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Crooked River Cast Show 35
81 Plays20 days ago
Crookedrivercast.com
Crookedrivercast@gmail.com
- The shutdown is finally over now what happens to all that state money for SNAP?
- Free money for all… well almost all!
- SCOTUS decline Gay marriage case. How does this effect the alphabet mafia petitions?
- Absentee ballot Bill.
- Can Ohio voter fraud cases be sent to the DOJ?
- Income tax reciprocity bill. Stroke email?
- Taxing land value.
- Moreno wants an update on federal oversight on CLE police.
- Canton city council votes to ban public comment.
- Cleveland Schools are closing 29 schools.
- Living among the dead in Cleveland.
- CLAW… Oh boy.
Good Things:
- The end starts in North Ridgeville…
- Kosar OK after 5th procedure.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Local Stories
00:00:13
Speaker
Hello and thank you for listening to the Crooked River cast. I am Robert. Joining me every week is Tom and we are two guys from Northeast Ohio just trying to figure out what's going on in our state. This is show 35 recorded on November 15th, 2025. Whoa, there it goes. You see that? That was the week that went by.
00:00:31
Speaker
We've got some stuff to discuss. So let's go.
00:00:41
Speaker
Boy, what a week. That week, first of all, it flew by for me. And second, man, it was a week.
Bourbon Adventures
00:00:49
Speaker
A lot of travel. did lot of travel this week. Where did you go?
00:00:53
Speaker
i went to Kentucky. little business trip. See some people for the upcoming holidays and customers. 1,300 miles in three days.
00:01:04
Speaker
Ooh, I just wanted to hear about the bourbon. ah of there's I came home with plenty of bourbon. Like I said, Christmas gifts. ski and And Robert gifts, too.
00:01:15
Speaker
I got a couple of Robert gifts. Tried a couple at, I'd like to go to Justin's house. This is this is a Kentucky spotlight. This is a Justin's house of bourbon.
00:01:26
Speaker
It's where I like to go to downtown Louisville. They got a nice tasting bar there. They got a lot of choices, a lot of local stuff. and And I mentioned that tasting bar. Yeah.
00:01:39
Speaker
That's the key on that one. Did get a, did try a new one though. Blackout, I think it's called. Blackout. Go ahead. that I don't think that's what you were about to say, Metallica, weren't you?
00:01:52
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. one I buy, for ah which I like. Is that the Metallica one? ah Yeah, that's one oh well one of the guys. and I didn't realize it was... i you know Now that
Injury and Recovery Updates
00:02:02
Speaker
you say that, it makes sense. but It's called Blackout, but ah you know unless there's a different one.
00:02:07
Speaker
Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. i i looked at the I looked at it, but it didn't really mention anything about him. so maybe it' is small It's small. The only way I know is actually the the girl that works at the ah liquor store told me it was a Metallica thing.
00:02:25
Speaker
Yes, and what I've heard, they... The barrel house is loaded with speakers and they play heavy metal throughout the night or throughout the day whenever they're not there to help invigorate the bourbon to get that char flavor out of the, out of the barrels.
00:02:42
Speaker
No kidding. Yeah. That's what I think. I, there's another distillery I go there. It's a brandy distillery and they do the same thing. Cause I'd show up there like, you know, five 30 and the story is closed, but it's a restaurant. And like, why is the music? Why is there always a party here?
00:02:55
Speaker
And I asked the bartender, he's like, Oh no, no, no. We took that from the Metallica guys. But the, uh, the distiller gets to pick every night, the playlist to play for the, for the bourbon. Ah. That's actually cool. That's not what I was planning on talking about at all, but it was a long week.
00:03:10
Speaker
I am kind of tired. How about you? Oh, I i'm i yeah think I'm going to get medicine head during the show because I just took some DayQuil. Nice.
00:03:23
Speaker
So i'm I'm all stuffed up. Drugs. And I am ah pretty achy today because... I fell off my tailgate yesterday.
00:03:36
Speaker
My truck right off the concrete. Oh, on the concrete, too. yeah I did a pretty good tuck and roll, but my head took a pretty good beating on this concrete. Oh, so you got a little concussion. Oh, you're going to play the leftist today on the show since have a little concussion going on.
