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Crooked River Cast Show 51
62 Plays17 days ago
Crookedrivercast.com
Crookedrivercast@gmail.com
- Iran
- Ohio “Drone Program” for first responders.
- Schools around the state swatted.
- HB706 protect from data center costs.
- HB 646 Data center “commission”?
- GOP to override Dewine veto ending DC sales tax break.
- Data center air pollution.
- Data center water pollution.
Breaking News From Iran!
- More fraud in Ohio? Trucking and Health Care now?
- Ohio near the
- op of “anti-LGBTQIA+” States.
- What is a hate crime.
- IX Center setting up for its last event. Or is it?
Good Things:
- Rock and Roll Land Project.
- Ohio to ban soda for SNAP.
Recommended
Transcript
Hosts Introduction and Personal Stories
00:00:12
Speaker
Hello and welcome back to the Crooked Rivercast. This is Robert, that guy over there, that's Tom. And we're just two guys from North New Ohio trying to keep track of this great state.
00:00:24
Speaker
This is show 51, recorded for the week of March 7, 2026. Yeah, I'll stumble through it, but we've got some stuff to discuss. Let's go.
00:00:41
Speaker
crap, that was... on the edge of disaster the whole time was speaking. How's your morning, Rob? It's good. good mean maybe i had Maybe I did have one too many beers last night. don't know. Maybe. Could be. Where did you go?
00:00:57
Speaker
Well, it was quite a week, and I decided to meet some friends and coworkers up at the bar to blow off some steam. and I was either that i was going to get some Conway's.
00:01:11
Speaker
so instead, I went to the bar and drank some Conways. But then they were out, so...
00:01:17
Speaker
I had drink it old-fashioned. I mean, I don't know. I made it through. I made it through. Okay, you don't sound like it, but... All right. but but little That's what I spelt like the whole time I was talking.
00:01:29
Speaker
Last night was a good night. I just... ah yeah I ended up having a couple drinks outdoors with my wife. We smoked a couple cigars and... It was nice to do that.
00:01:41
Speaker
Haven't done that in a while.
Ohio Weather and Weekend Plans
00:01:42
Speaker
Yeah, it was, a it's 60 something degrees outside currently as we record, 66 according to my computer. But when I got in my recording studio, it was 64 in my basement.
00:01:54
Speaker
I got to turn the heat on. got turn the heater on. It was 66 outside. That's a good temperature right there. Yeah, it was a little chilly. So I got up to like 65 and then off.
00:02:06
Speaker
Anywho, how was your morning? Everything good this morning? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Nothing. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just a normal week. Yeah.
00:02:17
Speaker
I think next week's going to be a better week. I'm taking Monday off and gonna enjoy the weather. I hope. ah yes Oh, yeah. Yeah. By Wednesday, I think it's going to get cold again, isn't it?
00:02:31
Speaker
I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Well, i think money's decent. think we're going to take a ride down to Southern Ohio. going to pick up some, uh, some steaks from ah yeah Amish country. Cause I've had a couple from there.
00:02:46
Speaker
i don't know what farm they're coming off of, but, uh, they're delicious. Yeah. So I want to stack my freezer up. Yeah, we're we're planning steaks this weekend too.
00:02:58
Speaker
When the wife says, got to get something on the grill, I must oblige. Yes. yeah much I got no problem putting meat on the grill, especially after it's Lent. So Fridays, no meat for me. And Saturday and Sundays, i got to make up for that Friday and not having meat. So was like, what kind of meat going eat today? Come on.
00:03:16
Speaker
Yeah, you just had us I just had a salad last night. Yeah. Oh, crap. Totally cranky. what That might be good for the show. i guess ah I guess before we get into anything, really, we can at least mention everybody yeah who listens to...
Health Scares and Podcast Impacts
00:03:38
Speaker
Did you hear what happened, John?
00:03:41
Speaker
John but Dvorak? ah My wife told me I didn't listen to the show. They had, ah you should check it out, least the beginning of it, because it's ah quite a different opening with Mimi on there.
00:03:52
Speaker
Yeah, I've never heard her Yeah, first time maybe on the show. I think first time on the show they mentioned it, but if anyone does know No Agenda podcast, the greatest podcast in the universe, of their hosts, John C. Dvorak, I guess was in the doctor, at the doctor's getting blood work, and they found out, ah you're going in now, you need a double bypass.
00:04:11
Speaker
So like I just went online this morning and somebody from the show, and ah one of the of the producers you've probably heard of, I can't remember the name, but he had mentioned that he got a message from Adam saying that he had open heart surgery yesterday. He's recovering.
00:04:25
Speaker
I think it was last night. He's recovering. So thoughts and prayers to JCD and his family because Absolutely. It's, uh, you gotta be back and crankier than ever, please. Yes. I was going to say this should make him a little bit more cranky.
00:04:39
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Listen to the show. Listen to the beginning, listen, because they have a best of right for this last Thursday, but she, she talks about it. It's pretty funny the beginning. She's in good spirits and she's warning the doc, nurses that, you know, he's, he's really not going to be nice.
00:04:54
Speaker
She told him that. I have a feeling he's going be fine. it be he Yeah, he's yeah he's he'll be fine. But i I guess they had to intubate him. He was not happy about that.
00:05:05
Speaker
All kinds of stuff. So he's going through some stuff. It had to be one of his main arteries totally blocked. it was ah Yeah, she didn't go into that kind of detail as far as all that. They they were still doing tests because this was Thursday.
00:05:20
Speaker
couple days ago, so we'll see. He should be back in a week or so, she said. Yeah. Yeah. they They push you out of there. three yeah We crack you open in three days. Get get out. Get out. Well, that's what my dad had surgery last year. five, wasn't he?
00:05:36
Speaker
Yeah, he was there about five. And he he kind of stretched it out a little bit longer. He didn't want to go home. He had a issues with breathing a little bit, so he stayed in couple days longer.
00:05:47
Speaker
But he's doing good now. And he's old as John. Oh, 70-ish? I think he's early 70s, right?
00:05:58
Speaker
I want to say 72, but... Yeah, he's going to fine. ah My dad's had it done when he was 79, so... Yeah, and a good good timing because they found it while he was just going to get some, what sounded like some regular butt work.
00:06:11
Speaker
But I think the the key to all this, though, the key, if you don't, is he had his cell phone on him. Because he called his wife from the cell phone. And Adam's like, wait, what?
00:06:23
Speaker
What? He didn't leave it in the drawer? Yeah, one it was one of those flip phones or something, maybe. me but that was pretty I don't understand his relationship with his wife, Mimi. It sounds like they live in two different places.
00:06:34
Speaker
Yeah, she runs a kennel up in Washington, and he stays in California most of the time. That's what sounds like. Yeah. hey Okay. Okay. Yeah. ah So thoughts and prayers and get better and get back soon because we need your, I mean, what crappy timing, John? Come on, seriously.
00:06:52
Speaker
Because are we at war with Iran, Tom?
Global Politics and Conflicts
00:06:59
Speaker
No. No? oh No. I mean, i hear him say war, but then others say there is no war. Yeah.
00:07:09
Speaker
I call it a war, but yeah, that's like, uh, you were asking this and then everybody's kind of shocked because, uh, the president did military actions without asking Congress.
00:07:21
Speaker
Like Massey's on Twitter and X going, Oh, you got to get, I said, I commented, I said, Hey, uh, you're a little late to the party. You guys gave that shit away like 30 years ago. Like, what are you talking about? Well, I don't, there hasn't been war declared since world war two. Since world war two.
00:07:37
Speaker
okay And it's just, you know. So we have a couple of, couple stories we put in there for the, for the, just to kind of touch base on it a little bit. And I've found a couple of, couple sources.
00:07:54
Speaker
So the first one I put in that link understandingwar.org. And this is pretty cool site. I mean, I didn't dig too much into them. There seemed like a nonprofit. They got a donate button on there.
00:08:09
Speaker
ah Institution, the Institute for War, for the study of war is is the website. And they've got a daily update. They've got key takeaways. They've got satellite imagery before and after of all these things as we're bombing them.
00:08:23
Speaker
ah it's It's pretty amazing. They got a nice breakdown. For example, March sixth which was Friday. They got key takeaways. Israel Defense Force has continued strikes targeting Iran's ballistic missile infrastructure in order to denigrate or degrade Iranian missile cappe capabilities. It was on and on. There's four or five different ones. I think the latest I've seen is the Kurds.
00:08:50
Speaker
And Azerbaijan, do that carefully after a couple of drinks. Azerbaijan is, they're they're mounting troops at the border. And I think the Kurds have already started invading Iran. At least I've seen some videos.
00:09:09
Speaker
Could possibly be it.
00:09:13
Speaker
And that's going to be, it's going to get kind of sticky here in a little bit, I think. What do you think?
00:09:22
Speaker
I think we're going to done in a few weeks. What's done though? Like what's, what what do you consider? I don't think we're going to have any troops there. I think we're going to be done with the tax.
00:09:35
Speaker
Then what happens after that? I don't know. i think that, I think he's going to try to negotiate a leader, you know, Yeah, as far as, yeah, it's got to be ah somebody of our approval.
00:09:48
Speaker
Kind of what Trump has been saying. Slide this over because I got everything. it sounds like pretty much everybody's dead. Uh, yeah. And they're not announcing a new leader because, well, they got nobody.
00:10:02
Speaker
If it's somebody is in charge of something, whether how much ah they're in charge of what is up up in question, but they're definitely not going to be announcing who's the leader because we're just going to, if it's not somebody we can talk to, they're just gonna we're just going to kill them.
00:10:15
Speaker
We're just going to bomb them. Yeah. Uh, so somebody, I mean, they're ah I'm sure they're in complete disarray. So whoever's in charge, quote unquote is, I mean, I'm not sure what they're really in charge of. Oh, I think it's, I don't think anybody's in charge of anything. I think there's just sectors that are, think they're in charge.
00:10:32
Speaker
It's strange strategy from Iran. ah The U.S. s and israel attack Israel attack us and we attack everybody. We retaliate. They attack 15 different countries, 14 or 15 different countries. I think now it's at 15 with Azerbaijan.
00:10:48
Speaker
Yeah, that was kind of a weird move, right? Yeah, i mean, weird and yeah it's in a lot of ways, but also not because as you and look into all this,
00:11:01
Speaker
oil prices and restricting the economy around the world is probably their only play. And that's what they just did They just destabilized. I mean, they just, with the the straight over Hormuz being locked, basically locked down, gas prices have gone up, i don't know, in some cases, 50, 60 cents a gallon in the last week.
00:11:18
Speaker
That's their only play right now is to completely destabilize the region. A lot of the, like Saudi Arabia and a lot of these countries, they're running out of, they're they're about to start shutting oil wells down because they can't store it any longer because there's no ships being loaded because no ships are going out and or coming in.
00:11:35
Speaker
And in a lot of cases, when you shut an oil well down, it's not necessarily good. It doesn't automatically just, it's not like it's turning a valve off and turning it back on apparently. Not that I'm anywhere near an oil well expert, but from a lot of what I've read, it's kind of the case.
00:11:50
Speaker
Yeah, it makes sense why we went into Venezuela.
00:11:55
Speaker
Yeah, but Venezuela is is not even going to touch any of this. Venezuela is not going to... it it It initially may have softened a blow, but Venezuela does not even come close to one of the countries in in the region far as far oil production, from what I understand.
00:12:12
Speaker
Yeah, but for us... A million, yeah, so Venezuela does like a million and a half barrels a day. And i think one of the smaller countries in the Middle East does like two and a half million barrels a day.
00:12:23
Speaker
So when you combine them all together, you're getting 20, 20% of the oil, of the world's oil. It still softens the blow. It might. it will in the long run. By the way, we have to, we have to break.
00:12:35
Speaker
We do. Because I can't even understand you at this point. You're breaking up so bad.
00:12:41
Speaker
Okay, I think we got that figured out. think we'll find out uh but i don't whatever you didn't hear from that that was the most elegant rant i've ever had tom and i can't believe you missed it yeah i'm sure uh we were talking about uh venezuela i think and well just think it might soften but i don't i don't i don't don't i don't know how much of a dent they're gonna make at this point well we'll know we'll find out for us it might be better that's maybe that we're saying that's what that's what i mean yeah yeah for the world i think softens it up
00:13:13
Speaker
Oh, no, it doesn't help China. no And there you go. See? Yeah. And that's where I wanted to kind of touch a little bit. Two questions. Go ahead. And this, I think this has a lot to do with trying to keep the dollar as the main world currency.
00:13:32
Speaker
I think this is. twofold i think he wanted his first first try was to get this done with negotiation get the leaders to agree to settle down stop destabilizing the area all this other stuff and when they said no he said well is what we got to do I think Venezuela was tied to this but I think yeah I think that has a lot to do with China and Russia because the interconnect between China and Russia is Iran as far as military aid And the like some of the latest I've seen is Russia is giving Iran intelligence. that's his Because early on, they hit that one of the drones hit a couple of our radar stations in Saudi Arabia, I think, and somewhere else, maybe Iraq.
00:14:15
Speaker
And one of the defense radars for for the defense systems. And it's now being reported, at least, that they believe this, until the reason Iran knew where to go was because of Russia, Russia's help.
00:14:29
Speaker
And then they're they're they're seeing a lot of these drones and they're they're getting the pieces from them they're Russian drones. I mean, there's Russian all over. They're the exact drones they're using in Ukraine. So the interesting part of a lot of this is
00:14:44
Speaker
the strategy, it's the drone warfare is a huge change. And it's something i don't think America is prepared for, least from the way I see it, because we're trying to shoot down you know, ah ah a $3,000 drone with a $2 million dollars missile.
00:15:04
Speaker
And it's just, you're going to you're going to run out of missiles pretty quick because those things take a while and drones, they can pump those things out. So we've we've actually asked Ukraine for help because they've devised systems of cheap drones to intercept the drones that are coming from Russia.
