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Crooked River Cast Show 13
24 Plays16 days ago
Emails us at crookedrivercast@gmail.com
Find us on X @CRCOhioNews or Search for Crooked River Cast
Or our website Crookedrivercast.com
LA Is on fire… Meanwhile in Ohio HB281 Federal Hospital Funding attached to ICE cooperation.
Ohio budget:
Ohio Senate and House in final debate over budget.
How many schools carry over how much?
Senator Jerry Cirino Tell educators to “Shut up or else”?
PROPERTY TAX REFORM: Soooooo Many bills.
House bill 309 - Give counties power to lower property taxes.
County auditors of Ohio push for property tax reform.
Ohio Democrats introduce common sense gun laws?
LGBTQ “incidents” in Ohio.
Biological sex on Ohio Drivers License.
Will Mayor Bibb’s driver be held accountable?
Downtown Safety Patrol is in the news but not for anything good… again.
Criminal gardener or just an eye sore?
BMV text scam.
Ohio deepfake bill.
Egg recall. https://fox8.com/news/massive-egg-recall-hit-ohio-walmart-stores/
Good Stuff:
Jolene's Honky Tonk.
Cleveland Metro parks concert series.
https://www.clevelandmetroparks.com/parks/special-events/summerconcertseries
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Episode Details
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Crook Rivercast, a show where we attempt to share some of our insights into what is going on in Northeast Ohio and maybe, just maybe, entertain you just a little.
00:00:13
Speaker
This is June 14th, 2025. I'm your host, Robert, and every week I'm joined by my friend, Tom, who's always up for exploring the great state of Ohio. Let's see what we can talk about this week.
00:00:26
Speaker
Hey, Tom. What's up, Rob? Show 13. Show 13. The day after Friday, their 13th. Yeah, show 13 and hopefully we'll make it through without any accidents.
00:00:44
Speaker
Nothing falls on my head. um How was your week? It was good. It was all right. Nothing new, just kind of, you know, your regular work week. Regular work week.
00:00:59
Speaker
Nice during the week and rainy on the weekends. Yeah. Thanks, Ohio. Well, yeah, that's not so bad, though. Yeah, not too bad, but, you know. It's ah it's actually going to work out, I think. I think you're right. Yeah, i think it will be.
00:01:10
Speaker
It's raining now, so need we need some on the grass. Get it green. um i think ah I think I had a dad normal week, too. It was pretty uneventful, which is, you know, a lot of times the way you'd like it.
Listener Engagement and Contact Information
00:01:24
Speaker
and Before we actually get into the show, let's also, don't forget to mention, if you need if you need to share some stories with us, tell us where we're wrong, tell us where we're right.
00:01:36
Speaker
Don't forget, email us, crookedrivercast at gmail.com. That's crookedrivercast at gmail.com. Also, find us on X. You can look up CRC Ohio News or just search for Crooked Rivercast on X and you'll find us.
00:01:51
Speaker
And of course, if you don't want to bother with any of that, you can't forget it. You can always go down to crookedrivercast.com. which we don't have a whole lot there, but what we do have is where you can find us. So at least we got a little page there you can.
00:02:07
Speaker
Slip right in and give a little reminder where we're at. we're going to have a whole bunch of stuff later on. It's coming soon. It's coming soon. And just bear with us. But there's there's already something there. So like I figured, hey, if you can't remember any of that, just click a rivercast.com and it'll get you.
00:02:23
Speaker
It'll point in your right direction. Cool. Let us know what we should cover. Let us know. Let us know, please. So my week was... you know, uneventful, like I said, and I found myself one day just, you know, I dove right into these, you know, LA is on fire. Okay. Which is not, at least it was, uh, I haven't checked this morning, but, um, so I decided to die. I guess it's got to be some good content.
00:02:51
Speaker
I mean, protests are happening. No Kings. No Kings. We need Hitler back.
00:03:00
Speaker
Wait, no, he is Hitler. Wait, what? He is Hitler. He is Hitler. Wait, what? No kidding. So I figured I needed some protest clips of some overstimulated and under-informed.
00:03:14
Speaker
Well, um there was plenty of that for sure. But when I went in and looking for that, I i got... What I found was, ah especially early on, was a little different.
00:03:25
Speaker
So I thought I would pull a little clip and see, inform our listeners on what you know what could be happening, because I don't think you're seeing this online or on the on the mainstreams. Um, so it was a little different than when I came out with. So here, let's, uh, this is, um, Nick Shirley.
Nick Shirley's On-the-Ground Reporting
00:03:40
Speaker
he is a, a podcast or he's a, his, his, his, uh, YouTube channel is literally Nick Shirley, S H I R L E N I C K, ah Nick Shirley.
00:03:53
Speaker
And he'd just been going around with his camera and a microphone and just asking kind one of those men on the street, kind of, kind of reporters, um, live streaming and,
00:04:05
Speaker
A few years back, imagine four years ago, almost to the day to the month, we had BLM riots. And I knew I found the best news I could find, at least the truest stuff of what was really going on. The things that weren't being covered were on these kind of people. The people that were just recording, no flag on their mic, just going out there and and really risking, in some cases, their lives.
00:04:31
Speaker
Because Andy and Nego... Yes. Yes. I mean, Tim Pool. That's how he got his his start. That's how he got started. But andy andy got Andy got beat up pretty good. A couple of times. I mean, he got hit in what they threw a what was looked like it would be a milkshake, but actually had concrete inside and and yep and and gave him a concussion, cracked his skull or something like that. Put him in the hospital They were tagging buildings with Kill Andy.
00:04:59
Speaker
Right. and and and deep And doxing them and stuff like that. And when you, um when the, when the protesters are actively assaulting the people who are just trying to cover it. Hmm. Interesting. So I immediately went right back to there again.
00:05:13
Speaker
was like, who can I find who's doing the same thing? I don't want any, I don't care. i want, I don't want bias at all. I just want what is going on. Give me the raw data. Well, heres we'll share of that with you. Here's a couple minute clip we can go through.
00:05:26
Speaker
So Nick's going to start with, ah you know, he starts his show. He's on the streets. He's going to do a little description and then he'll go into talking to a couple of people there. Here we go.
00:05:37
Speaker
Everyone's out here protesting right now. just came through here down in L.A. The streets are erupting here. Let's see what's going on. um National Guard has been deployed out here in the streets of LA. Thousands protesters are here on the streets right now. Right here on this federal building, you have words like F ICE, revolutions starting here, here for my family, all sorts of stuff. Right here you have the National Guard. They've come through. You have troops about 300 in different directions. Trump sent in about 2,000 people. There's groups of 300 sent around the city right here.
00:06:11
Speaker
And this one is outside of the federal building here one the ICE detention centers here in l LA. So, so As he's walking through the streets, the buildings are covered with spray paint. ah Just profanities, you know F ice, ah go home, this is our land. I'm going, what? and you know A protest is one thing, but you're you're defacing your own city.
00:06:34
Speaker
It's a peaceful protest. Or are they defacing their own city? um you know A lot of cases, maybe not. Let's continue. Your message to the National Guard here today. The National Guard. And why do you think they got sent out here today? I'm scared. They got sent because we don't have a president that can lead. What fears you most about Donald Trump and the ice rates coming through here in Angeles? don't fear that, motherfucker. Have you seen our community? I don't fear that, motherfucker.
00:06:58
Speaker
We're a fucking kid, Donald Trump. We're not a fucking real fuck that piece of shit. Ice out of L.A. Ice out of L.A. Ice out of L.A. Ice out of L.A.
00:07:11
Speaker
Hmm. Who's the aggressor? Right now, do you think it's right for them to go after the most dangerous people like they say they're doing? I mean, I don't see anybody. Nobody here has attacked them. and they They initiated all of this. We're pre peacefully protesting.
00:07:24
Speaker
They're the ones that come out with riot shields. They come out with billy clubs and all kinds shit. I don't know who's the who's the aggressor here, but it ain't us. You! I can't wait to know you! Take off your badge, big boy!
00:07:37
Speaker
no aggression. Take off your badge! Coward! Get that shit out of my fucking face! Okay, okay. That guy's yelling at the ICE officials for being a coward for wearing a mask. Meanwhile, he also has a mask on. I can tell you're very upset. Of course we are.
00:07:50
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. you go. We feel some burning in the eyes right now upon arrival here. Everybody be prepared. We still fight for the legalization of all in occupied territories. This was indigenous land.
00:08:06
Speaker
This was Mexico. This is our fucking turf. Fuck these motherfuckers. Oh, there you go. Bing, dingo. Got it. Okay, so that's what you're fighting for, huh?
00:08:17
Speaker
Hmm. You know, and all the, you know, Newsom and Pelosi and all the Democratic senators and...
00:08:31
Speaker
congressmen were saying that the aggressors, it didn't, nothing, none of this started until Trump sent in the National Guard. So this is the first day of the National Guard being there, I believe. First or second day. This early on. That's kind of why I wanted to get this one, because they're changing their tactics. Let's just put it that way. got a little bit more left here.
Ohio's Budget Debate: Flat Tax and School Funding
00:08:51
Speaker
Okay. What's your message to ICE and the federal government today? Just the message just straight up is just this government is corrupt as fuck.
00:09:03
Speaker
what's your message to icy the federal government today just the the message just straight up is this this government corrupted People need to start realizing that shit. And in we need a factory reset. We need some justice up in here.
00:09:15
Speaker
Just for everybody. Straight the fuck up. know what You have lots of tattoos. And people oftentimes interpret tattoos with being part of the gangs and whatnot. Have you been checked for gangs or anything like that? I'm focused on some other stuff. I'm not worried about that though. You're not worried about that? This was our land. All this is stolen. And what? Now we're fucking illegal here.
00:09:35
Speaker
Are you fucking kidding me? You're not fighting for shit. You're not fighting for this country. We're going to dox you. We're going to dox you.
00:09:47
Speaker
We're going to dox you. I love this flag right here. My favorite. You said you love that flag right there with your favorite email, the mother Mexican flag. What colors?
00:09:59
Speaker
The colors. who Who bought those flags, Mexican flags? Interesting. Brand new ones. You can still see the folds in them. Mm-hmm. And the Honduras one, that's one guy with the Honduras flag.
00:10:10
Speaker
to To the credit, there was one guy, and I cut it out because the clip was already three minutes long. And it's just some, you could tell, it I mean, he had been 18, 19, 20 years old. no No, just a black shirt on. He's not, he just, he was just there.