00:03:52
Speaker
I got a... Yeah, my neck is... so my head My head's a little... ah ah can't tell if it's because of the cold or... from From the fall, it's a little achy, but my neck is feels like I got whiplashed.
00:04:06
Speaker
Wow, this is for you. This one is. You big dummy. Fred gave you some crap. You know, it happens it happened so quick. Yeah. i i were like I had a stepladder.
00:04:21
Speaker
and you know, I'm old. I can't jump onto the bed like I used to. So I got this little stepladder next to the tailgate, and i went to put my foot on it, and it just slid away from me.
00:04:35
Speaker
okay.
Music Gifts and Generational Shifts
00:04:37
Speaker
it was really wasn't your fault. It was mechanical failure. Yeah, going to blame it. No, it was my fault. i wasn't I was just... Rushing along, probably. Rushing along, and as it was sliding, I was like, what the hell did just do?
00:04:51
Speaker
And... Then my glasses flew off and my earbuds popped out. I'm rolling out on the ground with the ground and holding my head. And then I get up real quick, make sure nobody saw me.
00:05:05
Speaker
Perfect. Perfect. well Well, hopefully I can pull you pull your back. I mean, if you get in that coma, just ring a bell or i mean something. give me Give me a sign that you're... but Maybe it's the snoring. I'll wake you up.
00:05:17
Speaker
but During the day, I was like, man, do I go to sleep? Because I heard some weird things can happen when you hit your head. Oh, that's right. They want to keep you awake. Yeah. yeah Just check out the... ah I guess if you're in the NFL, you got to go in a dark room for like three days.
00:05:31
Speaker
Yeah. What? Yeah, they do some kind of crazy ah concussion protocol. you do it and if I do it in NASCAR, I think, too. It's like they want you to wear sunglasses, dark sunglasses.
00:05:44
Speaker
It's like light hurts, helps, or light does something to aggravate it, blah, blah, blah. I don't know. That's why I heard they put them in a dark room for like hours or make wear sunglasses and stuff. You know what? This is great. I'm calling off Monday, Tuesday.
00:05:57
Speaker
See? Just trying to help, Tom. Well, before we get into it, I do have a question. What's that? For the listeners out there. I need some help. Oh, And maybe from you too, because as we're as I'm going through my my kids' Christmas list, I noticed an odd thing on my my youngest daughter.
00:06:16
Speaker
So she's like 11. So, you know, you would think there's many things you could probably figure out would maybe be on that list. One of them was surprising to me. Portable CD player.
00:06:29
Speaker
Yeah, i I've heard that. Portable CD player. I've heard that kids are kind of getting back into actually having something.
00:06:43
Speaker
Media. i I commend her for we looking that in that direction, but I'm kind of curious on the portable part, because...
00:06:53
Speaker
um I mean, I think she just wants a CD player. I think, but when you go online and look at like Amazon stuff, it's everything's portable CD player, portable, portable. These cheap little things that you can buy.
00:07:05
Speaker
Because why would she want to take a CD player and CDs along with her when you've got other ways, easier, much easier ways to do it. I don't know why kids are doing this, but that's, I've read that.
00:07:18
Speaker
Portables? Yeah. yeah Okay. Yeah. But the ones they that she points out and the ones you see aren't really, they're portable as far as you could take them to another desk or take them to another house.
00:07:30
Speaker
It's not the portable, like, I think I still have my portable CD player, the little Walkman the side of your belt. Actually, i should pull that out. Give that to her for Christmas. Look, I just saved myself so much money.
00:07:41
Speaker
But the question I have is, so I'm looking at couple options. Really, like a little desktop unit, you know, like a little ah shelf system. They have little ones out there, like 30 watts are pretty good.
00:07:53
Speaker
and they even have Bluetooth so you can send your like your phone audio to it say in your room and stuff like that but question is she also had CDs on the list of course she picked out her couple of Taylor Swift ones but what would be the first CD you would give your kid any suggestions from the listeners would be welcome because I'd like to see and hear what people have to say about it do you have anything that comes to mind immediately what's what's your first thing CD for your niece I'm getting it for my kid
Government Shutdown and Economic Discussions
00:08:25
Speaker
or my niece. Well, if I had a kid, I guess a kid. Yeah. It's the same thing. Yeah. I guess.
