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00:00:01
Crooked River Cast Show 10
22 Plays2 months ago
You can also find us on X: https://x.com/CRCOhioNews
Dewine and the Budget Battle.
Medicaid Cuts… Medicaid waste…
Trussel still considering a run for Governor?
Possible power shortage this summer.
Online gambling in Ohio?
Brookpark dome update.
Geauga County sued by ACLU.
New COVID Vax requirements.
What is solar radiation medications and why can’t I do it?
And more…
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Show's Purpose
00:00:00
Speaker
This is the Crooked Rivercast, the show we hope will give us and our listeners better view of what is going on in Northeast Ohio. This is May 24th, 2025. I'm your host, Robert, and joining me every week is my friend, Tom, to help me explore what is going on in the gray state of Ohio.
00:00:18
Speaker
So let's see what we can get into. Hello, Tom. Thanks for joining me today. What's up, Rob? CricutRiverCast at gmail.com. CricutRiverCast at gmail.com.
00:00:30
Speaker
um I hope our listeners all had a fine week and thank them for listening too. CricutRiverCast at gmail.com. I'm making sure I get it in this week. I'm making sure get it in this week.
00:00:41
Speaker
do you have Do you want us to go into a story in more in depth than we do on the show? Do you have a story we are missing? Let us know. CricutRiverCast at gmail.com.
00:00:53
Speaker
right. I got it in, Tom. Perfect. I missed every opportunity last week to put it in. So I got to make sure I get it. I make up for last week. You got to remember next week too, though. Next week too.
00:01:05
Speaker
Yeah. It's all over. It's all over my rundown. Trust me. I got two, three spots. make sure But seriously, if you guys, anyone out there want us to do a deeper dive or just touch more on something or or not, let us know.
00:01:22
Speaker
Give us a shout. So what's going on this week? What's going on in the news this week?
Distrust in Politics and Media
00:01:27
Speaker
What do you have us? got anything funny? think we Can we start this show with something little lighter? maybe Oh, geez. We're already starting that?
00:01:33
Speaker
Well, no. well Well, I mean. Okay. You know, i got a clip of the week here. like Oh, clip of the week? Yeah, it's kind of like, a well, maybe retard out of the week. Oh, wow. Gee, that could.
00:01:45
Speaker
Okay, let's shoot. Let's go. The trust issue. There has always been a mass trust of trust issue because politicians, media, nobody does what they're supposed to do. Now, I say, for me, listen.
00:02:01
Speaker
He's 83. So he's a little stumbly. He's a little rumbly. I can't point to anything that he's done as present that he did. oh know that running for next for you but But I'm saying...
00:02:16
Speaker
I want not you, but I want somebody to tell me, well, when did you know it was bad? If you knew, why did you wait? So I'm going to answer that. He said that it was after he moderated the debate. Yes, but that's I'm sorry, baby. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about if you if you're telling me that hundreds of people knew that he was not able to do his job. Where the hell was everybody?
00:02:42
Speaker
Try millions, Whoopi. ah so So that's Whoopi, part of the media, complaining that the media didn't know that Biden was senile. I can't think of... You know what?
00:02:53
Speaker
I can't think of anything except for maybe... I wonder if there's anything out there. 2020 campaign was a pretty good indicator. Really? What kind of country we going to be? Four more years of George...
00:03:06
Speaker
George, he's going to find ourselves in a position where if Trump gets elected, we're going to be we're going to be in a different world. I'll lead an effective strategy to mobilize true international depression.
00:03:18
Speaker
Million Michiganders. Classic. Donald Trump thinks health care is a privilege. Barack and I think it's a right who for people that bad at health care. So I don't know. I think most people forgot about a lot of those.
00:03:33
Speaker
But, you know, the media was running pretty good cover. Tell me when. Tell me when you knew, Tom. Was it when he was locked in his basement? Was it when he was locked in his basement telling a black man that you ain't black unless you vote for me?
00:03:50
Speaker
There was that. And watching his campaign when they drew the circles on the ground or or or they were in parking lots, Oh, the social distancing. Yeah, that was... Yeah, remember? It was during COVID. So they would sit and in ah in a dealership and everyone would be honking their horns.
00:04:09
Speaker
Yes, that's right. And they were all Chryslers or maybe all Chevys. Yeah, I think so, yes. So nobody was really there. It was just their campaign honking horns.
00:04:20
Speaker
Yeah.
00:04:23
Speaker
And yet yet somehow he got 81 million votes.
Ohio's State Budget and Tax Policies
00:04:27
Speaker
well at Well, we also to contrast because, i mean, makes sense. Because at the time, he was and social distancing. There was you know and end of COVID, or it was actually, no, middle of COVID, right?
00:04:39
Speaker
Yeah. And what what was what was Trump doing at the time? I mean, nobody was showing up at his rallies, right? No, no, no, no. There was only 20 30,000. Yeah. Yeah. twenty or thirty thousand yeah It makes sense.
00:04:51
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Here we get more votes than the first black president ever.
00:04:55
Speaker
So next, I guess, that's fantastic great. That's great. um I've noticed we've got a we've got a little budget panel. Tell me about it. So it looks like everyone is trying and to maneuver to get what they can into the next budget. So we have a two-year budget in Ohio.
00:05:13
Speaker
And I'm sure this happens every budget. But I'm thinking this year might be a bit more than usual. Now, I will admit, part of that is the amount of attention I've been giving to it, at least.
00:05:27
Speaker
But I also think there's a little bit more going on here than a normal budget year. And what I'm saying is, we've we've got a we've got a nationwide movement, some would say a mandate, to cut government waste and spending. Do you agree?
00:05:41
Speaker
Yeah, that's... think I think most people that voted for ah Trump are pretty happy with it Doge. Yes. and And one of the main reasons he was put in office.
00:05:53
Speaker
Yes. Well, we have like for example, we have bills in Washington currently going on cut taxes and spending, partly, at least least partly through cutting waste, fraud, and abuse.
00:06:05
Speaker
Well, we also have that going on in Ohio. There's also movement in Ohio to cut taxes and cut spending, And what's what's the wine saying about it? So that's that's kind of ah the biggest, I think, you know, the Republicans have control. They're gonna push through the budget they want.
00:06:22
Speaker
and And when they're talking about cutting, don't know, property taxes, no tax on tips, we got ah in ah in our and our segment later, we got, you know, I got a bill going through Ohio along with the nation, ah along with along with Washington nationwide to cut and no taxes on tips. We have one in Ohio too.
00:06:40
Speaker
what does our fearless leader have to say about that well let's see governor mike dewine has reservations about the loss of funding anytime we talk about eliminating attacks you have to figure out how much revenue is that going to be not going to schools and not going to other things that we think are very very important and then how would you replace that okay Well, what did he say last week about when they were talking about property taxes? When we were talking about property taxes last week?
00:07:12
Speaker
Well, you've got to be moral. Anybody who says we need to eliminate this tax, eliminate that tax, I understand that, but they have to come they have an obligation, I think a moral obligation, to come forward and and explain how they're going to pay for schools, how they're going to pay for the things that we value in Ohio.
00:07:27
Speaker
um Sounds like um maybe, maybe. Hey! a There's something awfully screwy going on around here.
00:07:40
Speaker
Yeah, no, I'm sorry. i disagree. i disagree. Like, I really do. And here's why. So I see you have a story um about Medicaid cuts, ah federal Medicaid cuts from the federal budget.
00:07:57
Speaker
Yeah. what do you What do you got on that? Anything... Well, the short story is... I mean, I know there's not much, but... There's not much here. It's just the story that is... It's it's from the Scene magazine.
00:08:10
Speaker
And it's by Marty Shladen, which is, ah it's taken from the Ohio Capital Journal, which is a left-wing media outlet.
Medicaid Spending and Economic Impact
00:08:21
Speaker
And that's okay they're basically um saying that Medicaid is good. but Medicaid spending ah is good because for every dollar, you get a little bit more back into the budget.