00:10:23
Speaker
And then he asked him, hey, why do you think people are, you know, waving their own flags, and you know, of of other countries? And he goes like he goes, honestly, bro, I don't know. That doesn't make any sense, man. And the other thing I took off is, can you say at least two sentences without saying the word bro?
00:10:40
Speaker
oh go yeah well Well, what I did want to say, they they were saying that none of this started until the National Guard came in, but that they were surrounding the federal building and and keeping ice. ah They were surrounding ice in a federal building and throwing Molotovs.
00:10:58
Speaker
and firebombing the building before the National Guard was sent in. In case people don't know, I read a New York Times article on what happened and how this all started. And according to New York Times, ICE came into L.A.
00:11:12
Speaker
to do a, with warrants, on a food factory across from a Home Depot. It was never a Home Depot raid. Right. They were across from a Home Depot in a gated ah industrial park.
00:11:23
Speaker
And that's the New York Times reporting that? Yes. They were raiding and they were sitting there preparing. And i as far as I remember from this, is a week ago I read it, that there was a city official of some sorts who, i don't know, a city council member or something like that, who saw ice forming in this area, in this industrial park.
00:11:42
Speaker
and started telling everybody and i'm not sure people showed up because of him but he definitely helped and then protesters started showing up well according to new york's time our new york time article they were now things were thrown at ice agents and then ice agents launched some um mate or not mace but um tear gas pepper spray whatever pepper bombs and as they went to leave to leave the area which is what everybody wanted to do right What they found was people went back to the Home Depot, the protesters, took pallets of cinder blocks, broke them up into pieces, and started launching them at the ICE vehicles as they were leaving from a literally a point-blank rage to break their windows and hurt them. Wow.
00:12:26
Speaker
How did they get those? Home Depot closed. That was also part of Home Depot closed early, like very early on, because of all the protesters were showing up outside, and also probably because none of the illegals were showing up for work that day because ICE was across the street.
00:12:40
Speaker
but So that's how it starts. So again, you're not getting the whole story and especially not getting it from the mainstream media. So, you know, question with boldness. And, and this guy here, he's been the most honest reporting I've seen. And it's really just him showing what the people are actually saying.
00:12:59
Speaker
yeah. And, oh, and there, that was what I was going to bring it on to that is, you know, again, the ICE was trying to leave and they're, They're blocking the streets and throwing rocks at them. Well, the cops decided, there you know, the LAPD was in front of this ICE detention center later on in the video, and they're trying to leave.
00:13:18
Speaker
And what do they do? They're telling them to get out. Get out. So when LAPD decides they're going to go back to the police station, they won't let them leave. They blocked the street, won't let them leave. And that's when the confrontation starts happening.
00:13:32
Speaker
yeah And then he also noticed there's all these people milling around, the streets all closed, and he sees six or eight people all mill together, like huddled together in the street, all with masks on. They look mostly like... um ah the ato ah the One of the Middle East guys would wrap around, you know, from like Hamas or something like that. Right. White and black checkered kind of things.
00:13:52
Speaker
They all got their faces completely covered in about 10 minutes later. They're now in front. These three or four of these people from this group are now in front of the protest line and then the the police line. They're in front of it throwing, not not throwing things, but yelling and screaming and insulting and riling up the crowd and everything.
00:14:12
Speaker
That to me was Antifa or that kind of element. They were organizing, how can we rile everybody up? And then they went on to it. Right. Meanwhile, got, meanwhile in Ohio, in contrast, we have Ohio bill HB 281, which would tiele tie federal funding and grants to hospitals to cooperation with ICE. Yeah.
00:14:38
Speaker
and and It would allow ICE to enter and to arrest, interview, or collect evidence to serve a warrant, arrest individuals for a lawful warrant, require hospital staff contractors help facilitate access to these activities,
00:14:55
Speaker
and provide ICE agents with information and or evidence the hospital possesses so long as it doesn't violate existing federal or state law. But it would not require hospitals to screen patients for their immigration status.
00:15:10
Speaker
So ah the only pushback I've heard is from ah hospital staff not wanting to help facilitate immigration.
00:15:20
Speaker
um They just don't want to be part of that, you know? Right. Okay. and Well, I mean, all I could say to that is, of course. And that's the bottom line. Wrong one. It'll be this one.
00:15:34
Speaker
Give me a hell yeah. That's better. That's better. um So that's good. I mean, that's looking for creative ways to find out where these people are at and get them out of here.
00:15:47
Speaker
You know? Yeah. They're also sucking our ah resources dry at these hospitals. Yeah. The hospitals are losing money cut on this and, and sucking the teat of America here.
00:15:58
Speaker
Yeah. It's got to end because it's not sustainable. So that, I mean, i I think I spent most of one day, ah least most of my free time one day just digging through all this stuff. and It was, it was pretty, it's pretty entertaining and enlightening.
00:16:16
Speaker
All right, and then on to less exciting news. The same thing would have been going on if they won some type of World Series or Super Bowl. This is true. they This does resemble, um like, say, when the last time Philadelphia won the Super Bowl last year and they were burning cars down.
00:16:32
Speaker
i'm you know i I'm curious how our No Kings protests are going to go in Cleveland here. There is a ton of them. I think there's like 30 something crazy. like The list is... There's a lot. If you have a city, pretty much guaranteed there's going to be something there, or at least they're announcing something.
00:16:52
Speaker
Who's actually going to show up? Yeah, there's one right around the corner from me. Yeah.
00:16:58
Speaker
there ah I don't think there's going to much because it's rainy. And for those that don't know, we we record this on Saturday mornings and release it on Monday. So we just we don't know what's going to happen yet.
00:17:12
Speaker
The protests are scheduled for Saturday afternoon, I think. Yeah, Saturday afternoon. And it's supposed to forecast is for a little rain today. So it usually dampers any any protest. you know Usually, i don't I don't think it was going to be too big in the suburbs here. i think I'm kind of curious what's going to happen downtown, but I don't even think it's going to reach anywhere near what um the BLM riots were no there there was last year.
00:17:35
Speaker
It is a a lot was a lot harder to take these optics and change them you know and and to craft them in ah in their own the way they like to do it as far as, mean, it's too, it's too hard. And and this is a, this is an 80, 20 issue as far as I can see. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, for sure.
00:17:52
Speaker
yeah it's I mean, poll numbers and poll numbers are reflecting that. Yeah. You know, the weirdest thing is I was last night I was, uh, my wife was watching, something on, think was from NPR or,
00:18:05
Speaker
It was a local Ohio NPR type of national public, rate not national public, public radio from Ohio. And it was a bunch of Democrats that were sitting around talking about the things that are going on. They're like, Trump is losing support. And, you know, the people want, ah you know, and I forget how they worded it.
00:18:27
Speaker
Gosh darn it. But they were just making it sound like nobody wants this to happen. And I'm like, I have no clue what they're talking about. All right, I guess on maybe not so much, not such exciting news, but it is definitely important and probably more important than the riots, not protests in LA.
00:18:48
Speaker
We got the budget rundown again this week. The House or the Senate version passed the Senate um overwhelmingly, and it is currently, um the Senate version was overwhelmingly voted against in the House, so they're not in committee. and We've got a little um little clip we can go through start and stop and i've got a couple bullet points where i got interesting things i'd like to comment on and um call them their bs so uh let's start it this is the uh ohio senate budget uh from the um state house news but this is your clip where'd you get this clip from is it from um uh
00:19:32
Speaker
This is that long one I gave you? Yeah, yeah. don state State House News, which is... Isn't that like Ohio Stream or Idea Stream? or Idea Stream, I believe it came from. so It's not a bad website. ah I could like get stories from that every now and then. No, they're pretty... They're centrist leaning left.
00:19:48
Speaker
Yeah, they lean left, but I never seen see anything that like really obnoxiously... you know you know this This is... Good stuff to go through. So um bear with us, but it's important because it's going to be voted on next week. So we're going to at least see what we're going to be dealing with for the next two years. So let's start it off.
00:20:07
Speaker
Republican senators passed their version of the two-year state budget on a mostly party-line vote on Wednesday, with only one Republican, Senator Bill Blessing, joining nine Democrats in opposing it. Now the budget is on the last leg of its journey to Governor Mike DeWine, with the deadline of June 30th looming.
00:20:23
Speaker
One of the Senate's major changes from the House budget is a 2.75% flat income tax rate for Ohioans making over $26,000 a year, which amounts to a tax cut for Ohioans with incomes over $139,000 annually, who are now paying 3.5%. Republican Senator George Lang has been pushing for elimination of the state income tax since he was appointed to the Senate in 2017.
00:20:47
Speaker
I do feel sorry for the accountants in Ohio because as we simplify the tax code, uh, their their Their work level is going down and their billable hours will go down as a result.
00:20:59
Speaker
But the flat tax proposal was one of the many reasons Democrats opposed the budget. Kent Smith said the budget offers a tax cut of more than $10,000 to the wealthiest Ohioans who earn over $1.7 million dollars a year while shifting money away from working class families.
00:21:15
Speaker
The founders of this nation wanted to form a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. But in Ohio, we have a government of the special interest by the working class for the millionaires.
00:21:26
Speaker
This is Robin Hood in reverse. All right. Hold on Hold on a second here. That's a good one. First of all, let's start with the founding fathers. I don't know any. I didn't obviously didn't know any the founding fathers.
00:21:39
Speaker
Nobody has. But I can pretty much guarantee the founding fathers would have revolted 100 years ah hundred years ago So don't give me the founding fathers would have been for the people, by the people.
00:21:50
Speaker
That's complete and utter nonsense. Because the founding fathers would have been puking over most of this budget, if not all of it. Yeah. Including some of the stuff that I'm probably for, okay? So you could shove that right up where you know where it belongs.
00:22:07
Speaker
Secondly, Robin Hood. Let's talk about Robin Hood. and What did Robin Hood do, Tom? Do you remember? well What's the story? Like he said. Ah, well, he stole from the rich and gave to the poor. Who were the rich in this story?
00:22:24
Speaker
Oh, kings, queens, the dukes, you know, the government. So Robin Hood, in his sense in essence, stole from the government because anybody who, at least in that time frame when Robin Hood was written,
00:22:42
Speaker
That's who had the money. It was the monarchs. It was the government, right? Yeah. It was the government. He stole from the government to give to the citizens who were all poor. So shove that, again, right up your bunghole.
00:22:55
Speaker
Yeah. that that was That's a silly... um Boy, that's really just trying to go to the lowest denominator. Yes, definitely. All right.
00:23:07
Speaker
Continuing. The Senate budget includes money for the final two years of implementation of the fair school funding plan, but at 2021 levels, so not fully funded. The House budget uses a different school funding formula.
