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Crooked River Cast Show 32
61 Plays2 days ago
Crookedrivercast.com
Crookedrivercast@gmail.com
- They don’t want a king but they are all for the queens!
- Pearl clutching time! White House remodel.
- JobsOhio or JobsOhio BS?
- Data Centers - What impact do DC’s have on the communities?
- Ohio energy prices spike due in large part because of data centers.
- Citizen Portal site. https://www.citizenportal.ai
- Ohio Spotlight - Cleveland is a cruise ship destination?
- Ohio population is shrinking and exploding why and what are the effects of it?
- Ohio School voucher update.
- Cuyahoga County is giving back money?
- Cincinnati Police chief on paid time out.
- Ashland Dems sue over being removed from County Fair.
- Hamilton County Judge being removed for Kirk comments.
Good Things:
- Cleveland Cash Challenge.
- Ohio Made Horror.
Thank you for listening!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Crooked Rivercast
00:00:02
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Crooked Rivercast. I am Rob and joining me every week is Tom and we are two guys from Northeast Ohio just trying to stay informed about the news in our state.
Nostalgia for Physical Media
00:00:12
Speaker
This is show 32 recorded on October 25th, 2025.
00:00:17
Speaker
Another week has gone by. We've got some stuff to discuss. So let's go. Hear this Tom?
00:00:28
Speaker
I do. Can you hear what that That's what we used to call physical media. What? got a new album. he smell I love the smell of new
Mammoth's New Album Discussion
00:00:39
Speaker
music in the morning. Yeah,
00:00:42
Speaker
yeah I've been rocking out, man. Mammoth. Got a new album out. You got the CD? Got the CD. Pre-ordered it. Came a day before. In the mail. Nice.
00:00:53
Speaker
There's, like I said... and There's a CD that can actually touch feel put in my CD player. Sounds so good.
00:01:05
Speaker
I'm going to go get the vinyl and never play it. Yes, there you go. And, you know, there's this other thing. Is it called? It's called a booklet.
00:01:18
Speaker
You know, not as cool. Not as cool as as the as as the vinyl. I get it. It's just that but smaller. You know, I only said that about the vinyl is because it's like I have to make time to sit down and actually listen to things, you know?
00:01:33
Speaker
And the album cover is pretty cool. Oh, yeah? Very bright. Very bright. Yeah, it's all yellow like a flame dude on it. It's just guys... artist rendering or a sketch of a student on fire or something. um It's a flame with legs.
00:01:46
Speaker
It's just cool. It kind of stands out so ah so far. I mean, he's already dropped three singles, uh, in their look, the run up to the album release. Uh, again, mammoth, if for those, you don't know is, uh, who's a founding member.
00:02:01
Speaker
And for a while, the only member was Wolfgang Van Halen, of course, the son of Eddie Van Halen, the great Eddie Van Halen. um And he just dropped his fourth single, which is same Old Song, I think it's called.
00:02:15
Speaker
And it's the first video he has when he has his whole band in it now. I think he's finally, yeah, all the other videos he's had was just him playing all the instruments because he writes and plays all the instruments on the album.
00:02:25
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And this one, it came out, it dropped yesterday. i know I sound cool when I say it dropped. I keep doing it. um It came out yesterday and then they dropped the new music video and music.
00:02:39
Speaker
I'd play it, but it's not like crap. But it has this actual physical paper that you can hold and read along with the you know, with the whole lyrics in it and weird stuff like, like physical media. I love it.
00:02:55
Speaker
You know, like you can find out who's playing on the record, who engineered it. And yes. oh yeah yeah And a lot of this you can kind of do with the digital media. It's not, not, not the same. And just not, it's just not, it's very nostalgic for me. Cause used to do this all the time. Just sit there and read the, read the album cover.
00:03:13
Speaker
Yeah. First time you play it, you're going through the whole album covering album cover. So he has, he's done this in his other albums too. So he has in the center, he's got ah a wolf. Thanks everybody. He thinks, right? So he thinks, thanks his wife and all his friends.
00:03:27
Speaker
And of course, and everyone, he, he thinks his dad. And basically, you know, he says, it's like, damn, I get you. The further that time
Podcast Technology Investments
00:03:38
Speaker
pulls me away from you, the more difficult and frustrating it gets that I'm not able to share anything with you anymore.
00:03:45
Speaker
Love you, miss you, blah, blah, blah. And then he says, and as always, thank you. this as always you, thank you for supporting a rock band in 2025.
00:03:55
Speaker
That's pretty crazy and badass of you. I'm eternally grateful and hope this music makes you feel things.
00:04:03
Speaker
That was pretty cool. um I was very excited Friday when I got it. i was like hell yeah. New music, and it's rock and roll. i am going to be listening to that today. Yeah.
00:04:14
Speaker
It's already downloaded on my phone, and I'll be listening to it. I'll do the to-do list around the house today. When you... are Because I'll probably buy the vinyl, but I like it when...
00:04:27
Speaker
A lot of bands, if you buy the vinyl, you also get like a free um download of high-quality audio it's a to stream in your house and stuff. Oh, okay. Does the CD come with it? Not that you need it with the CD, because you could always kind of rip it. It does not. No, does' there's nothing on it that says there's anything like that. I don't know.
00:04:47
Speaker
I know he had huge... You know, pre-order had all kinds all the signed albums, and he has vinyl on the site. Right. He's selling it vinyl, but I missed the autograph one. Not that it means all that much, but would have kind of cool.
00:05:01
Speaker
And coming to Cleveland, November 18th.
Humorous Protest Coverage
00:05:06
Speaker
Hell yeah. well yeah Yep. Cleveland Agora. Cleveland Agora, yep. It should be a good time. It should be a good time. It'll be good show.
00:05:16
Speaker
ah On top of that, just care for everybody, because... I got some new tech. Go. Yes. Go. Go. Yep. Okay. Just so just pre warning everybody. I may, I may accidentally hit a wrong button and play the completely wrong clip at the completely wrong time.
00:05:34
Speaker
So you never know. But yeah, we're adding to the show. People are adding to the show investments and into the show. Yeah. That's the stuff I can play my clips with the kind of fun. So, um,
00:05:47
Speaker
So this week, this week, well, ah they don't want any kings, Tom. They don't want no kings, but they sure do want all the queens they can possibly get. Huh?
00:06:00
Speaker
Do you see any no kings protests? ah Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, watched I watched some online from different areas, and then ah I did see some footage from local stuff, and it was it was little bit more pathetic than last time.
00:06:20
Speaker
Oh, well, then a little bit more geriatric, too. Oh, well, that's for sure. I got some of this. So you want to talk about pathetic? ah Let's start with this one first, because... um
00:06:34
Speaker
i For some reason, i have two MSNBC cri clips for today's show, and I apologize ahead of time. But they they're pretty good because ah imagine being this guy. Imagine trying to take yourself seriously as a reporter, and you have to do stuff like this.
00:06:57
Speaker
Angel, I've never interviewed a unicorn live on MSNBC. It's always the first time for everything. Angel, talk as loud as you can because you've got a kind of a big ah snout here. i Say that again, sorry. I said it's hard to hear you, but tell me what brings you out and and to be inside this hot unicorn costume today.
00:07:16
Speaker
right, pause that for a second just so you just to get the picture. is a pink unicorn costume, one of those blow-up costumes you put around yourself, and he has the mic, the long studio, you know, those long microphones with the little thing on the end, the square, and he's shoving it into the unicorn's mouth.
00:07:38
Speaker
You suck on this. Yeah, because you can't hear him because he's inside this big unicorn costume, pink unicorn costume. All right, so we'll continue. Well, we're here to represent the loving, hardworking community of Los Angeles. We're here peacefully protesting, looking as ridiculous as we can, just so maybe we appeal to the president, because he is a ridiculous leader that is normalizing abuse of power, and we cannot stand and act like nothing is happening. I've never heard a more serious message come out of a...
00:08:13
Speaker
pink unicorn on a hot day in Los Angeles. You're having fun, but you're taking this very seriously. Well, few tears come out now and then because it's extremely hard to see so many people. All right. So can you, can you, if you listen closely, you might be able to figure out why he might be in a costume.
00:08:34
Speaker
Why he might be in a costume. Just listen to him talk a little bit. Maybe you could figure out maybe why. Speaking for those who cannot be here, a lot of people are are hiding our homes, terrified that their families are broken. Or in a costume. That is not funny. That's not ridiculous.
00:08:50
Speaker
So it touched my heart all the time that if I have the chance, I will stand with those who can't. Well, it's really awesome to meet you. And thank you for taking the time today. i appreciate it.
00:09:03
Speaker
Dead serious. i mean, and imagine being that guy. Imagine having to go, all that college, and I have to go to a pink unicorn and shove a microphone in his mouth, literally shoving it in down his throat. aye That was good.
00:09:18
Speaker
But on a more serious note, on more serious note, um here's here's ah here's a clip I saw from protest in Indiana, right next door.
White House Renovations Controversy
00:09:31
Speaker
And
00:09:34
Speaker
So the question is, why did you come out today? yeah so He has an interesting reason. Well, I'll start it and stop.
00:09:43
Speaker
Why did you come out to this protest today? To just voice my opinion, share my thoughts. ah protest for things I don't like, but do it calmly, quietly, and not so quietly, and just to let people know that I'm not satisfied with the status quo.
00:10:05
Speaker
What specifically are you not satisfied with? What are those opinions that you're coming out here to say proudly? All right, so what would your guess be?
00:10:16
Speaker
What do you think his, just ah I know you don't know, but give it just spitball. What do you think is going to complain about?
00:10:24
Speaker
I guarantee you're not going to guess. Geez. By that guy's... fight by that guy's ah
00:10:35
Speaker
ah You said you think he's old? Do you have a video of this? yeah Yeah, he's old. He's geriatric. tall I mean, yeah, he's like... Because he kind so almost sounds like a guy in his 40s, like in the backwoods. No, he's over 70.
00:10:48
Speaker
I would think. I have no idea. Yeah. Okay. That's fine. He's just a bad guy. Well, but orange, I'm bad. It's kind of what it stuck out to me. It's like, so of all the things, you came all the way out. You're standing on the side of the road with a sign.
00:11:03
Speaker
And this is what you have. Well, our military is not doing real well. I think there's a bug in the pie.
00:11:16
Speaker
I'm not sure what it is yet. And I'm afraid to find out.
00:11:21
Speaker
I'm here because I think he's gone way too far without some of the immigrants or people that we have come from other places. This country would fall on its butt because we need them to help us.
00:11:33
Speaker
Now, I agree we don't need the bad ones. Oh, not the bad ones. And we can weed those out, and I think we can do that in a civil manner. So the military is his problem. Well, he's a veteran, so to me...
00:11:49
Speaker
He had nothing. No, he's just there because somebody told him be there. He's just there because he's enraged. He's emotional. And he needs to go out and do something, which but whatever. That's fine.
00:12:00
Speaker
ah just. He didn't sound so enraged to me. Well, enraged for a 70 year old. I mean, he's upset about something. and yeah i I don't. To get out and to get off your butt and and walk out and stand on the of the street takes a little more than just.
00:12:16
Speaker
not like irritant you know so i think No, yeah he wasn't enraged. He was just somebody said, oh, we're doing this today. his His wife was probably staring at him two feet away. ah He ain't got that's all you got.
00:12:28
Speaker
That's all you got was the military. And we we we don't need these. immigrant I mean, these ah these people who keep coming here. Oh, nice catch. Yeah, right. I agree. We got to get rid of the bad ones. But, you know, but other ones help us stay on track Yeah, they got to clean your house and stuff.
00:12:48
Speaker
and get those Make sure you get your lawn duty and stuff like that to do. but He doesn't know what he's talking about. why that Yeah, my point is you're standing out there, but you really don't know why. And this was more and more of the same. know why. His wife was standing next to him telling him he had to stand there.
00:13:03
Speaker
Or she wasn't going to make him dinner that night. a um I'm watching ah that ah YouTube channel. we I think I've shared a clip or two from him. Nick Shirley. Yeah. On YouTube.
00:13:14
Speaker
Yeah, he's good. And this is where i like I go like these kind of places because you're not going to get, you're not getting what, what is actually happening on the ground a lot of times because it's, it's being glossed over in this. So he's actually, he just goes there and, Hey, what are you here for? And then,
00:13:29
Speaker
At this point, they know who he is now, and he's getting more and more known. no But he's sitting there trying to interview people, and there's guy with this tambourine just ben and and joe trying to mess up the audio and stuff like that. And then later on, and they he he goes away. The guy follows him, and he ends up running um running into another YouTube guy, and they're talking about what footage they got and how the reaction is and this and that. and this guy breaks in with the guy who was trying to disrupt the audio of the tambourine.
00:13:59
Speaker
and starts getting in this conversation about, well, you guys have to understand that you're when you're coming into come and to a situation like this and talking to very emotional people, and and I was just like,
00:14:11
Speaker
Yes, exactly. Here's the problem. And you saw him, you know, and he goes on, well, me with the tambourine, that that was not right. I shouldn't have done that. um But that was the emotion, ah my emotions overriding my logic in my brain. And I went, yes, absolutely. i We even talked about this the last few shows, haven't we? Yeah.
00:14:31
Speaker
And basically he kind of justified it. Well, you you have to understand you're coming in and and and and eliciting an emotional response. So it's bound to happen. Like you'd be surrounded and be spit on and threatened and forced out basically.
00:14:47
Speaker
Or, you know, in one case, he was in New York during ice protests and it was this little the black lady rubbing her naked breast all over him. Oh, yeah, it's like, I mean, she was certifiably nuts, um but make asylum's great again.
00:15:02
Speaker
Oh, you mean it wasn't a stripper on the? No, no, no. It was just some crazy little black lady that was just, I mean, she was, you could just tell she was awful. Oh, I remember seeing that. Yeah, you know, she should have been in a hospital. Oh, that was when he was arguing with the Palestinians in York. Yes, yeah, yeah, saw that.
00:15:20
Speaker
And i was like, ooh, she needs to get out of there. That's the one place. Don't mess with those people. And, oh, but there is one king that we all like, because I'm sure, now looking at their protests, it's either they're old geriatrics or enormously overweight people. I didn't really see either ones. I guess they I'm sure there a great mix of ah that here, but it it was appeared to me they are still loyal to one king, and that's this king.
00:15:44
Speaker
Introducing that king of fun. The one who's okay with us kids.
00:15:53
Speaker
Burger King! In person? Yeah! I'm the marvelous, magical Burger King. I can do most anything. Now watch me, kids, when I twist my ring like magic.
00:16:05
Speaker
We're at Burger King! Woohoo! I don't think I remember. I don't remember that one. 1977. I vaguely remember it. I vaguely remember it. but Probably not. when it came out, probably seen it other places like that.
00:16:20
Speaker
Yeah. It was creepy actually when I saw it. Yeah. Hmm. Yeah. No, watch out for the magical Burger King. Okay.
00:16:31
Speaker
All right. Um, so, and the other, the other, the other pearl clutching there was, that's what I'm calling it was. Um, Oh my gosh, they're tearing down the white house.
00:16:44
Speaker
Oh no. What are we going to do? What are we going to do, Tom? ah there There is only one explanation for this, you know, right? They're demolishing the White House.
