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Crooked River Cast Show 62
63 Plays1 month ago
Crookedrivercast.com
Crookedrivercast@gmail.com
- More troops to Poland?
- Medicaid fraud fallout.
- Who got the Axe at CMCS?
Quick Takes:
- Ohio Voter ID Amendment.
- Data centers are bad and or good?
- Local business man sentenced misuse of COVID funds.
- Rossford Mayor charge with yucky stuff.
- “Activists” Say FLOCK NO!
- State says County can’t raise SIN Tax this year.
Good Things:
- Lorain lakefront development.
- Conneaut lands major development.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:12
Speaker
This is the Crooked River Cast. Who are we? We're Rob and Tom. Two guys just trying to keep track of what is going on in the great state of Ohio.
00:00:23
Speaker
This is show 62 for the week of May 25th, two talks in 26. Let's see what's going on this week. Rip.
00:00:37
Speaker
In the morning, in the morning. How you doing I'm doing great. see Let's see what's going on. Yeah, another week. And I think I had this conversation.
00:00:48
Speaker
overheard a conversation and I kind of followed away them. I've been asking people throughout the week, last week, about this question. have mixed answer, but mostly they're all pretty.
00:01:02
Speaker
There's a few outliers in there, but I'm ask you this question.
Parental Advice and Generational Differences
00:01:05
Speaker
Have you, or did you ever ask your parents for dating advice? Specifically your mother.
00:01:16
Speaker
Uh, no. No? Oh,
00:01:21
Speaker
Well, I, I'm in the office and I'm doing what I'm doing. And I'm over, I, all of a sudden i kids start catch, start catching these, this conversation happening about some coworkers, two coworkers, two female coworkers speaking to each other about one of them has a child.
00:01:36
Speaker
He's 22, 23. The other one doesn't, don't think she has any kids. No, she doesn't. And, I started, what did she say? started kind of paying attention. And basically, this is nothing new, actually. I've heard've i've heard this this kind of story before from this person. Yeah, so they're going through a story about how he's talking to this girl, but he's clueless that the girl's asking about.
00:02:02
Speaker
And mom's giving him, correcting his texts. Oh. They know you should write this. Well, If he's really socially awkward, maybe that's all right. He's not.
00:02:14
Speaker
He's not socially awkward. I mean, he's he's a buffoon and he's immature and and he is the telltale sign of somebody who's been brought up by ah smothering mother.
Parenting Styles and Societal Expectations
00:02:25
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. there this So this this is something like I think I saw before i is like before i had we had kids and there was ah there's a couple different kinds of parents that I see and, hey, you do what you got to do, but...
00:02:38
Speaker
There are some parents that want to be your, their kid's friend the entire time. And there's some parents that don't want to be their friends at all. And there's some parents I think they're just kind of in between, but this is, they are friends more than they are mom and dad or mom and son.
00:02:53
Speaker
So I, I, I, you know, this whole story goes through and they kind of, kind of winding down. So I popped my head on my office course in my, Typical shit stirring way and said, Hey, yeah you guys, that's interesting conversation you guys had there, but has anyone brought up the fact that it's kind of weird that a 20 something year old coming to his mother for dating advice?
00:03:14
Speaker
And they all went, what what do you think their reaction? Oh, they're, they're women, right? It was, uh,
00:03:23
Speaker
What? You never went to your parents for dating advice? I said, no. ah never even came to my mind to ask my mother. how No. Yeah, that never came to my mind either.
00:03:34
Speaker
Well, I mean, my son have a different. Yes, I completely agree. You have a different. relationship I think. how How old is the kid? He's 22, 23. Yeah, that is a little weird. If he was a little older and it was like super serious about.
00:03:47
Speaker
The girl he's, you know, trying, courting? Yes. that's Then maybe. can see that. yeah Yeah. Like, hey, I, or even like you break up and you're you're just sad and you want to talk about it. That's one thing.
00:04:00
Speaker
Well, that's one thing. but But dating a vice, like if he was courting this girl, like really like serious intentions. It depends on the parent, I guess. i i don't know if that's super bad.
00:04:13
Speaker
I saw it as mom trying to get her son laid. that's what i That's what I felt like. Yeah, that is weird. I'm not sure that's what she was doing, but that's what's going to turn out to to happen. And then as as we went on to the conversation, it kind of slipped into the whole...
00:04:31
Speaker
Dating world, what guys are looking for, what women are looking for, and the fact that her son doesn't believe in love. True love. Good job, mom. Yeah, great job, mom. and well, I said, yeah, but look at what look what we've look we've designed here. we've got We've got boys that we're raising as to be boys, to be little men, to be small-minded weaklings.
00:05:01
Speaker
It's all about your feelings. Oh, what about your feelings? And then we're raising women that the only, the most important thing for a woman in her life as she grows up through teen years and into her early twenties is what?
00:05:18
Speaker
What do you think it is? What do you think the society is pushing?
Feminism and Gender Dynamics
00:05:21
Speaker
Oh, a career. career career Career, career, career, career, career. And I asked the questions like, not in this case, but I've asked the question like, has, does any, do they talk about a family?
00:05:31
Speaker
like family plant, you know, like is it all career and and people go,
00:05:37
Speaker
what no what no. So, you know, we're talking about this stuff and, and they're they're just, they're just like dumbfounded. I could tell they're like, when's he going to shut up?
00:05:50
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I said, look at look at all these different... I said, guys are giving up, basically. They're like, yes, no, I'm not even going to... You know what's the the latest trend? oh or I don't know, I guess it's a trend.
00:06:06
Speaker
But when they're surveying teens, you know, does Gen Zers? What are, what are like, ah late teens now? What are they considered? I've never... I don't know.
00:06:18
Speaker
i just know I'm not a boomer. Although, I may sound like that at times, but... um I don't know. I don't know where cutoffs are. Okay. So they're, they're asking this question. What's the most important thing to you or and for your future?
00:06:33
Speaker
And most guys now, the majority of them, which it's changed, are saying they want a family and women are saying career and families like down, like,
00:06:47
Speaker
Like, I forget what number it was, but it was like 10th. I mean, like there's 10 other things or nine other things in front of that. And, uh, for the first time, men are saying family and i religion too.
00:07:02
Speaker
Yes. ah Women are saying career. Yeah. And women are saying career. But I think, I think over the next decade, that's going to start changing just because women usually follow along with what men want.
00:07:17
Speaker
so So, of course, I brought in the little bit of Andrew Wilson to the into the discussion and said, you know, like, feminism, you've been, i said, women have been lied to for decades.
00:07:30
Speaker
And she's like, what do you mean? I go, feminism. and Again, of course.
00:07:35
Speaker
I said, yeah, you've you've been lied to. So women are less happy than they ever have been. and There's more single moms than there ever have been. We've got, you know, this, which leads into all this other stuff we just talked about.
00:07:47
Speaker
And I said, it's, it's, and I forgot how I brought it up, but started talking. i said, so, You know, like, for example, like, what can you do? What, what right do women have with without, that they don't have to pander to men about?
00:08:04
Speaker
They don't have to pander to men for, they don't have, they don't need men. and they So basically um I'm getting this all mixed up, but I said, Hey, I said, Hey, you, there's nothing you can do in life.
00:08:18
Speaker
A woman that doesn't have something to do with a man behind it. Yeah. yeah Everything a woman needs and wants is up to a man to give her.
00:08:30
Speaker
Yes. We allow a letter. Allow her. Yeah. Yeah. it It sounds very harsh, but in we, we because without the men but allowing it, I know I'm totally screwing this up, but anyway, no yeah i said it very eloquently. Settle down.
00:08:47
Speaker
but Settle down there. No, basically that, that, that whole, uh, idea of men allowing women to do stuff is just means that we allow them to do the feminism thing.
00:09:05
Speaker
We can always stop it just because we're stronger. We can take over their, uh, physically we can just tell them to shut up and stay down. Right.
00:09:19
Speaker
Yes, there's there's nothing stopping men from putting women in burkas. Yeah, gee, let's look at the middle East. has has any Has there ever been any woman army to come up in and, you know, kind of overthrow the patriarchy?
00:09:34
Speaker
No. It's never happened. They've had women leaders who have used men as an army to, you know, take land and stuff. But it's never, you've never had... an army because they can't.
00:09:45
Speaker
And I said, look, I said, Hey, I said, look, I said, basically let's talk about this. If, if you snap your fingers and 50% of the women, all the women in the world just disappeared, men would die off eventually because we couldn't reproduce.
