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Crooked River Cast Show 17
23 Plays17 days ago
Texas floods Donate to www.communityfoundation.net
Labor Department human trafficking training.
Which Dewine vetoes will the GOP overturn? https://www.legislature.ohio.gov
Dewine picks his Property Tax reform working group.
Ohio “Equal Rights” Amendment hits a fork in the road. https://tinyurl.com/opnequalrights
“Women” at Grafton prison.
Cleveland hero or vigilante?
Charging for public record requests?
And more…
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Crooked Rivercast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to the Crooked Rivercast. i' your host, Robert, and joining me every week is my friend to help us keep track of what is going on in Northeast Ohio. This is show 17 recorded on July 12th, 2025.
00:00:13
Speaker
Let's see what we have to talk about today.
Floods and Conspiracy Theories
00:00:19
Speaker
Thomas, it's time for the show. What's happening, Rob?
00:00:25
Speaker
Another week goes by, another week of ah of hot weather and weather. And conspiracies, apparently. Conspiracies.
00:00:37
Speaker
Conspiracies everywhere. it's That's just normal week, though, in America nowadays. Well, there's a new conspiracy every day. Every day. and And every, guess every disaster has to come with its own.
00:00:50
Speaker
Its own conspiracy. i think that's, I guess that's where we'll start here. So Texas texas floods. I figured, what I wanted to touch on this at least and and and put out the the website that I'd come across ah via ah yeah the No Agenda show, which is communityfoundation.net.
00:01:09
Speaker
This is a website for that area and it's right on the top of their screen, ah top of the page, you know donate for the flood victims. listening to his show their show and no gender show if anybody knows it it's uh adam curry and john c devorak and i thought adam had a nice little rant and you know when i heard the flood come up i thought okay how's this going to be spun how how are we going to politicize this and from both sides you know what on one hand you had
00:01:41
Speaker
Doge cuts is the reason why all these kids were, you know, all these people died in this flood. And then on the other side, you
Technology vs. Natural Awareness
00:01:49
Speaker
have, well, it's it's a deep state, cloud seeding, and they want to wipe this area out for development.
00:01:57
Speaker
I don't think it's either one of those. I think it's just things flood sometimes. And then I heard this rant from um Mr. Curry on on a couple, oh, it was not last show, maybe the show before last, maybe a week or so ago. I figured we, let's see what he has to say.
00:02:13
Speaker
You probably heard this already, but our viewers have, our listeners haven't. So it's kind of a nice take on, hey, you know, sometimes it's good to just go outside and see what's going on instead of just relying on the government to what's on.
00:02:26
Speaker
what Adam has to say. Then nobody looks at history. No one learns history anymore. People have lost their ability to stand outside and feel what's happening.
00:02:36
Speaker
It was so obvious that if you are in a floodplain, which is what all of this area is, now we're at 1,400 feet elevation. So my apologies, I forgot. I even even have clips set up here written in my notes and I went right past it. So Adam Curry lives in what he calls hill country.
00:02:54
Speaker
And that's about 20 minutes away from where these floods happened. So, yeah, a little context. Sorry, I forgot that.
00:03:04
Speaker
We're not going to get you a little higher than. Yeah, we're good. We're good here. yeah You want to be up. But, you know in the old days, people would go outside and go, hey, this is not good. This could be this could be a bad situation.
00:03:18
Speaker
You know, we should probably get to higher ground.
Public Response to Flood Warnings
00:03:20
Speaker
I can just see Paul Ingalls doing it on Little House on the Prairie. I mean, we we are so connected. We're we're ignoring nature. I've only been here for four years, but even I know about the devastating floods of past years.
00:03:34
Speaker
The Guadalupe River has flooded many, many times. actually have the list here. It's ah unbelievable when you then Not everything is well documented, but we have 1838, 1848, 1868, 1872, 1906, 1913, 177 people died in that one. 1921, 1932, 35 inches rain. 1936, 1936.
00:03:50
Speaker
nineteen oh six nineteen thirteen hundred and seventy seven people died in that one nineteen twenty one um nineteen thirty two thirty five inches of rain nineteen thirty six 1952, 1972, 1973, all by the way in in the month of july August.
00:04:14
Speaker
ah
Human Trafficking Legislation in Ohio
00:04:18
Speaker
This is not all that long ago for me. um That was, you know, the water went up to 31 and a half feet and killed a whole bunch of campers who were in a, you their bus got swept away. 18, 2020, 21, 2025. 1991, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2015, 1989,
00:04:34
Speaker
ninety ninety one nineteen ninety five nineteen ninety seven nineteen ninety eight twenty fifteen eighteen twenty twenty twenty one twenty twenty five It happens all the time.
00:04:46
Speaker
But now all of a sudden it's the government who was out to get us. No, we're retarded. We have all of this communication and all we're doing is sitting on TikTok and Instagram and go, oh, look at the weather. It's raining.
00:04:59
Speaker
And there you have it. That's all we're doing. Doom scrolling. Doom scrolling. That's exactly what we're doing. it's not ah It wasn't a thousand-year flood. It wasn't a hundred-year flood. It wasn't climate change. It wasn't cloud seeding.
00:05:12
Speaker
i don't I don't believe, i again, question with boldness, please. But it seems like we that's just we just go there automatically. Both sides. It's crazy to me. And ah one of the that's one of the things I love about No Agenda is they kind of bring it they kind of pull you back from that the abyss. and That's what they do best. Hyperbolic BS. Yeah, that's what they do best. They deconstruct the media and say, you know, here's how many times they've said it before over the last 20 years. You know, they've been around for a while. Are people doom scrolling or are they just watching the news?
00:05:43
Speaker
Because what's the difference nowadays, right? True. Yeah. No, good point. Good point. Is it really doom scrolling? If you're just turning on CNN or Fox or whoever? If one of those news agencies is just looking for clicks, which is all they're doing now.
00:06:01
Speaker
We're not sitting down at dinner, you know, watching news or before dinner or at night. So now they just, I don't know. They're just, it's, everything's hyperbolic.
00:06:14
Speaker
Yeah, it's, you know, 30, 40 years ago, you had three sources for your news. Now you've got a lot of sources, thousands. But it's up to the viewer to ah kind of take take a step back and say, right, let's see what's really, you know, there's so much information you got to peel, you got to go, got to get through the crap before you get to what's really going Yeah, yeah.
00:06:35
Speaker
i mean, I don't know. It's just, it's sad. It's sad. The whole thing is sad. The the the reaction is sad. that The event, I mean, it just... It's a, it's a parental nightmare. That's what I'm looking at.
00:06:47
Speaker
These are the things that you send your kid off somewhere. And these this, this is what runs through my head. Like who's watching them, you know, it's a, it's a complete nightmare for, especially for a parent, if you're sending your kid off the camp. You would think they'd have, a you know, i I didn't look into the story. I mean, I know, I know it happened and I know, ah you know, was pretty awful, but did they have like any type of warning Yes. yeah Adam yeah brings it up. I cut it off. But before this, he's saying, I
Ohio Property Tax and Education Funding
00:07:14
Speaker
had warning after warning on my phone, on my on the weather app I have.
00:07:17
Speaker
ah He said he it's an app that he actually pays for. Because he's I think he's a pilot or something, uses it for that sometimes. and And he even said his wife's car notified him of a flood warning when he got into it. like I know a lot of people that were outdoors that maybe didn't have their phones on, them ah children.
00:07:36
Speaker
yeah oh Do they have like sirens or anything like that there? I think so. I'm i'm wondering. But I think it's also. if that's Well, it's happened there so often. they They should know best what what works.
00:07:49
Speaker
That's kind where I'm at. It's nobody's fault. You know, you're going to take it. But. If you go off-roading, let's say, Arizona, we we did this few years but back. We rented a ATV and went through the the the desert.
00:08:05
Speaker
But you know what to watch for in the desert? Flash floods. Because it could rain 30, 50, 60, 100 miles away, and a couple hours later, you could get a wall of water coming by. You have to pay attention to the the weather. That's kind of his point is...
00:08:18
Speaker
You know, at one point we knew this area flooded around this time. So you took extra care and looked at the weather and see what was going on. If something rains a hundred miles away, you could be flooded and you even know it's raining.
00:08:29
Speaker
Yeah. Anyway, but I, it kind of and brought back, I was like, yeah, when when I was doing that ATV thing, that was one of the things they said, Hey, be careful, watch the weather because you want to be careful flash floods. You're in canyons a lot of times.
00:08:41
Speaker
Anyway. So there's that, but, you know, our thoughts and prayers, of course, everybody, they're still finding people. And like Adam was saying, the debris sometimes stacked 30 foot high.
00:08:53
Speaker
all and every All around it, it's pretty crazy. and well We'll just keep on to the sad stories or the not-so-happy stories. But this is a good one, but it's still about something that's kind of disgusting.
00:09:04
Speaker
But it sounds like um ah one of our senators from Ohio has put forward some legislation. Yeah. ah John Husted, he introduced a bipartisan bill.
00:09:17
Speaker
It's called... Oh, geez. I just had it in front of me. What happens? I love it when it just disappears. Combat human trafficking work. Yeah. So what they're going to do is what they want to do is um how to direct Department of Labor to train its employees to identify human trafficking and suspected crimes and to, you know, let law enforcement know about suspected crimes.
00:09:45
Speaker
ah John teamed up with Alyssa Slotkin from Michigan enhancing all Enhancing Detection of Human human Trafficking Act is what they're calling it. A House bill was introduced by Michigan Republican Tim Wahlberg and Georgia Democrat Lucy McBath before this. So I guess it's just moving through the Senate now.
00:10:08
Speaker
Houston said the Labor Department employees need to be able to spot human trafficking behavior when the conduct workplace inspection when they conduct workplace inspections.
00:10:19
Speaker
The bill also requires the Labor Department to submit a report to Congress detailing its training and feral efforts no later than once one year after it it implements the program.
00:10:34
Speaker
And let's see here. Yeah. kind Kind of feels like a no, no duh. Like what? They're not already kind of looking for this. I mean, I don't like this department labor, but. Well, I don't know. I'm wondering if the department of labor never really needed to report anything. I mean, maybe, you know, the, you know, the, the one good Samaritan might say something that works for the department of labor.
00:10:57
Speaker
yeah Now they're going to train. They're going to train them. So ah law enforcement recorded 334 Ohio human trafficking cases in 2024, which involved 509 victims.
