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Crooked River Cast Show 4
19 Plays12 days ago
Crookedrivercast@gmail.com
TARIFF TARIFF TARIFF!!!
Hands Off Protests. Can President Trump touch anything?
Ohio budget heading to Senate.
School Funding. Are local district flush with cash?
Akron electric rate increase coming!
29 new laws now in effect. Parent bill of right, No firearms purchase tracking and many more.
What do you do when an entire police force quits?
Issue 2 on May ballot. What is it?
How does President Trump’s executive order on election integrity effect Ohio?
And more…
Recommended
Transcript
Northeast Ohio Events and Changes
00:00:02
Speaker
This is the Crooked Rivercast, a show that focuses on what's going on in Northeast Ohio. Like this week, we have the entire police department quitting. Over 20 new laws take effect, and increased electric rates, the always sexy budget talk, and of course, the word of the week, tariffs.
00:00:20
Speaker
My name is Robert. I'm joined, as always, by Tom. So, Tom, what's going on? What's going on? It's Saturday morning. It's rainy, and...
00:00:32
Speaker
I don't know. I'm here to hear the stories and put my two cents in. How about this? We'll start with this. You
Tariffs and Trade Negotiations
00:00:38
Speaker
ready? Yeah. Knock, knock. Who's there? Tariff.
00:00:43
Speaker
Tariff who? Tariff. You thought trade negotiations were easy. Think again.
00:00:50
Speaker
Sorry. know it's bad, but see, it's I'm finding it harder to import jokes when tariffs block all the punchlines. Yeah.
00:01:02
Speaker
so and So that's what I started with. I figured, you know, tariff was the word of the week. Tariff, tariff, tariff, more tariffs. I figured, let's make light of it. Everybody just needs to calm down.
00:01:14
Speaker
i think it's a good thing. So far, all the all the countries have come to negotiate except for China. And I think that was actually, that was the plan.
00:01:26
Speaker
ah plan sounds ah Sounds like that was the strategy is to isolate China. Yep. um so we'll just start with a little clip. I didn't want to get too far into tariffs, but I did have a little clip of tariffs. Let's see if I can make this thing work here.
00:01:43
Speaker
So with tariffs top of mind for so many, you may be wondering what is actually made in the USA, even more specifically here in Ohio. So at the Guardian's home opener, our Jonathan Walsh found the America in America's pastime.
00:01:57
Speaker
Between the shirts, hats, and sweatshirts. Today, i don't think it's going to stop. Vinnie Griffin says the Cleveland Clothing Company promises to have a steady stream of cool customers. Yeah, no, we just dropped these for this year. during the Guardian's first home game this year. We're a Cleveland company for Clevelanders.
00:02:15
Speaker
Just so happens that, you know, tourists enjoy it too. Vinny is the general manager. He hearts that most of his products are made, designed, and printed in Cleveland. He works with a Columbus group sometimes, but he loves keeping nearly everything in the Buckeye State. We purchase you know things from outside of Cleveland, but we try to keep things as close to home as possible.
00:02:36
Speaker
other people in our com themselves into nearly 100% of american made prod some kegs right here that will out to the market at Saucy Brew Works in Ohio C and his crew showed us around the brewery. He tell us 90% of his hops come from U.S. and the main product in beer is locally gathered.
00:02:58
Speaker
It's fantastic. We happen to have ah one of the best water sources in the world. When it comes to tariff talk, you recently canned the idea of getting stuff from our neighbor up north. We particularly are not sourcing cans from Canada right now. That was interesting.
00:03:15
Speaker
So why aren't you sourcing cans from Canada right now? The puns were awful. The puns were terrible. that was That was just, I mean, it was one of the worst I've ever heard, I think. um ah The question I have, do you think we can tariff Lake Erie? Yeah.
00:03:33
Speaker
So I did, you didn't notice there's one thing he's no longer getting from Canada. Some of it's cans. Cans. And then the the shirt guy, that's, I think I've seen that story before. he says, keep they keep saying nearly everything.
00:03:47
Speaker
I would have guessed that, yeah, he's having them printed here or maybe in Columbus, but I would almost guarantee the shirts are not made in America. No. They can't even make t-shirts. I don't think we can even make t-shirts America.
00:03:59
Speaker
Well, I don't know about that, but I do know most most of them, but at least the material comes from ah but China. Right. So, yeah, I give them credit. They're doing what they can. it was a nice little story. Hey, here's what is actually is made, at least here locally.
00:04:14
Speaker
But it did also, what I heard was, yeah, almost everything, 90% of my hops. He gets cans from Canada. I think you had them run down a aluminum manufacturer shutting down, laying off 70 workers.
00:04:28
Speaker
We probably won't even get to that today, but I mean, so here we are. This is why we have to do these things. If you don't like tariffs, we don't either. That's why we don't want the other countries to have them on us.
00:04:41
Speaker
Well, i hope reent I always say like the other countries say, like, what are were we doing to our citizens? It's like, well, what are they doing to their
Protests and Public Reactions in Columbus
00:04:49
Speaker
citizens? Yeah, they've been doing the same thing. yeahp Terrifine all of our stuff.
00:04:53
Speaker
Terrifine? No, terrifine. Terrifine's a different thing. um Let's see. The other thing maybe we could start with is we had we did have some protests in Columbus.
00:05:04
Speaker
They had hands-off protest this week. We we had them here in Cleveland, too. In Cleveland, all around. They had maybe dozens of people probably showed up. Yeah. Columbus looked looked pretty big to me, but I mean, I just saw ah some pictures, so I didn't see the overall view of it.
00:05:21
Speaker
Columbus did have a good turnout for college down too though. And the fact that it was raining but also probably dampened probably would have been more people if it was raining. But I did figure we could talk a little bit about that.
00:05:33
Speaker
No real story involved, just a couple of clips from News Channel 5, which previous tariff was also from News Channel 5. Always want to give them the credit. So let's hear some from the protests.
00:05:46
Speaker
A call for change from the streets of Columbus. Guess an album answered. Of major issues. I mean, any one of these would dominate the news for a month and we got them one a day, right? And then the terror, God.
00:05:59
Speaker
That's insane. At least a thousand people march near the statehouse in what's being called nationally hands-off protest. It's hands-off education. It's hands-off veterans' benefits. It's hands-off Social Security. It's hands-off USAID. It's hands-off Gaza and Palestine. It's everything. There's so many things to protest against. That's why we're all here.
00:06:21
Speaker
Tommy's not allowed to touch anything. Hands off everything. The president can't touch anything. But you know did you notice anything about these?
00:06:32
Speaker
Yes, I noticed quite a few things. what would What did you notice? It was a blue hair festival. Oh, for sure. Yes. Everybody that I saw on the clips was and for being in Columbus, too.
00:06:45
Speaker
You figure it would be a little younger crowd. That's what I thought, too. Yeah. But apparently you the president cannot touch anything. And i mean, just hands off.
00:06:57
Speaker
And the call for change was how they started the clip, how they started the the the report. um This is actually ABC WSYX out Columbus, I believe.
00:07:11
Speaker
They're protesting because of all the change.
00:07:16
Speaker
But they want more change. So change the change back. Okay, I got i do have another
Ohio's Budget and School Funding
00:07:21
Speaker
one here. Some more comments from protesters. I think this is. Those here tell us they're not letting the rain dampen their message. These cuts just continue to like, they just continue to put more people at risk. And I don't feel like we need to stay home and be dry when it's a little bit furry, when people are dying from lack of care and services that they need.
00:07:47
Speaker
There it is. People are dying. Who's dying from lack of care and services? Who? No one. Nobody. So there you go. Just imagine over the clips we could have had if it didn't rain.
00:08:01
Speaker
She sounded younger, but I bet she had still had blue hair. she's She looked younger, but sounded like she had blue hair. She was a little younger, but she was I don't think she was college. I think she was old in college age. Yeah, probably.
00:08:15
Speaker
right. So let's get that nonsense out the way. So next on the list is, like I said, the oh so sexy budget talk.
00:08:26
Speaker
The Senate now gets the bill, the House version of bill. think we talked about this little bit this last week. this so The Senate has till July 1st to pass the budget and Mike DeWine to sign it. Or it says to to pass a budget for DeWine to sign that he will sign.
00:08:49
Speaker
And right now, he's not getting everything he wants, as we talked about last week. Budget does not include DeWine's proposed cigarette tax increase. planned to use he planned to use these funds for a $1,000 child tax credit.
00:09:05
Speaker
And he wanted to hike up gambling taxes to pay for sports stadiums. sport stadium
00:09:13
Speaker
and And, of course, to ease the burden of parents to pay for play schools. He does not sound like a conservative, doesn't No, no. So the House bill also reduces DeWine's proposed spending on affordable housing, drinking water, pediatric cancer research, child care, Medicaid, lead abatement, and food assistance.
00:09:43
Speaker
They are so then the then we're going to get on to the school budget, which is, I think, the hottest issue but of all this that everybody's kind of um going back and forth with.
00:09:57
Speaker
So the big thing in the bill is the funding, but also. And where the money is going to go and where they've allowed or allocated a lot of it. But also there is a stipulation in the bill that we talked about a little bit last week about levies and cities carrying over funds from previous years, and the state wants to cap that.
00:10:19
Speaker
Right. So the bill requires... They don't want to carry more than... Let them carry more than 25% because the schools right now are flush with money. The bill requires the districts that carry more than 30% of last year's budget into the new year They can't carry more than less than more than 30%.
00:10:41
Speaker
If they do, they have to take the difference of whatever's over 30% and lower property taxes to assess in the sense, give it back to the customer or to the community.
00:10:53
Speaker
ah So put another way, if cities do not spend more than 30% of the funds they had and are bringing that money into the following year, they need to lower their property taxes. That way they can give that, that difference back to the community.
00:11:07
Speaker
So that's one of the ways property taxes are getting, you know, with the increase in property values, property taxes are getting really high, especially those on fixed income. So that's kind of what they're trying to address.
00:11:19
Speaker
What what does all this mean? What's 30 percent? How many schools carry this over?