00:08:34
Speaker
Oh, thank you so much. Because that's the b s that's exactly the BS I went to. I'm so sick of hearing that. Yeah, yeah. So this is, um they're just talking about, ah this is done by, this study was done by the Commonwealth Fund, which is, man, they're socialist.
00:08:53
Speaker
Basically, they just come they just compare everything to socialist countries. So um what they were saying, or go ahead. No, I was just going to say it's a load of crap.
00:09:06
Speaker
Yeah. You know, what what also gives value to our economy, adds value to our economy, is more money in people's pockets. That's like a one-to-one kind of thing, you know?
00:09:16
Speaker
Right. You go on, you were saying? Well, I don't know. They're they're just... ah Hang on one second here. Well, I do know they've expanded Medicaid.
00:09:29
Speaker
I think back in 2014, they expanded it. And I think it's increased over the last 10 years about three quarters of a million people in Ohio. I think this program's grown, and it's it may be growing out of check.
00:09:42
Speaker
And I think there needs to be some checks. You know, waste, fraud, and abuse. Yeah. Oh, definitely. Let's, let's you know, so here's Here's, I just wanted to find my notes here. Reduction in Medicaid funding can negatively impact state tax revenue, employment, and individual spending power experts, so-called experts, estimate that.
00:10:01
Speaker
If medicaid Medicaid cuts proposed by Congress totaling $880 billion over 10 years, the country's GDP would decrease by $95 billion and tax revenue would decrease by $7 billion.
00:10:17
Speaker
And basically states like California, New York, Texas, and Pennsylvania and Ohio are probably the most impacted. Yeah, listen to this one.
00:10:29
Speaker
Medicaid investments is shown to have a multiplier effect, meaning that every dollar spent generates over a dollar's worth of economic activity. How much? It said. Well, quote the quote I pulled, the reason I pulled it out is this quote. Medicaid drives employment in healthcare sectors, generates state and local tax revenue, and saves money for enrollees, allowing them to spend more on items other than healthcare. care So what you're saying is my tax dollars is like eating themselves. It's like you're feeding...
00:10:56
Speaker
Them being it back into each other. I'm getting tax dollars to go to the pockets of people that you're taxing and to create more Medicare. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Basically the, the, the state is on welfare.
00:11:09
Speaker
Yes. They're so reliant on Medicaid funding for, for jobs. So if we cut Medicaid funding, jobs will, people will get laid off. It seems like that's a problem.
00:11:21
Speaker
It seems like that's a problem. Like I said, though, they've they've been expanding me Medicaid in Ohio. It's not shrinking. This program is growing and it needs to be checked. some Sound fair? Need to be checked.
00:11:32
Speaker
Okay. Well, somebody's checking it, sounds like. So rep Michael Duvelia, think that's how you pronounce it, but I'm sure I butchered because i butcher most names. Duvela, I think. Duvela, yes, it that's it.
00:11:45
Speaker
Thank you. That's actually my rep. I'm going to go off of your pronunciation almost every time. um he did ah He started a a what seemed like a just to look into and the Ohio Department of Medicaid, also known as the ODM.
00:12:02
Speaker
And he started asking some questions and did not like the answers he was getting, which I think was really and a lack of answers. So he said, oh, I'm going to dig a little deeper. And pretty much what he's found are a few things.
00:12:15
Speaker
He's uncovered ah alleged systematic failures in verifying enrollees and verifying their eligibility in the program. The LexisNexis is one of the services they use, the Ohio Department of Medicaid uses.
00:12:31
Speaker
They found possibly, it's key, possibly 29% of verified Ohio Medicare beneficiaries are in the aged blind and disabled category may be ineligible what does that equate to a possible six billion dollar and in overpayments Now, 30% of that, I believe, is the state, and the rest this comes from the federal, from Medicare.
00:13:01
Speaker
So they have no answers. The Ohio Department, let me go through, Ohio Department Medicaid, besides federal rules, county-level authority as barriers to addressing inquiries about individual flagged ineligibility.
00:13:19
Speaker
uh he uh they're they're threatening legislation legislative investigations to compel the whole department of medicaid to respond because they're not even responding what they're saying is ah think uh the odm asserts that determining eligibility is complex flagged assets may be exempt such as homes or vehicles and multiple data sources are used by county co caseworkers who make final determinations as SSI state, that's a so supplemental social, ah so so supplemental security insurance, I think it's called ah so state. Ohio depends on the social security administration for numerous verifications, according to, according to the ODM ah vendors like,
00:14:10
Speaker
Accenture employees employee tools to from some contractors such as LexisNexis to support these processes. So they're just basically pointing their fingers.
00:14:22
Speaker
um And what what the the Ohio legislature is saying is, no, you need you need to figure out why these people are are being flagged as not eligible.
00:14:33
Speaker
Because i think you have to have less than $2,000 in assets.
Voter Skepticism and Gubernatorial Race
00:14:37
Speaker
Now, like I said, they can flag like a house that they could take that off the list, you know, so and so forth. So really on the surface, there's a lot of numbers here that we're not going to get into because everybody would just be bored out of their minds, which they probably already are.
00:14:50
Speaker
But we're talking about $6 billion. dollars We're talking about the governor who says, no, you can't cut taxes. You can't get rid of taxes because we need to find other revenue sources. And I'm saying, no, what's the bottom line to me? The bottom line is this is why we don't vote for school levies.
00:15:05
Speaker
This is why we're always skeptical of new tax increases in any fashion. This is why we want taxes cut significantly. That's the bottom. You know what? I'll just let the man himself tell you.
00:15:17
Speaker
And that's the bottom line. Costolo Censio. That's it. That's it. this is This makes my blood boil. you can't We can't cut taxes because we until you find new taxes.
00:15:31
Speaker
And yet this comes out, and you're worried about a couple hundred extra million dollars for schools for over the next two years, and you got you could have a possible $6 billion. dollars And in and you know that's $2 billion for the state of Ohio.
00:15:45
Speaker
Do your job. figure out a way. That's what we have to do. That's what we have to do. So what, what, I guess, what say you, Tom? I've been ranting for three minutes.
00:15:57
Speaker
No, it's time to get these guys out. Find people that have actually have solutions instead of just. Precisely, precisely. So that would lead me into our, our, the up and coming gubernatorial race in Ohio. Yeah.
00:16:13
Speaker
Sort of a race, right? Sort of a race. But I mean, this would tie us into Jim Trestle may still run. I'd love to hear what he has to say.
00:16:24
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Okay. So i just, I saw the article with the picture of DeWine sitting there all meek and looking up at Trestle at the podium. I don't know where that was from. was from some speech or something, which is, i don't I don't know. I think he just likes to be like Mike, but let's see. ah Let's see what Mr. Trestle has to say.
00:16:42
Speaker
This is truly a new ah world for me. Some strategists have been pushing Trestle to run, and he says he is interested in it, but hasn't officially announced. Do you think that endorsement would impact your getting into the race?
00:16:57
Speaker
but I don't think an endorsement would impact, at least in my opinion, whether I would be interested in getting in the race or not. Last week, Attorney General Dave Yost suspended his campaign, saying there doesn't need to be a family squabble for the primary nomination.
00:17:13
Speaker
Trestle wasn't worried, saying he's been going around the state and people are enthusiastic. I don't really know about whether the family squabble thing or the, or the,
00:17:25
Speaker
you know, every voter deserves a chance to decide what they'd like to vote for. Governor Mike DeWine says he agrees with that sentiment and wouldn't comment on if he thought Ramaswamy would be a good governor.
00:17:35
Speaker
He even tried to push back the committee meeting. This is much too early to have an endorsement. She does have more from the primary. a I asked Trestle his top three priorities.
00:17:48
Speaker
What are you saying? Trestle does have more charisma than DeWine, so he's got that going. Wow, that's a low bar. All right, continue. he's as governor and he says he wants to focus on the livelihood of Ohioans similar to DeWine. I've heard him talk every day about wanting every Ohioan to reach their God given potential.
00:18:09
Speaker
up As governor and he said I asked Tressel his top three priorities as governor and he says he wants to focus on the livelihood of Ohioans similar to DeWine. I've heard him talk every day about wanting every Ohioan to reach their God given potential.