00:11:11
Speaker
Most were trafficked for sex. Some were performing domestic work and a few are working in the food service in agriculture and construction industries. I don't understand those, by the way.
00:11:24
Speaker
The sex work, I, you know, okay, I understand that. But how are they being trafficked if they're working in a food service or agriculture or construction?
00:11:36
Speaker
i would say sex trafficking, obviously, like coming across the border is is the main main thing. But I've heard, it's's example so a a seasonal worker who's picking crops, let's say, comes across the border illegally.
00:11:54
Speaker
Or it's sometimes legal, I think. And if you go to the wrong employer who now takes your papers or threatens to call ICE on you, unless you now work for less than you agreed upon and you can't leave.
00:12:10
Speaker
So you're kind of paid slavery. I mean, you're getting paid less than what was promised, usually. And you can't leave because they're saying if you go to leave, we're going to call ICE or, you know, a lot of times even the legal adults keep their papers, their passport or whatever it is, and then you can't leave.
00:12:25
Speaker
Okay. So that's, especially agricultural. never saw it that way. There's 334 just in 2024 in Ohio. That's quite a bit.
00:12:37
Speaker
Yeah, I would say the vast majority of those are sex trafficking cases. I think Ohio is usually ranked up there. It's one of the highest in the country. I think it's that, um, it's, a lot of that stuff happens near Ashtabula.
00:12:52
Speaker
Yeah. Really? Yeah. lot, a lot of kids go missing. ah well, older kids, you know, what just, it's close to 90. Yeah. You go from Ohio to Pennsylvania real quick.
00:13:05
Speaker
You can go to Canada real quick. You can, you know, New York. right Yeah, it's all right. and there's there's so Yeah, a lot of border crossings up there. Maybe that maybe that's part of it because it's right. I don't know. Yeah.
00:13:16
Speaker
So ah John Husted, for those that don't know, ah he was installed by Governor DeWine once Vance became vice president.
00:13:30
Speaker
So there you go. That's a good bill. I like it. It's, like I said, kind no-duh. They should be looking for that. That's a good idea.
00:13:40
Speaker
Next story, next topic is the current push to override Governor DeWine's vetoes on property tax.
00:13:53
Speaker
But right now they're trying to whip up as many ah Republicans as they can. They need 60 out of the 65 Republicans in Congress or in the ah in the Senate. And, or no, that's that's the House, not the Senate.
00:14:08
Speaker
The House is 65 Republicans, I believe. I think they're they're narrowly focusing on like three of the four vetoes on the property taxes, right? Right.
00:14:20
Speaker
Yes, all'll all um mainly on the property taxes as far as i can see. and they have a date of the 21st. to have this ah done by, or at least everybody reconvene.
00:14:30
Speaker
Yeah, they're root they're returning on the 21st, Monday. Yep. from what I hear, they're not quite certain if they have all the votes.
00:14:42
Speaker
They need 60 out of the 65. I think they need 59 plus when they have tiebreaker. heard they need 60. That's what I read. And the bill only passed by with 59, which is a large number, but.
00:14:56
Speaker
but not a super. So they need a super majority to override the veto. One of the, one of the things they want to read a veto or a overrule a variety of veto on, obviously there's, there's the auditor, I believe the auditor, how the, they want to give auditors, the county auditors power to, to adjust property levies, the millage on levies.
00:15:20
Speaker
The other one was a 20 mil floor. They wanted to make it, ah let less likely for counties and or school boards to manipulate the 20 mil floor.
00:15:31
Speaker
And I kept thinking, what the heck is this 20 mil floor? I kind of understand what it is, but it's it's a base tax for property, But what what are they talking about? So I'm listening to the Windsor Report and he had on Donovan O'Neill from the Americans for Prosperity.
00:15:50
Speaker
And I pulled a couple of clips from this his interview. and He went over, you know, kind of what his explanation of 20 mile floor is and why it needs to be overruled. So let's see what Jack and Donovan have to say.
00:16:01
Speaker
There are a lot of folks will explain this better than I will, but the the basic idea behind the 20 mil floor was we, the the state of Ohio decades ago, wanted to establish some guaranteed funding for public education in the state.
00:16:14
Speaker
And so what they said is school districts ages ago would be guaranteed 20 mil floor, 2%, in other words, of the property valuation in a county.
00:16:27
Speaker
And that's be That would fund the public education by and large in the state of Ohio. Well, that was a guarantee. So usually you'll vote on a levy, right? And you'll add this millage, these levies on your property, and you'll agree as citizen you want to do that.
00:16:42
Speaker
um But they have a guarantee no no less than 20 mils will be able to be levied. Well, over time, there have been ways where certain types of levies, like, for instance, emergency fixed thumb levies, emergency levies, can be counted outside of that 20 mil floor. I think there's something like 400 school districts around the state have a number levies outside of the 20 mil floor. So you this makes sense.
00:17:05
Speaker
You get that guaranteed 20 mils, but then you also get these other levies outside of it. What this would have done was said, hey, we actually, you know, let's first tally up everything, get it all within that 20 mil floor. And anybody who isn't at the 20 mils would still get that guarantee.
00:17:20
Speaker
But you can't both get that guarantee and have all these other levies outside of there um because it it creates an opportunity for unvoted tax increases. And it's at the heart of this current crisis we're experiencing. And so by smashing that stuff together, puts taxpayers back and with the upper hand. We can still go increase taxes, but you got to go back to the voters to increase the taxes. You don't get to just use some creative accounting mechanisms and move things outside of that floor to get some unvoted tax increases to incur.
00:17:50
Speaker
It's common sense. It's good for the taxpayer. um But again, an item left on the cutting room floor that they're going to come back and hopefully fix here on the 21st with their veto override. What's he talking about here? He's talking about they have a base 20 mil floor on all property taxes in Ohio, all property in Ohio.
00:18:09
Speaker
but You can't, there's no less than that. So they can guarantee schools have certain amount of funding every year. Well, what happens, what's what's an example of what he's talking about here?
00:18:22
Speaker
Well, let's keep going here because, oh, we got, and we need we need a renewal levy, we need an emergency, we need this and that. What's all this stuff? Okay, so this is what he's talking about. They have this certain guaranteed and then when they get more levies, it doesn't go against their guaranteed money.
00:18:38
Speaker
So they have all this extra money, like $10.5 billion dollars carrying over last year So here's an example of what he's talking about. Listen to me, and I might be wrong here. What you just described is like a side slush fund.
00:18:55
Speaker
That's exactly what school districts are doing there. And they're using fear porn by by using thing words like emergency levy or a substitute levy. Boy, if you don't pass this, emergency come on, man.
00:19:07
Speaker
And what you're saying is they're not even including that in their guaranteed money calculation. Well, they should be. So in testimony on this a few months back, um because this also was a standalone bill by um Senator Sandra O'Brien, Sandy O'Brien. She introduced this to fix this.
00:19:23
Speaker
The school district came in and one of the school districts said we've had, I think it was a 20 year emergency. State Senator Christina Rogner asked that question. What was the emergency that's been going on for 20 years? 20 years. Keep going back and renewing that emergency.
00:19:37
Speaker
Here's the emergency, Jack. Our school district at the time was growing very fast. We had more students coming in. Now, granted, that probably does require some additional funding, but I don't know that that's the definition in my mind, your mind, and maybe some of your listeners' minds as an emergency. An emergency is we've got a problem, right? Something needs covered.
00:19:57
Speaker
To me, that's just, hey, we're successful. We're growing. Voters, we'd like you to give more of your money to help fund our operations. And then let the voters decide. Don't use inflamed language like they so often do of an emergency. and That's not an emergency. That's just... And case for why you need more money.
00:20:14
Speaker
Emergency! We need more money! emergency we need more money but growing it' said the emergency money For 20 years.
00:20:28
Speaker
Emergency levy for 20 years.
00:20:32
Speaker
four hundred He said, what, 480 some school districts have emergency levies. So I did a quick search while I was going on. There are approximately 700 school districts in Ohio.
00:20:45
Speaker
Damn. So like 60% have emergency levies or something like that.
00:20:53
Speaker
And I'm sorry, I know. What's the percentage? 60? Well, it's 700. They go to Wikipedia. There's ah approximately 700 school districts statewide.
00:21:03
Speaker
And he said like 488 had these kinds emergency levies. So that's more than 50%. It's like 60. but that's fifty that's more than fifty percent's like sixty roughly. And I get, we talk about, I i talk about this this a lot, this subject a lot, but again, I'll say that it is a third of our budget.
00:21:19
Speaker
It's a third of the state's budget in most of your property taxes go to this one item, school funding. Out of a $30 billion dollars budget, $10 billion dollars from the state goes to local um school boards or school districts.
00:21:34
Speaker
That's a third of the money That you're out of your state income tax. This is the, probably the single largest line item on the bill, on the budget. If you can take, you know, there's a lot of things. yet And yet you still got, uh, most of your schools kind of being shitty.
00:21:51
Speaker
Yeah. How's it working for you so far? i mean, it's school district the school district, but as we pointed out before, you got Cleveland spending $18,000, $19,000 per student, but yet the school voucher program could do it for seven, maybe eight on the high end.
00:22:10
Speaker
And what averages out probably to five or six, because not everybody gets the full amount, all this other stuff. So, This is a huge issue for me because it's picking my pocket.
00:22:21
Speaker
you know like Like I've said before, my my political philosophy is pretty simple. um If you're not breaking my leg or picking my pocket, i don't really care what you do. Well, this picks the crap out of my pocket every year.
00:22:31
Speaker
Every... every
00:22:34
Speaker
Where's that rant? Yeah.
00:22:39
Speaker
and you mean I mean, you don't have kids in the system, right? So what's what's it to you? I mean, what what how do you... That's kind of why I bring this up because know a lot of people like, why you keep talking about education? It's a lot of freaking money.
00:22:51
Speaker
Well, I mean, i feel like even doubly, I guess I'm being bent over. i don't have kids.
00:23:00
Speaker
And yet you still have to pay. Yeah.
00:23:04
Speaker
I mean, yeah i don't know how they expect people to keep... voting for levies at this point.
00:23:14
Speaker
And yet every year they do. They keep trying. and I mean, it's it's been, we, it's been pretty good around here. We haven't really passed many. Yes. But I can't remember the last time one passed.
00:23:26
Speaker
I think are in, in my area, my city, a district, I think one passed like two years ago, which pissed me off, but yeah.