00:23:20
Speaker
And the Senate plan... So wait, the House and the Senate have two different school funding formulas? I'm thinking we probably should fix that so you're both on the same page. or or Or maybe not. I mean, maybe you can make an argument that on different programs would be good because they're on different, you know, it's different...
00:23:39
Speaker
ideal or different tactics or whatever schemes. So maybe, but I think they may probably should be on the same. Yeah. I think they're trying to work it out right now. Right. Yeah.
00:23:49
Speaker
Maybe, maybe, like I said, maybe being different on different programs is okay, but it seems, don't know. So we got a hundred million dollar difference in the budget from the Senate to the house.
00:23:59
Speaker
Senate wants a hundred million more. so and as we stand, we, it came from the house, it went to the Senate and the Senate just passed and it goes back to the house, right? Yeah. And the house, I think you may have say this later, but the house voted it down, voted the Senate version down and they're not, they're not on committee going over the changes. It's just normal that the house almost never, that one chamber almost never votes for that. know, they're always trying to negotiate. Yeah. Yeah. Unless they're usually sometimes they're almost identical bills and then they, they say, yes, it's good. But other than that,
00:24:28
Speaker
Usually when it comes to money, though, they're they're arguing over it, which is fine. That's that's the whole point of it. It's part of the process. Yeah, it's definitely part of the process. All right, continue. Would limit school districts to cash balances of 50% of their budgets, with the rest returned to property taxpayers, while the House budget has a 30% carryover cap.
00:24:47
Speaker
The Senate budget also has less money for Medicaid and the H2Ohio Water Quality Program and eliminates a funding formula for libraries going forward. So less money from Medicaid and water program.
00:25:00
Speaker
Is that what you said? Less money? Hold me hear that again. return to property taxpayers, while the House budget has a 30% carryover cap. We'll talk about that in a minute. Senate budget also has less money for Medicaid and the H2Ohio Water Quality Program and eliminates the funding formula for libraries going forward.
00:25:16
Speaker
Democratic Senator Bill DeMora listed what he called the losers who are suffering in the budget. Public school and university students, libraries, working families who need affordable child care, those in Medicaid expansion, food banks, local governments, and democracy with the elimination of the Ohio Elections Commission.
00:25:33
Speaker
Democracy, Tom. Democracy is at is at risk. and And remember one other thing. Think of the children. Won't somebody please think of the children?
00:25:47
Speaker
okay continue. Think of the children. Wrong one, sorry.
00:25:54
Speaker
Very smooth. Well, it's simple. Wealthy tax dodgers and corporate welfare recipients. The budget cuts their taxes, funds their stadiums. All the cost of it was paid for by gutting every single safety net in the state. Gutting.
00:26:06
Speaker
This budget reveals the true Republican agenda. The $600 million dollars from unclaimed funds for the Cleveland Browns domed stadium development in Brook Park was the focus of much frustration.
00:26:17
Speaker
Senate President Rob McCauley said the state will make money from this investment from the billionaire owners of the team, Jimmy and Dee Haslam, who have donated millions of dollars to Republican candidates and causes.
00:26:27
Speaker
Yes, they have we haven't been influenced by the Haslam's. We do this for economic development projects of this size all the time. The only difference is that it got attention because of the type of investment that it is.
00:26:38
Speaker
When you look. Wait a minute. Wait minute. So did he just say we you know, we weren't influenced because we get bribed all the time? I think so. It's what it sounded like where it' like like we didn't. and We get this happens to us all the time.
00:26:54
Speaker
When these big projects. Okay. Yeah.
00:26:58
Speaker
at the long-term viability and the the ability really to turn this into a moneymaker ah for the state of Ohio, this is a really good proposal and a really good project. Memos from the state budget office and from researchers for state lawmakers have cast doubts on the estimates from the Haslam Sports Group on how much money the project will bring in.
00:27:18
Speaker
Minority leader Nikki Antonio pointed out that no Northeast Ohio senator voted for the budget, in part because of concerns about the money for the Brown Stadium in it. And she also defended what her members said about those who stand to... So no Northeast Ohio senator voted for this budget.
00:27:37
Speaker
So the count for the budget was 10 people voted against the budget. Nine of them were ah Democrats, one Republican. So does that mean...
00:27:48
Speaker
In Northeast Ohio, there's not one Republican member of the Senate? I don't think so. That's what it sounds like, right? that's what Well, that's what she made it sound like, but I don't think that's true. If nine out of ten opposing were senators a word to Democrats and not one senator voted for this budget, i would see maybe out could there could be one Republican don't I'd have to look into that. but I just pulled that out. It kind of interested me.
00:28:21
Speaker
Continuing. Benefit from the budget. My caucus did not speak disparagingly about any of the wealthy or billionaires in our state. We're happy they're there. We're happy that they're investing.
00:28:36
Speaker
What we talked about was giving billionaires money from Ohioans that they don't need frankly but pepper whoa whoa who the hell are you to say they don't need it i i mean they're dumping so haslam's dumping two billion dollars of his own money and investors money into this project and he's asking for the state to give them 600 million for the rest
Browns' Stadium Development Controversy
00:29:02
Speaker
of the problem not that's not really even for the stadium i think a lot of that is literally for the surrounding buildings
00:29:08
Speaker
okay Okay. get, now I don't want to fund a billionaire's stadium, but from what I've seen from this is he's building the stadium, his money and his investors' money. He's asking for 600 million for ah not other parts of the project.
00:29:25
Speaker
That's the way I see it. It is a loan, right? it is alone and It is a a net benefit for the state. Yeah, well, there's there's that, of course.
00:29:37
Speaker
But they never say they say they're just gutting the or you know stealing money from that fund. And it's like, i don't know. It's just a loan.
00:29:48
Speaker
It so makes sense to me. I mean, listen, the best thing would be nothing. Yeah. Have him build the whole thing. But ah if we have to loan, loan the money, this, this is a pretty good way to do it. I think.
00:30:01
Speaker
I can see the part of their point with that. We're loaning the money, but taxpayers will be paying it back. We're not loaning it and Haslam's are paying it back. But I, what I would say to that is as a, as a, as a developer,
00:30:16
Speaker
You're asking the state and the city and local officials to put some stake in the game, put some skin in the game. And I don't think that's unreasonable. It's certainly way better than we've done the last three facilities, correct? Right.
00:30:31
Speaker
Because the last three facilities, is we paid for all of it ourselves. We're still paying for it. So it seems like a better deal to me. And I think if you look at other deals around the country, it probably similar, majorly supported by the owner of the team.
00:30:46
Speaker
But they are asking for the state and the local to put some skin in the game. I guess what I, just wanted to make sure people ah realize that they're taking, they're borrowing money from that fund. From the fund. That's so far, that's what the Senate wants. yeah Right. So it's a loan. i understand that taxpayers are paying it back, but like those people that have those, um, unclaimed funds aren't losing their money.
00:31:07
Speaker
No, no, that, that's, that's stuff so hard to get. No one's, no one's ever getting that stuff. I checked, by the way, I checked and I had three. and they're all under $25. Yeah. all under $25. And then I went to claim it and it was like 89 cents total. So I was like, yeah.
00:31:23
Speaker
Right. That's a lot of this. And it's not worth, if you've got what could be $75 worth of money sitting there, is it worth three hours of your time to get it? Right. my opinion. i don't know how long it took you to get it, but from the, some the people I've talked to, it's, it's like, wow, that's actually not that easy to get this money back, which understandable. They want to make sure it's you, but Within an hour, I got my, ah you know, it broke it down on who owed me the money and how much.
00:31:49
Speaker
And then I would have had to fill out a document and probably send, I think I had to, so would have to like scan in my driver's license and stuff like that. id Some type of ID and then ah then then go to claim it, you know, and then who knows how long it takes after that.
00:32:06
Speaker
yes To get your 89 cents. Yeah, yeah. i wasn't going to bother. In a check form that cost them like $8 to do. Exactly. if it If it was like, you know, if all three of them added up to, you know, twenty even 20 bucks, I might've gone through it just to see beer money. ah Yeah. Well, yeah.
00:32:22
Speaker
ah Yeah. Nowadays it's like a half a beer money. Well, yeah. It's ah' like it's like a six pack of some cheap stuff. Yeah. All right. We got like, we got like 50 seconds left. Let's see if we finish this up. Okay.
00:32:33
Speaker
Public and Senate finance chair, Jerry Serino was clearly irritated at what he also termed disparagement of wealthy, successful business people by Democrats. This is ridiculous. These are the people who are creating jobs, creating value, buying property, hiring people, um and giving to charities in a big way.
00:32:52
Speaker
So let's let's be be careful about disparaging billionaires or highly successful people. They are an important part of our economy. They pay most of the taxes. After the Senate's vote, the budget went back to the House, which voted nearly unanimously to reject the Senate's changes and send it to conference committee.
00:33:09
Speaker
The lone descending vote was from Jason Stevens, whose two years as Speaker were marked by repeated battles with supporters of Matt Huffman, who was elected Speaker sure earlier earlier this year.
00:33:20
Speaker
Karen Kessler at the Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau. Not sure why that last part's important. Maybe because he's bitter. i don't know That's why he voted against it. um So who pays taxes in Ohio?
00:33:32
Speaker
um Well, largely, and think um top 1% pays 66% or 70% of the taxes in Ohio. No kidding. Yeah. No. Okay. um Now, by by revenue by by ah ah percentage of earnings, the lower income pay more by percentage of earnings.
00:33:57
Speaker
So they pay 12% their earnings... go towards taxes where the wealthiest 1% is 6.3%, which is, you know, large difference, but in grant in the total aggregate, in the you know, in in total, pure dollar-wise, it's 66%. Well, that's, excuse me, hold on a second. That's ah nationally, the top 1% pay 66% of federal taxes, and in Ohio, it is...
00:34:29
Speaker
Ooh, I thought I had that one pulled, but I guess I don't. Hmm. We got a... We have to tax the billionaires and the millionaires. Not i anymore. It's just billionaires now, Tom, because he's a millionaire.
00:34:40
Speaker
Oh, that's right. ah Sales tax, income tax, 36%. I was progressive tax, ranging... ah
00:34:51
Speaker
I guess I didn't have that. Oh, boy. Yeah, so most... most the taxes are paid by the top wage earners. I thought I had the percentage. I guess I like pulled that wrong, but um that would, it's federally that way. And and it's that way than the state.