00:08:30
Speaker
What would you, what would be the first thing you pop in head? If a kid of that age is asking for an album. Uh, so you're talking 15 years old, uh, 11 to 15. We'll say it's actually the younger one.
00:08:44
Speaker
Okay. This is a little different for those ages. The 15 year old, i would probably get, You know what, man, I i would just get ACDC.
00:08:56
Speaker
ah Highway to Hell?
00:08:59
Speaker
yeah or Or something like that. Back in Black? Actually, she she's already learning some of that the guitar, so would be perfect. That be perfect. Oh, okay. So this is for the 11-year-old. Okay, well, because she plays guitar, that's a pretty good first one, too.
00:09:16
Speaker
I think I would just try to introduce them to rock and roll. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. rock and roll and What would you introduce and you know ah somebody of that age to what music, if you want to influence?
00:09:26
Speaker
I asked the buddy mine, he he his first thing was Beatles' Best of Volume 1, I think it is, he said. Oh, yeah, that that's pretty awesome. Yeah, he's just just it's it's like hits.
00:09:38
Speaker
just every single one is just that's ah That's a great idea, too. It's probably not the one I would have picked just because that wasn't what I listened to. Sure, yeah. But but ah it is a great suggestion.
00:09:51
Speaker
And that's really my, because that's what I'm, I know what I would pick, and it would be more along what you're looking at, ACDC. I'd probably go, like, even into the 90s, maybe. Yeah, Aerosmith. Yeah, there we go, Aerosmith. I mean, you can even go back to Stones, um that kind of stuff, if you really wanted to get into it. Rock and roll, rock and roll.
00:10:11
Speaker
stone temple pilots that kind of stuff um but what what it'll what would somebody out there who's not me or you suggest just curious send us an email crookedrivercast.gmail.com check us out at the website look at that plug right away Plug right away. CrookedRiverCast.com if you want to know or get us on X. And if you you like see us on X and you notice anything, you might want to figure out why I keep playing that. youric v If you want to know why i keep playing that, go on X. You may figure it out eventually.
00:10:47
Speaker
So on to the stories. On to the list of stories. So yay, the shutdown is over. Yay. Finally, kind of over.
00:10:59
Speaker
ah So I have a question. Now that the shutdown is over, what happened to all the money the states started pulling together to cover SNAP benefits? Are they...
00:11:12
Speaker
Are we going to get any of that? Is that coming back? Is it still getting paid out? Is it going back? Is the money from the federal government that we're going to get? Because that's how it works. Federal government gives the states the money and they distribute it. So are we going to get the money from the federal government to repay the where we borrowed from Peter to pay SNAP benefits?
00:11:33
Speaker
Follow me? yeah That's the first thing that caught my head. Like all this money just got spun up hundreds of millions of dollars throughout the states, like 25 or 15. I think the state was saying 25 million off the start. They were gonna borrow from this section and give it the temporary, give SNAP benefits to Ohioans. so And then counties started pulling money together and all this other this stuff was going on. So is that money, where's that money going?
00:11:59
Speaker
Seems like it's gonna get lost in the shuffle. That's the first time. Do we have an answer anywhere? ah No, they yes, they have, well, kind of. So when I but Googled it and asked the Googles, the Googles said, now that the government is open, Ohio will begin distributing the full amount of November SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, benefits by mid next week, minus any parcel payments already received.
00:12:30
Speaker
but How many did they send out or how much did they send out? They did see that on an article. I think they sent out like quite a bit. ah I want to shoot and pull that article.
00:12:44
Speaker
um But I think it's quite as the one here, 65%. So yeah they yeah, they only got a partial from the state.
00:12:56
Speaker
It is unclear how soon the remaining benefits will be issued, but OTFS said, ODJFS said it has begun the process. should monitor to their accounts. I think they're, it doesn't say.
00:13:11
Speaker
It said somewhere, but I didn't pull that. I just asked the question. I didn't really have an answer. but it is ah it is unclear benefits will be issued. what is going to happen to any of that extra money.
00:13:28
Speaker
I would assume they're going to be honest with it and put it back where it belongs.
00:13:33
Speaker
But thats that's a stretch, if you ask me. Well, you're assuming, but I would assume the same thing. Yeah. I thought it had told me where, because they had given me a figure on what was sent out.