00:18:25
Speaker
ah And to me, those sound like non-negotiables. You know, you better do darn well at those. He adds that education and making sure veterans are supported are also important him. I've never run for anything other than run for my life as a coach, maybe. To be clear, Tressel is still debating whether to run or not. But he says he doesn't know when he would announce if he does.
00:18:48
Speaker
At the Ohio Statehouse, I'm Morgan Trout reporting. Uh, so inspiring. um Um, thanks for, Hey, thanks for letting us know. He's also for education and veterans. Okay. Thanks. Cause we were really unsure if any candidate is for education or veterans. Thanks.
00:19:03
Speaker
Appreciate that. Those are his three things. You know what? I gotta say though, he he's got name recognition and I see his, I see people talking about him. So he's got, what's his path. What's his path.
00:19:14
Speaker
There is none, but there is none. So what the, what's the point? What was, what was DeWine's path? What was Kasich's path? What I mean is there's the Republicans have already decided who they're going with. What's Trestle going to go for? yeah Independent?
00:19:28
Speaker
I guess. So here's the thing, though. Jim Trestle has been lieutenant governor for, what, two, three months? He's never held public office, which is not necessarily a bad thing. He's a coach.
00:19:38
Speaker
Yes. Could you give me something he's done since he's been a college football coach? Has he run a successful business? Has he failed at a business? Even a failure at a business, you can learn something from. So why should I take...
00:19:51
Speaker
the time to find out why I listen this clip and I say, there isn't a reason because, well, okay. I'm going to, I was about to, okay. So to me, there's no reason I listened to that clip and they, they gave me no, they gave him all the help they could.
00:20:07
Speaker
And i still have no reason to look into any further into him. Okay. So what are the, what are the Democrats have to offer? Cause we may have an independent in the race, maybe trying to throw, um, throw Vivek off.
00:20:22
Speaker
What do we have? We have um yeah Tim Ryan, right? The Democrats. We talked about him last week. And what did we, what do do you remember what he said? look you know's flash yeah Flashback. Flashback. Flashback.
00:20:33
Speaker
All the way to last week. Here, let's see what Tim Ryan is. Are you running for governor? The question everybody wants to know. don't know. don't know. Brian says he's concerned about the direction the state would take under tech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, endorsed by the Ohio Republican Party last week, though there were reports that Governor Mike DeWine wanted the GOP to wait.
00:20:52
Speaker
Brian says he doesn't have a theme or keystone idea for a potential campaign for governor, which would likely run into the tens of millions of dollars. Karen Kassler at the Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau.
00:21:03
Speaker
Mm-hmm. There's a theme going on here. um The theme of nothing. Well, I think there's actually might be a theme. Might be a slight theme. Maybe I could pull out from from the nothing that there actually is. is um So there's Tim Ryan. he He doesn't know anything. He doesn't know what he's goingnna if he's going run and what his main points would b Because he can't just, I mean, he can't pull one or two ah important things. that The things that are important to you, got nothing.
00:21:30
Speaker
right. So I did the hard work, Tom. I did the work that nobody wants to do. And I pulled some acting clips.
00:21:40
Speaker
I pulled some Amy acting clips. I'm sorry. Well, I did it for the listeners, Tom. yeah I did it for the listeners. We have do this. But unfortunately, I had to subject them to some Amy acting clips.
00:21:51
Speaker
I thought maybe, maybe we don't have to do that. What is Amy Acton? What was she all about? Why, why should we vote for her? yes I follow her on X and so all she has is slogans, but no solutions.
00:22:06
Speaker
So I'd love to hear what she had to say. So, okay, we'll go with that. We'll just go. we'll I got two clips. We'll start with the short one. um Basically it's, it's about as far as I thought we needed to go, but we'll see.
00:22:20
Speaker
Dr. Amy Acton says she's proud of the role she played in guiding Ohio through the COVID pandemic. Enough said. Enough said, Tom.
00:22:33
Speaker
think I think we can move on from that. But I pulled the clip. So somebody else is going to have to listen to it. Okay. So ah often and and with all seriousness...
00:22:44
Speaker
fair shot. Let's give him a fair shot. Why I vote for you? What else is she going to say though? She's not proud of what she did. Yes. I just thought it was funny that that was the main lead to the, you know, right. And they talk about it. I didn't clip it because i thought about clipping it, but I thought if I rip on her too much, then and I don't want to, because I think, I think we could do a drunk or not drunk.
00:23:07
Speaker
You know what, you know what you're making me want to do now, which is, No, don't say it, Tom. It's making me want to go pull clips of her talking during COVID. but Well, we've got a long road ahead, Tom. There's plenty of time.
00:23:22
Speaker
Plenty of time. And like I said, she could be really good for the show. Oh, it's going to be a treasure trove of... Well, Tom, let's be fair. Why? Let's take her. Why should we vote for Amy?
00:23:34
Speaker
what What does she have to offer Ohio? Okay, let's hear. This is, again, NBC4 out of Columbus was the last clip and this one. And everywhere I go, to the grocery store, in a restaurant, and in my work all over the state, they come to me, they share their stories, they share their struggles.
00:23:53
Speaker
And they also share their ideas about how Ohio could be better. um I'm running for governor because I refuse to look the other way. um While self-interested politicians and special interests keep taking our state in the wrong direction, um i know Ohioans want to see a change.
00:24:15
Speaker
Amy, don't cry about it. It's okay. You know who she reminds me ah of on the national stage? Was it, ah what was her name? Marianne Williamson?
00:24:26
Speaker
Marianne Williamson. Wasn't she a dumb, she ran in the primaries. She's kind of like a oh yeah yeah yeah like a hippie. um Yes. Probably. Yes. yes i do remember her. reminds me of her.
00:24:38
Speaker
Yeah. I think, I think it's, you know, so here's what I heard. Um, Ryan and Acton are just brown man bad. It's not orange man bad because hes it he's not orange, but it's brown man bad.
00:24:53
Speaker
And Trussell just wants to be like Mike. Unfortunately, it's not Michael Jordan. It's Mike DeWine. Okay, in comparison, What did Vivek have to say when he left the endorsement committee, endorsement, endors of the Republican Party endorsed him afterwards? So he he sat down. i i I went out
Policy Focus and Political Shifts in Ohio
00:25:12
Speaker
and looked.
00:25:12
Speaker
And I actually originally pulled a it was more of a stump speech. And I said, no, actually, that's not fair. Because these guys are, you know, getting interviewed. yet they're not and this They don't have a prepared speech and all this other stuff. Let's see what he's had to say after he got endorsed by the Republican Party.
00:25:26
Speaker
This is Vivek, News Channel 5, from probably a few weeks ago, at least. I think it's been a couple weeks. As I mentioned to the committee just now, we now move to a phase of this campaign where we're not just talking to the Republican primary base as it exists, but now growing that Republican base to win even more lasting and commanding majorities.
00:25:49
Speaker
The way we're running this campaign is really not about left versus right. It is about up versus down. And we in Ohio choose up. And we enter now a policy-rich phase of the campaign ahead where we're going to have rollouts of major policies addressing what I see is some of the most pressing issues that Ohio is going to have to confront in the next decade. like what And some of those issues are familiar. Others have not been talked about as much as we should have.
00:26:19
Speaker
Issues like population decline. Issues like a looming energy and potential electricity shortage in our state. Issues like the educational achievement deficiency, not just in our state, but across our country.
00:26:31
Speaker
These are areas where I want Ohio to lead our region and frankly, to lead our country in the path back to greatness. Might be a slight contrast here we can make.
00:26:43
Speaker
I know he's like officially running. What do you think? he's a guy who has ideas. So far, I haven't heard anything. Acton is actually running. So, I mean, yeah so she yeah she acts it and she hasn't been endorsed, but she is she is running.
00:26:59
Speaker
and so is And the only thing they could run on is Radical Vivek. That's the only thing they've been talking about. I haven't heard anything radical from him. No. ah Well, they, DeWine and Acton and Ryan would say cutting property taxes is radical.