00:11:27
Speaker
And then what what is what's the dollar amounts and what's all this stuff? So right now. The Ohio Education Association
00:11:37
Speaker
estimates about 80% of school districts will be impacted due to the 30% cutoff, which means over 80% is what they're saying. 80% of the schools in Ohio currently carry over more than 30% of their budget and into into the following year.
00:11:55
Speaker
Okay, so how much is that? According to GOP, schools have carried over $10.5 billion dollars And they keep coming back for a love more more and more. Right.
00:12:08
Speaker
And so, okay, what's $10.5 billion? dollars I say, that seems like a lot of money. what My initial was, how much is the budget for schools in Ohio every year? So I looked it up.
00:12:19
Speaker
I asked Grock. Grock says, Ohio's total K-12 public school spending 2024 was approximately Okay. twenty eight point five billion dollars Currently, schools have carried over from 24 to 25, almost a third of what the total state budget for all spending.
00:12:40
Speaker
That is not what comes from Ohio. That's all spending. So $28.5 billion, that comes to $16,960 per pupil. ah that comes to sixteen thousand nine hundred and sixty dollars per pupil The funding comes from a contribution of sources or a combination of sources.
00:12:56
Speaker
Local taxpayers contributed, that's your city, you you and your city and your property taxes contributed about $14.8 billion. The state provided $9.7 billion in funding for all the schools and the federal government added $3.9 billion.
00:13:15
Speaker
Wow. So currently... I guess doesn't work this way necessarily, and we'll get into why the the schools say they have to carry these funds over. But currently, the schools are sitting on enough money that they don't need any of the state funding.
00:13:30
Speaker
They have $10.5 billion. not I'm sure this is not every school district has money that this much money they're carrying over. But as a total aggregate, schools have carried over enough money to not need any money from the state, more than what the state's giving them.
00:13:48
Speaker
Okay. interesting Interesting. That means we don't have to pay property taxes. Well, it would say that in some states cities, you should get you should get a cut in your property tax, at least at least ah a temporary reduction.
00:14:00
Speaker
And that's what the Ohio State Legislature is trying to do, at least the Republicans are. And then i' i'll I'll start. So what's the pros and cons? how How is it in the media? We talked about this a little bit last week, which is actually the tipbye clip I just started playing before. But how is News Channel 5? And this is, I think, pretty consistent throughout.
00:14:26
Speaker
And I'll start with this. How are they showcasing this? Yeah. How are they? how's What's the narrative? Yeah. How are they shaping? How are they shaping this story? So here, we'll just start with this.
00:14:38
Speaker
This is how they're shaping it. It has been a years-long war here in Ohio. Now there are some twists in the latest battle over school funding. State budget plan passed by House lawmakers cuts hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding from public schools while increasing funding for private school vouchers by a half billion dollars. Columbus Bureau reporter Morgan Trout is following through with a closer look tonight at a new piece of the proposal that some call a break for taxpayers. Others say could put more levies on your ballot.
00:15:10
Speaker
cutting the budget. ah No, that's not the case. The budget is not being cut, it is being increased, just not by as much as they want. And So what they've said, what they've had is it looks like News Channel 5 has been talking with the Parma superintendent, currently of the Parma Public Schools, Parma Seven Hills Public Schools.
00:15:35
Speaker
Currently, I think they say Parma, I think they may say it in this clip, Parma carries over 26% from last year of their budget. um And Parma not one of the greatest school districts from my understanding.
00:15:47
Speaker
And here's, let's see what but' see what both sides are saying about it.
00:15:53
Speaker
I think this is the most consequential budget that I've been in. and House Speaker Matt Huffman and most of his Republican colleagues cheered the state passing its $60 billion dollars two-year budget, helping to fund the new Brown Stadium, but cuts millions of dollars from public libraries and schools.
00:16:10
Speaker
It does more things ah on more fronts than any budget that I've ever had. Karma City School Superintendent Charles Smiley continues to break down the impact on public schools for us.
00:16:21
Speaker
We always talked about a slippery slope, and I think the the slope is you know covered in oil at this point. Smiley has been speaking to us for months about his concerns now that the state is slashing millions in expected public school funding.
00:16:33
Speaker
oh what What did she say? Did you hear what she said? Can I but can i replay that? Let me see....to us for months about his concerns now that the state is slashing millions in expected public school funding.
00:16:47
Speaker
Expected public school funding is what they cut. Right. So they started out with slashing school funding, and then later in the later in the in the story, they kind of slip in. Well, there's i been a cut to expected, what they expected to get.
00:17:03
Speaker
So the I think the big rub is there is there is this Fair Funding Act that was passed years ago. According to this law or group or whatever it is, they they think they the spending the increase should have been $800 million this year.
00:17:22
Speaker
They were asking for $660 million. Actually, $666 million. state legislature gave $226 million.
00:17:29
Speaker
the state legislature gave them two hundred and twenty six million So they are also complaining, kind of as you heard, the half billion dollar increase for choice ah school choice, which EdChoice programs.
00:17:44
Speaker
So my question is. What are EdChoice programs? So EdChoice is a school choice. That's the um the the voucher system. It's called EdChoice. ah My question is, is the Ohio State Legislature sending a message here?
00:17:58
Speaker
Are they sending a message that school choice is the future of education in Ohio with the $500 billion dollars increase?
00:18:07
Speaker
I don't know. It seems that way. i think that's the way they're going. And I did a quick peek in where Ohio is on the national standards for schools, and we are dead in the middle.
00:18:18
Speaker
Yeah, I just took a look at Parma because you kind of brought that up. And Parma's at the bottom 50% 920 school districts. of nine twenty nine hundred and twenty school districts It's
00:18:31
Speaker
Interesting. So they say they need to carry these funds over. oh
00:18:40
Speaker
because, oh there it is. They used to kind of say it in the um and and the clip because they need to prepare for inflation and increasing costs for resources like energy and gas, plus pay increases for teacher and staff.
00:18:54
Speaker
Hmm. So I don't understand. You ask for a million dollars a year. You spend, would it $650,000, $700,000 Right. So you over $300,000 of it right so you carry over three hundred thousand of it into the next budget year And you're still, and you still want increases.
00:19:14
Speaker
And year in, year out, you know, every couple of years, every year and in lot of cities that you, especially if they get turned down a year before you get, but they ask again and it's usually more. I'm just confused why they think they need third of almost a third of their budget every year to carry over or more for inflation increase in energy and raises some of the people were saying or some of the comments against were saying there are school districts that like to carry money over for bigger projects renovations new school built know they're building a new school they're getting state funding but the local wants to supply this that and the other thing so i get that part of it
00:19:57
Speaker
But almost a 30-year budget you're carrying over? That's a lot. um I don't... it It seemed to me when you ask for a levy and because you need books and you need pay increases and you need maintenance on the on the buildings, that's the excuse they use every time.
00:20:16
Speaker
Well, they're just trying to get people's heartstrings. i i I think... Oh, absolutely. i just... I don't think people know that... Schools are actually, it's not like they're out of money when they're asking for a levy. they're they They usually have 25% to 30% sitting in from last year. And and and the you know guy from Parma, Smilic, was saying that you know he thinks this will, if they have to give back that 2% or 3% if they go over 30%, then they're just going to have to ask for another levy.
00:20:50
Speaker
Yeah. Well, people need to vote no. And I keep it. And I can't. a Why? You've got 30%. And then what happens? Do you use that whole 30% in 2025? Or is there carry over to the carry over?
00:21:03
Speaker
It carries over to the carry over. That was the whole point of this, I believe. yeah So it just keeps carrying over and that's a lot of money. i mean, $10.5 billion dollars when the budget for for the whole state combined, federal, state, and local is less than 30. It's more than a third of the school budget money that's allocated for schools is not spent every year.
00:21:29
Speaker
They're always going to ask for more. Yep. They will. I think people would really be interested. I mean, that that is something that most people don't know. I was i was actually pretty shocked. So Republicans say that 486 traditional school districts in Ohio carried over money, its carried more than 30% of their expenses in fiscal year 2024.
00:21:52
Speaker
Right. I had no clue. And until i when we covered this a little bit last week, I had no clue that schools were this flush with money and money. You know, I've never voted yes on a levy, but at the same time, sometimes I was like, well, maybe I should.
00:22:10
Speaker
But now now I know. I don't want to make it sound like they they're just sitting there on loads of cash. There there is a good reason to carry money over.
00:22:21
Speaker
and A, a if if if you've got extra money in December or whenever the fiscal year ends for the schools, and you And you should be allowed to carry it over because then all of a sudden, then you're just spending it to spend it.
00:22:33
Speaker
Then you're going to waste it. I would think it's good to have extra and a reserves. I think ah my problem may be, and maybe similar to yours is you keep asking for more.
00:22:44
Speaker
yeah You're not even spending everything. And then you want, and I get it. Everything goes up. That's usually what pulls on my heartstrings is I know I see the price of everything going up. It goes up for the schools too. Everybody wants raises gas prices go up, heating costs, all that stuff.
New Ohio Laws and Their Implications
00:23:00
Speaker
It's just, they always got their hand out.
00:23:04
Speaker
They can have their hand out.
00:23:07
Speaker
We talked about first energy increasing rates last week, was it? I think. Yes. And now it sounds like Akron is going to have some, um, some of their energy rates and I don't believe it's first energy that is doing it.
00:23:22
Speaker
And here is the clip that tells me Akron increase here. Right here. See if you can maybe point, pick out where some of the increase might be coming from.
00:23:34
Speaker
Okay. People who live in Akron and feel frustrated after hearing that their electric bills will be going up next month. The city says it entered into a new agreement with Dynagy, formerly Energy Harbor.
00:23:45
Speaker
It offers 100 percent carbon free energy. The new deal will nearly double the rates people are paying. News 5's Tessa DeTiro joins us live this morning from Akron with what you need to know about your energy bill. Good morning, Tessa.
00:24:01
Speaker
ah Good morning, Tiffany. So as you mentioned, those fees go up in May 2025 and they go from 4.97 cents to 9.24 cents. I wanted to read that to make sure that I know how much those fees are going up by.
00:24:16
Speaker
When I spoke with Akron Mayor Shamus Malik, he says he understands the frustration here. But the last time they entered into a new agreement was in 2021. Malik says at that time, energy costs were much lower.
