to a quote. I put it in the show notes, don't know noticed it.

Speaker: It's from one of my favorite founding fathers, Ben Franklin. And this is, this is my take on it. On, on, on the ah safety net. He says, I'm for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means.

Speaker: I think that, The best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving driving them out of it. In my youth, I traveled much.

Speaker: I observed in different countries that the more public provisions were provided to the poor, less the less they provided for themselves and of course became poorer.

Speaker: And on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves and the richer they became. And that's exactly my view of it. I get the safety net, but you know you should not be comfortable. it should not be It should be the bare necessities. And here's here's a solution.

Speaker: Let's go back to government cheese.

Speaker: Let's expand that program. They used to give cheese out to the court. I know, it's so gross. Literally Velveeta, I think it was, or a kind of Velveeta. It was processed. Yeah, was very, very processed cheese because there was an overproduction of milk or something. I remember what it was. They had all this cheese in this warehouse and they were just giving away for years.

Speaker: But how about this? How about the government gives you food and gives you what they think you need? and that's that's your That's your safety net.

Speaker: Well, I think they're doing that. They are? Yeah. Well, it's the government making the decisions. No, I mean, like, no, they give you the food. Like, you don't get a car to go choose. Leave it to government. They'll give him your they'll give him ah they'll give them a soft drinks because, you know, some...

Speaker: Big pharma is going to give them some dollars because they want some more diabetes. And we can have that. We can have that debate and argument, but at least we'll know what's going on and we can, we can, we can shape it in the way we want it.

Speaker: But it just, just willy nilly. Here's, here's four grand. Go do what you want with it. I don't think so. I think i if you want a safety net, I'm good i'm fine. But I think it needs to be, it's just like welfare. It's it's like the EBT cash that they're talking about.

Speaker: Oh, yeah, she got $13,000 in eat or in and SNAP benefits and $13,000 $20,000 in EBT cash. That's just plain old welfare, not even food stamps welfare. To me, it's all the same. but The other thing is, I think I've asked this before. do If you go on SNAP benefits, let's say you're disabled.

Speaker: And you get, which you know, which I think, you know, sometimes they they need that help. yeah Yeah. But um do they have to reapply for it ever?

Speaker: a Good question. Because i I think they should make everybody reapply for it, regardless if it's disabled or... I think they might, I'm reading somewhere that was one problems with, they they put more restrictions on like Medicare, Medicaid, that kind of stuff.

Speaker: And, or more more reporting and people are complaining because every so often you have to reapply or something. I'm not sure if that applies to that, but they might be able to, of course, I naturally we lean towards no, but that might be.

Speaker: People that live off this stuff and, and I'm talking about, you know, the, um, The able-bodied people. that we we we need We need to make it tougher to... ah We need them to jump through more hoops to get it and more often, you know...

Speaker: Yeah, for sure. I think it needs, that's my, that's kind of, it needs to be a little more difficult. It doesn't need to be a windfall at all. And that's what it feels like. It feels like they're just woohoo. And I get it. They're poor.

Speaker: It's not like they're, they're driving, ah Lambos or anything, but I mean, you're getting four or $5,000 a month just for food. That's, that's a lot. Three, two, $3,000 month for food. Holy cow.

Speaker: holy cow and And that's kind of the back to the other thing is what are you what are you using with it? What are you buying with it? Junk. You're buying overpriced junk. Here's a, let's get back to this. want finish this up real quick.

Speaker: IdeaStream had a little clip on what Summit County wants to do and and who and who they blame. With Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits expected to run out this weekend, Summit County officials are warning that people will go hungry if the government shutdown continues.

Speaker: I'm IdeaStream Public Media's Abigail Botar. Summit County Council approved an additional quarter million dollars Monday night to go to the Akron-Canton Regional Food Bank. County Executive Eileen Shapiro says that will fund 750,000 meals.

Speaker: Despite our financial assistance, this money will not go very far. County officials say more than 77,000 people or 13 percent of Summit County residents are on SNAP, which will end November 1st if the government doesn't reopen.

Speaker: Representative Amelia Sykes, whose district includes all of Summit County, says Republicans need to come back to the bargaining table. Finger pointing does not feed children. She's calling on the Trump administration to release contingency funds to pay for SNAP benefits.

Speaker: Summit County officials say SNAP recipients can call 2-1-1 for food assistance. Abigail Botar, IdeaStream Public Media. Or you could just vote for the continuing resolution of the exact same quote-unquote budget from last year.

Speaker: Or you could just do that. that was They said 13%? 13% of Summit County. That's more than one in eight. Yeah. I mean, just just a little bit more than that. Yeah.

Speaker: That is crazy, man. Yep. And, you know, also onto this, and this is, I got to get on a plane in a little while, in like a month or so. So they better get this stuff straightened out because now the air traffic controllers are now starting to go without pay.

Speaker: Yeah. They have to come to work. So, but they can eat, they can, I think the last time this happened this long, there happened to be a lot of call-ins. People were calling in sick a lot. There was a lot, a big, big short, and they're kind of having that now.

Speaker: and There's already a shortage of air traffic controllers, and this is going to make it worse.

Speaker: Delays, and ah hopefully delays is all we have to worry about because I got to get on a plane here in a few weeks here. So get this stuff taken care of.

Speaker: um So it could be safety concerns. mean all All planes in the sky is not a lot of eyes on the board. So let's... Keep an eye on that, I guess.

Speaker: um Going through, I don't think, yeah, they already got, they say 3,000, a shortage of 3,000 air traffic controllers already. So they're saying. You know, my my neighbor's daughter's waiting to be one. She went to school for it and everything.

Speaker: But I think you have to, there's like a minimum age. Oh, really? She went right after, i think while she went to college. But I think twenty you have to be at least 24 or 26. Yeah.

Speaker: to be a traffic air traffic controller. Oh, okay. Yeah. I'm kind of, I'm wondering because she, that that was her decision right away when she went to school.

Speaker: Interesting. And I'm wondering if, if there was a, if we're going to have a flood of kids that did, that are going to do it, you know, and using in a short, yeah, definitely.

Speaker: I'm just kind of curious if there was a trend, I guess. And I didn't realize, i mean, it makes sense, but I didn't realize there was an age restriction.

Speaker: Yeah, kind of makes sense. It needs some reliable people, responsible people, people showing up sober. but Yes. That's the first thing I thought of too. ah That was my responsible comment. Yeah. um So the next, next one thing is real quick is Head Start programs are, are not getting their funding this month, starting this, starting today.

Speaker: And that's another concern for a lot because, There is, i mean, a lot of people use Head Start as daycare.

Speaker: So they won't have, ah some people may need to make choices of where to put their kids. I mean, that's a serious, I mean, I don't know what supposed to do, but.

Speaker: Well, that's that's another thing. I know not every family can do this, but, you know, that is that was something that grandparents did back in the day.

Speaker: Yeah, if you don't want to be on SNAP. A lot of lot of the best way to do that. Oh, oh yeah, that's right. I have two two- parent households.

Speaker: Yeah. And maybe not having seven kids with seven baby daddies. They're not taking their kids to daycare. Trust me. That's for sure. And they're not working. They're not working or using daycare. You're lucky jen if they know where they're half the kids are.

Speaker: So Head Start is going to make, you know, they're again, the county, or so the one report or story we have in in and the notes is they're talking about Shockton County Head Start.

Speaker: And they are not going to get their ah federal funding. and They did get a a donation to keep them going for a couple more weeks from the from the community, which, yes, that's kind of, hmm.

Speaker: Kind of ironic that it took so takes a donation from the community when that's maybe probably who she'd be paying for it to begin with. how did How did that happen, though? The donation from the community. it does not specify.

Speaker: When I read the story, that that was one of the things that jumped out at me. I was like, okay, they got a donation from the community. what What does that even mean?

Speaker: Did they try to raise, was there a raise, a fundraiser? right i don't understand. You would think if there was a GoFundMe or something, they would have said it, but I don't know. it ah um I read the article and listened to the report.

Speaker: Well, here. the

Speaker: Here. Listen to the report. Well, there's a part of it. We will have no money after the 31st, and that's scary. At Coshocton County Head Start, the doors are still open, but the clock is ticking.