00:10:02
Speaker
Although I think we'd find a way, but if you snap your fingers and all women disappear, or all men disappear, excuse me, women would die within days, weeks, but within a year. They'd all be dead.
00:10:12
Speaker
Because you couldn't run a power plant, you you wouldn't know how to run the the water treatment plant. I mean, some pretty would yeah they they could. They could possibly learn it, but by the time you learned it, you'd be There are outliers.
00:10:23
Speaker
Sure. there's There's the extremes where, women you know, there there are women that can do... jobs that men can do like on a what what like ah like china from the wwf you know there's an outlier she's 6'3 you know she kicked my butt i'm just saying you know there there are women that can weld but how many are there
00:10:49
Speaker
that can work on an oil rig how many are and how many want to and are willing to do that Women are not barred from the NFL. And I guarantee you, if you could have a woman that was even close to be good enough to be a third string quarterback or whatever, they'd be a third string kicker. They'd be on some team somewhere.
00:11:11
Speaker
but you know Didn't they try a kicker not too long ago somewhere? I think occasionally get one in in training camp or something like that. but Yeah, and then they totally botch it. i think one actually played, I forget, was it? I forget. Damn.
00:11:24
Speaker
It's been a while. I thought one played in a game like a preseason game and the field goal attempt wasn't even close.
00:11:36
Speaker
But women have one thing that men can't. They do one thing that men can't. They can actually grow life inside of them. yeah This is why we allow you to have. So and that's kind of i check out Andrew Wilson. If anyone hasn't, he's a, he's a great, he's one of the best debaters I've seen.
00:11:50
Speaker
and And you can learn a lot from listening to him debate, especially the left. Actually, his his wife's book is better ah talking about feminism.
00:12:02
Speaker
Yes. it's It's a cult and it's we've been lied to. Yeah. Much like today, very vocal minority of women.
00:12:15
Speaker
made this happen. The suffrage movement. and you get back well but Women probably had more power back in the day as being the head of the, house or not the head of the household, but the homemaker. The homemaker. the Husbands want were going to do what the women wanted. A lot of a lot of times, yes, because happy life happy wife, a happy life. That goes back from the beginning of time.
00:12:39
Speaker
Wars were started. Women started wars because the king said, oh, damn it. Okay, I'll do it.
00:12:48
Speaker
I want that. I want that. Okay, I'll do it. Well, no, and you know, yeah well, we've seen it plenty.
00:12:54
Speaker
So it was it was a quite interesting conversation. And and
00:13:00
Speaker
their eyes glassed over by halfway through. But I thought I definitely like steering it. And I guarantee you they're not going to... Andrew Wilson can, for anybody that hasn't watched him, he he's he's really good at debating, but he he can't.
00:13:16
Speaker
I don't know how to. he He puts me off sometimes because I oh don't know if he always does it in the way you should. So it's a little. i don't know. I don't want to say harsh.
00:13:29
Speaker
Oh, he's harsh. Yeah, he's harsh, but harsh. You can be harsh without being crass. I guess sometimes he's a little too crass. If you really want to get the normal, um ah you know, the everyday person to see em watching him, watch him.
00:13:47
Speaker
but Fair point. I think he would argue that it's little too late for that. going to be, yeah and and this is personality, but what I see in him is when he debates I mean, Destiny and all these other people on the left.
00:14:02
Speaker
And this happens to me when you talk to anybody who's who's really lefty or or progressive. When you're trying to hammer them on a point, they're constantly throwing stuff to get you off, to deflect, to move you off the point. And you and you start with you start on ah school education, and within five minutes, you're talking about the Iran-Iraq war.
00:14:23
Speaker
Or Iran war, the Iraq war, not the Iran war. You know all of a sudden, like five minutes later, we're talking about something that happened 25 years ago. And what I see from him is he just, he pulls them back.
00:14:34
Speaker
Nope. ah I'll concede that point. Fine. Let's talk about this. No, we're not talking about it. And it's really something to see. Well, most of the time they have, they also have a moderator there. So that helps. Yeah. But even he does it, he does them on a live streams.
00:14:49
Speaker
where there is no moderator. And he's very good at keeping a very a very logical, factual argument and taking the emotion. I think that's where some of the crassness comes from because he's, his or you know, he's taking all the emotion out of it.
00:15:01
Speaker
That's one of the best things anyway. But anyway, i yeah I thought it was an interesting conversation. and i thought I could ask people if you would like to let me know. Do you often try to get your kids a piece by helping them get a date?
00:15:17
Speaker
CrookedRiverCast at gmail.com. Yeah, that is weird. Getting back to that, that is bizarre. that That boy should. ah He's not a mu he has a boy.
00:15:29
Speaker
well He's not a man. He's not a man. and i don't I don't know if he ever will be at this point. No, no. I mean, man if you ever met him, you yeah would definitely.
00:15:44
Speaker
Nice looking kid, but man. ah Okay. Is she is she divorced? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Many years ago. Okay. So there's no father. He's involved, but with that kind of dynamic, I don't think he's that involved because it's a long story. if you it's we I've worked with him for many years.
00:16:07
Speaker
but He was 12 years old, I think, or something like that. and it's been a while. Yeah, it's it's a It's a losing cause on his end, I can see. I'm not saying he's the he's the greatest or anything. He's probably a douche too, but like I wouldn't be involved. I'd be like, okay, fine. if you're going to let him do whatever. you know Okay, here's here's the reason why. They're the house. you ever i don't know if you knew this when you were a kid.
00:16:28
Speaker
They're the house that you could go over with there was no rules. Oh, the cool mom. The cool mom house. Not the cool mom, but the um the party mom. The lazy mom house was what I would call it today. Yeah, the party house. you know Back in day, i was like, ooh, cool to have one of those. But now I'm like, oh, I can't.
00:16:45
Speaker
did you know Has any of his friends banged the mom? oh
00:16:51
Speaker
Wait.
00:16:53
Speaker
I mean, like at 14. have no idea. I'm talking about like at 14. I don't know. But now I'm curious. Anyway, that's a long, long way to go to say feminine is a lie. And I just dropped the bomb on my coworkers.
00:17:06
Speaker
Hey, son, is your friend coming over? I wouldn't doubt it. Anyway, yeah and doubt moving Moving on to actual news.
00:17:18
Speaker
You know, I don't know. There's there's national stuff going on. I mean, the that we've got a deal with Iran. We don't have a deal. I'm not sure what's going out where Cuba's about to fall, but Cuba's doing military drills.
00:17:32
Speaker
or Well, not doing drills. There's... They're sending out videos on social media about them running drills. I mean, seriously, it was recorded on a over-the-shoulder VHS camera.
00:17:42
Speaker
That's what it looks like. Really? i don't think it's recent. Well, they just indicted Castro, right? Yeah, that's that's right. yeah yeah Indicted Castro, so you know what's coming
U.S. International Relations and Military Movements
00:17:50
Speaker
next. There's an aircraft carrier coming in the area. Their power going to be going out soon.
00:17:55
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not sure why the aircraft carrier is there. We can just fly over. Like, you know, launching from Houston, you know, from Texas or Florida or Alabama. I mean, you to have bases around there, but nope.
00:18:06
Speaker
That carrier, that carrier holds a lot of weight. Holds a lot of weight. Yeah, that's pretty intimidating, right? Yeah. Yeah. So that's going on. got Cuba. don't know. Some kind of a real deal.
00:18:22
Speaker
Castro's probably going to try to work with them, right? He's like 90. i don't I know the government of of Cuba has been trying to work. i don't know if that's by his design or just they're trying to save their own asses.
00:18:35
Speaker
Well, they say he's retired, but... i But he's really running it. Right, right. but So are they trying to do what... Or look at what Venezuela did and say, uh, it was him, not me.
00:18:46
Speaker
And then that way... Because that seems like Trump's doctrine now is... We need regime change, but you're going have to figure out who that is. You know, like you, you change the regime. We're not, we're just going to give it the opportunity to change it.
00:18:59
Speaker
Right. And then going to watch you. If you're not honest, we're going to do it again. And so if they look at that, I could see them going, well, you know, it's him. Look at, look that guy over there. The old guy over there, get him. They're doing basically the same thing they did to Venezuela. Right.
00:19:15
Speaker
Yeah. So that's that's why I thought that meeting last week was kind of a cover your butt kind of thing for the higher ups in the current government now. e But on ah on a completely unrelated, sure, note, this is, I pulled this story because it just seemed weird.