00:24:28
Speaker
He thinks this is a problem that's extending far beyond the borders here of the city of Akron. Yeah, I think it is far beyond the borders. did Anything stick out to you in that report?
00:24:40
Speaker
The carbon free? There you go. Uh-huh. Does it have to be carbon free? How much of that increase is because it's carbon free? No one ever brings it back up in the story and anything I've read on it, no one ah actually lost time. Don't even mention that it's carbon free.
00:24:59
Speaker
4.9 cents to 9.24 cents. to nine point two four cents Yeah, what is that, 70% increase there? At least, yeah, it's at least. And so what does the mayor of Akron have to say?
00:25:10
Speaker
Well, there's a theme in his and what he has to say. so like it up We recognize this not the most ideal situation, the rate going up. This is something that impacts each and every one of us, right? I got my letter from the supplier at Dynaji in the mail yesterday.
00:25:30
Speaker
I don't control the supply of electricity in our country. um But at the end of the day, you know, we want to get the best possible rate we can for our residents. So I do encourage folks to go online and really look and see if they can get a better deal.
00:25:44
Speaker
Not my fault. That's what he says. I mean, I got to pay it too. And we just want the best rates for Akron. So if you really wanted the best rates for Akron, you wouldn't be going with carbon free.
00:25:57
Speaker
Yeah, that's something else there. Where are they getting carbon-free energy from? i have no idea. I don't believe there is much around here in Ohio or any even surrounding states to pull from. Right. If you were in Arizona or you know out west or the plains, when you can you know well you drive out west, you can see all you can see is windmills for miles.
00:26:21
Speaker
Right. To me, the only way to get carbon-free energy, if you can't get carbon-free ah carbon-free source, is carbon tax, carbon credits.
00:26:34
Speaker
You think so? That's the only way. You think that's what they're doing? but I don't, how else can you do it? If you're going to have carbon free, 100% carbon free energy and you can't get 100% carbon free sources, yeah maybe they have some carbon free sources, but they don't have 100% carbon free sources. Yeah, we don't we don't have that here. right So you think they're just adding the tax on there?
00:26:58
Speaker
That's what all companies do. Oh. Apple says um our stuff is carbon-free, and some of it is. you know their their Their campus is full of solar panels everywhere, so I'm sure that's part of it. It's California. Yes, but how they get all the way carbon-free is mostly through carbon credits, from my understanding.
00:27:19
Speaker
I had no idea. So there's a portion of that and that increase that is that is carbon credits. i can't i can't see how it is any other way. Even in Arizona, you can't get 100%. With the sunniest state in the in the and the union, probably, you you still can't get 100% carbon-free.
00:27:39
Speaker
So it's a big lie. Yeah. and And he's saying, ah you know, we want what the best rates for for people in Akron. I think that's Because if you wanted the best rates for the people in Akron, you wouldn't have carbon free. Because that's not giving you the best rates.
00:27:55
Speaker
I think you need to look at what's ah what's driving him to do this. That's good point. there There must be an incentive for for him or the city or... or like geez, I don't know.
00:28:09
Speaker
There has to For him. Yeah. For for him. or up Or, you know, again, it's just just like Washington on a smaller scale. I mean, who's funding campaigns? You got to look into that.
00:28:23
Speaker
How much of this came from clean energy companies, so on and so forth. Or is it or it just virtuous signal virtue signaling that he can just come out and say we're carbon free? I don't know.
00:28:35
Speaker
Could be any one of those. Akron doesn't strike me as a city that you would have to do that. You know? Yeah. ah and It isn't. I could see that in Columbus. I could see that.
00:28:46
Speaker
Yeah, even in Cleveland, but Akron? Mm-mm. Yeah. Yeah, there's there's got to be another motivator here.
00:28:56
Speaker
Yeah, I need to be as nefarious as he's getting paid to, but it could be to be, like I said, just as simple as he wants to make a check. He wants a checkbox that Akron is carbon-free, and that way he can get invited to all the cool parties with all the cool people.
00:29:10
Speaker
Could be, or or a bigger run for something else. I i don't know anything about this guy. so No, it's the first time i ever heard him. and Yeah. ah Yeah. It doesn't sound like a... What's his name? Shamus Malik?
00:29:23
Speaker
Shamus Malik. I don't think I even pulled his name. a S-H-A-M-M-A-S.
00:29:34
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but they're looking to Yeah, he might be running for something else. He might be going for type state thing.
00:29:46
Speaker
A very good, very good possibility. All right. Akron people, keep an eye on your energy bills because they're going up next month. May. Notice it. That's a big, that's a big, huge.
00:29:59
Speaker
And there was comments. They brought up some comments because they posted this on Facebook that, Hey, you know, here's, we made this deal, this and that. Now you can opt out if you live in Akron. And you can go online and find your own. And there were a couple of people that left comments saying that they did get a better deal than the city.
00:30:15
Speaker
And how it's weird that this guy got like 8 cents instead of 9.2 or whatever it is. Yeah, 9.2. He got 8 cents from four. So he got lot. let's That's only one penny. But when you're talking about that's that's considerable. It's probably 10 or 12% less.
00:30:31
Speaker
Yeah. And he his comment was, weird that I can go online and find it. But the city I can get a better deal than the city of Akron. that's a good comment so i would say at least a penny of that nine cents or that increase is carbon free because this guy probably went and found you know whoever that he said he he filtered by you know uh no ah early termination fee a 12-month contract uh no no fees or anything else and he got eight cents instead of 9.24 Yeah, that's a significant finding there.
00:31:05
Speaker
That's good. Now, the good news might be that the city of Akron only only signed like a 13-month deal. The last one was like three or four years.
00:31:16
Speaker
They're not tied to this you know for but a long span of time if they want to make some changes. Well, hopefully there's a new mirror that can fix this. Yeah.
00:31:28
Speaker
And here's your excuse and one of the reasons to get them out. Next, I guess, unless you got something else on that. thought that was pretty interesting. No, that was good. That was a story I just kind of clip clicked on thinking it wasn't going to be anything, maybe just a little bit of a tie-in with the first energy story. And i was like, oh, this is... it That's bigger than but the then the first energy story.
00:31:50
Speaker
I mean, I don't know if it's bigger. I mean, maybe not bigger, but it's a. Maybe not bigger dollar amount. It's more significant for Akron. Oh, for sure. When you're going, they weren't they were talking about at the max, a 13% increase for first energy.
00:32:03
Speaker
And this is, you're talking 60, 70, you know, almost double. Right. Yeah. Okay. Well, While everybody was working away last week, we had 29 new laws went into effect on April 9th.
00:32:21
Speaker
All signed by Governor DeWine. So I figured we maybe touch on a few of them. and Go for it. couple of them. So one of them, the Parents' Bill of Rights.
00:32:33
Speaker
So this was couple couple of things. was House Bill 8, dubbed the Parents' Bill of Rights, requires school districts to adopt policy that allows students to attend off-premise religious classes during the school day.
00:32:47
Speaker
Formerly districts were allowed to permit religious time, but were not required to. So ah slight change is kind of like if the kid wants to go or the parents want the kid to go off site to basically a CCD class, that they should be allowed to have the time and the day if you want to do that.
00:33:05
Speaker
And that's and another they you can't say no. Were they ever would would have they ever said no? I don't believe that there was nothing nothing brought up that this was a problem.
00:33:16
Speaker
Yeah. Just that they just kind of finalize it that, you know, you kind of can't say no.
00:33:25
Speaker
So that policy... There's a lot of part of it there too. Yep, yep, that's what I'm getting to. It includes... so it's implemented on July 1st, but they do have some leeway on when they when they need to bring all these regulations up to school. So newly, it requires policies in the law.
00:33:40
Speaker
Other policies in the law include ensuring content depicting sexual concepts or gender ideology is available for parents review in the case they want to opt out.
00:33:54
Speaker
Opt out people. Yeah.
00:33:58
Speaker
So starting in July, staff will also be required to promptly notify a parent if their child requests to be referred to with a name or pronoun that vary from their biological sex at school.
00:34:14
Speaker
So in the past, the teachers, and there's been plenty of stories out there of teachers encouraging it and not telling the parents. I've heard of those stories coming out of California and New York and and other areas, but I didn't hear many in Ohio, if any.
00:34:30
Speaker
ah was that a Is that an issue here in Ohio? or what you know Nothing that screamed when you looked for it. you know Nothing that popped up. There was not no huge stories with it. I can't imagine it didn't happen, especially in places like Columbus.
00:34:44
Speaker
Yeah. Cincinnati, maybe. um I did. There was, you know, there's, there was a couple of national stories going around, you know, a year or so ago, maybe more that, for example, think there was a divorced dad whose daughter I mean, I'm sorry, people. I don't how else to say it, but b he was being, this just this girl was being groomed by the school.
00:35:05
Speaker
Basically, she had, you know, they're going through divorce, so I'm sure it was a tough time. So she had you expressed some confusion, I guess, and the teacher was encouraging it and brought the dad into it.
00:35:16
Speaker
um i got I think the mom was... Out of the picture, I'm not sure. And the dad's, so the reason it stuck out to me is the dad had a unique solution at the time. I think it was like Minnesota or something. It was it was Midwest, it wasn't California, but it was ah more of a liberal state.
00:35:33
Speaker
And his reaction was to play along with the school because the school was giving them the, you could have a um ah live son or dead daughter kind of talk, you know.
00:35:44
Speaker
so what he did when he went along with it and found a transfer found a different job in a different state and moved now obviously people people can't do this the reason it stuck this story sticks in my head is because he didn't fight it at the school level because what he said is he had hurt other people who fought it and then they bring in child services Right.
00:36:08
Speaker
and So he did. Oh, yes. Yes. And kind of went along with it. They started therapy. No, no drugs or anything, just therapy. And then within a couple of months, he had left this. oh you know, i got another another job. You know, I'm going to carry this on at the next school. ditch Thanks for all your help. And he ditched. He went up and he bailed and got his kid out.
00:36:25
Speaker
Wise man. Yeah. Very wise man. Not everybody can't do that, but. if i If I remember correctly, I kind of remember that story. and And I think a few months later, his daughter was, you know, not having any issues. and Right. yeah um Yeah, within within six months, she was back to normal.