00:15:21
Speaker
So you can make them quick and you make a lot of them and you kind of kind of match that because there's reports they're scrambling to borrow from Peter to pay Paul and feed some of these missile defense systems around the area to keep these drones out because they're, and, and, and then all at the same time, they're bombing them. And a lot of the attacks are,
00:15:44
Speaker
Getting less, I guess, because they can't theyre they can't make them and we're kind of blowing them all up. so But couple of questions is, how long does Trump have before he needs to get approval? I'm i'm hearing 60 to 90 days.
00:15:56
Speaker
I thought he had 90 days. I thought that's the congressional. Yeah, it's 60 and then you get he can get an additional 30 for drawdown. Right, right. To pull out.
00:16:09
Speaker
And I mean, it's a fog of war. So lot of reports we're seeing, you know, some people are saying September, they're but I don't think they're thinking that. i don't know. is From insiders insider sources, from my insider sources, no, just kidding. um from From reporters that have some insider sources, they're thinking another two weeks later.
00:16:32
Speaker
they're They're going to start pulling out pulling it down. yeah There won't be much left. No, no, no. yeah we they're just Listen, we went in with B-1 bombers, then the B-2 bombers came in, and then we're then we're using 70-year-old B-52s. So that means we disseminated their...
00:16:51
Speaker
They're um anti-aircraft defense. I think we might be seeing as close as we ever have in our lifetimes to the full and total might of the U.S. military. Because I believe in the past, most of our presidents have held back.
00:17:08
Speaker
I don't think it's even close to our full might, but okay. Well, what else could you throw at? And we basically got every bomber going over there and two armadas. ah Yeah, we could bring all five armadas over there, I guess. But i don't know there'd be a room for them all over there. I just think our we we haven't shown any technology that we have.
00:17:27
Speaker
I mean, we literally went into Venezuela, shut down their power and kidnapped their leader without them even knowing. With some of China and Russia's best defense systems.
00:17:39
Speaker
Pardon of me? With some of China's and China and Russia's best defense systems, ah missile defense systems were in place. They were supposed, they, they were they, according to some reports or some, some of the military channels I'm watching, Russia and China advertise selling these things on the, on the market as, as able to shoot down US stealth aircraft.
00:18:02
Speaker
And then we went in with our stealth aircraft and pulled a guy out and left and they didn't even know. So kind of people, that it's bad for business. bad for business. That was almost more impressive than this so to me.
00:18:15
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know. Oh yeah. Yeah. That was, that i yeah. I think this is, um impressive thing to this is, well, just the balls to do it. I think I don't necessarily like that we're bombing Iran and everything's kind of getting crazy and stuff. I just don't know.
00:18:33
Speaker
I mean, to me, this is a fault of the failure of the last 30 or 40 years of foreign foreign policy. yeah Yeah. 47 years.
00:18:45
Speaker
It shouldn't have not have taken this long. And we've had too much corruption and BS. I mean, they're upset that Trump's dropping bombs, but Obama dropping pallets of cash, that's okay. Yeah.
00:18:58
Speaker
That's okay. i i think ah I think this does have a lot to do with Russia, though, which I don't think many people are talking about, at least in the mainstream. because No, nobody's talking about Those talks are broken down.
00:19:11
Speaker
I think it has a lot to do with the cash, because they started trading some of the oil in yen, right? Yep. Yeah, you can't have that The BRICS countries. BRICS nations, yep. You can't have that happen without collapsing the dollar, and that's the last thing.
00:19:26
Speaker
we want or Trump wants. All right. So we're at war with Iran.
Blog Highlights and Humor
00:19:32
Speaker
Keep, keep yourself posted on the details. We'll put some resources in the show notes. It'll be on the blog and check it out. Cause a lot of craziness going on reports of,
00:19:44
Speaker
retaliatory attacks here and there. Don't believe any of them yet, but, um, I think we'll move on to the, move on to the next story because this is a headline from our friends over at the Babylon B. Mamdani gets nervous as Trump keeps assassinating Muslim dictators.
00:20:05
Speaker
I thought that was pretty funny. At least throw that in there. He's getting a little nervous. Um, ah there there aren't many of us left, he says, Mondami reportedly told one eighth Trump keeps talking about talking, ah ah taking out all of our best guys.
00:20:21
Speaker
Every radical Muslim dictator is now in danger, including me. If I don't want to be next, I need to hide somewhere. but
00:20:30
Speaker
Oh, friends at the Babylon Bee were quite, quite on top of it. ah I mean, if you go on their website, look at some of these headlines. ah To save time, Iran appoints supreme leader who is already dead.
00:20:47
Speaker
Well, DHS nominee Mark Wayne Mullen surges in popularity after vowing to deport liberal white ladies. ah Trump Kristi Noem behind a woodshed.
00:21:03
Speaker
ah de yeah U.S. s Air Force destroys $3,200 Iranian regime Toyota with $30 million dollars smart bomb.
00:21:11
Speaker
Oh, Babylon B. ah Oh, and Megyn Kelly goes back to normal after eating and entire Snickers.
00:21:22
Speaker
Yeah, she's she's awfully thin nowadays.
Ohio's Drone Program and Privacy
00:21:25
Speaker
Lay off the Ozempic woman. And just like at in Iran, drones in America are becoming more and more popular as the days go on and the cities and municipalities start looking at ways to utilize new technology.
00:21:43
Speaker
And we we had touched on this next story. Ohio launches nation's first statewide drone program for first responders. I think we touched on this on one of the drone stories that we had talked about far as ah they were they were looking at drone docks to be put around the state as a kind of a testing platform.
00:22:01
Speaker
Well, good news. Good news from Ohio. Let's listen to News Channel 5 report on the drone program. More drones are about to take flight across Ohio, but these drones are not for recreation. They're for saving lives. Ohio is the first state in the nation to launch a statewide drone program for first responders. Thanks to Grant Money, an agency in Northeast Ohio will be one of the first to participate in this program.
00:22:26
Speaker
News 5's transportation reporter Caitlin Hunt live in traffic tracker this morning with more information on this. Morning, Caitlin. and Good morning, Mike and Tiffany. Yes, the goal of this program is to get this say advanced technology to agencies with first responders who need that extra support. Nine agencies across the state were chosen to receive a drone in a box, and these drones can be launched from a permanent docking system to wherever they are needed. How these drones are used will differ from agency to agency, but these drones can be used for search and rescue and crash and natural disaster responses. And having the drone fly above any of these scenes allows first responders to plan their routes and response. These drones can also be used to drop off the supplies like EpiPens or Narcan. ODOT will provide training for these drones and the agencies who are using the drones will collect some important data that ODOT can take to state lawmakers.
00:23:16
Speaker
Once the operations begin, they will be in place for at least a year collecting ah data on the types of missions that are being flown and response times, sounds um which will then give us a report that we can take back to the legislature and um kind of show how successful the program was and then talk about potential expansion in the future.
00:23:39
Speaker
And the nine chosen agencies should receive their drones sometime this summer. Mike, Tiffany? Yeah, another layer there in security, but I know probably some people are concerned about privacy as well. So we'll see how it goes.
00:23:51
Speaker
Oh, we'll see how it goes. Yeah, that's that's a good way to guard your privacy. We'll just see how it goes. Let's see how it goes. So yeah, drone drone in a box.
00:24:03
Speaker
Ohio's first. Yoo-hoo!
00:24:07
Speaker
and There's a lot of good things that come of it, but I mean, if they can bring me like an EpiPen and stuff, can i can you bring me like a 12-pack? that's a I mean, I could use that as a, you know, something that can cool my anxiety sometimes if I'm at work. You had enough last night.
00:24:23
Speaker
Last night, but what about today? okay
00:24:28
Speaker
beer Beer on a drone. I mean, exit strategy, you've ever heard one. and Beer drones. It's like, it's an upgrade to the beer hat. the two The two straws? Yeah, the two beer cans. It just hovers over your head with ah with a mini cake and you just... So yeah, they're trying this out. Amherst is the city picked in at least Northeast Ohio.
00:24:51
Speaker
I think they said nine different jurisdictions or cities are going to get drone in a box. thought that was kind of a cool little thing, drone in a box. white Why is she in her car?
00:25:04
Speaker
I don't know. I've seen her do that before. It's like they're trying to do that whole Instagram feel. Yeah, I don't know. Million dollar studio and she's in her car. I've seen her and others do this too. or She's one of the younger ones too. is that kind of yeah caitlinn Yeah, Caitlin Hunt. yes ah that Never mind. That's the one I saw.
00:25:23
Speaker
yeah she' seen her she she's She's reporting from her car while she's driving. It's awesome. at Sometimes I've seen her, they're like reporting on the roads.
00:25:36
Speaker
You know, the snow is out or O dot this or that. So I'm like, okay, that makes sense. But no, she's parked in her car talking about drones. I've seen her driving. Well, yeah, it's well, okay. It's a cheap studio.
00:25:50
Speaker
Yeah. I've seen millions of the, I think it's a, it's, it's for the YouTube crowd. That's I think. But they're not doing a very good job. Oh, no, I'm not saying they are. I just, they're trying at least you got to do it. First of all, you got to shoot it with the camera turned the other way because yes no, no, right. No millennial is going to look at a landscape video. Everything's got to be a vertical portrait mode.
00:26:11
Speaker
Oh, I could go on a rant on that for a second, but I won't. i was just, was just, just at a kid's school concert and that's all I saw. vertical videos drives me crazy anyway so groans there are gonna be more drones as a test program and they want to put these docks all around cities so that they can be closer to you know to different regions of your county this and that i don't know i i got mixed mixed feelings on these things as as well i think you do too but I just don't want money wasted. I don't think it's a bad thing. I just feel like a department can start spending way too much on something that they don't know how to utilize. Yeah, I think it could be a money saver in a lot of cases because you could send a lot less resources to areas if you're doing it. you know if you're If they're using it correctly.
00:27:02
Speaker
Yeah. I've heard some departments, like not very large ones, like have 15 drone operators. Now, Does that mean like officers they already have that are now trained to, you know, trained on the drones or is it added? Did they add 15 people to depart? I doubt it. I don't think they added 15 people. they oh No, they're not going to add 15 people. they it Okay. Now, is there overtime involved? Hmm.
00:27:30
Speaker
in caga county yes just is and you just spent 10 hours on your shift and now you got another six hours of drone coverage yeah yeah so we're gonna see more and more of these just like we're seeing them everywhere else and i i just think we just like with anybody else anything else we got to be extra vigilant on that what are slightly off slightly off topic i uh
00:27:58
Speaker
I was thinking about that overtime and how much that one dude made from like, oh, you know, he was making a little over a hundred and then he ended up with over 300,000. Yep. That is about hours
00:28:11
Speaker
uh, work. Oh, that's, it's, you're working double shifts all the time. Yeah. 80 hours a week. Okay. so it's working Yeah. i figured that out. I was like, oh yeah, that does work out to about, uh, double shifts to make that kind of money. I don't think the County has any drones. So just get get a couple of drones. You can, you can really boost that overtime number. Remember just because of budget cuts, why their overtime is so high.
00:28:32
Speaker
Yeah. i Yeah. It might be like we said, it might be true. It's just, uh, um, hello. Um, So
School Safety and Security Measures
00:28:42
Speaker
let's see. So yeah, keep an eye out to drones. i don't know what, you know, what we're going to see next, but I think you're going to end up seeing them more and more. I guess I've already said that, so we'll move on.
00:28:56
Speaker
Next was a and a story that I kind of, we kind of both pulled on pulled a couple of stories on and, ah but not the same story because you pulled this one Rocky river, but I was already looking at one for the Columbus area. So police are called to multiple central Ohio schools after alleged bomb threats.
00:29:19
Speaker
And then you've got one, ah several Ohio schools placed under lockdown after threats. kind of two they're different, but they're the same, I think. let's Let's see what Fox News has to say the Ohio school threat, because um this is an interesting one. Let's let's do a real quick breakdown, because they don't really touch on it. These are two separate stories, and as they were releasing these, I think a lot of them, they thought they weren't sure at the time they were connected. Right now, we're looking at
00:29:52
Speaker
Over 30 schools had threats, I think on the 4th, Wednesday. It was right after the Iran strikes, right? Yeah. but I think they say March 4th or something to that effect, if I remember correctly, in my notes.
00:30:11
Speaker
And ah yeah, 10-16, all about the same time of day. Hmm. all between like 10 and 11, like 10.30, 10.45. And, um but they're not all the same, which is interesting. So here we go. Let's listen to Fox News. Let's just say it.
00:30:28
Speaker
Well, law enforcement is investigating after multiple central Ohio schools became the targets of hoax threats. We're going to show you a map on the markings on the map. Well, we aren't going to show you a map, but we can tell you it was a number of schools throughout the area who confirmed that they received those threats today. Now, none of those threats have been found to be credible. However, this prompted lockdowns and evacuations out of an abundance of caution. NBC4 crime and safety reporter Anna Hoffman stopped by at several of those schools today. She's been talking to people about what happened. She is live tonight. Anna, what are you hearing?
00:31:07
Speaker
Colleen and Carrie, parents and school staff I spoke with say it was scary and it's not fair to the kids. Now, that this was one of several schools that Columbus police responded to where I am right now. But this wasn't a one district thing. NBC4 has confirmed at least six school districts that were impacted by those threats today. Those are Columbus, Gahanna, Bexley, Dublin, Lancaster and Worthington. Again, none of those threats were credible, but we know Montana schools had a brief evacuation. Bexley schools had a brief lockdown. Law enforcement responded quickly to each of the impacted schools and searched the grounds. They say nothing was found.
00:31:49
Speaker
So did you notice they don't say what was threatened because some were bomb threats, some were mass shooting threats.