Speaker: so a recent donation from the community has allowed them to remain open until November 14th, but it's only a temporary fix. We cannot run our program on just donations. It it costs about $50,000 a week to keep ourselves open, and that's just paying staff. The program has about 60 staff members and serves 140 children.

Speaker: They say they were already operating in crisis mode due to inflation, and now the shutdown is pushing the program to a possible breaking point. Some of our children, you know, this is...

Speaker: The food that they get for the day. I mean, we feed breakfast, lunch and a snack before they go home. Across Ohio, six other Head Start programs who, along with Coshocton, collectively serve over 3,700 children are facing the same dilemma.

Speaker: No new federal funds. They say many families have no other affordable child care options. Head Start leaders say children can't pause their development for a political gridlock.

Speaker: but children aren't pawns in the get the game that the government's playing right now. um You know, children are our future and we're kind of playing with their lives right now. There's a song about that. Actually, ah to correct you.

Speaker: Yes, actually they are pawns. but that's what That's how they're using them. That's how when you when you have parents who have to rely or generationally rely on the government for funding, then you are a pawn.

Speaker: You're a slave in their system. Sorry, but... Well, I'm kind of curious here. How much do they charge per child? Now, let's let's say it's because they have $50,000 a week with

Speaker: or 140 kids is about $70 a day, basically, for five-day week. Right. Now,

Speaker: how much is SNAP covering of that? And that's just for the paying the staff. Why do they have 60 people for 140 kids? thats That's another thing.

Speaker: Secondly, how much SNAP paying for... Each child. And I guess I would call it.

Speaker: ah Really? I, okay. I mean, we can't survive on donations alone. I don't know what what else do they have. I do people pay. i mean, this is a headstart program, so it is a federally funded. Right. Right. But, but let's say somebody can pay ah hundred dollars um a week but that cuts, you know, and the rest of this paid by snap. I don't, they, they really don't give you much here in this article.

Speaker: I would like to know it's $50,000 a week for 60 people that averages out to a little bit over, i think it was, uh, 40 bucks. What was that?

Speaker: Eight or 900 bucks a week or something. Isn't it? wasn't it It was about almost 900. Yeah. yeah And I think, which comes out to about 40 some thousand dollars a year. But why do they have 60 staff members for 140 kids?

Speaker: that's So they have 60 staff members in the article. that says no federal funding could could put more than 900 Head Start staff members across the state. So there's 900 across the state. They have 60.

Speaker: Right, right. Why are there 900? For 140 kids. for hundred and forty kids i don't...

Speaker: that's so That's a lot of people. Seems like go lot. Yeah. I get that you need more than just the teachers. You need some other. But yeah, that's a good point. Well, 140 kids. I'm just asking that question. i'm yeah i know i'm a ah yeah I don't know anything about this, but it seems extreme.

Speaker: But again, going back to EBT and SNAP. If the funds just come in, you're going to grow as much as your funds will allow you to grow, whether you need to or not.

Speaker: I mean, hate to put this in such broad brushes, but...

Speaker: I'll tell you what I think. It's just like the car thing. Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, go ahead. you i think the I think the state is getting ripped off. Yes. or or the Or the Fed, obviously, because I i don't know.

Speaker: I've known people that did daycare. This is for just the staff. It's costing $70 a day per child.

Speaker: It seems like it's a little. i'd like I'd like to see the numbers. You know, and what what why why I need 60. That seems like an awful lot. I could see maybe 30. Well, I don't know how this all works, but... I'm not a child care expert.

Speaker: No. I did say to Holland Express every now and again. i have I knew people that weren't on Snap that did... How much is weekly...

Speaker: Childcare. little bit over 500 bucks a week, maybe? don't know. It could be to that. probably just depends where you go. Yeah, it depends on the place and this and the amount of hours and all that stuff, but easily $350 and up a week.

Speaker: Yeah, well, this is $350 just for the staffs. And if it's government-run you know, funded, then it seems a little high.

Speaker: Yeah, i Again, like... If it's given to you, it is it may it may be it's easier to waste. There's more waste, I think, in all this kind of stuff. when Sure. when you're just given That's kind of my point with the food stamps.

Speaker: You know what? If you just get $4,000 a month and you get to buy whatever you want, basically, no, we should just be providing you a box full of food or two boxes of food, whatever it is, and you you eat what's in there. If you don't, then you don't. If there's a listener out there that has kids in daycare,

Speaker: give us a ballpark figure of what you're spending per child per week. and I'd love to know. Cause I, I'm kind of, I've never had to deal with this. So. Yeah. And, uh, back to your point about grandparents.

Speaker: Thankfully, neither have I. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I have wonderful in-laws and I'm blessed. I'm not saying this. i ah I'm not, I'm not pounding my chest on that. I'm very thankful.

Speaker: Um, but And then you reminded me, I i didn't put any the reminders in the notes about it.

Speaker: Subscribe to the show, people. Let us know what you think. ah we've We've droned on and off about SNAP benefits and EBT and the government shutdown.

Speaker: Long story short is it's going to be okay. We're going to take care of you. But this should open people's eyes up. It really should. But tell us what you think. you've Like you Tom said, if you've got got some experience with daycare or SNAP, let us know.

Speaker: I just did a search for average daycare costs. And in Ohio, it can range from $750 $2,000 a month.

Speaker: Now, depending on if it's an infant, $991 for infants and $847 for toddlers. That's daycare. So it ranges from $100 to $350 a week. So we're paying $350 here.

Speaker: so it ranges from a hundred to three fifty a week so we're paying three fifty a week here Just for the staff per child. What about all the supplies in the building? and Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker: No, that's that's what I'm getting at. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It seems like it's, it seems like, you know, it seems little extreme cost-wise. Yeah. And again, you're going why, why tighten the belt when you don't need to?

Speaker: Let's hire more friends. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Again, I'm not trying to make accusations. I just, when, when the money's flowing, you know, you're much more loose with what you're doing with it. So I, Free money, Rob.

Speaker: it's yes it make it's just It's just digital air money. have no idea why we're $38 trillion in debt. digital air because I know, just make it all digital air money and it'll go away. That's what I'm thinking.

Speaker: So yes, please check out the... ah the Check out our show notes, the blog post. every ah Every Monday when the show drops, we all have a blog post there. has all our notes and links and stuff in it.

Speaker: CrookedRiverCast.com. Shoot us an email. tell us ah Tell us what you think at CrookedRiverCast at gmail.com. And we thank you for listening to our wonderful show.

Speaker: At least we think it's wonderful. And moving on to something that doesn't have to do with SNAP benefits. But it does have to do with children. And that is a new proposal in the state legislature, which was just right off the bat.

Speaker: It ain't going anywhere. But Senate Bill 93, which would establish a school funding system without vouchers or levies. Instead, Brenner, the Republican from Delaware who proposed this, proposes establishing a financing so system supporting supported by statewide taxes.

Speaker: Well, what does he want to do? you Under the SB 93, school districts would no longer be able to levy property taxes or income taxes. Instead, Brenner proposes a statewide 20 mil property tax to be distributed across public and charter schools.

Speaker: and raising the Ohio State income our state sales tax by 1.75%, bringing it it up to 7.5%, and all additional sales tax revenue would go directly to the education fund.

Speaker: So what he's trying to do is what I've been saying we need to do, which is fund the student. The plan would fund schools on a per-pupil basis.

Speaker: Brenner expects to allocate about $11,535 per student. And the funding would follow the students to their public or charter school of choice, eliminating a need for some education voucher programs. So lot what a lot of states have done around the country, I think there's more than a dozen that have done this exact thing, which is they fund the students.

Speaker: So yeah the student gets x amount of dollars every year and you could get to go to any school you want to in the state. Any public or private, you just a lot it you just tell the state where you're going and then they give that school the money.

Speaker: what do you think, Tom?

Speaker: Sounds good to me. Sounds better. Sounds better. Yeah, it's not better. It's not the answer, but. It's way closer. Doesn't you a property tax, but. I've read it, and I'm trying to go through it right now, and I'm trying to see if there's anything that sticks out.

Speaker: I mean, there it's not a I don't think it's a complete solution. I think there needs to be some other, ah like going back to the snap thing. I mean, how about, how about looking at the budget a little closer? I'm sure they're going to say they do, but I'm not sure.