00:36:44
Speaker
Yeah. As you would say. So again, and not to say that you that the solution is to move, but um if you're going to freak out in front of the school, you may end up giving yourself more problems down the line. There's a more strategic way to handle it.
00:36:58
Speaker
Yeah, every situation is different. Maybe, you know, I know people can't just pick up and move, but if, you know, sometimes like this guy really didn't have a choice. that He was a single father. He kind of needed to pick up and go. And maybe it's easier for a guy to do that with, ah you know, single one.
00:37:16
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. We've heard even worse stories where, know, the mother wants this and the father wants something else. And it's. Yep. All right, next law um that was passed was harsher drunk driving penalties.
00:37:32
Speaker
The minimum fine for their first offense was raised from $375 $565. The also increases the maximum fine for aggravated vehicular homicide to $25,000, which is $10,000 increase the previous law. vehicular homicide to two hundred to twenty five thousand which is a ten thousand dollars or ten thousand dollars increase of their previous law
00:37:52
Speaker
It also, this is also, I didn't get the house bill, let's shoot, but it's dubbed Liv's Law. It allows police to also collect oral fluid samples from drivers suspected of driving an influencer. In the past, it was only breath breath, blood, or hair samples.
00:38:11
Speaker
So apparently...
00:38:16
Speaker
raising with that is that just for a quicker um yeah it's a different way to test if you want if you want just give a swab of the mouth and then you can put it in an analyzer right there in sight and before you weren't allowed to it wasn't stipulated in the law right now it's house bill 37 thank you i'm sure this has nothing to do with revenue it's only for your safety Because I know now that so now that the fine is 375 to 565, definitely going to cut that third beer off.
00:38:46
Speaker
Yeah. that and Well, everyone's going to be safer. Yes, definitely safer and, yeah, sure.
00:38:54
Speaker
but What's the alcohol level at now? Is it still 0.8? Still 0.8. I don't know if it's changed at all. Let's see. Ohio blood.
00:39:07
Speaker
Alcohol limit is 0.08 BAC. yeah Under 21 is 0.02. Commercial drivers are 0.04. Oh, wow. Well, that makes sense.
00:39:21
Speaker
Yeah, that makes sense. um Yeah, so it's they haven't raised that. And just more stiffer penalties. I mean, inflation, you got to, you know, got yeah move to move the times, I guess.
00:39:32
Speaker
Next was infinite school expulsions. Apparently in the past, schools were limited to like 180 days. They could only expel somebody for 180 days and they had or or the rest of the school year.
00:39:47
Speaker
And then the then the next year or after 180 days, they had to bring them back. So now this this allows schools to expel students up to 180 days or one year. ah no That's the way it was.
00:39:59
Speaker
But now they can now review it every night. They can now do 180 days. A student expulsion can be extended for 90 days at a time after that with no limit.
00:40:12
Speaker
That's got to be one hell of a student there. So yeah, it's it's for students. ah They had the... Permanently expel them before they, I'll finish this, before students ages 16 years or older could have been permanently expelled, but only if they were convicted in a court of a serious crime or offense.
00:40:31
Speaker
Now they can do that for anyone they deem as a danger to the school. So a little harsher penalties on that, giving the schools a little more leeway, it sounds like. I mean, yeah. And to come back, they're required to undergo a psychiatric evaluation by a psychiatrist.
00:40:48
Speaker
I'm going to say that's a good thing. That's a good thing. Because if you were limited, you had ah you know you had a kid that brought a gun into school or a knife into school or pulled a knife on somebody and you can only, you know, at the beginning of the year, you can only expel him for 180 days and then he has to come back.
00:41:04
Speaker
Right. I don't think, I'm not sure I'd want him. You know, I'm sorry, but you need help before you need to come back. Yeah, that's true. um Next, sex extortion criminalized. a House Bill 531 named Braden's Law classifies sex-stortion. They have a new word.
00:41:26
Speaker
Sex-stortion. ah Short for sexual extortion. It now classifies it as a felony in Ohio. um Sex-stortion. I still like saying it's weird. Sextortion occurs when an individual is blackmailed or over intimate images.
00:41:43
Speaker
So what happened to Braden Marcus was somebody posed as a 15 year old girl and convinced Marcus to send photos back, you know, nude photos, I'm sure.
00:41:56
Speaker
And the government then demanded those photos.
00:42:00
Speaker
ransom for those photos And i think there's a it school's different nowadays. Boy, didn't, did he commit suicide? Yes, he did. yeah i shouldn't have laughed at but man, school's different.
00:42:13
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It is different. Marcus, uh, he died 30 minutes after that happened. So man, he was devastated. I don't even, yeah.
00:42:24
Speaker
Can't even get comprehend that. so what they're threatening is to send these pictures to everybody at your school of whatever you've sent them, which is usually private, private, yeah private areas or what you want to call it, you know?
00:42:38
Speaker
And, and and the the the wrong kid in the right state of mind or right kid, the wrong state of mind. ah This, this is, this is everything. A 15 year old having the pictures of his junk sent to the whole school.
00:42:52
Speaker
Yeah, that's got to be like probably the worst time of your life to be dealing with something like that. 14, 15, 16. Yeah. yeah And these are overseas.
00:43:05
Speaker
You know, these aren't people from around. These are just phishing scams, I think. You think so? You don't think it would actually, ah you know, I never even thought about that. I just figured it was some kids. um Kids. are That can be the case.
00:43:22
Speaker
That can be the case. But with the ransom and everything, i don't I think there is a very large portion of this that's actually it's very much like a pro fishing. Yeah, okay. i know I didn't even think of that. I just figured some kids were playing a prank on him, but that makes sense.
00:43:37
Speaker
Yeah, similar to some of the texts you get. Like, hey, how you doing? I saw you last week. But they'll they'll get a text. you know They're sending these texts or messages, depending on what platform you're using, to you know thousands and thousands of phone numbers or usernames.
00:43:53
Speaker
Counting on at least a few of them have sent pictures to somebody. Yeah. And then they can pose, you know, if you send it you can send it to a million people with a one click. And if you get three of them, or 30 of them, or 3,000 of them, whatever it is, just by coincidence.
00:44:12
Speaker
So i I attended a, years ago, i attended a FBI, like, seminar on this. That was in a neighboring city. And they had put out of a fact that
00:44:28
Speaker
So this is the reverse, I think, for boys and girls, because this kid was a boy, and maybe maybe it's not. But they had said an interesting stat that maybe this applies. back in Back then, this was probably at least 10, 15 years ago, for a predator to get ah boy to meet in real life was two to three weeks.
00:44:47
Speaker
For a predator to get a girl to meet in real life was two to three days. Yes, I've heard i've heard that. most Most of these predators are men, so you it's it's a little harder barrier when you're trying to get a boy to meet, you know, but girls are much more susceptible.
00:45:03
Speaker
This is a similar kind of thing. um there's there there yeah So this is good. So what it does is ah categorizes as a third-degree felony, but it can be upgraded to a second- or first-degree felony depending on the variety of ah variety of factors, including the victim is a minor or disabled um and if the predator is a repeat offender.
00:45:25
Speaker
So you can even go up to a first degree felony.
00:45:29
Speaker
That's all good. i agree with this law, obviously. and it's It's a good thing. But how do you catch the predator? Yeah, you know that is difficult. It's almost impossible some in some cases.
00:45:44
Speaker
Yeah, that you're getting the... I would think you'd have to get FBI involved. Yes, I think for sure, because you got to pull up all kinds of, you know, not that they day track all of our texts and phone calls.
00:45:59
Speaker
They don't do that. But if case in case they did, they'd be able to pull that up.
00:46:04
Speaker
Yeah, i mean, i don't think it's I don't think it's easy, but i I think, you know, they can do it and they they probably have, um you know. They're the only ones with the resources. Right. yeah They have the resources and they probably have other cases that are, have maybe the some of the same, they cross over.
00:46:21
Speaker
So, yeah yeah, this, I mean, it's a great law. I mean, it sounds good, but I don't know if it's really going to do anything. put some teeth on something. i mean, it's a problem. And so before this, if, if you were able to catch somebody, what can you do? You were limited on what you could do at least if you do catch them and put some teeth behind it, I guess.
00:46:40
Speaker
I don't know how much it's going to do to stop anybody because I really believe that a lot of these people aren't even the country. Yeah. Yeah. i never, I never even thought about that. When I first read this, I just, I just imagined it was a, you know, uh, uh, uh, another student doing this. Well, mean, yeah, I'm sure that I think that definitely is part of it or it does happen. I should say, I just, I just don't think they're more, they're not, nobody's as a kid. Well, I guess as a joke, you asked for a ransom. Yeah. i guess it could happen easily. wonder was it I wonder where, I wonder where, I don't know anything about Braden Marcus, but I wonder if, uh,
00:47:15
Speaker
if he lived in a more affluent
00:47:19
Speaker
suburb, you know, if it was just a better target for something.
00:47:26
Speaker
Yeah. So I mean, it's not as much street smarts. Yeah. but Good point. All right, so yeah the next one was driver license suspension lifted for certain offenses. I think this is something i I've heard about for years and it made no sense to me. So House Bill 29 ends the practice of suspending driver's license for failure to pay court fines or fees, along with some other minor offenses, such as school truancy.
00:47:51
Speaker
Residents whose driver's license... or motor vehicle registration was suspended for such offenses before the law was passed are able to have their license reinstated. The law also allows those who have had their license suspended for being in default on child support payments the to prove that a suspended license prevents them from making payments and they could be granted limited driving privileges.
00:48:18
Speaker
Actually, the but the all I see is House Bill 29. It just mentions the child support thing. ah he's Somebody's got to get to work.
00:48:29
Speaker
Well, I always wondered that. like how how I get you trying to get child support from usually dad, but I and never understood how you could take the guy. They take the person's life license away. how are they supposed to pay you? they supposed to get to work?
00:48:44
Speaker
i yeah i guess you cant I know you can, but it severely limits what you can do. and how I mean, even even if you get your license suspended for um for driving drunk, you so you still get work privileges.