00:23:38
Speaker
you know I get ah get things go up in price, but that's that's that's how they work, though. When you're getting 2% for every $1,000, think it's like 2% for every $1,000 of property value or something like that. I can't remember. That's what millage stands for. some They got to make it confusing just to just because that's what they do, right? For sure, because then when you read the levy,
00:24:02
Speaker
You don't really, you it's it's it's too difficult for the ah normal person out there that doesn't like really pay attention to understand how much this is really costing them. Not only are you voting for the levy, but you're your tax bill is going to go up two on your property, and it's just a mess.
00:24:23
Speaker
But Tom... Think of the children. Won't somebody please think of the children? Would you please just think of the children?
00:24:33
Speaker
let's see, that's about all I got on that. I think, i but hold on, there's one more thing. So, Contact your local Congress critter.
00:24:44
Speaker
We'll put a link in the show notes for legislature.ohio.gov. All you got to do is put in your zip code. It'll tell you who all your representatives are, and you can start emailing and calling them to say, get your butt in there and put this back into play.
00:25:01
Speaker
Me personally, don't, because I want you to piss off the people of Ohio even more. And I feel this is just a Band-Aid on a humongous, festering wound. So for me for me, not doing it just gives people more reason to get that ah amendment on the next ballot and to you completely abolish all the property. That's way I'm looking at it.
00:25:24
Speaker
I'd rather see that the abolish property tax amendment ah go up on ballots rather than ah be you know overriding the vetoes.
00:25:37
Speaker
And because this is, this is to the Republicans. I'm not, I don't say, I don't, I'm not giving them credit for this. I think this is this is a way they could virtue signal saying we're doing something about property taxes.
00:25:48
Speaker
I don't personally think that's going this is going to do that much for property taxes. That's the other reason I don't think in, in especially in the short term, this is going to do much relief. I don't think you're going to feel anything from it. Yeah, no, no.
00:25:59
Speaker
So I think this is just the way they say, look, look what we did. Look what we did. We did it for you. Yeah. Yeah. which is Which looks better than what DeWine's doing. Yeah, DeWine's looking awful right now. But I mean, I don't know.
00:26:15
Speaker
I don't think he cares. Yeah, he doesn't care. But ah he's gotten away with doing these kind of things throughout his whole ah governorship here. Yeah, so he he's putting together
Equal Rights Amendment and LGBTQ+ Legislation
00:26:30
Speaker
his working group.
00:26:32
Speaker
Property tax reform working group. That's what he's calling it. It's, ah yes yeah, this is, um, he promised this, so he's doing it. i got to give him that though. He, he always does what he says he's going to do.
00:26:46
Speaker
I know. And that's sometimes lot of times that's the problem. He's doing what he said he's going to do. Former state reps, Bill Seitz and Pat Tiberi, both Republicans will co-chair the working group.
00:27:00
Speaker
Tiberi is a former congressman and president and CEO of Ohio Business Roundtable. They are tasked with examining issues related to providing meaningful property tax relief to homeowners and businesses.
00:27:15
Speaker
I don't know what meaningful property tax relief means to to them, but okay. the The governor said that the idea is to ensure adequate funding for local schools, fire, police, EMS, libraries, and services for people with developmental disabilities. Okay.
00:27:36
Speaker
while providing property tax relief um ah which in the end i i don't we'll see he's asking the working group to issue a report with concrete proposals by september 30th so at least it's kind of it seems like it's on a uh you know i don't know a fast track i guess you'd say In addition to Sites and Tiberian, this is they're both Republicans, which I yeah i don't know these two. And Republican doesn't mean too much to me, but...
00:28:09
Speaker
Especially when they're being picked by DeWine. DeWine is expected to name additional members of the working group soon. we'll see. We'll see what happens with that. They're going to be voting. i mean, I think they're going they're coming back July 21st to meet in Congress, or I mean in in the state Congress here to...
00:28:32
Speaker
see if they can override vetoes number 55, 65, and 66, which are all property tax provisions. DeWine, next.
00:28:44
Speaker
All right. like I got some i got some comment commentary from the peanut gallery. Yeah. There we go. Well, that was different. Yep. Wowsy, but different.
00:28:56
Speaker
That's about right. Yeah. All right. i mean wait I've been waiting to use that one. I've had that one sitting there for a while. Perfect spot for it. Yeah. All right. yep yeah right So, I mean, these guys work in group. Hopefully they can overrule veto it and he can take his working group in.
00:29:14
Speaker
Well, DeWine definitely but he vetoed those because he wants to know how it's going to affect the schools, which he's he's taking a very um conservative route, I guess.
00:29:28
Speaker
Conservative meaning um well slow and just kind of wanting to make sure everything is fine, ah that they can do it. I still want to abolish property taxes. i think that's the way to, it's the only way to go. It should, it should be, it should provide services.
00:29:46
Speaker
It probably should come out of probably like a local income tax, right? Yeah. ah Send me a bill. Everyone's, everyone's paying into it. Everyone that's working is paying into it. And you're not getting charged more than your neighbor just because your house is worth maybe, you know,
00:30:07
Speaker
$15,000 more or whatever. Yeah. Shouldn't we all pay about the same? We should all well be really paying the same. You know, I have a modest, ah you know, a modest home. There's a, we got neighbors here, not too far off that have large homes and they're probably paying double in property tax. And I don't know. i don't think they should be. They're not, they're not taking up more space. They're not, they don't have, they're not driving the roads more than I am. They're not,
00:30:35
Speaker
you know, maybe they have a little bit more garbage cause there's ah few more people in the house, but whatever. Yeah. We're done renting our homes and, uh, your your slush fund is hopefully will soon be, uh, be coming to an end. Cause that's what it feels. I just, I can't get over it.
00:30:54
Speaker
So I, I think, uh, I think hopefully this working group will do, do what is, and I got some audio. we We had some, uh, it's some crooked river cast, uh, mics that were in the, um, in the room when they were talking about this and they were going over a few things. It's kind of similar we had last week.
00:31:12
Speaker
the
00:31:15
Speaker
a that that's ah That's Gremlins, right? That's Gremlins. Yeah, that's the theater scene from Gremlins. I had to say that because there might be some people that didn't get that.
00:31:28
Speaker
Yes. Well, I mean, you know, Gremlins, they're all just creatures from the deep, sounds like. ah So good. Let's keep an eye on Mr. mr Governor DeWine's property tax working group if they don't end up.
00:31:43
Speaker
making it worthless or not, not needed. All right. so I'm moving on to the next story. We have,
00:31:54
Speaker
well, DeWine's picks. Let me click that up. Ooh, look, Tom, it's time. It's time to to ask everybody to share the show. CrookedRiverCast.com. Share the show with your friends. Tell them about it. You got somebody who's interested in knowing what's going on, little more of what's going on in Northeast Ohio.
00:32:13
Speaker
Send them our website. Send them our website. Email us with suggestions. What stories are we covering too much on? But excluding the school funding, because I'm gonna keep talking about that.
00:32:26
Speaker
But our show or something we're missing, let us know. Crooked River Castage. Follow us on the X2. Yes, you'll get updates on when the show goes live and all that other stuff.
00:32:38
Speaker
Next, I have... I had this equal rights amendment that I've been watching kind of bubble up in the news over the past few months. and something finally happened. and really I think we've really brought like brought it up much at all, that I remember.
00:32:53
Speaker
And it had a little bit of movement on it. and And another story that I saw come up, it kind of tied together. So I figured it was a good time to it up. see you got this equal rights amendment from Ohio Press Network, right?
00:33:05
Speaker
And they they have the best header... um this thumbnail the the thumbnail and the uh the photo the photo that starts off the everyone's everyone's got to go check this out it's at ohio press network just look up uh equal rates yeah i'll throw the link in the in the show notes but oh yeah it's it's got whole bunch of very colorful people and this i don't like can this even be real is this like ai no i think this i think i think it could be AI. Let me try to describe this. First, first there's like a pretty beefy black man with a rainbow wig on.
00:33:43
Speaker
Full beard holding a sign that says the love is love. Next guy is a white dude that has that old-fashioned handlebar mustache with a big white beard.
00:33:55
Speaker
Guy's probably like in his 60s. He's wearing a rainbow skirt with a tight leotard top. Rainbow tights. And rainbow tights holding a rainbow cup of whatever.
00:34:12
Speaker
And then the next guy, he only gets through it only gets more weird from there because I'm not sure the next person. Well, yeah, they're they're probably what you would call, ah what are what's what's that called when you?
00:34:23
Speaker
Non-binary. Non-binary. It's a dude. it's ah He's got a mustache. and It's a dude. It's a dude with long hair. And long hair with beard. He's wearing not a rainbow, but a striped yellow and green shirt with jeans.
00:34:37
Speaker
I think you're right. This might be AI. This is ridiculous. It's a little wonky. this is this is This has to be AI or, I don't know. Or a photo shoot. Or photo shoot that was. ah stock Stock photography. Maybe. it doesn't say.
00:34:52
Speaker
says tint media underneath, actually. Holy crap. This is hilarious. This is like, this, this, this, was this anti equity or equality? Because this is like, is it, was it, was this making fun of them? Yeah. Cause this is, this is ridiculous. There's the next person is, I don't know. I'd say that's a, a young female mixed race holding a rainbow megaphone.
00:35:19
Speaker
Pastel rainbow microphone. It's very, very colorful. And then has... Go ahead. Yeah. so ah well so This person has a white stripe with blue hair with a white stripe going down it. Like racing stripe.
00:35:32
Speaker
here Yeah, like a racing stripe. like but you know you know It adds 10 horsepower and when you put a racing stripe on and anything, really. and The next person is looks like a cis white chick.
00:35:42
Speaker
Just a regular white chick. but She's probably lesbian. well whatever Yeah, she's holding up a rainbow flag sign.
00:35:50
Speaker
The next one's my favorite. ah My second favorite, cu my favorite was the white guy with the big white beard and the rainbow skirt. So yeah, this is AI. So it because bright yellow shirt.
00:36:01
Speaker
ah it's It's due in a long ponytail with the ponytail going over his shoulder, full beard, dark brown hair, yellow shirt, black pants, and the same exact tights as the as the guy the second guy.
00:36:13
Speaker
This is hilarious. It's got to be AI. But we can look up that tint media. I wonder what that is. Either that or stock photography. They set this up. Well, it's definitely set up. it's there's no I mean, we've seen enough footage from ah these type of ah parades or protests, and there's nothing like this. This is like another world of gay.