00:16:56
Speaker
Again, this for my second msm clip and MSNBC clip of the show, there's only one explanation. And it's this, course.
00:17:07
Speaker
Good evening from new York. I'm Chris Hayes. Donald Trump wants to be a king. It's the best explanation for everything he's been doing just in recent days. Just look what he's doing right now to the White House. That is, of course, the people's house. It's our house as Americans, as citizens. There it is.
00:17:22
Speaker
The residence of every president since John Adams in 1800. Wait, no, he's not tearing down the resident. He's not tearing down anywhere that. thats but What a spin that was. Oh, my gosh.
00:17:36
Speaker
Yes, they did stay in one part of it, but he's not tearing any of that down. He's tearing down... It's incredible how all the all the networks just grab hold of one narrative and just go with it. And and not only... It's like... It's it's so...
00:17:57
Speaker
such a lie and and and such a take. It's like such a one-sided take that it's like, I can't believe there's like no network that kind of went down the middle of road.
00:18:09
Speaker
It's hard to believe how that happens. You want to hear more from the Soy Boy? I I guess, pardon me? Because it gets worse. You want to hear more from the Soy Boy? Yeah, of course. And that is more destruction the White House has seen since the troops for the British Crown burned it down the War of 1812.
00:18:26
Speaker
Trump wants the White House to be a kingly palace. And so he is doing his own renovation. He's ripping up the East Wing to build a grand gilded ballroom did unilaterally.
00:18:37
Speaker
No one in Congress was asked to appropriate funds for this. In fact, when I saw the plans announced, I assumed they'd smuggled it into the one big, beautiful bill, because, of course, they could have done that. They could have gotten congressional authorization.
00:18:48
Speaker
But no, no one even got a say. Nope.
00:18:53
Speaker
Didn't get a say. Nobody got a say. You know why Because he doesn't need a say. He doesn't need a say. All he has to do is ask the on-staff White House architect, can we do this?
00:19:06
Speaker
How can we do this? He pulls the permits. The president signs them. And as long as he doesn't want any public funds, that's it. Yeah, I think design law as long as it's privately funded, he can do can do that.
00:19:18
Speaker
Which is exactly why he privately funded it, because otherwise he'd never get You never get passed. And I talked to few people throughout the week on this topic. Uh-huh.
00:19:30
Speaker
And most people were like, ah you know, I don't know what they're making such a big deal about it. But I also don't understand why we need this huge, why do we need a ballroom? Like, what why are we spending all this money on, and you know, this and that? I said, okay, let's look at the facts.
00:19:46
Speaker
When, right now, currently, if... The White House wanted to host a dinner. Oh, excuse me, host a gathering, just a gathering. Their max is under 200, 150 to 200, somewhere in that range.
00:20:02
Speaker
If they want to host a dinner, it's less than 80. So they have one room, and if they put tables in there. They can host a large event, but they have to put tents up. Yes, or or take it completely off-site.
00:20:15
Speaker
yeah They take it off site or they put tents up. And do you really want world leaders coming here and ah hanging? each Is that how you want to be represented is a tent?
00:20:26
Speaker
I mean. Large parts of the world react to that kind of stuff. Like that's the show of powers, how much gold you have and how many big your house is and all, you know,
00:20:39
Speaker
being When you go to Saudi Arabia, they don't make things small. you know they They're grand. I mean, they spend hundreds of millions of dollars on crazy stuff, right? To show their wealth and power.
00:20:51
Speaker
That's what trump Trump knows that. He's dealt with these people for for decades. That's part of it. The other part, think ah think about this. When they got to go off site, how much does that cost? And they had they have have the White House press dinner, which I don't think they have it at the White House. Do they?
00:21:07
Speaker
don't know. it Actually, look. But considering they can only put 80 people in a room with tables, I don't i think there's more than 80 people at the White House press corps dinner. As stupid as it is, but or Christmas party or, you know, the king of Saudi Arabia shows up, you know, after he waited 30 minutes in line to take one photo with the president United States, which we've never seen before. We talked about that last show.
00:21:33
Speaker
The White House press dinner is held at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Yes. There you go. Perfect. So, ah you know, some people are like, well, why do you need such a big venue? I think it's, and this is what I ah question I have. It's President Trump said 999 people can hold.
00:21:52
Speaker
Yeah, that's pretty awesome. But why 999? And why not say a thousand? Seems to me there might be, could there be something there if you tick over 1,000, you have to do different permits or, you know what mean? Like, even if it was actually 999, would say 1,000. don't know. Did he say 999? 999 multiple and know stuck off did he say nine ninety nine nine ninety nine multiple times i think i seen it in a report,
00:22:17
Speaker
ah reporter too and and it was nine ninety nine oh Yeah, it's probably a different ah fire permits and stuff like Something like that. Yeah, yeah yeah that's actually a good, yeah, fire, yeah.
00:22:30
Speaker
Different architecture you probably have to do if you have more than. The ballroom will overwhelm the executive mansion, which stands at 55,000 square feet. but The renderings I saw were pretty...
00:22:45
Speaker
it it It doesn't take away from the house at all. No. The actual residence. They actually have a slider on this article, news article for Channel 3 that I'm looking at, where you can slide it over and see the demolition.
00:22:56
Speaker
Oh, it's gone. Oh, it's back. It's gone. Oh, no. um There's already a ah large building there. It's just going to be 50% bigger, almost in the exact same shape.
00:23:10
Speaker
And don't know if people, I guess from what I understand it, you can't even get close to the White House anymore. They've put such a huge security fence or security perimeter around the White House. It's way farther than it was ever.
00:23:22
Speaker
I mean, it's, you're quite a distance away. So, but from, from what I for my understand it, No, it's not going to take away. And from the renderings, it's just going to look like ah like the White House.
00:23:33
Speaker
White with the grand architecture, you know, peaks and windows and all this other stuff. Yeah, no, it blends in perfectly. it I mean, it is large, but it's not.
00:23:44
Speaker
It doesn't like take it doesn't take away. You don't look at that instead of the the actual house. You know what I mean? Like, it's not like your're ah your attention's drawn away from the house. it's It's a beautiful addition. I don't know. Because here, the east twin east yeah East Wing, where First Ladies created history, planned state dinners, and promoted causes, is now history itself.
00:24:14
Speaker
wish I some music. Dang it, I don't. A two-story structure ah of drawing rooms and offices.
00:24:22
Speaker
drawing rooms and in offices for low level staff. And that's not what says the article. it's It's for the first lady and low level staff is from my understanding. Including workspaces for the first ladies and their staffs has been turned into rubble, demolished as part of the Republican president's plan to build what he says is now a three is what he says is now a $300 million dollar her ballroom, nearly twice the size of the White House.
00:24:51
Speaker
You know, the real question is, does Kid Rock now have feel obligated that he has to build an addition to his house? You know what? He's going to have to. That's right. He does have a replica White House. He's going to have to put a ballroom on it.
00:25:03
Speaker
I mean, I'm sure it won't be a ballroom. It'll probably just be like a bar with a stage. I think he's already got that. That's true. A baller room. baller room. There, Steve. Thank you. Thank you. For those that don't know that Kid Rock's got a...
00:25:21
Speaker
A smaller version of the White House in Tennessee, I think it is.
00:25:28
Speaker
Trump allowed demolitions to begin despite not having approval from the relevant government agencies with jurisdiction over construction on federal property. don't think he needs that.
00:25:40
Speaker
So that that was the latest. ah oh it It was a little shocking to see, you know. bulldozers going to the White House. but Yeah, it's it's... But I mean, nothing I don't know. Nothing drastically... The wing they tore down was built like 1948, something like that. Right, right.
00:25:58
Speaker
40s. 40s, yeah. It's not like... It's... Nothing historic, I don't think is... but I mean, it's not the first time. It's been done a number of times. Well, yes, Tom, since they burned it down during the War of 1812. I mean, it's that bad.
00:26:16
Speaker
that bad. um Well, for from what I understand, there are parts of the White House that really do need, a you know, to be reconstructed or yeah and stuff.
00:26:28
Speaker
I mean, it's just old.
00:26:32
Speaker
It's one of its main functions is to entertain state dignitaries, and it really can't even do that. Yeah, right. I mean, at one time it was fine, but now you've got, you know, everybody and their mother trying to jump on board. So you got to, you got to get more, more room and it's going to be big.
00:26:49
Speaker
It's going to be beautiful. can't do a Trump, but so some say the most beautiful, i think it's the most beautiful, but you know, did you hear him in front of reporters and the reporter's like, well, why didn't you tell anybody about this? He goes, I've been telling everybody I can.
00:27:02
Speaker
is if if third grade reporters, you must be a third rate reporter then. And the guy was like, I was just asking you a question. Like, no, no, no. You're sued. I think he said, you know, third rate reporters asked me that. I've been transparent about this since the beginning.
00:27:18
Speaker
And you're obviously a third-rate reporter. You've been from the beginning. but like Something like that. Typical. He just rips on a new A-hole. It's great. yeah yeah I mean, it's really it's not even anything personal. It's just what he does. It's just his insult to you.
00:27:32
Speaker
But he does say something like, oh, yeah, Trump said Wednesday, keeping the East Wing would have hurt a very, very expensive, beautiful building.
00:27:41
Speaker
don't know. Anyway. Well, it does. Yeah. ah we I think, you know, I don't know why, you know, the way he speaks is bizarre, but... His brand.
00:27:52
Speaker
Well, yeah, I don't even know if that's part of his... It's part of his brand. him It's part of yeah. I don't think it's part like he tries to sound different, but he's right. It does hurt the entire thing because it's like you can't have your your functions like you would like to. Like, you should want to impress your...
00:28:12
Speaker
You know, you're the the people around the world. Yes. That's how you, that's, that's why people have said over and over, he knows how to use the power. He knows how to use it. He knows how to wield it. And he's showing it over and over again.
00:28:24
Speaker
And i mean, we're now approaching week four, the shutdown. and he's i don't think he gives a two shits about it he's like great whatever i'm moving on you guys want to shut it down okay fine and to the even point where i debated on we'll probably talk about next week is their snap benefits may be shutting off i don't think so you don't think so no we're gonna do something about it no i don't i don't think that's i think the tariffs are paying for that Well, I mean, is there the, because of the shutdown, they're not going to get checks next, starting next month.
00:29:00
Speaker
I don't know. Well, that's what they're saying. i just don't know about that. Yeah. Right. and That's why i but I set it aside. A lot of the times I feel like sometimes we jump on them a little too early and let's see, this is just a story about what might happen. So let's see what actually yeah is going to happen.
00:29:15
Speaker
And the state is looking at it. Fetterman saying that that's why he's voting. Yes. And he's trying to convince any other, uh, all the other lunatic, uh, you know, left-wing people to vote yes on it because of the SNAP benefits.
00:29:31
Speaker
Right. I mean, Fetterman's got a little bit more common sense than just the s SNAP. You know, he's he's talking a little bit more about More than just the SNAP benefits, but that is a focus. Remember, the guy guy two years, three years recovered from a massive stroke and more common sense than most in Washington right now.
00:29:49
Speaker
Yeah. Let that settle. yeah Have you seen some of the videos they're making? Like, oh, we're in Washington, D.C., and we want to negotiate. Where are the Republicans? It's just the most cringe cringe stuff I've seen, man. Yeah.
00:30:02
Speaker
But it works for their base, I think, because maybe not. But. They keep doing it, so they got to have some kind of polling that says they keep doing it. That's only the way they work. i i don't know I don't know what kind of internal polling they have, but all I see is that ah Trump's approval rating has actually gone up during the shutdown. so And CNN in this is reporting that.
00:30:26
Speaker
I don't know. That's harsh.
00:30:29
Speaker
That's harsh.
JobsOhio: Economic Development Issues
00:30:30
Speaker
All right. Well, on to some ah some Ohio news here. we We touched on part one of this Jobs Ohio article from Ohio.News last week.
00:30:43
Speaker
so Yeah, I know. Now they they released part four. i think... yeah mean I'm starting to question Ohio.News, tell you the truth. Well, actually, yeah, it's kind of the... I think four parts is a bit much. I'm not sure. I've kind of skimmed over part three and four.
00:31:00
Speaker
And, I mean, it goes in more detail and on some of the stuff that we're going to talk about. So I guess it's not bad to read, but
00:31:09
Speaker
So what is JobsOhio? JobsOhio is a organization or a group, a nonprofit private organization that was started in 2011. think was a John Kasich was something that he promoted and keep they keep calling it a John Kasich program, um at least from his era.
00:31:31
Speaker
And it's it's supposed to help attract jobs to Ohio.
00:31:38
Speaker
But it's a little funny math, I think. It's it's not funny math, but is it? um Well, let's have a background on JobsOhio. Maybe we can help with that. Start the conversation out with this one right here.
00:31:54
Speaker
Jobs Ohio is a private nonprofit economic development group that that seeks to attract investment in the state. Last August, we looked at Jobs Ohio and its request for an extension from the state to extend its its contract into the year 2053. The current contract runs until 2038, and the extension is estimated to cost between $10 and $22 billion dollars this is I got few clips from this. This a report from a year ago.
00:32:25
Speaker
and my my great clip set up. But ah from a year ago when they were passing the extension. So they had just recently, about a year ago, they had they had about 13, 12, 13 years left on their contract.
00:32:36
Speaker
They extended another 15 years, I believe. And that was kind of true questions on why if you're 10 12 years out, Why are you extending it already? And their claim is, or it has some some um weight to it, which is basically lot of these projects that we deal with are five, six, seven years out, even longer before they actually develop jobs because it takes a long time to build factories and sure all this other stuff. So I still think 12 or 13 years is probably...
00:33:13
Speaker
ah no You could probably could have waited a few more years, but you know, so we're looking at this. We're talking about it. Um, I think you posted something on X and we got some, some comments on it. Um, no, I didn't, you know, i didn't pull up who, who, who sent us a comment.
00:33:28
Speaker
Do you remember? It was somebody from Jobs, Ohio, wasn't it? Yeah, it was the um marketing guy. i forget. it right prosper I think his name was Ryan something. I'm sorry. I don't have it in front of me.
00:33:39
Speaker
That's fine. No, that's good. it's So he asked us, hey, check it out. These these numbers seem a little... They're not correct or they're misrepresented. misre misrepresented And we said, yeah, thank you. We'll check it out. yeah um And so he also commented on the JobsOhio X post on these articles with their own blog post.
00:34:04
Speaker
Kind of having their side of it. Like, hey. Yeah, it was their response to it. It's not quite what it all, what it seems. And fair enough. I think they're on to something here because.
00:34:17
Speaker
Ohio.News is saying that JobsOhio spent $1.9 billion in 2023 and only got X amount of jobs. And JobsOhio is saying, no, that's the total revenue brought in by the distribution of alcohol.
00:34:38
Speaker
And maybe some of you might be thinking, alcohol, what? what Yeah, JobsOhio gets its funding, from the profits of the alcohol distribution that the state controls to the state liquor stores.
00:34:52
Speaker
To me, i mean, bells go off like crazy in my head. Like, why And basically, Jobs Ohio is saying that there's a little confusion. There's two separate entities here.