00:32:00
Speaker
So we have a mixture here. And they don't actually tell us how they receive these threats. I'm assuming they were phone calls, but I thought I saw one article that was emails.
00:32:16
Speaker
Some of them were emails possibly. Couldn't getting mixed up, but I think they were mostly phone calls.
00:32:23
Speaker
And so Rocky River was one of the I think I got these mixed up. That was channel 19. This is fox Fox News. Rocky Rivers was a little different. And
00:32:34
Speaker
I know we've commented on like Cleveland and Cincinnati, Columbus having, or at least Cleveland, Cincinnati having, you know, police chiefs that are a little weak. What happened to Rocky river? I mean, listen to this guy.
00:32:47
Speaker
According to Rocky River Police, around 1055 this morning, Rocky River High School received a call that someone was on their way to the building and they had weapons. I have no idea how or why how or why the Rocky River City School District came on this person's radar. I do not know. That's the Rock River Police and five different departments showed up. Students were put on lockdown. Parents standing outside in a panic. Those I spoke with told me their kids were sending them pictures of officers going through the halls with rifles. We also worked from Kotler ID to identify
00:33:25
Speaker
The number while all this was happening. About an hour and a half later at 1210, police gave the all clear and students were sent home. This was just one swatting call. Several others were made around the state, inducing panic.
00:33:38
Speaker
You transform from protection mode into let's go get a mode. No confidence at all. Okay. Police are using their resources and working with other departments to try and track down the person who made this call. They say whoever it is, they're going to face charges, felony charges. They're going to face a fine and possibly jail time. I did reach out to the school system for a comment, but we haven't heard back here. We're going to more for you on this breaking news as we receive it. Live here in Rocky River, I'm Aria Janelle, 19 News.
00:34:11
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah. Interesting. the um I got the Mason high school, got a call at 1050. Ottawa high school got 1045. Rocky river high school, 1053.
00:34:23
Speaker
And then there's a couple more and they say all the phone calls came between a 1045 and around noon. It has be one person, right? Well, I originally started thinking is it and like an AI robocall where you're just calling one after the other after the other. You know just punch 30 numbers in and have it call one after the other or multiple. It wasn't that quick though. It wasn't? no you No, you're right. I didn't see that. later They can make a phone call two minutes and call somebody else. Yeah.
00:34:52
Speaker
but i would i Originally, that would be the smart way to do it because then your voice isn't on there. It's the AI voice. But yeah, it could have just been manually dialing number after number after number. They said they're all short calls. The ones that when they talk about the phone calls, think I think it's pretty much all phone calls. Sounds like some.
00:35:07
Speaker
Oh, you know what? There was an email that was sent out. That's one of the complaints for the parents is that two hours later, they send an email out or something like that, telling parents about it something to that effect. I mean, that's where I was getting it from. But no evidence from reports indicate that.
00:35:19
Speaker
These were spread by email, social media posts, or text to students. So I don't know. Good. Yeah. but didn't Okay. I'm just doing a ah search on Grok.
00:35:30
Speaker
Yeah. And then, so what is swatting if no one's heard of it before? Basically, they're trying to get the ah massive police response somewhere, that in this case a school,
00:35:42
Speaker
to elicit a reaction or an event or a tragedy. I mean, they want, they want to send somebody to your house or to a school when when you got the SWAT team showing up, literally guns a blazing.
00:35:54
Speaker
And a lot of times that's how people get shot. Yeah. Yeah. I think when it's, when it's, when a resident gets SWATed, often that's a, yeah an attempt, a murder attempt, or you know, but ah for, for the school thing, I think they're just playing games.
00:36:10
Speaker
I don't know what else it could be. Yeah. So then you have kids taking pictures of SWAT team going through the school and sending it to their parents. Oh, what fun that is.
00:36:21
Speaker
Yeah, causing chaos. somebody's almost heavy yeah i think Somebody's just having fun. The FBI is investigating this at this point. I don't think they really can get anywhere with the... i was going say, Rocky River's all over the day. Check caller ID. Yeah.
00:36:35
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure that spoofing device that they have. Don't even need a spoofing device anymore. You can go in your phone settings and change your phone number. Change your color. Yeah, you can just go right in and change Does that work through as far as like...
00:36:50
Speaker
being investigated i don't know caller id that's what your you could change what your caller id says when see people see it okay um so it is as far as tracing and all stuff maybe not but if i don' but that would be on your phone i mean if they come to a person they could probably find that if they narrow it down but if you use a spoofing device they might not be able to prove anything i'm wondering what what what they can do with a cell phone trace after the fact What do you mean? Like, how do you determine who, you know, know you could, they can trace you if you're on the line. can, you know, do they have, don't know, how much can they actually do after the phone call is done as far as finding who it was? You know what i mean? Well, if they didn't use a spoofing device or a or like a, but what's that called? Like a i p thing ah v IP thing, thing.
00:37:40
Speaker
forget. a i forget ah that's just be changing your IP, right? VPN. Yeah, VPN. Yep. ah So if they're using that, they can't do much.
00:37:53
Speaker
Even if they... Yeah, they can't do anything with that, right? Yeah. Because it seems like, to me, it seems like anybody that knows what they're doing as far as... ah Oh, what the hell? Just calling somebody like that, if if anybody knows what they're doing, I don't think they can really catch you. ah You know, if you're trying to swat somebody, because they don't really catch those people.
00:38:15
Speaker
Yeah, it's the it's there's you don't need to be very smart to figure it out. if There's very easy technology. You can just run it through VPN and bounce it 20 times. I mean, they can find you sometimes, but I don't know. i just to To me, it seems like anybody that's been swatted a lot of times, and there they are...
00:38:33
Speaker
ever content creators that have been swatted and it doesn't seem like they ever catch anybody. I think they caught one person that swatted a quartering.
00:38:45
Speaker
Okay. ah They caught somebody, but where it went after they arrested somebody, I don't know. It's going to be very difficult, but but one thing we did find out, I think the police chief for Rocky River, definitely low T. Definitely.
00:39:02
Speaker
If he has any T. issue Well, okay. Can the Cleveland police chief, no T. Well, yeah, but she has an excuse. Oh, so does he, he's from Rocky River.
00:39:13
Speaker
So does he, he identifies as whatever. Uh, but you know, he checked car ideas for a good night. And I just think it's 35 plus schools. They said, and it's like somebody was busy for a minute.
00:39:26
Speaker
uh yeah for a couple hours you're gonna do 35 schools you probably might hopefully you cover your tracks because otherwise what the hell but there could be some dumb kids but i doubt they would do schools all over ohio this their school usually yeah yeah yeah this this is little bit more sophisticated yeah yep so i'll keep uh see if they find anybody we'll uh we'll let you know but what's a soft lockdown Soft lockdown would be just stay in your rooms. I remember they, that because my kids have these.
00:39:59
Speaker
Now its it goes along with fire drills and tornado drills. Now they have mass shooting drills. oh They, ah it's kind of like they go around and just, hey, don't don't worry about locking or barricading. Just, we have some things going around in the area. Just stay in your room.
00:40:14
Speaker
um It's not as an alarm, you know I mean? It's kind of a little bit, just letting the teachers know something may be happening in the area. Just keep an eye out. Just keep everybody in the room. A hard lockdown is nobody moves. You you can't go from room to the next room. Classes are going to, are you going to stay in that class even if the bell rings kind of thing?
00:40:32
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, they do. And and i I kind of, it's actually, great segue into that is ah I always ask them, so what did you learn in your lockdown drill today? Like, well, we we locked the door and we did this, that. And I go, okay, so what are you going to throw at them? That's how it looks at me. It's like, I'm like, your laptop?
00:40:55
Speaker
I'm like, yeah, throw your laptop. It'll hurt really, really bad if you hit somebody in the head with a laptop. And that's what they do. They do kind of train them. We'll just start whipping iPads or or whatever if someone comes in the room.
00:41:07
Speaker
Because, well, mean, I, I'm like, I guess that's, that's kind of what I would tell them to do. Like, don't just sit there and, their every you know, hide and be quiet. But if someone breaks in a room, you know, yeah that's what i told if If everybody bum rushes them, yeah, you may lose a few, but as long as it's not you.
00:41:23
Speaker
I'd carry some Chinese stars. Yeah, you could. we could If you don't get caught with them, right? yeah Yeah, well, yeah, it would be a very short, short discussion if you get caught with Chinese stars. Yeah, but it's a new world. That's what they deal with now. And I guess that's... our um good Are like the backpacks getting more popular with the kids and in high school, especially? Like the ones with plates in them?
00:41:53
Speaker
No. No. No, I doubt it. I don't... I guess... Because I think I would have that for my kids. what But what good it going to do when it's locker? Well, I wouldn't... Yeah, you got to carry it around with you.
00:42:06
Speaker
You can't carry your backpack all day. Oh, you can't? ah you're You're not allowed to or you... i don't know if you're not allowed to, but i don't know if you can. You may not... I mean, every kid comes in with a backpack as a whole, you know, in the class.
00:42:20
Speaker
Yeah, if they're not allowed to, then that sucks, but... if they're allowed to, I'd be like, just carry your backpack around with you. I don't think, I don't know. actually don't know if they're allowed to or not. I would, I would assume no, because just space issue and distraction stuff as it is now, they got to put everything but their school book. You know, they got to put their phone in the thing up on, in the, at the front of the classroom and that kind of stuff.
00:42:42
Speaker
don't know. Okay. But I don't know because they have laptops and stuff. Well, just put a play carrier in your laptop. That's what I'm thinking. It's below. Well, you could, do yeah, if you have a, If you have a laptop bag, you know?
00:42:58
Speaker
Yeah, that's what that's what my daughter wants to carry on. Her laptop with ah with a 15-pound steel plate in it. You don't have to get the steel one. You can get the get the light ones that weigh about five pounds.
00:43:12
Speaker
I don't know. i do it so i think she I think she should build her strength by putting the AR-50550 steel in her backpack. Good good for training. You know what? Just wear this chest rig, okay? Just wear the chest rig.
00:43:27
Speaker
and No, don't, magazines are empty. Don't worry. Ballistic helmet. Yeah, ballistic helmet. Soft armor, hard armor. Let's do it all. All right. I think moving on to our next, we're going hit a little bit of the the critters in Columbus today.
Data Centers in Ohio: Development and Concerns
00:43:45
Speaker
Let those critters out. Let them out. Come on. Do it.
00:43:53
Speaker
Still can't close the door, but we're let them out. Well, it's really, we're we're really going to focus on one one subject in this Critter Corner, and that's really data centers for the most part. No, for the yeah the entire thing.
00:44:07
Speaker
Right now, we've got a couple bills. running through the state legislature. First one we'll talk about HB 706 protection from data center costs, is basically what they're saying.
00:44:19
Speaker
Proponents are saying that this will shoot Ohioans from data center grid upgrades. And the the long and short of it, I guess, is state reps Tristan Rader, Democrat of Lakewood, and Dave Thomas, Republican Jefferson County, unveiled Bill HB 706 statewide to set statewide minimum standards for electric service agreements between utilities and data center operators.
00:44:46
Speaker
Bill required data centers to sign long-term service contracts at least 12 years with utilities before construction of dedicated infrastructure begins.
00:45:00
Speaker
That's a big problem. They're building all this infrastructure and and we're freaking paying for it. Yep. with fees and you look at, look at your those fees and all your, and your electric bills and you start figuring out what they're for. They don't make sense. They don't name them so that you can figure it out. But there's an, if there's a transmission or infrastructure fee or something in there, transmission fee.
00:45:18
Speaker
There's so many bills coming up right now for data centers. It sounds like it's total mess, man. It's hard to keep track of it Everything. I think they're going to start combining them is what they usually do. Ban them. We just need one bill, ban them.
00:45:34
Speaker
So let's see here. It would also direct public utilities commission, the PUCO to establish rules for interconnection queues, queue practices. So basically get in line.
00:45:48
Speaker
Sounds like for, going to get connected ah for load study deposits?
00:45:54
Speaker
don't what that Okay. Milestone requirements and minimum building standards. So they want to put some piece behind the PUCO, which is already the power regulatory the commission that regulate regulates gas and water and stuff in the state.
00:46:09
Speaker
Some of the key provisions would prohibit utility companies from receiving, recovering data center related costs from other customer classes, mandate financing or financial assurance prior to building dedicated facilities and ins ensure exit payments or unused capacity charges are returned to customers when applicable.
00:46:33
Speaker
So basically just a lot of protections in some of the, some of the nonsense we're seeing, you know, big, billion dollar, trillion dollar companies basically coming in and putting a lot of the cost of their data center on the backs of the people in the community. That's not, it's not not right.
00:46:49
Speaker
I don't think we should ban them time. You think we should ban them? Yeah. Maybe at this point we've got a lot of them. What do you do with the ones that are already here? do You get rid of them or? No, they're here.
00:47:00
Speaker
I just don't like them. I just think this is going to be a big... I think they can slow them down. There's supposed to be 70 more by 2030, right? Yes. And I think it's going to ruin a lot of people's lives.
00:47:16
Speaker
Not a lot of people's, but enough. And yeah, I think 20 years from now, it's going to be a big regret. i I agree in that statement for sure.
00:47:29
Speaker
I showed you a picture last, was it last week? Yeah, le last week, week before last. No, I think a week before last. I don't remember. I've been on few a few to data centers of the I'm driving out of this data center in Columbus area. I was half hour outside Columbus. wasn't even Columbus area. And I'm looking at this farmhouse and I realize I'm driving out and I see, and you see the nice big, big farmhouse.
00:47:56
Speaker
And then behind it, its backyard is now a data center. Yeah. Can you imagine if you bought that farmhouse a couple of years ago or if, you know, let's say five years ago. And I've shown it to people and they're like oh yeah, we'll just sell it. I go, okay, yeah. how much do you think that's worth now?