00:36:34
Speaker
this I mean...
00:36:37
Speaker
And then you and they kind of started and landed on this is this is where this story piques my interest because, and first of all, if you have kids around, beware that of this story. It's not that bad.
00:36:50
Speaker
But you may be you may have you may not wanna answer some of the questions that may come up if you have, depending on how old your kids are, or if they're in the area. Just give you your a little warning there. Again, not bad, but you might be asking, mommy, daddy, what's this? And you're gonna be like, ugh, don't wanna answer that.
00:37:05
Speaker
So just a little fair warning. um We can start with this. what What's going on here? What are they trying to do? My view of this is this is an attempt to slide in, pun intended, slide in LGBTQ plus BS into the state constitution via gay marriage.
00:37:23
Speaker
you know Another attempt to use gay rights to push a trans agenda. They're not the same thing, people. Gay rights and lg and and trans are not the same.
00:37:36
Speaker
So let's go over a couple things they want to do with this bill. So organizers say
00:37:43
Speaker
that the amendment is necessary because Ohio Constitution does not protect does not prohibit discrimination based on, okay, need a deep breath, race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression regardless of sex assigned at birth, pregnancy status, genetic information, disease status,
00:38:11
Speaker
age, disability, recovery status, familial status, ancestry, national origin, last but not least, of course, military or veteran status.
00:38:27
Speaker
That was a long list of what in the world, what's what what's not covered? Can you just tell me what's not covered? That might have been easier.
00:38:38
Speaker
i ah So let's hear, I guess, from this is WBNS 10 News, kind of what their concerns are.
00:38:49
Speaker
And we got I got a couple of clips on this because then we'll go into another story that's tied into it. The attorney for Ohio Equal Rights laid out their succinct argument. We would argue marriage and all the other employment issues.
00:39:02
Speaker
All those things are under the umbrella of the general purpose of equal rights. Secretary of State and Ballot Board Chair Frank LaRose disagreed. He said Ohioans may support same-sex marriage, but not adding the list of protected individuals to the Constitution or vice versa.
00:39:18
Speaker
In order to provide voters that that choice, it seems apparent to me that it would be good to give them those two as two separate amendments. but What brought us to this point is seeing the number of already existing laws that infringe on people's rights here in Ohio. The spokesperson for Ohio Equal Rights says the board's ruling now makes their effort different.
00:39:40
Speaker
But this was going to be difficult no matter what because of the number of signatures required in Ohio and the size of Ohio. Supporters of same-sex marriage feel a sense of urgency. The push for the Ohio constitutional amendment comes at a time when conservative justices have called for the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Obergefell v. Hodges case legalizing same-sex marriage.
00:40:01
Speaker
In a statement, Stonewall Columbus Executive Director Denzel Porteus said, in Ohio, same-sex marriage would currently be illegal under our state constitution if not for the Supreme Court ruling.
00:40:12
Speaker
That means if Obergefell were overturned, we would see those rights vanish overnight. That decision, if it changes, I think there's going to be a lot of people who are surprised that, oh, crap, Cousin Joe and his husband aren't married anymore.
00:40:27
Speaker
What does this mean? It's enough. had little
Transgender Inmates in Ohio Prisons
00:40:30
Speaker
bit more of it. I really want to just get to that part. So you need the government to tell you that you're married. i don't What are they going? I didn't.
00:40:40
Speaker
What are they going for here? what Why are they doing this? So they they they they are worried that ah they've heard rumbling from Supreme Court about looking reviewing the case that quote unquote legalized marriage.
00:40:55
Speaker
And if if they overturn it, then, which now overrules, i guess, the Ohio State Constitution, because there was a ban put in there in the early 2000s, I think. And this, if they overturn that Supreme Court case, that would then open up the Ohio Supreme, Ohio Constitution to ban gay marriage.
00:41:15
Speaker
Okay. So what does that do with trans?
00:41:20
Speaker
Nothing.
00:41:22
Speaker
But also... i said this from I said this when this happened in the Supreme Court. Everybody, all you know gay rights people cheered, and I said, what did you win? You didn't win anything. you got You got permission.
00:41:35
Speaker
you didn't You don't have rights, you have permission. And they could easily be taken away, as we're seeing. So the government doesn't, you don't need to, why do we need, my theory at the time was, why do we need the government involved at all in our marriage, and who and who we want to spend the rest of our lives with?
00:41:52
Speaker
Is it for benefits, though?
00:41:56
Speaker
Sometimes it can be. I get where you have to, like, when it comes to insurance and all this other stuff, there is some sort of governmental system there possibly. But should you have to ask the government if it's okay to marry this person?
00:42:11
Speaker
I don't think so.
00:42:14
Speaker
But I think they're going they want to use those heartstrings. Well, of course. To slide in the the the trans agenda into our constitution. This is not a law that we could, this is a constitutional amendment that would need another constitutional amendment to overturn it.
00:42:29
Speaker
So what what happens now with the the board, the ballot board, they said, no, it's going to be two amendments. you going to have the gay rights amendment to overturn the ban on gay on gay marriage amendment, I should say.
00:42:41
Speaker
And then you're going to have the other amendment. So now they have to get signatures for both amendments and they have to get like 450,000 signatures. I don't think they're going to do it. I could see him getting it for the, for the gay marriage.
00:42:53
Speaker
I don't even think they can get that for the other one. Maybe not, but I think that's, that was their in because I, because I think that is much more acceptable to the public and you can make the pitch. Love is love, which I just did. Right. I mean, but again, why do you need the government's permission to marry somebody?
00:43:14
Speaker
So why is this to me? Why is this so important to push back on? Again, do whatever you want. Don't, as long as you don't pick my pocket or break my leg. But this, this, this trans stuff literally breaks a working society.
00:43:30
Speaker
Is this the hill they want to die on? They are dying on it right now. This breaks our society. It breaks the social contract. And here's here's a good example of it. it's it's a Let me just add to that a little bit.
00:43:44
Speaker
It's breaking society. I don't i don't even think like legitimate. like I think LGB people are hate the tea part of it, mostly.
00:43:57
Speaker
They don't want trans to be involved with any of this LGB stuff. ah rights you know fighting for rights pushing this agenda is breaking not only what i would consider society but it's also breaking up the um whole edge lgbtq movement whatever plus movement they've they've pushed the i always weird wonder why it was lesbian and gay because aren't they both just gay so the the gay community they're pushing them aside the L and G and the B of the LGBTQ are being pushed aside for the trans, for the nine binaries. And the, I've got today, I'm a cat tomorrow. I'm a black. Well, you the whole thing is there's, there's, I would say,
00:44:41
Speaker
Probably, I'm going to, so you know, um I don't know the numbers, but I would say more than half of the LGB, the lesbian, gay, and bi community don't want kids transitioning.
00:44:53
Speaker
They don't want trans to be, you know, to have, you know, bathrooms. And, so you know, all they don't want that stuff from the trans community. Right.
00:45:04
Speaker
They don't want to be involved in it. there's It's making them look bad. We already... Yes. Yes. It's pulling them down and and and on on a fight. They already won. Frankly, I don't think most people care about gay or bi or whatever.
00:45:17
Speaker
But when you start pushing that trans and the the gender identity thing, man, that, that, yes, well, especially on the kids, but that's, what's driving people crazy is, is that you're pushing it on the kids and not only on the kids, you're, you're kind of like forcing it on society.
00:45:35
Speaker
And like, it's like such a small portion of the, population that it's like, well, what are you doing here? you're You're taking this tiny minority and trying to put it in focus in front of everybody.
00:45:50
Speaker
Yeah. Almost like they know what they're doing. There I go to the conspiracy side, but how can, how can you, how could you not look down the road and say, how, how is this going to mess up society as it's currently structured?
00:46:02
Speaker
And I'll go on to my example of this, which the story came up and to me it ties right in. Grafton Correctional Facility. This is hilarious. The picture. pet has it Yes. has a There is a trans inmate in in Grafton.
00:46:18
Speaker
Excellent. They're in Grafton, Ohio. Yes. And got a couple of clips because it gets even better. Do we have clips of Cara Janelle Dior? Awesome.
00:46:29
Speaker
I can't wait to hear this. This is from the IdeaStream, and this is... oh I pulled the guy's name and like I missed it, but he'll say it in the end. Oh, Cardell Balfour is the guy for IdeaStream doing this story.
00:46:45
Speaker
i cut it out of this I cut it out, but he knows this person. Right. Ricari. ah person yeah cuts it out The name is R-I-I-C-A-R. Ricara?
00:47:00
Speaker
i don't I don't know. Janelle Dior. I'm going to call him Dior. deorr Cause that's fancy. Nope. We'll hear how it's pronounced.
00:47:10
Speaker
Grafton correctional inmate. Ricara Janelle Dior is a transgender woman in a men's prison. Dior says she is enduring sexual assault and solitary confinement at the Lorain County facility due to her gender identity.
00:47:22
Speaker
Dior hopes to be transferred to a women's prison, but her fate is uncertain. Ricara Janelle Dior is a transgender woman. She's been here for over 30 years because of a murder conviction. We're talking on the phone because the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, or ODRC, denied our request to speak to Deora in person, citing safety concerns.
00:47:42
Speaker
Starting in 2011, she began presenting as a woman full-time behind bars. But there was an issue. She was now a transgender woman in a man's facility. I'm a woman.
00:47:53
Speaker
I'm real demure. I'm a girl's girl. So I want to be acknowledged this thing. In 2023, she requested to be transferred to the Ohio Reform Tour Women. ODRC formally denied that request and continued deny it even after the state changed her birth certificate to female in January 2024.
00:48:11
Speaker
The state changed her birth certificate? His birth certificate? I am a female. I might be the size of a big black man, but I am a female. Very demure. Demure. A girl's girl. I'm girl's girl.
00:48:29
Speaker
Girl's girl with a beard. and bob probably about 6'3", it looks like. A 54-inch test. So that's the next question I have, but we'll get through this first clip. I got two. So here, continue.
00:48:43
Speaker
A few months later, she alleged she was raped by a male inmate. ODRC responded by ordering her to be placed in a single cell with no other incarcerated people allowed inside. is no way possible you can keep a woman safe in a man's prison. That's just not even logical.