00:19:33
Speaker
Not weird, just out of the blue. Trump says he's sending 5,000 more troops to Poland. Jak się masz? Jak się masz? Nastrowia.
00:19:45
Speaker
Nice driveway. Nice driveway. That's a better way to say it. So this is a idea stream article. Basically, president Trump says, said that us will send an additional 5,000 troops to Poland, stirring confusion between the following weeks of changing statements from Trump and his administrative administration about reducing, not increasing the American military footprint in Europe.
00:20:08
Speaker
And so that's basically to me, the the story here is how they're all like, what's going on? All the confusion, our allies. Oh my gosh. And i think because I think Trump says something, yeah, based on a successful election an, of the now president of Poland, uh, Carl, I mean I get that one. Rocky, Rocky. navarai Yeah. There you can see he got that in there.
00:20:35
Speaker
Uh, who I was proud to endorse and our relationship with him, um I'm pleased to announce that the United States will be sending initial 5,000 troops to Poland. No, cool.
00:20:46
Speaker
I can't, what's what's the confusion? So now, now we have a, a, a, a leader of Poland that has apparently been friendly to us and now we're going send more troops.
00:20:59
Speaker
Kind of the opposite of, you know, France and England and what kind just said, screw guys. figured they sent the 5,000 that they pulled out of Germany to Poland.
00:21:11
Speaker
That could be it. Yeah. that's funny When I saw this, that's but my first thought was like, oh they're just the 5,000 troops they they're taking out of Germany. They're sending to Poland.
00:21:23
Speaker
That's and which is like right next door. Yeah. Yes. They just need to change the scenery. They've they've really run through Germany. Then I got to check out Poland. Poland's a nice place. Trump, Trump and yeah it says Trump and the Pentagon have said in recent weeks that they were drawing down at least 5,000 troops in Germany after Chandler Merz said u S was being humiliated by the Iranian leadership and criticized what he called a lack of strategy in the war.
00:21:51
Speaker
And then quickly responded later said that's not what I meant and that's exactly that's known i don't no no no it's all no at all he totally pulled back probably think about things before you spit them out yes they are definitely not used to having somebody with balls somebody yeah has somebody with a pair with a pair of of big brass balls to say oh really you don't say And it's probably the best thing of this term of Trump is the realization or not the realization, the the fact that we have a president that's willing to say, okay, hey guys, we we do realize that you need us more than we need you.
00:22:37
Speaker
So we need to adjust the relationship accordingly, please. You do what we say kind of thing. before or Before it was complete reverse. we've We've been taken advantage of by Europe for decades.
00:22:50
Speaker
And everybody's just unbelievably confused on the president that makes them pay for their disrespect of the United States. IdeaStream really tried pushing the yeah he was done Trump is so bad. He doesn't know what he's doing. Doesn't know what he's doing. Doesn't know what he's doing. That's that's everything. i With the straight, I sat down with my buddy. You know, we generally agree on lot these. mean, we disagree on Ukraine. He was all for Ukraine. But and all of a sudden, iran I said, I said, so what do you think is going on? Well, you know, I'm not sure what's going on with the straight. doesn't look like they had a plan. I said, hold on.
00:23:27
Speaker
are you really saying that our military, you know, $900 billion dollars a year hasn't, doesn't have 16 different ways, strategies for Iran?
00:23:38
Speaker
It's been 40 some years. Oh, well, I go, so you think that Trump was like, the Trump drew up the plans for the war and gave it to the army or, or to the military.
00:23:51
Speaker
I don't think so. I think he said, give me the plans you have and I'll pick the one I want. Okay. Yeah. Same thing. I don't know he doesn't always do There's no strategy. Okay. So that's more of a that's more of a, yeah, that's more of a a dig on our military than is Trump.
00:24:07
Speaker
Yeah. Well, there's no strategy really. I mean, you take Venezuela, you're on top of Cuba. You, what was the first thing he did? Hello?
00:24:22
Speaker
Okay. That was fun. Um, so nobody in, in podcast lane knows it, but we just spent, I spent last five minutes trying to reconnect because the internet went out. Yay. Thanks AT&T. Um, fiber.
00:24:38
Speaker
Well, i the power flickered, but I'm all in battery backup, and so is my network. So I saw it heard it flicker, and the lights came back on, and then you went dead.
00:24:50
Speaker
All my network stuff was running. I think AT&T went down because the power flickered, which is... Huh. You got more backup than... the Big guys do. Yeah.
00:25:02
Speaker
started pulling out my um male old modem for the cable because I still got that line live. But after a nice reboot, I think we're okay for now at least.
00:25:13
Speaker
So come on AT&T. Get some battery backups. Checking them out on Amazon. They are about anyway as, you know... They know what they're doing just like Trump knows what he's doing.
00:25:27
Speaker
See, there we go. I wrapped good way to circle back on that. to But hey, let's, let's, let's, let's keep moving here because, um, you know, Trump's saying more 5,000 more troops to Poland.
00:25:38
Speaker
Thank you, Poland. That's basically what Trump said. Thanks for the support. We'll give you some more troops. Yeah. We're just going take the German troops and teach them how to speak Polish and move them to that. that
00:25:49
Speaker
Uh, yeah, he's very transactional and people are not used to it. I think that's where we're going. So moving on.
00:25:56
Speaker
Our first, I think our first story, Ohio story is just more of the same from last week is the fallout from Medicaid fraud has has started.
Healthcare and Medicaid Issues in Ohio
00:26:05
Speaker
Let's get right into it. Let's listen to Luke.
00:26:09
Speaker
was it What was his last name? Rosiac. Rosiac. Rosiac. That's it. He was in front of the Ohio state legislature this last week.
00:26:21
Speaker
And let's hear how Luke was told that the crackdown on fraud is racist from one of our critters in Columbus. Let's see what he has to put this one up.
00:26:32
Speaker
Also, I would like to point out that the majority of people on Medicaid and ah in Ohio are not from the Somali community or from communities of people of color. The majority are actually white.
00:26:45
Speaker
So for you to imply the racist information that you're getting. Medicaid or home health? On Medicaid and home health. we We are, when you look at the numbers of people that are in Ohio, the white population versus white people of color, you're're you're implying that most of the fraud is happening in communities of color. I'm not implying it, I'm stating it.
00:27:09
Speaker
oh I would like to see actual numbers besides the numbers, besides the overall. Just please through the chair with your back and forth. I would just like to see true data and numbers because I think what's being presented here is very different from what we heard during our joint committee. Your question doesn't even make sense. I mean, you're acting like it's either or through the chair. um yeah Of course, it is true what you said. There are these minimal statements. That does not imply that there were not was not additional fraud, which they failed to detect. They very much did fail to detect that. You mentioned the AG. Well, at the AG also told this committee months ago that...
00:27:49
Speaker
Ohio law caps Medicaid fraud as a low-level felony. So you could steal $15 million dollars from a person, you're going to jail for a long time, you steal $15 million dollars from Medicaid, under Ohio law, it's not even possible to prosecute it as a high-level felony.
00:28:03
Speaker
um You can also see how these exist, the discretion of prosecutors in jurisdictions like Franklin County, how they plead it down. There's a guy named Ali Uconte, one of the most recent Medicaid fraud prosecutions. um What did Franklin County do? They let him plead down to a misdemeanor and then they expunged his record.
00:28:23
Speaker
Racist. Racist. I'm not implying it. I'm literally stating the fact. And she went... ah
00:28:34
Speaker
And continuing on with this, let's listen to Luke again, front of another one of our state legislatures. let sleep but about let's Let's hear some examples of how he handles the rabid suicidal empathy in our state legislature.
00:28:50
Speaker
Welcome back. Ohio leaders. Of providing services. The whole idea with this home care waiver was that if we can bring people into their home and my god a few things, one, it would save money. It's much more expensive to send people to long-term care facilities. Um, save money the dignity of life and being able to live and grow old in your home, um, um,
00:29:14
Speaker
Do you think that there is a more scalpel approach to this versus kick everybody off that we've that we've thought because there's some doctors in some places that are overdoing this? Or do we look specifically at the doctors that we're worried about, at the folks that we're worried about?
00:29:33
Speaker
versus closing the whole program? It's a totally fair question. And I think the time to ask it would have been about 10 years ago. And I think that if people have been more interested in the abuses and there's people, again, one of them, Samani, didn't seem very interested in fraud at all. Fraud does exist.