Speaker: I think politicians are like really just trying to, do something. Yes, they are. error They are trying to do whatever they can. But to me, this is the first one that actually is something different. yeah Everything else that I've seen is just a bandaid.

Speaker: Right, right. on an already overly complicated system that has been ruled unconstitutional. But this still seems like kind of a... It's a Band-Aid. Yeah.

Speaker: It's just the best Band-Aid I've seen so far because it... Well, and it really gets to where I think we should be going, which is funding the kids because that will what what that will do, in my opinion, is get the schools competing against each other. Right now, private schools, they compete against each other and they compete hard against each other.

Speaker: And it makes them better. It makes them way better because they need to keep those scores and those test scores up because that's how a lot of people choose where they're sending their kids. And public schools don't have to do that. They just keep getting more and more and more with nothing to show for it.

Speaker: and if And I get it if some people are nervous about this. I understand. But just ask yourself. How's it working for you so far? What do you think? So there's like close by in Medina, there's a Highland School District, right?

Speaker: That is supposed to be like one of the best and in the state. How does that school, it's public, get so much better than other local public schools?

Speaker: Well, I mean, is it just the people, the the community just... agreeing to spend more i don't know what's their spending i guess that'd be my question are they spending more or or do they just have more engaged parents i don't know i think i'm like because it grew so fast and the school's so new newer i should say that's the one with almost like a college campus a lot of them are that way yeah yeah of

Speaker: Yeah, it's just, it's curious. i'm I'm curious to you understand that. That's kind of my my biggest problem with all the proponents to all these things is... More money does not mean better education.

Speaker: Right. We can prove that over and over again. That's that's why I say... but the But the worst abusers of that are the are the urban central schools. Right. and it seems like It seems like some suburban schools do a pretty good job of of using tax dollars for that.

Speaker: We could have just tied this segment into the to the SNAP benefits because i think for for me, from my observation and my opinion, it all comes down to the family. It comes down to the home.

Speaker: If you've got single parents, which the inner city is filled with, I'm pretty sure, majority single parents maybe. Maybe that's yeah going too far, but i that's a pretty decent guess.

Speaker: What, in urban? In the urban city. No, it's definitely more single-parent households. If you have a single-parent household, it's much harder for you to pay attention to what you're happening what's happening to your kids in school than if you have two parents.

Speaker: but Even if two parents are working, it's twice as hard. And I think that has a lot to do with why some of these rural communities do better with less money because they have more two-parent households And, and I mean, I mean, poverty brings breeds crime and but that's part of it too. If your kid's worried about getting knifed or robbed on his way to school, you might, they'd be worried too much about what's going on in school and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker: That doesn't happen as much in the rural community. And that, to me, that's a good example because i think in a lot of areas of rural communities are underfunded because of just lack of tax revenue because there's not a lot of people there.

Speaker: Yeah. As many, as much. And the, the inner cities are, They've got, I mean, I think the last I checked, I think Cleveland is like $19,000 per student or something. It's crazy.

Speaker: And I think the state average is like 16. So they're way above the state average, 20%, 20% above the state average, whatever that would be. And ah and there's their test scores are like the worst, some of the worst in the state.

Speaker: Yeah, i guess it's just the community doesn't pay attention who's on the school board, things like that. i would I would think places like Medina County, people pay attention to that a lot more.

Speaker: So Brenner's saying about 50% of schools' funding comes from local property taxes or income taxes, local. About 40% funds come from federal programs. Oh, no, forty um the state does 40% and the remaining comes from federal programs. So about 10% of the funding comes from the federal government.

Speaker: ah For example, the largest school district in Ohio, which is a Columbus City school district, gets 68.6% of its funding from local taxes. And a district like Dublin and Bexley, which receive less state support, local taxes contribute about 85% of the district's revenue.

Speaker: So you go from you know a city to a rural area,

Speaker: Suburban. Suburban areas are not rural areas, suburban area. Now, may whether would there be some schools that close? Yeah, probably. Probably.

Speaker: But again, that sounds scary. But how's it been working for you so far? just Keep getting taxed to to oblivion. The test scores don't really get any better. Right.

Speaker: Again, i don't think this is going to go anywhere, but it's just the first one, the first bandit I see that was halfway decent. Because if you abolish property taxes, this is how you're going to fund it. You're going to do sales taxes and and other other things to do besides taxing us on on our unrealized gains from our increasingly increased house home values. And

Speaker: for what?

Speaker: So again, you know, it's not going to go anywhere, but just going through, making sure anything else I missed on this thing. Again, next two years, school funding is is is set the way it is. So nothing's going to change for at least two years.

Speaker: um But again, I think this might be a little bit more of the the virtue signaling from and politics. I mean, again, I like it, but I don't think it's really going to go anywhere. Anything else you got on that?

Speaker: No, no, they're just trying to do something because I think the, I think it will get on the ballot. You know, the text elimination. This would get rid of ad choice expansion, which I currently take advantage of.

Speaker: Right. And I'm okay with it. Get rid of it. Uh, and, and give, Give the citizens of Ohio, give the parents who want to, who care, and option to get their kids out of a bad situation.

Speaker: thats That's what was funded. That's what was ruled by the Constitution. or how The Supreme Court was unconstitutional because you're stuck. You're forced to go to the school where you were born because if you don't have the funds to go to a private school, you're being taxed.

Speaker: your stuck You're stuck where you're at in the current system. And if you in in this this way, at least as a parent, you have the choice if you wanted to make those sacrifices and take your kid out of the bad system into a better one.

Speaker: You know, don't make them comfortable in it. And that's all I got for that one. Yeah.

Speaker: Next bill, we've got few bills today. is least keep I'm not sure how important this is to people, but I think it's an interesting example of government overreach, I guess, because State House is advancing bills to tighten marijuana and hemp laws.

Speaker: I think just so this whole push started in the House. and There's a version of the bill in the House that they're going to have reconcile on because it's passed both the House and the and the Senate, but they're very different bills from what I can see.

Speaker: And part of that is because the House bill kind of started with, kind of sound like they were trying they're trying to get

Speaker: the state to do what, what it was voted on, do what the people wanted, which was give the communities a cut of the tax revenue from these dispensaries, marijuana dispensaries.

Speaker: And so far they haven't got a dime. They haven't got a dime. And i think the house started, part of the house bill has this in it, has the, you know to to start distributing this stuff.

Speaker: And the Senate bill does not. Plus the Senate bill wants to, they want to put much bigger regulations on everything. then there's, this does take care of the hemp, intoxicating hemp and put some regulations on put some rules in it about advertising to, you know, to.

Speaker: No, stop. Think of the children. that you you can't be advertising to children which you know if you've seen some of the some products that come out with it's quite obvious it's quite obvious what they're doing but this would eliminate a lot of that put some rules regulations on advertising and packaging to protect the children and and tax and regulate hemp intoxicating, not CBD.

Speaker: I said that does does not intoxicate you. So take all of it you want as long as it it gets you high. don't care what else it does to you. And the, yeah so there's, they're pretty far apart on these bills. So they're, this is not going anywhere soon. i think there'll probably be a while before they figure this out.

Speaker: Kind of sounds like that. They're talking like summertime or something. um So, you know, to me, it's, I guess, be careful what you wish for.

Speaker: You didn't really get the right. You just got permission.

Speaker: Anything say about that? Not at all. I think they're just trying to do something for what DeWine was doing, right? Yeah. DeWine's been complaining about the intoxicating hemp.

Speaker: Yeah. And they're trying to slide in some other crap into it. Yeah. No, this is all...

Speaker: DS. Yes. It's, we gave them the tools to, instead of just legalizing it, we gave them the tools. I get it. They got regulated, I guess. No, they should just decriminalized That was it.

Speaker: Yeah. we You and I talked about this when this first happened. i was like, oh, look at it. You're like, yeah but still, still a problem because it's not really legal. it's just approved.

Speaker: Without, uh, Pot was never a problem. They should have just decriminalized it. Now all of a sudden it's a problem because government's involved. Yep. And you know, you know, it's a problem or, you know, it's a something fishy going on when they it's, I think it's a higher class at federally a higher class of drug than like cocaine.