00:48:09
Speaker
A fraction of what it what it was before that land was sold and built on. And it's just, it's, it's, I mean, you were out there, the sun was coming up and it's like, oh, what a beautiful day to be out now. Oh, on an industrial site in the middle nowhere.
00:48:22
Speaker
Yeah, you know you know, I don't know who bought that house, but I bet you they bought it because they wanted to live in the country, and now they got to this massive pile of crap behind their house.
00:48:34
Speaker
Yep. Yep, it is basically, I mean... It's not one of the biggest ones. I was on one of those last last week when i say a say you that I sent you that picture too from the morning when I was at was ah one of those mega sites. So we talked about DeLorean County is trying to fight off this mega site, 750 acres.
00:48:53
Speaker
I was on one Western Ohio. It's 600 plus acres. This, my gosh, this parking lot was as big as a mall parking lot. Had to had him admit a thousand parking spaces and minimum, I would say. It's How many cars?
00:49:11
Speaker
How many cars? when Yeah. I think there's got to be a thousand parking spaces there. And there was it was filling up. I was i was there early. i was there like before seven in the morning. And it was it was filling up. There line of cars. They have a sheriff.
00:49:23
Speaker
Speaking of sheriff, they have a sheriff. Sheriff at the exit ramp. Sheriff at each and entrance to the data center. And as I when i say passed the sheriff, I'm like, overtime? Okay. and Drove down and is highly...
00:49:40
Speaker
Guarded. You can't even, you can't get in there without all this rigamo. You gotta go two hours safety. They got background checks. Guys they were telling me if you take a picture on site with your phone and get caught, you're banned from the site and any other, other companies, other sites for life.
00:49:59
Speaker
and And we do report you to the FBI. Really? Yep. Wow. imagine a corporate espionage, China, other companies in America trying to figure out One of these, how they do their data centers. I'm sure there's a lot of proprietary stuff maybe in there. i don't know. Yeah.
00:50:15
Speaker
But I think, you know, when they have their own street sweeper on site, on a construction site, that's a big construction site. This was a still in construction?
00:50:27
Speaker
Yeah, still in construction. They had. Okay, so. Just a tent. Go ahead. What's that parking lot going to look like after it's done? ah That's temporary. It's all paved. Okay. That's what I figured. It was a paved lot with parking stone or parking stones or whatever do you call them Just like a regular parking It's like for for a construction site, it was a lot. Like usually you get gravel yeah and a couple of flags, you know, a major billion dollar construction sites. You get a couple, you get a gravel parking lot. but This is, and it's all going to rip it back up eventually. You put another building there. It's all temporary.
00:51:00
Speaker
Yep. It was it's pretty massive. It was just unbelievable. um And completely changed this whole area. Completely changed 600 plus acres. It just, I drove out and went the opposite direction where I came in just to see the area.
00:51:17
Speaker
and just kept driving and driving and I'm like, it's this all, it's it's just like a couple miles. I think I drove in a round in the circle and it was just all this huge site. It cleared out all this land.
00:51:29
Speaker
um So really, I do you like seeing a lot of these bills. You know, I do worry about government overreach, but, you know, this there's there's a part of me that ah just it's just not good.
00:51:44
Speaker
we need We need at least some kind of guidelines on these these companies because one of the reasons we're coming in here is because of the lack of regulation. Because they can just come in. ah you know, under, under the cover of night, basically in darkness, NDAs and shadow companies and buy land. And then before you know it, well, before you know, you ask your city council, Hey, what's going on with that land next to me? And they say, ah, sorry, can't talk to you about it. I signed an NDA. i'm not allowed to.
00:52:13
Speaker
And then you get the killdozer. um Yep. Next is another bill.
00:52:21
Speaker
HB 646, which I'm not too crazy about this one. This one would, would create a data center commission.
00:52:31
Speaker
Just sounds like more red tape, but you know, so Senate reps, Gary ah Click, a Republican out of Vickery and Kelly, yeah Kelly Dieter, Republican Norwalk introduced HB 646 January 13th.
00:52:46
Speaker
to establish the Ohio Data Center Study Commission with the Department of Development, the bipartisan 15-member panel. think there's a key there. 15 members who get to be appointed by legislatures and the governor and the minority gets this many, the majority gets this many, the governor gets to pick a couple, and everybody gets to put their friends in high places.
00:53:11
Speaker
would analyze the ah multifaceted effects of data center development, including economic benefits, environmental consequences and infrastructure strained and land use issues. Let's see here. As a result, the tech giants are responding with mitigation efforts. a Meta is is partnering to develop small Small modular nuclear reactors at a former ah uranium enrichment site in Pike County to power its massive, this what I've heard coming up, this massive Prometheus data center in New Albany.
00:53:50
Speaker
The world's first to require more than one gigawatt of power.
00:53:57
Speaker
ah While investing in existing nuclear plants, Microsoft has also has pledged to cover its own energy and water costs without burdening rate payers.
00:54:08
Speaker
So, so yay to Microsoft. Yeah, that's good.
00:54:15
Speaker
Um, that's the long and short of that part of it. Just a ah commission that I'm not crazy about, I guess, but there's, considering there's almost nothing there now to, to even look at this kind of stuff.
00:54:25
Speaker
And these things are going up like crazy. I think they had numbers in the but last story. It is like 130, over 100 already built or being built in Ohio right now. Most of them in and around.
00:54:42
Speaker
There's approximately 100 operating at this point. Okay. That's what the article says. 70 more planned by 2030. twenty thirty Okay. a little too late, right?
00:54:55
Speaker
um Yeah. I mean... again Again, some of these you could argue are would be a good thing, but it's just the massive amounts. I mean, we had five or 10 or 20 in the state. I don't think it would be such a huge issue. we've got we're going we're We're approaching 200 in the coming few years.
00:55:13
Speaker
yeah And if we already got 100, of...
00:55:19
Speaker
I'm an eight to 10 more that are within a year from going online, I think, or currently under construction, not just in Columbus, all around ah the state. There's, you know, Dayton, the Akron area, know, Southern Ohio, ah Dover kind of area.
00:55:39
Speaker
There's a couple being proposed. um Western and Toledo and stuff like that. There's a few of them. I think even Sandusky area. There's a couple going up. So yeah, I think they need to be looked at for sure.
00:55:54
Speaker
I guess I just don't trust it. I just don't trust them to do it, to do anything about it. I guess that's my problem. Okay. They're going out into these like rural areas. Is it because of the lack of regulation in those areas or?
00:56:08
Speaker
Ohio in general. So like, why don't they build something like on, like, I don't know, let's let's say East 55th and, and, you know, somewhere downtown where there's like buildings that are just rotting away.
00:56:20
Speaker
Just knock those down and build a data center there. Because the land's way cheaper in the middle nowhere. I don't know. those That land over there is pretty cheap. It's probably cheaper to build.
00:56:31
Speaker
But I would think i would think he's 55th with you know everything ah you know dilapidated over there. wouldn't be too expensive to buy. i think it would be more expensive than empty farmland for sure.
00:56:44
Speaker
Yeah, but I... well i would And you're dealing with you're dealing with dozens and dozens of people instead of two or three? Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah I get that. I get that. And, geez, can you imagine the pushback if they had it in the middle of the city? 600 acres site in the middle, you know, I don't know. you could around In that part of the city, they nobody would even know.
00:57:02
Speaker
600 acres might be like all of East Cleveland. I don't know how big East Cleveland is. No, that's 600 acres. i mean, that's big, but that's not that big. 600 acres. East Cleveland's kind of small, though. I know it's not 600. I'm just saying. It would be maybe it be a large portion. I just i think it's in the middle nowhere, so they can sneak it in. Yeah, yeah.
00:57:22
Speaker
Easier to buy from a couple of farmers who are looking to get out than it is to negotiate with the city and all this. and yeah Yeah, yeah, okay. It's easier to promise jobs and then ah eventually not there's no jobs because after you build it, ah once it's in the city, you probably need more maintenance and everything around it.
00:57:43
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know what they're promising. They're promising tax revenue is about all I can see. there's There's no possibility of many many jobs from these things. but That's what I'm saying. It's like... Yeah, but who's believing there's a lot of jobs there? some i think i think i think I think these dum-dums in office are believing that.
00:58:00
Speaker
They see two years of a you know massive amount of construction jobs and they they they don't realize that there's going like five people working there after it's built. At this point, there's no excuse for that. But yeah, I think early on maybe. But at this point, with over 100 in an operation, I think we can i think they can do a quick Google search to find that. so Yeah, do you think they're doing that?
00:58:21
Speaker
No. big not and i Yes. No, but I don't think it's cause they're stupid. I think they're just conveniently forgetting to that there's Google. they can get Yeah. So they can get the whatever whatever they're getting. ah you know They got the influx of tax revenue for a couple years. makes them look good as a city official. i don't know.
00:58:40
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. But man, it's really, really changing, changing communities. It is disturbing me. That's all. Yeah. I don't like it either. I got to love hate.
00:58:50
Speaker
I got to love hate because man, it's good for business, but. Yeah. yeah I get it. And it's really like you go to like word that Intel chip plan is that that doesn't bother me as much because there's all there's a lot of stuff. I mean, there are so many data centers are just around that.
00:59:06
Speaker
And yeah, yeah, no, I get that. I get that one. That mega site I went to just really bugged me because it was like, oh, you just plopped it right in the middle nowhere. Yep.
00:59:20
Speaker
Speaking of plopping in middle nowhere, the wine came back in the news. hmm. Yeah, that was bad. GOP to, they're still looking at overriding from the, from the budget vetoes, the 60 some budget vetoes. Ohio GOP leaders plan to override the wine's veto, restoring the data center tax break. And let's get a little, little bit from the idea stream.
00:59:46
Speaker
Republican leaders in the Ohio House and Senate say they're planning to override another of Governor Mike DeWine's 67 vetoes in the budget last year. They're targeting his veto of their elimination of a sales tax break on construction materials for data centers. So keeping the tax break in place after overriding a property tax-related veto last summer.
01:00:06
Speaker
House Speaker Matt Huffman says the tax break is a carryover from when data centers were new and Ohio was trying to attract them. But those days are over. I don't think that the companies who are building those should get special treatment when buying materials to build their buildings.
01:00:22
Speaker
And Senate President Rob McCauley says data centers already get a lot of advantages in Ohio. Especially given the fact that we recently gave them the ah ability to build power behind their own meter and not take it off the grid. We didn't think that there was a need for the sales tax exemption anymore.
01:00:37
Speaker
House Minority Leader Donny Isaacson says he supports the tax break and will vote against the veto override. Senate Minority Leader Nikki Antonio says Democrats in that chamber are split on it.
01:00:48
Speaker
Karen Kassler at the Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau. See, I figured Democrats would be all for that. wonder why they're split.
01:00:59
Speaker
So this veto would put the sales tax back on construction equipment for data centers. The veto would put the tax back on Yes. So they had in the budget to get rid of the tax break, and he vetoed it to keep the tax break. I felt like this article was written kind of, ah it was hard to keep track of what's actually happening. Okay, so the veto puts the taxes back on.
01:01:27
Speaker
Yes. Like it says, DeWine's veto, which restored the data center tax break in the budget. And this, the veto would remove the tax break. Yes. Oh, that's good, right? Yeah. Yeah. So yes it would bring more tax revenue to the state and give...
01:01:44
Speaker
Like he said, and I think that was Yost said, hey, we we kind of put this in to attract more data centers. I think we i think we've done that. I think we're good. I think they could start paying. I didn't know they had a tax break in construction equipment. so So when they're buying 75 generators as big as a semi truck, are they paying tax on those?
01:02:07
Speaker
Well, they're probably paying very little tax, right? Is included? when they're buying all the metal for the sides of the building, are they paying tax on that? It's like, Yeah, it sounds like I'm getting shafted. Yeah, it seems like. i How about a compromise? How about we give them a reduced tax rate?
01:02:22
Speaker
But we still need to collect freaking taxes on that stuff. Come on. Have you heard about the schools? have you heard about the, oh, they need more money, man. um And all this, you know, all this talking about electric rate, electricity rates, you know, farms and farmland, land usage and all this other stuff.
01:02:43
Speaker
doesn't even touch on the pollution ah side of it. We've got a couple stories here.
Environmental Impact of Data Centers
01:02:49
Speaker
I'm still reeling over, you know, they always come for us for more taxes, but they're giving a these massive corporations tax breaks. Right. Remember, we talked this with property taxes. One of the reasons people are getting hit so hard with tax increases, obviously, house values are going up.
01:03:08
Speaker
maybe unreasonably for no reason or whatever. Unrealized. Unrealistically. Yeah. Unrealistic increases in some cases, 30, 60, 40%, whatever. um The other problem, the I think the more, the bigger problem would be 20 years ago, maybe let's say it was 70, 30.
01:03:27
Speaker
Something like that. 70% of the property taxes were paid by businesses, corporations, and 30%. 75, 25, something like that. It's it's now flipped. Yep. So 70% of the property tax revenue is coming from personal resident residential, and ah less less than 40% maybe is coming from corporations of business because of all these tax incentives. Not that not this sales tax part. Right.
01:03:52
Speaker
but the the property tax agreements, the 20, 15 year ah tax abatements that they're getting on these sites. And as estate taxes, I've heard a lot of people saying, well, for local taxes, it's it's it's it's ah it's a boon for a lot of school districts and stuff they're getting get a lot more tax from that land than they were getting from the farmer.
01:04:14
Speaker
But statewide, they're getting tax abatements. And all the while... you know, how good are these things? What are they doing to the environment? You know, ah gosh, I'm trying to make, they're they're starting to make me sound like a greenie man. I'm like air pollution. Oh no. So they, they have, uh, they have a study of air pollution and a couple of things. Um,
01:04:43
Speaker
Emissions from data centers can cause breathing issues and premature deaths for those living nearby. seems Seems a little little bit much maybe. ah What study?