00:13:45
Speaker
Columbus Dispatch here.
00:13:49
Speaker
Uh, yeah, 142 favorite mine, 42 day shutdown, 40 male Americans, and they want me to pay. So, oh well. But just a question, I guess.
00:14:01
Speaker
They did pay out quite a bit of it from what read from the state. And are we going to, where's, where's where is it going to, what's going to happen? what's I need some clarity maybe. Keep an eye on those critters.
00:14:13
Speaker
Got to keep an eye on those critters because they,
00:14:18
Speaker
They will take it if if it's just laying around there. Find a good use for it, according to them, at least. But that's that. So, yay, shutdown is over, and hopefully flights will get back on track. And funny enough, the the new bill that they but they pass, it only goes to January.
00:14:38
Speaker
End of January, right? Yeah, end of January, except. Except.
00:14:43
Speaker
The pay checks for Congress members totally go until September. Yep. So they took care of themselves. So thank you for that. its we We were really worried about whether you guys are going to have enough money or not.
00:14:58
Speaker
And speaking of money, again, free money for everyone. You're pouring Trump announces tariff checks untruthful
00:15:15
Speaker
which is always interesting. um No details really on what you know who's going to get it other than just not high-income people. Define high income.
00:15:27
Speaker
Exactly. Because if you go off of like stimulus checks, it's not very high. Yeah, no, it was $75,000. And I think. $150,000 for a couple. so
00:15:40
Speaker
I think you can go up a little higher that because... had $150,000 for a household. it's not a high That's not a high wage earner. Sorry. No, that's isn't that medium? That's medium, a middle class or something to that extent. Yeah.
00:15:54
Speaker
Yeah. So really not a whole lot other than Trump saying 2000, he had bounced back and forth between 1000 and 2000. This tariff checks. So they've got hundreds of billions of dollars from these tariffs and a they wanna start paying off the debt and give some back to the taxpayers, which makes perfect sense in a lot of ways, including for the upcoming midterms, makes really good sense.
00:16:24
Speaker
I mean, it's not something he just thought up now. He's been thinking about this since, or he was in talking about this since the campaign, presidential campaign, which I would think after all this time with tariffs and what we've seen and, you know, we've got numbers all over the place, I would think a $2,000 check for a household would probably cover any increases that you may have gotten from tariffs.
00:16:51
Speaker
More than and covered, it I think. Yeah, I think so too. At least really help, at least if if you've been hurt. You know, if you're going to count overtime, people might have lost some overtime due to tariffs because their business is a little slower. Well, good point, yes.
00:17:11
Speaker
But, you know, overtime's not exactly a, it's not a guarantee, so... Right, it's not something you should expect to have. yeah Yeah, well, did you really lose it Because maybe it would have been slow for because of other reasons.
00:17:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's not tight. And it's you get a 30% increase on aluminum. How does that affect down the line? it's very many You're not getting a 30% increase on anything with aluminum. You're getting a fraction of a percent probably by the time it's all said and done.
00:17:40
Speaker
if you even get, if it even gets passed on. mean, we take, we've taken in, in my, at my work, a couple of items that we haven't, uh, we haven't really passed down any of the increase to just because just the quickness of everything you kind of, you almost at some level can't, you have to give customers notice a lot of, lot of cases. So there's a lot of places that are just taken on or only passing on a partial increase. Yeah.
00:18:09
Speaker
yeah
00:18:12
Speaker
Let's keep an eye out for that because I think that as we get closer into into closer, I don't know how long going take, but it's just a, it just announced it. So I got to figure out all the details. How do you think the economy is doing?
00:18:28
Speaker
I think um in Ohio, I think it's doing pretty good. Better than, better than the national average. Okay. Okay. what When I talk to people in my industry in other states like New York and Pennsylvania, I'm not very busy.
00:18:45
Speaker
Right. Very busy. i don't That's about why I have to go by. I think Ohio is, we've been a little sheltered from it because of the tech boom and and and maybe a few things.
00:19:00
Speaker
All right, you're talking about it more in a industrial sense, industry sense, you know? Yeah, like I look at construction and how much we're building. Right, right. And where we're building it. next That's usually a good sign of, at some level of the economy. How do you think people are feeling right now?