00:35:07
Speaker
The $1.9 billion dollars figure is actually from 2023. In 2024, it was actually $1.7 billion. Okay. And it represents the combined operating expenses of two distinct entities with entirely different objectives.
00:35:22
Speaker
Okay. Fair enough. it's That's a valid point. I think they might be actually right on that. JobsOhio is one thing. So Jobs Ohio is a private nonprofit economic development organization funded by the profits from JOBS, which is J-O-B-S acronym, J-O-B-S.
00:35:42
Speaker
JOBS, J-O-B-S stands for Jobs Ohio Beverage System. Two completely distinct entities. It's weird.
00:35:54
Speaker
not They're not distinct at all. they're They're almost named exactly the same. They are named exactly the same. They have the same logo, don't they? ah Good question. I don't know. I didn't actually didn't. I don't know. I can't tell the difference when I'm looking at that.
00:36:09
Speaker
And the key point here is they say Jobs Ohio is a nonprofit and it's funded by profits from Jobs, J-O-B-S, which is Jobs Ohio Beverage System. And is not tax fairyer it's not taxpayer dollars.
00:36:25
Speaker
um Hey, Ryan, VP of marketing, you're failing. I can't tell the difference. Yeah. Well, I also, I don't think you should push on the the fact that it's not taxpayer dollars because you're getting profits from a state entity or from selling to state entities.
00:36:47
Speaker
That used to be, what happened to this money before JobsOhio? It went into the general fund, which would be taxpayer dollars.
00:36:58
Speaker
How did this, so now I'm looking into what's, how did JobsOhio even start? Well, let's try clip two from JobsOhio, transparency.
00:37:10
Speaker
Jobs Ohio is funded by state liquor profits. That's money that used to be in the general fund, subject to public oversight. But since 2011, that money is privatized, with Jobs Ohio distributing liquor and getting a portion of the profits.
00:37:26
Speaker
Being private means when they make decisions and there are questions about those decisions, the public has to take them at their word. So there's no oversight now that they're private.
00:37:38
Speaker
So they have a breakdown on JobsOhio. So again, these are separate organizations with separate financials. How they separate? How are the financials separate when JobsOhio gets profits from JobsOhio beverage system?
00:37:53
Speaker
ah serving separate purposes. Yeah, one to get you drunk, one to get you a job, I guess. So and they say since the reflection in the article $1.9 billion dollars cited in the article in 2023, they're going to say $1.3 billion dollars was or is for the cost of goods and expenses to operate the liquor enterprise.
00:38:14
Speaker
So they say $1.3 billion dollars was was basically you know buying liquor and the expense to distribute it to the The liquor stores says plus $1.3 billion dollars for the cost of goods and expenses and to operate the liquor ah enterprise. $100 million dollars is a supplemental payback to the state. I'd like to find out where that money goes.
00:38:40
Speaker
And so that's where they end up with $467 million that Ohio spent in 2023. And here's where it actually went to.
00:38:49
Speaker
and here's where it actually went
00:38:52
Speaker
$383 million dollars in economic development programs, loans, and grants to companies. We'll get back to that. $26 million in salaries and benefits. $16 million in professional services.
00:39:05
Speaker
Huh. Professional services. $12 million in an administrative and support. And $29 million in marketing.
00:39:17
Speaker
hey Hey, Ryan, $29 million to market JobsOhio. I don't know. I guess, I don't know. It seems like a lot of money for marketing, but ah and and the rest of it, too.
00:39:32
Speaker
But... So $383 million dollars in economic development. So they're saying loans, grants to companies. So what JobsOhio does is it it looks for big projects or companies looking for a place to put it ah an office, factory, whatever, a data center, and then works with them and gives them shows them the incentives that they can get in Ohio and kind of does all that stuff. But they also do one other thing.
00:39:58
Speaker
They give them money a lot of the times. And in this case, their largest expenditure so far in the history of Jobs Ohio since 2011. Can you guess where it went to?
00:40:10
Speaker
It's big project in Ohio. Big, huge. Data centers. Intel. Intel, yeah. yeah The power plant chip, those the so-called plant chip. $140 million dollars went to the intel to Intel to get them to build the chip plant here that's still not built.
00:40:29
Speaker
They've also given, ahead. Sorry. I was going say, it's not going to be built till the 2030s, right? Yeah. As of right now. If ever. Yeah. We don't know for sure, but they're saying 2030s, right? 31 at the soonest. But, um, you know, one of the other ones they funded or they, uh, they helped with a grant first energy.
00:40:55
Speaker
Now, with First Energy's history and HB6 and the corruption, and then now you have Intel with the debacle of the Intel project being their largest grant. I'd say there's we have some questions, at least it like how you're making your decisions. And that's kind of what the part of this article from Ohio.News I can get behind because it's there's no the transparency is not there.
00:41:16
Speaker
and There's no oversight as far as how these deals get done and who steers the committee to what the next deal is, all that kind of stuff.
00:41:28
Speaker
Ohio.News has pointed out some conflict of interests with people being on the lobbying lobbying organization, but also on the Jobs Ohio board.
00:41:43
Speaker
on the, on the comp, like on Intel's lobbying. Now, are they coinciding with the same time? Maybe not. Maybe they're, Intel got their grant and then a year later, so-and-so gets on the Jobs Ohio board.
00:41:57
Speaker
At one point, somebody had to back out of the Jobs Ohio board because of they failed to disclose their work for a lobbying company, which which was hired by a company that they had given a grant to, this kind of stuff.
00:42:09
Speaker
So who's watching all this stuff? and so Because it's a private it's a private organization that they claim is funded by private dollars.
00:42:21
Speaker
Do you think that's really private dollars?
00:42:26
Speaker
No.
00:42:29
Speaker
I mean, they're making money off a state liquor store. Yeah. Yeah. Licenses and. Okay. So then it gets.
00:42:38
Speaker
It goes on. three Oh, yeah. let's Let's try three. So the here is, I think three is. Yep. So why is everything private? So here's. Congressman from Ohio. No, shoot, I forgot his name now.
00:42:49
Speaker
But I think it says in the clip. And he's he's an advocate for it. said Okay, go ahead. No, who? Go ahead. but Was it Jim Jordan? No, it's not Jordan. No, it's an Ohio congressman. house was Congresswoman?
00:43:01
Speaker
Congressperson. No, man. is it's ah it's the guy we It's a bald guy. we've seen him I've seen him many times. like act his name I think it says in the clip here. okay Ohio controlling board member and Ohio representative Brian Stewart defends Jobs Ohio. Part of why we're successful is we're able to go out in the market, have discussions with potential employers and lure them here without having every single part of the deal subject to being disclosed to their competitors before the deal is even done. That makes no sense.
00:43:31
Speaker
You get that. I guess that's a valid point. You don't want. all this information out i think there's a better way to do it than completely we don't get transparency until the deal is done as of right now and the other thing they bring up in this article which i is a fair point is there's no guarantees on jobs intel does intel have to give any of that money back i don't think so as far as i can see it doesn't doesn't seem that if they end up not creating any permanent jobs they have to give some of that money back
00:44:04
Speaker
So it's a grant, so i don't i don't it's not a loan. and So there's all these kind of things. you're like Okay, I get JobsOhio. Ohio. that News just did kind of misrepresent that $1.9, $1.7 billion dollars number because that's kind of went off of like, oh, you're spending $1.7 or $1.9 billion dollars and you're getting how many jobs?
00:44:25
Speaker
Like, it's not a lot, but it's not really what they're spending on it. They're still spending almost 500, almost half a billion dollars which makes it a little bit better, but it's also no transparency and not sure they actually made it. I mean, they they did they did stick up for themselves a little bit, but how did this all begin?
00:44:49
Speaker
it says here my last clip, how did this all begin? Because there was a board that but so that collected and organized and distributed alcohol to the state liquor stores, and then that went into the general fund. Until 2011, the one and only Kasich.
00:45:07
Speaker
Kasich. It's Kasich, isn't it? i always forget. Kasich. Kasich, yeah. I think so, pretty sure. Yeah, I'm looking at his name, and I think it's think I spelled it wrong. So here you go.
00:45:19
Speaker
In 2011, when Jobs Ohio was formed, it purchased the liquor franchise for $1.4 billion. dollars Attorney General Dave Yost had asked that this extension include a similar good faith offering. This new deal dilutes the value of the original deal.
00:45:37
Speaker
And I think I owe it to the people of Ohio that I represent to raise these questions and offer some ideas about how we can do it better. The extension went forward without any similar upfront payment.
00:45:50
Speaker
I remember this from a year ago. So so yes, so then I think, huh, so Jobs Ohio one day up and went and bought the liquor distribution in Ohio away from the state for $1.4 billion. dollars And then I thought, where'd they get $1.4 billion dollars from?
00:46:14
Speaker
They just made up an organization and poof, they got $1.4 billion. dollars
00:46:20
Speaker
No, actually what they did was they sold bonds, leveraging the profits from liquor distribution, got the $1.4 billion and then gave it to the state of Ohio and then paid back the bonds.
00:46:35
Speaker
Now, as a business owner, if there's any business owners out there and you just start your business up, what the chances you get in a million dollar loan.
00:46:47
Speaker
$100,000 loan.
00:46:50
Speaker
But JobsOhio, just like that, $1.4 billion. I
00:46:57
Speaker
i don't know. mean seems Seems like there's a lot of money just going around in the circle. Seems a little fishy, but I feel like I don't know the whole... yes here like these things tend to be so complicated almost on purpose it seems that you end up going i i just want to make dinner and go to bed well i mean who in their right mind is going to go through all this
00:47:25
Speaker
What are you trying to say, Tom?
00:47:28
Speaker
ah Well, shit, I've been doing it all week. we and not And that's the point. Yeah, but you're not going through all. You're just going through the information you you can you can get, and you don't know if it's all accurate either. Four articles, five, if you include the jobs. Oh, there's going to be probably more. There's more.
00:47:49
Speaker
ah So, I mean, it's something i think – There's not a lot of sources on this. That's the problem, you know? Yes, nobody's talking about it. Right. So credit to Ohio.News, but I think you got it wrong got some of it wrong.
00:48:03
Speaker
I think so, too. that's That's why it's hard to... That makes it even harder to oh get through this stuff. And and I almost kind of... ah It's like my eyes start rolling back into my head.
00:48:16
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. It's like, you know what? It's just just not worth it. Just tax me a little bit more. That's that's easier than trying to figure this junk. and it's like It's like property taxes. It's like on and on and on Every program in the federal government, it's so convoluted and complicated.
00:48:34
Speaker
and You figure it out. Let's say you figure it out. And then what? What are you going to do? This is so big that it's like, where do you go with it? You know?
00:48:45
Speaker
Yeah. Fair point. Fair point. Because it then what do you do? Well... You can bitch and complain all you want, but it's so big that you're not going to get anywhere with it. I mean, you have to you'd have to find some representatives that really want to kind of get behind it, too. But I don't think most of them are bright enough to dig through this.
00:49:01
Speaker
um And they don't want they don't care about this. This is not part of their game. Yeah, and it's just one year they decided, you know what, we're going to take all this money that we make off of distributing liquor and just give it to this brand new, it's brand new, but there was something else before it, and it escapes me what the name of the department was, that they had taken over.
00:49:28
Speaker
Oh, it says it's somewhere in one of the four articles. ah Department of Development, I think. No, that's the requirement for reporting. There was another group that was similar, but it was. Yeah, the group was called Little Less of a Scam.
00:49:43
Speaker
A scam with some oversight or the appearance of oversight, the appearance of oversight. um But it was it was public. it was a public organization with public tax dollars. So you could have a congressional investigation if you, if you actually had somebody with a, with a set to do it, but now <unk>re we're private.
00:50:04
Speaker
No, actually you're not. You're this quasi private crap. Like how are you private? If you're funded by profits from a state entity, I just, so, but what you can do is, well, you can buy microphone, a bunch of equipment and just complain on the internet.
00:50:23
Speaker
Or you go to quicker river cast.com. Let's get ready to complain.
00:50:33
Speaker
Go to quicker river cast.com. And you can check out our wonderful blog posts. You can check out where we are at, where where you can get the show. You can listen to show there. um You can find us on X, um ah YouTube, Spotify, all those places.
00:50:51
Speaker
Share the show with your friends. We really appreciate it. ah Leave a comment, a review on your favorite podcast app or system. And check out the website.
Impact of Data Centers
00:51:02
Speaker
It is growing and getting getting more and more, getting more just more there now than there was before. I actually sent out the website to a friend. We were talking about what what we're going to talk about next, which is data centers. And and and i said, well, here's a perfect time.
00:51:18
Speaker
And I gave her the pitch. said, hey, you know, have these two really smart guys talking about Ohio stuff. I have good good sources that they're going to talk about this this weekend. I sent the link.
00:51:31
Speaker
And her immediate response was, wow, nice content.
00:51:35
Speaker
So she immediately went to website and saw all the articles and all the, you know, all the links that we have there that we talk about in our, in the show, you can go there in a lot times. We'll even add a little bit here and there that and we come up with later after the show, if we find something and, and more to come, I'm sure.
00:51:54
Speaker
It'd be nice eventually to get like some of the audio clips on there too, but down the line, easy, baby steps. Yeah. But um that's what we're looking forward to. Yeah, I'm going to ask about that. I think we can do that pretty easy.
00:52:07
Speaker
Yeah. Let's see. So share the show. Check out CrookedRiverCast.com or send us email at CrookedRiverCast at gmail.com. Thank you for all the help with that.
00:52:21
Speaker
Next on our list, I've been kind of compiling a little bit information, both my daily ventures in the world and in the news on data centers.
00:52:35
Speaker
It's a massive, massive,
00:52:39
Speaker
massive,
00:52:41
Speaker
issue in Ohio, ah in many ways, it's it's creating large amounts of jobs and large amounts of heart heartache, it sounds like. And we actually had some email correspondence with the listener on on it down in the area of ah about a Norton data center specifically and some shenanigans that may have been happening down there.
00:53:00
Speaker
You know, is it creating, I mean, as far as construction, it's creating jobs, but after the construction's done, there's not many jobs. Right. That's one of the, um,
00:53:11
Speaker
That's one of the it's one of the promises that probably falls short, right? Right. Yep. As we'll get into. What we were sent, the information we were sent is, you know, there's there's a city council meeting and some things were said that may have been true. It's a weird um ah weird the way they word it.
00:53:29
Speaker
And i will get to, we'll get to a couple of clips here, actually.
00:53:35
Speaker
Right now. So but they had the data center. They had a meeting in, in it's at the old PPG mine site in Norton, Ohio, in the city of Norton, in the county of Tuscarawas. No, that's not, that's a different county, I think.
00:53:49
Speaker
and Which? which Norton, Ohio. I don't know. Is that Summit? It might be Summit, yeah. Okay, yeah. Tuscarawas is a little south. ah That's a little further. Yeah. That's yeah way further.
00:54:00
Speaker
And it's, but there was a company representative from quantum HPC that was there. ah The project is called project Titan, a data center in Norton, Ohio.
00:54:14
Speaker
And some of the residents, they're, you know, putting a campaign against it to try to stop it. And they were actually successful. And one of the things, let's just hear his report. Cause there's a couple questions I have.