00:29:48
Speaker
She's not at all concerned about rooting it out. And this is what happens. It's too too late now for that. um I can tell you the federal government is going to come into states that it doesn't think are have done enough, and it's not going to take that scalpel approach. So I think the time to to reform things in Ohio has probably passed. And at this point, you guys have to take dramatic action, or the the result is going to be the feds are going to yank more of this Medicaid program, um not just for personal services, but potentially for home health in its entirety, or even um other government, other other Medicaid services. um I think that the idea, so, and and i and I thought I made this, I guess I should, um maybe I didn't make the point well enough, but the the dollar amount you mentioned, I mean, that's very key here. This was sold to us as a way to save money. That did not work. It absolutely was, the premise was false.
00:30:41
Speaker
And the reason is because the number of people who claim to need a nursing home is elastic, okay? So in order for this to save money, let's say you had 1,000 people who were eligible for a nursing home in Ohio. And now it turns out that half of them are willing to and are able to receive ah care in their house instead. So now you've got 500 people in at home and 500 in a nursing home. That's not what happened here.
00:31:03
Speaker
When we said you could stay home, instead of having 1,000 people who claimed they were so sick they needed a nursing home, now you had 100,000 people who are so who were so sick they needed a nursing home. The math doesn't work. It was sold with a false premise. um and also, you know, the dignity of aging in place. The irony here is many of these people are in their 50s. It's absurd. it's it's It's insulting to us because we all know people or are people who are in our 60s or 70s. This is not even old most in in this day and age. You know, there are people in their 80s who are still working. Just because you're in your 60s doesn't mean you need somebody to come vacuum your house. It's preposterous. And we don't even have a breakdown of the medical conditions that are resulting in this home health care.
00:31:43
Speaker
And that would be the minimum we would need. And I think it is too late to kind of start assembling that breakdown now. I think the government, the federal government, at this point, it's, you know, you guys terminate this personal services waiver or you risk the J.D. Vance and the federal government terminating more of your Medicaid dollars.
00:32:00
Speaker
Give me a hell yeah! Yeah.
00:32:05
Speaker
They're just trying to take money away from Medicaid. yeah Yeah, just trying to hurt people because they're they're racist. and What's going to happen to all these people? You know what? I think I need somebody to come in and vacuum my house.
00:32:18
Speaker
Wash my dishes. You did hurt your back the other week, right? Yeah, see? Where's my Medicaid? was my Medicaid?
00:32:27
Speaker
So, of course... Of course, now we we run into the governor's race where this is all spilling over and we've got, well, let's just get right into it because let's listen to Let's listen to to the left wing News Channel 5 and what they have to say about all this.
00:32:48
Speaker
Are pushing for major change to the state's Medicaid system, more than 3 million Ohioans, that's one in four. Use it, but that could all change. Your Columbus Bureau reporter Morgan Trowell has a lot of different perspectives on this, including from providers, Democrats and Republicans who say they will prevent fraud that happened on their watch.
00:33:06
Speaker
We need a fresh approach. Some Ohio Republicans say that the state Medicaid system needs an overhaul. When you have criminals, fraudsters. Thieves claiming money for themselves.
00:33:20
Speaker
It diverts money away from those for whom these programs were intended. After the conservative outlet, The Daily Wire, published a story alleging rampant fraud. Gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has announced his plans to fight the not yet proven abuse.
00:33:36
Speaker
State of Ohio does not yet have the full aligned incentive to make the prosecution of Medicaid fraud a top priority. Ramaswamy and legislative leaders blamed Governor Mike DeWine for what they call a lack of oversight, claiming home health care providers paid by Medicaid are not doing their jobs. DeWine has denied any widespread issue, but said there have been nearly 1100 Medicaid fraud convictions since 2019 when he took office. There's been no real evidence. But if the allegations are legitimate, House Minority Leader Dunny Isakson says that Republicans are responsible. The idea that people who are currently in government, who have been running the government for the last decade, would stand up and say there's fraud, waste and abuse. It's rampant. The fingers should point right back at themselves and say they have failed to do their jobs. More than that, I brought up to Speaker Matt Huffman that in the last budget, he got rid of the Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee, a body that looked into waste, fraud and abuse. if there's ah okay okay so here's here's our gotcha question here.
00:34:36
Speaker
So the last budget, I think they got rid of the, this oversight committee because it was doing such a great job overseeing all these people on the fraud.
00:34:49
Speaker
So this is course, Morgan's gotcha question. fried How are you not responsible? It sounded good when we started, I think, for those for the folks responsible for creating it, but essentially wasn't effective in trying to get to the bottom of these things. But for some providers, they worry that overhauling Medicaid will mean less access and funding. These type of overhauls, when you can't see what it does to a small business in rural communities that are out there doing the right thing, it makes us look like we're not. Do you think that it's possible that this is just another way to cut Medicaid?
00:35:21
Speaker
No, no. i mean These are allegations of fraud that should be taken seriously. These are taxpayer dollars. it's not a way to cut Medicaid. I think we've already seen that there's overspending in Medicaid. The governor's team says that they're investigating, but that nothing has been proven yet. At the Ohio State House, I'm Columbus Bureau reporter Morgan Trow. Yes.
00:35:40
Speaker
She is proud. Trying to, well, yeah, there's that. But I mean, she's like really trying to steer this one direction.
00:35:51
Speaker
Overhaul the late, the arms excuse me, overhaul the state Medicaid system to combat unproven allegations. That's what is written. I think that's what she said in the story too, right?
00:36:03
Speaker
Yes. But who writes, whoever writes that, they're allegations. Allegations are always unproven until they're proven. Yes. Just like he's such a they do a Trump.
00:36:16
Speaker
Twat. Yes. I get it again. Twat. Okay.
00:36:23
Speaker
Yes. Unproven allegations. ah What's, what do they always do with Trump? It's like, um, and unproven claims or without evidence, without evidence, he claimed. Well, yeah, it's ah it's a claim. Yeah.
00:36:37
Speaker
and In my response... But there is evidence. Most of the time, there is evidence. is he hasn't It's not proven that evidence. Evidence can be a lot of things. you know No proof. No proof. yeah Okay, so you can't talk without about something without any proof?
00:36:51
Speaker
you have You have to talk about it. You have to go there before you can prove it.
00:36:57
Speaker
I wish I could call her and just call her, you know, you don't want me to say What? oh So, ah okay. Okay. I agree with the pointing at the wine and the Republican party. That's good.
00:37:14
Speaker
but What you're trying to say is what? So what you're trying to say is this person is going to, is going to help us out. Let's, let's just hear. What I'm mostly hearing from Ohioans is cost of everyday life. um It is absolutely people are doing everything right. They're working harder than they have ever worked, but there is no more breathing room. You know, it's the cost of housing and rent. Fifty percent of most Ohioans income. It is health care costs in a big way. We're seeing a lot of medical debt.
00:37:44
Speaker
We're seeing a lot of folks not even having access to health care. um Our educational programs are under attack. Our electric bills are up. Our property taxes are going up and our child care is unaffordable. Ninety five percent of what they say isn't controversial.
00:38:02
Speaker
I am running against a self-funding billionaire. who truly has ideas that stun most Ohioans. You were right. Medicaid and Medicare are mistakes when we have 11 hospitals on the verge of collapse and people going an hour to an hour, 15 minutes just to deliver a baby. We actually have babies being born roadside. um He says things like people are struggling because they're lazy and mediocre and not working hard enough.
00:38:30
Speaker
And that is absolutely not the Ohioans I know. ah The list goes on and on, but I can tell you, you know, our message is really resonating with Ohio. Yeah.
00:38:43
Speaker
Americans are lazy. look at your look Look at the bags under your eyes. You can see how lazy. I don't know what that's into it. Well, I don't know. They got to ask their mom for dating advice.
00:38:54
Speaker
Oh, precisely. They're doing all the things right, Tom. noioi they're all They're doing everything right. They're spending $150 a month on the streaming services. They've got a $300 a month cell phone bill with between four people.
00:39:07
Speaker
ah They're buying massive amounts of junk food every week, hundreds of dollars a week of junk food and pop. It's doing everything right because... They just don't have the money. Most people just don't have the money because they've blown it on all bunch of other crap.
00:39:22
Speaker
That's the person that's going to, that's going that's the one I'm going to trust with cleaning up the fraud. No. ah Oh, you mean the one who worked with DeWine? The guy in, so wait, you were on his, on his team during all this, during a lot of this.
00:39:37
Speaker
Huh. In your medical and it's Medicaid. Huh. Yeah. I think the problem is DeWine. Oh yeah. I think the problem is a Republican who is a Republican in name only. Well, listen, probably not.