00:19:18
Speaker
I think they're frustrated. I think prices, i think they're, they're, they're seeing, they're starting to really get annoyed with the high cost of everything. I know I am. That's why this is, a that's why I think he's going to try to push for this.
00:19:32
Speaker
Yes. I think people are feeling strapped and, and I wasn't expecting, a I guess ah deflation. I was hoping for, right man, it would be nice to have ah steady ah rate of deflation for a while.
00:19:49
Speaker
I wasn't expecting that, though. What I wasn't expecting, though, was just prices that just keep going up. And the gas prices haven't really... they've They're down, but they're not down a whole lot.
00:20:03
Speaker
No, no, they're not down too much. i mean, they're not still going up, so that's and they have come down, so I guess that's a positive. Yeah, you know what, the you know, one one week it's $3.30 here by me, and the next week it's $2.80.
00:20:17
Speaker
Yeah. yeah You know, I don't even, that's like too much of a difference there. I don't know what's going on. And the prices aren't. leveling off I don't think they don't seem like they have every time I go out to dinner it keeps going up I just I keep getting shell-shocked at how much I spend yes I'm here don't even drink anything most of the time it's just it's just lots most the time we even get water it's not even sodas or anything yeah But in my industry in construction, I mean, it's it's gone from 15 years ago, you might have an increase year over year.
00:20:52
Speaker
And it would be certain ah product categories or certain manufacturers now, 15 years later, every year every manufacturer and it's not two three four we're talking eight six eight nine percent increases year over year and some are doing five in january and four in june or july two a year right it's it's and it's funny how you know, major manufacturers of the same product all go up the exact same.
00:21:29
Speaker
Interesting. Every year they nail it. It's, yeah, it's amazing. So I think that that's where you're seeing,
00:21:38
Speaker
some of the heartache. And I think with the last election was, you know, ah some of it, there was some of that in there. There was some, I do think the Republicans kind of got caught off guard. And one of the comment, one of the concern or concerns or criticisms more or less so was they didn't, they weren't reading it read the room.
00:21:59
Speaker
They were still talking about LGBTQ and girls, but right boys and men, you know, that kind like that. So.
00:22:07
Speaker
i think yeah I think you might be right on that. That's that's probably a good... like it's I mean, and it's needed too. And I think with the amount of money they're bringing in, this is a drop in the bucket. $2,000 per... Even it's just per taxpayer.
00:22:23
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I don't see... thing is I don't need it. So I would rather see the debt go down. Yes. you know Well, I mean... Funny enough, at every tax return, there's a little box on the bottom you can check it and just give them whatever money you want to give them. so Oh, you give me a check. I'm not giving it back.
00:22:42
Speaker
I know, but i I like to throw that out to, well, they know, you know, people don't pay their fair share. And I'm like, well, you can pay more. Do you pay more? Because you're allowed to like check a box and just write it like $1,000. You can just give to the government on your, even the easiest tax form has that on it.
00:22:57
Speaker
yeah I would rather write it. I would rather write, like, I would give it back if I knew we exactly where it went, you know? Like if it said, oh yeah, we got 37 trillion, you're you're you tiny your tiny payment is going to go ah towards that. i'd be like, okay.
00:23:16
Speaker
Yeah, but really it's just going to go back to yeah to the swamping. And, you know, get wasted with a bunch of other stuff. Well, that's why I don't check that box.
LGBTQ Rights and Legal Matters
00:23:27
Speaker
Yep.
00:23:27
Speaker
And that's why no one ever does because they and truly but they truly don't believe what they're saying a lot of times. they They just want other people to pay more and not them, which is kind of the point, obviously. It's like, hey, you don't like it, then pay more.
00:23:39
Speaker
But they don't. They don't. So free money, wage force. Well, as this pans out, I'm sure we'll get more details and the outrage. The outrage. Oh.
00:23:51
Speaker
On to the next one. so The next is kind of a quasi-national story. So Supreme Court has ah declined to take the case that, the gay marriage case.
00:24:05
Speaker
So this has to do with, where was she from now? I pulled it up and it's here. So this was a lawsuit filed by Davis. so um Kim Davis, sorry.
00:24:23
Speaker
Kim Davis 2015, you may have heard of her. She was in the news. She refused to issue a same-sex license. And she lost in court and then she lost her next elect re-election because she was a elected official.