00:54:28
Speaker
on why it got canceled. I think I know why, but I'm not sure. So some things were said and somebody got in some hot water. So there you
00:54:38
Speaker
Hey, so remember that data center that we told you about just this week and Norton residents didn't want it. City Council was going to make that decision. Well, now it is not happening. And I want to read you a statement from City Council about why.
00:54:51
Speaker
They write, following the town hall meeting on Monday, October 13th, several council members were provided information from a concerned resident regarding certain statements made by the representative from Quantum HPC.
00:55:03
Speaker
Council members shared this information with the law director who asked the developer to determine if the statements were not true. The developer determined those statements were not true and informed the city that the representative is no longer working for the developer.
00:55:17
Speaker
As a result, the data center project is not moving forward.
00:55:23
Speaker
Interesting. But they never say what what' what the what the
00:55:29
Speaker
untrue statement was or any, and all the articles... They won't say, they just say that citizens brought some information to the attention of the city council and the council. I don't know if they're a city or township or whatever, but and that they had reached out to the representative of the company and the company said, nope, those are not true. And we fired the guy and there's no more data center.
00:55:55
Speaker
I think basically they kind of realized that they weren't going to pass it anyway. So they kind of felt like they backed out or or something to that extent. So that's what it feels like to me. The only thing I could find was this little clip from channel three, by the way, that was the previous clip was also channel three, a little short on YouTube channel three's website on YouTube.
00:56:14
Speaker
And here is another and report from there. has a little clip from the meeting, which this could possibly be the reason why, but it, well, you'll see. and Take a listen to the Quantum HPC representative's answer when asked if he could say this data center wouldn't impact residents' lives.
00:56:32
Speaker
I'm not telling it's going to not do any of those. Of course, it's going to make noise. Everything makes noise. Your dog makes noise. Your cats make noise. Every dog does it hard 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
00:56:45
Speaker
Understood. Understood.
00:56:50
Speaker
Oopsie. Oopsie. Now, I guess that could be the comments.
00:56:57
Speaker
Seems maybe a little, don't a little much for or those kind of comments. But it is a ah topic. It's one of the one of the bigger topics. So I have i some acquaintances that I speak into.
00:57:11
Speaker
You know, they're not quite friends, but i i I've known them for a little bit. And they're out in Western Ohio, and there's some data centers being proposed and they're fighting it because so for example, here's ah here's a guy who knew family. He's probably early thirties, got a couple of kids three, four months ago. They finally got their house, right? They got 10 acres.
00:57:35
Speaker
i sound familiarar to They got 10 acres. They got the house they wanted. It's surrounded by farmland. And three or four months later, they're now putting a data center. It's going to butt up against his property and they're fighting it like crazy.
00:57:48
Speaker
Another guy, completely unrelated. They don't know each other. And i think he's in the same area and the same thing's happening. Data Center's going like a mile down the road from him. Not quite as bad.
00:58:01
Speaker
but so I'll tell you what, man. you know My wife and I looking for a property, that is like one of the things we do look at first to see if there's anything planned that's going to butt up we we tried to you know i would Personally, I want to try to find 10 acres that butts up against a ah state land.
00:58:20
Speaker
Yeah, national forest. Yeah, that's what... I mean, you know who owns a ton of land out... Well, probably not all over Ohio, obviously, but in Geauga and Lake and is the natural history museum.
00:58:35
Speaker
Oh, really? Yeah. They own a ton of land and and i don't know if it's investment or, you know, they just got loads of cash that they, I don't, I don't know what it's for.
00:58:47
Speaker
Yeah. It's good store of cash. for You get, you know, you always got to check who owns the land around the property you're planning on buying because man, the last thing I want is a, some big project coming in.
00:58:58
Speaker
And, yeah i mean, just think of all the noise and the filth that, you know, just it's going to be a mess. Oh, yeah. I got down ah rat hole for sure on this issue, on this topic in the last few days. Here's a here's a little ah example of what you can expect from a data center.
00:59:19
Speaker
Here's a Business Insider report. about this is I don't know, it's about a five or six minute clip, but here's a something to keep in mind about what happens. and And in this these particular cases that I'm talking about, the land that was owned that's up against this guy's property were owned by farmers.
00:59:40
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. that you know So it's not a whole lot. They had to be like in the plans. I mean, they had to be. There had to be some, like, you got to call the county up in the in the township up to see what's going on. Yeah, you got to do your due diligence for sure. yeah And you know he said the only person for it really are the two or three farmers or families that are going to really benefit from it.
01:00:02
Speaker
Yeah. And he he he could tell he's beside himself. He's not sure what he's going to do. And if and to to that point, here's what ah Business Insider has they said a lot. They went on a lot of different um areas in this and this little five-minute clip they had, our report.
01:00:19
Speaker
But um even to the point where they were estimating how many more deaths and and around the country would be because of the environmental impact data centers. I'm not sure they go that far, but they are quite annoying. And if you're if you bought a house and you used to quiet farmland, ah here's what you can expect here a little bit and some of the other repercussions from it.
01:00:40
Speaker
What is it like living next to these giant data centers? So these residents are living right next to these industrial facilities that are running 24 seven and they're making this really ominous drone noise.
01:00:54
Speaker
So it's a constant noise of their cooling fan. Some residents told us that they can actually hear it inside their houses, and some had to sleep in the basement because they couldn't sleep. And how are data centers deepening the water crisis? So to power those data centers, you need a huge amount of electricity. just water. And those servers get really hot, so you need something to cool them. Sometimes data centers are using water to cool their servers. They're finicky drinkers.
01:01:18
Speaker
They only really want to use drinking water. Data centers are competing directly with residents who are living in the desert where there's already not enough water to go around. Jesus. It's also why Ohio and Indiana and so there's a
01:01:39
Speaker
ah section here with all this fresh water and cheap energy. Right. that is attracting all these companies here. And and i don't understand. It kind of ties into our next story we have in the lineup, Tom, which is the Ohio electric bill.
01:01:57
Speaker
Electric bill is spiking in Ohio. a lot A lot of it has to do with data centers. ye um they
01:02:06
Speaker
They have infrastructure. you're thinking you're in the middle of the farmland. There's not a lot of infrastructure there for an industrial site.
01:02:14
Speaker
this These are massive. I mean, we're talking hundreds, a lot of times hundreds of acres are being bought up and built on. The dust, i mean, you see videos of, I'm watching in Atlanta, in Georgia. Georgia's huge spot too. It's kind of like Columbus, Ohio.
01:02:29
Speaker
ah Virginia, is parts of Virginia around ah DC and stuff is mostly called Data Center Alley. They've got most data centers per or square mile or something like that. ah lot to do but with Washington, DC, but also coming in from the ah Europe.
01:02:42
Speaker
So a lot of the, you know, main lines are coming right in there. So he feeds it out in Ohio's Ohio's a great spot because of energy, cheap land, this, that. And yeah i mean, they're we're talking,
01:02:57
Speaker
people's wells running dry. There's video of in Atlanta, this lady, she goes, here's here's my water in my in my kitchen. She turns her kitchen faucet on. It's barely a drip. I mean, it's it's a drizzle because they're sucking all the water out of the end. And then on the bottom of all her glasses and everything's got silt on it.
01:03:14
Speaker
a They're saying it's pollution from data center and they're up against the data center. A lot of communities are fighting against this. yeah to spread the word because I think a lot of these data centers came in with...
01:03:28
Speaker
the ah the residents and the the locals just not understanding what's going to happen. So in this Business Insider, they say later in the clip that they were they've been sued by cities because they're trying to get the information, how much energy, how much water are these data centers going to be using, how much are they using, and they're getting sued by the cities.
01:03:50
Speaker
So that tells you there's there's something there. no And then yeah and on the jobs part, you're going to say, Yes, there is initially a lot of jobs from the construction of it, which is a couple years worth usually.
01:04:02
Speaker
But after that, you're not talking about much. And this is you know a lot of what but we saw in Jobs Ohio giving away money to these companies. And you you know they're giving them $20 million, dollars you're getting 30 jobs, if that, 15 jobs.
01:04:17
Speaker
right um you And a lot of cases, the jobs that are being created are remote.
01:04:26
Speaker
So you're not even getting local jobs. youre Yeah, was I was, I saw there was, i forget where it was, but they were, they were thinking it was going to be between 70 80 jobs. And I don't, you know, yeah. How many, how many of those would actually be on site? I mean, how many do you, how many people do you need on site?
01:04:46
Speaker
How many people do you have available to hire for all these data centers in the area? If you got 20, now you have 20 more data centers or 50 more data centers and and in over a two, three year period, you don't have enough talent. Is there enough talent in the area to service all these data centers?
01:05:00
Speaker
Like you just, you know, I don't know. You can't, How much of it is just maintenance, though? Yeah, that's what I mean. Well, you just computer, me and like how many computer techs can you get one area? So my point is then you're going to look outside the state for for other companies to help if you're running into issues with, you know, getting service and that for your for your data centers. Because I know I just, me, you influx all these extra customers, but meant more or less, into the area. lot of these jobs are not coming from Ohio, I would think.
01:05:36
Speaker
Now there's also tax abatements. So well they were saying to Norton that you know they were going to get X amount of tax dollars for their schools. But at what cost, first of all? What does it do to your to your community?
01:05:47
Speaker
Again, you have your rural communities that all of a sudden have a major industrial site. It's similar, not exactly, but it would be similar to putting... A power plant, a Ford factory, I mean, it's they are similar to putting a massive car factory right in middle of nowhere.
01:06:06
Speaker
It's not similar because one actually has jobs. Well, people yes. you know People would move there. This one has doesn't cause anything. One has hundreds of jobs. One has maybe a dozen.
01:06:18
Speaker
Right. Or a couple dozen. So again, I get as progress, we have to, but you have to balance it. I'm not anti-data center. Part of my problem is these are massively rich companies with massive profits, billions of dollars in profits every year.
01:06:37
Speaker
And they're getting sweetheart deals, they're getting tax abatements. We're all getting bent over. I'm anti-data centers. I'm anti-everything. Well, I mean, that's understandable in lot of cases.
01:06:50
Speaker
So here's...
01:06:52
Speaker
Anti everything. ah Okay. ah More perfect union is another site or a YouTube channel. Here's a, this kind of touches on our next story, which is also the spike in energy costs, which and so by some, end ah some instances could be 50 to 60% or more because of data centers.
01:07:14
Speaker
I'm going to check in my notes here. Yeah. Okay.
01:07:19
Speaker
Yep. So that's about, yeah, 67% could be because of data centers and and why. Let's hear why. here why When I've noticed my electric bill gone up, I started asking my neighbors, is your bill also going up? And they had no idea that this was happening.
01:07:35
Speaker
If you live in any of these states, your electric bill is higher this summer. It's not because of anything you did. You're paying more because the world's biggest tech companies are building so many data centers. I do guess that a lot of the world gets covered in data centers over time, but I don't know, because maybe we put them in space.
01:07:52
Speaker
Is this something where we are committed to building our data centers across our 60 regions? We are absolutely going to. Big tech's quest for artificial intelligence is creating a tidal wave of new costs that are about to hit all of us, even if you live nowhere near a data center.
01:08:07
Speaker
The big problem is that we're all subsidizing the wealthiest corporations in the world in their pursuit of artificial intelligence. Americans' utility bills are rising while big tech's profits are going through the roof.
01:08:20
Speaker
We traveled into data center country and found a hidden wealth transfer. Everyday people covering the power costs of the data center build out. Companies like Amazon and Meta striking secret deals with utilities.
01:08:34
Speaker
It's all proprietary. It's all behind non-disclosure agreements and blacked out documents. And lobbying for a system that leaves all of us footing their bill unless we do something about it.
01:08:47
Speaker
So what talking about? Well, when like again, you put a huge factory in the middle of nowhere. You need to build out infrastructure, roads, bigger roads, electricity.
01:08:59
Speaker
So you need power lines, you need substations. And the energy company foots that bill. And generally speaking, for the last 100 years, It's been the system we've had, which is when you need to build out something, it could spread that cost that the energy company has to put out for the infrastructure improvements to get spread out through the entire network over all the customers.
01:09:26
Speaker
But in this in this case, for this that first person that and started that clip out with, she had a a bill that was normally $35 or $40 for her little one-bedroom of electric that almost doubled because of one line, which was, I just lost it. Here it is.
01:09:46
Speaker
call it
01:09:48
Speaker
Oh, darn it. I just lost it. But there's a line for infrastructure ah payments that they can put a a flat fee. And that's when the energy company is allowed to by the or the regulatory agencies to add add to this line when they build out plus 10% profits in most cases.
01:10:11
Speaker
And now I'm mad because I can't find out what it said. Data centers.
01:10:18
Speaker
Which was website was it? It was on the, no, it was on the clip. It was in clip and I thought I put it in my notes. I didn't. That's okay. um There's a line in there for basically it just says ah like ah distribution cost, transmission cost, something to that effect.
01:10:36
Speaker
So when they're building new power lines and new substations, they're able to add to that line and basically doubled per bill. overnight and then she started but asking questions and and that's kind of where that so when they were building all these data centers in columbus and in norton or wherever they're coming they're going they're going to be they have to put in massive amounts of infrastructure when they put a there's a huge honda plant going on an ev plant south of columbus And they've they've got a humongous substation on there.
01:11:08
Speaker
That was all put in by AEP, I think is the company down there. And that's all been subsidized by the all the average consumers. Now, there are some areas that are trying to put in and extra tax for a data center large companies.
01:11:23
Speaker
So they pay more of their, more the they should pay all of it. That's kind of the problem. You have billions of dollars. You should be paying for all of that or a large chunk of it at least.
01:11:37
Speaker
So even if you don't live by one, one's not to be built by you. You're being affected. And in some cases, electric bills are going up 30 or 40% over a two or three month period. That's what's in this article. I think actually like got out of my soapbox, Tom.
01:11:53
Speaker
What do guys say about it? I just rambled for... I don't know. I don't have anything to say about it. I think we're all getting bent over. Some customers seeing 44% increase.
01:12:04
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, ah do you fight this? How do you stop it or or at least ah slow it down? Well, funny that you ask, Tom.
01:12:16
Speaker
How about, maybe I should have put it here. um We were turned on to a new ah new website, which we'll talk maybe about, citizensportal.com. Was it citizensportal.ai? No, it's citizensportal.ai. We'll have a link in the show notes We're going to talk about it.
01:12:32
Speaker
But that's how. you You have to go to your city council. you have to You have to pay attention to what's happening around you. you have to listen to Crooked Rivercast. Well, you've got to spread the... yeah Yeah. You know, you need to...
01:12:45
Speaker
find the information first of all, and then you got to spread the word because most people don't pay attention to this stuff. And that's what happened in Norton. They, they fought, they pushed back. They asked questions at the city council meeting and the city council actually sided with, which I mean, I guess in a rural area shouldn't be that shocking, but um to me it was kind of Oh really? I didn't think, you know, they just steamroll it, but I guess,
01:13:09
Speaker
that works. It actually still works. And that's, know, community is still, uh, you know, community is still important. If if everybody's pushing against it, it's not gonna get pushed in.
01:13:20
Speaker
They can't do anything about it. i mean, if there's a, If there's enough pushback. Yeah. They'll move on. I mean, they will move on. they'llll They'll find another place where they can do it. Yeah. And it it may end up being the so similar results because it's two counties over.