00:39:52
Speaker
It's not the other around. and You could blame the Democrats. You could blame the Republicans, whatever you want. It's just blame the freaking leaders of the state. Yes. And unlike the Democrats who would just let this keep going,
00:40:10
Speaker
taking ah take a sliver out of your own eye first, right? I think
00:40:18
Speaker
That's enough. That's nonsense. I don't believe they even anyone even cares about this fraud. I think most most of the legislature, don't they don't even care. And as a if we're looking at the news media, they really don't care either because they really haven't brought up crap about this.
00:40:37
Speaker
It's unproven. Unproven allegations. and There's just a building with 200 offices with not nobody in it. 200 doctor's offices. With nobody in it.
00:40:50
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. A 40% of, of our, our budget for Medicaid in in a state of Ohio is $47 billion dollars a year. 40% of that is going to one County in Ohio with 40% of that money going to like six buildings all owned by the same person.
00:41:12
Speaker
10% of all that budget goes to six buildings in Columbus. Yeah. Unproven. I mean, there's, I mean, I mean, what are we even talking about here? She defends fraud.
00:41:24
Speaker
Well, you know, Vivek called Medicaid a mistake. she's She's defending fraud. but Medicaid expansion is a mistake. It is a mistake. We went from $500 million dollars a year to a billion dollars a year in in this home health aid thing.
00:41:42
Speaker
it's It's doubled in size. huge problem. It needs to be, you need to be cut. You need to get rid of it. That's what, that's what Luke is saying. No, if you don't pay attention and start cutting this, daddy Trump's going to be coming in and cutting a lot more than you guys are ever thinking or dreaming of cutting. So you better get your shit in line or somebody else is going to do it for you.
00:42:02
Speaker
And you I mean, you want more money for all this other stuff. He's talking about hospitals closing up because don't have money. Maybe, i don't know, just maybe if we didn't have all this fraud, we can increase payments and and actually have a good healthcare system. But no, let's just please add more money to the budget because that's what solves everything.
00:42:19
Speaker
If the government's involved, you can never make it better. And speaking of just add more money to the budget, it'll solve any problem. Here's a story from the I-team. We got the Gaelic duo, Ed and Peggy.
Cleveland School Layoffs and Financial Management
00:42:35
Speaker
So they did a story. this This brings up a topic I was just recently discussing at a family event. So the I-team, any top jobs cut at the Cleveland school layoffs. So Cleveland, they've laid off like 400 jobs they cut.
00:42:49
Speaker
146 of them were teachers. And the question was brought up. They wanted to look into how many of the high-paying jobs got cut.
00:43:00
Speaker
And this is actually something I was talking about at a family event. I have a cousin who is a teacher. oh And I know she's been there since she started Scott College. i think she I think her first job was at Cleveland. She's still there. and She's in Cleveland?
00:43:16
Speaker
Yeah, she's in the cle she doesn't live in Cleveland, no. Right, right. She's in the Cleveland School District. Yeah, she's a Cleveland cleveland School teacher. Oh, okay. and I've always known, we've talked a little bit about it, but since the last couple of years, I really haven't seen her on and off, you know, family events. not going to sit there and start talking about politics and deep issues, you know, unless it comes up, but we're talking and sitting down at table and and the kind of the subject kind of came up and I said, yeah, you know, it's interesting because oh, I forgot how we started. I can't stand, I think I said, I can't stand the Cleveland school district and you work there. So I'm interested in your perspective, something to that effect.
00:43:54
Speaker
Like, what do you have to say about it? What's your,
00:43:58
Speaker
and her, nervous um'm I was kind of shocked she's still there.
00:44:07
Speaker
And I think one of the reasons she's still there is she said the benefits and the pay are outstanding. Yeah. They're going to come close to any private school you can go to.
00:44:20
Speaker
She, uh, she's a teacher. Yep. She's a high school teacher. I didn don't know what it is I think it's, I think it's no, it's not high school. Okay. Okay.
00:44:31
Speaker
And I think she's at a good school because i think the school is kind of on the outskirts of Cleveland. So it's not like in the middle of some of the worst areas of Cleveland. so i think it has a lot to do with it. think She could be in a good pocket. Yeah, she's in a good pocket and she loves the school. She says they have great parent interactions at her school, you know comparative compared to other schools that she talks about or talks to.
00:44:50
Speaker
in other parts of cleveland so her school has is not in jeopardy of closing or uh no they ah there's some teachers that were cut okay from her school usually younger ones and what which what they were she's finding out is you know your the starting rate at the private schools is considerably less and the probably that better on your resume The benefits are considerably less.
00:45:16
Speaker
What do I mean by that? I think it's the other way around. I think, and I brought this up there. I said, I'm sorry. i I don't mean to insult you, but I'm about to say this this analogy. I said, it sounds like Cleveland school districts is like the Cleveland Browns.
00:45:28
Speaker
They have to overpay to get anybody to come. Yeah, yeah. She said, yeah, da I think that's absolutely right. ah think the but I think the benefit like private schools have is that it looks good on the teachers, a young teacher's resume that they can go somewhere else and make more money.
00:45:45
Speaker
So they're willing to start for less. And that's why I said, I know at at our kids' schools, a lot of the early education, you know, these pre-K, kindergarten, there's a little bit of turnover there because they're usually right out of college soon thereafter. Yeah. usually lower paying, so they're they're moving up and stuff like that. So I understand that. i But I also look at it like,
00:46:07
Speaker
that Maybe that's the market. Maybe that's the that's what the market will pay for a teacher. I think think that the fact that the Cleveland Public Schools has endless cash, basically. I know they don't, but... I mean, some of these benefits are like the matching on the 401k are enormous, like triple what most places are.
00:46:27
Speaker
But like, why okay, so i'm looking at this article here. One of the positions they got rid of was an IT t officer. Yeah. You want to hear a clip? Breakdown?
00:46:39
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. All I was going to say was, why is this officer are making $191? It's kind of high, isn't $4? or For an IT t position, is that what saying?
00:46:53
Speaker
IT t officer, which I guess I'm not familiar with that. What is an IT officer? I don't know. what it i' Just a manager? don't know. I don't know. Yeah. Why is he an officer? That's weird. That's a weird question. Oh, it's 191. That's quite a bit.
00:47:06
Speaker
i know higher-end IT guys can make some dough, but that sounds like a lot. No, but at at a public school with public funds, is that the place that's supposed to have the highest paid? I don't think so. Maybe he's got to dodge bullets going to work.
00:47:22
Speaker
I mean, that's a yes, he probably does. That's why he's got they have to pay him $191,000. Otherwise, they're not going to get anybody. Maybe. I don't know. Let's listen what the gay-like duo says. Okay. What they have to say.
00:47:40
Speaker
Outrage over Cleveland teacher layoffs. So the I-team investigated. What about the highest paid school district executives? Last month, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District announced 410 job cuts, including layoffs of 146 teachers. So we requested a list of the 25 administrators earning the most money. And we checked how many of those jobs will be cut.
00:48:04
Speaker
Listen to the view of one employee losing her job. The people who are... On the ground, hands-on, day in and day out with our students are being sent away when the people who work in the ivory tower are still there. Change is hard, but building brighter futures is a plan. Records show the district CEO tops the pay list at more than $299,000 year. The school district says it's cutting four of the highest paid administrator jobs. Positions with salaries of $191,000, $160,000, $154,000, and
00:48:40
Speaker
and a hundred and fifty one thousand So what are the job functions of the positions being cut? They include an IT officer, a senior high principal, a manager over multiple principals in schools, and a manager over after school activities no longer being offered. I'm actually impressed with the district that they did cut some of the people that were actually making money. We took our findings to the president of the teachers union. He gives the district credit, but he also looks at the bigger picture. The school district is closing or merging dozens of schools.
00:49:13
Speaker
District officials say they are facing financial issues and declining enrollment. There could always be more cuts made to the top. Again, when we're closing a third of our buildings, I would think we need or or wouldn't need a third of those top level administrators, but they seem to protect their own.
00:49:31
Speaker
The union has fought back against the massive layoffs, striking a deal to save 60 of the teaching jobs. Now the records answer some of the questions about how far job cuts reach at the top. In Cleveland, Peggy Gallick. Ed Gallick, Fox 8, I-Team.