00:24:40
Speaker
And now she's suing and it's gone all the way up to the Supreme Court and they've declined to take the case. So where the significance of this is, for Ohio at least, is the LGBTQIA plus Q minus up and down left, right, A, B, start.
00:25:02
Speaker
As a petition, we've talked about a couple of times, they got two petitions now because they tried to do one where it was gay marriage and LGBTQIA, all those other people and about 50 other categories of people they wanted to protect in this in this constitutional amendment.
00:25:20
Speaker
And the state legislature said, no, you got to split these up. One's a gay marriage, one's LGBTQ trans thing. And the mean reason they were pushing for this is this case right here. So this is, they were trying to overturn Ogelfeld
00:25:36
Speaker
Obergfell, whatever. Obergfell. Obergfell, that's it. yeah And this is something, because they started pushing this because a couple of the Supreme Court justices had mentioned that they should look at this again.
00:25:49
Speaker
And they still might. lot of times they'll turn it down because it's not the case that they think will win. Right. And they turn it down and wait for something else. And it is...
00:26:01
Speaker
it is
00:26:04
Speaker
This is, like I said, the main reason they put these ballots up or they say is the reason they put the ballots because they said if they repeal this or if this case goes through, the Supreme Court overturns their original decision on gay marriage, then the Ohio constitutional amendment, which states that marriage between a man and a woman would take effect.
00:26:23
Speaker
And then all their marriages would be, i don't know, not good anymore, I guess. I don't know. So that that's kind of the argument. So what do they have to say now? No, they're going to continue to push on because it's really, I think I always thought that the gay marriage thing was ah cover to get the LGBTQ stuff passed, which is why I was all for them splitting it.
00:26:43
Speaker
So we have to have two constantial that's two constitutional amendments along with, and have two petitions to get them both on there. So I think... I think this kind of shows their cards. That's really not about the gay marriage thing, I don't think.
00:26:58
Speaker
It's really just about enshrining LGBTQ rights in the Constitution. Any thoughts, Tom?
00:27:08
Speaker
yeah Making sure you're awake. I'm i'm thinking about it. like I think it should be what they ruled should be overturned and it should go to Congress.
00:27:21
Speaker
Because this was kind of the Supreme Court making a law, not Congress. Yes. Yeah, it was it's precedent making law as law, which is to me an issue in our society. but what Wasn't that like one of the reasons, you know, the abortion? Yeah, Roe v. Wade.
00:27:45
Speaker
Roe v. Wade was overturned? Yeah. i thought the I thought the same thing about this. I don't care about... same-sex marriage. I don't care about that.
00:27:56
Speaker
I just want it to be done correctly. Yeah. Kind of what my point was you didn't really get your rights. You just got permission to do what you wanted to do and take it away from me you anytime.
00:28:07
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know what the solution is. I mean, overturning it and giving it to Congress. Well, giving it to Congress or back to the States. well Back to the States. Yeah. And which is their worry that if it does go back to the States, then this amendment kicks in and kicks back in and then ah their marriages are null and void is what they're saying. I don't know. Okay. Vote on it before that takes effect.
00:28:31
Speaker
and Couldn't we, couldn't we do that?
00:28:35
Speaker
Vote on but Like create another amendment and vote on that. Yeah. That's kind of what they're doing and what they've split it now. So it's gotta be a lot harder for them. I don't think ah same-sex marriage would have an issue.
00:28:49
Speaker
No. And that's why. The other things would. And I think that's why they tried to combine it. I think gay marriage was just a cover. Oh, yeah. We kind of talked about this yeah before, right? Yeah.
00:29:01
Speaker
Yeah. So i see I can see the gay marriage one going and passing and getting on the ballot. The LGBTQ one, i maybe gets on the ballot, but I don't see it passing. Yeah, no. I don't either.
00:29:12
Speaker
I don't see it even getting on the ballot.
00:29:15
Speaker
And I don't know if that the other one getting on a ballot too, if there's no pressing need, are people really going to sign on to that? And, you know, when there's no, essentially no reason to, because it's already been covered, but in in a lot of people's eyes, it would be no.