01:04:53
Speaker
Can you give me some more information on the study? ah No, not not much as as far as how or who or what they studied. ah you Did you recall reading that in here at all?
01:05:04
Speaker
No, no. They don't give us any information. It's study that they found in the study that living by a data center could cause you to die early. How would they know that?
01:05:15
Speaker
I think they were taking some measurements with, I think the, what was it like 0.6 miles? Yeah, they're saying 0.6 miles away. client found that a single data center could negatively, could pose negative health risks for people living at least 0.6 miles away, sometimes further.
01:05:38
Speaker
Risks increase when the home is near multiple data centers. Okay. A growing number of central ohio ah Central Americans living near one or more data centers or will in the near future, including in Ohio.
01:05:52
Speaker
ah Data centers are massive buildings, are blah, blah, computers. we already know what that is. See, we have reports. The report was compiled by the Community and Environmental Defense Service.
01:06:08
Speaker
uh, their founder and president Richard Klein, uh, who has been working in development related concerns for 40 years. Uh, Klein found a single data center could negatively, like I said, affect people living within 0.6 miles away.
01:06:25
Speaker
Klein said air pollution risks come from data centers emitting, Nitrogen dioxide and tiny inhalable particles that can harm people's lungs, according to the National Institute of Health. And the tiny inhalable particles cause between 100,000 200,000 premature deaths per year.
01:06:50
Speaker
wow that's a lot
01:06:55
Speaker
um Um, I, I smell, i smell, I smell BS in that, but it seems if we're losing 200,000 people a year from inhaling tiny particles, it seems like.
01:07:07
Speaker
Well, where are those people? I, you know, they don't really tell you where they are, where they work. Uh, they don't tell you anything. They just said 200,000 people year.
01:07:20
Speaker
die prematurely each year So is it because they're living by a data center? I'm not because sticking up for data centers, by the way. Because if if there's any risk, then again ban them.
01:07:34
Speaker
Yeah, it just seems like i would I didn't have time to look into the Community Environmental Defense Service. Sounds sounds very, very much like a a left-leaning organization. they have these very catchy terms, these names, stuff like this.
01:07:48
Speaker
Community Environmental Defense Service. Yeah, okay. but Anti-business kind of, that's what I feel. but Or pro-health.
01:07:57
Speaker
and Yeah, they're just not giving you much information. Right. me see what Grok says. Which to me, it means it's probably very subjective. ah Oh yeah, 100,000, 200,000 people die premature deaths from inhaling tiny particles, or is because they're massively overweight and and diabetic?
01:08:18
Speaker
Well, yeah, I said they don't really tell you. Right. So that screams to me like you're trying to hide something or just, you just, this is some subjective report that I came up with.
01:08:33
Speaker
Um, but the next, I mean, next one, well, actually one more thing on this very strange in this article because this, because of this paragraph, data centers and the controversy surrounding them came up during Tuesday night state of the union.
01:08:52
Speaker
President Trump said he would press tech companies involved in artificial intelligence to pay higher electricity rates in areas where the data centers are located. Such data centers tend to large amounts electricity potentially increasing cost.
01:09:08
Speaker
He said something good about Trump. Very strange. White House will host ah major tech companies involved in building data centers for artificial intelligence on March 4th, which is last week, um for them to sign a pledge to protect consumers from higher electric electricity prices. They're going to sign a pledge. woof I just looked that up, the breathing thing, the particles, and it does, data centers do create...
01:09:36
Speaker
particles in there, a lot from the diesel generators that are backups. Yeah, they mentioned that. It's, uh, the studies kind of link them to thousands of asthma cases, premature deaths. It could be it It could be just so if somebody has asthma, making making things worse or creating, giving people asthma.
01:09:56
Speaker
Yeah, it was. It's just a, um'm just I just kind of did a quick search on Grok, and it does link thousands of asthma cases to the so the data centers.
01:10:08
Speaker
Right, they generally don't run on diesel backup. That's just a backup thing. so Yeah, that's a backup. But there's there's a emit particle matters, pe nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxides, and more.
01:10:22
Speaker
These degrade air quality, contributed to smog, creating respiratory issues. From the diesel generators is mainly what they're talking about then. No, no, no. but That's just part of it, they're saying. But where where does the particles come from the data center itself if it's not the diesel generators?
01:10:36
Speaker
And I only ask because I, i i you know, i see how they're building them and not I would think from the cooling, but just the cooling, just the things that are running, you know, throwing things in the air. Okay. I guess.
01:10:52
Speaker
I guess. Because basically they they pump water through the system, pump it through a chiller unit, which has fans on it. Right. I guess the moving the air. Yeah. Particles. Heat, air. It seems like a stretch in my opinion, but I'm not a doctor nor did I stay in a holiday and express on this night. So what do I know?
01:11:10
Speaker
ah But what they are also determining is the water, what to do with the water. This one I can completely buy into because, I mean, you as you run water over electrical equipment, I think it probably picks up toxins and stuff.
01:11:29
Speaker
And the EPA is still reviewing what they're going to do and what kind of permits. they're ah They're trying to push through a more relaxed permit. They want it like more of a generalized permit that, in my opinion, seems to have less oversight, like a five-year permit. um it's it's It's not what they're under now. They're under much more strict regulations as far as where they can dump and how they can dump.
01:11:52
Speaker
that's I can definitely ah can definitely get on board with that. I'm trying to figure what's in this water. Can you tell us what's in the water? I want to quote from the article. This is again, this is from maretttti um Marietta Times. Talking about Ohio EPA reviewing draft permit to authorize limited increase in data center water, wastewater discharge.
01:12:17
Speaker
interesting quote in here was, it has been determined that a lowering of water quality of various waters of the states association that of the state associated with granting granting coverage under this permit is necessary to accommodate important social and economic development in the state of Ohio, the draft says. They're like, we've determined and we can...
01:12:40
Speaker
Help lower the quality of water. We have to lower the quality of water in order to develop economically and socially. That's kind of okay. ah guess because there is a provision in the e while EPA that if you can prove that it's necessary for economic development, you're allowed to destroy the environment just a little.
01:12:58
Speaker
God, I sound like an environmentalist. What the hell? You don't. You sound like somebody who's concerned. but I know. i just, ah you know, I don't normally, I don't, I just want, I want more greenhouse gases to warm their winters up. Really? Yeah, I don't. I thought I had read somewhere that brought up a question to me while, while I was looking into this. Would do we, um why can't they run like a ah closed cooling system?
01:13:33
Speaker
They do. So it does mention in there that some some run a closed loop system that it doesn't really use much water.
01:13:45
Speaker
It's effectively zero. I think the metal was talking about this. and Yeah, I think they're just running like basically... ah you know, ah radiator fluid, right? It's nice. it's Actually, and it depends, but in most cases, it's actual water.
01:13:57
Speaker
Oh, okay. The, the kind of the point was taken in some of the other articles we talked about was it can't just be any water. It has to be drinkable water because it has to be clean enough for the, for the components you're using. I understand that, but if it's closed, it's,
01:14:12
Speaker
Eventually they have to change that out. It doesn't last forever. Yeah, but it's better than just running how many gallons a day. Yes, but what that's that's what they're trying to figure out. What do you do with that water once you have to replace it, once you have to change out the system or replace some of it where you dump it?
01:14:28
Speaker
Right, right, right. But... Okay. To me, that's way more of an issue right now because you, I could, I mean, you have to, and something has to get in. Eventually that water gets dirty and they can't use it. and It doesn't work effectively it would be my guess. It's just a guess.
01:14:45
Speaker
Just like your radiator fluid gets, gets old after a time. It gets, you know, Yeah, but when you use a lot less water that way? Yeah. Oh, you do. loop Yes. Yes, of course. ah do Do you have evaporative systems which use a lot more water? And they do also have systems that don't even use any water or very little water. It's more more like ah air conditioned cooled.
01:15:02
Speaker
There's all the disadvantages to that too because you're using a lot more power. Right. Yeah. So they're still trying to figure out, they had ah they had public comments, which is over, finished in January, and they're still trying to figure out what to do.
01:15:15
Speaker
They do talk a little bit about the Bill 646 in this too, about the commission. which would This would be part of something they would discuss as they build data centers, what you're going to with the water. um And that's that's the big one. Still so determining what they're going to do.
01:15:35
Speaker
None of it's good. No. No, not really. um i guess, well, one more thing to wrap it up, I guess. According to the Ohio EPA, once comments have been reviewed, responses will be issued and the Ohio EPA director will take final action and approve or disapprove the permits.
01:15:56
Speaker
We'll see, I think within the next month or so, what is going to be done with this. And I imagine id imagine they're going to approve it. Just let them relax to the regulations. We'll see.
01:16:09
Speaker
But tell us what you think. What's your opinion on these data centers? Send us an email. QuickedRivercast at gmail.com. You can check out the blog every Monday when the show is out.
01:16:20
Speaker
QuickedRivercast.com. Subscribe to the show. Share it with your friends. We really appreciate you listening. You can always try to find me on X if you want. We love cookie! Send me a message.
01:16:31
Speaker
Say hi. Tell us what you think about the show. Leave us some feedback. And leave us a comment if you don't mind. Always want to hear from you. It helps the show.
Iranian Leadership Satire
01:16:40
Speaker
Helps the show. um You know, um I have to interrupt the show for a second here. I think we have some and some breaking news here. Oh dear, this is serious.
01:16:54
Speaker
It appears...
01:16:56
Speaker
Sorry, Tom, I didn't mean to meet surprise you on this. It appears Iran. We've got some news from Iran, breaking news from Iran. We have we have a message from Iran. It looks like a new leader um has been has been announced. Let's let's listen to it. i got a live feed here.
01:17:09
Speaker
Let me see if I can pipe it in here. Hold on. The assassination of the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a great crime. As the new Ayatollah of the Islamic Republic of Iran, I pledge that this atrocity will not go unanswered.
01:17:27
Speaker
With all our strength and determination, we will make the perpetrators of this crime regret the door. What the hell?
01:17:40
Speaker
The assassination of the new Ayatollah of the Islamic Republic of Iran is a great crime as the new new Ayatollah of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
01:17:51
Speaker
I play. Oh, not another one. and Hello? ah New, new, new Aitole here. Look, i I really didn't want this job, okay? I just joined the government three weeks ago, and I was sitting in a cubicle way out from the corner, and next thing I know, some folks talking across the office are all like, let's get Ahmed to do it. No one will miss him.
01:18:13
Speaker
I heard you guys. So, yeah, I'm just hoping we can all be cool here. There's no need for things to get all... Oh!
01:18:23
Speaker
Oh! Wait a minute. Oh, it's a liar. It's just my new pager. It's the latest model. You can't play snake on it. In fact, there goes another one.
01:18:33
Speaker
There goes another one. Oh, dear. Well, never mind. think I would have kept him. What's that? think I would have kept that last guy. yeah Yeah, he seemed to be, he could' have worked with them that last guy. But, I mean, the pagers, you know who that was.
01:18:49
Speaker
the Jews they got them little smart little suckers ah sorry i had to ive saw that was our friends from the Babylon Bee again again they had a the next guy I cut it off the next guy is like look I get the ah he what does he say i the new new new Iranian leader I know the drill. He opens up his vest and he's just he's got a vest bomb on. He just frees himself.
01:19:17
Speaker
I get it. I'm going to do it. ah and We'll put that in the show notes so you can take a look yourself and share it with your friends. um Next, we can talk a little bit more ah
PPP Loan Fraud in Ohio
01:19:30
Speaker
fraud.
01:19:32
Speaker
Yay, more fraud. Love it. Love it. Just black pill me a little bit more, won't you? More fraud. I've been watching, i so I've been watching this kind of story to see if anything's broken on it. And I, I saw a couple early on videos, probably a few weeks ago in Ohio, but also Minnesota. So Nick Shirley goes back to Minnesota.
01:19:56
Speaker
The same guy that's helping him is, you know, they've, they're looking at Somali daycares, but what about, but what's with all the transport companies? A lot of transport companies. Well, yeah, you need transport to go to, you know to take your kids, your elderly person to the hospital, to a doctor's appointment or just a trucking company.
01:20:18
Speaker
You know, like seven or eight of them in one building. Let's listen to this is, this is from Frontline, Frontline USA or Frontline TPS or something.
01:20:30
Speaker
Frontline's TPUSA. So it's ah affiliated with TPUSA, Turning Point? I assume so, yeah. Sounds like it, yeah. Let's listen to her. This is... Crap, I didn't get her name, but she'll say it, I think.
01:20:45
Speaker
No, she does sound like she's like eight a half. She's young. But I assure you... Savannah her Hernandez. Savannah Hernandez, yes. And there's ah there's a key component here. We keep this one little program keeps coming up when we talk about fraud with all these different communities. Let's listen.
01:21:04
Speaker
This is Savannah Hernandez in Columbus, Ohio, at one of the locations where a trucking company is being operated out of. Now, this trucking company received over $618,000 in PPP loans that have since been forgiven. And the reason this company was flagged for me is because of a discrepancy in the industry listed for those loans. Now, in 2020, they received a PPP loan for over $331,000, but the industry it was listed under was food service contractor. Now, they applied for another PPP loan for over $287,000 in 2021, and that one was listed under the trucking industry. Now, I'm doing an investigation into discrepancies in the trucking industry here in Columbus, Ohio, and some of the addresses to active trucking companies have led us to empty suite spaces or places where you would not expect a trucking company to be... operated out of. Now, this office space here actually does have a physical space for SOS trucking, and they do seem like a legitimate company. You also have six other trucking companies operating out of this same building and also to note five home health care companies.