00:48:56
Speaker
Yes. So this is bizarre. Yeah. So I think that's definitely a good thing. Yeah. And one of the other ones that was of note was companies are banning are banned from tracking firearms purchases.
00:49:12
Speaker
This was a big one for me but and the parents' one. But Senate Bill 58 enacts the Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act, which bars credit card companies, banks, and other institutions from categorizing or tracking firearms-related purchases.
00:49:29
Speaker
um The law state's companies also cannot compile lists of gun purchasers and share such information with third parties, including government agencies, unless required by law through due process.
00:49:44
Speaker
Yay. This is a big win, I think. Yeah. And and I ah didn't know there was anything. it also um It also says you don't have to have firearm insurance or a liability.
00:49:55
Speaker
I never knew did. I don't think you do, but it just prohibits. Go ahead. They just locked it up. So ah you can't. never You'll never have to. so So state and local governments, because I think we're fine with the state, but you're going from state, from um local government to local government. So it requires, ah it stops and prohibits them from requiring liability insurance to possess firearm.
00:50:21
Speaker
Legislation was, um, was a proactive move as no local governments in Ohio require firearm liability insurance for gun owners before the law's passage.
00:50:32
Speaker
ah Nationally, some jurisdictions such as New Jersey, San Jose, California have enacted such mandates. So is this is a, yeah um this is a pre, yeah trying to get it to it before it even happens so they don't have to have any problems because they so you do some, and you you may have some, Cuyahoga County could be easily be one of those.
00:50:51
Speaker
um And they've never been very,
00:50:56
Speaker
Conceal carry friendly as, as some of the other rural counties, for example. Right. So I think that is good. i um, did see, so 29 new laws.
00:51:13
Speaker
I pull up a article from WNBC forge. I but think there's a Columbus based, um, NBC affiliate. So they, they, they there's 29 new laws are on their way in and here's 10 of them.
00:51:26
Speaker
What about the other 19? Did you run out paper? could you not so could i Could you run out a scrolling room and in the article? You couldn't put all 29 in there, huh? Thanks.
00:51:38
Speaker
Appreciate you. But some of the other ones, maybe. House Bill 106, known as the Pay Stub Protection Act, requires employers to provide pay stubs, which I didn't know that was a problem, but okay.
00:51:53
Speaker
Bill, which is you know some of the things I maybe want to look into House Bill 77, which establishes new laws to for operating drones in Ohio. Oh, do we know what those laws are? No, I just have that. Yeah. see you House Bill 322. Yep.
00:52:09
Speaker
yep ah Creates the office. It creates the offense of grooming by.
00:52:16
Speaker
By prohibiting a person who is 18 years older from engaging in a pattern of conduct with a minor if the person and the minor in any sort of relationship, like like relatives, teachers, or coaches.
00:52:29
Speaker
Does this have to do with ah with the rash of teachers having sex with their students? Because it keeps coming in the news lately. There's been a lot of it, that's for sure. I don't know if a lot it's in Ohio, is it?
00:52:41
Speaker
I think there's one in Ohio. i um I don't have it front of me. So before the House Bill 320, so this says creates the offense of grooming by prohibiting. Yeah, grooming was never an offense.
00:52:58
Speaker
so They're making grooming an offense. Oh, that's but it's by prohibiting a person who is 18 years or older from engaging in a pattern of conduct with a minor if the person and the minor are in any sort of relationship, like a relative or a child. Oh, okay.
00:53:16
Speaker
So yeah, this is basically pointing right at that. Yeah, I think so. there has There has been a rush of that lately. we should We should kind of maybe dig into that little bit in the future.
00:53:27
Speaker
Yes. i was That's why I'm wondering. I i don't don't recall anything in and Actually, there was something in Ohio, I think. and I saw a headline. I didn't read into it because um I mean just didn't have time to, but it wasn't it wasn't anywhere in Northeast Ohio.
00:53:44
Speaker
Senate Bill 58 was the one that prohibited anyone from being required, don't know if I said that or not, to have insurance and liability on firearms. Um, so bill house bill seven. ahead.
00:53:57
Speaker
No, I was saying, go ahead. House bill seven was a measure to support mothers and babies. It says originally it had a multimillion dollar appropriation in it, but the spending was all stripped out of it.
00:54:11
Speaker
Um, in this bill, there seem to be law has several policies in it to do things like update Medicare or Medicaid programs, coverage of
00:54:22
Speaker
Evidence-based mental health and dyadic family therapy services for young children and their caregivers.
00:54:36
Speaker
Evidence-based mental health and dyadic family therapist therapy services. even know what that is. I'm not smart enough to know that. um I just, I just, the first thing that hit me when I read this is like, like, where's the other 19? Can you just list them at least so we can look into them?
00:54:56
Speaker
Infinite Explosions was there. Yeah, that's pretty much covers all them that they have in the bill. I guess the other ones just were just nothing.
00:55:04
Speaker
Well, what I got, I think I got the same thing in front of me that you're looking at. And and some of them, they really don't explain the, the new bill. So I'm kind of reading some of them going, what, what the hell is that being? And I would have to dig into it, but I don't see anything ah all that,
00:55:22
Speaker
ah Probably nothing. Usually updates to other stuff. Yeah. The other one was, which we didn't, we talked about before, is that they're still trying to ban cell phones in schools, which we talked about that before. That's probably, in that might, that was one of the things that DeWine is pushing really hard.
00:55:37
Speaker
and don't know if he's trying to put, if he was trying to push it in the budget or not. I don't know. doesn't seem like it. I haven't heard it anywhere. He is pushing it. He just keeps having a press conferences about it.
00:55:48
Speaker
i don't I don't get it um I mean, I get it, but i yeah mean, I don't get why he's pushing it so hard.
00:55:57
Speaker
Seems to me like he, I don't know. It's just, it's, it's your children. It always seems get everybody. So we'll keep following that. But right now it's, it's a mixed mix bag. Right right now, the the just to recap, the state requires schools to have a policy right in place, but it varies from no policy to basically no policy to you, you can't bring them into school at all. So.
00:56:22
Speaker
I still say give the kids a Faraday bag. Make sure they put their phones in the Faraday bag in the in the classroom. and And and but that should be good.
00:56:33
Speaker
And some of the reports I was watching that they actually were showing B-roll from that. Some schools have those bags. Oh, yeah? So they're like they different. There's a company that's making them. You can tell they're they're made. So they're like a little pouch.
00:56:45
Speaker
You slide your phone into it. And then when it magnets together, it locks. yeah And then to get it out, you have there's a little thing in the front of the class or wherever where you like all right it's probably RFID or something or magnet, and you wave the little pouch over it and it opens up.
00:57:01
Speaker
Okay. That's kind of cool. That's all right. Yeah. Kind of. It's kind of cool. I don't know if you need that, but... I am so undecided on this subtopic as we talked about. I like the idea of of they need to focus, but I also like the idea of having communications with my kids whenever I need it.
Community Reactions to Police Force Resignation
00:57:20
Speaker
Well, they shouldn't be getting interrupted in classroom, but just because you need to text something, you know, you could always call the school if there's something major. And that's what the school says. We'll get them in in mere minutes if you need us to.
00:57:33
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So I don't, I don't, but I want them to have a phone for, you know, emergency we worst case thing, a school shooter or a fire or something like that.
00:57:47
Speaker
so Keep eye on that and see what they come up with. um Next is there. Is it Beach County? Is it? Is that what it is No, it's Craig Beach.
00:57:58
Speaker
Craig Beach Village. This one's good. Craig Beach Village. Every police officer resigned. but They were all volunteers. Let's make sure we tell people that.
00:58:08
Speaker
I have a couple clips we can you can go with. But my the question wrote what do you do when your whole police force quits? hang Hang on What? I wasn't ready for this.
00:58:21
Speaker
Oh. What do you do? Yeah, what you
00:58:31
Speaker
That's what you do. All right, well, let's let's hear from this, from let's let's get some background situation, what happened, and then maybe get some comments. There you go. Oh, let me pull this.
00:58:45
Speaker
Craig Beach is a small village of around 1,000 people in Mahoning County. Their police force is made up of seven part-time members covering 20 hours a week. At least it was until last night when five of them resigned.
00:58:58
Speaker
The other two are on active duty in the military. That means there aren't any officers at all for the foreseeable future. Just a lot of this discord between us and council not getting...
00:59:12
Speaker
equipment that we need, not getting bills paid, just a real you know hostile work environment. and it just got to a point where you know and nothing enough is enough.
00:59:24
Speaker
Sergeant Renata Griffith says it all came to a head during Tuesday night's council meeting. And with the entire force gone, we asked the mayor what happens next. What is your message to the community moving forward? and That they would get police coverage. i but i would work to get them police coverage. So Temporarily, we have police coverage.
00:59:45
Speaker
The Mahoning County Sheriff's Office is picking up the slack in Craig Beach for the foreseeable future. He was told to say the word police coverage over and over again. bily yeah there was There's a thousand people in in correct and Craig Beach County whatever it's called.
01:00:02
Speaker
Village, yeah. It's in Mahoning County, which is like...
01:00:09
Speaker
I'm not sure where that It's like west east of Solon maybe out towards Garrettsville that way. Yeah, but it's it's a rural county, right? Oh, it's rural. And the sheriff has taken over. You know, my wife and I have been searching for a home kind of like in the and the sticks. And most of these places don't have a their own police department. You're dealing with sheriff co you know the county sheriff department, you know.
01:00:32
Speaker
Yeah. And um so they asked, the you know, of course they had comments. So let's see what the citizen said about this. The people I spoke to you had mixed feelings about the resignations, but bottom line, when they call for help, they just want someone to respond.
01:00:48
Speaker
I'm kind of disgusted with it weather they because when when we did have to call the police, they were never around anyways. Well, there you go. There you go.
01:01:01
Speaker
Yeah, they they were so part-time. And I actually know, I worked with a guy who was similar to this. He you know if he was part-time. It wasn't, obviously, it wasn't even the same. it was farther south, maybe, and west um in Ohio. But um he was a part-time. He did 20, 25 hours a week. and I think he still does.