00:29:30
Speaker
but in my In mine and yours, it sounds like, yes, it's a reason to, eat regardless of what happens, it should be taken up by Congress or overruled and given to the states. and There's no way Congress has taken this up.
00:29:41
Speaker
Ain't no way. No, no way. They're going to stay clear of this, which is why they stay clear of most things because they're a bunch of wussies. Keep it clean.
00:29:53
Speaker
ah Let us know what you think. What do you think about this gay marriage, free money for all?
00:30:00
Speaker
Go to website, check us out. We've got the blog post there after every show so that you can check out our links and what we're looking at so to to get to where, to get to the places that we get to, I guess, on some of these. You could read the whole articles, see the whole video clip that we pull from it, just portions of it. A lot of times you can check it out at the blog. Every Monday after the show is posted, you can go there and check it out and read along with the show.
00:30:26
Speaker
CrookedRiverCast.com.
Voter Access and Election Integrity
00:30:28
Speaker
Check us out. Send us email, crookedrivercast at gmail.com. Tell us what you think.
00:30:34
Speaker
Next, I think we have, yes, we have ah a bill. We have a bill in Congress because the critters have been crittering. They have got a few, a few, um yes, milk does. We have a few stories here that kind of a little tied together here in certain ways.
00:30:55
Speaker
The Ohio Senate has passed a bill, and I'm pretty sure it does have to go into this the the House, but it is a bill to, well, I mean, according to um a lot of people that are against it, it it restricts access to voting by by requiring mail-in ballots to only be counted art
00:31:25
Speaker
As it is right now, let me start here. and As it is right now, you have up to four days to count an absentee ballot that comes through the mail after the election. This bill would make anything after that not countable. It's an invalid ballot. It did not get to the Board of Elections by Election Day. It is no longer good.
00:31:46
Speaker
And everybody's screaming, you know. I think it still has a couple days there for if you're out of the country. Probably for the military, I think. and There are some exemptions for out-of-state and that kind of, ah or military and stuff like that. It's still a little bit.
00:32:01
Speaker
But generally speaking, is ah for
00:32:08
Speaker
for everybody else, it would be just your normal, you got to get it in before election day, on election day or before. So let's see what Morgan has to say about this. I cut this clip up a little bit because it was really long, so it's not...
00:32:24
Speaker
Just so you know, I did cut it up and it'll be pretty obvious, but I just wanted to make sure. But let's see what Morgan has to say is News Channel 5 absentee ballot bill. When it comes to elections, every vote counts, especially in local races.
00:32:40
Speaker
Cuyahoga County Board of Elections data shows that 10 races were within about 20 votes, with six being within 10. And there were even several ties. This is why voting rights advocate Jen Miller says that Ohio's four-day grace period is essential. Ballots will still be counted as long as they're returned within four days of the election. if they're postmarked before Election Day. The BOE told us that nearly 3,000 valid ballots came in during that period. More than some races even had votes.
00:33:10
Speaker
It's incredibly important that every eligible voter can cast their ballot. And our concern with ah Senate Bill 293 would be that um many votes would not count for something that's outside of the voter's control, which is the speed of the mail. The majority of Senate Republicans voted to... Hold on.
00:33:28
Speaker
How is it out of your control? If you know the mail is not going to take, it's going to get there instantly. So you have to mail it before election day. So it kind of, it is in your control. So that's kind of, yeah.
00:33:39
Speaker
I mean, you get it early enough. Yeah, like two months before the election or something crazy. It's a month at least. At least a month. So what we're really just trying to make sure, you know, get up off your butt and and mail it five days earlier.
00:33:54
Speaker
and so we it kind of is in your under your control. Let's see what else does this really have to do with Tom? Yeah, guessed it. Pass SB 293, requiring all ballots to be returned by the close of polls on election night. Each of Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose's election audits has shown no proof of widespread voter fraud.
00:34:14
Speaker
For years, President Donald Trump and some GOP leaders have insisted, without evidence, without evidence, without evidence, that mail-in ballots are fraudulent. Following his lead, red states have started restricting access. Restricting access. The U.S. Supreme Court announced it will decide whether or not ballots can be counted after Election Day as the RNC is suing Mississippi, which has a similar law to Ohio.