00:27:17
Speaker
Getting rid of income tax is radical. Dear Lord. Yeah. What will we do? Okay, fine. Fine. Then tell me that you're against cutting taxes.
00:27:28
Speaker
Obviously they can't. But these are, this is what you're talking about. You can't say why he's radical because most people would agree with that radicalness of giving more, letting people keep more of their money.
00:27:40
Speaker
but you By the way, ah Medicaid may be $6 billion dollars overspending, by the way. This is why we're going the way of Florida, which yes ah Florida has gone from purple, which we were, you know, we were a swing state.
00:27:52
Speaker
And they're they are solid red, and we are on our way to become solid red, if we're not already. I mean, Trump, for the last three elections, took it by eight points or more, right?
00:28:05
Speaker
I think 12 the last question. 12 last time, but I think the- Eight before, yeah, I think so. Yeah, so we're moving in that direction, and this is why. So, yes, I think we have, ah again, this is the movement I'm speaking of. This is this's a nationwide movement. It's also in Ohio, especially in Ohio. and Vivek, excuse me, I keep calling Vivek.
00:28:26
Speaker
I keep using A instead of E. Yeah, you got to remember cake. Yeah, Vivek. Vivek. I love cake. Vivek is going to run it like a business.
00:28:37
Speaker
Where have I heard that before? got check in my pockets. Oh, yeah. Orange man bad. um You have to run it like a business. I know you can't run a government exactly like a business, but a businessman can really look and see where the cuts are going to be.
00:28:53
Speaker
And what has Amy Acton done? And what has Ryan done? what is we we We don't even talk about Trestle. We know what he did. He's done college sports. Woo-hoo. um All they've been is politician.
00:29:06
Speaker
I don't know what Ryan did before he was a politician, but it doesn't sound like they've run a business before. And that's what I want. I want somebody who's a business before to go in there and clean house. get rid of the Get rid of the fat because there's so much fat.
00:29:18
Speaker
So much fat. So don't tell me we have to find other taxes enabled in order to cut taxes. Thank you. I feel better now. Get that off your chest. Oh, God, it drives me nuts.
00:29:32
Speaker
Mm-hmm. CrookedRiverCast at gmail.com. CrookedRiverCast at gmail.com. Very well done. So subtle.
00:29:42
Speaker
All right. Okay, I'm calm. But tying into some of what Vivek said, that did it got it right that time. You pulled a story about some power shortages this summer, possibly.
00:29:57
Speaker
You got anything on that? I don't have anything on that. I i kind of tossed that story out. I think you probably
Energy Crisis Concerns in Ohio
00:30:02
Speaker
have a little bit more. I could touch on it just a tad. I did. I peeked at it a little bit and I've looked at this a little bit more and Vivek has brought it up and some of the stuff that I was actually looking for clips and on the surface real quick, five to 10 years,
00:30:16
Speaker
or between There's some studies out there for some energy energy groups that are saying by 2030, there's going to be emergency an energy crisis in Ohio. lot of it is this is A lot of it is a good thing because of the all the building we're doing and in and the investment that's coming into Ohio.
00:30:31
Speaker
I was touching on also lot of what VAC has been saying, competing with other other states. That's how we got all this investment in Ohio, is is is by making it more inviting for businesses. Well, part of that problem was we now have to build more power plants.
00:30:46
Speaker
And what we've been doing over the past five to 10 years is tearing down power plants. So if anyone hasn't noticed, there's no noy nuke plants in Ohio, at least in Northern Ohio. Both the ones in Northern Ohio are closed and they've shuttered all the coal plier plants, which were the ones they use during peak times, which is what they're talking about.
00:31:06
Speaker
So possible brownouts or or or power shortages this summer if it gets really hot. So keep that in mind. you think, though?
00:31:16
Speaker
ah It's possible, yes. Yeah. It's very possible. And knowing what the little that I know about the our our power grid is those coal plants for the last 10 15 have were really just peak plants. They would just fire up in the middle of winter when everybody's furnace was on.
00:31:33
Speaker
Right. Especially the middle especially in the middle of summer when everybody's air conditioning are on. It's what California has gone through yeah over years is brownouts and stuff. They'd have to actually rotate and and shut off certain areas for a certain amount of time, rotating power out.
00:31:51
Speaker
So yeah, I think it's very possible. um here's Here's a good example of of of how bad it is. the and We have may have mentioned this before, but I drove past in Columbus, Ohio State University's building their own natural gas power plant on campus because they don't have enough power.
00:32:08
Speaker
Yeah, but that's that's mainly because of what all the growth that's happening there, all the new business. Right, all the data centers and all the new businesses that tied into the Intel thing. But that pulls, we're on the same grid.
00:32:20
Speaker
So I know we're two hours away, but it does affect the greater state. If Columbus is pulling more, they they kind of pull from similar sources. Do we make up for what they're there ah pulling?
00:32:32
Speaker
Like if they're if they're a little low, do we send them some? Yeah, I think it's all tied together. yeah Okay. I forget because I remember, what was it, 2004? When there was that blackout across the east? Yeah, I believe it was around the early two thousand years I just forget how much of, if I know i was out of power for like three or four days.
00:32:52
Speaker
Oh, easily, yeah. i think it was at least three or four days. For me, I think my neighbor, my neighbor right next door to me, he was out for seven days. It was strange how that worked out. So know through my industry, yeah.
00:33:07
Speaker
yeah i I'm just kind of curious on how how that affects Columbus. Here's some of the things i know personally. Boots on the ground, as they would say. ah here are There are natural gas turbines in places in northern Ohio that I've gone to for work that used to only run in the summertime, and now they run all the time.
00:33:34
Speaker
So when they like when they turned off the nuke plants and tore down the coal plants, those took over. But there's still nothing besides those to take over. There's no redundancy that, again, I'm not an expert, but it doesn't seem like there's a lot of redundancy anymore.
00:33:47
Speaker
like And they closed those down because of increased government regulations and First Energy or whoever owns them. Decided it cost too much. And we've talked about this before because that was part of the scandal with First Energy was to decommissioning of the new plants. They wanted us to pay for it, the consumers to pay for And that was a bribery in the Ohio State Legislature.
00:34:08
Speaker
So keep an eye out. Yeah. You watch and prepare. I mean, you got to prepare. I could see it happening if there's like an extended streak of days with... Yes, that's what they're saying. They think they're covered, but they could see ah a scenario where you could have a peak that's over what they project they can handle.
00:34:30
Speaker
Right. I would think it would take like a a solid 10 days of, you know, 90 plus degrees. Yeah, i think I think that's probably probably probably true. and ah and And that could happen. as It happens before, and it'll happen again. Yeah, good.
00:34:45
Speaker
um With or without climate change. ah Excuse me.
Debate on Legalizing Online Gambling
00:34:50
Speaker
Ohio gambling. You got something Ohio gambling, Tom? Yeah, let me get my notes here. My notes are up I want to gamble.
00:34:58
Speaker
I think it's a gamble to gamble. So there's a... On Amy Acton. Oh, sorry. There's a new ah house bill going through the... Through Congress here in Ohio, House Bill 298 would legalize online casino games such as poker, craps, and roulette.
00:35:15
Speaker
I got a clip here if you want to hear it. Yep. Shoot.
00:35:20
Speaker
So there's a couple of issues here, and there's a bill already in the Senate. We told you about that last week. This is House Bill 298, and this is legalized iGaming. You might say, well, people are already playing slot machines on their phone. That's just for fun.
00:35:37
Speaker
This is actual gambling and whether it's poker, blackjack, whether it's slot machines, there's some issues here. Now, they're trying to protect the brick and mortar. Why would anybody go to a ah casino in downtown Cleveland if they can just play on their phone? So this is an interesting caveat to this bill.
00:35:57
Speaker
The only people who could apply for ah gambling licenses on your phone would be the nine casino owners who are currently operating in the state of Ohio.
00:36:08
Speaker
It is not cheap. A license would be $50 million dollars for the first year and then a $10 million dollars renewal fee every year after that. They will tax this at 28%, the same that Michigan does that's already legal, also already legal in Pennsylvania. And that's going to bring in an estimated $400 to million dollars in revenue.