00:49:49
Speaker
Which one of these people are offering to take a pay cut to save a teacher or a couple teachers? What they all took a $20,000 pay cut, they could save a few teachers? yeah Yeah. It's all for the kids, huh? ah Yeah. So, hey, we're, and this is kind of what we brought up. I said, here's what I've seen. Enrollment is kind of, is dropping a little bit. ah a One or two, that's what said. said one or 2% a year they're losing and maybe it's flattening out now at this point, but it's cut in half.
00:50:18
Speaker
You've got teachers at the same kind of level as far as staffing. And the only thing increasing is administrators. by a lot like skyrocketing. And one of the reasons is they're closing schools, but they're not, and they're not getting rid of these administrators.
00:50:32
Speaker
A third of the schools have closed. They've lost half their enrollment in the last 20 years. And they're crying because they have to let go teachers go. They literally let somebody go that was in charge of a program that was no longer happening.
00:50:44
Speaker
What was he still doing there? Yeah. I mean, maybe they gave him some other responsibilities, but it I mean, his, his title stayed the same and it, I just looked up a IT officer and I guess that's on the low end for an IT officer.
00:50:58
Speaker
What is an IT officer? hu Okay. So I asked what the typical salary range is. So in a large company or healthcare clinic, it's 250 to 280. That's a medium.
00:51:14
Speaker
IT director is about 165 medium for mid-level organizations. And then you have this one at inte school is 197, which is on the upper end of ah for schools. it's ah It's high for schools. Yeah, but I mean, the position is IT t officer. Yeah.
00:51:37
Speaker
Well, here's here's what they do. so I just wanted to mention a general IT team manager is 100 125 medium. Anyways, okay, so what do they do is they develop and implement district-wide technology plan aligned with educational goals,
00:51:54
Speaker
Advise the superintendents and CEO on tech investment and priorities. Oversee networks, servers, cloud systems, let's see, cybersecurity and data privacy privacy, educational technology, budget and operation support and training.
00:52:10
Speaker
Like a CTO, basically. Chief technology officer. Yep. So o yeah, i that just shocked me that that salary. So like I got to start looking at changing careers.
00:52:20
Speaker
I don't think any of those salaries or any of those, any of those stats are relevant to a public school. yeah Yeah. Okay. because Those are all profit, profit driven companies or nonprofits, I guess. Maybe, I guess, maybe they're, I guess, including schools as a nonprofit or not, but.
00:52:35
Speaker
ah You know, an IT, somebody for IT, so for insurance company is a little different than the IT for Cleveland Public Schools, that kind of stuff. They're overpaying. This is a, it's it's probably a lot of lot of school districts doing the same thing.
00:52:51
Speaker
Well, I do. like the same thing I did see like what um administrators some administrators were making ah just because my wife's been looking for a job and it is it is on the upper level pay As far as, you know, it would be like the pay is actually higher than if you go to like a large corporation.
00:53:14
Speaker
Has anyone looked at what we're getting for this money? Because I don't think any of these people get deserve to get paid this much with the way the Cleveland schools are. I'm not going to blame the lower end people, but I, you know, if if a principal is pulling in 300 grand a year, you kind of scratch your head and go, well what's going on here?
00:53:33
Speaker
that you know, you only got 40% of the people of the kids graduating. Why is this person making this kind of money? Literacy rates would be the, would be the literacy rates, graduation rates.
00:53:48
Speaker
Attendance would be all the things you should be graded on. Yeah. what Kind of like profit margins and stuff like that. But I don't think you deserve any, you deserve to take all your salaries and shop them in half. $191,000 in Cleveland.
00:54:05
Speaker
I'm sure they don't live in Cleveland, but anyway. Not on that salary. No, no. i mean, you could, there's a couple places you could live Cleveland. Sure you could, but nice probably not.
00:54:17
Speaker
Probably work from home too. it Yeah. I wouldn't doubt it. I don't know an IT person that doesn't work from home at this point. at some To some level, yeah. Every once in while they got dragged themselves in, but.
00:54:30
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Anywho, at that note, I would say let's let's remind everybody to check out the blog every Monday when the when the ah the show drops. We got the blog that comes out at crookedrivercast.com.
00:54:42
Speaker
That's all the stories we talked about. A lot of the clips are in those stories you can listen to. Check them out. Tell us where we're right. Tell us where we're wrong, if you feel, and give us some feedback. Send us your stories, what you see that's interesting, why you're doing the scrolling.
00:54:57
Speaker
When you see some interesting, shoot us an email. CrookedRiverCast at gmail.com. CrookedRiverCast at gmail.com. We appreciate you listening. Share the show. Send it to a friend or two. Really appreciate that.
00:55:08
Speaker
Moving along. Let's get these. Let's go. Let's whip through these quick takes here, Tom. I got the first is Ohio lawmakers move forward on a constitutional amendment.
00:55:26
Speaker
And me pull it up because it's... No, there we go. Okay. ah How long can move forward with custom constitutional amendment requiring photo id
00:55:34
Speaker
Okay. Sounds good, right? So what they want to do, sounds like they want codify our current law that has... think they passed in 22. It has photo it has floatr id for for registering and stuff, they want to put it in the constitution. So the state legislature can get a supermajority if they got ah over 60 votes, that's enough to get it on the ballot.
00:55:59
Speaker
And then they want to try to get it on November's ballot. And I'm thinking good, right? Hmm. Not a bad idea. I mean, I mean, laws can changed. It sounds good to to me. You know, it sounded good. and then when listened to Marcel.
00:56:15
Speaker
Yep. so Let's listen a little bit from Marcel. This is a couple minutes long, but this is from, I don't know who this person is. I never, I think I've seen her before. Stephanie Stock. Yeah, she's got ah looks like she's from Cleveland and has a podcast called Straight Up.
00:56:28
Speaker
Yeah. I think I've heard her name come across, but that sticks out. But she's got a podcast because every idiot's got a podcast now. So. Hello. Oh, wait, was I, that yeah I resemble that comment.
00:56:42
Speaker
Hi, this is Stephanie Stock, President of Ohio Advocates for Medical Freedom, an advocate for conservative policy and the protection of our constitutional liberties. Welcome to today's episode of Stephanie Stock Straight Up.
00:56:53
Speaker
Today we're talking with former SOS candidate, Marcel Strabich, on the importance of photo IDs specifically, and why this new voter ID ballot initiative is really just a smoke and mirrors attempt to manipulate voter turnout in November. So Marcel, why don't you just take it away here?
00:57:12
Speaker
And spell this out for voters because it's just another day in Columbus. It's just another day and it just seems like we live in deja vu. Yes. So I woke up a couple days ago to learn that for however long period of time, the legislature was working behind the scenes in Ohio to put forward what is actually pretty significant if you think about it, which is a voter ID slash photo ID requirement that they want to put on the November ballot, which would take Ohio's existing law, which we passed in 2022,
00:57:46
Speaker
for voter ID, and I'll talk about the issues that that law has here in a second, but they want to take that and they want we, the voter, to come out. We need reasons, right, to come and vote. So they want us to come out and vote for this to go in the Constitution, and the legislature's going to facilitate that with a supermajority vote that they have of 60-some legislators.
00:58:10
Speaker
Okay, think of marriage amendment in the Constitution. Because this was the reason they had this during Bush's second term. This is what they're trying to do.
00:58:20
Speaker
but Something that whips up the base on the ballot. Okay, so not necessarily anything wrong with that except as he continues, you'll hear So I got to thinking, well, this is interesting because for the last six months, we've had a bill languishing in the Ohio General Government Committee in the House called HB 577.
00:58:44
Speaker
And what I and other people have been trying to do for the last four years is fix The broken voter ID bill that I just brought up from 2022. And so why is it broken?
00:58:55
Speaker
It's broken because it exempted an entire vulnerable category of voters. And that category is mail in and absentee ballots. Because in Ohio, you don't need a photo ID in accordance with our law for that time to vote.
00:59:11
Speaker
by mail or absentee. And so you do, though, if you vote in person. So we have an unfair, inconsistent, unequal application law. And I and other advocates to include sponsor Ron Ferguson, which is a unique clue why this isn't moving, by the way, we can talk about that. Yeah. Have have got this bill ready to go to enact it so that we can protect the November 2026 election for And for real and What we have found is that after giving proponent testimony last month, it's going to go nowhere because of the way that the speaker has run that group and is going to not allow it. So the question becomes, why vote on an amendment that simply codifies the defective voter ID bill?
01:00:02
Speaker
if they won't enact this bill, which would actually allow that that amendment has some teeth. So the position that grassroots that others are taking here is you must pass and enact so that it is present and operating this photo ID requirement by November.