00:48:59
Speaker
She filed an unsuccessful lawsuit in the state of Ohio trying to get prison officials to move her. Dior filed an additional suit in March 2025 within federal court against correctional officials, including ODRC director Annette Chambers-Smith.
00:49:13
Speaker
State prison officials would not agree to an interview for this story, but in records provided to the court, prison officials said despite the official name change, they are not compelled by law to change the gender status of an inmate in prison.
00:49:26
Speaker
The officials also expressed concern about the possibility of moving Dior to a women's facility. I'm suffering here. You don't have no programming for me. You don't have no structured activities for me.
00:49:37
Speaker
Ain't no social activities here for me because there are no other women. here According to Federal Bureau of Prisons, 99% of incarcerated trans women are incarcerated in men's facilities across the country.
00:49:49
Speaker
Many lawmakers and others that oppose transgender women in female prisons are concerned that doing so would be dangerous and harmful for the women already housed at those facilities. Uh, you think? balls are very girly. Can't you tell?
00:50:06
Speaker
He says, you can't, there's no programming for me because there are no other women. ah Correction, there are no women at that prison. Fuck.
00:50:16
Speaker
So he would think, so what I want to know, you look at the picture, It looks like he has breasts. yeah i think I think that's like a padded bra or something.
00:50:30
Speaker
I'm hoping it is, because if it isn't, who's paying for it? This large dude. she the she this is Yeah, she's been in prison for 30 years. And to give her credit, I'm trying here. No, to give him credit? don't know which way to go. Yeah, yeah I don't want to. I'm like, if you want to be called to her, i but yeah, but it's confusing. So yeah, you give him credit.
00:50:50
Speaker
He started doing that. He's, I guess, started presenting out in 2011. So it doesn't sound like he's riding the wave of the recent trans movement. So we would think maybe the medical community would help and maybe bring some, some sanity back to, to this, to this thing. But as we've turned out in this clip, no, not the case.
00:51:15
Speaker
Philadelphia's Temple Health physician, Dr. Jennifer Aldrich, treats incarcerated LGBTQ plus patients. All of these officials are concerned that somehow these trans women are going to sexually assault cisgender women.
00:51:28
Speaker
In 2023. Dr. Aldrich and two other researchers published a research paper in the American Medical Association's Journal of Ethics on Treatment of Transgender Individuals Behind Bars.
00:51:39
Speaker
She says medically trans women have suppressed testosterone, which not only reduces libido, but makes it difficult to achieve in an erection. Just like cis women, trans women have a variety of sexual orientations. Wait, what? And trans women have, like cis women. Just like cis women? But in an erection.
00:51:57
Speaker
Just like cis women, trans women have a variety of sexual orientations, but you know many are straight, which means they have sex with people who identify as men. This doctor should be in prison.
00:52:11
Speaker
It's exploding. I'm trying to follow this. Dude presents as a woman, is now straight, but has sex with men.
00:52:23
Speaker
this This doctor, Jennifer Aldrich, she should be in prison.
00:52:31
Speaker
But trans women are just like cis women, Tom. She should be in prison. Yeah, it's disgusting. This is what I mean. It's broken. You can't, this breaks society. You can't, I'm sorry. This is not acceptable. Okay.
00:52:45
Speaker
Okay. I have a new MAGA now stands for Make Asylums Great Again. Yeah, that Jennifer Aldrich, boy, man, she should, she should, ah yeah, this.
00:52:59
Speaker
Definitely have her medical license revoked, at least reviewed, because, this don't know if you can review it. I mean, they published don't know if you can review it at this point, because I think everything's going so woke.
00:53:10
Speaker
who Yes. Yeah, I was going to say, they published this in a major journal. I just did a quick search. You could do it. Anybody can do it. You can just go on Google and search how many rapes have there been of oh from transgender men in women's prison prisons. and Transgender women in women's prisons,
Vigilante Antone Tolbert in Cleveland
00:53:30
Speaker
I should say.
00:53:30
Speaker
Gets confusing, right?
00:53:33
Speaker
Yeah. Broken. But anyways, there are a number of...
00:53:40
Speaker
it didn't It didn't give me an answer so much as to how many rapes occurred, but it did get it did tell it does tell you how many cases there are and the And the thing is, I don't think many states do this. Washington state has a number of cases on this. So they they probably, you you know, Washington's pretty woke state.
00:54:03
Speaker
So they probably put their transgendered women into women's prisons. And there's I think there's a couple other states. So I don't think many there is a i don't many states do this. So there's not that many cases.
00:54:15
Speaker
But... There's enough cases to make you sit there and wonder why would we even consider this at this point? I'm thinking I keep vision the the image in my head is cleaner.
00:54:30
Speaker
Well, was trying. He was trying to get some. He's trying to get out. And if you were a man in men's prison, going to a woman's prison could be easier.
00:54:41
Speaker
would definitely be. And for the youngsters out there that don't know who Clinger go check out MASH. It's a good... You know what? That's a... They don't make them like that anymore. That was a pretty good, pretty darn good on series.
00:54:54
Speaker
Yeah. So Klinger was a low level clerk at at the, in Korea. It was a Korean war based in Korean war. And he was trying to get a section eight by dressing as a woman.
00:55:06
Speaker
wasn't he wasn't gay or anything like that and he just would try to act as crazy as he could to get and they weren't buying it so it was kind of funny they weren't buying it yeah and that was part of the joke and then towards the end the show he just wore it because he liked it that's right that's right that's what i remember at least that's i remember he's like hey i'm doing it might as well just do it look i have all this it's so nice and you i remember talking how comfortable they were um So we don't need to finish. that's i think we got it I mean, this whole thing is ridiculous from that ah from from the first story to this. is
00:55:39
Speaker
Yeah, and another example of it popped in my head are or a question I had. Okay, so a man presenting as a woman was sexually assaulted in prison and now is asking because of that to go to a woman's prison.
00:55:55
Speaker
So if a man presenting as a man gets sexually assaulted by a man in prison, can he now be asked to take him to a woman's prison? Because what's the difference?
00:56:07
Speaker
There isn't any.
00:56:10
Speaker
We can also go the route of, isn't he asking for it and
00:56:16
Speaker
it? like I mean mean, there's some lonely guys in there. Yeah. Close your eyes and you know, might feel like you're um next to Bigfoot. I mean,
00:56:28
Speaker
look Well, we'll get to Bigfoot later, actually. All right. Next story we're going to hit. This is a good one that we we pushed from last week. there's There's a lot here.
00:56:41
Speaker
I'm not sure how much we're going to be able to get into it, but hero or vigilante? This is our next story. This was good. Cleveland's superhero or vigilante. This is, by the way, this is like, I read this this morning and this has got to be the longest story I've ever seen on an idea stream.
00:57:02
Speaker
And that's why I'm like, I don't know how much we, we can touch on it at least and get you, get you the guidelines. Maybe we'll dig into a little deeper and bring it up. Well, I think we should bring it up in the future. Cause the, um, well, well, let's get into it. all We'll, uh,
00:57:15
Speaker
Yeah, there's a whole there's so much going on in this story. So it starts with, um the story starts, two men in bullproof vest armed with rifles busted up a possible drug deal involving ah minor in a residential neighborhood on Cleveland's east side one summer afternoon last year.
00:57:31
Speaker
They were not police. They were not there by accident. One of the men, was that Antone? Yeah. It had to be Antone Tolbert. Antone Tolbert. had an assault rifle slung over his shoulder and a handgun um in his holster.
00:57:47
Speaker
He approached the driver of a black Volkswagen Jetta who was apparently about to sell marijuana to a 13-year-old boy. but it down step away from the car tolbert instructed and him and his partner he had somebody else with him they were and there and they had no official authority but the coordinates are the command and the guns were enough this doesn't make any sense to me were enough to make the man in the car flee take out take off down the street on foot and leave his car in the road it was a very strange reaction i get those guys with guns ar-15s or whatever
00:58:22
Speaker
But you get out of your car, it must been a stolen car, I would imagine. So then I watched some of this video and he because he puts up his phone after the guy runs there's this car sitting in the street with the doors open. and it's him and his this other guy, we'll get to his name, um just hanging out waiting for the cops, basically. And some neighbors come outside and they ask some questions more, I guess, to get to get to it.
00:58:43
Speaker
Now I'm trying to find his... So they call Tolbert... He's also known as Chairman Fahim. Members of the group that he now belongs to called the New new Era. A community activist group that provides armed safety patrols and neighborhood programs around Buckeye.
00:59:01
Speaker
Buckeye neighborhood on Cleveland's east side. they the they're They're picking up the torch where the the police are leaving off. And basically, this is, ah I think, a group started out Detroit, and he's he's kind of... Tolbert was a... It looks like a EMS driver, transport or something like that, they said. It was an EMS transport, emergency transport, and he just kept seeing all his community just picking people up, gunshot wounds.
00:59:31
Speaker
What can I do about it? Kind of ran into this group. I'm really touching on the edge here because we... So basically what he's done is is now grab this kid in this situation and he's holding this kid, this teenager for the cops to show up. and one And what some of the cops were saying was, wow, he actually gave us a chance to talk to them this kid.
00:59:50
Speaker
Tolbert's giving the kid some, you know come on, stand up straight, talk to him, look at him, tell him what you saw, tell him what's going on. you know In a community that doesn't really talk to the police very often. So he it sounds like he's trying to work with the police, but he also sounds like he's kind of pain in their butt.
01:00:06
Speaker
what As I went through this story, I, I, I, i how can I put this? I like what he's doing. i think he could do it better in a better way.
01:00:18
Speaker
Does that make sense? Yeah. i yeah I think some of the things they're charging him with, which you'll, I guess you'll get into, i think they're made up.
01:00:28
Speaker
Yes. And that's kind of some of the public, public, I was saying, so instead of, I guess what happened was that the charges came down Tolbert from this incident.
01:00:42
Speaker
they they They started charging them with kidnapping. Extortion or something like that. Extortion. And and um not bullying, but what's it called when you're... ah see if I can... ah pulled up here no's It's such a long story that it's hard to ah keep track of things here.
01:01:04
Speaker
Racketeering. yeah to Yep, there it is. Okay. So then, and they arrested him? Yeah, he's, he's he's the the trial just started.
01:01:16
Speaker
This is from last year. okay And this the trial just started ah yesterday, or no, um ah three days ago. There was three days of ah selecting a jury, and the defense had um presented their opening statement yesterday.