01:01:20
Speaker
And he loves it. He he thinks says but it's, I don't know, some people like that kind of stuff. But it's in a rural area, too. He knows most of the people. And he's not working for a city like Akron or Cleveland. Well, yeah.
01:01:30
Speaker
I mean, happens a lot and i don't I don't know this little village. And a village usually does have a have ah police department now and that I think about it. But, um you know, when you're living in the rural, when you're living in the sticks, you're not going to get a fire department. You're not going to get police quickly.
01:01:47
Speaker
I mean, so, you know, treat your ah treat your volunteers well. It seems like it was the chief was ah posted something on social media that wasn't very complimentary to the village council. So that's where this started.
01:02:06
Speaker
Uh, they're complaining about not getting equipment they need and bills paid according to the, one of the, that was one of the, um, officers that was, uh, they're interviewing there. I mean, it is a village, you know, uh, how much money did it actually have? are they spending it on? That's all the questions that, um, I would be asking.
Ohio's Issue Two and AI Impact on Industries
01:02:25
Speaker
But, I mean, you can tie back into one of the previous stories, the new law, you know, Senate up Bill 58, which um borrows credit card companies from um instituting categorizing trafficking firearms-related purchases would be related to this.
01:02:41
Speaker
that's That's what you do when your all your police force quits. Make sure your guns are loaded. When you're living in ah in the sticks like that, you better – you should have – you know, firearm.
01:02:52
Speaker
Just by the size of the spacing between houses. And it's, it's, you got way less manpower for a much bigger area in the world. Yeah. You probably have less problems too. I mean, you're also going to wait.
01:03:07
Speaker
Right. um Unless they, they got, you know, i don't know this, this village, but unless they got some kind of drug issue there, somebody, a bunch of tweaks. That's happening. Yeah.
01:03:20
Speaker
We'll get to this before, make sure we get to this before the end, is there's a issue two on the May 6th ballot. Well, tell me about this. Issue two is kind of and interesting in a way, I guess.
01:03:35
Speaker
Issue two would amend the Ohio Constitution to allow the state to issue general obligation bonds to help local governments pay for capital improvement projects like roads and bridges.
01:03:46
Speaker
watershed treatment systems, stormwater management, and more ah throughout the state capital right and more um through the state capital improvement program. So voting yes for it means what?
01:04:00
Speaker
Nothing new. So this program itself is nothing new. ah Ohio, we first approved this in 1987 and reapproved it through three separate constitutional amendments since then.
01:04:11
Speaker
Most recent was 2024. The last amendment will sunset on July 1st. So basically, so the upcoming issue, what they're asking for is to renew it and to increase the budget for it. So the upcoming issue ah raises the annual limit for the state issued bonds from 200 million to 250 million.
01:04:32
Speaker
um or $2.5 billion over the amendment's 10-year authorization. The program started out at $120 million per year in 1987.
01:04:43
Speaker
What does this do for me? I mean, like, as far as my... How does this raise my... Is it property taxes, or is it a... No, no taxes. So this what this sounds like is bonds that the state issues to...
01:04:58
Speaker
the city if they need to do a large road or bridge projects to help them through. um And it sounds to me like this is something the state pays for.
01:05:10
Speaker
Like they issue the bonds. It's either one or one or two things. either they issue the bonds and pay for a back, or they issue the bonds in the city pays them back. and but They're using the state to get their good credit rating. That would be my interpretation. Yeah, but to where does the state get their money from?
01:05:24
Speaker
Us. okay Oh, yeah. It's from us. It's totally from us. So is it is my income tax going up? is my or No. not No? It does not say that any taxes will go up because of this increase.
01:05:36
Speaker
Okay. It's just... um But they would beg the question of where they get the money from. and what's getting cut?
01:05:47
Speaker
you know? Well, yes. And let me just pull.
01:05:53
Speaker
It doesn't. Yeah. And you know what? It doesn't say. it's ex it's took me a minute to figure out what the heck this ever even meant. Like what? are the oh This is nothing. you know what? i read it once real quick and I was like, I had no clue what it meant. So thank you for doing this.
01:06:08
Speaker
Yeah. I'm just skimming the article real quick to see if it says, ah for example, City of Cleveland was given was awarded more than $9 million dollars in 2024 and $8 million dollars in 2023.
01:06:22
Speaker
so the director by James DeRosa, Director of Mayor's ah Office of Capital Projects. And I'm just, you know, it doesn't say anything about
01:06:36
Speaker
Measure can be approved with a simple yes vote, to a six ballot to renew the 38-year-old program for then for another 10 years. It does not say anything about where the money's going to come from.
01:06:50
Speaker
it's That's an excellent question, Tom. I did not think of that. Yeah, I mean, I don't know if they're asking for more money or... It just makes sense that has to come from somewhere. Definitely come the state budget.
01:07:02
Speaker
Yeah, state budget, but okay. i mean, did they cut? Are they cutting something to get this money or are they? going to write this down because I want to know. I'm hoping, I guess, more hoping than anything, that what this really is is ah favor to the cities and and and counties to say, we're issuing you a bond.
01:07:23
Speaker
Like, we're loaning you the money. The state's loaned you the money and city will pay them back. <unk> That's what it feels like to me, but I don't know. Okay. Yeah. I mean, that's cool. That's what it is.
01:07:33
Speaker
No, I mean, I'll. Kind of what they're doing with the Browns. The Browns want the state to issue bonds, basically borrow money because they have such a good credit rating. They get really good interest rates.
01:07:45
Speaker
I'll be honest. This was the first time in a long time, a few years, that, that I was planning on just skipping the vote because I had no clue what's going on. Yeah. so And actually one of the reasons we're doing this show.
01:07:59
Speaker
Yeah. Because we feel like we never know what the hell's going on. We know more what's going on It's been a long time since i I haven't, you know, where I skipped a yeah a vote on anything. So, i mean, it's been years.
01:08:13
Speaker
And this was the first one where I was like, not there's nothing else on our ballot in our district. So I was like, yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I ah almost always have a school levy, so I always have to go vote.
01:08:27
Speaker
Right.
01:08:30
Speaker
That was so that again, we got to follow that. That's what's going to go through on the ballot issue on May 6th for the primary. It is a primary, right? Yeah. For next, for next year's guventorial primary will be right.
01:08:41
Speaker
May 6th. Is it this year? no. no no No, this is just on the May 6th ballot. There's nothing that. The primary is not until November. Right. Okay.
01:08:53
Speaker
So that, keep it out for that. And, you know, I i drove on i drive on our roads as ah as almost everybody does. So we do need some money for the roads.
01:09:06
Speaker
um Maybe it's a good thing if we're not getting our taxes raised. But
01:09:12
Speaker
maybe one last big story here is Microsoft. Microsoft.
01:09:18
Speaker
is slowing data center projects in Ohio. And actually, they're not really slowing them. They're stopping them altogether. This one surprised me when I saw it. I didn't i didn't get a chance to read into it, so.
01:09:30
Speaker
but I did a little, um and it's there's not whole lot to read into other than Microsoft is slowing or pausing some of its data center construction, including the $1 billion dollars project in Ohio, which I think it was west of Columbus.
01:09:45
Speaker
um The latest sign that the demand for artificial intelligence technology that drove a mess massive infrastructure expansion might not need quite as many powerful computers as expected.
01:09:58
Speaker
Tech giant confirmed last week that it is halted. Early stage projects on rural land rural land it owns in central Ohio. liing Central Ohio is lickings county Licking County.
01:10:12
Speaker
Ohio, outside of Columbus, where I think it is towards Dayton side, I believe. And will reserve two of the three sites for farmland.
01:10:24
Speaker
So they're still planning on and putting a bunch of money into the community. It's just not going to be in a data center. At least right now. So they're not sell the land. they're going to keep the land and I guess apparently use some of it for farming because.
01:10:38
Speaker
So they're just going to lease it. Basically. Yeah. They're going to lease it out because they. so Until they want it back.
01:10:46
Speaker
Yeah. yeah they they've They've seen a, um as was saying, the demand for AI might be not be as big as they thought. Well, AI is a big farce. it It's becoming a, I think it's, we're in a bubble right now and it's, we're looking at the first signs of it bursting.
01:11:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I agree. It's not what people are expecting. So. No, I was actually a conversation last night. I was at the dinner with some friends and, you know, AI came up and people were talking about this and I'm not, I'm not, I'm not threatened by it.
01:11:18
Speaker
I don't, I don't think it's necessarily going to turn into, um,
01:11:23
Speaker
cyber, whatever, Terminator, Skynet. But I also don't think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread either. I think it's mostly a, I've watched the tech companies do this over and over again over the years.
01:11:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. they They push this stuff because they want you to buy computers. No, it's I think it's going to affect um some industries, but I don't think it's going it's not the end of the world. It's just going to, things are just going to change.
01:11:51
Speaker
think it's a great tool. Yeah. Yeah. And, and what the conversation we had last night was, um, is is what we're seeing really AI? Yeah. Or is it just, it's just, it's just, it's just a computer predicting what we want off of, off of a whole bunch of data sets.
01:12:09
Speaker
There's, I'm sure there's plenty of AI out there, but what we see in our day-to-day life, i don't think Grok is necessarily that much AI. It's, it's predicting. It's a ah sophisticated search engine, basically.
01:12:20
Speaker
Yeah. That's what I saw. I see the only, you know, I mean, the only thing I, it doesn't worry me, but it, it does make me question the technology. it's It's like for music. I mean, I'm hearing so i'm hearing some pretty sophisticated music coming out.
01:12:39
Speaker
That's all AI. I mean, people just, they have services where you can just go on. i don't have in front of me. I wish I did, but you can just go go on and tell them what kind of song you want, what you want to be about, and it spits out a song.
01:12:52
Speaker
And if you're if you can prompt it well enough, it'll actually sound pretty decent. it it You know, um ah I was listening to ah Rick Beato, his YouTube channel, and he was playing some of the songs. and you know, they were they great? No, but they were okay.
01:13:10
Speaker
They were okay. So I think... um I think there are some industries that are going to have to like um probably yeah work out some type of deals with unions where they can't use ai stuff for companies.