01:13:36
Speaker
You're still going to get hit with something if they're building out major infrastructure. And until they change that, and maybe that's maybe that's part of the answer. But on the other hand, then you make it less inviting for data centers. And there's huge amounts of construction jobs.
01:13:54
Speaker
Okay, but that's temporary. They're temporary. Yes, they're temporary. um So for example, Columbia Gas of Ohio's standard choice offering rate climbed 26% in the past seven months.
01:14:08
Speaker
So what does that affect your electric bill? Well, a lot of electric plants are run by natural gas. Right. It went from 52 cents per, you know, whatever, was CCF to 65 cents, man.
01:14:20
Speaker
Yeah, huge. Yeah, huge.
01:14:24
Speaker
And just think people need to be aware, know, they're not, you're not getting massive amounts. It's not like you said, it's not getting like getting a Ford plant where you're going to get 300 jobs. No, you're going to get like 12.
01:14:36
Speaker
Yeah, no, the data centers are, our are ah just not, you don't want that in a rural community. I mean, I guess if the entire community wants it, or if there's a majority of people that do want it, then okay, but I don't see why if if somebody, I just looked at it this way.
01:14:56
Speaker
i mean, there's farmers and then there's people that want to live not off grid, but a little away from urban centers. yeah And they want to, you know, they're there for a reason. They want darker skies. They want less noise. They want less ah light pollution. Well, I guess that's darker skies. They, you know, they just want to live in peace.
01:15:16
Speaker
We kind of do what they want. like We haven't talked about the light pollution either. Yeah. Lights on 24 seven. In some of the videos, like the inside of these people's houses at night, it's like there's there's floodlights on your house in some cases.
01:15:32
Speaker
Pretty crazy. And there's, and there's a big conglomerate. There's nothing you could do. I'm not super familiar with Norton. Like, I don't know. Like I, I'm familiar with Copley, which isn't far from. Yeah.
01:15:44
Speaker
Norton. I don't think I've ever driven through Norton, so I don't know how... i know it's rural, but I don't know how congested it is, or not congested. Yeah. Yeah, it's decently rural in many of the parts. I've i've heard they have an incredible taco shop there.
01:16:04
Speaker
Truckeria. Oh, you know, I have been told about that. Yes. I don't know if you've ever been there. I haven't been there yet, but it is like, I do drive by every once in a while. i do want to stop there and get tacos a little off subject, but tacos are never off subject.
01:16:18
Speaker
I heard, I heard they're incredible. Like they're almost like gourmet tacos. So I hope to stop there.
Energy Demand and Power Plants
01:16:27
Speaker
And, ah you know, the other the other issue is supply and demand. So you you do have more demand. The highest demand, i think they said last year, America produced the most energy it ever has, and demand is outpacing that still.
01:16:41
Speaker
And most of that's because of the the data center. The data center, but it's not just Ohio in this region. It's it's all over the country. There's thousands being promoted or started or at least projected to be started.
01:16:56
Speaker
And the other, so so supply so supply and demand is another issue. So right currently, for my quick search, there's about a dozen power plants either proposed under construction or about to start in Ohio.
01:17:11
Speaker
And no I think four or five, five or six hydroelectric plants.
01:17:20
Speaker
Mostly going to be natural gas, which will probably raise the price of gas as as they start using it more and more, I would imagine. But we just went through like 10 years of decommissioning a whole bunch of power plants in Ohio.
01:17:34
Speaker
um We've torn down massive, I mean, coal coal-fired power plants that were mainly there for peak are gone. Nuclear power plants have been shut down. I think they're still, keep one of them open, I think, or they've That's where we should be building stuff.
01:17:50
Speaker
Right. Now, since so one of the, I think it was this article, it mentions, or I know i read four or five on this subject. So sometimes they all start to mix together. um But they were mentioning that there's a proposal out there to take the the either current or recently decommissioned coal-fired power plants and turn them into small nuclear plants.
01:18:10
Speaker
Really? Yeah. I guarantee it's going nowhere. Yeah. But it's a good idea. It's already, it's already industrial site. It's already where there's a power plant at. So it's actually way cleaner and way more reliable.
01:18:24
Speaker
I know everybody freaks out when you say the word nuclear, but yeah, no, it's, it's safer and it's
CitizenPortal.ai for Community Updates
01:18:30
Speaker
cleaner. It's all around better. Yeah. So therere there is there's that, I guess.
01:18:38
Speaker
ah and So keep keep an eye out what's going on in your community. Check out citizenportal.ai. We'll put the link in the show notes in the blog post, and you can check it out. And what what is this site, Tom? It keeps track of, it it just organizes all the meetings, local meetings and things happening.
01:18:56
Speaker
Like, you could get hyper-local. Like, you could, if you're in Norton, you could check out what the city council is doing and stuff like that. Yeah, you can break it down per city. And and I think they put the meetings online and all that, too. So, if you're... I've had it i've i've had it saved for a while, because i I'm pretty sure the...
01:19:18
Speaker
the guy who started this was on Tim pool about a year ago or more even. And I just haven't kept track of it because it is, it is super, uh, uh, micro local, you know?
01:19:31
Speaker
Yeah. Hyper local. And if, yeah if your city already has a streaming streams, their city council meetings, which a lot do now since COVID, a lot of them started beforehand, but during COVID really ramped it up.
01:19:45
Speaker
Um, it will be on there. I guess there, it's kind of like a, and l ah archive of it for how long. I'm not sure, but they have a ah free side side and a paid version gives you a little more access, a little more, I think, searching capabilities and that kind of stuff.
01:20:00
Speaker
These are, this is where you gotta, you gotta check things out. You gotta be on top of it. Um, if you see something, send us to us, but something, something fishy going on in your city council meeting, let us know. Maybe, maybe we'll put it in the show. Cause it's, um, you know, if it's happens in one city. A lot of times it, it duplicates in other places. So,
01:20:20
Speaker
Might be good place to just check it out every once while, see what's going on in your local city or your surrounding cities. Because you could have a data center in the other city. And there actually, one of the reports I did read was they were in one county and they were let their property bordered the other county and they had they had zero say in the data center because it was in the next county.
01:20:42
Speaker
Yeah, I think even Norton... or I think Norton's... Partly in Summit, but then it it butts up. I think part of Wayne County actually gets into Norton, too.
01:20:55
Speaker
So it's they you know people in Wayne County might have been screwed over, too. And just to push the point, it's happening everywhere. I'm reading article. I saved it for next week. i don't know if we'll get to it or maybe push it off another week, depending what happens. But Lorain County is currently debating a what they call a mega site.
01:21:16
Speaker
So they want to take a whole bunch of farmland and rezone it and then offer it up for sale.
01:21:25
Speaker
i'm I'm assuming with the permission of the the owners, or they've already got this worked out, and they want to have ah a mega tech site. it's It's a data center site. I mean, they want a mega, I think they call it a mega technology campus or a technology campus or something. It's data centers. or Mega noise.
01:21:42
Speaker
Or Amazon warehouses or whatever. you know It's going to be that
Ohio's Unexpected Tourist Attractions
01:21:46
Speaker
kind of stuff. And ah and they're currently debating it in Lorain County right now, going back and forth with it to see what they want to do. Yeah.
01:21:56
Speaker
So it's it's everywhere. it's north, south, east, west. Yeah. Anywhere they can find some land. So check out citizenportal.ai if you want to really good get in the weeds on your and your city.
01:22:09
Speaker
All right. On to our next. I think we have our next. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's the Ohio Spotlight.
01:22:24
Speaker
a lame lame we gotta add a little little uh oh i skipped over one though did you we could do it right after work yeah we'll do it after it's fine what you gonna oh we gotta add a like we gotta add something to add spotlight yeah sound yeah it's it's a little it's not quite much i don't know if anybody would know what that is ah know that's why i say spotlight
01:22:52
Speaker
when ah I was like, i'm I'm looking up spotlight sound effect, but I'm not sure what that would be.
01:22:58
Speaker
Tom, did you know that no matter where you live in Ohio, you're only a few hours away from a cruise ship destination? and never really thought of Ohio as a cruise ship destination.
01:23:13
Speaker
I tell you what, the more I looked into this, the more I went, huh, this looks interesting. so i heard about it last year. Never looked into it though. I guess it's that's been going on for quite some time, but there are cruise lines that cruise the Great Lakes, which I think would be fabulous to go through the locks and stuff. I think that'd be cool.
01:23:32
Speaker
And here's, here's the article basically is Cleveland closed its record setting cruise season with more than 8,700 passengers visiting in Cleveland from 53 ships that docked in Cleveland ah Each person, they they estimate spent $150 totaling $2 million dollars in in revenue for the city of Cleveland.
01:23:53
Speaker
So is it like a day trip? Yeah. It's like a um you go to a cruise out of Florida and you sail to the Bahamas and you stay there for six hours or overnight sometimes. go on to the next one, the next one.
01:24:06
Speaker
And they start either in Ontario and go up. towards superior or start up towards superior and come down. You can go either way, just like, like a lot of cruises are that way. And but some of these ships are really good. I mean, they're, they're, there's some high end cruises, 10 and 12 day cruises.
01:24:22
Speaker
Oh, no kidding. I, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Oh, they got a 14 day American great lake route. No kidding. Yeah. And a nine day. Cool. Yeah. It seems, i don't know. It seems like a no brainer for me. I'm going to look into it, but,
01:24:37
Speaker
Yeah, so they had about $1.3 million dollars ah direct visitor spend in the year, and but with everything, port and everything, they um exceeded $2 million. So it's actually some good revenue for the city. And actually did a quick search for Great Lakes tour or great lakes Cruises.
01:24:52
Speaker
And I got this little gem here from ah from a YouTube channel, like a travel channel. He did a cruise through the Great Lakes. And here's his review on Ohio, or Cleveland, I should say.
01:25:06
Speaker
Overnight, our ship traveled quite a long distance to the American side of Lake Erie. And when I woke up the next day, which was the second day of our 12-day cruise, our ship was docked in Cleveland, Ohio.
01:25:19
Speaker
And the dock was in a very unusual location in an industrial part of town right next to the stadium where the Cleveland Browns football team plays. Ew.
01:25:31
Speaker
Now, on paper, taking a cruise to Cleveland doesn't sound all that exciting, but I actually had a really nice day in Cleveland. I took an excursion to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. naturally i spent several hours there and was really impressed with all the displays and exhibits they had.
01:25:54
Speaker
And because our ship was in Cleveland all day, I had time to walk into the downtown area for a look around... And even found a little pizza place where I had some pretty great pepperoni pizza for lunch.
01:26:09
Speaker
Here's a little time-lapse video I shot from the balcony of my cabin as our ship was leaving Cleveland yeah at the end of the day. Beautiful shot. I had a much better time in Cleveland than I had expected.
01:26:21
Speaker
hadn't thought of Cleveland as a place I would really want to visit, but after spending the day there, I now see why cruise ships go there. ah That guy's voice is something else. I know.
01:26:36
Speaker
It was the best one I could find. it was all right. I'm just. Yeah. Yeah. It actually put a ah spotlight on on the Browns Stadium and the fact that it has to go.
01:26:51
Speaker
It'll be a great stop when all the rubble is there. yeah Well, because they they they have a shot, a drone shot of the ship sitting next to So if you're looking at the Brown Stadium from downtown Cleveland, it's to the left of the stadium. and There's this one little port.
01:27:05
Speaker
And it's where ships offload like gravel and whatever else they do. You know, it's the Port Authority. Right, right. And there's no other place for it to dock. But when you when I saw other videos when they're... um
01:27:21
Speaker
you know, like leaving Detroit, for example, it kind of puts a ah good ah good no our good exclamation on, stresses the importance of having a ah nice downtown lakefront that we don't have anything in the lakefront.
01:27:35
Speaker
Nothing. There's nothing there, virtually. Well, hopefully that's going to change. Probably not in my lifetime, but... Yes, and it really...
01:27:46
Speaker
shows the possibilities that the lakefront has. I didn't know this was even a thing. Yeah, yeah. This the Great Lakes. What a great idea. Well, you know, but the only reason Chicago's got a lakefront is because it burnt down. So we might have to take things almost are very similar to Detroit, but not quite the same way.
01:28:05
Speaker
ah Sorry. But ah yes, it just I just kept going. Oh, my gosh. What how embarrassing. but He had a good time. I mean, Rock Hall of Fame, that's a no-brainer.
01:28:16
Speaker
Every city built a lakefront. We put a highway on it. And an airport. Yeah.
01:28:25
Speaker
In other news, there's more and more talk about the city of Cleveland pushing for to shut down Burke. Yeah, I saw that. Ten years from now. I didn't dig into that. Oh, ten years from now?
01:28:36
Speaker
Well, um remember when the Browns thing was going on, they they estimated five to seven years to shut an airport down. Yeah, okay. There's FAA regulations. don't know. I'm not sure why it takes you just put a close sign on it and you fly to another one. what's the I don't understand.
01:28:49
Speaker
Maybe it's because we really don't have another one. i mean, we do, but does it can it handle it? Not that there's a lot. yeah there's like four flights a day. is it i Yeah, I guess. I don't know. Maybe. I'm sure there's more than that. But what it was always explained to me, which always made sense to me, was...
01:29:06
Speaker
it's not the amount of planes that fly into that. It's the amount of money that flies into that. Right. It's all rich people, right? How much influence they have on the city. And a it's really convenient to fly in, take a 15 minute cab or, um,
01:29:18
Speaker
limo ride to your office and then you leave. Right. Right. You're meeting or whatever and leave. if So I think, but it is cool to see that we get tourism from cruise ships and I'm really going look, i'm I'm like very excited about it i can't wait to take a look and I wonder how much it costs and all that stuff.
01:29:38
Speaker
It's neat. Yeah. I'm still not like sitting here and going, wait I need to do this, but I'm taking the spotlight away from the spotlight. Damn Going through a a white a... I'm a geek. I'm a nerd. when Going through a lock in a ship sounds really cool to me.
01:29:52
Speaker
Yeah, I mean... Yeah, I guess so. I'd like to see Detroit from that angle. You go to Chicago that way. you know? That'd be kind of cool. different way You know, especially in the wintertime.
01:30:05
Speaker
ah Yeah, no.
Ohio's Growth and Population Trends
01:30:07
Speaker
Just kidding. Anyway. Next on our list of ah topics or stories we were looking at today was what, I guess I didn't, I just have it. There you go.
01:30:18
Speaker
Ohio is both shrinking and exploding all the same time. That's what I read with these two. art Pardon of me? Yeah. say shrinking We're shrinking and exploding all the same time as far as population. Oh, dear ah by the way. Yeah. That's our next story. But did you want to hit the, um, the endover?
01:30:36
Speaker
Yeah, that's what I getting. Yep. That's good. That's tied in into the same thing. Oh, okay. So so Dover. Yeah. i see Yeah. Sorry. I think that was my, I i misled you in a little bit, but yeah. yeah So i but I'm reading these two stories. That's why i put them in the list of lineup as kind of combined because it's a tale of two, two areas.
01:30:54
Speaker
So, so there is a new plant. coming in to Dover, Ohio, which is Tuscarora County, which I think was I was getting that from before. And it is you from a German manufacturer, um German-based Schaefer to build manufacturing facility in Dover, bringing 450 jobs.