00:35:07
Speaker
But it is when they look at percentage of earnings is when they have a way starts complaining about it. But in, in a total it's most of your taxes are paid by those people. And, are you really the wealthiest in Ohioans when you make $139,000 a year or $150,000 a year? No. No, you're not. That's middle class.
00:35:26
Speaker
Yeah. When they were talking about what, what was it like? they're ah The wealthiest are going to be saving like $10,000 a year, but that was like for people making over $1.7 million dollars a year. Yeah. so yeah Yes.
00:35:37
Speaker
so Yes. That's the way it goes. I mean, that's, you have a progressive tax like that and that's, They call it a regressive tax maybe because it, you know, bubbled so I don't. Okay.
00:35:48
Speaker
um I think the person that's making like 139,000, know, in that, that range isn't kind of what they would be maybe saving a couple hundred bucks. Sure. Yeah. It's, you know. Yeah.
00:36:01
Speaker
But, and it, and it simplifies everything. And I think, I think to me, a flat tax, in my opinion, is the most fair way to, Yeah, but everyone pays the same.
00:36:12
Speaker
And I still think it leaves the people that are like under a certain amount. like yeah they're They're below the 2.75, right? Under $29,000 or something like that, $26,000, somewhere in that range, you pay no taxes. Right.
00:36:26
Speaker
So sort there's still two tiers when there was three tiers, technically. Yeah. And then, so they're also bringing up the school carryover.
00:36:38
Speaker
um issue on on which schools carry over and how much they carry over. And so I want to look this up because the the Senate wants to go to 50%.
00:36:52
Speaker
The ah House wants 30%. So I want to see how many, we asked last week, you know, maybe they're they're not saying how many ah districts go over 50% yearly,
00:37:06
Speaker
But there's got to be at least some where they wouldn't go. I don't think that number would be applyable or applicable to this. So I want to look up. So it's approximately um Ohio school just carry over approximately 45.2% of their annual budgets.
00:37:25
Speaker
So 486 out of the school districts, approximatelyly eighty percent had a carryover balance exceeding 30% of their operating budget for fiscal 2024. 80% are carrying over 30% of their funds with one district, New Lebanon Local School Districts in Montgomery County, what reported last year carrying over, with carryovers exceeding 100% 131%. They made money.
00:37:58
Speaker
they made money Can we pull them aside and analyze them for a minute? They came in with X amount and left with 31% more than they came in with. That was Montgomery County? Montgomery County School District's new Lebanon schools ah local schools in Montgomery County.
00:38:17
Speaker
How did that happen? I can only guess because I know they're not making money. Right. I can only guess this is just something over year and year in and year out, they carry so much over that they're just, just kept building up. Just keeps building.
00:38:32
Speaker
Yeah. Like a savings account for them. um The estimates indicate that districts are holding approximately $10.5 billion dollars in excess reserves across ah operating accounts.
00:38:45
Speaker
Yeah. Wow. so so what So what are we talking about here? we We're talking about capping it and then the ah the cities and local officials will be able to prorate your taxes and your taxes will actually go down.
00:39:04
Speaker
Okay. That seems seems reasonable to me if you're carrying 55% of your budget over from the last year. It doesn't seem like you need that much. All right. So, and then I see, i see this article pop up cleveland.com about the budget.
Ohio Senators and School Funding Threats
00:39:23
Speaker
And it here's the headline verbatim. I will say it and I quote, well, I'll say it verbatim. Quote, shut up or else unquote is a clear message in Ohio senators sent to school officials on the budget.
00:39:38
Speaker
This grabbed my attention because there's no senator or Congress critter that should ever tell anybody, especially a citizen, to shut up or else.
00:39:50
Speaker
Who said that? Well, according to, well, I have a clip. Okay. And i have to apologize at first because this is not going to be the most, this is going to be kind of agonizing and you'll see why immediately. But I am apologizing at first.
00:40:07
Speaker
um I believe it's serena Jerry Serino they're talking about who said this, but we'll we'll get it in the clips here.
00:40:15
Speaker
This is Cleveland.com. mean, i'm I'm really building myself up. This is Cleveland.com's Today in Ohio podcast. And it's at the bottom of their article. says, here, you want to listen to it, click on it, and it takes you right to the podcast. So I was like, oh, okay, this should be interesting. I mean, listen to some of this.
00:40:31
Speaker
whoo It was rough. So here we go.
00:40:36
Speaker
We are seeing in all forms of government these days, authoritarian tinges. Donald Trump certainly does it all the time. And what he's doing in Los Angeles is is truly frightening. But we also see it in our state legislature.
00:40:50
Speaker
It's one of the stories we're talking about on Today in Ohio. Breeze. It's okay. I got more, but we're just going to break for a second. I don't know if this guy's ever gone through puberty yet, but he should probably start soon.
00:41:06
Speaker
the ease at which these people just lie is totally lie is is ah is amazing to me. is it's ah Oh, you're about to see. Wow. Listen, here we go.
00:41:18
Speaker
the news podcast discussion from Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. I'm Chris Quinn here with Leila Tassi, Lisa Garvin, and Laura Johnston. Laura, did the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee really tell school officials to shut up about his budget proposal or face cuts in their funding?
00:41:38
Speaker
Does he think he's our king? Aren't legislators supposed to seek comment no from stakeholders, not shut it down? Yeah, this sure sounds like he's basically saying, don't complain or it's going to get worse for you.
00:41:52
Speaker
And a great story from Laura Hancock. who's wait It sure sounds like it is. Did he say it or not? Well, let's find out because it sure sounds like he did. paying very close attention to our public officials and our public education and our public tax dollars, because that's what this budget is, right?
00:42:08
Speaker
5,000 pages, $60 billion dollars deciding what our priorities are as a state. And for 10 days, people have been going in, speaking to the Senate Finance Committee and saying, here's where we think this should change. Here's where our priorities should lie. And, you know, being tearful and emotional in their pleading.
00:42:27
Speaker
And here's what State Senator Jerry. but Wait, wait. Tearful. Wait, like this? no stop. Think of the children. Come on.
00:42:38
Speaker
All right. So again, if he said these things, let's, it's, it's okay. Let's see what he says. Let's, let me just put it back to there. push In their pleading. And here's what state Senator Jerry Serino said to two education officials. He said, I would suggest for your members and the two of you that you do everything you can to support the Senate plan.
00:42:58
Speaker
Because as we go into conference, there's going to be other competing viewpoints on how to do this. And it could only get worse for you. So I suggest that you support the Senate plan. I mean, that sounds like a threat to me, based like like what we would tell our kids, like shape up or it's going to get worse.
00:43:15
Speaker
ah No. la I don't think that's what he said at all, you lying sack. what do you think he said, Tom? I don't know. You tell me.
00:43:27
Speaker
So I hear what I heard. was he, here's a quote. He said, I suggest for your members and the two of you that you do everything you can to support the Senate plan because as we go into conference, which is what they're doing now with the with the state, with the other the Senate, of the Ohio House, excuse me, do everything you can to support the Senate plan because as we go into conference, there's going to be other competing views on how to do this and it could get worse for you.
00:44:00
Speaker
What's the competing plans? The competing plan is the House bill, which gives you $100 million dollars less for school funding.
00:44:09
Speaker
He's saying, in my opinion, you should probably you should probably support this bill because any other bill is only worse for you. Yeah, we're offering you more. Take it.
00:44:21
Speaker
You're not going to get any better than this right now. And the more you push, you're just giving... more so More to the other side, to the to the house part portion, which is giving you less. That's what he said.
00:44:33
Speaker
No threat. Complete utter BS. Complete utter BS. There you go because Because the children, Tom. Well, they they keep relying on that. I think ah i think they're losing.
00:44:47
Speaker
yeah and they Yeah, they keep screaming atop their lungs. Well, in Ohio, they people have definitely you know voted what they think is right, so which is a super majority of Republicans, which are you know they keep doing it, man. Keep doubling down on this.
00:45:06
Speaker
and And you know what? That's kind of was my my thought with the LA protest riots that I saw. This is a great policy. Please keep pushing. Oh, I think... Keep saying this. Keep saying it's it's indigenous land and stolen land. Keep saying it.
00:45:19
Speaker
Well, you okay, so BLM had like over 60% approval before the riots. And after the riots, it tanked down to like half.
00:45:31
Speaker
Not even. I think it went down to like 10, 15% of approval. And I don't even think it's there anymore. And you notice you don't really hear anything about them. Nope. They're gone. At this point. I mean, there was a lot of corruption in that ton of organization too, but, uh, those riots tanked this at tank them. And this is going to tank the, uh, Democrats. If they keep pushing this and they just keep, they don't have anything.
00:45:57
Speaker
No, they don't have any, they I haven't heard uh, I don't even like saying Democrat, like people on the left, uh, representatives from the left haven't even had a um they don't offer any policies no they just offer you know this is bad heartstrings emotion emotion emotion there's no facts there's no it's all just emotion they're gutting it tom they're gutting every single safety net he said every single one but i never hear a different proposal
00:46:34
Speaker
but Exactly. if you I get it. You don't like it. How else are you going to fund schools? 20 years for Supreme Court decisions. It is unconstitutional.
00:46:46
Speaker
Okay. Before we go on, because we have this's this ties into our our next topic, but I got to break for a second just to say, CrookedRiverCast at gmail.com.
00:46:58
Speaker
Please email us. Tell us how we're right. Tell us how we're wrong. Tell us what else you want us to cover. ah Catch us on X. Search for CrookedRiverCast on X. You can always check out the website, CrookedRiverCast.com.
00:47:09
Speaker
You could always ah DM us on X also. Yes. Shoot us a DM. we will We are on there and trying to spread the news. And so to kind of continue on,
00:47:25
Speaker
to this, it kind of it does attach to it kind of ties into this ah property tax reform. There are a plethora of bills. Did you see how many bills there are currently in committee?
00:47:36
Speaker
I think there's 22. Yeah, the number I got was 19. oh You know what? I'm thinking it was 22 since last year, so how many are in committee right now? I don't know. Since January, they said in ah ah two articles, since January, there's 19 bills in committee.
00:47:51
Speaker
Yeah, and there's ah there's a new one that's not in committee yet, which kind of folds in like three of the bills, or four of the bills. It's a lot of times what they do. they get Everybody puts a bill in, and then they start talking about how they can combine them into because it's just easier that way.
00:48:04
Speaker
Yeah, right now it's a mess, though. It's a complete mess. I mean, there is So one of the bills, House Bill 309, would give, which is really ties into what we're just talking about, would give the the local officials the ability to lower your property taxes.