00:36:32
Speaker
There are people, as you can imagine, down in Columbus on both sides of this issue. Ohioans voted at the ballot box to allow casino gaming. This legislature voted to allow online sports betting.
00:36:45
Speaker
And Ohioans are participating in sports betting in large numbers. And we believe that given the significant financial upside to the state, it's reasonable to take the next logical step, technological step,
00:36:59
Speaker
and allow Ohioans to play these games online as well as in person. We've seen gambling and problem gambling in Ohio triple since 2012 because of all these changes the legislature has made.
00:37:09
Speaker
Where is the line? At what point do we say this isn't worth it anymore? That it's not worth the additional revenue that could fund a tax cut or a stadium or whatever it else it goes towards?
00:37:21
Speaker
Very interesting. Did you hear the Democrat there talk about funding a stadium? So where would this 400 to $800 million dollars go? that's so That was the funniest comment there from the guy that produced this, was where would this money go?
00:37:41
Speaker
It's like... well Here you have DeWine talking about, oh if we cut taxes, where are we going to get money from? It's like, i just i kind of clipped this story because of the, I don't know, is it would it be considered hypocrisy?
00:37:59
Speaker
Yes. I'm not sure. It sounds like it's either, ah could be a hypocrisy adjacent. Yeah. I don't know. I just pulled that right out of my, and it smells like it too. But they, here's here's what I pulled out of that. Yes, it's similar to what you're saying.
00:38:14
Speaker
But notice where they went to when they have too much money and where they went to when we want to take some of the money away. He went to, well, you want to fund ah stadiums.
00:38:26
Speaker
But DeWine says, if you cut taxes, how are you going to fund schools? Right. that's That's what kind of irked me about that. that And Pennsylvania has has it, and they get $964 million um in revenue or in taxes.
00:38:44
Speaker
So just just quick math here. And $195 million in internet now internet lottery. So but they're therere making bank there. I mean, that... So right now they're complaining because they cut, they, they're cutting bullshit cutting what they call it, what I call it, bullshit cutting.
00:39:04
Speaker
They're cutting the increase on, on the school funding. Yeah. That's not ah that's not a cut. Right. theyre They are not giving them exactly what they wanted. Right. They wanted $660 billion dollars and you're only getting $225 billion.
00:39:19
Speaker
That's about a $400 billion, ah not billion, million, sorry. This is all millions. That's about a $400 million dollars difference. Whoa. Look at that. Eight times 50. fifty Hey, that's $400 million.
00:39:31
Speaker
Right. And that's obviously only one year. And then every year after that, they would get an $80 million. dollars And then the revenue from the gambling. Right. So they they pushed Ohio Lottery through decades ago with the promise it would go to schools and we can argue whether it actually ever went to the schools or not.
00:39:49
Speaker
So why not?
00:39:52
Speaker
Wow. they just clicked them They were complaining about having too much money, Tom. When the when the hell has government ever complained about having too much money? Good point. Very good catch there. I i thought i thought it was ridiculous when I read that.
00:40:07
Speaker
read that All right. And go ahead. was going to say, all right. I mean, i'm i my opinion is I'm actually thinking we didn't already have online gambling.
00:40:19
Speaker
I figured it would have been all whipped together in the same bills for when they legalized gambling in Ohio or um or or or um sports gambling. I thought maybe it would have been the same thing.
00:40:31
Speaker
We also find it very interesting they only were going to allow the eight casinos in Ohio to go online. Yeah. Well, because they they're going to lose customers. They're going to lose customers and Columbus will lose donors.
00:40:47
Speaker
Ah, that's where it hits them. Follow the money. Well, yeah speaking of gambling, so it's always a gamble when you talk about the Browns. I don't know. That's that's bad, but we'll give it a... This week, you have a I have a Browns update. You have a little Browns update.
00:41:09
Speaker
Who do you want to go first? You go first. Actually, I trashed it. um Okay. Because because um um initially it was ah whatever, bibb our mayor Bibb in Cleveland here is saying that um he didn't that Brown's weren' wasn't his priority. Right. And then a few days later, he was pretty much retracting that. So I trashed it because it was silly. Okay, fine. That's fine.
00:41:34
Speaker
But I think what we were talking, there's more proof that it's going to happen. So... Yeah. The Greater Cleveland Partnership Group has endorsed the new stadium in Brook Park.
00:41:48
Speaker
And this is, like we said, just more proof. it's It sounds like it's going to go through. There's really no way to stop it I don't think, unless there's something we're totally missing. Let us know, quickerrivercasts at gmail.com.
00:42:00
Speaker
But what happened this week was, let's see, the county executive and the mayor basically took their ball and went home, pun intended. they They pulled, Cuyahoga County and City of Cleveland pulled their representatives out of a bunch of committees in this ah Cleveland partnership group.
Local Politics and Legal Issues
00:42:18
Speaker
According to the letter, Cleveland and Cuyahoga County are leaving the GCP's Civic Vision Committee, City Development Committee, and the Air Service Task Force meetings.
00:42:32
Speaker
And the first thought was, good Lord, what do all these people do in all these committee meetings? Like what? Way too much stuff. But that's just, they're they're mad. They're taking their ball and going home and they're moving forward.
00:42:47
Speaker
Yeah. It was um Justin Bibb first said, it you know, the Browns weren't a priority and then he kind of walked that back, but it all led to basically the Browns are moving to Brook Park.
00:42:59
Speaker
And he was saying his, his main priority was building the ah lakefront. Okay. Yeah. That, So there that's why I trashed the story, because I felt like it was just a non-story. Besides the fact that it just kind of, we've been predicting that the Browns are going to Brook Park, and it just, it's, ah you know, reaffirming that.
00:43:20
Speaker
Sure. Isn't developing lakefront, wouldn't that include the Browns? I guess. you Well, it should. should. should have, like, for the past 10 years. Yeah. Okay. It should have since they first left. Yeah.
00:43:35
Speaker
All right. Well, yeah it's it seems like it's a, well, wait for everything to get signed, but it seems like it's good. Next on the rundown, we have, let's see, you want to touch a little bit on what's going on, little update on Geauga County and and and the ice?
00:43:53
Speaker
Yeah. What was that? About like two weeks ago we talked about? Yeah, I believe it was two. so Yeah. Yeah. there There were three counties in Ohio that signed contracts with ICE, Department of ICE, to detain ah illegal immigrants.
00:44:09
Speaker
and um And I questioned, i was surprised not to see Geauga, but I guess they did. And it just wasn't in that report when we first read it. But the ACLU of Ohio is um suing Geauga County Sheriff's Office to um because they're refusing to show copies of the contract.
00:44:27
Speaker
Yeah. And I guess, um I mean, I did it. It's really not ah much of a story other than they're suing them. And Geauga County um is basically saying, we don't, you know, you need to contact ICE to find this contract.
00:44:41
Speaker
And um like I guess, I guess it is a contract between gega County and federal government. Yeah. may be some restrictions in there. They may just be deflecting and saying, hey, you deal with these guys.
00:44:53
Speaker
Yeah. time date the The statement from the ACLU is basically where we are deeply committed to protecting immigrants. You know, again, they leave out you illegal.
00:45:04
Speaker
Right. And our organization organization serves as a watchdog for government transparency and accountability. And ah I don't know. I think they should see the contract, but they should contact the government, not, not, uh, Geauga County.
00:45:20
Speaker
but I don't, I don't see anything wrong. I think they should be able to look at the contract, but yeah, I do understand there should be some, uh, procedure to go through. just Anybody can walk in there and say, give me the contract.
00:45:34
Speaker
But as far as transparency, transparency is always good. So, I mean, I'm always on the fence with a lot of ACLU stuff. All they're saying is contact. All they're saying is contact, ice for the record.
00:45:45
Speaker
you know like you that time and And you know what? They might not want to say what their contract is as opposed to what Butler County's contract is. yep they So that that's all I think is happening. Very good point. um Currently, there's at the time we did the report, we talked about three counties and now it's up to five.