01:31:12
Speaker
See, there's different data center and factory. And $27 million dollars in associated payroll for the county, which is for Dover's huge, huge. Dover's going to rural, rural county, rural city in Torsco, Rol's County.
01:31:27
Speaker
And the issue it's bringing up is quite interesting is with all these jobs coming in and they're they're scheduled to start manufacturing sometime in 26, I believe it says. Yeah, think And then 130,000 square foot plant in North Worcester Avenue, on North Worcester Avenue.
01:31:44
Speaker
It's phase one of a large project. Approximately $200 million billed out, Dover Mayor says. But they need houses. They need 3,000 new homes.
01:31:58
Speaker
They said 1,000 homes in Dover and New Philly. Yeah. And another 2,000 throughout the county in the next five years. That's a lot. Yeah. I was there yesterday.
01:32:10
Speaker
ah yeah? In Dover. Yeah, we we took a ride through. Oh, ah we went through Mohican, then headed towards ah Sugar Creek, and then we ended up in Dover for dinner.
01:32:22
Speaker
And yeah, they got it they do need something there, because it's kind of just, it looks like a low income area.
01:32:34
Speaker
There's not a lot there. ah So this is good, but it it brings up a lot of, but here's ah here's a comparison. when they When they're building a data center,
01:32:45
Speaker
they're not running into a housing issue for all the employees that they have to employ. So big difference. and so so lot they're saying a lot of white collar jobs are gonna be well above the $125,000 range and some of production positions can be can easily be seventy thousand dollars and up for for salaries but they're now to have to be, they're going to push, push pretty hard in the next year to get some houses built.
01:33:11
Speaker
Um, I, if they don't, I'm not sure, you know, will some of those jobs be outsourced, that kind of stuff, maybe temporarily, you know, office, office jobs and stuff that they might be able to do offsite.
01:33:22
Speaker
Um, so yeah, so there's, I'm reading this Tuscarora Economic Development Corporation, um, The housing is about 15,000 people commute to Tuscarawas County for work, and they want to make that, they want to get more people who live in Tuscarawas County, these jobs and and people commuting, in which is probably what may happen.
01:33:46
Speaker
What does this company manufacture? know, it doesn't say. and just says a German-based ah manufacturing facility. Probably data data centers. Okay.
01:33:58
Speaker
um Yeah, you know, that's a good question. ah Do, does that say?
01:34:06
Speaker
ah would have put that, yeah. It's a good question, because... I would think it's going to be something that deals with a little bit better, um youre not yeah' like maybe stainless steel and stuff like that.
01:34:18
Speaker
So, for example... The mayor says between 2008 and 2020, that's 12 years, Tuscarawas County only saw a net gain of 35 homes.
01:34:31
Speaker
Yeah, there's nothing there, man. That's a huge, huge out or huge over something to take over or to, uh, to accomplish, to get done a thousand homes in a year. That's not, and we did see, happen but what you know, what really stood out when we were driving through there and, uh,
01:34:51
Speaker
I'm not sure what's in between Sugar Creek and Dover when you're on 39. I forget what that's called. a whole lot. Yeah, it's farmland. It's Amish country. Beautiful. Yeah, it's gorgeous. But we're driving towards Dover, you know, going towards 77.
01:35:08
Speaker
And right around there, we did see some, like, new... but We saw them throughout, but we caught some new developments, their housing developments there. And they really stood out because it's it's a middle farmland. And you're just yeah like looking at all these like homes that all look the same. and Yeah, it's almost like they just put a little suburb right in the middle of farm. Yeah, yeah.
01:35:31
Speaker
And so so they're goingnna i have a feeling if they need that, they're going to be building a lot more of those there around there. And that was pretty close to the highway, too.
01:35:42
Speaker
Schaefer is a global manufacturer of motion technology products, such as rolling element bearings for the automotive, aerospace, and industrial sector. So good jobs, like building something, making something. that's Yeah, that should a decent job. Founded in 1946, immediately after World War were two
01:36:04
Speaker
German based. Well, they were probably making stuff for war. Yeah. And then then they shut down and then restarted up in 1946. Yeah. a different name. So they make sense. ah So that's.
01:36:15
Speaker
And then to contrast. That's why I said there were both shrinking and exploding. To contrast, according this article in the last one, is News Channel 5 article that we'll have in the blog in the show notes about the Dover factory.
01:36:30
Speaker
factory Ohio is witnessing a migration wave as residents exit in search of better opportunities. So Ohio is currently. dead That headline is totally misrepresenting the.
01:36:45
Speaker
The yeah article, I think. I think you are correct. I think they're leading on one narrative more than the other one. That's probably a much more. i because i don't think this is just Ohio. This is no, this is our country. Yeah.
01:36:59
Speaker
The world actually. So a couple things i didn't know is Ohio is the seventh most populous state in the country. <unk> And at the current rate by 2030, they're saying we will be the ninth most populous state.
01:37:12
Speaker
and see I see. I don't agree with that because I don't think we're going I think they're just looking at our state. I think every state is, going, going to go through the same thing. Maybe, maybe there's going to be an adjustment period where we go up and down with other states, but. Are we, uh, are we shrinking as a country?
01:37:30
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Okay. Well, unless you. Makes sense. No, we are. But I mean, if they're going to start counting, uh, asylum seekers, you know, then. so You know.
01:37:45
Speaker
migrants and asylum seekers and stuff like that, then are we shrinking? Yes, I still think we're shrinking. Because if you're going to stop that, which I think we should, we're we're definitely going to shrink. I think all states will.
01:37:57
Speaker
yeah The Amish and Amish are going to be the only ones ah growing in population, but not not fast enough to keep up you know no statewide. No.
01:38:09
Speaker
No, when the average American is less than two kids, the average American family less than two kids. 1.6 right now. Yeah, so you're not even replacing yourself, so it's definitely shrinking. i think among conservatives, it is 1.9, which is still not, you know you know, replacing yourself. You've got to be two and a half to replace yourself.
01:38:32
Speaker
How that works, I don't know, but I think i think they're taking into account like...
01:38:39
Speaker
deaths and disease and stuff like that. Ah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. ah That makes sense. So two and two and a half, and we haven't been that since probably the 70s, I'm thinking. Anyways... ah
01:38:53
Speaker
every state's going through that and oh i was going to say that i think the democ you know liberal more left-leaning people are at 1.1 so they're not even close to replacing there's some good reasons behind that which we don't need to get into but um i i think there's a tale of two worlds here because it's there's 14 out of the 88 counties in ohio are growing and Some of those counties are exploding because of what's going on in Columbus, the build out, the bringing in i mean, they're building crazy in Columbus. So counties around Columbus are exploding, but the majority of the counties in in Ohio are shrinking.
01:39:37
Speaker
Like you said, it's, so if we're going to shrink to ninth or ninth, What are the other states? Aren't they just moving along with this? That's what I'm saying. i think i think I don't think they're taking into account other states shrinking as well. And the only reason they might not be, in ah I guess where I was going at, the only reason they might not be shrinking is because of migrants and asylum seekers.
01:40:02
Speaker
Oh, yes. Yeah, that makes sense. Like like ah California, a ton of people have left California, but their population, it's gone down, but not as quickly as would think. They're eating the dogs. They're eating the cats.
01:40:15
Speaker
Yep. Springfield, 20,000 like five years. forty thousand yeah So this is I don't know, it's an issue. I guess we got to keep track of it, but I don't think it's it's the alarm, like you're saying, it's as alarming as they're saying, but they do just go through some of the stats, you know, fewer births, aging population between deaths and people leaving. We're on a downward trend, like you're saying. Yeah, i think we're probably I think we're headed towards a cliff.
01:40:43
Speaker
I think it's going to slowly, we're going to slowly decline in population and then it's going to, ah then it's going to go ah real quick and it's going to be a shock to the system. So for example, they're expecting Columbus to, to grow by double digits through 2050.
01:41:02
Speaker
Columbus. Columbus area. Yeah. yeah Yeah. Okay. Which, I mean, to makes sense. A's the capital, but yeah, a lot of stuff going on there. Um, it's about, Oh, well, they bring up jobs, Ohio in here. So that's nice.
01:41:16
Speaker
Um, Yep, that's about it. So, yeah, it does say, graphic, the University of Virginia shows the top 10 largest states and the top 10 largest fastest growing states.
01:41:27
Speaker
So there are states growing. ah Fastest growing state right now is Utah with 13.1. And largest state expected in 2030 is still California and Texas and Florida. so Yeah, but Utah's growing...
01:41:46
Speaker
Because i would think California moving, California is moving there. Right. So you've got a lot, that you know, 13% is not, I think there's an underlying for Utah. That's not much um for, there's an underlying issue and that's just people not having kids.
01:42:01
Speaker
So, but yes, that's what was, yeah, that's, that's the biggest issue is not having enough kids. We're not, mean we're not replacing ourselves, let alone replacing people who are leaving Ohio for whatever reason.
01:42:13
Speaker
So regardless of the economic conditions in Ohio, we're still going to be shrinking, I think, because we're not making, we're not making babies. Mm-hmm. not making babies. And and and if are we going to lose political power?
01:42:26
Speaker
Yes. I don't know. i think we will. That was a in the article, yeah. I think we will, but I think it's going to start, what it's goingnna what's going to happen is going to go, we're going to, there's like this ah pendulum going back and forth between states.
01:42:40
Speaker
it's it's a little turbulent. So in in the end, I don't know, but yeah, it's actually a great point. Are they, are they taking it in the consideration, all the other States, are they just saying we're going to continue to go down where all the other States stay the same? That's probably, yeah, that's, it's just, it's a little, I don't know. I think it's a lot deeper. I think there's a much deeper issue here than what they mentioned.
01:43:02
Speaker
Yeah. They want to blame the economy. I think is, is their main push. Yeah. And, and I don't think that's really the biggest issue. ah you know we You know, we can talk about that one day. We should do an episode on that.
01:43:16
Speaker
Just the population decline and what's going to happen because I think the housing market's going to caught totally get obliterated. Yeah, because... It might be starting.
01:43:27
Speaker
ah Well, like I said, we're headed towards a cliff, but they keep saying there's not enough homes. And yes, maybe like in areas like um Dover and stuff, there isn't because they're going to build up plants. But I think overall...
01:43:41
Speaker
It's like, man, ah once the boomers start leaving the planet, people are going to start inheriting their homes.
01:43:52
Speaker
yeah Then are those people are those children or those grandchildren going to be moving into those homes? Or are they going to be trying to sell those homes? Which means they if they have a home, they're going to trying to sell too.
01:44:06
Speaker
So there's going to be a whole lot of houses coming up for sale, and I think that's going blow things up. And it fix itself in some ways, guess. Yeah. Yeah. Until there's not enough people to do jobs that you need done.
01:44:21
Speaker
ands and And some ways we're already there. Kind of, yeah. Yeah, actually. Depends on where you're looking at. It's it's getting there. yeah A lot of these big construction projects in the area, I mean, they're they're relying on out-of-state labor because there's just not enough.
01:44:35
Speaker
There's plenty of people to do the labor. There's not enough people who want to do the labor willing to start a career or whatever. so i think that's start going to slowly turn around, but i still think there's going shortage.
01:44:49
Speaker
Yeah, it could be helped by the lack of SNAP benefits.
01:44:53
Speaker
Maybe, right? but push Might push some that are on the edge to to do a little bit more for themselves.
Community Engagement Encouragement
01:44:59
Speaker
Right. All right, well, ah if you think there's anything you yeah you can add to that discussion, population, energy spikes, data centers, anything like that, send us an email.
01:45:12
Speaker
CricutRiverCast at gmail.com. If you want to look further into these stories, you check out cricketrivercast.com check out the website. We've got blog posts there. We've got links and and the show notes and all that fun stuff.
01:45:25
Speaker
I think yeah you also go, you could check us out on and X. If you're wondering where to get through the website, obviously you can go click on X, but just just keep in mind, what what does everybody love?
01:45:37
Speaker
Me love cookie! All right. If you follow us on X, you'll understand. Um, maybe he'll understand. Maybe, but it's just my, you know, my favorite monster is cookie monster.
01:45:54
Speaker
So, I mean, if you've got to have a favorite monster, I mean, I mean, it's cookie monster. Always been. All right. So share the show with your friends.
01:46:08
Speaker
Tell us, tell people about it. We really appreciate it. We do appreciate you listening and taking the time. Listen to us talk about the news in Ohio. Next on our list of voucher update.
School Voucher Funding Debates
01:46:23
Speaker
So we have school voucher program update for 2025. And what's the update? The update is, well, Ohio spent more than $1 billion dollars on private vouchers.
01:46:39
Speaker
For the 2025 fiscal year, the second full year of nearly universal school vouchers.
01:46:47
Speaker
So their total amount of five private school voucher programs, there's five, didn't know this, ah was about $1.09 billion, dollars according to the Department of Education and Workforce.
01:46:59
Speaker
Nearly half that money went to the ed Education Choice expansion vouchers, which is expands it to um anybody who wants to apply, and then it's based on your income, and kind of dictates how much you will get as a scholarship from the state.
01:47:17
Speaker
um the The Ohio Education Association president, Jeff Wensing, said, the thing that we are concerned about is it seems like the EdChoice voucher program is expanding and skyroting skyrocketing with money that's being poured into that program.
01:47:37
Speaker
And there aren't nearly as many students in that program to warrant that kind of infusion of money. Okay, fair point maybe. like i mean, let's let's look and see.
01:47:49
Speaker
Well, in the article, So there's five different programs. There's ah there's one for autism, um and there's one for says students who have individualized education programs, so IEP, so special needs.
01:48:03
Speaker
You have the Cleveland Scholarship, which just for, this is how this all started, which was with the Cleveland, you would you get in a lottery and you'd get a voucher from the state because the Cleveland Public Schools were so bad, they haven't got a whole lot better.
01:48:15
Speaker
i mean, they got new schools, but... And so that was kind of how this all started. So they also have students living um living in boundaries of low-performing schools are eligible for EdChoice scholarships. And then they have the EdChoice expansion scholarship was eligibility. Let's see. Lawmakers expanded it to expand eligibility to 450% of the poverty line two years ago.
01:48:39
Speaker
All right. So...
01:48:44
Speaker
With this program, they educated, they sent 100,000. one hundred thousand So this is just the EdChoice expansions. The main thing that everybody's complaining about, because ah nobody's complaining about the city of Cleveland getting extra money because they're horrible their school system's horrible.
01:48:59
Speaker
No one's going to complain about IEPs, the special needs. No complaining about autism. but What they are complaining about is the EdChoice expansion, the voucher program. So there were 100,930 scholarships awarded.
01:49:10
Speaker
one hundred thousand nine hundred and thirty scholarships awarded Remember, he said, this this is being expanded. There's not a lot of kids for all the money that we're spending. 100,930 kids awarded an average scholarship average Ohio public school per child spend is over $16,000.
01:49:31
Speaker
the average go have memory so the average ohio public school per child be is over sixteen thousand dollars I'd say it's a good deal because what ends up happening, as far as I can tell from a personal experience,
01:49:51
Speaker
if your tuition for your school is $6,000, you have to come up with the other $2,000.