00:48:18
Speaker
Yeah, but what local official is going to do that? if If the budget passes with a 30% cap, they have to do it. I think this would allow them to do it. I think they're trying to lower that cap, though.
00:48:32
Speaker
wait Well, yeah. Right. and In this bill? Yeah, i think so. It did mention 30% cap. ah thirty percent cap
00:48:42
Speaker
ah la blah buth but but ah you yeah I think it is... Does even give a number here? Yeah, I don't even see a number. They don't even give a number. i thought I thought I read somewhere that they were trying to lower it down to like 20-something percent. It basically says it would give the 88 counties the ability to do it.
00:49:04
Speaker
It didn't really state whether it it gives you a number or not. but Okay. Okay. um There are a lot of articles on this that... Yeah, there's so much. Yeah. The other one was um the Ohio Association of a County Auditors.
00:49:22
Speaker
County Auditors Association of Ohio Property Tax. Of Ohio, yeah, excuse me. I'm getting my notes mixed up here. It's the County Auditors Association of Ohio has put out a... They're putting out whatever their...
00:49:37
Speaker
announcing white paper whatever saying that there we need this property tax reform because the property taxes are increasing and getting out of hand, which also ties into why do you need so much?
00:49:49
Speaker
Maybe Republicans aren't giving you all of your fair school funding plan, whatever program you're talking about, because you've gotten such an increase over the last five to 10 years with property taxes going up so much. Maybe you actually don't need so much from the state right now.
00:50:06
Speaker
By the way, um some of the increases, check this out, in Butler County, 37% increase since 34%. 30% in Greene County and Warren County underwent ah montgomery was thirty four percent and thirty percent in green county and war county went underwent ah Ooh, they had a 27% interest or increase and that county auditors are warning that more 25%, the range of 25% are likely coming. So we're pretty much in a crisis here.
00:50:41
Speaker
i would I would consider this a crisis. Yes. and And what is the reason for all these? All of a sudden, since January, 19 bills. We had a little bit last year. They had bunch last year.
00:50:54
Speaker
Yeah, and you get the county auditors now coming out and saying we need to reform. In my opinion, it all meet does it kind of have to do maybe with reformpropertytax.com? Citizens for Property Tax Reform?
00:51:06
Speaker
Yeah, go go fill out the ah you know mailing list and you can find out where to sign the petition. A lot of this is coming from that pressure. Because I think the state legislatures are saying, or Congress critters are saying, we better do something now before we have no property taxes.
00:51:26
Speaker
ah it's kind of we that You think that's what's happening? Some of it, not all of it, because some of this came up before. But I think there's there is a lot of pressure. And it's kind of what um that Beth Blackmar was saying from it. It's like, we've complained before and gotten maybe maybe crumbs, if that.
00:51:42
Speaker
Well, now we're just going to pull the whole rug out from underneath them and see what they, you know, we're going to force them to change by just taking the revenue away. um And what a lot of the people against us are saying, well, if this passes in November, they'll have nine weeks or eight eight or eight or nine weeks over a holiday to get this all worked out.
00:52:01
Speaker
Because if the bill passes, ah This property tax reform, it's gone. That's what they're saying. So... I think I... You know what? I don't think they can get anything done this year. There's there's too much going on. Yeah.
00:52:16
Speaker
like i can't I can't see... They got 19 bills in committee. They got this one big bill that looks like a mess. It's it's House Bill 335, which hasn't gone to committee yet. they're there It should be this this upcoming week it should go to committee.
00:52:32
Speaker
But I can't see how they can get this done this year. I i think they're... Yeah, you're right. Yeah, they're they're fearing the... They're putting the pressure on, which is was part of the point of this whole petition.
00:52:46
Speaker
Do it or else. Do something. I bet you there's a lot of them that are worried about the midterms and or you know the upcoming primary primaries and stuff coming up.
00:53:00
Speaker
I don't know how the state are like when there's when there's come up, but I would say a third of them are probably up Coming up, you know?
00:53:12
Speaker
Yeah. at least it's usually around that. It's not everyone, but it's usually yeah a third or sometimes more. So there's a lot lot going on with your taxes and it's really going to affect, this is really important because it is going to affect your pocket. And usually ah hope in the positive is what it looks like.
00:53:29
Speaker
Yeah. Go sign the petition. yeah Reformpropertytax.com. We'll put it in the show notes again this week. go on there, find out where they're going to and go petition. They said things are going well right now, but they want to $600,000 before the end of July?
00:53:42
Speaker
but and before the end of july I think before the end of July. Yeah, they need to do quick. They shouldn't have trouble. I got to go find it because they had it. They had the they they were stationed close by me.
00:53:54
Speaker
um but I didn't get a chance to go sign the petition, so I got to look again. think the quote from Ms. Blackmore was, we don't have broad numbers, but the but the response has been robust.
00:54:07
Speaker
Yeah, that's good. Yeah, you'd think it would be. By the way, this the the legislature introduced 23 property tax relief bills over the previous two years. Okay. And only two have passed.
00:54:22
Speaker
So, um namely indexing the homestead exemption to inflation. Mm-hmm. Okay. And let's move on. ah and And something for disabled veterans. So there wasn't, there wasn't, I mean, that's something for the, for, for minority of the.
00:54:40
Speaker
Yeah. The crumbs, the crumbs that she was talking about. It's not, nothing for seniors or anything like that. That's really the and big issue too. Fixed incomes and all. Yeah. Okay. Good on that.
00:54:53
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. Yeah. you can Keep an eye out. see Make sure you keep an eye on your critters. there's There's so much going on, but yeah there's not much to talk about because it's there it's it's all in motion. So we're just trying to keep you updated to what's going on.
00:55:05
Speaker
I mean, we'll be talking about it again, I'm sure, in the coming months, weeks and months as they ah come closer to this deadline for property tax reform. right, moving on. Ohio Democrats seem like they want to introduce some some common sense laws, Tom.
Gun Safety Legislation in Ohio
00:55:23
Speaker
buts so Oh, please do tell. Yeah, let's see. um You know, some of it may might be good. let's Let's give it a fair shake. Let's WKYC News Channel 3 report here.
00:55:34
Speaker
Let's break it down. Also in Columbus, Ohio, House Democrats are introducing a package of bills they say is aimed at curbing gun violence and promoting responsible gun ownership.
00:55:46
Speaker
Lawmakers say the goal of the proposed legislation is not to ban firearms. ah Let's be clear. We do not seek to outlaw guns.
00:55:57
Speaker
Rather, we want to offer common sense regulations and publicize safe, responsible ownership. Let's say I believe you. let' just say Democrats say gun violence kills over 1700 Ohioans each year, including more than 1000 suicides and injures another 3500.
00:56:18
Speaker
Two of the bills would offer financial incentives for safer gun storage. One would remove the sales tax on gun locks and safe. And another offers a tax credit to cover the cost of handgun training and storage devices.
00:56:34
Speaker
But not all of the proposals are getting support. and House Bill 45 would also require a 10-day waiting period. Oh, man, I had that set up.
00:56:46
Speaker
Sorry. Sorry. Oh, and red flag laws. red Red flag laws, too. That's the one. Let me rephrase that. Reg flag laws? Yeah.
00:56:57
Speaker
They mentioned 1,700 deaths in Ohio, but 1,000 of them are su suicides. Yeah, though that that's not a... They always wrap that up. when I think nationally there's over 30,000, but over a third of that is... thought was more than half. it was like more than half sometimes. I think it's... I could be wrong, but...
00:57:16
Speaker
I think it's over it's over like 33%. Oh, yeah. but Good point. Yeah, probably a third is what I'm thinking of. Yeah. So um over a third of that is like suicide deaths. And, you know, I don't know. It's just the way they present the numbers is often misleading.
00:57:36
Speaker
Yes. And the good news No way in hell it's going pass. Oh, yeah. No, it's it's it's dead. they they just They're just trying to do something. I don't know.
00:57:47
Speaker
The waiting period would be bad enough, but the red flag laws for family members is non-starter. And by the way, for the people that don't understand why, i'm just thinking of a... Okay, red flag laws. So somebody could tell on somebody and the police come and take their guns.
00:58:08
Speaker
And then they... realistically, they can't get they can't get them back. they They rarely would get them back, I would think. And the other thing is, it's it's like you got these disgruntled, i don't know if disgruntled, but just think of somebody going through a divorce and somebody just easily lying on their spouse about their guns or whatever. yeah think about that that Thanksgiving or Christmas conversation you had with your... Oh, yeah, with another one. With a family member that maybe got out of hand here and there.
00:58:38
Speaker
Uh, emotions got a little high, one phone call and, and now all of a sudden you're on, you're on the list and it's, it shall not be infringed.
00:58:49
Speaker
but Oh, just try to think of, try to think of you're sitting yeah and thanks at Thanksgiving and you're having a nice dinner and then there's your blue haired aunt. Nose ring.
00:59:01
Speaker
Nose ring. Whatever. Sister-in-law. Neck tattoo. Yeah. But, you know, just the one that's like, he's got a major case of TDS.
00:59:12
Speaker
And then all a sudden you get into a heated argument, you know, and then three days later you got the knock police. Knock on the door. Yep. and And there's nothing you can really do about it. once that i think once I guess we'd have to see the law, but it seems to me that once you call that, the cops kind of have to take it seriously and come in and grab your stuff. And and then you've got to fight for Then you're guilty until you prove you're innocent.
00:59:35
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. and That's the whole thing. There's no due process. And I think, like, well I don't think the intentions are good by by these ah lawmakers, but... No, they're wrapping in this other crap to try to, try to like, make it sound like it's a good bill.
00:59:51
Speaker
Right. they can get some kind of Republican lawmakers on board. That's what I see. Yeah. it's just It's not going in anywhere. It doesn't matter. Yeah. It doesn't.
01:00:01
Speaker
All right. So moving on, you're at one hour. So moving on to...
01:00:10
Speaker
Where do you want to go, Tom? You want to continue on? we hit the downtown? so oh You know what? Let's go. Let's go with LGBTQ incidents in
Anti-LGBT Incidents in Ohio
01:00:18
Speaker
Ohio. Oh, yeah. I don't have anything about this. so Oh, yeah. let You're going to clue me in. Yes, I can definitely clue you in.
01:00:24
Speaker
So me pull up there. Okay, yes. Democrats are ah ah pushing bills um you know in the Ohio congress or yeah State Legislature and one of the reports they have is a new report identifying anti-LGBTQ incidents in Ohio.
01:00:45
Speaker
So I read the whole article agonizingly, but I went through some of it because I want to see what is going on in Ohio. What are all these anti-LGBTQIA plus whatever um incidents? How many are there?