01:01:34
Speaker
And they're charging him with felony charges. i don't have it. Kidnapping. No, no. ah Racketeering. Extortion.
01:01:45
Speaker
And something else, too. But... um and This is not the first time I put charges on him. He was arrested in 2022. Yeah, I think. it was good But he he did get a he did get out of that.
01:01:57
Speaker
And I think he won $85,000, too. Yeah, they charged him with walking down St. Clair with a handgun and a holster on his leg. And he spent the night in jail. spent the night in jail, and that um the officer that arrested him got suspended.
01:02:11
Speaker
And he also sued the city for $85,000. It never says if he ah won that suit, because, ah well, open carry in know Ohio is legal. Yeah.
01:02:22
Speaker
Yeah. it's It's legal as long as you're, and and and some of the testimony from some of the community people in the community where he's, where he's patrolling, I guess he's doing this, I think only one day a week.
01:02:35
Speaker
But he was, I think he's doing it every day now. This is like his full-time deal though. That the, the, yeah. Cause he left his current job. He left his job and he became full-time new era. I don't know if he's a leader in there, but he's he's doing this full-time he's,
01:02:50
Speaker
You know what? Like, I don't mind what he's doing. Like when he got arrested with the open carry, i don't, I don't know if he should got should have gotten arrested, but to be, you know, detained, i don't blame the police either. Cause he is, i mean, Buckeye neighborhood is one of the roughest neighborhoods in, in the city or yeah. in In Northern Northeast Ohio.
01:03:13
Speaker
I guess the one, the one thing that bugs me about,
01:03:19
Speaker
I don't know if it's the organization or him. He looks like ah like a legit dude. He looks like a good guy, but he does look like kind of underground, I guess you'd say. Like somebody that's not on the up and up.
01:03:32
Speaker
The one thing that I liked about, like, if we're going to get into vigil, vigil anti type ah yeah type of stuff, like the you had the, what were they called in New York?
01:03:43
Speaker
The Guardian Angels? When you saw one, you knew what who who they were. believe they they are bed too they They used to have red berets. Yes, exactly. So you knew who they were. They they they kind of hung out on ah subways oh and on the streets, and they always kind of wore a uniform, I guess you'd call it.
01:04:06
Speaker
But like this guy walking down the street with a gun, you know he's got like a camouflage jacket. He's got long braided hair. he He doesn't...
01:04:18
Speaker
He doesn't look like he's part of a ah group, I guess ah you could say. Yeah, there's no... Identification. Uniform or identity. Yeah, there's nothing that would point out that that's who he is. and That's why those guardian angels had, I remember, they it was a group like that had bright red berets on, so you can really... support I think they they did that. So if if somebody's getting, um let's say somebody's getting assaulted, that they could run to them.
01:04:45
Speaker
Or if they're feeling threatened that they could run to them. Kind of like police cars used to be, you know, when they were all like white with the white and black and you could identify it real quick instead of like the slimy ah all black cars now, police drive. Like you were supposed to be able to see ah ah a police officer and run to them if you needed help.
01:05:07
Speaker
Yep. Yeah, not blend in so that we can get you on the speed. This guy's not quite blending in, but he is, like, if you saw him on the street, you'd have to question it. You'd have to take a moment to sit there and... Here's a clip or a quote from... doesn't say the name of the person the community. says, everything that I've seen leads me to believe they want to make sure that he's out of business and can no longer carry... That's why they're charging him with a felony...
01:05:36
Speaker
To me, that's that's the ultimate goal. I think these those those powers that be are trying to completely discredit him, that he is convicted on something, something that will prohibit him from ever carrying a gun again.
01:05:52
Speaker
Instead of working with them, this is this is what ah seems like the police department has made at least some of police department. But there's also, i mean, this is not all roses because there's some there are some people saying, this you know is there is there some racketeering here? So there was an incident in two thousand and twenty four August of 2024 where he got he gets he got in a fight with the Race Field gas station near the corner of Lee and Harvard Avenue.
01:06:16
Speaker
I guess he was in the parking lot. Well, he said he there's there's some he said he got there because there was a fight. You know, he was breaking up a fight. But witnesses are saying that there was no fight.
01:06:28
Speaker
This is the the owners of the gas station and I guess customers were saying there was no fight. And the the gas station owner is saying that he was basically, ah
01:06:40
Speaker
you know, asking for protection money. Yeah. So, and that's why he was there was because he they said no. Right. Maybe. So there's something you have to watch out for. I mean, it's... I am curious. I mean, because because I don't mind, you know, a citizen patrol type of thing at all.
01:06:59
Speaker
um If he was doing like a racketeering thing, then that's... Then you're getting into our mafia type of stuff. So we'll see we'll see if... I want to see how this case goes. I kind of want to pay attention to it.
01:07:11
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I think they're definitely not to get him, but I don't, he may not, you know, he may not be doing it the right way. Like you're saying, I mean, yeah, there it's, it's questionable. And I don't know if it's going to be hard either way. i don't know if, I don't know if it's his fault. It might be the, like, he seems like a, a good, he seemed like, I'm saying he seems like a good guy. I don't know, but he seems like he's doing the right thing, but maybe this new era organization is kind of,
01:07:39
Speaker
um So in this particular case, it sounded like they handled it the way maybe it should be handled. I don't know. Every case is a little different. But the guy runs out of the car. They say, hey, drop it.
01:07:50
Speaker
drop it Get out of the car. You know, whatever. Stop this. They're trying to stop a drug deal. The ah person in the car leaves, runs away, and they didn't chase him, which to me is the right move. You start chasing somebody.
01:08:05
Speaker
Now you're in the wrong. that's when things can go wrong. So what they do, they sat there, they called the cops and sat there and waited for the police to show up. Yeah. and' He's never shot anybody. He's never, he's never really, he's never done anything except for help. i mean, yeah I mean, unless you believe the racketeering. and Yeah. Unless there's something, some validity to this whole gas station thing, which is, you know, something to keep an eye on.
01:08:30
Speaker
But overall in a community, in the poor community, when you When the police are asking for help in every which way, and may not be the help you want, but it's help.
01:08:45
Speaker
there're he's he's He's there when you guys aren't. i mean, it's something. I mean, i get it. We got to watch out, but geez, there's no reason to take the guy down and and and and discredit him and look for him. Is this something the prosecutor is trying to do or is this something a police want to do? Because i it seemed like the cops were thanking him.
01:09:07
Speaker
so Yeah, I think the guys in the beat cops are probably
Impact of Ohio's Public Records Law
01:09:10
Speaker
thankful, especially if he's respectful and doing doing things as as as we saw in some of this video. But yeah yeah, it could be the police chief. You know, you could go up, when you go up the ladder, and yeah i don't know what what their motivation would be.
01:09:24
Speaker
i would i would hope it's good, but...
01:09:27
Speaker
Seems like you maybe want to work with this group because you're not getting anywhere without them. I mean, how's it, again, how's it working for you so far? Like, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office declined to comment, and basically they wrote back to them through an email and said they don't, they're kind they're kind of pushing back on, is this IdeaStream?
01:09:48
Speaker
Yeah. So they were pushing back on IdeaStream saying they don't they will not comment on us such a biased take.
01:09:58
Speaker
Oh, really? Yeah. This was a biased take. that like It's like a thousand word freaking article and it covers his thing at the gas station and this and that. i don't It didn't seem biased to me. I mean, maybe... No, it's not biased. Maybe maybe a little. like maybe The writer does seem like he's on the side of... Yeah, but it doesn't see like I don't see any type of... He's giving both sides of the story, so I don't know.
01:10:28
Speaker
Yeah, when you talk about the ah racketeering thing they're talking about, i mean, they went through the whole story. August 3rd, he's at the gas station. They give comments on ah from the um from the gas station owner, from people in the parking lot, you know you know going against what Tolbert's saying. i ands I mean, but every article can be biased in some ways, but not not not enough to go, I'm not commenting on it.
01:10:51
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, all the pictures of Tolbert are pretty, ah like, and showing him in a good light. ah Yeah, so that's true. The written word of the article. I watched a video on his Oh, okay.
01:11:06
Speaker
I mean, they're just sitting there. There's two two guys in the street watching the car, was waiting for the police to show up. Yeah, they they're black clad. One has a mask on, like a cover in his face.
01:11:17
Speaker
um And he doesn't, though. And they're just in plain sight in the street, just waiting there. i mean I mean, cars are going by, and i could I'm like, what do those people thinking? Here's two dudes in the street strapped.
01:11:30
Speaker
And he's a lefty, by the way, because he's ah you got a pistol. that was enough kick and I noticed like, oh, he's a lefty. That's weird. um And and they're just sitting there chatting with each other. And they go off camera talking to some woman like, why did he leave his car? they're Like, I don't know. He just ran this heaven.
01:11:47
Speaker
So I didn't watch the video. See what actually I should make it a point to see what his interaction with the cops were, because it seemed like you they were pretty good. Yeah, there's a picture of him there sitting there chilling with the cops, just talking to him, you know, from his videos. So, right, moving on to the next.
01:12:03
Speaker
Actually, real quick, little advice to Tolbert. Get some body cams. That'll cover your butt, not just setting your phone up on the other side the street. You need some body cams. and you invest I'll tell you what, that's a great idea. that'll take Yeah, that'll take it all the question away if you got video of everything.
01:12:21
Speaker
Huh. Moving on. Next story I pulled because this this is one of those stories that I went, what are they trying to pull? but this is the ah charging for public records in Ohio.
01:12:38
Speaker
um So there's a new Ohio law that says requesting public police video can cost up to $750 request. ah request
01:12:48
Speaker
I went, what? Like, this is um this is our money. this is This is money,
01:12:57
Speaker
tax dollar money. If I call and want a police to look up, um you know, what happened on the police thing, why I got to pay $750? Yeah, why did why did he sign House Bill 315? Yep, House Bill 315 in January, ah but it took effect at the beginning of April.
01:13:15
Speaker
Well, as I start reading through the story, i find there counties and communities are getting inundated with requests for these body cams. For what? YouTube videos.
01:13:27
Speaker
Yeah, people are monetizing on this.
01:13:31
Speaker
So they understand when the, you know, a news station calls and says, can you pull this body cam and send it to us? Okay, one here, one there. But some communities are literally having to hire two and three people just to take these requests, to to make sure they can get these requests out in a timely manner.
01:13:50
Speaker
So I was like, oh, well, I guess. So what do you do?