Speaker: I think it's the same, right? yeah ah Yeah. Yeah. It's way up. I mean, it's like class one narcotics. It's crazy. Yeah. I forget how they classify that stuff, but it's ah it's like, yeah, it's on the top rung.

Speaker: And that prevents anybody in from getting federal dollars to study it. Right. but Study pot. Well, I mean, studying the medicinal, you can't get any federal funding out it because it's a narcotic. So it's I think that's why, i think that's the big pharma telling him, or, you know, they put this in like keep us in the loop, you know, so...

Speaker: And I got family that works at, you know, one of the major hospital systems in the area and going through some health issues few years back. And I was like, oh, it's legalized now. was like, you can just go get some, you know, something to help your pain or whatever. He goes, no, I can't.

Speaker: like what do you mean you can't? He goes, no, they, they, they random drug test at work. And I was like, okay, so I'll get a card. Oh no, they don't recognize that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, no, of course they're not to recognize it. You're taken away, taken away from them.

Speaker: So more of guess. All right. right So I think this next story is something I've been i've been kind of following on the and the edges to see if anything ever comes up of it.

Speaker: But there is a major scandal apparently going on with the Ohio Teachers Pension Program. And it might be some shading is going on. Let's see if we can...

Speaker: See if we can get it in the little backgrounder in a clip, I think is what I have. is that what I got? Yeah. Little backgrounder on what theyre what's going on with the Ohio Teachers Pension.

Speaker: Where is that button? A year and a half of fighting allegations of corruption, all leading to Monday. The Attorney General's team is making its case in court, arguing that the state teachers retirement system board chair Rudy Fichtenbaum needs to be removed from his position and former board member Wade Steen needs to be banned from ever returning to public pensions.

Speaker: For the past year, we have dug into and exposed the controversy swirling inside STRS, the more than $100 billion pension fund for the more than 500,000 active and retired public educators in Ohio. The state accuses Ficht and Baumanstein of attempting to contract steer 70% of STRS assets to QED, d a startup investment firm. The AG's office says QED's founders, Seth Metcalf and J.D. Tremel, have backdoor ties to both men and have no track record, clients, or capability to invest $65 billion. dollars

Speaker: Victim Baum and Steen say they didn't do anything wrong. Steen's attorney says the proposal would help with financial struggles and provide more money to retirees. Through a public records request, we uncovered hundreds of text messages where Steen was given questions to ask during board meetings, documents to propose, pushing him to follow QED's plan. And Steen did.

Speaker: But the defense said that getting advice isn't a crime. And Steen testified his goal was a better retirement for teachers. As well as Steen, Fichtenbaum, Metcalf, and Tremel are expected to take the stand during the trial. At the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, I'm Morgan Trout reporting.

Speaker: Yeah. Hi, Morgan. Good to have you back. And not that she went anywhere, but. No, it's good to hear from her. We haven't heard from her in while.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. So $100 billion dollarlar fund.

Speaker: And these two guys, um first of all, if you notice in there, she says, she says them together and, and it came

Speaker: I had to replay it. I'm like, did he, did they just become, okay. So 70%, nearly $68 billion dollars they're going to give to one investment firm that just started and has no experience according to the report.

Speaker: They weren't going to try with a couple billion. No, let's give them 70% the fund. ah fun

Speaker: And then what what they're what they're claiming, and this is a a ah civil case to get him get them removed. even a criminal case. To get them removed off the, yeah, Dave Yost has a civil lawsuit about a year and a half ago to get them off the board, basically.

Speaker: And what they found, it sounds like, is, so these guys, Steen and Fechtembaum are

Speaker: like, The QET, the company that's going to win the 70% of the fund to invest in a whole lot of fees, I'm sure, is giving them, like he's giving them a, QED was given of Fechten Bombenstein, we'll call him now, Fechten Bombenstein, advice on how to get this through and how to ask the right questions and say it this way. kind of sounded like, you know, here, ask this question, use this report or use this paperwork, this kind of stuff.

Speaker: And they're saying they got back door ties to these guys, to this organization. Well, do we know what the ties are? Because that's what I've been looking for, but I don't see anything about that. They don't say. say back door ties, which, yes, question marks.

Speaker: To me, the biggest red flag is you have a brand new investment company and you're going to give them 70% of this humongous fund. it seems, at the at the best, it seems like a really bad idea.

Speaker: yeah it's retarded. start I get it. you want to Because they were saying, well, this they're going to have way lower fees and that kind of stuff, so we're going save a bunch of money, which I get. 70% though? You got to give this big chunk all at once?

Speaker: Kind sounds like you got greedy a little bit. Maybe these guys would be better, but I mean, you're just going to dump more than half the fund this untested ah organization or or company.

Speaker: and and They make one bad move and um yeah, you you just screwed a whole bunch of teachers. It's not how I would want my pension fund handled. No, no.

Speaker: So they're on trial. They're going they're going to testify. We'll follow it see, see what comes up to it. But, So yeah, they wrote, they showed that QED wrote documents for, for Steen and gave him direct questions to ask.

Speaker: And he did. But as I said, getting a advice is not a crime. No, you're right. It isn't a crime, but it looks really bad. um Yeah, I think that's about all we got on that one.

Speaker: Yeah, they they, you know, they were crafting questions for him, which I mean, in some ways is. I don't know. That doesn't sound okay, but. um shouldn't your lawyer be doing that yeah it should be somebody yeah it's like you like the sales guy is telling you how to pitch this to your wife on on the mercedes uh suv you want to buy you know that's what it's like to me like no tell her this no tell him that um and he's gonna give you the the rosiest outcome or rosiest

Speaker: information because they want this deal. So it's i um it's not great. It's not great advice to be taken or a great idea to take advice from the company that's about to benefit hugely from this decision. so I don't think my wife would mind a Mercedes SUV, but if I said if the salesman was selling me a Lambo, you might have to try to sell her on that idea.

Speaker: Well, if you're Lambo SUV, you know, I think, don't know if they had, Only if... Yeah, they do, actually. Do they? I'm pretty sure... Because my daughter and I watch, or used to watch, it not on anymore, the yeah Top Gear.

Speaker: And I'm pretty sure they had a Lamborghini... Yeah, Lamborghini Urus. Yeah. It's called the Yeah, they have one. Yeah, looking at it. Isn't it the Urus? Is that what it's called? You are something like that.

Speaker: i I remember because yeah the one they tested was a ah a bright yellow one because they figured it it matched the name. there I'm looking at a black one. language and year I used one with a thousand miles on it.

Speaker: Oh my gosh, how much? It's a 2025 all-wheel drive. It's black. It's not used. A thousand miles. I mean, if it was bought and... Yeah, it is used. I'm just saying there's a lot of dealers that sell cars with 3,000 miles on It's brand new. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, yeah. How much? $315. Oh, they got two? Can I get two? Man, it's sharp looking. Yeah, but it's... It's not much of an SUV, though. It's not really a Lambo, either.

Speaker: i i forget what they said in their review. It's something like... It's got Lamborghini badge on it, but it's not necessary. yeah. It is good looking, though. that Yeah. Porsche has one, too. It's 2020 $192,000.

Speaker: hundred and ninety two thousand

Speaker: I just forgot. How did we get on Lamborghini pension? Well, that was my yeah my rat hole. All right. So let's ah let's move.

Speaker: We'll do that next. Let's do spotlight. Uh-oh. I'm not prepared, Tom. I'm horrible at this now. Oh, yeah. Here it is.

Speaker: Spotlight. I got to say it while it happens. Spotlight. That way people tell what it is. Do it again.

Speaker: Wait, do it again. oh yeah Spotlight. Spotlight! Oh, damn it. I missed my button.

Speaker: Oh, that was funny. um Yeah, so Spotlight Ohio today is going to be the one and only Hocking Hills. Hocking Hills. ever been down there, Tom?

Speaker: Never. Never? No. You probably driven it through it, I imagine. Nope. i' I don't think I've... oh Going to Kentucky? Maybe going somewhere. Yeah, maybe. Yeah.

Speaker: Maybe, but I don't know. um I've always wanted to. You know what? it's it all I want to do a photography yeah expedition there.