01:49:58
Speaker
You have, so for K through eight, you get you get up to 6,166 in scholarship. High schoolers receive up to 8,408, $8,408 of scholarship from state funding. The rest is up to the parents.
01:50:16
Speaker
I can tell you by personal experience, the average high school, private high school is well over $8,400 per year. Well over eight. Most cases double that.
01:50:30
Speaker
I don't know. I can't i can't see the the con here. what's what's the What's the downside? You got anything?
01:50:37
Speaker
I can't think of anything. No. Now, for example, the average, i think it says the average autism is $26,000. is twenty six thousand dollars Oh, here is 6,016 autism scholarships were awarded and totaling $159 million with the average cost of $29,110 per participant because they're autistic. So I guess they have more needs.
01:51:05
Speaker
You know, yeah I don't see a downside. That's just updates 2025. They increased the budget going into 2026 for school vouchers. So this is just getting this program is expanding and it seems like a winner. I know the private, the public schools aren't happy about it.
01:51:24
Speaker
um But. I don't know. You're getting ah better education in most cases. I don't see how it's a downside. Except if you're public school trying to compete with a private school, which you really can't.
01:51:40
Speaker
in in mostsque In a lot of counties, a lot of a lot of school districts. There are some that are are as good or better, but I don't think there are. are some really good ones. Yeah, I don't think. Mostly. It's not the majority, I don't think, in my opinion. but I don't know. I could be wrong.
01:51:52
Speaker
Get a rural area, maybe it's a better school. you don't have as much money. You get in into big cities, you got a lot of money, but where does it all go? Isn't the school in, I forget what county. It's Medina County, but I forget that what the school school system is called there. But they're supposed to be that's supposed to be a great school.
01:52:09
Speaker
Yeah. Medina, North Ridgeville, or North Ridgeville, North Homestead, one those, both them actually. Solon's got a really good school system. Yeah. But.
01:52:21
Speaker
That's rare. Yeah, it's rare. and I got, they did, I did pull a story for next week where there's, there's a bill proposed to, um,
01:52:30
Speaker
to to it To me, right so far, I've just barely read through it. It sounds like the best proposal if I've heard so far. As far as, besides abolishing all property tax and starting over with other with different taxes, this is about as close as I've seen to something that would be good.
01:52:46
Speaker
Really? we'll get it Yeah, we'll get into it next week. I got to read into it more and see. but um right, speaking of money and, you know, the county and not having enough cash, they need more money for schools.
01:53:01
Speaker
The county's got a bunch of cash they don't do with. And they're going to give it back to the the cities and school districts.
01:53:11
Speaker
Here's the article from Spectrum News 13. It says, here, what do you need to know? The county is returning $35 million dollars in real estate assessment funds to cities, school districts, and other taxing authorities.
01:53:27
Speaker
The money has been collected as a part of the sextennial repraisal approach. Oh, hey, no. um Repraisal process. However, reduced costs led to a surplus that began the return, which helped give the return. I'm...
01:53:47
Speaker
um I'm wondering, Iowa County is in some some pretty, they they're in debt. I mean, I'm all for giving money back if it needs to, but I don't understand. you you You've got billions of dollars in debt, but yet you're you've got this money. Can they not use it to pay off debt?
01:54:06
Speaker
Can they not use it for other other places? I mean, again, I'm i'm glad to have the money back, but it seems odd to you in any way. Like, county's got lots of debt, but they're they've got a surplus, and they're going to give it back to the counties.
01:54:19
Speaker
Is it just because it wasn't collected for for what they're in debt for? That's what I'm wondering. I mean, that could be an easy explanation. They they can't use it for anything else. Yeah. Although it is it is the county. they They make the rules and that they play under, so it's not like they couldn't do something change it.
01:54:34
Speaker
Again, not complaining about it. I'm also wondering, where's the money going to go when it gets to the cities or the school districts? you know These school districts that are, in a lot of cases, overfunded already.
01:54:45
Speaker
carrying over 40 50 60 percent of their budget from the next year into the following year and they're goingnna they're going to get an an extra influx of a couple 10 20 000. so just a quick one that kind of stuck out to me like i heard they're in financial straits like they're they're they're cutting
01:55:04
Speaker
Medicaid, or they're cutting um certain services because they're anticipating, you know, a loss in revenue and stuff like that. i keep reading so on. But like you said, it probably just comes out of that, that they're not allowed to.
01:55:18
Speaker
But they are giving some money back. So um there's know,
01:55:25
Speaker
you know it's just going to get squandered in and somewhere else anyway. so Yeah, that's exactly what's going to happen. So I shouldn't really, ah should be more like,
01:55:35
Speaker
starting to get I'm starting to figure these buttons out, Tom. All right. Next on our list is a little update on the Cincinnati police chief debacle that's happening right now.
Cincinnati's Crime and Police Chief Controversy
01:55:48
Speaker
So I think we touched on it last week, didn't we? Yeah, they they put her on paid leave. Did we touch on it? Yeah, we did. Well, no, she she wasn't on leave when we touched on it. That happened after we ah played the clip from her.
01:55:59
Speaker
That's right. being That's when we played a clip from her. Yeah. being a putting Trying to put people on timeout is what it sounded like. Yeah. youre want You want me play it again? Yeah.
01:56:10
Speaker
approach you if you start to behave disorderly on Fountain Square. Because these things sometimes start as a minor altercation and then evolve into something bigger.
01:56:21
Speaker
So do not come downtown, especially on Fountain Square, if you don't know how to behave. That was just partial. Yeah. You better be good. We'll put you in timeout.
01:56:35
Speaker
There was a, you know, I didn't dig it up, but I i think when did that beating happen in Cincinnati? couple months ago. Yeah, it was it happened um a couple of months ago, a month ago, whatever. from But anyways, there was a clip of her at that time, too, basically blaming social media.
01:56:55
Speaker
Yeah. For, you know, so she's, she's had a couple of issues. Well, blowing it out of proportion, I think was her kind of point. Like you guys are making it more, you know, this is not what, you know, like, Oh, she was like, Oh, we didn't see what happened before.
01:57:09
Speaker
it's like, it doesn't matter. This guy got it. got beat nearly to death. Yeah. the And i mean, we have 10 minutes of video or whatever it was and no cops show up when there are people are just wailing on each other in the street. Right. right Hello.
01:57:23
Speaker
She just didn't not, she doesn't know how to handle anything. And well, you know, we talked about it a little last week. You know what I think about her. Yes. But what we have every police chief and every major city in Ohio.
01:57:37
Speaker
Yes. And there's, there's a couple of things that come out in this report that, I'm reading on that. It is a literal he said, she said. He said, she said. That's little bit better.
01:57:48
Speaker
He listened to this So the the police chief has got a boss. The police chief has a boss. She can't do whatever she wants in Cincinnati.
01:57:59
Speaker
ah so's and Who's her boss? Is it the mayor? We'll find out. Because here's the he said, she said. Oh, okay. Got you. gotcha
01:58:08
Speaker
Mayor Pureval and Chief DG were standing side by side Tuesday, outlining their plans to combat violent crime downtown. We cannot have shootings on Fountain Square and Government Square. That cannot be just a normal day in Cincinnati.
01:58:23
Speaker
We have to put an end to it. That is her charge. That is my charge. And we are working with urgency to do just that. then Just a day later, she's being asked to step down. It came up during Local 12's mayoral debate tonight.
01:58:35
Speaker
With the recent violent crime in Cincinnati, is a change in leadership at the police department needed? The mayor says city leaders are reviewing all of their strategies. Look, the the police chief is currently the chief.
01:58:48
Speaker
um It is absolutely the city manager's responsibility to make those kinds of decisions. But in my role, leading this city through those strategies, through that vision, I will continue to double down on issues and strategies that are working and look elsewhere for ah solutions when our strategies are falling short.
01:59:09
Speaker
Huh. Okay. So city manager.
01:59:16
Speaker
City manager. ah he's He's blaming the city manager. I didn't do it. It was their decision. I'm all for it. He appointed her as an interim police chief in February 2022.
01:59:29
Speaker
twenty twenty yes Here is the next. So that was local 12 news, I think out of Cincinnati. Yeah. and Cincinnati. Here's the next part of the report or another report.
01:59:43
Speaker
This is about a week ago. I'm getting these from, and this was at the press conference of the police chief hired a a lawyer. They asked her to step down and she said no, so they put her on paid to leave, which I like to call paid time out in her case.
02:00:00
Speaker
And that's when all this started blowing up. And then they had a press conference and and there were scattered signs signs of scattered journalism here, Tom.
02:00:11
Speaker
Yeah, I know. Crazy. Yeah. So they asked the lawyer, you'll see this clip, the lawyer's talking, she doesn't really, the chief has't hasn't said anything, all everything through her lawyer.
02:00:23
Speaker
um And she has a different little bit different ah side of it.
02:00:30
Speaker
Wrong one. See, I knew to be at least one this ah show, I screwed up. Chief Fiji stands before you today accused of no wrongdoing and having done nothing to deserve this action.
02:00:42
Speaker
Exactly. The unfortunate conclusion we have to reach from these facts is that she is being used as a political scapegoat and a political pawn. It was on the chief's 35th anniversary at CPD when the city manager, through a city attorney, asked her to leave the building pending what the city said is an investigation into the effectiveness of her leadership.
02:01:03
Speaker
The move comes just days after the city has experienced several violent crimes downtown. The loss of her leadership at this critical time is a blow to this city. It has made us less safe, not more safe.
02:01:16
Speaker
But the fact is, while violent crime overall in the city is lower year over year, there has been a spike in violent crime downtown this year, including last week's shooting at Fountain Square.
02:01:26
Speaker
The central business district is the heart of Cincinnati. who else would you go to, to make things better unless you fire the coach?
02:01:37
Speaker
Uh, I think the answer to that is that you let the coach do her job. And I think she's been here him for how many years she's been in her current position, approximately three years.
02:01:48
Speaker
So it's pa isn't three years long enough to continue a positive trajectory? Uh, the chief was hamstrung by, ah the politicians.
02:02:00
Speaker
Attorney Ems went on to say several of Fiji's requests were shot down by the mayor, including, he says, when she asked him to engage with judges to raise bonds to keep repeat offenders off the streets, and he refused.
02:02:14
Speaker
The mayor's office in a statement said that is not true. Another statement said the mayor did not take direct action against Fiji. It's a city manager's decision. It wasn't me.
02:02:28
Speaker
I didn't do anything. There's this other person, city manager. Oh, she's terrible.
02:02:35
Speaker
So it's a, he's, I mean, this is a classic. He said, she said, literally, because she's saying, I've been, I've been handcuffed and he's saying, no, you haven't.
02:02:46
Speaker
So what's the, the, The head of the police union agrees and says, yeah, that they either need to repeal. There's a bill they need to repeal, which puts the chief under the purview of the mayor's office or the city manager's office.
02:03:03
Speaker
To me, they got to be similar, if not the same thing. Get rid of that or get a new mayor. That's what the police union said. But. I think just get rid of all of them.
02:03:13
Speaker
I mean, that's just my opinion, but people Cincinnati and oh yeah, two or two weeks away from an election, by the way, Cincinnati, right? Yeah. Yeah. So all of the state really, but yeah.
02:03:27
Speaker
I can't believe they actually had a followup question to that. That was kind of nice. Yeah. So that's going on in Cincinnati or the more, more shenanigans, more shenanigans.
02:03:41
Speaker
ah Wrapping up, last couple here, Tom. So we, a little recap from a story that we covered from the, was it Lorain County?
Ashland County Fair Political Controversy
02:03:51
Speaker
Ashland. Ashland, Ashland. Excuse me, Lorain, I'm getting my stories mixed together. So Ashland County had, we had an Ashland County affair. This was what, a week or so after Tyler Kirk's assassination, two weeks maybe?
02:04:03
Speaker
and Was it before or after? I thought it was after. but i It was after. The news story came out after. Yeah. Oh, true. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know if it was before or after, but regard regardless, it was.
02:04:18
Speaker
yeah So they had ah ah state they had their normal stand at the Ashland ah County Fair, ah you know, opposite the Republican GOP. and But the the slight difference in stands is one had some buttons that you can, I guess, buy or take or donate to to get that some people took offense of because they were...
02:04:39
Speaker
um they were see buttons in at the ashland county democrat booths had messages about donald trump like is he dead yet or one day we will wake up to his obituary alongside he's not my president and we will survive and and eight and also 86 47 which they didn't mention in this article yes 86 47 so they were asked to leave and they, i i guess the Ashland Democratic Party offered to take the buttons away and they were like, no, just leave.
02:05:13
Speaker
And, or, that's what an argument i think there was an argument ah for, like, this article really doesn't mention everything. We'd have to, Go back to the, I forget what show number it was, but I think they asked them to remove the buttons yeah and they didn't want to. oh And then they yawned it happened a few times so here and then they eventually asked them to leave. and Well, they're arguing the buttons are protected by the first amendment.
02:05:39
Speaker
it's ands It's inciting violence. I mean, I know they're just buttons, but still, is that what you want your kids to see?
02:05:48
Speaker
No, it is. But there is a I thought at one point they did have a they they signed something to go in there. And I couldn't remember the original article mentioned that they, that there is a decency clause or something like that. But in this article, they're saying there isn't one. It's a, it's just a, uh,
02:06:05
Speaker
like a verbal, it's not actually in anything. so Right, right. So what they're saying is because they brought the authorities in, ah the police, that it violates their First Amendment right. And i don't i don't know. i don't if it's if that's a private organization that runs the county fair, they can do whatever they want, I guess. don't think It can't be First Amendment violation because it's not a government agency. But it it could be a government agency running it because it's Ashland County.
02:06:33
Speaker
It's run by the county, right? Yeah. So, I mean, there could be some something there for that. But... Oh, so, um yeah. They're suing the county and the sheriff.
02:06:45
Speaker
Good. Oh, no, was going to say. Yeah, they're suing the county the and the sheriff and ah for First Amendment rights. Because of First Amendment rights.
02:06:58
Speaker
Yeah, said, yet the fair officials and sheriff's deputies forced them to leave for violating the unwritten family-friendly standard.
02:07:08
Speaker
Okay, we'll see how that goes. But that's that's the update. They are suing them. I think they're suing them for removing them from the... from the fair and they're also suing them for a retaliatory secret service referral. Oh, that's right. Yes. Thank you. yeah Thank you.
02:07:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Cause they reported him in secret service. Yeah. Cause that's a threat to the president. Is he dead yet? That's, you know, one day we' wake up to Yeah. 86, 47. That's,
02:07:36
Speaker
that's ah That's what you're supposed to do, I think. i mean If they wanted to sell those buttons online or something, i guess I'm kind of like, okay, I guess. or I can't stop you. But doing that in a county fair, don't know. It doesn't make sense to me. It's like, where what did what rock did you crawl from? mean, it's like,
02:08:00
Speaker
Well, it kind of shows the differences, and they they think that's okay. i mean that's I mean, we saw the reaction to all that's happened over last few months. and i I understand, but if i if i'm ah you're in their own but if I'm a parent, I don't want to sit there and have to explain that to my kids.
02:08:17
Speaker
Not that my kids would be stopping at any political booth, but still. Right. But I think they don't see anything wrong with it. They don't see anything wrong with it. I think that's my point. well home I'll twist it. Okay.