01:00:59
Speaker
All right. So according to article, nearly 50 anti-LGBTQIA anti LGBT, blah, blah, blah. Incidents happened in Ohio in a year, according to a new report. Sounds like a lot.
01:01:10
Speaker
50 incidents. What were these incidents? Okay. um Let me guess. Somebody painted over a ah rainbow flag or somebody ah did a burnout on a crosswalk that was painted in rainbow colors.
01:01:26
Speaker
I'm not even sure if it was even that. Okay. um The alert tracked these incidents through self-reporting, media, social media, posts, and data sharing from partners, partner organizations, and law enforcement.
01:01:41
Speaker
So I think the law enforcement should probably be the first way place you look because... So there isn't Ohio incidents, nearly half the incidents in Ohio involved ah Dayton street preachers hosting anti-LGBTQ protests at universities, events, street corners, pride events, or outside the great American ballpark in Cincinnati.
01:02:07
Speaker
so So there was some organization just setting up protests? Nearly half the incidents in Ohio were involving, yes. So they're saying because they got into a scuffle at a protest, it seems like.
01:02:21
Speaker
Okay. That's an incident. Because there was an injury, somebody broke a nail or got a bruise on their butt. um ah or Or an officer just came by cooled things down.
01:02:32
Speaker
Many of the of the incidents in Ohio involved pride flags being stolen. Okay. Okay. Transgender woman was injured while bartending a drag show in Columbus last July, according to a report.
01:02:49
Speaker
A man disrupted the show and was kicking was it was kicked out by the bartender, but the man punched the bartender and kicked down the glass door while yelling homophobic slurs, according to NBC4. Okay.
01:03:03
Speaker
Okay. So did he punch you because you're trans or did he punch you because you're throwing him out of the bar? and i I need to know. I mean, like, was, i mean, was this guy drunk? Was, you know, don't know.
01:03:17
Speaker
I mean, it's fine. That's one. It sounds like a, it sounds like a typical bar third thing. it Taking it at face value. That's one.
01:03:31
Speaker
And the rest happened at this preacher guy, this Dayton Street Preachers, when he's hosting all these events at universities and stuff like that. The rest were pride flags being stolen, sounds like.
01:03:43
Speaker
ah So half, they said half, nearly half of these incidents were at this preacher, um plus that one with the bar guy, the guy in the bar, and then stealing pride flags. So why did they even do this report, News 5? Like, there's there's nothing going on here.
01:03:58
Speaker
Yeah. not Not much, no. um but I mean, besides that besides that preacher. not Not actually true, Tom. They're being attacked. Okay. They're being attacked because um ohio there's a bill going through the Ohio legislature to put your biological sex on their driver's license. Oh, God. And let's just hear what the LGBT community has to say about it. Can't wait.
01:04:19
Speaker
Yeah, here you go. um Pride Month is meant to celebrate the LGBTQ plus community. But Ariane Childry isn't feeling very to the proud of Ohio.
01:04:30
Speaker
Stop attacking me and people like me. And let us live. The state lawmakers are debating a slew of bills impacting the LGBTQ plus community and ones that she says could be harmful for transgender people like her. A provision in the Senate's proposed budget would require driver's licenses and state IDs to have a person's sex assigned at birth on it, which Childry says misidentifies trans people.
01:04:57
Speaker
These things are to push trans people out of public life in every aspect. Because let's face it, if you don't have a proper ID or legal ID, you can't do much of anything. The legislation also tries to stop funding for both youth homeless shelters and mental health services that support transgender or non-binary identities.
01:05:17
Speaker
Hold on.
01:05:20
Speaker
shit She said, sorry, I had to think about this. She said, if you don't have proper, I mean, ID. Oh, okay. The truth is coming out a little bit, I think, there.
01:05:33
Speaker
Proper ID would be what biological sex you are. Right. Yes, that would be proper ID. ah Sure. For medical reasons, I don't know why they want to change this even.
01:05:44
Speaker
Right. Like, if you're if you're in an accident, I mean, they're going to treat they're going to treat a male and a female victim differently. And if you're unconscious, the best way to find that out, well, there's two ways. One, you look at ID. The next way, well, they cut your pants off. but Yeah.
01:06:00
Speaker
But I mean, like, why would you want anything to like, possibly, you know, roadblock that? Oh, crap. now i lost my place. Hold on. Sorry.
01:06:10
Speaker
No, no, I hit stop and it went to the beginning for some reason. you go I think I was here. Let's see. It's art to push trans people out of public life.
01:06:21
Speaker
Hear it again. In every aspect. Because let's face it, if you don't have proper ID or legal ID, you can't do much of anything. The legislation also tries to stop funding for both youth homeless shelters and mental health services that support transgender or non-binary identities.
01:06:38
Speaker
Democrats are proposing bills to combat the GOP, one to make LGBTQ plus discrimination illegal and another to ban conversion therapy for minors. Plus, House reps want to put marriage equality on the ballot.
01:06:50
Speaker
We cannot assume that federal protections currently under law will last forever. Speaking at the state house, Cleveland drag queen Miranda Lanai says another bill would make it a crime to perform in drag outside of adult cabarets, like a strip club. Attack on expression, on identity and on art. Art.
01:07:10
Speaker
It implies that gender nonconformity is... in I just love the women, the the blue hairs out there that support drag shows because all they are is a minstrel show, making fun of women.
01:07:22
Speaker
Yeah. That's how they started, isn't it? Or is that, you think that... Well, listen... I would think most drag queens are, maybe they're maybe they're gay, but they're not trans. They're just dressing up as women.
01:07:35
Speaker
They're exaggerated nails, exaggerated makeup, exaggerated hair, exaggerated tits. you know And they're exaggerating every part of what feminists usually try to a curtail. Mm-hmm.
01:07:51
Speaker
and there's and and they and they And they try to, they support these shows and they they they go to bat for them. And I just, I sit there, you know, well when um when they were doing minstrel shows, making fun of black people, exaggerating their features, you know, exaggerating their... um Noses and all the facial features. you know did they're just set that Were they making fun of them? i Yeah, I guess in a way,
01:08:19
Speaker
yeah Drag shows are making fun of women. And when women support these things, I just don't get it. i really don't get it, man. So let's be fair here.
01:08:31
Speaker
Do you think that um strip clubs should go to schools and do similar shows for heterosexuals?
01:08:44
Speaker
Am I a 16-year-old boy? No, you're not. No, I don't think they should. Right. So, I mean, and they don't think it's sexualized. they don't think it's sexualized But I've seen the videos from these things, man.
01:08:59
Speaker
they're They're totally sexualized. Absolutely. Especially now, maybe 20 years ago they weren't, because you you're saying it was like ah an an act, and like a vaudeville act. you know They were all exaggerating everything. Now, no. It was always sexualized.
01:09:12
Speaker
They're twerking in front of kids. they've They've always been sexualized. It's just our um the the public's perception of what... you know our our tolerance of level of what is sexualized or ah the amount it's sexualized is different you gotta got a little bit left in the deep the best is yet to come tom so let's finish this up got like 20 some seconds inherently inappropriate shameful or sexualized and that it is both false and dangerous is inherently in on identity and on art art
01:09:47
Speaker
It implies that gender nonconformity is inherently inappropriate, shameful, or sexualized, and that it is both false and dangerous. Childry says that this is why Pride Month is also about continuing to fight for rights.
01:10:02
Speaker
I'm an Ohioan by choice, and my choice is to stay. No matter how bad it gets, I stay. Because guess what? Those rainbow colors, they don't run. oh At the Ohio State House, I'm Morgan Trout reporting. America.
01:10:20
Speaker
Man. Wow. America. So they're being attacked, Tom. They want to put biological sex on. That's another incident, I guarantee you. 51. 51. fifty one 51 incense. No.
01:10:33
Speaker
Jesus. I know. dead CricketRiverCast at gmail.com. ah Send us a DM and an X, CricketRiverCast. Tell us how you feel about it.
01:10:46
Speaker
All right. Moving on. let's Let's touch on a couple more ah here. we have We'll get into more local stuff.
01:10:57
Speaker
So we have...
01:11:00
Speaker
A Cleveland mayor's driver, who is a Cleveland police detective, got an accident. I think this was a few months back. I think we had talked about this. He had pulled this story and we had never really covered it, never got to the point of where kept getting cut.
01:11:15
Speaker
um And now we've moved a little bit farther along with it to point out that he's going to find, ah he's not going to get any citations legally. He is going to be, is he's going they're going to look at internally his performance and see if there's any anything they can do there so basically the mayor's got drivers if he's a cleveland police detective which makes sense because it's the mayor you know he needs some security my driver might be a cop the guy is 77 years old so i think we do a little bit better than that uh to protect the mayor so he's is he an ex-detective
01:11:53
Speaker
exte Or was a detective? Yeah, I don't know. I'm currently seventy at 77. That's true. ah hes He's his driver. He's his driver. Yeah. He's his driver. he it Okay, so he he gets off, he gets on the in the car, he runs a red light, doesn't turn his flash his lights on, just or he turns his lights on, but not his sirens, one or the other, which is against protocol.
01:12:16
Speaker
And... He ends up crashing into a construction truck, it seems like, and and totaling the car. Nobody was injured. But, it you know, so why isn't he not getting a citation?
01:12:31
Speaker
Come on. why Why? I mean, could. Bibbs driver. What do you think? Yeah. I mean, I could rant. about, you know, maybe this is why most of our cities are complete and total garbage because nobody ever have our held accountable and the incompetent people hold all these important spots because they're never held accountable and gotten rid of.
01:12:49
Speaker
And maybe it's the reason the whole system is kind of crumbling down, but I won't. Instead, I'll just give you a little more evidence to this fact. Downtown Safety Patrol, remember those guys? What is the, down you remember the Downtown Safety Patrol, we talked about it couple or five shows ago? So Downtown Safety Patrol is actually part of the Sheriff's Department, Cuyahoga County of Sheriff's Department.
01:13:08
Speaker
It is a two-year-old program roughly to help with the increased crime in Cleveland. We talked about them many shows ago. Yeah, they've done some, ah they haven't done a good job.
01:13:20
Speaker
There was a chase coming went coming out of the city of Cleveland with one of the safety patrols, which is the Sheriff's Department, and ended up he ended up crashing into guy being chased crashed into a ah bystander who was ejected off the 90 exit of high 90 in Eddie Road, and both people died. Yep.
01:13:39
Speaker
so I think there were a couple other incident incidents too. There are others. they're in And up until now, I can't see if any reprimanding from what I can see, what I've looked for.