01:00:21
Speaker
And then if you want to ask the voters to come out and codify it, then we're happy to do it because we have some teeth to the amendment. enough.
01:00:33
Speaker
Get the idea. it It, there's, as this happens, they talk about later, it's a 20 minute ah interview that she does with him. They do this all the time. Somebody comes up to really good bill. Like they're saying this bill that they've been working on, Marcel and his group have been working on, has some teeth in it.
01:00:52
Speaker
But what happens is then the state legislatures that are there start putting in other bills that are just kind of more like virtue signaling. And that's one and they go with. This happens over and over again.
01:01:04
Speaker
So they can say, well, we look, we passed the bill. And everybody goes, oh they all go, let's see. a Very good job.
01:01:13
Speaker
No, this one. Very good job. sure you go to the right button ever and can say great job you did such a good job we'll vote for you again but really they didn't do anything because what's the point of voter id requirement if it does if you're not required on a mail-in ballot
01:01:31
Speaker
that is that i guess so i think it's not gonna do they uh Do we have to show we have to show... No, never mind. To show ID when you go to vote.
01:01:43
Speaker
I think this law did... I understand that, but when you register... Yeah. That's what this law did, though, didn't it? Yeah. I forget. i don't think I think that was more for the federal. like They wanted to show proof of ah citizenship.
01:02:01
Speaker
mean, I think, I think Marcel has a pretty good point as far as it's, it's kind pointless unless you also do the same with mail-in ballots. Yeah.
01:02:12
Speaker
How do you, how would you do that electronically? I guess. Right. yeah i which were Yeah, before you get sent the ballot. Yeah. Yeah, somehow, yeah, they have to verify your identity some way. I mean, I think almost any way would be better than the current way, which is nothing as far as I can see. Well, I would think, like, if you, when you request it, they have your address because you're registered, right?
01:02:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, it is kind of a tricky thing. Mm-hmm. Next on the list of tricky things is the the big data center debate that's been going on.
01:02:49
Speaker
I've got a couple of articles in there you can check out. Economists say they don't, they don't think data centers are worth it. um Business community, business, the, was it, when I put in my notes here, where is my data center notes?
01:03:09
Speaker
Uh, the greater Cleveland partnership, GCP is saying, uh, not a great idea. got it. We got to have this, you know, having bands and, and moratorium is not a good idea.
01:03:21
Speaker
you got some economic economists. There you go. Uh, agree that data centers not worth it for the tax. You know, the taxes aren't tax breaks are not worth it because you don't get the jobs.
01:03:35
Speaker
um You know, if you ban, if if you, here's a good point I saw from his articles. If you ban, you do a moratorium on data centers in your county or or city and the next city doesn't and they build one there, most of the downsides to a data center, you will still get, but zero upside.
01:03:53
Speaker
Because if they're right next to your city or in a different county and they start building up infrastructure, you're going to end up paying for it. They're going sucking your water out of the ground too because you're connected to the same whatever. So there's kind of that kind of stuff.
01:04:06
Speaker
um So check it out. Let us know what your opinion on data center is, please. CrookedRiverCast at gmail.com. Put that in for you. Thank you. And moving along, I guess, to next story we got. Oh, this is a good one.
01:04:19
Speaker
I like this one. So local businessman has been sentenced to prison for misuse of COVID relief funds. reason I pulled this is for one reason alone.
01:04:31
Speaker
And isn't in this the same thing the county just did with COVID money? Upcauga County? You know
01:04:43
Speaker
I'm referring to? ah Trying to remember. Yeah. So 40 to $50 million dollars was used from COVID relief funds to buy land. To buy land for a prison.
01:04:57
Speaker
This guy applied for PPP loans on a business that's already closed to open another business. So technically, yes, he did.
01:05:08
Speaker
He was not honest about it. But he took he took the funds that was supposed to save his business and opened another business. So I get the there's a problem with that there. He kind of did lie about it.
01:05:23
Speaker
But the county of Cogga County took the money that the federal government gave you to, you know, protect people, not lay people off that you've been sitting on for years and bought plot a plot of land to force the county to build a new jail there.
01:05:38
Speaker
Great use of COVID money. I mean, totally not a misuse at all. As a matter of fact. I was wondering where you were going to go with this. Yeah. Matter of fact. Move Nothing to see here.
01:05:50
Speaker
Please. It's first. Interesting how they can misuse COVID money, but we can't. I lost the link. It's not in notes anymore.
01:06:00
Speaker
I'm looking at it. as and Internet's been weird today. Okay. Because I went to the story before. Yeah. It's not much. I mean, it's WTAM, which is never usually much of a story, but.
01:06:11
Speaker
Right. It basically says, yeah, the, uh, the owner of crop bistro in Cleveland and bistro on the falls, he applied for hundreds of thousands of dollars to in relief to supposedly support crop bistro, which prosecutors say had already closed as investigators say, uh, Nevis use some of the money to purchase bistro on the falls.
01:06:37
Speaker
Hmm. Yes, a misuse, slightly, but nowhere near like the county. He's getting prison, right? Yeah, he got sentenced to... He's getting ah four to... so He's sentenced to four to six years in prison.
01:06:49
Speaker
yes I remember the article saying that he has to pay back the victims. Who are the victims?
01:06:59
Speaker
It doesn't say that. It said in the audio. Oh, and audio. Yeah, what what victim is he paying back? yeah I don't know. I mean, tax payers, I guess. the Yeah, we... it was so It was a strange story.
01:07:13
Speaker
Yeah. All right. Next we have, yes, this is one that we got sent in to us by one of our fabulous listeners. Could be, I mean, in this case, a producer because he's adding content to the show.
01:07:26
Speaker
He sent this over yesterday. We just caught it right before the show. And this is from a Mr. Wuzzy, Fuzzy Wuzzy, if that is your real name.
01:07:37
Speaker
ross Former Rossford mayor indicted or indicated on early nearly a dozen child porn charges.
01:07:52
Speaker
So basically it's a short article. So former ah former Rossford mayor. ah Luis Bauer was indicted on Wednesday by a Wood County grand jury on 11 charges of pandering sexually oriented material or matter involving a minor as well as criminal tools possession charge.
01:08:16
Speaker
So they don't have much, there's not much of this article. So the court records allege that he had eight hard drives, three laptops, four cell phones, and one desktop computer.
01:08:27
Speaker
Sounds like a lot, but I looked around my room and I'm like yeah, I've got about that. I mean, not they're not filled with porn or anything, but it seems like you didn look at it like, wow, eight hard drives, three laptops, four cell phones. Well, in my house, you if they raided my house, they would find more that and more.
01:08:43
Speaker
here's Here's the interesting one. Two camcorders. 22 flash drives. Oh, my goodness. And then, of course, this, i don't know, this is probably from way back in the day, so we've only been doing this for a while. 39 CDs.
01:09:02
Speaker
they started back in 2004. Yeah. I've got to back this stuff up. You know, we've got 3-2-1 for your backup. ah So i think that's that's we'll keep an eye on that.
01:09:15
Speaker
Yuck.
01:09:18
Speaker
Just because you found them. because he had all these things doesn't mean, well, I mean, they're they're just saying they collected this and now they have to investigate. and That's pretty damning though. 22 flash drives is quite a bit. That's quite a bit of flash drives.
01:09:33
Speaker
Three lap. Well, okay. Like that's what, that's, that was my point. i looked at, I went, I mean, that's a lot of stuff. And then I went, i was like, wait, wait, I got that many hard drives in this room right now.
01:09:44
Speaker
and Maybe six. Oh, he's 73. Yeah. Yes. And he was mayor from 1975 to 1991. So he hasn't been mayor in quite some time. Better look for the floppy disk.
01:09:57
Speaker
Oh.
01:10:00
Speaker
That has a double meaning, I have a feeling. Oh, well, it could, I guess. Anywho, at 73, it's definitely a floppy disk. Oh.
01:10:11
Speaker
and no Okay, moving along. Oh, some, here's a good one. Some residents flock no to surveillance tech as Cleveland malls contract renewal.
01:10:24
Speaker
Listen to a quick clip from the idea stream. Flock, no! Some Cleveland residents say the city should not renew its contract with a surveillance company that supplies automatic license plate readers. I'm Ideastream Public Media's Abby Marshall with more from a protest at City Hall Wednesday.