01:22:11
Speaker
By the way, the reason we found this trucking company is because we found a documentary on YouTube about Somali truck drivers and one of the truck drivers who is being interviewed in the Somali language in this documentary, he works for SOS Trucking and he drives for them. And in the documentary, he's driving all the way from Dallas to Columbus and they're interviewing other truck drivers of African descent who are talking about in the interview how English language proficiency or being able to speak English to other people at these truck stops is an issue for them, a challenge that they have to overcome. What about reading? Oh, and by the way, y'all, as I was waiting for the CEO of SOS Trucking to come by because I wanted to ask about the PPP key loans, um I noticed a really nice vehicle pull up and three Somali women got get out and walk into this Columbus Global Home Healthcare Company. oh Now, I started doing a little bit of research into the company because I wanted to see if they got any PPP loans. And it turns out that between 2020 and 2021, they received $1.2 million in PPP loans that have since been forgiven.
01:23:12
Speaker
So i started looking into their company. They don't have an official website. They don't have any reviews on Yelp, on Facebook, on care.com. Even their Medicare.gov website, and newcom they don't have any quality rating for or inpatient surveys for.
01:23:26
Speaker
Now, on Medicare.gov, it does say that they have been certified since 2003. So they've been around for 23 years. But at most, I was able to find four reviews about this company. They received 1.2 million in PPP loans. They don't have to pay those back because it's been forgiven.
01:23:42
Speaker
But zero digital footprint. um Like I said, you've got six trucking companies in this one location. You've got five home health care companies. And as I'm doing research into the PPP loans that have been distributed to companies within this building, and it was interesting to see, you know, some of the little discrepancies and then trying to speak to um the people that do work at these companies has been a bit difficult. So a little update out of Columbus, Ohio.
01:24:12
Speaker
Yeah. PPP loans. No worries. No worries. No worries. Wrong one actually. It's supposed this.
01:24:23
Speaker
Nothing to see here. Just PPP loans, two or $3 million dollars in one building just being forgiven. Nothing to see here. Completely legitimate. legitimate nothing There's nothing wrong with that.
01:24:35
Speaker
And i don't I do a quick search. i don't There's not like, is there anybody reporting on this besides... Hernandez? I mean, i do I did a little quick search on Ohio trucking fraud, and i don't I don't see anybody really. I mean, you might get an article here and there, but it's not like anything I could really pull for an article you know to read off of, I don't think.
01:24:55
Speaker
Why would there be? Yeah. It's racist, that's why. She has another report on all the Somali, Indian, and Arabic Drivers, truck drivers getting licenses.
01:25:08
Speaker
and They're getting their licenses, passing tests in their own language of Somali and Hindi and Arabic. um Unbelievable. I don't know where the, I would imagine those are coming from California left-leaning states.
01:25:25
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Yeah. I think i saw this years ago, and at least 15 years ago at my job at the time. We'd get truck drivers from a certain company because I was out of Canada and they were always Indian or Arabic in some way, but a lot of them Indian.
01:25:43
Speaker
And you know that because they have that, they wear the head, the head stud of the turban. They got the dot. No, no, not the dots. The thing around their head that they wrap her around their head. So I think that's. how Oh, I thought maybe they'd have the garage door open around their forehead. No, not most of them did not. But what they would do is come in and be like,
01:26:00
Speaker
please back up truck. Really? Yeah. We had a ah tight spot. A really good driver would have a problem getting to where we're at. is Yeah. Okay. situation But but they're they're trained to drive forward mainly when they go through these classes.
01:26:14
Speaker
And even in America, it's like this. they they written i mean Kind of like the people that ran the planes into buildings. They were trained to just yeah fly and not land. You don't want to know how to land? No, just take off and fly. Oh, okay. Well, I just let that slide. I guess there's nothing wrong with that.
01:26:30
Speaker
Yeah. So they, they'd always come in a super broken, they couldn't they couldn't speak more than a couple of words. And I always always go, how do they know where to go? So they got GPS in their, in their language.
01:26:42
Speaker
That's how they know. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to, cause you if you can't read a street sign or a map, are you supposed to know where to go? Frickin' technology, man. But a lot of these, this is all PPP loans. Every word, it's PPP loans, PPP loans. Millions of dollars in, that's that's stimulus, that's COVID stimulus loans.
01:27:00
Speaker
That's what that was, right? PPP loans. Yeah, yeah. That was what you were, if you hit certain criteria, the loan became a handout because you would be forgiven for it. Yeah, the criteria wasn't difficult to. No, it wasn't, obviously, because you've got, there was like 15 criteria companies in this building and it's not like a small building there you could see this it's for multiple spaces but i don't think that many spaces and they've got three or four companies that've got ppp loans for it's gosh total scam total scam our country is so broken i just when i see these these stories i'm like there's just is there a way that we can even fix it i don't i don't know yeah i really don't know first step is getting letting people know
01:27:43
Speaker
Yeah. And getting people, i mean, people have to get ah upset about this and i don't, I don't see it like I just don't think we should. i think people really need to head over to their, to their reps and start badgering them. Yeah. That's the only way they're going to do anything. They're definitely not going to do it out of their goodness their own heart. Only if their constituents push them to do it.
01:28:05
Speaker
I don't know. It's, it's, it's, and Nick Shirley's finding this even maybe more fraud in the, So healthcare care companies and then transport companies, but also healthcare care transport.
01:28:18
Speaker
So you have, you have a fake transport company taking fake patients to fake healthcare places. think that's so This is what he's finding. Yeah. Fake court cases and stuff like that.
01:28:31
Speaker
Yep. Yeah. And this is all like government subsidized because you're poor and, and it, you know really put in place for elder, the elderly and the, and the people who, really I mean, a lot of it's for elderly. Like you get to a point you can't drive, but you still got to get the doctor's appointments.
01:28:47
Speaker
And there's some, a lot of cities offer these kinds of services and they're just taking advantage of it. And they're, they're starting companies in Minnesota, Columbus, wherever there's handing out like, like it's free cash. 1.2 million forgiven PPP loans in 2020 and 2021 for Columbus Global Healthcare and 618,000 for PPP loans for the trucking. Yeah, 2020 and 2021. Yeah.
01:29:13
Speaker
yeah that's twenty yeah twenty twenty twenty and twenty twenty one Yeah, that's, I mean, you're you're talking, that's almost $2 million dollars right there. So PPP loans were for companies who had to shut down for the for the pandemic.
01:29:30
Speaker
And it was there to help help keep people from getting laid off or had to downsize. Their business took a hit. So they're trying to influx some cash. You'd have to lay people off. So where I was working, they didn't lay people off. They put people on furlough.
01:29:42
Speaker
Right. that's That was the loophole. You could put them on furlough. It's not laid off and you still get the PPP loan. Yep. Oh, they use furlough in many ways to get around yeah payments. But why would a trucking company need a PPP loan? Because at the time... It was essential.
01:30:02
Speaker
truck company Yeah, they were essential. Now they were essential, they were ah highly in high demand and still are. Nobody was laying off truck drivers during, there were truck drivers that were quitting because they didn't want to be out and during the pandemic and they were they they were afraid of getting sick and all this other stuff.
01:30:18
Speaker
the The freight rates took a huge jump, which means there's a huge demand and or lack of drivers. There's no reason that a trucking company would need a PPP loan. Right, right. Yes. But just the ah oversight was so loose that it didn't really matter.
01:30:32
Speaker
There's nobody looking at it, so who cares? So there's that. I guess we'll keep looking into it. I will keep, going back to it because i do see these pop up every now and then online, but I haven't seen any major news outlets looking into it. Not that doesn't mean there's a story there. Just kind of, huh, can somebody look into this please? And let's start telling the people about it because half, take half of the federal government and chop it off and push it into the Atlantic and we'll be fine.
01:30:59
Speaker
It's all fraud.
01:31:02
Speaker
Okay.
Anti-LGBTQ Incidents and Reporting
01:31:05
Speaker
ah think that's all we have on. Yes. All we have on fraud next we can do.
01:31:11
Speaker
Well, I think um and think we can do better, Ohio. We do better. Here's a next story. Among cities, Ohio amongst, among the states with most anti-LGBTQ incidents last year.
01:31:26
Speaker
Among, among the most. Come on, Ohio. You can do better. There is a pretty lengthy, i this is WOSU public media, which is IdeaStream, which is ah part of NPR, part of PBS. So we we know it's definitely fair and balanced because it's got NPR and PBS.
01:31:47
Speaker
So it's definitely America's treasure. So let's listen to it a little bit. This is a couple minutes from this story. It's kind of like, ah they they must be affiliated Ideastream. use the same kind of website. they will put there It's really good. I like how they put it in there. It's really easy to listen to. But once I started playing it, let's go do but to LGBT hate crimes in Ohio.
01:32:15
Speaker
Today from the Ohio newsroom takes you around the state, connecting you with news and neighbors from all over Ohio. I'm Erin Gottsacker. Gottsacker. Ohio nearly topped the list of so-called anti-LGBTQ incidents in 2025. That's according to GLAAD, a nonprofit that advocates for inclusive representation and LGBTQ acceptance. It's been tracking expressions of hate toward the LGBTQ community since 2022. Sarah Moore is the lead researcher on that project hey sarah Hi, Erin. Thank you for having me. Hi, Erin. So GLAAD calls these anti-LGBTQ incidents. Can you describe what exactly that means and how you go about tracking them?
01:32:55
Speaker
Please. Sure. So we track anti-LGBTQ incidents, which is a bit of a broader category than what you might see in a normal hate crime tracking report. And that's because we're trying to track different kinds of expressions of hate and extremism, things that might not be included in these hate crime reports in terms of harassment on the street, protests against LGBTQ events, as well as those violent assaults that would make it into a hate crimes report, but maybe don't because of state level legislation that governs what would be included in hate crime designations. So we track all different forms of hate and harassment targeting LGBTQ people from harassment, vandalism, assault. And this year in particular, we actually saw over 1,000 anti-LGBTQ incidents all across the U.S. and 50 in Ohio specifically. Wow. So how does that Ohio number compare to other states? Yeah, come on. Ohio ranked fourth highest in terms of statewide incident. So what that means is that they are amongst the top five in terms of states that have the highest number of reported incidents.
01:34:06
Speaker
Okay. And can you give us some examples of some of the anti-LGBTQ incidents that happened here last year? Sure. So some of the things that we tracked were over a dozen propaganda drops by white supremacist organizations. What that means is that there are organizations like Patriot Front and White Lives Matter, groups that have an intense history of violence and harassment against LGBTQ populations that are actually going out and spreading this hateful rhetoric in terms of flyers, in terms of pamphlets being distributed on lawns, in terms of you know sending letters to these various homes. That's Basically spreading a kind of wide range of conspiratorial ideas hey that are upholding this idea of what's a predisposition that's core to their stated values.
01:34:56
Speaker
Conspiratorial, like um White Lives Matter too. That's conspiratorial. but I don't know that group, but um ah yeah, conspiratorial things like um that's a man is a man and a woman is a woman. ah I believe I just said that.
01:35:17
Speaker
conspiratorial so but where i would like to say so ah here goes some stats for so wow over a thousand incidents in of this is this is what they've picked out so they've broadened and an anti-lgbt incident to the widest possible thing you have to imagine right we have to guess i'm gonna do one right now guys should not suck dick that is report and now we're now we're 51 Just like the show number 51.
01:35:48
Speaker
So they broaden this way out as broad as they can make it. And all they found was a thousand incidents out of 350 million people.
01:36:00
Speaker
Pamphlets. That's hate protesting. So if you protest drag queen story time with little kids, that's hate. That's hate. It's hate. So when I post. They're allowed to protest anytime.
01:36:13
Speaker
Yes. That's not hate. It's for love. It's for only for love. Yes. So when I post on X, uh, let's, I have a couple of memes that go to. One of them is, uh, uh, you don't have to ask why they have children at drag queen story time.
01:36:31
Speaker
Ask why they crave the children there. something that said. Don't ask why you're having children. Why do they want to be in front of children is what you have to ask. The other one is my favorite, which is the LGBTQ flag. just says, make asylums great again.
01:36:48
Speaker
That's hate, apparently. That's hate. Not a pamphlet, but I didn't throw it on anybody's lawn. So but you really should not be freaking just littering hateful pamphlets all over people's lawns. You know, I never i never looked into a Patriot Front. i This article made me look into it because ah it was such a bullshit article. you member now? Are you member?
01:37:06
Speaker
and No, I didn't go that far. But I kind of went on their website just to kind of see what they're all about. And there's really like nothing racist. I mean, it's definitely like pro, let's say, keeping America the way it always was.
01:37:24
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, it like ah oathkeepers was Keepers was... Well, I don't know anything about them, but they just want to limit, like if somebody's, they don't want to limit immigration. What they want to do is just keep immigration to people that actually want to be American.
01:37:41
Speaker
you know Yes, not mass immigration. Right, right. so Calculated immigration. So whenever they say far right or like extremists or white supremacists, it's total bullshit, man. yeah And ah hate crimes, I looked up the hate crimes that happened in Ohio and the in violent ones. There are no violent ones, unless you want to call it. There was a guy in Cincinnati that went and burned a bunch of uh, you know, LGBTQ flags on people's lines.
01:38:13
Speaker
Speech is violence. Speech is violence, Tom. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. I'm just trying to make sense of this here. I know. So, uh, yeah, there was just, there's just nothing. There's no, over a dozen propaganda drops, Tom.
01:38:29
Speaker
propaganda drop? What's a propaganda drop? A pamphlet? I don't know. what's That's why I pointed it out. That's like promoting family values. Is that a anti-LGBTQ? I mean, like, let's say they're having a fag parade somewhere and then somebody is passing out pro-family, you know, a pamphlets. Is that hate crime or is that just saying, hey, you know, you might want to seek God?
01:38:53
Speaker
Well, I think we know what they should do in this case. I think they should move to Australia. I think, ah yeah, Australia is very accepting.
01:39:04
Speaker
Actually, before I've overstepped it, I want to hear. So they point out that, okay, Ohio is fourth. But who who's third and second and first? Let's less notice let less last little bit here.