00:46:04
Speaker
And, you know, okay it's a good thing. Yeah. yeah um get them And I'm proud of Geauga doing this because that's a neighboring county to me. Yeah. Yes, that makes me want to move there.
00:46:18
Speaker
But anyway, yeah speaking of um immigrants. um Illegal immigrants or immigrants? Well, depends. I guess that's that's up for debate.
00:46:32
Speaker
I'm talking about the Haitians. I'm talking about Tom. I'm talking about the Haitians. You remember this in Springfield? you remember in Springfield where they're... They're eating the dogs. They're eating the cats. Eat the cat.
00:46:43
Speaker
Eat, eat the cat.
00:46:46
Speaker
Trump. Trump. Yeah. Remember, this is, so this is what DeWine is complaining that changing their status would hurt Ohio because of the lack, they would lose workers.
00:47:00
Speaker
So are these immigrants or the illegal immigrants? What do you think? Well, they're changing their status and I'd imagine they're... it'll be they'll become. Yeah. I don't know if they're truly legal. They're just, you know, they it's probably like a temporary work permit or something. Yeah. I believe this these came in and and during Biden, right?
00:47:22
Speaker
Yeah. 2021 or something, so somewhere thereabouts. And it's, it's really caused a huge stir up in Springfield, Ohio. But I guess the big, the big complaint from DeWine is, or from some of these companies that are around that area is that they're going to lose employees.
00:47:43
Speaker
Yes. They're lose workers, which... They're going to lose underpaid workers. probably well i don't know if they're underpaid, but they're going to lose workers. But the reason that this caught my eye and being DeWine talking about this, if somebody, if the if the companies were just talking about this, I wouldn't say too much, but DeWine's talking about it.
00:48:03
Speaker
And one of the Medicaid, parts of the Medicaid cuts... Is that for people that are receiving Medicaid that are able to work, they need to work at least 80 hours a month, I think.
00:48:17
Speaker
That's part of the the change in Medicaid. That's part-time, 20 hours a week, right? Yeah, that's part-time. So for them to keep receiving Medicaid, they would have to work if they're able to work.
00:48:28
Speaker
it's ah To me, that sounds pretty fair. Yes. Well, and part of, you know, I'm not totally familiar with Springfield, but from the looks of it and from the um reports I've seen about the Haitians there in the in the and in the community and the businesses and stuff like that, it's just a community of, that's kind of run down and it just seems like a community of people that don't really want to work they're probably collecting welfare most of them and Not most of them, but many of them, which would, with the Medicaid cuts coming, force them to go back to work.
00:49:05
Speaker
So why is DeWine talking about this? If you ask me, this is going to kind of counteract each other. Could. it could. I'm not saying it's 100%, but yeah decision it shouldn't be something, if you ask me, that the governor is pushing for.
00:49:25
Speaker
No, I could, no, I think, I think they are legal on a technicality. They are, they are immigrants on a technicality. Because technically they didn't sneak in. they I think a lot of them were flown in.
00:49:38
Speaker
Yes, middle of the night. we Sure, sure. But they didn't, i don't know if they came across the Human trafficked into ah Springfield. Yeah, organized human trafficking, exactly. And So they technically, under the law, have some sort of legal status because they didn't sneak across the border and they're not just sitting in Springfield.
00:49:59
Speaker
For a short time. Yes. i'm I'm not trying to justify Trust me. I'm just saying they changing their status would make them have to leave. Where are they going to go How going to get home? We have all that stuff.
00:50:11
Speaker
But I get what you're saying. There there is a ah lack of there's a lack of labor, but there's a lack of wanting To do labor, I think is the bigger problem That's plenty of people. Plenty people.
00:50:23
Speaker
Yeah. But they're jobs that Americans just won't do. I don't know. Those those don't seem to like too bad of jobs. Like electricians and plumbers and carpenters and... I mean, one of the factories, I don't know what the jobs they have there, but it's a ah car parts manufacturer. I mean, ye it can't be in an ah it can't be in an awful job.
00:50:44
Speaker
i mean Not for somebody without any type of experience, you know? here's... It probably pays decent and... Here's a perfect example of that. So I just saw a cousin of mine i haven't seen in a while. We were talking catching up and we' talking on kids and all that stuff. And um and her husband, who went to medical school...
00:51:08
Speaker
not right after high school, but in his 20s, late to early 20s, went through you know four or five years of school and worked full time, all this sacrifice and money.
00:51:20
Speaker
What's he doing now? Probably been 10 years. He worked as a nurse for, i don't know, I want to say five or six years, seven years, maybe. He's now working at a steel mill, making twice the money.
00:51:33
Speaker
And loving it. You know why he's loving it? Because he he's ah he was a really good guy. Seemed like, you know, just a very nice person. And watching people, as a nurse, you tend to watch people die a lot. And it kind of got to him.
00:51:46
Speaker
And then he found this, now he's making more money, working at the steel mill. Getting overtime. I'm sure getting overtime doesn't mean, yeah, but doesn't even need it. He's just, he's moved his way up. He's passed up in the union.
00:51:59
Speaker
He's moved his way up and he's passed up everybody that's been there, you know, cause he's, yeah you know, hungry and smart. He's obviously as a nurse, he's gotta be at least somewhat smart. um He just didn't like the, he just didn't like the, um,
00:52:11
Speaker
Well, it mental
Legislative Changes and Criticism
00:52:12
Speaker
the death. Yeah, it was the mental thing for him. He was taking a task. And some people aren't built for that. And right we can go on a rant about you know firefighters and policemen and nurses and all that stuff. But it's a prime example that there's a they're starving for competent workers.
00:52:28
Speaker
So when these Haitians come in, this is a privilege. To have a job at a factory doing the same thing day in, day out is a privilege. And Americans just aren't that way. Yeah.
00:52:39
Speaker
Well, when you when they're on welfare, their entire life or most of their life, what ah what do you expect? It's pretty easy to just kind of kick back and not worry about your shitty house and yeah and just collect a few bucks and play PlayStation all day and probably, you know, taking meth and...
00:52:57
Speaker
and And you get used to just getting by and all this stuff and complain about it's everybody else's fault. Yeah. That you're stuck well you know yeah in your position. ah That is one thing about the Medicaid cuts that we didn't touch on. and And I don't have... That's a big one. you know Yeah. It's basically forcing people that can work to work to get their Medicaid.
00:53:20
Speaker
So they're not just collecting welfare and Medicaid. Yeah, just imagine when we start dipping into um Social Security and disabled benefits or disabled, you know, there's a disability. can't wait.
00:53:34
Speaker
Yeah, oh my. I can't wait. i mean, just over the years, what I've seen from just News Channel 5 or something like that, you know, I i team reporters who they're just following people on disability as they're riding bikes and jogging and all this other stuff. yeah So I can only imagine what it'd be nationwide. Let's just start dipping into that a little bit.
00:53:51
Speaker
Oh, definitely. You want to save social security? There's enough people in my life on the peripheral that I know they're collecting benefits that they shouldn't, that they really shouldn't be.
00:54:02
Speaker
Yeah, for decades. Yep. All right. Well, so ah so so basically, DeWine, can you can just shut up for a minute? I'm kind of tired of you already, this show.
00:54:14
Speaker
Enough with DeWine. I did have a clip of him, but I think subconsciously I didn't play it. No, I think I have one too. Wait, yeah. About the Haitians, you know. Yeah, yeah, it's right here. I got it right here. hold on Hold on. Is that it?
00:54:31
Speaker
Perfect. That was the one? Okay. thought that was the one. We both clipped the same one. How crazy is that? All right. And that's enough on that. We'll wrap on that. And next one, let's see here.
00:54:45
Speaker
How about small farms? Do we got time for that this week? i can and i can hold this till next week or we can do it this week. We got, yeah, you know what? Maybe we should hold off on that week. You're right. Good yeah good call. This is ah this has been it's a little rant that I'm going to have. so Yeah, we'll hold off on that. We don't want to rush the rant, Tom.