01:10:40
Speaker
Bryn Adams of the Flock No Coalition says the data collected by Flock Safety's license plate readers is personally invasive and potentially dangerous to residents. I don't want to be followed everywhere I go. I don't want the city of Cleveland to know which doctor's appointments I'm going to, um when yeah know whose houses I'm going to. Well, if you're not doing anything wrong, what's the problem? of worship That's my business. It's not the city of Cleveland's business. Flock cameras capture images of every passing vehicle, collecting license plate numbers and vehicle characteristics.
01:11:11
Speaker
Police say it helps track down criminal suspects and find stolen cars. Mayor Justin Bibb's administration proposed expanding Flock's contract to replace the city's existing gunshot detection tech this winter. That proposal stalled. Bibb told council members Tuesday he would leave Flock renewal options to them. The city's contract ends June 28th.
01:11:30
Speaker
Abby Marshall, IdeaStream Public Media. So join us in saying Flock No. Did you ah listen to Joe Rogan with Mark Andreessen? I think I saw some of it, but I don't remember him speaking of that. He was just on this past week, and boy, he's trying to sell that black Flock camera.
01:11:54
Speaker
Really? Yeah, he's probably got money behind it. I think he owns owns it, or the technology at least. Yeah, when in doubt, just scan every single car, every single license plate. I mean, what could go wrong?
01:12:07
Speaker
He was really trying to say, he's like, don't you want to live in a safer ah society? it's like Oh my goodness. Not when it comes to recording everything. what' What's the quote? Those who trade? or those that trade safety for, or liberty for a little bit of safety. Deserve neither. Neither.
01:12:32
Speaker
Yeah, that's where we're at right now. ah and it's been That's been around forever, though, that that quote, obviously. Suicidal empathy. Oh, but the safety of the children means... Okay, now do the Patriot Act.
01:12:49
Speaker
Yes. Yes. I do remember certain family members on Facebook when I used to be on Facebook that when I was saying, are you crazy? Look at this. Oh, as long as you're not doing, it that's why I was saying in clip, long you're not doing anything wrong. Oh, I probably said it myself before I grew up a little. And then I said, and then myly my response when Trump got in office was like, Hey, how's that working for you now?
01:13:17
Speaker
they're, you know, I think you, some family members on both sides, mine and yours, mostly yours, but, uh, okay. Moving along. Yeah. So that's flock. No, I, I, I just got a ticket in the mail for a traffic camera speeding from six months ago.
01:13:40
Speaker
What? Yeah, because was at rental car. Oh, okay. And it take took that long to track me down, apparently. $196. Yeah, over? was 38 to 25. Jesus. Yeah. i was thirty eight and twenty five jesus
01:13:56
Speaker
So where the hell was that camera? I don't, uh, I, I, it says on the thing, I don't remember Garfield Heights or something like that. I think I was, don't know was going. Oh, it's probably a main road where there's a lot of businesses.
01:14:07
Speaker
Uh, yeah, I can't remember. it says, it gives you the street on, I don't remember which word was it. Yeah. You know, it took everything in mean out to burn it, but. Mm-hmm. Cheaper to pay it, I guess, than the burn it. And I guess moving on to our last story of the quick take segments, we've got speaker house, hold up your house speaker.
01:14:30
Speaker
Matt Huffman says, Cog County won't get a syntax vote this year.
Ohio's Syntax Tax Proposal
01:14:36
Speaker
So there's a push to triple or quadruple the county's syntax
01:14:41
Speaker
But Ohio lawmakers are saying, no, not this year. What's the syntax? If you remember, that's the tax that paid for the current ballpark, the arena, and the football stadium that about to tear down.
01:14:57
Speaker
And what it doesn't, so this was done to put in to pay for the stadiums, and over the last years, it's been used to keep maintenance up on the stadiums. But it's highly underfunded.
01:15:08
Speaker
Because prices have gone up, but also people just smoke and drink less.
01:15:14
Speaker
And what they want to do is triple or quadruple it because it's not enough money to keep up with the maintenance on these buildings. And I'm thinking, I get it, but there's some other mil multimillionaire and billionaires that could probably pitch in a little bit. Like, i don't know, the Dolans.
01:15:29
Speaker
Not that they haven't already, but geez, oh man. How much, how much of money, you know, what, what percentage of money that you profit from that, those games do you put towards keep it up as a bill, upkeep the building again, not part of the contract. I think, I think it is up to the city, but that's bunch of crap.
01:15:46
Speaker
They said, Nope, not this year. So they're going next year.
01:15:51
Speaker
ah So the current currently is set at 16 cents per gallon of beer, $3 per gallon of liquor and 4.5 cents per pack of cigarettes. Quartrupling those would be make it 27 cents.
01:16:05
Speaker
For beer, a for 750ml bottle of liquor, it would be $1.78 a buck seventy eight bottle. pack of cigarettes would be 14 cents.
01:16:16
Speaker
No to that this year.
Positive Developments in Ohio: Grants and Investments
01:16:17
Speaker
And as we get towards the end of the show, we got to our Good Things segment.
01:16:24
Speaker
these are a couple of quick ones are good good stuff because we've got some some improvement, some development. It looks as though Lorain County waterfront is going to start. They've got a million dollar grant to make to make major steps towards Lorain's waterfront redevelopment.
01:16:40
Speaker
and Basically, they've gotten a almost $1 million dollars grant from Ohio Brownfield reading me read Remediation Program to support cleanup and new infrastructure at a former steel mill industrial site.
01:16:56
Speaker
Former steel industrial site. Yeah. It's a broader, they're trying to clean up, add more boat ramps and try to utilize, get more access to the to the lakefront. Which is good. I think they need to clean up this kind of stuff. And I mean, we have this great lake.
01:17:13
Speaker
But most of the time it's okay. Sometimes sometimes it's like stinky. I've never gone to Lorraine to spend any time by the lakefront. I don't think there's much there. I think that's kind of the point. There's a couple docks, but there's a, there's a beach maybe and I did in the, if you watch the clip, there's a guy at the beach, you know, looking for, for gold. i've gone only I've rented boats in Avon to go fishing. So that's about it.
01:17:39
Speaker
Yeah. So this grant will give them money to clean up an area and kind of move the project forward as it look for more, and know, more money to help revitalize, put more beaches in that kind of stuff.
01:17:51
Speaker
cool that's kind of cool next one is another good development project coniat coniat lands a 1.4 billion dollar development for an ev battery materials plant edging out warren ohio for the project and i'm kind of like i looked at it and was like ah ev battery plant i'm like really
01:18:15
Speaker
I mean, it's it's better than the data center, right? Well, za okay. should There should actually be jobs there. aren't Weren't there battery plants being built in Columbus? And they're empty? There's battery plants in Columbus. They're not empty. Yeah.
01:18:29
Speaker
but they're not necessarily making the amount or the amount of batteries that they're promised or any batteries at all in some cases. Uh, this is a chemical plant. Okay. So they're just making the material for the battery.
01:18:43
Speaker
A Vancouver based company that specializes in EV materials, EV battery materials. Okay. Now that doesn't sound safe either. That's there's that too, I guess. And where the hook for me was, this is already a, this is a 200 acre site that allows direct access to the lake area, which kind of makes me nervous with battery, maybe battery materials, but already has existing power infrastructure in place.
01:19:10
Speaker
But it appears that this land has been vacant for, don't know, 30 or 40 years. I'll tell you what, like it's too far out, but like you could get a pretty good deal out in Kanye for, for a bit of land in the house.
01:19:26
Speaker
Seems like, it seems like this might be a good thing for that area. Yeah. The site, site chosen by graphite one. ah well, as a well known to many sites in area, it's a U S steel once planned to build the largest steel mill in the world. There a three billion dollar project in the seventies and never happened.
01:19:44
Speaker
Oh, damn. They should revitalize that. Yeah. that's, that's what I looked at. I'm like, I'm thinking farmland is not going to be an EV plant again. And all my, you know, this is kind of, is this really a good thing?
01:19:55
Speaker
then when you're looking it, no, this, this site has already basically been an industrial site that has been
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
01:20:00
Speaker
unused. if you look at the map right for decades. So this is actually not a bad deal. Cool.
01:20:07
Speaker
I like it. And that's it. That's all we got for today. Internet issues and all. We made it through it, Tom. We made it through it. So proud of us. so Thank you for listening. We really appreciate your time. If you could share the show with your friends and family, we really appreciate it. Send us a link or send us your links, your stories, your shenanigans in your neighborhood, crickandrivercast.gmail.com. And please check out the blog, crickandrivercast.com.
01:20:33
Speaker
And on that note, we'll talk to you next week.
01:20:38
Speaker
Peace.