01:13:32
Speaker
I think AI music will well take over for like certain things like YouTube. but Like if somebody wants to u a song for an intro or if they want a song for an outro somewhere in there. Royalty-free.
01:13:45
Speaker
Yeah, royalty-free stuff. I think that's going to take over. But i um i i you know they they got to take care of um the musicians. Oh, and that's what ri Rick's been, Rick's been talking about that for a while about Spotify. And I've heard on other shows, Spotify.
01:14:02
Speaker
Oh yeah. They're, they're making designing and, and, and they're putting artists as examples and they're spitting out similar and there's no royalties to be paid. It's all goes to Spotify.
01:14:13
Speaker
yeah I mean, it's a great business model, but it's not great for the industry. It's just, it's diluting the industry even more. So AI in that respect is kind of, you know, i it's got to be, ah I think it has there has to be some type of restrictions to it. But AI for an everyday person, it's not that big of a deal.
01:14:36
Speaker
I use it here and there ah mainly because I have Apple products. So like, for example, I'm about to say some most controversial things since we started this show, Tom.
01:14:47
Speaker
I figured out the best way to to improve Microsoft products is to put them on a Mac. That is true. um For the most part, it it is a little nicer.
01:14:57
Speaker
Not in everything, but a lot of things. But I can now write an email in Outlook, highlight the text anywhere in the in the and the operating system, right-click on it, and it'll give me writing tools.
01:15:13
Speaker
And I can write it funnier, more professional, more concise, just rewrite it, proofread it, on and on and on, all right there. And it works really good. Like proofreading, so you can do spellcheck, but spellcheck doesn't necessarily, it doesn't give you commas and all that other stuff. It doesn't, doesn't crack down on ah bad grammar.
01:15:34
Speaker
Right. And if you're writing an email for a you know, bit a bit of professional email, lot of times, you know, that's good. And, When you're making it more professional, more concise, and it works okay, but you can see what's what's AI.
01:15:50
Speaker
And what I bring up to, let's say people who are really on the AI bandwagon is as an employer, for this example, but look at other technologies first.
01:16:02
Speaker
What do people, ah and about other technologies that come out in the past 30 years people hate? Phone trees. People hate calling up and getting press one for this and press two for that. People still complain about that to this day.
01:16:17
Speaker
um And this is just that on steroids. So for my example was resume. So every resume from here on out basically will be run through AI and they're all going to look very similar to this, if not exactly the same.
01:16:32
Speaker
Yep. And you'll be able to, so what are you going to do as an employer? You can, you'll be able to pick and spot at least now the ones that aren't run through AI because they're not quite as polished.
01:16:43
Speaker
yeah Yeah. But don't most employers now run their, run the, ah I mean, you're, I haven't, I haven't looked for a job in a long time, but don't,
01:16:56
Speaker
When you fill out your you know, make your resume up, don't they run it through an AI thing before they even pick the ones they want to look at? They probably do. Yeah.
01:17:07
Speaker
I haven't heard of it yet, Nathan, in in my and my industry, but I'm sure it's there. I'm sure somebody's doing it. Yeah. but running all Yeah, I mean, it's actually not a bad tool to use to some extent. Let's let's put all these resumes in there. Give me the differences.
01:17:22
Speaker
Give me who had the most education, who has the most experience. you can and kind of That's like the search engine you're talking about. I guess ah you know my my thing is like for all this stuff, it's like...
01:17:35
Speaker
I think you're missing out on good potential employees when you do that. Like, or and I'm just thinking of um ah resumes as an example.
01:17:45
Speaker
But I think when you're letting ah machine take over, it's kind of like you're going to miss out on that one special employee that you probably could have caught if you just took the time.
01:17:58
Speaker
It takes one filtering mechanism, I think, away from employers. And because that was a filter. If you had somebody that just had a complete crap resume, it goes in the garbage. Yeah.
01:18:08
Speaker
But now they can take that crap resume and make it look halfway decent. And now you have much more crap to filter through. There's that also. There's that also. I just think, you know, if if there's, um yeah it all depends on what type of, and you know, what type of employee you're looking for. But if you're looking for like a creative employee, you know,
01:18:27
Speaker
that maybe thinks out of outside the box a little bit, this this is going to kill that. You're going be able to find them. It's similar. So of my kids has French class and she never gets homework for French.
01:18:43
Speaker
And, you know, early I'm like, that's weird. Oh, maybe I'll get homework. But as we met the teacher later on in the year, there's a reason she doesn't give homework out. Because as she said ah she says it, just the translation technology out there, she can't j have to do everything in class.
01:19:01
Speaker
Because she can't trust that they're not just putting it through. And this is she's been doing this for years. Nothing generally new, but she said something interesting to me. She goes, I know they can take it home and put it in in the on the internet and and get the translation.
01:19:14
Speaker
And I'm sure eventually they'll have... where you can just hold your, you know, you can do it live in in in real time. And I raised my hand. I said, actually, I've been doing that for and at least 10 years. She goes, what?
01:19:25
Speaker
Google Goggles has been doing that. You can go to France or wherever country, hold your phone, your camera up to a sign, and it will change it right there on your phone live. And that's been at least 10 years.
01:19:38
Speaker
So it's similar to that. It's like you you're going to have to adopt or adapt what you do in certain situations like she has, like, It's just the way you got to teach now and the way we're going hire people. um I mean, so many things.
01:19:53
Speaker
Again, I'm not against it. I think it's got I think it can be a really good tool for a lot of things, especially for large amounts of data to sift through. And like you're saying, use it as a high end search engine, basically.
01:20:05
Speaker
Yeah. I find Grok to be very helpful for a lot of things. So yeah, I use it. I put it on my phone. It's just for news stories. Like what's going on in Ohio. What's give me almost,
01:20:17
Speaker
Probably half more than half the time it pulls a story that I haven't seen anywhere on any site or any any anything. so it it doesn't It does, and you could always ask it to dig deeper. um it's It's actually a pretty good tool.
01:20:31
Speaker
um Do I trust it 100%? No. I mean, sometimes you just you have to do your own dig. I asked it yesterday or day before to draw me, and this was in context of work, so this is going a weird request, but draw me a construction worker on a on a runway or on a, what did I say? Construction worker on a construction worker model on a runway something like that, walking on a runway.
01:20:57
Speaker
And it, it drew, this is Grok. It drew four pictures of a Fox.
01:21:05
Speaker
I, I, and I, I actually screen grabbed it cause I wanted to show somebody that that is very AI, AI, AI is great. AI is great. And I want to like, here's your AI. The other one is tell it to draw somebody playing guitar.
01:21:19
Speaker
Every time I ask Apple intelligence, which by the way, ah six months before this, uh, Apple intelligence was called machine learning, which is, I think what we're really dealing with is mainly just machine learning as in predictive models. But, um, I asked, I'll ask it ah picture of my daughter playing guitar and every time none of the strings are straight if they're even um a lot of times they're just jagged like broken up all the way up the guitar that it draws and almost always her hands are all messed up yeah yeah for some reason well artists have like you have to be an extraordinary artist to be able to draw hands that's what i was told it's a weird thing right but um i yeah they keep hands are a weird thing so especially hands doing something i heard like yeah
01:22:11
Speaker
Just a hand is hard enough, but a hand like holding a glass or holding a guitar. So, yeah, that makes perfect sense because as the AI, the machine is learning all this crap and ingesting all these crap hand drawings, that's what it's spitting out is crap hand drawings.
01:22:26
Speaker
You know, what's funny is like i for for like one of my profile pictures, I have me playing guitar and I ask Rock to draw a picture of me and it actually does a pretty good job. It makes me way too fat, but that's what it sees. so That son of a freaking Elon figures a skinny guy would make everybody else look fat.
01:22:49
Speaker
You know what? It's funny because um it'll spit out a couple of pictures. it'll give you like It gives you like four at a time sometimes. and know Two of them will be me. I'm like, okay, that's an extra 30 pounds.
01:23:04
Speaker
I know I'm not svelte, but I'm not that big. And and then then there's like one there that looks, I look like a and look like a rock star.
01:23:14
Speaker
It makes me a beanpole. It looks like i've I've been shooting up for a couple of years. Well, you know, it is a diet it is it is a diet program. but It's not a great one, but it is a diet program for some.
01:23:28
Speaker
But i yeah, it it's, it any and ah where I was going was it actually does the hands pretty good, but it's got a photo of me. So yeah.
Election Challenges and Voter Issues
01:23:38
Speaker
it's It's basically just copying my the whatever pose I'm in you know and doing a fairly good job of it. I mean, so sometimes there might be three fingers there instead of four showing up.
01:23:52
Speaker
yeah Usually for me, it's an extra finger. the six the yeah Which would make you an awesome guitarist if you had an extra finger. That's Hound Dog Taylor. Seriously, there's one?
01:24:04
Speaker
Yeah. I did not know that. yeah He had like a little nub on his fretting hand. Did he use it? I don't think he ever used it, but he did have six fingers. Disappointment. Yeah, it was it was a little nub. He was mostly a slide player too, so he didn't really fret too much. But six fingers, it's bizarre when you look at his and you look at his pictures. All right, so a couple more quick ones as I got figure out how to get rid of this squeaky chair.
01:24:31
Speaker
Trump executive order exposes Ohio election weak spots. So I dug into a little bit of this, listened a little bit of the Windsor ah report. And a couple of things came out to me was, so Trump, do you know much about the executive order? Like what's, what, what, is there any details that you have that maybe I don't?
01:24:50
Speaker
About Trump's executive order? No, i don't have too much of that. So in in the podcast, they he brought up, you know, he's looking at this, that and the other thing. And it doesn't seem like there was a lot that they were worried about in Ohio.
01:25:04
Speaker
um The one thing that they did, we worried about was the proof of citizenship to vote. That was one of the things that's in the executive order is you know, they're requiring states to have proof. I've actually voter ideas, what it is, right?
01:25:14
Speaker
That was the biggest one. That's the biggest one. So that's really what they talked about a lot. it So it didn't, to me, it didn't seem like there's a whole lot of weakness, weak spots in Ohio's election law, but there is one.
01:25:26
Speaker
There was like a one County that just did not train their um poll workers correctly. Yeah. ah They didn't know how to look at a... I think the problem was they didn't know how to look at a um ah an ID and verify if they're a resident.