00:55:02
Speaker
you want to You want to try the COVID backs clip or you want to hold that too? Oh, I'll play that. Okay. So there's a some new COVID requirements coming from, I think, the Trump administration. Is it FDA, rather?
00:55:14
Speaker
Yeah, from the fda show Show us what you got. All right. And Trump officials have set new requirements for COVID vaccines. Younger adults and children will no longer be routinely approved for COVID shots. That's according to new requirements by the Food and Drug Administration laid out on Tuesday.
00:55:33
Speaker
The new recommendations are similar to those seen in Canada, the UK and Australia. The agency says COVID-19 boosters are expected to be available this fall for the elderly population and people with health issues that make them more susceptible to infections.
00:55:51
Speaker
However, the FDA says it needs to see enough positive data from placebo-based trials before recommending COVID booster shots for people in other groups. Wow.
00:56:03
Speaker
It's good stuff. Studies. They want to look and see if it's actually... Wow. Wow. What a crazy thought. Crazy thought. Yeah. That's good. Okay. we're We're not being tested on anymore, right?
00:56:17
Speaker
Right. Please, um you know, consult your doctor with any medical advice. We are not doctors. Just want to make sure we cover ourselves. Also, quickrivercast at gmail.com, quickrivercast at gmail.com. Please send us your stories or comments.
00:56:31
Speaker
We will answer back, I promise. We'd love to hear from you. Yes. Hey, Rob, quick break. Yep, break time.
00:56:40
Speaker
All right, we are back from our break. Thanks for waiting for us. We really appreciate it. QuickRiverCast at gmail.com. All we went over the new COVID requirements for the COVID Vax clip and on segment. We have a little segment here I think we're going to try to do weekly or biweekly, what I'm calling, What Are Our Little Critters in Columbus Doing?
00:57:06
Speaker
So basically, I'd like to start keeping an eye on some of the bills that are moving through the state legislature. And just to keep them, because when do we usually find out about bills, Tom? When do you think?
00:57:17
Speaker
Like, what do you feel like? After they pass. Yeah, after they pass or when they're about to go. and yeah into commit or ah into a vote where you really have no chance to communicate with your your representatives and give them your opinion.
00:57:30
Speaker
so Yeah, one I think it kind of works like this. If one of the if whoever um kind of brought this bill to the table wants actual ah recognition for it, they'll they'll try to get it in the news.
00:57:46
Speaker
But other than that, they don't I don't think they'd touch on it. Especially if they if they want to sneak something by Yeah, yeah. And that's just basically why I went in. So maybe every week we pull three, four, or whatever bills that pique our interest. And eventually we'll start running through them and and we'll have updates on the bills we introduced, you know, and all this other stuff. So we'll see how it goes.
00:58:08
Speaker
So this week, we'll start out with a few of them. One of them we already talked about, which is HB 209, which is no tax on tips. And I thought, why are they doing this? Aren't they passing something through Congress? And I thought, oh yeah, no state income taxes on tips either.
00:58:20
Speaker
Yeah, that that that's awesome. They should do that for overtime, too. And I would imagine they probably will. You know what? ah Just a quick thing. You know what? I heard people complaining about, like, you know, the house, a big, beautiful bill and about the tax on tips and overtime. Mm-hmm.
00:58:40
Speaker
They were complaining because it's not like you, I mean, okay. So if, if you're a person that works for tips, you would still have to file your taxes. You would just get a tax credit. So they were complaining about that.
00:58:53
Speaker
the The one that really kind of, you know, surprised me was there was this so-called expert saying, well, it's not like you're going to work overtime and you're going to get more money in your check. You're going to have to file your taxes and you'll get a tax credit towards the taxes you paid on your, or that you know the taxes that you paid on your overtime.
00:59:15
Speaker
And I'm like, okay, so I get back like, a few thousand dollars at the end of the year, more than I normally would. I'm supposed to complain about that. Yeah.
00:59:26
Speaker
i It was, it was just grasping at straws. They are, man. They are so, I mean, like, cause I started thinking about, I'm like, okay, if I'm paying a hundred dollars a week in taxes on my overtime and, and I, for some guys that's very little. And for some guys, you know, that that's probably realistic, you know?
00:59:46
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I, at the end of the year, I get back five grand. I'm like, I don't know. That doesn't sound too bad to me. Not at all. I, I don't think, I think they're just grasping at straws and, and, and they have no, really, ah how do you combat that?
01:00:02
Speaker
That's what a lot of people want. I want, what I want is, and we're getting on a short rant here, but what I want real quick is I want taxes to be a bill at the end of the year. I want everybody to see exactly how much taxes you pay, because I think that would be a huge eye-opener for everybody.
01:00:20
Speaker
I guess you you could probably you can set it up that way. Oh, I want it mandated. know, I want... Yeah, yeah. I say hear what you're saying. It's like anything else. They pull it out of your check and you don't even know. you don't know how much you're paying for healthcare most of the time and they pull your check, you know, until you... Yeah, and then you're happy because you're getting a little bit of money back. Right.
01:00:36
Speaker
Yeah. So, yeah, it would be better if you got a bill at the end of the year. So the only proponent I heard from this was, or the only con to this brought up was, you know, most servers don't claim all their tips on their taxes.
01:00:51
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Next, another bill, HB 79 is a bill to create stronger penalties for assaulting an Ohio sports referee.
01:01:06
Speaker
ah Yeah, kind of i I saw a headline on that. idea And I will say another bill, because for the past five or six years, they put one in every year and it's never made it to vote. I don't know. To me, government overreach, yes, for sure. Because ah to me, it's similar to a hate crime.
01:01:21
Speaker
If you assault a referee, i mean, there should already be statue that. Don't get charged with assault? And if it's not enough, then make that bigger. Make that more harsher. bigger i mean, I don't know. yeah if If you assault somebody, you can you you get arrested or you get, you know. They want to add to it. They want to add another $1,500. They want to make it and like a hate crime. like Like when you beat the crap out of somebody and put them in the hospital,
01:01:46
Speaker
It matters because you hated them, because I think you hated them anyway. So to me, it's always like that it's very similar to what feels like a hate crime thing. Like, yeah, there's already an assault statute on there, but let's make it a little harder because he's a ref.
01:01:57
Speaker
That's retarded. Now, they have it for like um teachers, superintendents, and stuff like that in schools, which I would still say, again, if the assault statute is not harsh enough, then adjust that. Don't make a special category for a bunch of people.
01:02:11
Speaker
But let's keep an eye on it. I don't think it's go anywhere, but... Because it hasn't in the past four or five times they've tried. But maybe. Interesting. HB 41, which is child care grants.
01:02:24
Speaker
um And the gist of this is they're trying to get ah ah money from the budget to, in my opinion, a handout to child care facilities around the state.
01:02:35
Speaker
They want to give ah issue or have grants to be able to be issued to child care facilities to expand capacity. And my first thought is, if you need a grant from the government, then maybe there's not enough people there to to need capacity. Because if you can't bring in enough profit to profit to grow like any other business, then do you really need welfare from the state?
01:03:00
Speaker
We need the government to take care of us. like I could be wrong. ah could be maybe Maybe there's something else there. And that's kind of part of this this um this segment. that? who who who brought that Who brought that bill to the table? I don't know. you now Now you're catching me on. I don't know.
01:03:18
Speaker
I'm just wondering if it was a Democrat or a Republican. Oh, um that's a good question. I bet i have the bill right here. yeah Legislature scan. And that's, was it 41?
01:03:30
Speaker
Yeah. HB41. Of course, it's not on the first list that you see. so we'll do... Do a search. because they had So there's this website, LegiScan.
01:03:45
Speaker
And it's pretty interesting. It'll have direct, HP 41, pending House Rules and Reference Committee, sponsors Republican.
01:03:57
Speaker
No kidding. Well, I don't know who would be the main. There's a bunch of sponsors. There's right right four, eight, about 15 different sponsors. And out of it, there's two Democrats.
01:04:09
Speaker
Interesting. So it is definitely a Republican bill. ah um Andrea White, Republican. k Crystal Lett. Huh. Democrat.