Speaker: Yeah, this time of year actually would be really good. Yeah, that's the hard part. It's far away. Like I would like to do it for a couple of nights, maybe few times in one. It's about an hour south of south, south east, I think. Oh, shoot.

Speaker: South of Columbus. It's about that way. About an hour south of Columbus. Yeah, so it's ah it's ah almost three hours. Yeah. It's just a little far to go down there a handful. i You know, that's a retirement thing for me.

Speaker: Yeah, we have, I spent a little bit of time down there. We had ah two friends that got married down there. And we actually stayed in the cabin down there for the weekend while they got married. And then, you know, I had to get up, I had to get dressed up two weekends in a row, of course, because, ah you know, they had the wedding and then a reception in the following week. So we got to party twice.

Speaker: did have to get dressed in a tuxedo twice, which, you know. I can handle it. But good two good friends of ours got married. us So we did spend some time. It's, it's, it's awesome down. If if you're into, if you're into hiking and biking, it's, you probably already know about it.

Speaker: But couple other things you, I mean, there's hiking and biking, of course, there's great rock climbing. They've got some beautiful cabins you're going to rent there. was looking online real quick, just kind of sharpening up on it. They've got a,

Speaker: Gorgeous tree house that you can rent there. That's just like literally in the trees. It's just like two or three story, like rounded. It's it's pretty cool. They got, if you're looking on the, uh, Hawking Hills website, they've got some gorgeous looking rentals you can do there and spend the week there.

Speaker: Um, you know, outdoor stuff, but they've got shops. They've got, uh, I mean, um You can go to the one of the few working and commissionable blacksmiths in Ohio down there.

Speaker: Smith's Shop is a blacksmith down there. You can take classes down there. And they've got the country's only pencil sharpening museum.

Speaker: With over 3,400 exhibits, pencil sharpeners from all around the world and all around the country. But before... You get there, you may want to stop at the Hocking Hills Brewery, have a few have a few brews, brewskis before you go into the Columbus Washboard Factory, the only, the last washboard factory in the United States of America.

Speaker: You can get handmade washboards. I always wanted to start that jug band. Exactly. You see, I even say that one of the advertisements. So, yeah, we sell to a lot of bands and, uh, And they actually send a lot overseas for the troops overseas when they're deployed because lot of times you can't you literally can't, you don't have a washing machine.

Speaker: Right, right. And they use a washboard for it. So yeah. um Pretty cool exciting stuff. But it is, this week would be the the week to go if you can get a cabin because they're usually sold out a year in advance at this time of year.

Speaker: or Or eight, nine months, you got to get that far ahead of it before you can get a cabin down there um during this because, man, it's beautiful down there now. But check it out. Hocking Hills. I recommend it. Weekend trip, um definitely.

Speaker: Or just ah just a long day trip. I mean, check it out. We'll put the links in the Put the links in the show notes on the blog post at crookedrivercast.com.

Speaker: And check it out. we I recommend it. It's beautiful. i got our Our friends that got married, they go there every year for their anniversary. They love it. And it's a great place to just disconnect. Turn your phone off.

Speaker: Go outside. Get some vitamin D. We can all use a little bit.

Speaker: hey And like I said, subscribe this show. Check out CrookedRiverCast.com. CrookedRiverCast at gmail.com if you want to send us an email.

Speaker: Next, I'll touch on this real quick. A couple weeks ago, a week or so ago, Cuyahoga County proposed their new budget. And the headline is, Cuyahoga County proposes budget reduction Proposed Budget reduce Reduces Spending Ahead of Healthcare care Cost Increases.

Speaker: So they're claiming they're cutting the budget. But as we know, they mostly never cut the budget. What do they usually do? Do you remember?

Speaker: I don't remember. They cut the increase. Right. To the budget. That's not cutting the budget. That's cutting the increase, which is exactly what's happening here. They're, they're trimming their spending for health and welfare over the next couple of years.

Speaker: Um, so you get some numbers here. Overall, the budget,

Speaker: Included general fund health and human services spending and capital improvements is set at a $1.95 billion in 2026 and $1.98 billion in 2027 under Ronayne's budget.

Speaker: ah The general fund, which covers salaries for government, for county government and daily operations would be $634 million 2026 and $651 million 2027. six hundred and thirty four million dollars in twenty twenty six and six hundred and fifty one million dollars in twenty twenty seven

Speaker: Tax revenues are a large source of the revenue for the budget. And the Health and Human Services is part of the budget, which is largely funded by voter approved proved property tax levies, would be set to about $297.2 million dollars in and two hundred ninety seven million dollars flat in twenty twenty seven so they're going to cut two hundred thousand dollars from the health and welfare budget.

Speaker: It seemed like a whole lot. think it's like one, is that like 1%? don't even know. ah Maybe less than 1%, I think. Let's see. So they're they're expecting to have increased costs. They're expecting to have um a list of programs operated by outside organizations and subsidized by the county are facing cuts under Ronain's budget, including a total of $8.5 million dollars over two years from the A-D-A-M-H-A board. You don't tell me what that is, but thanks.

Speaker: Which oversees funding for mental health and addiction services in the county. ah Metro Health is facing $4.5 million dollars in budget cuts because the county funds Metro. Which, kind of curious, why, come UH and Cleveland Clinic have more money than God, but Metro doesn't?

Speaker: I wondered that. that's That's just an open question. I don't know the answer to. Let's see. In total, about $42 million would be cut from the programs over the next two years under Ronayne's proposed budget.

Speaker: We have budgeted for a 10% increase in costs, totaling $14 million. dollars In addition, property tax delinquency remains high. but Interesting. And sales tax revenues continue to fluctuate.

Speaker: So people can't pay their property taxes is part of the problem. I wonder why. Or people are moving out. Oh, delinquencies. Well, yeah okay yeah, it could be. it could They could be delinquent and then moved, but ah And then they bring up SNAP, which is this came up before the SNAP apocalypse.

Speaker: Yeah, that's what we're calling it. And that's about it. So they're cutting, they're trimming the budget. They're trimming the increase to the budget by a little bit. So this kind of coincides with last week. We talked about them giving back $35 million dollars to to counties because they had too much money for but the education fund, sounded like, or they they had an excess

Speaker: thinking maybe, i don't know, maybe you can use some of that. But, oh, no, actually, no, you should cut more. Definitely should cut. Because I can see you probably have lots of fat to cut. So let's keep going. This is lame.

Speaker: This is lame. You know what? You know what? No, we need Cuyahoga County Doge. We can't let them do it. Yeah, somebody else needs to take a look at this stuff. That's great point.

Speaker: um the The county is in severe debt. from an I think they're like a billion dollars in debt or more. that's like if a Shouldn't throw numbers out there without looking, but I do all the time. I heard a pretty good quote this week. Let me see if I can get it right.

Speaker: If a county, let's say, well if a government financer was a health dietitian, let's say,

Speaker: If I gained 50 pounds this year and then I gained 30 pounds the next year, he would tell me I lost 20 pounds. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: ah Exactly. Cutting the increase, which is what this is. Yes. the The county at Cuyahoga County is over $1.97 billion in debt as of late 2024. So it's probably even more now.

Speaker: So keep cutting because you know what? This sucks. This sucks. so And...

Speaker: Yeah, this is no good. Keep going. Keep trying. Don't don't be crying that you're cutting. Keep cutting. How about we start with some of your salary? Because you suck. All right.

Speaker: Yeah. Well, and next our next story, this should be a fun one. Maslin football, not with pepper spray. So here's a story that's been growing and brewing for the past couple weeks.

Speaker: I saw what was going on on Twitter, and I had some jokes on this. But after I watched the video, they don't the jokes don't really work. But they had to man, how to how they were ah talk they were making a such a race issue yes on Twitter.

Speaker: Yes. Did you hear the update they a couple days ago on who they brought in to this? Uh, no. So let's, let's, let's get let's get a, but yeah, no. Well close. Let's get a, let's get a little bit. Let's tell the listeners what, so this school from St. Louis came in to play masculine, which I first, I was very confused. I'm like, there's there's a city called St. Louis in Ohio.

Speaker: Like, no, they came from St. Louis. It is, um, St. Louis, St. Louis Cardinal Ritter college prep, uh,

Speaker: They came to play Maslin, and they lost, and the game ended. you know From what I can see, they started doing the you know good game, good game, good game, and and some scuffles.