01:25:44
Speaker
ah she is So there's there's like... there there's I mean, it's not minor, but i it was a it was a small podunk type of town. So um overall, it wasn't that big of deal.
01:25:58
Speaker
The only thing that stuck out to me was... Right now in Ohio, you have up to four days after the election to count mail-in ballots. Right. they're going to They want to get rid of that, I think. That's the one of the things they want to get rid of. Yep.
01:26:10
Speaker
yeah And that was on an executive orders. You can't count ballots that come in after election day. You can't. just They're not not valid. And that that was happening a lot. It still happens. it was happened I know it's happening a lot in Pennsylvania.
01:26:23
Speaker
So there's that. So that's kind of good that's kind of nice. We'll see how far that goes. um I mean, secure elections is what we all want, right? so um and And the fact that asking people, because right now you have to show your ID in Ohio. I do.
01:26:40
Speaker
yeah Yeah, yeah. But there are states that um it's actually... And it may be by county. It's illegal ask for an ID. ask for an id Right.
01:26:53
Speaker
But other counties in Ohio that don't require it? I don't know. No, i I don't think so. No, not that I know of. There's between 250,000 350,000 unresolved issues the roll. they're be going through that Yeah.
01:27:06
Speaker
unresolved issues with the voter roll so they're gonna they're goingnna be through that too um I guess there's some ah you know discrepancies there where it's things are mismatched with the with the information that the voter provided. So they're going to probably just get those off the voter roll.
01:27:26
Speaker
Okay, so, but which is good. We had talked about maybe few weeks back, there was and so there was a story I had brought up there, maybe it was just in my rundown. There was like 300 and some thousand ah voters that trying to expel off the voter rolls in Ohio alone.
01:27:41
Speaker
So right now it says every voter upon appearing at a polling place on election day must show their ID. Yeah, yeah. um ah So now I'm thinking this proof of citizenship is for registration probably. Yeah.
01:27:55
Speaker
voter registration you got to show an id or something like that yeah i would think that's for all the new people that are registering because uh i i i assume they can go through the voter vote um the voter rolls and ah figure out who's a u.s citizen or not i'm and i i guarantee you there are non-citizens that are just So that's why I'm going to, when you, when you register to vote, do you have to show your ID or what's the process? ive I haven't, it's been so long. It's honor based right now.
01:28:29
Speaker
So then there's the, there's the net. I'm trying to figure out where, what they're going to change with this. And there's something. You're going to bring your birth certificate in or some type of proof of. To register. Register. Yeah. Right. Okay.
01:28:40
Speaker
That makes sense. Cause then you can't have a fake ID. Then you could have a fake ID to to go vote after that if you want. I mean, cause they don't really. no I don't know, man. they They run it through a thing. Yeah, you're right.
01:28:52
Speaker
They do. They run it through. i I have to ask my wife because she's a poll worker, but i they do run it um through a system check That's right. They do. They swipe it through that little thing. on Yeah, you're right.
Taxpayer Funding for Sports and Infrastructure
01:29:04
Speaker
All right. So i'll keep an eye on that. that sounds That's good stuff in there unless you got something else on that. Yeah, there oh what there was an NGO that was, um yeah, they're they're they're trying to crack down on some fake ah voter um registration.
01:29:18
Speaker
There was an NGO that was putting a lot of money into registering folks. Black Fork Strategies. Let's see here.
01:29:28
Speaker
Registered 17,600 voters in including nude registrations over and over 13,000 modified ones, which he flagged.
01:29:40
Speaker
So it seems like out of those 17,000, there was a big portion of those were BS. So they're going to crack down on that. inter additions there's There's things here that are good.
01:29:53
Speaker
yeah um Still early in there. ah I did notice that the... Okay, so Trump made that... um
01:30:03
Speaker
uh what what you call it he did the executive order but it looks like the house passed the safeguard american voter eligibility act oh yeah it's going to senate now isn't it yeah so it's going to go to the senate so we'll we'll touch base when that comes around with that so but that yeah i think he did the um he did the executive order to get the get the congress ball rolling yeah get the ball rolling congress good yeah I am calling for a ah break right now.
01:30:36
Speaker
Sounds good to me. right, back. All right, sorry, everybody, but, you know, even Joe Rogan has to pee.
01:30:48
Speaker
So after that, I just got one more quick, ah maybe a quicker story, funny story. You know, when when I see Democrats and Republicans agreeing, have to point it out.
01:31:04
Speaker
So here's a story. Ohio lawmaker, Ohio Dem lawmaker, says taxpayer money okay for stadiums of winning teams, not losers. So, i and forgive me, I've read too crazy into this, but ah Senator, oh, he's, oh, he's Brooke Park Senator.
01:31:23
Speaker
Yeah, Ohio, oh, so a Bill, he's not Brooke Park Senator, but ah Bill DeMora, Democratic Columbus, ah plans let's just legislation that would ban public funding of go ah for going from going to professional sports teams unless they had a winning record in the three previous three out of the previous five seasons.
01:31:47
Speaker
That would knock the Browns out of the, ah the they would get no funding. Well, they they would have to move. They would have to move. I thought that was a pretty good pretty good take on the whole Browns thing. and Hey, you know what? I kind of part of it i you agree on that. but Yeah, that's the thing. I agree with them.
01:32:07
Speaker
i I get it. Like, oh, yeah, you guys spent all this money on this team that, I mean, Hazlum's making money. But how much money does the city make from a crappy team? i don't know.
01:32:22
Speaker
it's It's been a while since I paid attention to any sports, and I i kind of remember. Actually, I don't remember. I don't even want to mention it. But there there's some fishy stuff that Haslam does.
01:32:37
Speaker
and so Isn't it about revenue sharing with the other teams? I forget. i forget exactly what it was. But he definitely doesn't spend as much money on the on the team as he should.
01:32:49
Speaker
ah Yeah, a fair point. i or i haven't i haven't paid that much attention to the Browns in like four years, five years. So you're you're probably right. I mean, if you look at some of the other things he's gotten kind of mixed up in, it wouldn't make sense. But let's hear a little bit from this guy. He says, for too long, Ohioans have held have been held hostage by the professional sports teams and their billionaire owners. Yeah.
01:33:13
Speaker
D. Mora says, I've tried, I'm tired of hearing year after year that if governments don't fork over taxpayer money, then the team is going to move out of state. This legislation would stop that cycle.
01:33:26
Speaker
If a team wants to get taxpayer money, then the least they can do is have a winning season. And if you, if they decide that they want to move, then people will deserve their money back.
01:33:39
Speaker
So I kind of like it. I'm good with that. Yeah, it was pretty nice. Well, I'm just skimming through making sure nothing else. going and The other thing is the Bengals are looking for money. They're gonna be looking for money from the state, too.
01:33:52
Speaker
There was a story that popped up towards the end the week about that. I didn't really catch on to, but they're looking for a renovation of Paul Brown Stadium or whatever it's called now.
01:34:00
Speaker
and i'm just skimming through here browns yep tax revenue and that's pretty much it that's that's ah the mean of it um team uh new teams would be exempt from the winning requirement but must be competitive before asking for public money uh teams would also have to report publicly report publicly on athletes performance and financial requests proposal would also require teams to pay back any taxpayer money if they leave the city.
01:34:31
Speaker
But, you know, the thing is, it's never going to pass. So, but it is, it is, it is a good, ah you know, it's something different. And I think, I think it's a good thing. They should definitely have it because the Browns haven't had a winning season. Well, maybe recently they did. and Yeah, that's how much it was the year before.
01:34:53
Speaker
it was the last year, year before, not last year. Definitely was not last year. because It was the year before last because remember hearing about how, ah you know, everything was going to be great this year because last year was they actually made the playoffs or something. The year before last.
01:35:05
Speaker
Right. but But I like I like the I like the thought. I think we have we should have more of that kind of stuff outside the outside the boxing.
01:35:16
Speaker
And that's all I had on this on the on the rundown for today.
01:35:22
Speaker
I think we got a few left over from last week. You could probably touch on next week. If we could carry a few. I mean, anything you want to say about ah shooters reservation, renovation going on?
01:35:34
Speaker
um ne you Well, there's a shooters renovation renovation going on. We could talk about it next time. ah Machine Gun Kelly owns shooters now, and he's, I think they're putting a million dollars into it. So that's down in the flats. That should be, that should be pretty cool. It needs it.
01:35:48
Speaker
Needs it. And this is, I think he's got another one on the other side that he did not too long ago too. i that's here Yeah, we'll keep that for next week. That'll be a nice little thing to dig into and see. They've been you know we're really doing a lot with the flats over the last 10 years.
01:36:02
Speaker
We should probably tell you, i mean, if you're starting to see orange barrels... ah check into your local area what's going to be affecting you because I'm getting hammered over here on the west side of Cleveland or the southwest side of Cleveland here. So there there is like, I think there was some type of budget, $900 million dollars budget for roads, for infrastructure in Ohio. So there's going more road work than usual. so Good. They need it. And um as of note, at least in the Cleveland area, they got I-77 vehicles.
01:36:36
Speaker
South and North bridges closed for the, I think starting very soon. Matter of fact, think that was the end of the 480. the forty Yeah. The bridge is going over 480. If you're going,
01:36:50
Speaker
If westbound on 480 and you want to go southbound on 77, you won't be able to. Yeah. yeah And if you're going eastbound on 480 to go south on, or to go north, excuse me, if you're going eastbound on 480 to go north on 77, that'll be closed until November. Right. So if you're doing the bridges, that's sweep over 480 right there.
01:37:09
Speaker
And the Wallings Road exit is closed off of 77 near Broadview Heights, and that's causing a backup problem. by Pleasant Valley. So you might want to consider reconsider where you're where you're getting off at.
01:37:26
Speaker
It is orange barrel season. Maybe we should put that on a list for next week. Maybe we should yeah maybe hit it. Get a little bit more. Orange barrel season. All right.
01:37:37
Speaker
That's all I got. If you have anything else, I think you can wrap it up here. Thank everybody for listening. We will ah well see we'll talk to you next week. Peace.