01:13:50
Speaker
um i don't even know if the sheriff has ever actually sat in front of council yet to explain what happened.
01:13:57
Speaker
No, have they canceled that though?
Officer Vajusi's Controversial Career
01:13:59
Speaker
No. No, they haven't canceled that yet. There is legislation in there that they're going to they're trying to do that. Right. But it hasn't it's still going on. So the update is they've had a um a sheriff's deputy or a downtown safety patrol deputy, whatever you want to call him, being involved in in a couple of shootings in the last couple of months, all within a ah short period of time.
01:14:22
Speaker
And when they start digging in this guy they're like, why is he even on the force? And for example, his his name is Detective or Officer Vajusi.
01:14:34
Speaker
So he wins on name alone because, hey, Officer Vajusi. We can go so many ways with that. but so and excuse me he So this Vajusi graduated from John Keogh University and said he he pursued policing after not being accepted into medical school.
01:14:55
Speaker
Um, that's evidence number one. He then took police exam across Northeast Ohio and the Cleveland police division hired him, but he resigned one week later in December, 2020. But see later graduated from the Cuyahoga County college police Academy. Um, and in June, 2021,
01:15:19
Speaker
Oh, yeah. So in December, he he leaves the Cleveland Police Department. And then in June 21, he graduates from Cuyahoga County Police Academy, where he um apparently was written up or something for horse playing and slamming another cadet into the car, denting the door, then delayed reporting it and calling it not a true testament of my character and a mistake.
01:15:41
Speaker
All right. So then he passed. He gets graduates and then spent nine months with the Mentor Police Department. And the personal records show Bajusi failed his field training, lacked confidence, had difficulty in stressful situations, and hesitated because of being afraid of making mistake.
01:16:00
Speaker
So they fired him. So supervisors found his performance poor and they got rid of him in October of 21. ah And then he then goes to and spends a year on the East Cleveland Police Force.
01:16:15
Speaker
And then, ah so in 2023, Vajusi joins the Sheriff's Department in June of 23. Weeks later, is elevated to the Sheriff ah Harold Patel's fledgling, as they call in the report, downtown safety patrol.
01:16:31
Speaker
um So he's been involved in two shootings in May ah may of 24 and October, October 24 and May of this year. um And with very similar situations.
01:16:44
Speaker
Within seconds of getting out of the car, he's got gun drawn and he's throwing rounds downrange. And He then, then some, you know, i had clips, but i didn't pull them because we got already too much today. But in one of the clips was, was notable is he's searching the field because he, he's sure he saw somebody reaching on the radio was his detective, his boss saying, do not search the area, stand down. And he's just looking around. He's trying to find the gun to to save his ass.
01:17:12
Speaker
Right. And he he actually did shoot somebody. He shot ah a, ah I think a young woman who was running away. um And there was no gun found in either case. So... This guy should be... ah He shouldn't be on the fence.
01:17:26
Speaker
He should not be a cop. Who is looking after this police force? Who is checks... Where are the checks and balances on this police force? It's got to be disbanded. So... And the city... Ocagua County Council is looking... They've got movements and this and that going to ban it. We'll see what happens. But...
01:17:47
Speaker
According to the police, the sheriff, i don't I don't know. I haven't looked into any of this yet. That was his comment. Okay. Well, I mean, it's only been four or five, six months since his first shooting, two or three months since his last shooting. Maybe you should look into it.
01:18:01
Speaker
Dope. Oh, yeah. By the way, remember, the only sheriff in Ohio that is not elected. Yep. We need that to be changed next, after we get the ah property taxes taken care of.
01:18:13
Speaker
But, I mean, nothing's going to, you know, will something happen to this guy? Maybe, maybe not. is Nothing's going to happen to the driver of the police, the police driver. He's just going he may get a slap. Is he even going to write up? They even to write him up?
01:18:24
Speaker
Probably not.
Tanisha's Garden and Community Standards
01:18:25
Speaker
But, gardeners, Tom, criminal gardeners, we've got, they're cracking down on criminal gardeners.
01:18:33
Speaker
Can you tell me about that? Oh, yeah. there's a There was an article in Scene by ah Mark Oprey. And this lady, Tanisha, I'll just call her Tanisha, she moved into ah the Clark Fulton area. And she started kind of like a her whole yard. there's no There's no lawn. So she started a garden.
01:18:54
Speaker
for her whole yard. And you know, those yards in that area are- Small. Yeah, they're tiny. there posts They're smaller than post-it stamp. You know, her front yard's probably, you know, 40 by 10.
01:19:07
Speaker
So tiny yard. And she just planted, um She's an arborist, I believe an arborist or ah she put it this way. She knows what she's doing when it comes to gardening. So she planted all these like wild, you wildflower.
01:19:20
Speaker
Let's see. Black eyed Susans, Daisy Glorias, Italian oregano and strawberries and Shasta daisies, Siberian wildflowers. She planted and it's all it all works in conjunction. So to keep the weeds down the way she did this.
01:19:37
Speaker
And here comes the ah city inspector fining her. So, um yeah. but she has i thought it was interesting and their reasoning for fining her. The building and housing cited her yard for...
01:19:54
Speaker
allegedly being ah host to a collection of noxious weeds. Yeah, aggravate, which may aggravate fever, asthma, allergic respiratory reaction, or similar conditions.
01:20:07
Speaker
i'm They don't say that somebody called on her. I'm wondering if a neighbor called her. I do look at her yard, and right now, where like the picture that they have, is it's all in bloom. So it looks it looks really cool.
01:20:21
Speaker
no It's sort of like the old old school English gardens where there's just a wild, I don't even call them wildflowers. They look like wildflowers though. They kind of look like that. Yeah, they But it looks good. But I'm wondering what it looks like in August.
01:20:35
Speaker
It cannot be that pretty in August. No. I would have i would argue it's probably not that pretty now when you compare it to the houses around it as far you're used to this neat trim lawn and you have this, looks like somebody just doesn't take care of it. It could look like that wasted. It could look like that, but there's too many things that are, that wouldn't, if it was just weeds, it wouldn't look like this. Yeah.
01:20:52
Speaker
yeah It's, it's definitely somebody planned this out, but it does kind of, you know, i don't know if it was my neighbor and I'm trying to sell my house. I would, yes, I'd probably be a little, um I could see the problem with it. Yeah.
01:21:03
Speaker
Yeah. So at first I was kind of like, oh, this is stupid. They're fighting her for like having a garden. When I, when I read the, when I read the headline, which the Clark Fulton resident turned her yard into a cottage garden,
01:21:18
Speaker
Cleveland took her to court. That's the headline. And at first I was thinking, you know, she's, i didn't know what cottage garden really meant. So I'm thinking she's just growing vegetables. And I'm like, man, if you can grow food in your yard, ah you should be able to.
01:21:32
Speaker
But this ended up kind of like making me. Rethink it probably, huh? Yeah. I don't think I would want that next to my house. No. Yeah. And that's kind of, so that's part of the social contract, you know, that we all kind of yeah agree to is.
01:21:46
Speaker
You know, don't, don't, don't make your lawn, don't make your house, make others, you know, don't make the rest of the neighborhood look like crap. if If she's living in the country and the neighbors are spread apart and stuff and she wants to do this, that's, that's great.
01:21:59
Speaker
But, um, I don't know, you're, you're in a, you're in a neighborhood. This is the type of neighborhood that you could sit on your porch and talk to your neighbor that's sitting on the porch. Right now she's getting fined.
01:22:11
Speaker
It's like a hundred bucks. A hundred bucks. And her statement is, I'm not changing. I will keep getting fined. I'm not changing. I'm changing nothing her quote. Yeah, and I'd look at her and I don't, I try not to judge a book by its cover, but.
01:22:27
Speaker
She's a gray hair. Yeah. She's a, mean, i i I get it. She's not in the right place for it. i this just ah Real quick, this reminds me of when I landscaped many, many moons ago.
01:22:38
Speaker
We had this apartment complex we used to do or a condominium and, you know, it was like, Not a great condo, was but you know, just middle, low income. And we kept, we get this one bed ah in front of this condo. We just kept getting these weeds.
01:22:53
Speaker
We kept spraying them. And then we kept getting, finally they complained and said, stop killing my flowers. Because he you buy all these packs of wildflowers, which just mix seeds and you just put it down and all this grows. It looks like, you know, every other bed's mulched except for this one.
01:23:07
Speaker
And we're, as landscapers going up, if we got to get those weeds out of there because we're going to get yelled at if we don't. I get it because, they you know, let it if you ever see a picture of a true cottage garden or your English garden, I always call them English gardens, but it's it's not, it's typically not on a small plot of land. Yeah.
01:23:28
Speaker
And the other thing is they make trailways through it and you could kind of ah view different, um you know, different plants and flowers and stuff. And usually ah it's usually a part of a larger...
01:23:43
Speaker
um A larger ah farm. Yeah, it doesn't even have to be on a farm. It's a cottage, which usually kind of sits on a little bit more than ah a little tiny plot of land. ah right, okay. You know, so like think of, like, let's say you have, like, a half an acre. You could...
01:24:01
Speaker
You can make an English garden where you could have your patio and kind of just make it really pretty around it. And you could have all these flowers that bloom throughout the season. you can if you're If you know what you're doing, you could kind of make it look cool throughout the whole year.
01:24:15
Speaker
But this, she knows what she's doing. She knows what she's planning. She understands how they work together. But it's just... um Yeah. I mean... not the right place. Yeah, it's not it's not the correct place. And at first, I'm sorry, Tanisha, but at first I was feeling bad for you, then I started thinking about it. I'm like, yeah. Yeah, for my name, I'd have a different... Yeah.
01:24:37
Speaker
All right, so moving on along Ohio... ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles
Ohio DMV Scam Alert
01:24:46
Speaker
text scam. We'll touch on this real quick. because i go I got that thing. I got that thing, and I had this i had to think twice, two, three times about it.
01:24:53
Speaker
and what So it's pretty... It's pretty legit looking. I'm looking at right now on my phone. Ohio Department of Motor Vehicles. Final notice. Enforcement penalties begin June 12th. Our records show that as of today, you still have outstanding traffic ticket in accordance to Ohio State Administrative Code 15C-16.003. If you do not comply, blah, blah, blah. I mean, it goes on. That's the same one I got. Yeah, it's all exactly the same. o I mean...
01:25:18
Speaker
ah We covered something like this a little while ago, a few months ago, I think. Yeah, it comes up every now and again. so thats The DMV will never text you or call you. They will only mail you a letter.