01:13:55
Speaker
Well, yeah you know, they get they have to redact these things, and and yeah it's not it's not just giving them all the information, because they've got to go through it. They've got to redact all the names, and they've got to take time doing this. Bases.
01:14:11
Speaker
Yeah, it takes a lot of time. I mean, that's a big but. It was one thing when you only had a couple of concerned citizens asking for it and and maybe a news station, but, boy, now...
01:14:23
Speaker
So for example, it says here, they've seen a steep increase in public record requests involving video. In 2023, the
01:14:34
Speaker
ah dpd ah Oh, yeah, Dayton Police Department. Sorry. This is the story mainly out Dayton. ah Saw a steep increase. 2023, DPD process more than 1,300 requests.
01:14:46
Speaker
The number more than doubled in 2024, surpassing 3,000 requests. More than 1,700 public record requests have already been received this year. So it's going to be even more for this year.
01:14:57
Speaker
So halfway through the year, they're at 1,700. Wow. many request labor intent Many requiring labor-intensive video read action, a growing portion of requests are submitted by social media content creators who publicly share and monetize police footage.
01:15:15
Speaker
So it's almost a deterrent, you know, I don't know if $750 would cover, you know, sometimes what you have to do is spend hours doing this, but it's a, I would think it's going to be a, a deter, a big deterrent because I mean, how much are you going to make? I mean, unless it goes super viral, how much are you going to make off of a Instagram video or a YouTube video?
01:15:37
Speaker
I happen to partake in a few of these channels every now and again. And, you know, most of them, honestly, most of what I've seen, they usually come from out of the country because those are some of the craziest things can see. but But there's also a ah public records kind of component here.
01:15:55
Speaker
Like as a a citizen, if I call and want the videos for, you know, for whatever reason, do I have to pay 750 bucks? Well, that's the concern, right? I'm not going to post it on YouTube. Yeah, that's, that's the, the, what do you have to balance, I guess.
01:16:09
Speaker
So interesting. It's, it's the law now So that's what they're going to, going to see how it goes, but who knows, he may be overturning this. The coming. Well, I wonder if it's ever, ever, you know, if somebody is going to sue, sue, and then he goes to a different court.
01:16:25
Speaker
Yeah, that would be probably the the avenue to go. Somebody will sue saying it's prohibitive and a normal citizen. isn in that And then our taxes go up.
01:16:36
Speaker
They got you got to pay for it and then we're going to be paying for the u YouTubers to put it out there. Monetize. Yeah. tell so Tell us what you feel, how you feel about that story or any of the ones we talked about already. You can check us out at crookedrivercast.com.
01:16:53
Speaker
Get our email, X, anywhere else we're going to be as we build our site. ah Share it with your friends. Rob, I feel like starting a YouTube channel featuring police videos.
01:17:06
Speaker
i I think it might be cost prohibitive. Now it is, but we'll see. Only for Ohio, though. We can go to other states, probably get just as many things. Yeah, I'm curious. Are other states doing the same thing? Probably.
01:17:20
Speaker
I would have to. If not, I would say yes, because Ohio is not usually on the forefront. i usually tapping somebody else. Next story, we'll touch on this because it's um whenever I get a chance to point out the inefficiencies of government or the public-private partnership, I just can't resist.
01:17:41
Speaker
So this is what this story
Childhood Lead Poisoning Crisis in Cleveland
01:17:42
Speaker
is about. This is WKYC News Channel 3 about the lead crisis in Cleveland. And what we learned is Cleveland's number one at something and it's lead poisoning.
01:17:55
Speaker
Here we go. Thank you. Joining me now is the director of the Cleveland Department of Public Health, Dr. David Margolis, to talk about a subject the city of Cleveland and our region has been fighting for decades, childhood lead poisoning. Thank you so much for being here. my pleasure. Thank you. All right. CDPH released a report last October.
01:18:15
Speaker
Do we still have one of the highest levels of childhood lead poisoning in the United States? Sadly, Monica, it's not only one of the highest, it's it's the highest in the country. Number one!
01:18:26
Speaker
two to three times higher than Flint, Michigan ever was in the city Cleveland. So why is that? We've been fighting it for years. yeah There's still so much lead-based paint in our homes in Cleveland. That's where lead poisoning comes from. Actually, it's the number one cause in the in the country, um despite all the attention that the water gets.
01:18:47
Speaker
And in Cleveland, when you drive around our neighborhoods, you just see a lot of old homes that haven't had the same type of investment as homes in the suburbs. Well, six years ago, the Lead Safe Coalition was formed. Wait, hold on. And it raised with philanthropy. This is so important. but Most of the lead poisoning is coming from paint?
01:19:07
Speaker
now Not the water. Okay. No. No. I mean, I think the easiest thing would be stop eating paint. Yeah. But I think it's more than that, but...
01:19:19
Speaker
But how how else does does a kid get lead poisoning from paint? i get a Chipping paint, I get it. But where does does it chip into his food or her food? or are they just eating it? We're the parents, I guess. But you know what? We will solve the problem.
01:19:33
Speaker
Money. Money will solve the problem, right, Tom? It's for the children. Yes, for the children, yes. and And it raised with philanthropy. Well, six years ago, the Lead Safe Coalition was formed.
01:19:50
Speaker
Coalition. And it raised with philanthropy $100 million dollars to address this program and this problem. So what's being done with that money?
01:20:01
Speaker
Yeah, well, you know, I think we all acknowledge that not enough has has been done with that money to get into homes. so The way that we get out of lead poisoning in Cleveland is to build as many new homes as possible. Move right past that. Tear down as many old homes as possible. and then Just move right past that $100 million. $100 million dollars six years ago.
01:20:22
Speaker
Six years ago. We just slide right past that whole question. Fix homes that that that can be fixed. And so we really are are working closely hand in hand with the coalition to get the money into homes.
01:20:34
Speaker
So there are less old wood windows, less old wood porches, and everything else that can chip and and cause lead poisoning in babies. No, stop. Think of the children. Six years, $100 million. hamy How many homes can you build in Cleveland for $100 million? dollars Thousands, probably.
01:20:54
Speaker
At least 1,000. if you If you figure 100,000 per house, it's 1,000 homes. Well, if you're talking in Cleveland, i mean, you could build one of those. You know, you could build like ah a small house, a small.
01:21:06
Speaker
Probably for less, probably for half, but I'm just – Just going to more expensive than, you know, things are more expensive now than ever to be. Even $100,000 per house. That's a thousand houses. You could have torn down a thousand houses. Where's money going?
01:21:20
Speaker
This guy doesn't even have a nice suit, so he he doesn't get it um The Coalition for Lead-Free Cleveland, again, i mean, our Crooked Rivercast mics go everywhere, Tom. Here's another example of, this is was part of the one of the meetings they had.
01:21:35
Speaker
So here you go
01:21:46
Speaker
go. Not gremlins. What was that? Not gremlins. It's just some critters feeding. That's that was. don't know. I said, I sound effect I found on online. Uh, yeah, it's a slush fund. $100 million slush fund for the children. It's always about the kids.
01:22:05
Speaker
All right. Um, I guess I'll touch very quickly on, do we even need to do the next, mean, I guess, guess we can have a little laugh. Yeah. Okay.
01:22:17
Speaker
We'll have a slight laugh. So about a month or so ago, the NAACP Ohio chapter um has a new ah award out to, well, I'll just read.
01:22:30
Speaker
um So she read this is ah Meryl Johnson from the Cleveland cle chapter of NAACP, who is giving awards to Ohio school members who have defied President Trump's executive orders on eliminating DEI.
01:22:46
Speaker
Here's a couple, here's some quotes. Especially in Ohio, we have school board members who understand what their job is. And that is to put students first, Johnson said.
01:22:59
Speaker
During the event, according to a video obtained by Ohio News, and and she goes on, and some school board members in Ohio have defied what I call an immoral suggestion from the president to sign anti-DEI, anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion directives.
01:23:20
Speaker
Clown of the week. Thank you, Merrill Johnson. We appreciate you for contributing to the show.
01:23:28
Speaker
So they even have pins, Tom. They even got a pin. when hey They spent money on making a pin. So oddly enough, oddly enough, the school boards that were in question here are school boards that won their first awards.
01:23:44
Speaker
I just had it. Where'd go? It was ah Cincinnati Shaker Heights, And Cleveland Heights, University Heights. Cleveland Heights had to make it, right?
01:23:58
Speaker
Yes, of course. and I mean, that Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights, basically, they're neighbors, I believe. And what what was the first one? thing Cincinnati. It was the first three. that They're actually going to show up. just They actually showed up. This happened a month ago. It's an old story, it was still fun. Because most of the ah colleges or universities are kind of doing away with it, right?
01:24:21
Speaker
Yeah, they're they're doing away with it. and um But there are some that aren't. in and and This is virtue signaling. i mean I think they... If they want to get they want to get ah federal funding, they have to... So they're all going to fall in the line.
01:24:35
Speaker
Yeah. But, I mean, if you want to make a pin and spend your... I mean, that's really advancing, you know... Education. That's really... i mean, this this pin really helps, or you know, black people and minorities.
01:24:49
Speaker
Sure, it does. All right, that was the last. On to the favorite segment for everybody. bring good things to life.
Cleveland Cultural and Recreational Events
01:25:03
Speaker
Today, on our Good Things segment, we can touch quickly on the Cleveland Metro Park Zoo Asian Lantern Festival kicks off. I've been to this a few times.
01:25:15
Speaker
It's pretty cool. If you haven't been to the zoo in a while, it's a good excuse to go. yeah um It's a good excuse to see it at night. It runs after hours ah Thursday through Sunday, 6.30 to 10.30, starting ah now to August 24th. Yeah, I think it's kind of cool to get there you know during the day, enjoy the zoo, and then enjoy the Asian Lantern Festival.
01:25:37
Speaker
It's cool. Yeah, grab a drink, grab a beer, walk around. if you haven't like if you haven't been to the zoo in a while, a lot of things have changed in the last 10 years probably for you. And it's nice to see the lights on and seeing the zoo at and at night.
01:25:50
Speaker
Yeah, it's not something um go every it's not something you want to see more than once. and They change it up. You go every two or three years and you'll see something. It's good for the kids too. Great. Yeah.
01:26:01
Speaker
Great for the kids. Get out from behind the screens and get to the zoo. start Stop your doom scrolling. Yes. you know like Yeah. Stop your kids from doom scrolling too.