01:04:20
Speaker
Sharon Ray. Interesting. First three are... Women, that's interesting. i don't know why, but ah Josh Williams, Republican and so on. Bill Romer, transdues anybody of, nobody that I can recognize. recognize um So again, if something piques your interest, please help us help you.
01:04:43
Speaker
Next, we got a couple more. So HB 113, which will ban DEI in K through 12, which we'll probably end up talking about in the future as as it moves through.
01:04:57
Speaker
Exactly. know Exactly. Yes. I was thinking more like um this. Give me a hell yeah. And then actually, what would actually happen is if Stone Cold would say that in Ohio, he would he would probably probably get like this kind of response.
01:05:13
Speaker
Give me a hell yeah.
01:05:16
Speaker
What?
01:05:18
Speaker
What? What?
01:05:21
Speaker
That's the one should have played. And basically, they're kind of mirror the the one they just put in for colleges. Pros. Right. Pros are merit is king. That's my pro because merit is king, in my opinion.
01:05:33
Speaker
But the cons that I saw when I was doing a, you know, like a kind of a low level search on this thing was the bill's very vague. Okay.
01:05:45
Speaker
And moving on to the bill of the week, I want to call it. Bill the month, Bill the week, we'll see what it ends up being. But is this HB290? What is HB290? HB290 is pretty interesting. It is ah to enact section 2917.43 of the revised code to prohibit a person from engaging in solar radiation modification, cloud seeding, and sunlight reflective methods.
01:06:12
Speaker
Let me go get my tinfoil hat. Comes to the mind? Are we having problems? Why? Can you tell me, something you need to tell me?
01:06:23
Speaker
No. I don't know. Actually, I got to look into that. I do want to look into like, why? i don't know why. And oh, yeah. So maybe we can do what you...
01:06:35
Speaker
what you were asking and let's look at HB 290 and see who. HB 290, 11 Republicans and zero Democrats.
01:06:46
Speaker
Tom Young was ah is the first sponsor on it. i don't know if that means he's the originator of it and Does it say who originated it? No, it doesn't. But and in this this little website, you can go right to the bill and read the bill.
01:06:59
Speaker
And, you know, cloud seeding gives the apple definitions for cloud seeding, solar radiation modification, yeah solar radiation modification, space-based reflectors means deploying of mirrors or other reflective objects in space to deflect light.
01:07:15
Speaker
Well, I mean, this sounds like... This sounds like something's already going on and they want to try to stop it. That's what I'm wondering. Well, Bill Gates is doing us doing some of this already. Yeah. Yes. or they yeah see Cloud seeding is a thing, and they do it in China all the time.
01:07:29
Speaker
Well, they're also putting like reflective um particles in the in the sky to ah reflect the sun back. to keep the Allegedly. Allegedly, right. legended it's It's allegedly being done, so I don't know.
01:07:45
Speaker
No person or entity shall engage in solar radiation modification, cloud seeding, or sunlight reflection methods in this state, including through the use of an aircraft, balloon, drone, space-based platform, or interperaminable ground-based facilities.
01:08:03
Speaker
enter Interoperable, I can read. Interoperable. ah There's some of this stuff. um The superintendent of the state highway patrol or county sheriff shall issue a cease and desist order to any person...
01:08:16
Speaker
with the, soup ah ah who who the superintendent or sheriff determine is conducting or attempting to conduct solar radiation modification, cloud seeding. What's solar radiation modification? I don't know.
01:08:30
Speaker
oh wait a minute. Does it define it? They might define it. Did I pass up? Cloud seeding, marine cloud brightening. What does that mean? That means enhancing the reflectivity of low-lying marine clouds. Oh my gosh.
01:08:43
Speaker
it say Solar radiation modification means the experiment in, is an experiment in the Earth's climate system involving the release of pollutants that reduce the amount of sunlight absorbed by the Earth, including through marine cloud brightening, space-based reflectors, and stratospheric aerosol injections.
01:09:06
Speaker
Huh. Something we may see on the next show. don't know. Yeah. that's that' We're going to be doing a show on interplanetary um aliens next.
01:09:18
Speaker
Okay. I mean, as long as they have a bill going through, says we don't want any aliens landing here. I'm going to ask why Because why are you trying to fix a problem we don't have? Or do we already have this problem? Interesting.
01:09:29
Speaker
We'll find out. Definitely more interesting than the child care grant bill. Okay. All right, moving on to our last segment, which we were going to try to do some good stuff to, so you know, get you into the week on a good
City Rankings and Desirability Debate
01:09:45
Speaker
feeling.
01:09:45
Speaker
and And sometimes it might be tough. But this week, maybe not so much. So the story this week is Mentor is named Ohio's best city. Yay, for if you live in Mentor.
01:09:57
Speaker
And was ranked out of cities, cities across the country. which which what number was 138th out of 850 cities. I wonder why.
01:10:10
Speaker
Well, they are using... Nothing against men or just wondering why. No, yeah, would it be a valid question? Why do you think they are? I think they may have won this before in the past, if I remember. But ranking evaluated more than 850 cities across the country using metrics such as value, job market, quality of life, and overall desirability.
01:10:31
Speaker
Seems pretty subjective to me. Rankings were determined by, in part, by a nationwide public survey, along with data from U.S. news, federal agencies, and geographic analytic analytics.
01:10:46
Speaker
from Data from U.S. news? That's interesting. So the list is top five. All right, mine is number one. maybe it I'll give you and i'll give you a five. Oh, wait, you already, I think, did you already see the list?
01:10:58
Speaker
i I saw part of it. All right. Well, I'll just go through it. So Mentor is one, number one. Number two, coming in number two, is Parma. Ew.
01:11:11
Speaker
used live in Parma. I kind of agree. But ah a third, this is the curious. Really, to me, Columbus is third behind Parma. When you're looking at job market, oof.
01:11:24
Speaker
I think there's, oof. Ah, stinky. ah Hamilton. Hamilton. i don't know where that's at. I think I've Hamilton County. I've heard Hamilton County, but yeah probably similar. And Lima, we'll round out the top five.
01:11:37
Speaker
Lima's, I've played golf out that way. It's kind of pretty country. Yeah, it's rural. That's cat Lima's. Kind of over by Springfield, I think, isn't it? East of, west of Columbus. No, no, it's not that. It's closer to, I would say, let's see, I'm trying to think. It's south of Toledo. Oh, so it's the west. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like middle, maybe a little bit north of middle Ohio. Yeah, okay. I know what you're talking about now, yeah.
01:12:06
Speaker
As for the the the the the nation, top five best places to live in the United States. Number five is Cary, North Carolina, Fisher, Indiana. I've been to Fisher, in Indiana.
01:12:21
Speaker
Okay, it's it's it's a small town, I think. Smallish. Pearl Land, Texas. Carmel, Indiana. Two in Indiana. Top five. Interesting. Interesting. I don't believe these.
01:12:32
Speaker
And well, we looked at the metrics. georgia Georgia's Johns Creek is number one in this in the ah in the country, according to this study, which overall desirability is very subjective. So I'm not sure what that even means. Something in Indiana? or you in you know Two places.
01:12:53
Speaker
Yeah, right. Fisher and Carmel. You don't have, mean, I don't know I'm i'm not nothing against those places. I'm sure they're fine, but.
01:13:02
Speaker
overall desirability, mean quality of life.
01:13:08
Speaker
I've never sat there once and said, I want to live in so-and-so Indiana. No. yeah But hey, Mentor's on the top, so that's all. that's theres I've never done that either.
01:13:19
Speaker
No, no. Mentor's all right. You know, it's like Indiana. You know what? it's it's It's got a lot of industry there. The suburbs are pretty nice. And I think the school's considered pretty good there.
01:13:30
Speaker
and they single And they have access to a lake. Yeah, yeah, you got the beaches close by. Yeah, a lot of, actually, some nice ones up there, too. All right,
Conclusion and Next Week's Preview
01:13:39
Speaker
well, that wraps us up for the day, um for the week, I should say, not for the day, and I think that's, I think it was a good show, and I thank everybody for listening.
01:13:49
Speaker
We'll talk to you next week. Peace.