Speaker: um Some people were shoved or something was going on, and there was a little commotion. So they were trying to break it up, and madness ensued, not really, but there was just a bunch of commotion on the field, and I think,

Speaker: the The police just had enough. They were telling people to get off the field, and most of them weren't moving. The the Maslow team started moving towards, so if you look at this the video of this, you know, look the St. Louis team should have gone to the right to their locker room, and and the Maslow team should have gone to the left, and they they were kind of in middle the field.

Speaker: And the band was trying to start playing, so they there they broke up this little commotion, and they're trying to the the cops came in, and were starting to starting to break it up. Get everybody off the field. Let's not escalate this anymore.

Speaker: And well, it's, let's listen to, here's some raw audio. I want to, want you to know, I see if you can pick up on anything. Maybe I'll i'll point it out to you in the end, but there's a, again, this is just a camera that was on the field. It's not like a body camera and it looks like a professional camera, you know, that wasn't like someone's cell phone and it's just raw audio. What was going on? It's good. It's about a minute long or something like that, but let's,

Speaker: You can kind of hear maybe why this kind of happens if you listen to...

Speaker: but it Right here. There it is. Spotlight. No.

Speaker: Go, go. Go. Go.

Speaker: <unk> resolve

Speaker: go

Speaker: Go! Go! Go!

Speaker: my lord

Speaker: no

Speaker: yeah a

Speaker: And the screaming. The

Speaker: booze. Let's see if you can hear this at the end of what he says. Somebody yells. Right here.

Speaker: Yeah, you can't even hear it. You can't hear Someone at the end says, it sounds to me like they say, you peppered of your own kind. Yeah, it was a black officer, right?

Speaker: One of them was. Yeah, I saw that. that's why That's why I... There was a couple things I was thinking. When I just saw the headline and I saw the reaction and on... Well, I said Twitter, but on an X... Yes, shame on you.

Speaker: When I saw the reaction, I was like, God, what is the Maslin team like all white? And this was like a mostly black team that came in? and They're trying to make it like a a racist thing.

Speaker: Yes. But it's not true at all. Well, they they brought in ah Ben Crump.

Speaker: You may not know, but and I didn't know this, but Ben Crump was the ah George Floyd lawyer. Oh, okay. And others, I believe. Oh, yay. Yay. So here's here's a little bit from Mr. Crump. This is from News Channel 3. Actually, that last bit of audio was actually from New York Post um website or YouTube channel.

Speaker: And here's a little bit from News Channel 3 on kind of an update. This happened three weeks ago, and a couple of years ago, they had an update ah with when this guy Crump came in. They...

Speaker: The, you know, you you may want to say that this is inner city kind of stuff, but i don't think it is because this is ah ah a decent, and it's a prep school. So this is not something. and And on top of that, these parents band together and hired this dude.

Speaker: And I'm sure he's not cheap. I mean, unless he's doing it pro bono, which maybe. But let's listen to what he has to say. He thinks, I mean, it sounds like he has a solution, but let's let's see what you think.

Speaker: Justice for the young lion. Justice for the young lion. More than three weeks after Massillon police pepper sprayed players from St. Louis Cardinal Ritter following the Lions' loss to Massillon, Washington.

Speaker: solution I'm not sure what in the world is going on now. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump is now playing defense for the Lions. You don't have the police come and pepper spray only the predominantly black team and don't do anything to the other team. has that Pepper spray equally. alone. along with Ohio attorneys and Cardinal Ritter parents, spoke to media in St. Louis Monday afternoon. He says if police don't apologize, lawyers will consider litigation or filing complaints with Ohio enforcement agencies.

Speaker: And there is no way. to try to justify using chemical agents on 14, 15, 16-year-old children. There were no 15-year-olds there. In a statement, Massillon police say there were multiple physical altercations between both teams.

Speaker: Two officers deployed pepper spray after police say Cardinal Ritter players ignored their commands to leave the field and charged toward Massillon players. What an odd scene.

Speaker: Parents of the St. Louis players say they felt helpless. He was just screaming and crying and saying, Mama, what do i do so Him and all his teammates need to understand that this is not right.

Speaker: And I check with Massillon Police today. They say that they are not commenting beyond their October 7th statement in it. The department referenced the officers saying in part, quote, we have thoroughly reviewed this incident and found they operated within our policies and procedures for the use of force taken.

Speaker: I mean, if you're going to pepper spray team, you better pepper spray both teams. beckley That was the solution. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. I think, ah why not? I mean, if you're going you going to spray, spray both teams. Spray both teams. If you're going to cry racism, you might as do it right and just cry it for both teams.

Speaker: that was ah That was pretty ridiculous. Yes. ah Yes. Hence our reaction. Stupid. Come on. How much money are you're wasting?

Speaker: Here, apologize or else. Well, and for what so there's also at one point, one of the masculine players gets on the other side of the St. Louis players.

Speaker: I think it was the quarterback and is John at these people and and they start following. He's backpedaling to try to get around back to his team and they're chasing him. until some of the coaches came in and broke it up. You know, there's, there was about to be some, I think about to be some stuff going down there.

Speaker: And I think these cops did exactly what they're supposed to. get, I get it. If my kid was pepper sprayed, I'm sure I would, I'm sure I'd have ah some, some words. ah What I do know is they weren't not listening to the police.

Speaker: This is why they got pepper sprayed. If you're a cop sitting in front of, these are not 15 and 14 year old kids. These are 16, 17, 18 year old, basically men that most them were bigger than the cops wearing helmets and pads.

Speaker: what What else would you like them to do?

Speaker: They were outnumbered, you know, 30 to one. And that's why you use pepper spray. They weren't listening. And,

Speaker: Yeah. I don't know. It looked like what, how many people from the video I could, all I could see was one or two got a bit of pepper spray on their face. I mean, a couple them got it.

Speaker: What was that? couple of them got hit pretty good, but I mean. A couple. Yeah. But I mean, it wasn't right up in their face. So people should go check out the video. Cause I, I didn't, yeah when I watched it, I didn't think it was all that bad.

Speaker: Not that way I want to be pepper sprayed, but. it didn't It wasn't like right up into their face. It was probably a good 15, 20 feet away. And it's not like the Maslin team was off the field. They were still...

Speaker: right um collected and collected themselves kind of off to the side, but they weren't really moving either. It's the St. Louis team kept encroaching closer and closer. course, they were the losing team, so they they had the most to be bitter about, which makes sense. But it has nothing to do with race, of course, and everything to do with they were trying to clear the field so they we didn't have a brawl and a riot on our hands because that's what was about to happen. they It looked to me, I mean, this was about to get out of hand real quick.

Speaker: And ah how do you how do you get 280, 300-pound men in pads and helmets under control? Pepper spray. Chemical agents, Tom.

Speaker: Chemical agents. Well, either that or have some fried chicken and collard greens on the side.

Speaker: What's that going to do? Get them to leave the... I don't know. I don't know if it would. They were pretty upset. They got their asses handed to them. Do you ever have fried chicken, Rob? and Yes. That calms you down.

Speaker: Fried chicken is damn good. Collard greens, o I've had some. there're They're okay, but you basically cook all the nutrients out of them anyway. They're not really that good for you. Yeah, but that's I'm just saying that's just kind of like part of their culture, right?

Speaker: Well, yeah, but they were as racist as I can without being obvious.

Speaker: Uh, yeah. But what about the white kids on the team? what are they going to do? No, fried chicken. Everybody loves fried chicken. True. That's true. That would, that tracks both. You're you're not actually being right. You're being very inclusive. Everybody loves fried chicken. and Why has it got to be a black thing?

Speaker: No, I'm just being ridiculous because this ridiculous they made it a racial issue. Yeah. Uh,

Speaker: And in, which is funny because in the interview or in the press conference, that's, they had, the mom was a white mom. And the the guy you talked to was a, he's a big, big black dude who was crying.

Speaker: So his, to his point was kind of, ah no, I'm looking at the field right now. so There's, I see 10, 10 players in white shirts and I see three white people. So it's, it wasn't even like, whatever.