01:39:17
Speaker
ah Kind of interesting. and and And her reasoning on California is at the top of the list. Why do you think there were so many incidents like this in Ohio compared to other states? I think when we're looking at the states that are in our top five, states like Ohio, but also states like Washington and California, these are states that have had traditionally quite strong support for LGBTQ communities. Okay, so why are they- But right now, with what we're seeing in terms of the rollback of LGBTQ rights, and especially in trans rights, states that have had those protections historically enshrined are actually at the forefront of the number of incidents because there are other organizations that have you know national or local chapters that are working within the state to push back on those rights.
01:40:06
Speaker
What?
01:40:10
Speaker
So the states that had the most ah you know the most support in the in the state, in the people, in the government are at the top of the list for anti-LGBTQ hate incidents, as much BS as they are.
01:40:27
Speaker
that make So because they had such a strong support in the state, is why groups, anti-groups, anti-LGBT groups in the state were able to, i don't I can't even follow that logic at all. It's not even logic. It's just a ah mix-up of complete and utter BS. Well, I would think there's more gays.
01:40:48
Speaker
So that would obviously create more gay hate crimes. Well, yes. I mean, they're swinging their balls around in parades that might cause people to freak out a little bit.
01:40:59
Speaker
Yeah, remember back in the time when parades didn't have balls swinging around. It was so much so such a better time. Well, there was a time when they they've always had those parades where they become almost fetish parades, but they didn't bring their kids to them.
01:41:16
Speaker
And what do you... prop why I always wondered why your identity has to be so wrapped around what kind of sex you have and with who. like And why are you proud of...
01:41:29
Speaker
Sucking dick? it Munching carpet. you go get go Always go one way time. ah Why? why i don't is It was such a weird... Oh, they our rights. are right No. we This is something to be proud of.
01:41:43
Speaker
Oh. I should have totally pulled this clip. It was Norm MacDonald clip. By the way, that article was almost a Babylon Bee article. I know. I know. I mean, it was it was very close to... You just needed to...
01:41:57
Speaker
change it up slightly slightly. Yeah. Um, Aaron got Sacker, the one that wrote this needs to be, uh, Needs to be sacked. Yeah. ah I think, ah I don't know. I was going to go. I'm ah i just going to stop.
01:42:13
Speaker
But Australia, out of Australia, let's pull it back in Australia. Australia has a solution. They know what a hate crime is and they've got, they've got their own set of police.
01:42:25
Speaker
This is the new South Wales police a hate crime unit. And they're the little advertisement they had on X. Yeah. Hate crime is any crime motivated by hate, prejudice or bias towards people because of their identity or perceived difference. If you experience hate crime, even if it feels minor, you should contact us. If you're in immediate danger, someone is seriously injured, a hate crime is happening now or the suspect is still present, you should call 000.
01:42:52
Speaker
If the incident has already happened and you're no longer in danger, you can still report it at your local police station or by calling Crime Stoppers on 1-800-333-000. However you identify, you deserve to feel safe, respected, and empowered. When you report a hate crime, you'll be treated with support, respect, and dignity every step of the way by the New South Wales Police Force.
01:43:12
Speaker
They got the hate police going on like, like like you know. They're well on their way to becoming britain Yes. ah Do you think they would protect me if I identified as a Hispanic woman who transitioned into a man?
01:43:29
Speaker
I don't know. I'd break your brain on that one, but I doubt it. How about if I were identified as a white ah Trump supporter? How far would that go?
01:43:41
Speaker
I speaking of Britain, I did see a clip. a Similarly, was a guy in Britain in a Muslim area, which is, I heard most of London now, um that he was just, he was a Christian pastor or something, just asking questions to the Muslim community as drove by and they called the cops on him.
01:44:01
Speaker
And there was, the video was of this woman cop who was standing up for the guy like, He's like, oh, he's spreading lies. Yeah, but he's allowed to do that. no, no you have to remove him. No, no, you're allowed to go his place and spread spread lies. You can't, you know, and it was like, you could tell they're they're immigrants.
01:44:16
Speaker
I would say a lot of them are illegal. And they're they're they're used to being at a place where They will come and take you for saying stuff bad about Allah. Right. And they were shocked that the woman, would and I'm like, oh I'm waiting for the the other shoe to drop in because it was a woman. I was figuring these guys would start, you know, roughing her up, but they didn't. But she was she stood her ground and said, sorry, there's nothing do about it.
01:44:37
Speaker
Australia, they would have probably cuffed them and... Well, I bring Britain a lot just for the listeners that don't know what's happening there. But I think in 2023, they had over arrests social media posts calling it hate speech
Censorship and Social Media Concerns
01:44:57
Speaker
and they're arresting people. So there's no, ah I looked, I tried to look up more current um statistics, but there were none yet available. So 2023, they arrested over 12,000 just for posting things online.
01:45:12
Speaker
and i I'm pretty sure ah Australia is headed that way too. they They don't, and and they're even worse. They don't, yeah I think in Australia, they pay less attention as far as politics go.
01:45:25
Speaker
Cause I mean, they got some retards over there in, in politics. um mean So you looked up the stats for Britain and they only had 2023. That was the last one recorded.
01:45:38
Speaker
now That's available. Right. Okay. Seems weird that you wouldn't have 2024 up there like a year ago. Yeah, you would think. Almost like they were like, oh, we forgot to put it up because it's- Or they're changing the definition. Yeah. Or with the 36,000, they don't want anybody to know.
01:45:53
Speaker
Do you think there's that many? No, i'm I'm just saying it'd be like, oh, we have, whoops, we, you know, if you're getting blowback because you release a stat of 12,000 people being arrested and then the next year goes up, maybe you just forget to assess that. Okay. Yeah.
01:46:06
Speaker
And they won't report it there. Right. Right. Nobody's going to push on it. Yeah. I'm just going to push this to get the numbers. i don't know. It's just my black, my tinfoil hat, black belt. but Yeah, go. I mean, if you're you're sick of Ohio, 50 or just over 50.
IX Center and Cleveland Developments
01:46:23
Speaker
And with Tom's this in mind this morning, we're like 53 hate incidents and anti LGBT hate incidents in Ohio.
01:46:30
Speaker
It's it's a. It's an epidemic. We need to put a stop to it. All right. Next on our list. I originally had the story because i was at the auto show last weekend and I went for a couple reasons. One, it was going to be the last auto show at the IAC Center.
01:46:50
Speaker
And this story was already in the lineup, and at least in my notes. And IAC Center sets up for its last event, or maybe not.
01:47:00
Speaker
Originally, the Story Channel 5 News is basically going through, they announced their final show, which is going to be the Piston Power Show in a couple of weeks. And that the IX Center is now going to be transitioning into a tech building. Nobody knows exactly what it is. ah i'm now reading more into it.
01:47:15
Speaker
It was never promised to be a data center. It just ate Fortune 100 company. I purchased it. Everybody assumed it was Amazon or Meta or something like that. So they're saying that a data center was never in the works, but it was a, going to be a high tech manufacturing facility.
01:47:31
Speaker
And so they had their last car show there, go there with, with, with my family. And it was worth every bit of the $55 it took me to get in there because
01:47:44
Speaker
I figured out my wife thought this car was a little too big. This car was a little too small. And then that one was a little too big. And then that one, we didn't find the just right one. So it saved me like 50 grand because she's just going to keep her car. And then my daughter who's 15, got her temps who wants a Jeep so bad.
01:48:04
Speaker
No one longer wants a Jeep. She sat in a Jeep. Really? And now she doesn't want a Jeep. And I was like, that's probably good because you're giving up a lot of, you give up a lot of luxury for a Jeep. I think comfort ride comfort.
01:48:17
Speaker
I think the newer ones are pretty comfortable, aren't they? I've rented one in the last couple of years. Commander one. Oh, it was, it was awful. Yeah, it's it's it's it's worse than a truck ride, in my opinion. Really? Well, the new trucks are pretty good.
01:48:32
Speaker
Yeah. Well, yeah, I know. but I would say it probably rivals a like a work truck, like an F-250 or 350, as far as the stiffness of the ride. No kidding. I mean, you get i bet if you get I didn't have a great one. It was just a rental, so it was just kind of a more of a baseline, but...
01:48:47
Speaker
ah small inside for me I didn't i didn't think they were they were very comfortable and Was it two door? No it was a four door four door commander with a bed to make fun of make believe truck that they The Gladiator? Gladiator yeah that yeah okay and ah it was a so she she's like ah I don't want it I mean it didn't get any better though because what she actually wants now is that the Toyota Supra Supra?
01:49:12
Speaker
Yeah that's a nice car man She's a little too young for that. Yeah, a lot too young for that. And I was like, you couldn't afford the insurance on that, let alone the payment. um ah We couldn't afford that. No, no way.
01:49:24
Speaker
um But it's it's too much car for Oh, yeah, absolutely. But then they had the one down from it, which is a little less, it's like sporty, like the Supra, but it's probably ah a lot less expensive and a lot less power. But i was like, no.
01:49:34
Speaker
i was like, but really they remember the other day when it was snowing? I go drive that. Is the Supra still rear wheel drive or is it from wheel drive? Yeah. It's rear. Okay. Yeah. They had two rear wheel drive cars. There are two sport cars there in Toyo's booth. ah And was going to say, yeah, so no Jeep. So i was good on that. But they just we went to a Supra. was like, no.
01:49:58
Speaker
i was like, think more realistic. Think more realistic. How about a minivan? Yeah. but She needs to look at you needs to look, take her someplace where she can look at a bunch of used cars, like 10 years old. Yeah, I think she gets what she gets this point.
01:50:17
Speaker
Well, yeah. a little bit of input. I get it, but you you still want to make, you know, something. Oh, Yeah, I want something safe. i That's what I'm looking at. I mean, I never, my dad tried getting, you know, I had a couple of pretty cool cars when I started driving, but.
01:50:29
Speaker
Yeah, you had 240 ZX, didn't you? Or something, 280. I had a 280 ZX, yeah. I think they had a 40th anniversary there that's at Nissan booth. Yeah, what are they now? it' like Are they a 340 or 360 ZX?
01:50:42
Speaker
yeah I can't remember the label they had on it, but it was... it was they're i think they're just Z now. Yeah, yes. They're pretty badass. Yeah, it was pretty nice. It was it was it was a nice... play But it's some anniversary of the of the Z class or whatever, 40th anniversary cards.
01:50:58
Speaker
I think that's one of the best buys for like a, if you performance car starts under 50. Yeah. yeah Yeah. Her actual car she really wants is uh, either a skyline or, uh, um, um, GTR.
01:51:15
Speaker
Is that Subaru? Nissan, I think. gtr oh son Oh, who's that? Um, who's the other one? Subaru. Skyline. Skyline. Is this Skyline? Skyline. I think it's Subaru. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's the Fast and Furious movies. Let's get into that.
01:51:31
Speaker
GTR is beautiful. So she's thinking sports car, huh? Oh, yeah. She's thinking sports car for sure. and yeah Okay. We'll get there eventually. But so all that.
01:51:42
Speaker
And it's going be the last one. Power Piston Show is coming up. That's going the last event. and then And then this story comes out. which is the IX Center deal fell through.
01:51:54
Speaker
actually deal falls apart, leaving future uncertain for historic event space. And I can't figure out what happened. ah They don't really tell you why the company pulled out other than they haven't extended the lease yet for the building.
01:52:07
Speaker
They're supposed to extend it another 49 years. Right. And that that hasn't happened yet, but it didn't seem like it was going to be a hard thing to get past. They were just, they had some questions on it and, So no real reason why it backed out that I can see other than they just decided not then, other than it was never going to be a data center apparently. Yeah, that that shocked me when I saw that because weren't we speculating that?
01:52:32
Speaker
Yeah, and i think a lot of people were speculating because they said Fortune 500, Fortune 100 company purchased or leased it, not purchased it, leased it. And then all the, everything building built around here is a freaking data center. So that's that was probably, they put two and two together.
01:52:47
Speaker
But again, 2.2 million square feet, uh, I X center and yeah the power piston show be March 27th through 29th, which will be the last consumer trade show held in the building so far. We don't know what's going to change.
01:53:01
Speaker
Um, I think the only other thing I could think of is I did hear they had a clause in there that they could, if the airport needs to be expanded, there's, they could shorten least to 10 years. Maybe that was a problem.
01:53:13
Speaker
Um, but, that's It's kind of up in the air now. and Up in the air, what's going to happen? Interesting. Yeah, very interesting. Something happened and that the company didn't like what was going on. Maybe maybe it was ah the city, him and Han over the lease. Maybe they just said, screw it, we're going to back out. i don't know.
01:53:33
Speaker
Yeah. um So we'll see. Maybe maybe we'll get to one more one or two more years out of it. It feels like they're trying to get somebody to lease it. You can get more jobs than what's there now. I would think that's the goal.
01:53:43
Speaker
Yeah. They're estimating 250 jobs, but nobody knew what the company, nobody had knows what the company was. The city didn't know what the company was. It was a manufacturer though.
01:53:55
Speaker
Supposedly a high tech manufacturing is what they were saying. So I don't know. I don't, I don't like the whole, we don't know who it is. It's kind of, kind really crappy. um Yeah, but that's a competition, right?
01:54:11
Speaker
I guess, but you can't even tell the city who's going to be in there. Like what, kind i don't know. It seems, seems oddly secretive. I get at a certain level. You want to, you want to keep it on the download because you're not sure if you're going you know, you're just negotiating, but sign they signed, they, well, don't know what they signed, but we'll see. But anyway, that's ah up in the air. Still, they haven't said they're going to start opening events there again. I think they're still going to try to rent it out for something else besides event space.
01:54:41
Speaker
But might be some last one last chance for the ex last time it closed was 2020. They shut it down and somebody sold the rights to it or something right during COVID.