02:08:30
Speaker
When we, yeah, I don't even think it's that, goes that far. I don't think they're that twisted. I think they have no clue what those things mean because everybody is like over 75 years old. Oh, okay. So for them to understand what 8647 I have, there's no way.
02:08:45
Speaker
and there's no way Yeah, but i would like I think they know what is he dead yet means. Yeah, that's true. You're right. You're right. 8647, a lot of people wouldn't know what that means.
02:08:56
Speaker
but A lot of people over the age of, you know, the the people buying Geritol, basically. i mean yeah Which most people would stop at the at the political booths at the fair, too. Yeah.
02:09:09
Speaker
So fair point. ah So they're suing it. We'll see how far it goes, I'm sure. don't know. Apparently, FBI, ah heads of FBI didn't know what that meant to either.
02:09:19
Speaker
What?
02:09:21
Speaker
Comey? Oh, that's right. Finding that out. I was just accident. I just put it up. That's right. but Yeah. I didn't know what 86. It just means cancel my order.
02:09:32
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Okay. And last on our list is, let's see here, they are Hamilton County?
Judicial and Social Media Ethics
02:09:41
Speaker
I think it's Hamilton County, isn't it?
02:09:45
Speaker
Municipal Court Judge Ted Berry is being forced to resign. or he They're going to kick him out, because speaking of Charlie Kirk, because of his
02:09:58
Speaker
His social media posts on Charlie Kirk, and it's actually the article. i I did skim over this pretty quick, but it's pretty much basically. Yeah, it's Monroe Falls ah City Council Vice President.
02:10:10
Speaker
ah ah Talking about other places that that people had to resign throughout the article. Check it out in the and the show notes. but they are This is Ted Barry. Did you mention name? it's Ted Barry.
02:10:22
Speaker
Is this guy black or white? ah Because I look at his picture. i can't I think he's black. ah Probably. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just, cause he's got a ah fro, right?
02:10:32
Speaker
Yeah. A little bit. Okay. I'm just like looking at his, down this is a judge and I'm looking at the comments he made. So a white guy killed him. Color it karma.
02:10:44
Speaker
Yes. And then he writes rest in hatred and division with a clown, ah with like an evil clown face after that. I think that's what it is. Yep. Thank you. Yep. America is so divided on Charlie Cook, but I'm still open to learn more. That's what somebody wrote to Ted Barry.
02:11:00
Speaker
And Ted Barry answers, he spewed hate and division. How's he feel about gun violence and gun control in hell now? Wow.
02:11:11
Speaker
This guy's a judge. judge. Very part very non nonpartisan, sounds like.
02:11:20
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, I'm sure you could turn it off when he gets on the stand. I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure. He says, i I regret if I cause division. Bullshit. and So they're, they're making moves to impeach him and get them off.
02:11:35
Speaker
Hamilton it is Hamilton County. um Yeah. They start the process. going to, they're kick him, kick us out, kick him out. And then i I assume that they'll point somebody, because except I think that's elected. They elected judges usually aren't there.
02:11:46
Speaker
Yeah. But they don't get them out in time. Well, they don't it's not time now. The election's in November, so they'll to appoint somebody in the meantime, probably. No, there's that.
02:11:57
Speaker
That's that to finish off our our list of fine stories for this week. Let's see. Click that. Ashland and Hamilton County. And on to our Good Things segment.
02:12:09
Speaker
Chief Fiji stands brief again we
02:12:17
Speaker
right, what we have today? We have a kind of Cleveland-focused thing. Actually, not really, but one of them is. I guess there's an Instagram challenge.
Cleveland's Cash Hunt and Local Film Scene
02:12:28
Speaker
Instagram has challenged Clevelanders to find the cash. So here's this guy on Instagram. He challenged 50,000 followers at Instagram and TikTok and Facebook, giving clues to finding money around the city.
02:12:43
Speaker
I'm kind of wondering, so it's all promotion. And what he's actually kind of started doing is is to get businesses involved to help out. And, you know, hundreds of dollars, couple hundred dollars here, a couple dollars there. He posts a picture of where it's at, like a closeup shot of something, a vague picture with a couple of clues.
02:13:01
Speaker
And they're saying within minutes, people are finding this. That's how, that's how popular it is. Like they're having to do so much to, uh, to hide where they're at because people are so good at figuring out where it's at. And and indeed then they sit back and take videos of these people finding the, at least that report didn't channel 19.
02:13:20
Speaker
So they're, you know, like tattoos salon is starting to get into a little bit. It says here, I think. And then, uh,
02:13:28
Speaker
it's just It's a good promotion, I think. I don't know. but would you go Would you go try to find some cash if someone posts something Instagram and said, you can here's 300 bucks, go find it. don't know. like think it might be Am I carrying? Yeah, exactly.
02:13:42
Speaker
Well, of course. i mean This is in Cleveland, right? Should should always be carrying, yes. This reminds me of geocaching a little bit. So back when GPS started to become popular, and still I'm sure it's just all still a thing now, but it was, you can go on a website and they will give you, think, coordinates or an area where where they have a stash of something. it's usually like a trinket or something ah native to the area. And then the idea was to swap it out with something else of yours. And it's kind of like the game.
02:14:14
Speaker
And this kind of reminds me of that, but it's not not quite as detailed because they're actually giving coordinates on that geocaching. And this guy's just giving a picture. So, but hey, people getting cash, man.
02:14:25
Speaker
People getting cash. I think they're doing other things too, like RTA passes. Oh yeah, that, yes, yes. Thank you. Yeah. um and And they're just, they're kind of, I think they all they own a tattoos parlor and a coffee shop.
02:14:40
Speaker
there There was like three things. i Three or four. you know yeah Yeah, I don't have it right here. I didn't pull a clip from it, but yeah, when I watched it, yeah, they they had three or four businesses. This was the way they started promoting their business, and then they're they're getting other businesses involved. like They could put it in their business, and it gives them some promotion.
02:14:55
Speaker
People show up. Yeah, they're put they're putting gift cards, RTA passes, movie tickets. Yep. And I guess other businesses are chipping in also. so Yeah. Yeah. Kind of cool.
02:15:06
Speaker
Yeah. Something to, I don't know, something to maybe one day if you're self-adventurous. Yeah. Okay. um But yeah, good point on that. i don't know.
02:15:18
Speaker
Might. And next we have. What happens when winter comes? Like, where are they putting it? Yeah, just take ah you just take a picture of a snow mound and... People with shovels out there. Good luck.
02:15:34
Speaker
And last on our good things list, we have, well, four Cleveland-made horror movies or are about to come out. And...
02:15:47
Speaker
Man, there i so there is film industry in general in Cleveland has been popping up. a Superman was just here. They just filmed, not just, but they just released it not too long ago and was filmed here a couple of years ago.
02:15:58
Speaker
And we've had Spider-Man and some of the Avengers movies filmed here. This is more of Ohio, really, because these are Ohio filmmakers making horror movies.
02:16:11
Speaker
And ah some of these... Some of these um these trailers are pretty pretty intense. It's actually a
02:16:26
Speaker
trailer out there, or a couple of these aren't low budget necessarily. these are These are pretty good pretty good movies and pretty, looks like pretty high, high production value.
02:16:38
Speaker
I watched one of the trailers for this one here called Shelby Oaks and Shelby Oaks was released on the 24th. So that's yesterday is Friday released.
02:16:49
Speaker
And it's written by Boston Heights native, Chris Stuckman. It was filmed in numerous locations, including Cleveland public library and Medina Chippewa Lake park. So it's not just a Cleveland thing. This is, they're doing this all over Ohio.
02:17:03
Speaker
ah So ah this is a horror mystery. follows a woman looking for her long lost sister while dealing with the supernatural threat of their own making. but sam That sounds kind of cool. ah we'll put I have the ah article and there's the trailer for ah Shelby Oaks, which gave me the chills couple of times when I watched it. So that was good.
02:17:25
Speaker
Production looked really good. It wasn't, you know I'm thinking on small time productions, but nowadays. but It's getting easier and easier to make things look great. You don't need a ton of money to make look great.
02:17:36
Speaker
I'll tell you what, man. I saw ah something on, you know, ian Crossland, right? Yeah. Yeah. he posts He's posting, and I forget what AI he is using. I forget what site he's using, but he's posting these movie trailers.
02:17:51
Speaker
It's all AI, and it freaking looks incredible. Yeah. It's kind of making me me sick to my stomach, because these people are putting in some real hard time and talent into this, and I'm just wondering what's going to be happening in 10 years.
02:18:10
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, yes. You know? Because he's starring in these trailers, and and i don't know you know I don't know how they... Does he just put a picture of himself and then do prompts?
02:18:24
Speaker
I think you put a couple of pictures up there, it it'll reconstruct the character for you. And and it I can't tell it's, I wouldn't be able to tell it's AI. Well, I guess if you really look closely, you can, but.
02:18:35
Speaker
Well, if it's an action movie, then that's most action movies. There's a large part of it that's not even there. It's all green screen a lot of times. Well, green screen, but okay, the actors are still there.
02:18:46
Speaker
This isn't, he's not even acting. Oh yes. No, I get that. I'm just saying that yeah right now, as it is before, yeah it was like three quarters of it was digital. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so it's just, it's just progressing more. and And eventually there's going to be mostly, that's what they're, you know, the contract negotiations now for in the movie business and and the music business, be honest with you, it's so interesting. there is to be There's no contract negotiations in music anymore.
02:19:11
Speaker
Yeah, and in movies, it's getting worse because they're they're trying to, you know, you in a lot of cases, you sign your likeness away to the movie company, they could take you yeah and put it in AI make their own you.
02:19:24
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And there's all kinds of sticky things behind that. But, yeah, anyway. um um'm I'm looking at these screen captures from from the movies. they look They look amazing. The lighting and... Yeah, there's another one and one called Sweetest Day. It's a release date to be announced. It's in post-production right now. it's It was filmed in Warren, Ohio.
02:19:43
Speaker
movie follows Mindy confronting an undead Confederate soldier that she faced off against before. That was in Warren. There's three or four of them. There's four different ones in there. and there's one Beneath the Light?
02:19:57
Speaker
Beneath the Light's already out, October fourteenth Yeah, yeah. Oh, to be announced, there's a post-production movie called Buddy. Oh, they might wait till next year. Yeah, the horror comedy starring... Kristen Maloti?
02:20:13
Speaker
meloti Yeah. Yeah. Good one. I'm to let you do that. Filmed in Cleveland this summer. It's a group of kids confront spooky events that test their courage and friendship.
02:20:25
Speaker
Produced by Tyler Davidson. Now in post-production. Yeah, that's cool. That's awesome. Yeah. its and I wonder, are the actors... Pardon of me? That time of year. Well, yeah. That's why I'm thinking Buddy's going to come out next year for Halloween.
02:20:39
Speaker
Because it there's no release date. Yeah. to be it's It's too close. um But I'm wondering, are they using all the talent from local?
02:20:51
Speaker
Because that's the hard part, right? Because you could find good technical people to do the film you know the actual filming and direct. Like even, you know, you could find a How many directors do you need, really?
02:21:05
Speaker
yeah You only have one on the movie. But as far as actors go, that's the hard part. ah is finding talent. I know it it's out there, but how much of it? Like you were saying, talked about while ago about music. It's, you have to move to Nashville because if you want to make an album, that's where all the musicians and all the really good musicians are in Nashville or in LA or wherever, you know, it's hard to do in Ohio. Yeah. They, they, they, I imagine.
02:21:29
Speaker
I've thought is, I would think so. So, so like Superman comes here, right. To film cause they're getting tax breaks. yeah They can do it cheap here. But they got to fly everybody here. i mean, you're going to maybe have a handful of ah people.
02:21:45
Speaker
ah what's What's that called when you're just a ah site? extra ah Yeah, you're going to have extras. make Maybe you'll get somebody with a line or two but from locally here. But other than that you're you bringing everybody in. I'm kind of wondering how these movies were done.
02:22:01
Speaker
if If it was all local talent or... you know what yeah I would say probably because the budget's a lot low so lower, so you're probably not going to get, but I don't know.
02:22:12
Speaker
yeah Well, you know what? i i yeah when When we had a photography studio, ah we shot a wedding for a gentleman who um who had he he had... He had resources, put it that way.
02:22:26
Speaker
Yeah, he had money. And he shot a trailer because he wanted he was putting together a movie, and he actually flew in all the actors, and his main the main guy was ah ah Silvio from... ah The Sopranos.
02:22:41
Speaker
I forget oh what his real name is. But um the guy who played Silvio, that was his main character in the movie. So he flew in people, and but they filmed it here locally and in Ohio.
02:22:52
Speaker
And I'm just wondering what these guys are doing. I mean, obviously, they can't get somebody like that. but But to get some backing, they might be able to get some... people in there well that's what he was that's actually what he was trying to do he's like he's going to put together he has a script he's going to put together a trailer and then he's going to try to sell it I guess that's ah yes you know that's one way to do it it's a pilot basically um yeah that's that's actually a good question I would would hope it'd be a good mix at least but you know smaller the budget probably more local it is I guess what have do is go watch these movies and find out but I'm don't know kind of scary
02:23:31
Speaker
It's that time of year I think I need to binge out some ah b binge some horror stuff. no yeah Have you watched Monster on... ah Speaking of horror, have you watched Monster on Netflix? listers Monster? No, it's a story of... It's kind of like the Ed Gein story, which is... Oh, i have I think I've seen that on...
02:23:55
Speaker
Yeah, we're about halfway through It's pretty darn good. But Gein is kind of, I guess, based... Is that who Psycho was based on? It seems like that's... It's kind of a... confused We haven't gone all way through it, but I think that's who Psycho was based on.
02:24:09
Speaker
And I think a lot of horror people were based on Our thriller movies were based on Gein, because I even see, like, Buffalo from... buffalo bill from ah
02:24:21
Speaker
what ah Silence of the Lambs? Was was it Buffalo Bill or Buffalo something? I forget. Yeah. But the guy who was basically making a skin suit, right? Yes, the skin suit guy. That's what we know him as. Skin suit guy. Yeah. yeah and so That's kind of Ed Gein type of stuff. done All right. I wrote it down. going to check it out. we got Yeah. pretty It's pretty good. I'm going to watch late at night.
02:24:42
Speaker
Yeah, do it right before you go to bed. Sweet dreams. I mean, you're watching in this Shelby Oaks trailer. I'll put it in the show notes so we can it'll be in there. It's it's pretty good. I'm upset I didn't pull a clip because it was even though yeah they do a good job scaring the crap out of you.
02:24:57
Speaker
Cool. Yeah, got to check that out. So check it out. ah you know Support your local filmmakers, and um maybe one day they'll ah see them on the big, big screen. I'm not sure where they're showing this, but it'll be in the in the show notes. You can check it out.
02:25:11
Speaker
And on that, on that happy note, we got a lot of show notes today. So that's good. Go check it out. The website, check out the blog post, ah read into the stories that we're reading into. if we're leaving anything out, you think it's important. Shoot us an email, quickerrivercast at gmail.com.
02:25:26
Speaker
Share the show, share it with your friends. Leave us a comment. We really appreciate you listening. And on that note, we'll talk to you next week.