Speaker: Listen, what what ah what did was ah Chris Rock about getting pulled over by the cops? I wish I would have pulled that clip. That would have been a good one I don't remember. If you don't want to get your ass beat, here's a few rules that you need. It like a Saturday Night Live clip or something where he gave rules on if you don't want ass beat by the cops. One of them was do what they tell you to do.

Speaker: you're not going to win at the time you're just going to get arrested or pepper sprayed sorry go ahead no nothing oh thought you're gonna say something no i i i crooked rivercast at gmail.com yeah emails and tell us how ridiculous tom is but to to your point though yeah it was it was very ridiculous but i mean i don't know i i uh i think i think it's yeah it's happened overblown but again i would be probably be pissed too until I found out what happened.

Speaker: And if my kid wasn't listening, which one of the parents that was interviewed was, yeah, he was one of the kids who was right up on the cops. It's making me think of all the videos. It's making me think of all the videos I've seen of what's the taser tape people being tasered and pepper sprayed yeah that don't listen to the cop.

Speaker: It's amazing how many people just won't do what they're being asked to do. I get that you may not like what they're asking you to do. Well, yeah, who does?

Speaker: But you're not going to win in that moment. You know what I mean? This is not a fight you're going to win. Yeah, that's what the court system's for.

Speaker: Yeah, all you're going to do is make yourself look worse. And right now, the Massillon police are saying, no, we we did exactly what we're supposed to do. Because you know what we did? We stopped it from escalating.

Speaker: And if you y'all can't see that, then... It just looked like to me, if you watch the video, they're they're spraying those the pepper spray probably about 15, 20 feet away.

Speaker: And they're just trying to keep people from, they were moving towards yes the Maslin team. Is it Maslin? Yes, Maslin. They were moving towards the Maslin team and they were just trying to back them off.

Speaker: Pepper spray doesn't kill you. It doesn't, you know, okay, it's I'm sure it irritates terribly, but it's not like they got it right up into their face and sprayed their eyes. Actually, they did. A couple of them. There's a couple of kids that they've sprayed it right into their helmet.

Speaker: Yeah, after the kids came forward, right? Yeah, they were the closest kids. and then then And then as the the camera swings over, that's when you see the cops spraying kind of out in the open.

Speaker: so we can i just Not that any of that matters, just that to me, the person that you need to be blaming are your coaches. Because it seemed like the Maslin team that coaches had got it under control and had actually corralled all the kids, most of them, and were trying to get them off the field. And the St. Louis Cardinal kids were not. They were not. The the coaches were not in between. As far as I could see, I could be wrong. I don't know exactly who was who. But the people to blame there are your coaches because they did not have control those of those kids on the field, it looks like to me.

Speaker: And nobody wants to do that good game crap at you.

Speaker: It's always been ah ah one of those things for me. Like, I hated doing that. But it's good sportsmen. so No, i i think yeah I think they should do that. Yeah, it's good. It it tempers a lot. The whole reason you don't want them, you don't want to do it is the whole reason you should they should be doing it. Yes, I agree.

Speaker: If you're the winning team, you want to do it. If you're losing team, you don't want to do it. Let's put it that way. yeah No, I, I, I, and I imagine they're all drawn at each other. And like they said, that this was throughout the game. They had fights and they had commotion and stuff like that. And that's, but it's up to the coaches.

Speaker: What was that state I have no idea. It's playoff. it I don't know if this is playoffs or not, because playoffs just started high school, but I'm also wondering why is St. Louis playing Maslin? I don't, a St. Louis team playing Maslin. It's, it's an awful long, eight hour drive, six hour drive, whatever that is.

Speaker: St. Louis to louis yeah Cleveland is eight hours, I think. Yeah. Eight, 10. Oh yeah. Something like that. But ah you know what? I have, I work with somebody that's got kids and playing high school football and there are some things that you wouldn't, somehow they rank them. I don't know how it works, but yeah when I hear where he's going, I'm just like, you're in high school. What the hell?

Speaker: Your kids are in high school. What are you doing? Going to New York and... Yeah, it's kind of like the... I mean, it's good that your kid's good at sports, but it's also, wow, what a sacrifice that is.

Speaker: I know parents every weekend, they're in Southern Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan for hockey or whatever. you know's It's like, okay, your kid's good. That's good. But man...

Speaker: And this seems like one of those kinds of things. right Well, yeah. Travel ball or something. Yeah. um but It's not even travel ball. they I don't know how they decide which team goes where, but. Yeah. Or maybe it's a one-time thing or they do like ah ah an out-of-state thing every once in a while. I don't know. That's good question.

Speaker: That's my first thing was, that's why I was confused I'm reading articles. Like St. Louis, wait, that can't be from St. louising Louis, St. Louis. Yeah, St. Louis, Missouri. Missouri. All right. Speaking of high school sports, we can move on to the next one, which it would may be an interesting topic is they have Ohio judge.

Speaker: has put a temporary injunction or pause on the rule in Ohio sports that you're not allowed to get paid for your name, image, or likeness as a high school student. If you do, you can no longer be eligible as an amateur.

Speaker: In the court, um there's a family that sued the state and the OHSAA. And the judge in the lawsuit said they're going to temporary restraining order um that will last 45 days and until another hearing is scheduled.

Speaker: And basically... some There's there's a trying to find the art oh yeah so there's a family a kid that is, i think, like the second ranked wide receiver and the country and yes he's the rated ah brown who plays at Huber Heights Wayne is rated as the 12th best recruit in the country and for the the class of 2027, according to 24-7 Sports.

Speaker: The four-star recruit is the second best receiver in the entire class and the top-rated recruit in Ohio. And the family is saying they had, they had deals, um endorsement deals for his image, name and like and likeness um for about a hundred thousand dollars. They were not able to capitalize on because they would have to, it would not be amateur, would not be eligible to play in high school sports.

Speaker: Got anything pinning on that? What's your, what's your initial?

Speaker: The capitalist in me says this is fine for high school students to get paid, but I don't, I don't really care tell you truth.

Speaker: Well, it's slightly different than what's going on at college though. College, and college makes so much money from, from the football games. I think the kids, the, the students should be able to, you know, get endorsement deals and stuff.

Speaker: High school, i I don't know if that's the same thing in high school. I don't know enough about it. In college, are actually getting paid to play football, as far as I understand it. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's... I thought it was more of a thing of that they can get endorsements and stuff. No, they're actually getting paid, and they can transfer at any time to any school if the school another school wants to pay them more.

Speaker: I'm okay with that. I don't... Schools make so much money from them. Yes, yes. But this is not that. What they're arguing is if we get Nike, who thinks my kid is going to be the next star and they want to give me $50,000 to put his name on a, on a commercial, I should be able to do that.

Speaker: Yeah. The capitalists. Yeah. it says Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I have a friend of mine that went to a Ohio school that, He got into class action law, so he got a few grand because um they were they put his name, he was a football player, they put his name and light in his picture all over the city where the school was at, was Bowling Green, and

Speaker: he didn't get paid. like They're using his name and his face, and and he should get paid for that. and Well, yes, for sure. That's what this is really. like This is kind of the same thing. not the school doing it, but if, if, if you should be able to to sell your name and likeness, if you want, I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

Speaker: And most States in the in the country are this way that you can, you can profit from selling these endorsements while in high school and still be an amateur.

Speaker: Right. I think it's a 40, 40 out of the 50 States, lot of this or something. and Yep. So it's basically, and that's kind of what the judge says. This kind of puts us in line with the rest of the States, the majority of the country. um And they're just giving the Ohio sports association time to figure it out. And I'm not sure they they they voted us down many times, like overwhelmingly.

Speaker: Well, didn't twenty he didn't lebron but against LeBron James went through something like this. Didn't he get in trouble? Didn't he get like a car, something? Yeah. It was rumored yeah that his mom was getting stuff?

Speaker: Yeah, well, there was that, but i think I think he even, you know, there was some kind of if I can remember right, I mean, it's a long time ago. I think there was an investigation about him getting, i think he got like a big old Hummer or something like that. yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.

Speaker: But as early as 2022, they voted against this. Right. Overwhelmingly, 538 to 254.

Speaker: So I'm not sure why they're so against it.

Speaker: like I do think the, the, the, what's that called? Like, uh, what's a fund called? If kids, let's say they trust. Yeah. They should go into a trust, you know, not right to the kid or to the parent. tax Yeah. It should go to the parent and no ah trust. I don't even think it should go to the parent.