01:26:13
Speaker
um Asian. Next I had was this Cosm, Immersive Sports. So they are opening a, I think the fifth,
01:26:26
Speaker
franchise for this Cosm Immersive Sports and Entertainment venue coming to downtown Cleveland. It's like, is it by, yeah, East 4th and Prospect Avenue here on over in that whole area over by Gateway.
01:26:41
Speaker
was Gateway, I think is, this is a, the Rock Entertainment Group is owned by, and basically what this is, is what they're saying, I watched couple of videos on YouTube, get an idea what this is. They're saying this is a small version of the, that sphere out of, in Las Vegas. okay.
01:26:57
Speaker
but done by a different, it's a different company, not the same company. And in most of these places that they were showing that you walk in, you can go into a ah i'll place that's just kind of a regular sports venue as a bar and tables, and you can watch sports.
01:27:10
Speaker
And you pay, it's like some up to 20, $25 table cover. And then you can upgrade to to the immersive side, which is, it's basically IMAX. for sports. And now what I saw, they were watching a, I think a Lakers game in this video.
01:27:26
Speaker
And as you walked in this room, you're sitting in, it's a camera in a seat and you're watching a game like you're sitting in the crowd. And then up and around you, they got like, you can watch, they have TV screens behind you and around you above the main big screen where you watch replays.
01:27:42
Speaker
So it's like you're sitting in the arena and you can look like 180 degrees or more, just just over 180 degrees. and And it looks like the seats are pretty darn comfortable.
01:27:54
Speaker
Yeah, you get you can get booths, tables, high-top tables. I think the immersive was like you can go up to, you can get a booth for six people for like $180 or $200. um And then you have your seat for the whole game or suite of games. And then you can order food and drinks and bring it to your stuff. It looks looks really cool if you're into internet that kind of stuff.
01:28:13
Speaker
Good place to watch a game. You know, I don't care about the... At a concert. do they Are they going to do concerts? That that was my question. Yes, this is, what did I see at the head? Oh yeah. So in addition to live, live college of professional football, basketball, hockey, soccer, tennis, golf, baseball, and UFC, the venue is offering experiment, experimental cinema and immersive art experiences
01:28:39
Speaker
And it doesn't say anything about, it says something about concerts, but it, that's. Concerts would be awesome, I think. Now, is this going to be, um but is this going to be like live?
01:28:51
Speaker
Like is, is it? Yeah, they're saying this is the guests into real-time sports event concerts. and That's where I saw concerts and live action. Because what would be kind of cool is if, you know, because you wouldn't have to do concerts live. You could you could do like a Pink Floyd concert or whatever concert.
01:29:11
Speaker
A nice revenue stream for ah for bands. Yeah. For bands you don't have to actually be on the road, but they can they can license it out. That's actually pretty cool. I don't know. I would love to see. ah To see a Pink Floyd show in something this.
01:29:22
Speaker
It'd be awesome. Especially like a ah one from, you know, 20 years ago when they actually. Well, you When they were little younger. Well, no. i Yeah. there's I mean, I think Pink. What's his name?
01:29:34
Speaker
The guitar player. get Gilmore. Roger Waters. yeah but He's still doing a pretty awesome job, but. yeah, he's doing, yeah. But, but the group itself is not together. But wow, man, what about like an old who concert or something like that?
01:29:47
Speaker
yeah Yes. That's some classic. That would be awesome. If you can get it, if you can get the video. So it's a 12 K led dome with high resolution wall to wall. And now they, nowadays they can up, up res that stuff and make it look really good. Led Zeppelin.
01:30:02
Speaker
yeah Man, that would be pretty cool. ah yeah Exit strategy, Rob. Yes, there you go.
01:30:14
Speaker
I like it. That's pretty cool. ah You had brought a couple good things to life. um There is a, they're they're starting to put in more river access points down. What river? So this is a Cuyahoga Valley National Park Summit Metro Parks.
01:30:30
Speaker
It unveiled new river access point for paddlers. And I had to look up what paddlers were. But basically if you're into canoeing or kayaking, I was like picturing like a bunch of paddle boats.
01:30:43
Speaker
Pedal boats, you know? its like Yeah, the bicycle pedal boats. I mean, I guess you could if you had one. guess. But let's see. Brecksville, Ohio, the Cuyahoga National Park and Summit Metro Parks on Thursday opened a new access point for paddlers along the Cuyahoga River.
01:31:01
Speaker
The new area called it's North Hampton Point is located on Akron Peninsula Road in Cuyahoga Falls.
01:31:11
Speaker
Yeah, basically in the canal area. As you go down. Yeah, Summit Metro Parks led the project and contributed $396,000 for access point construction, ah which added seating area, parking, a boat launch takeout area, small changing room, and portable restroom that will be available during paddle season.
01:31:36
Speaker
Kind of cool. I mean, if you're into it, it's a six-mile stretch. Yeah. ah which will take two to three hours, according to the park. I read this story and went, huh, that sounds like a ah relaxing the Cayuga. Yeah.
01:31:51
Speaker
relaxing paddle down the ah aga yeah Or the canal, whatever it is. It might be something. I've done something similar that is not paddling, but I went on a river tube down Tennessee. saved this because I'm i'm i'm not going to do it, but I think there's a lot of people that are into that.
01:32:06
Speaker
And yeah I think the Metro Parks and Cuyahoga Valley National Park, regardless of how they got it, is a pretty good resource for local.
01:32:18
Speaker
Yeah. I did initially go 396,000 and I, Oh, they get a parking, you got bathrooms and all that stuff. Yeah. That makes sense. My knee jerk. What the heck? Why do you charge so much just to make some, put some gravel down? and they It shows you that the, um i'll I'll tell you what, I, I don't know.
01:32:36
Speaker
I got to look into it, but and the Metro parks, the Cleveland Metro parks and summit, they, they got, they got dough, man. I think so. I've seen some of the things they've built over here and it's, uh, it's nice stuff. I mean, it's great. It's a great resource. And I actually, it it is something that kind of stands out in the country because there's not a lot of states that are ah not states, but this isn't really even the state issue. This is just a kind of, this is kind of county yeah Northern Ohio. and Is the Metro parks a statewide thing?
01:33:05
Speaker
I don't think so. I think it's Cuyahoga Metro Parks, Cleveland Metro Parks. I think it's all. and Well, you got the Emerald. I forget what they call it. The Emerald whatever. But it's mostly a Northeast Ohio, right? Yeah.
01:33:16
Speaker
I'm sure there's other park systems. We got the Metro Park system. and ah you people from out of state and go, what, what's this? What is this? I remember when I was a kid, we go, Hey, let's go down to the Metro parks. Like what's the Metro parks? you have them from Pennsylvania. Like, Oh, it's just a park that they, ah like, they do that. i go, yeah. Oh, it was just normal. Yeah.
01:33:34
Speaker
It's a unique. yeah i think oh I think take advantage. We were spoiled. i mean, I would, I felt now looking back at it, I was spoiled growing You know, when you're a teenager looking, you know you just got your driver's license. You're looking for something to do with your friends. You head out to Wallace Lake or Rocky river reservations. It's all, uh,
01:33:52
Speaker
Yeah, that's great. Awesome.
01:33:56
Speaker
Last but definitely not least. I didn't have a link for this, unfortunately. No, I just had the the flyer itself is enough. That's pretty good. All right, all you wackos out there.
01:34:08
Speaker
john's country Are you a true believer? John's Country Nursery. that you would You would go to John's Country dot net And you know what I'm going to say? 440-632-0016.
01:34:24
Speaker
Go to that website or call that number if you're looking for Bigfoot. There is a gone-squatchin' Bigfoot Festival going on ah July 19th.
01:34:36
Speaker
i was waiting for you to say it. Gone-squatchin'.
01:34:40
Speaker
It's Saturday, July 19th from 10 a.m. to 5 Mike Miller of Ohio Night Stalkers, Buckeye Bigfoot researchers featuring Ed Weiland and Jim and Leona Florence, Jack Warren, author and researcher Doug Waller.
01:34:58
Speaker
There's going to be music vendors, contests, food vendors, raffles. Get a non-blurry picture of Bigfoot. Ride the Wildwood Express.
01:35:09
Speaker
That sounds like fun. I've always wanted to go to one one of those. i have. i i don't I don't know if I can that day, but... Oh, the 19th. I think a couple of those happen in Ohio. There's one and in Stark County at the Stark... Yeah, Stark County. I forget what the what the lake is but the name of the lake is.
01:35:32
Speaker
But um there's a couple of them that happen here. I want to know... like I want to talk to somebody that's really into it and ask them, with all the technology we have nowadays, you still think they're out there?
01:35:47
Speaker
you would You would think like a um with all the game cameras, you know, the the hunting cameras. Yeah, I going to say tracking cameras. That are out in the woods that people, I mean, people put that stuff out there and, and you know, tracking a deer and bear and stuff like that.
01:36:06
Speaker
i I would have to say with the time that's passed, if there was any, it's dead. There's no, there's no way for it to procreate. It's not like you had thousands of them out there. Well, i mean, you would think you would find some bones or fecal matter or, you know, that they're pretty large. You would think you would find some type of evidence of them, you know.
01:36:29
Speaker
Well, when I was a kid, day I saw the stories on TV all the time. They had footprints. They would make castings of and everything. I'm sure it was completely like It is like one of those things that is, I think there's, it's, it like it's, it it's, man yeah, well, you know, it's, it's kind of goes along with that Bigfoot, Bigfoot UFOs and all that stuff. That's the unknown. And some people say that they do exist, but it's on another plane.
01:37:00
Speaker
Yes. Or another dimension. ah Or it's just a bear that's got, you know, front paw that's hurt, that's walking on its hind legs.
01:37:10
Speaker
but Have you ever seen that? I haven't. Bears do that, you know? they And if you're if it's dusk and you're in the middle of a woods and you're your your senses are all um on ah on high alert...
01:37:27
Speaker
You got a super eight or over your shoulder and it's three, 400 yards away. Definitely get a clear shot. of Shake a little bit. Definitely don't focus totally.
01:37:37
Speaker
that Always out of focus. That's amazing. all right, on that happy note, come join us or talk to us, see where we're at, send us an email, share the show, crookedrivercast.com.
01:37:52
Speaker
That's where you go for all things Crooked Rivercast.
01:37:56
Speaker
On that note, I'd just like to thank everybody for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.