01:54:53
Speaker
Can't imagine makes that much money. There's a huge building with not that many events there. I mean, there's, I guess a good amount of events there, but really big freaking building. I think Gojo rents out part of it for storage.
01:55:06
Speaker
Oh, no kidding.
01:55:10
Speaker
So keep an eye on that, see what's going on, because, mean, it's a big deal. A lot of space to disappear out of the convention landscape in the area. All right, moving on to our final segment, as always.
01:55:25
Speaker
bring good things to life. Always bringing good things to life. First up on the good things
01:55:37
Speaker
is bedrock. Bedrock is a company that was looking to build a rock and roll land project. They're talking about a rock and roll hotel and amphitheater down near the old Tower City Amphitheater. do you remember that?
01:55:53
Speaker
That big tent they had down there. They tore it down a few years back. Yeah, I don't think I ever went to a show there. I went and saw somebody there and I can't remember. can't remember what it was, but I did see ah an event there. as A concert, I believe. Might have been like a...
01:56:08
Speaker
i don't remember what it was. Some musical event thing. And they're looking at, it's been kind of going back and forth. and this is a, a neo-trans article. Nothing about anti-trans in this article, just a Northeast Ohio trans. 54. Yeah.
01:56:24
Speaker
The, uh, this originally is a $3.5 billion dollars project on the, co to to help develop part of the Cuyahoga river front, which is on the collision bend. They call it basically,
01:56:37
Speaker
What's going up there now or what's there now is not a lot. There's e steame steam plant, which is going to stay because it it does support a lot of buildings in the and the downtown area. Cavs are building their new ah training facility and moving out of independence and going down to that that area. That's currently underway now. It's about halfway done or so. I've driven past there.
01:56:59
Speaker
um And this is kind of right around the down the street or around the corner or around the bend of the Cog River. And this is basically as if you've ever gone to Tower City and parked under Tower City, it's kind of where they're putting it.
01:57:10
Speaker
They bought a couple of these parking garages. They want to build a hotel and a amphitheater larger than the one that was there. And kind of ah marketed as a rock and roll, rock and roll land hotel and theater.
01:57:25
Speaker
Why another amphitheater? Well, the one that's there, there's not one down there now. Oh, Nautica's still there or whatever it's called. Yeah. Yeah. Nautica's still there. I don't, I don't. But but I mean, it's, it's just another ah seasonal thing, right?
01:57:38
Speaker
ah That's good question. They don't have any renderings of what they would be. Okay. But an amphitheater tells me it's outdoors. Yeah, of course. Yeah. That's kind of the natural, uh, I think amphitheater is kind of like a natural landscape of, of a theater.
01:57:52
Speaker
Yeah. Right. Yeah. I don't know. That would be, could be but at least. Yeah. I would think that's under a tent or some type of pavilion. Yeah. Kind of like blossom would be. Yeah. There's a pavilion part and then part where it's probably not covered, I think. Um, the 560,000 square foot hotel theater complex, uh, was to be built atop of a
01:58:15
Speaker
268,000 square foot parking garage, 800 cars, resulting in a 17-story structure and and would actually be coming up. <unk> There's like a ah bridge ramp that goes down there. So I've gone down a few times for parking for Tower City stuff.
01:58:32
Speaker
um So what they've kind of figured out they're going to break the project up, it sounds like. And they're kind of still up in the air with what they're going But There's a lot of development going on at Cuyahoga River. And we we talked, up we got the calves down there now. We talked about the reconstruction, the Irish Bend for a park, for the metro parks. And they've got a a few projects slated for this area we're talking about here in the coming years. So good good things looking up for for downtown and um hopefully a more reason to bring people down there.
01:59:04
Speaker
Yeah, seasonally. And the greats. Yeah, for three months. I just don't get that. It's cool. i love amphitheaters, but at the same time, it doesn't seem like it's the greatest thing to do in Cleveland.
01:59:18
Speaker
No, you would think they want some more something to, something of the indoors to be in between like an Agora and an arena show. Yeah, yeah.
01:59:29
Speaker
You know, something that like 5,000, 7,000 people. Maybe that's but probably what this is going to be. I think the other one there was, it's going to larger than the other one that was there. They're looking at building 6,200 seat. Okay. Yeah, outdoor venue on the other side of the Cog River Collision's Bend. It just, it again, you're good for about four or five months at max.
01:59:52
Speaker
Yeah, just, I don't know. It's cool. I mean, I love seeing shows in at Blossom where i always loved Nautica. And I think I was at... the ah this this one we're talking about once, and it it was good.
02:00:07
Speaker
Oh, I wasn't there. I was there around the area during a show, and I i kind of remember the Tower City Amphitheater, and I think you could kind of hang out and hear the music, and yeah.
02:00:21
Speaker
That's what I remember. I think Bedrock is a, is that a Gilbert? Yeah, well, they but i think so. dave Dave Gilbert? Dan Gilbert? Dan Gilbert, yeah.
02:00:33
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. So he's doing what the Browns couldn't do in building infrastructure around his arena and controlling it. and That's what sounds like he's doing. That's what the Browns want to do. Right. all this stuff up around so they can get all the revenue from that all year round.
02:00:49
Speaker
i mean, think he's another hotel. It may be in the city. I don't know, i guess. I don't know. Can they? Is there demand for it? Hmm. Good question. They won a Super Bowl here. they They need to get more hotels. but ah That's never going to happen. We'll have a dome, Tom. They're halfway there.
02:01:06
Speaker
a The other half is the biggest. I can see all those excited people wanting you to come to Cleveland. Oh, yeah. They're going love it. All the stuff we had to offer and February.
02:01:16
Speaker
That closes at like 10. ten Yeah, exactly. um So with keep an eye on stuff. There's more projects being announced. We'll see what actually gets built, but But more development, I think using, utilizing the Cog River to me is, is cool. Something we missed on. It's kind of like they need to start doing that with the lake. Maybe. i don't know. You know what? There's so much potential.
02:01:38
Speaker
It's just, can they, can they execute? Can they get out of their own way? Yep. Can they execute and get out of their own way? Next on the good, good things list is Ohio moves to ban sugary drinks for SNAP
Ohio SNAP Benefits Restrictions
02:01:53
Speaker
benefits. Yay!
02:01:57
Speaker
So we brought this up a couple months ago because they were looking at looking to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for approval on the ban. And when the state of Ohio has gotten the approval. And starting October 1st, you can longer be able to buy soda, sugary carbonated beverages with snap with your SNAP card.
02:02:22
Speaker
I thought this was already banned through the Fed. I don't think they ever passed it. I thought, ah I thought, cause RFK was just talking about it on Joe Rogan.
02:02:36
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. I thought this was already like, are we just doubling up on it? Like making sure it never comes back. So it depends, I guess, because just, I don't know. does yeah Does the federal government give the money, the state, the money to the state and then the state divvies up. So does it, you know, i don't know if there's a,
02:02:56
Speaker
Oh, maybe the Fed stopped um ah providing funds for it. And then and this will make sure that Ohio doesn't have to do it.
02:03:10
Speaker
Yeah. You know? Yeah. Huh. Could be. Yeah, I'm kind of... ah I was confused when I saw this. Yeah. I knew they were talking about it in the Fed. I didn't know they passed it yet or not. I haven't watched that Rogan one with RFK on it.
02:03:24
Speaker
Yeah, it was, it's a good one. Yeah. I was watching the one before that with ah Andrew Wilson's Wife. that was a good one. You watch that. Yeah. Yeah. She was excellent. Yeah. That was a good one. Her book i'm on on feminism. Oh my God. I haven't got through it all, but it's driving me absolutely insane.
02:03:39
Speaker
So I can't stop watching it. The book actually? Well, no, I mean, I'm reading, watching her the podcast. Cause I was going to get the book too. Cause I think it's good to know when you, uh, encounter a feminist yes there's a lot of good information there yep and uh so watch out uh you better start stocking up on your sugary drinks because that's october 1st no longer be able to buy them me you have to fork out your own cash i don't want to be crude but i hope none of our listeners are on snap okay i hope not either because that would suck
02:04:15
Speaker
Uh, but I wouldn't change my opinion of it, but it would
Political Shifts and Election Integrity
02:04:18
Speaker
suck. Oh my gosh. I haven't checked any of these off time. I've been horrible today. Yeah. hate Crime check. I X center check Ohio. Okay. Next, next, next is probably the best, the best good news segment of the, it's not even a, it's just a one line thing. Crenshaw and Crockett are out.
02:04:38
Speaker
didn't notice you put that in there. threw it in the last minute. Last minute. And um Brendan Herrera is in. they were going to have a runoff. No, there's no runoff. Yeah, he dropped out, I heard. Yep, yep. Oh, yeah, yeah. He dropped out. He's in all kinds of shit there.
02:04:57
Speaker
And think there was... Kornhine and the other guy... ah who there was going to be a runoff, right? Yes. Okay. So there's, i forget the guy's name.
02:05:11
Speaker
Guy running against, a primary against Cornyn. In Texas, yeah. Yes, in Texas. And the guy said, I'll drop out if you vote for the SAVE Act and bring in the standing oh ah ah filibuster.
02:05:25
Speaker
Oh. So, which is great. This puts a lot of pressure on Cornyn. Okay, good. Yeah, because if he, I have a feeling if he doesn't, ah ah doesn't do that i think the other guy has a really good chance but trump is sticking his nose in there too and i think he'll just back corinne which sucks okay i think i think crockett though had some interesting comments i think i think we can hear a little bit from crockett oh you guys sure oh yeah this is her uh
02:05:59
Speaker
I think this is as the polls were coming in and or as the as the, maybe the early voting came in she was seeing that she was going to lose. ah But, you know, interesting, interesting her.
02:06:12
Speaker
but We'll just hear what she said. Remember, this is a Democratic primary. And so some she has to say. All red has already stated. We encourage each and every one of you to remain resilient.
02:06:23
Speaker
We cannot allow this type of behavior to be rewarded because so long as they know that they can win, even if it means cheating, then they will continue to do it.
02:06:35
Speaker
So I am asking you, I am begging you to make sure that you go ahead and figure out where is that you are supposed to vote. Stand in line, wait in line. Who's cheating?
02:06:48
Speaker
Who's cheating? Who's cheating, Jasmine? Who's cheating? It's a Democratic primary. Who's cheating? that Well, she's i think I don't know what she's referring to because she is low IQ.
02:06:59
Speaker
But i she could be referring to didn't Colbert because he had the person running against her on his show. And then he blamed the FCC and Trump for not being able to have it on his show that he had to put it on Facebook.
02:07:16
Speaker
YouTube, correct? Do you know anything about this? I did not know about this, no. Okay, so Colbert had the person running against her. And the Democrats really don't want her in there because she doesn't have a chance. Oh, that that was about her? Yeah. The Colbert thing? oh That's not Colbert, it's Colbert. Colbert, sorry. His own family calls him Colbert, calls calls pronounces their last name Colbert, so he's a douche. the Colbert sounds much more sophisticated, I'll call him Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But i like that. Okay.
02:07:44
Speaker
Anyways, Colbert had the person running against her on and because of a fair
02:07:51
Speaker
the fair election integrity. Yeah, we have to give you have to give approximately the same same time to each side. Right. It was called, but yeah. FCC regulation. Yeah, it's an FCC regulation, but he was able to put it on YouTube. Anyways, he he did a whole thing about ah blaming Trump and the FCC for not allowing them to put her on his show.
02:08:16
Speaker
And it turned out that it was all BS, that he he could have done that easily. He was never told no. Yeah, he was never told no. and So I don't know if she's referring to that and blaming the FCC and Trump.
02:08:31
Speaker
Or is ah is she just just ranting for ranting sake? Yeah. you know She's telling me to stay in line, stay in line and vote.
02:08:43
Speaker
It sounds like she's accusing her opponent of stacking the ballot box. That's the way I took it. But I see your play in that. It could be that because she could be talking about that. But regardless, I only thought Republicans cheated. I was told that. That's what sounded like. But didn't she lose by like 30 points or something? Yeah, I don't remember the exact number, but it was pretty bad. Yeah, she just has to shut up.
02:09:05
Speaker
Somebody did ah an AI meme of her, think it was after 2016 election. There was the picture of the protester with the vest on and her knees. i'm I'm using her in air quotes.
02:09:18
Speaker
And she's screaming, you know, ah, it's that one. You've probably seen it. But they did her in that same pose. but Yes, yes, I saw that. but Was that Babylon Bee? No, that was just a meme. I think it was just a meme that somebody did an but they had these huge eyelashes. They were like, they were like as big as her head on each eye.
02:09:37
Speaker
Yeah. She got low IQ, but she got high eyelashes. she's ah She's something else. I would rather have her run. But this guy's pretty bad too. He has no chance. He'll have no chance by the time people learn about him.
02:09:50
Speaker
I hope so. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not, we're not subbraining because that person that beat her in the primary is much better if at all. It's just, well, actually not as good because until we have yet to be seen out if he'll be as entertaining as she is.
02:10:03
Speaker
do. There's plenty of clips that are, he's just not as hyperbolic, ah but I mean, he's saying how abortions in the Bible and stuff. like Oh, that's right. did see some of why he's a Christian, progressive Christian or something. Yeah. There's, there's some crazy stuff he's doing. So.
02:10:17
Speaker
It'll be fun too. All right. I think we've gone long enough, Tom. I think we can wrap this up by saying thank you so so much for listening. We really appreciate your time. Check out the blog, cricketrivercast.com.
02:10:31
Speaker
Every Monday when the show drops, you can check out the stories, see a lot of the clips that we've taken. from and the stories we're reading and check them out. Tell what you think about them. Tell us if there's anything that we're missing or let us know the shenanigans in your area and we'll see if it applies to show.
02:10:49
Speaker
We can't look everywhere, so we need your help. Thank you for listening and we'll talk to you next week. Peace.