Speaker: That's the kid's money, but he shouldn't be able to get it until after college. Let's say ah age.

Speaker: Well, yeah, don't know. I think... ah i don't I don't want my 18-year-old to have $100,000. No. No, I don't. Not if they're going to school still.

Speaker: No, but I don't... I think the parents should decide what they want to do with it. No, no. Why not? I don't think most of those parents are responsible enough. Well, that's...

Speaker: that's I think it should go into a trust. that I understand that point, but it's irrelevant to the what the law should, you know what I mean? i don't I don't think we should change or... No, because the parent could spend all that money before the child has a chance. Yeah, and? Well, no.

Speaker: But it's the parent. No, it's it's the parent's responsibility. No. How? Not 18. who you who who Whose likeness are they using? Who's endorsing.

Speaker: Yeah. And the child gets that money and he should get that money as in a trust after a certain age. I think I don't care if it's 22 or after college, after college or whatever.

Speaker: No, I guess, I guess I'd be on the side of parents. No, it's all right not at all. I'm responsible for the kid. If I go to work, my parents don't get the money. Right.

Speaker: But who controls the kid? The parents. so yeah But at 15, can you get a bank account at 15? Yeah, I think you can. i think you need parents you need a parent signature to get a... No, I got one when I was 16.

Speaker: but that was long time ago, Tom. you No, it's still... you go you you can get You can start working when you're 15. I'm pretty sure you can go get a bank account. Yeah, we tried. And I i have to wait.

Speaker: And they need my permission to open a bank account.

Speaker: and i get I get what you're saying. i ah you're You're right. A lot of parents would blow it, but oh well, that's not my problem. My problem is who's in charge of the ah the child? That's who should be in charge of the money. Nope.

Speaker: Disagree. Oh yeah, of course. yeah But I mean, if it's my kid, it's it's my decision. That's the way I look at it. that sister If it's my kid making that money, it's his money and he gets it.

Speaker: Like, I personally, think if there's a trust that he gets at 22 or 24, that's fine with me. Even 20. Yeah. Again, 21. mean... with me even twenty

Speaker: again twenty one i mean Whatever the parent says. You know, that's just like actors that are, um that they got paid millions of dollars and their parents squandered it.

Speaker: Sure. You know? Yeah, no, that's not right. I get it. It isn't. But it' this we I don't think we we should dictate our laws around what people could or couldn't do or how, you know, it's just, it is, you know, that's kind of, I guess how I'm, and when it comes to kids, and I mean, I'm biased.

Speaker: Well, you're um by controlling. um but Well, yeah, I'm biased. Yeah. I don't want the state dictating anything. You're wrong. I'm right. Leave it at that. Okay. All right. um On to our final segment of the day.

Speaker: Well, good thing segment. little tough this week. little tough this week, but I think I found a couple that ah will work. A couple stories that we're trying to, you know, maneuver things. We've got this new spotlight coming in, Ohio Spotlight, so it's kind of similar.

Speaker: Kind of overlaps a little bit in the good things. So we're trying to and see how we can make these these segments a little bit better. And this one, going to be stories that are just just good but stories or lighthearted stories. And this one,

Speaker: Let's lock the clock, Tom. Lock the clock. got be careful how I say that.

Speaker: This is a story. ah daylight saving time Daylight saving time ends in a few days. It's this weekend, right? Tomorrow. but Tomorrow. Well, tomorrow is recorded. Yesterday for the people listening on Monday.

Speaker: If you're late for work, it's because yesterday was fallback. Wait. pack so would that make you early for I don't know um that make you early yeah would make you early yeah I don't know um it's time it's time to stop the changing of the clocks that's that's the point of this article for the love of god and anything that's holy stop with this changing even the dog hates it I uh I agree except I want it on standard time yeah like we're we're falling back to standard time

Speaker: Yeah, that's where I wanted stay. we should keep it right here. But but all the most states want it on daylight saving time. Right. And we talked couple weeks ago, that's why it's going to stay there, because it's kind of split pretty evenly. so It's a 50-50 issue. nobody wants to Nobody wants to be daring enough to to end it.

Speaker: a couple little points here. Over the last seven years, 18 states have passed legislation or resolutions to support sort of year-round daylight saving time, like you're saying.

Speaker: So this is what 18 states, they want year-round daylight saving time. Right. Basically staying where we're at right now or as you're listening to us last week. And according to the national conference of state legislatures in 2025, at least 31 States considered or are still considering legislation related to daylight saving time.

Speaker: It seems like it's an issue that needs to be brought up because there's a lot of States that are looking at it. Yeah. That but doesn't mean nothing though. Somebody, somebody in their legislature brings it up and brings it up for vote and it goes nowhere.

Speaker: Right. I think cause it's so split. I think, I think this is the problem is, Half the people want to do it in daylight saving time, and half the people want to do it on standard time. And there's really no... Why would you want to keep it where it's not supposed to be? Yeah, exactly. why like Let's go just go back to the way it was. why we gotta to Leave it on standard time.

Speaker: Because Tom sleeps better on standard time. that's So the whole world, the whole country needs to be on my time, bitches. Well...

Speaker: I don't know. Maybe. i think if top if it's if it's because of that, I'm all for it then. Because if it makes you sleep better, Tom, I'm all for it. and Okay, then I'll give you the benefit of the data on the last subject we talked about.

Speaker: That's pretty good. I like it. Okay, I'll go with it. it's Yeah, look, compromise. Look at that. We can all compromise. We can always compromise. Standard time is the way. Standard time. is the way I don't need daylight at nine 30 in the summer.

Speaker: So that's the one check it, check that one out. See what you said. Tell us what you think. What should we do? Should we do, do stay where at daylight saving or stay on standard time? what do you think? Send us little email, quicker river cast at gmail.com.

Speaker: Last one on our list is a little fun one that we're doing. So all this stuff came up during the Brown stadium um negotiation, I guess you would call it, with the state budget about the unclaimed funds fund.

Speaker: And this article from Channel 3, it'll be KYC, saying the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Unclaimed Funds is speaking, sparking some, get to learn how to read, I guess, is sparking some friendly rivalry this November with the friends from up north.

Speaker: And they're going to do a fine forgotten funds between us and Michigan in the month of November between November 1st, November 30th. They're encouraging residents to Get your unclaimed funds and have a friendly little bet between us and that state from up north.

Speaker: And there's kind of a friendly little battle on who can give back the most unclaimed funds throughout the month of November, which is perfect because get some of those funds back and don't know, maybe with the new funds you can buy a stamp for Christmas for your kid.

Speaker: My wife got it. It came quick. She found out she had like 20 bucks, a little bit more than 20 bucks, and check came pretty darn quick. I can almost buy a 12-pack of good beer with 20 bucks. Well, you you know what? ah twenty like i I think I said before, like if I had you know or even $10, I think I would be like, oh, yes, send that to me. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: But like me, I have like three different checks that would be like under 50 cents each. I think I had a total of 76 cents for three different. Can't even get a gumball anymore. Well, it's not even that. It's like I'm sitting there going, what's going to cost the state more to send me that than ah then it's worth? yeah So what's the point?

Speaker: Yeah, but think of about the interest they made off you, Tom. Okay. Four and a half cents over the last 10 years. Yeah. So that little rivalry between us and Michigan and I say That didn't work.

Speaker: Darn. No. All right. Well, you know, that that that was show 33. That

Speaker: that was show 33, everybody. It is the magic number. And we thank you for listening. And those of you who have gotten all the way to the end, Wow. Wow. Thank you very much.

Speaker: We really do appreciate listening. We know it takes up. Everybody's time is valuable, as put that way. And we really appreciate you spending, taking some of your time every week to listen to our show.

Speaker: Share it with your friends. Share it with your neighbors. Send us a, ah send us what you think in the email. Send us your stories. If you think we're missing something, check us out on x

Speaker: Well, geez, I gotta get this thing down, Tom. That's what I wanted to do. Check us out on X. um And if you, you'll figure that out soon enough.

Speaker: Why I keep playing the Cookie Monster. And, um, and that's it. That is show 33. I thank you for listening and we'll talk to you next week. Peace.