01:25:29
Speaker
And the way to look at, there's a couple ways to see it, but on the link that it gives you in the text, it's ohio.gov-vu.wang, W-A-N-G slash DMV.
01:25:42
Speaker
You know what mine is? Jesus. Mm-mm. you You got one that's at least has Ohio gov. my Yeah. That's what made me think twice about it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, what I, the reason I didn't think twice about it, the phone number came from was plus four, four, seven, four, six, two, two, five, four, zero, one, seven. That was my next because I got it from an email address.
01:26:05
Speaker
Oh, okay. And and then um the link that I got is
01:26:15
Speaker
forward slash pay question mark. And I'm like, oh, okay. Yeah. So if you're getting any texts, it's a scam. They're never going to text you this way. They're going to send you a letter. They're never going to text you. They're never going to Microsoft's not going to call you. Apple's not going to call you.
01:26:32
Speaker
and And try to get the viruses off your computer or anything like that. They're not going to send you an email. They're not going to call you and they're going to send you a letter. And yeah, Apple, why would Apple contact you? Why would, why would, ah you know, um Microsoft contact you? Yeah. Especially to ah help you with the viruses on your computer. We've yeah detected viruses. and I got, I got, that was my best one.
01:26:56
Speaker
i used to get that at work. And I used to finally, I just, I go, no, I'm running a Mac. They're not supposed to have any. I wasn't running a Mac, but, and then ah click like, oops.
01:27:08
Speaker
um So yeah, just keep it. I mean, just think, think they're not going to do that. There is not. Yeah. Be careful. ah Make sure your parents know your, your, your, the seniors, your, your parents and your grandparents Yeah.
01:27:23
Speaker
Yep. Absolutely. that That's who they're going after. prayying upon Absolutely. Yeah. yeah Because you're not, yeah especially if you're looking at a link like that. Dot Wang. Dot Wang. I thought that was interesting.
01:27:35
Speaker
That's a new, what was that called? Whatever. um Moving on.
Regulating AI and Image Rights
01:27:42
Speaker
ah How deep fake build is a build in state house. We'll just touch on this real quick. It's not a whole lot there.
01:27:48
Speaker
Bill 185, State House Bill 185 to regulate AI. not sure how they're going to do that. ah The only thing that i pulled from this real quick is they're proposed by Ty Matthews, Republican at Finley, that the legislation would allow everyone to own their own image.
01:28:04
Speaker
And it would ah be a trademark infringement to produce malicious content without someone's consent with possible civil penalties of tens of thousands of dollars. The bill would also make it a third party a third degree ah felony to create or distribute malicious AI content in order to extort the individual being deep faked.
01:28:26
Speaker
So again, hard to hard to yeah or to catch, but if you do catch somebody, they're adding teeth there's so teeth to it. And I do like that whole, you own your own image. and This seems interesting to me. It is being, making it trademark violation is, is.
01:28:40
Speaker
Well, what does a, how, how does AI produce an image? Yeah. It's copying off of something else, right? It's, it's copying you off of something they found on the internet. So like this, this is the whole issue with the AI. It's like the music and everything. It's like, all it is, is taking from what it has, has, um, can, can learn from. Yeah. So, uh,
01:29:01
Speaker
but Yeah, this is we're going to, you know, over the next decade, we're going to have a whole slew of weird things going on here. and lost times And at times hilarious.
01:29:13
Speaker
Yeah, at times hilarious. At times less scary, probably. Yeah, yeah. It's going to be a mixed bag of dung here. I mean, I don't know. I think it's going to be. really hard to navigate through this.
01:29:26
Speaker
But again, i get it. I'm, I always skeptical on these things cause it's just, it's worldwide. So how do you really stop it? But you have to at least have some teeth in the event that you do find somebody that you can catch at local or at least in, in some Western country.
01:29:41
Speaker
yeah and the big You know, the thing is the big, beautiful bill that's going through the federal government is, uh, has, uh, is blocking states from doing any type of, uh, AI regulation.
01:29:53
Speaker
I don't know. I think it's just for development. By the states. By the states. Right. So they don't want, because, you know, if, if they, uh, if the states block, I think it's more for development, right?
01:30:05
Speaker
It's a development, but I don't think it seems like a weird precedent to put in It seems weird to have it in there. I don't. Well, no, the whole, the whole purpose of it, I think is ah because they know if, ah, that's how to put this. um If, if we don't push as hard as we can to develop the best ai in the U S China will just surpass us. So if you are If you let the states block things or or slow slow the development down, they're worried that it's going to slow the are the US. Fair point. I like it. In competition wise, um it's going to slow it against, um I think it's mainly ah China.
01:30:51
Speaker
Yeah, China. And I think that's a good, it's a fair point because if we're all pulling in different directions. Yeah, yeah. China's definitely not. Because the whole thing is like, what if, you know, yeah we got Ohio here that's but booming in in Columbus and there's going to be definite definite AI development going on. So what if Ohio tries to slow that down?
01:31:13
Speaker
you know? Yeah. Okay. Fair point. Yeah. That's what I think that's all about. Right. We'll keep up on that as it gets passed. We'll, we'll bring it up and see, you see how far it gets. Moving on to egg recalls real quick.
Egg Recall Warning
01:31:28
Speaker
Egg recalls. um Is this Walmart? Yeah. One, this is as funny how they put it in the story. 100 million dozen, 1 million dozens. You couldn't just say 12 million. Yeah. 12 million eggs being recalled, mostly sold at Walmart.
01:31:40
Speaker
um If you've purchased from Walmart, you can you can check the show notes. We'll put ah the link to the article in there. That's what Walmart gets for supporting no Kings protests. There you go. Exactly. You get Seminole eggs.
01:31:55
Speaker
um but um um But they said vast majority went to Walmart from this one different, I think they're even different names on the package. But what they do have in the article, ah you can also search for it online if you need to.
01:32:06
Speaker
They do have... um a numbering identifying numbers so you can tell which eggs are which and make sure you you don't have any bad eggs so check that out we'll put the link to the article which also has those numbers in it uh in the show notes so you can click on it right from there so watch out for smelly rotten eggs um and on to the last segment which is always good stuff And today it's all you,
Cleveland's New Music Venues
01:32:31
Speaker
Tom. So where do you want to start?
01:32:34
Speaker
Honky Tonk? Yeah, let's start with the Honky Tonk. Honky Tonk. We got, think it opened up a couple of weeks ago. This is from Scene Magazine. um We got a new Honky Tonk on East 4th, downtown Cleveland, which it's 2038 East 4th Street, right where it's it's only pedestrian only ah right area. right.
01:32:55
Speaker
And it's a place that's called Jolene's. At first, I thought it was... It's called Jolene's Honky Tonk. And at first, I thought it was... ah run or Not run by, but I thought it was like she had part ownership and it was Dolly Parton.
01:33:08
Speaker
But it's more it's more of a... um She doesn't have anything to do with it, but it's more of a... Just um honoring her in a way. Okay. Yeah. It looks like a cool place in the picture.
01:33:19
Speaker
and looks It looks really cool. What they did was they took a kind of like, they tried taking the old school honky tonk look vibe. And... introducing cleveland aspects of Cleveland into it. So it's not you know it's not ah it's not like you're walking into a Texan honky-tonk. But no but they're trying to get the same type of ah vibe to it, I guess is the best way to put it. They're going to have live music there. they do have it's ah It's a restaurant bar, but I don't think it's going to have an extensive menu.
01:33:50
Speaker
I think it's more like finger foods. Okay. Yeah. don't i don i like I kind of went through it real quick. I didn't see anything that was like, you know, you're talking like more just appetizer type of stuff. bar appetizers and munchies and stuff when you're... Yeah.
01:34:04
Speaker
i There's a simple menu of tendies and nugs. That's what it says. So whatever that means. And even a lot of times, a lot of times I'll start with that. Yeah, that's true, too. Later on, we'll see how far they go because, you know, people will ask for it if they're there.
01:34:16
Speaker
That sounds awesome. I mean, more live music, please. Yeah, I think, well, it's it's cool. i mean, hey, anybody out there starting a cool honky-tonk band, give me a call if you need a guitar ah player.
01:34:27
Speaker
Yeah. Because that would be fun. I just, you know, I hope they have enough around town. Yeah. This might start building it up. so Yeah, they've got to have some place to play. don't know if it's chicken or egg thing, Yeah.
01:34:39
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And they're going to have DJs there too, but I hope they have a vibrant live music scene there. And let's see, we got one more thing here. Cleveland Metro Parks concert series. Tom, tom how are they doing this? they Didn't you see the signs, the ads? They're cutting staff.
01:34:57
Speaker
Brought to you by Doge. Yeah, yeah. They're cutting staff. Yeah, okay. And Metropecs totally broke, I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure. um So it looks like it's so they're having a summer concert series. I think they did this last year, which I didn't even know about.
01:35:12
Speaker
See what happens when you start doing a podcast? I know. You learn about these things. so Lovely. There's Huntington Beach concerts on Wednesdays, 5 through 8, 5 to 8 p.m.
01:35:23
Speaker
Wallace Lake concerts, which are on Thursdays. And Thursdays, but they only have a couple of those. I'm kind of surprised because that I thought they would have a pretty good schedule there.
01:35:34
Speaker
And a few at Euclid Beach concerts, Edgewater Beach concerts, Emerald Necklace Marina concerts, which I don't even know where that is. Huh. I haven't ever heard that one either.
01:35:44
Speaker
Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. And Merwin's Wharf concerts. So we'll leave a link in show notes for that. In the show notes. Yep. Yeah. All right. And I think that wraps us up, right?
01:35:56
Speaker
Yeah, I don't have anything else. rep I think we've gotten, I mean, and for those who have gotten this far, wow. Thank you very much.
Podcast Conclusion and Listener Feedback
01:36:04
Speaker
And thank everybody for listening. um Again, another fun show. I you know i love getting into this stuff. And like you just said, it very satisfying to know more about what's going on in my state and and and what our Congress critters are doing. So if you know of anything else, you have any comments, let us know. CrookedRiverCast at gmail.com.
01:36:26
Speaker
Follow us on X, Cricket Rivercast, or CRC, or at DM us, at CRC News, CRC Ohio News. I can screw that up a few more times.
01:36:38
Speaker
Or check us out on our website. We've got ah at least a um ah landing page with all that information on it while we build it. And follow us, subscribe, like, and you know whatever. Share. Tell your friends. Tell your friends, please. um And let us know where we can do better.
01:36:55
Speaker
And on that note, we will talk to you next week. Peace.