00:34:39
Speaker
It's called Election Day for a reason. Restricting access. That's what they call it. Restricting access. You didn't get the you didn't have access to the ballot. oh wait, you did because it's in your house for three weeks. And you sat around in your butt and procrastinated until the day of the election. You went, oh,
00:34:56
Speaker
I'm going to mail this in now.
00:35:00
Speaker
Well, as this goes by, this passes, you're out of luck for the most part, unless you're a military out of the country or something like that.
00:35:11
Speaker
So yeah, some red states have started restricting access. No, Morgan. That's not restricting access. I like Morgan most of the time, but she becomes a... yeah
00:35:26
Speaker
Well, she's a... You know, and can't think of the word right now. See? I'm trying to think and nothing's happening, Rob. but It's the drugs. Lefty. Yeah, a little bit. Well, she's a lefty, but she's a... yeah Sounds more like a progressive libtard.
00:35:44
Speaker
Yeah. and I'm trying to, I don't know. Activist. Activist. There you go. He does get, yeah, that's without evidence. um First of all, making claims.
00:35:56
Speaker
But they they did they do have some evidence. They do. Well, there is evidence. There's always evidence. Every election is evidence. Yeah. Speaking of evidence, as we go on to the next story, but before we go on to LaRose, who wants to send the fraudulent votes that Ohio State doesn't want to do anything with,
00:36:18
Speaker
or fraudulent voters ah to the DOJ. That's our next, that's why the couple of these are tied together. So the Supreme Court is deciding to take a case right now to iron this out to see if you're allowed to, because like I said, louisiana I think it was Louisiana suing, or they're suing, GOP suing in Louisiana because they have a similar law in Ohio, which is you can go four or five days past and still count mail-in ballots.
00:36:47
Speaker
Yeah, we should have results on election day because we mean there are countries that do everything by paper, like most of Europe, and they have elections results that night.
00:37:03
Speaker
And everybody's going to say, oh, but America's so much bigger. Yeah, but not really. Mm-hmm. It's not, if you think about it. The way it's done, it's not. No, the states do it. Yeah, we don't have one big election with 350 million people. We have 50 smaller elections, which would compare to, like Europe, like France, where they do, I don't know exactly, but I know a lot, if not most, have banned mail-in ballots, and a lot of places, digital.
00:37:30
Speaker
Mm-hmm. They're going all paper. So it can be done, you know, barring any pipes bursting in Atlanta or anything like This was one of the issues I i was most concerned about this past election.
00:37:44
Speaker
And i don't I don't think they're going to do a damn thing about it. i mean and I mean, federal you know elections. Right. No.
00:37:54
Speaker
think it's too easy for them to, both sides, when I say them, I mean Republicans and Democrats, it's too easy for them to finagle the results when you can... you know, stop counting middle night and then influx a bunch of ballots that just came out of nowhere with 98% going to one, one candidate, 2% going to the other.
00:38:16
Speaker
Yeah. So no evidence, right? there's no evidence of any shenanigans ever. Except Frank LaRose has some evidence. He has, he has a, a list of, I guess, voter fraud that's been happening in last election and, and the actually presidential election.
00:38:35
Speaker
And he's given it to the state. I guess it would be the attorney general. So Frank LaRose is secretary of state.
00:38:47
Speaker
And he has, well, he says he has more than a thousand cases of alleged voter fraud and has sent it to the Department of Justice. Now this isn't from one election. I think this is multiple elections. Seems that way. Because after reading this a couple of times, it doesn't sound like it's,
00:39:06
Speaker
He hasn't found a lot.
00:39:09
Speaker
ah He hasn't really found a tremendous amount, it doesn't seem like. But what he has found, when he sends it to the prosecutors in the Ohio state government, they're saying, not worth our time.
00:39:22
Speaker
Now, he wants to send it to the DOJ. And everybody's crying foul because they think he's, what they call it, forum shopping? Or, you know, send this to enough courts and somebody will take it kind of thing.
00:39:36
Speaker
have you Did you see something different? Or what am I missing?
00:39:41
Speaker
i don't know I don't know what he's really trying to do here. i mean, he doesn't have that much evidence. I mean, there's evidence, but there's not that much to pursue it, I thought.
00:39:53
Speaker
ah you know Personally, I think Ohio's elections are pretty pretty solid. Seems that way. That's kind of what I took from this article. loro is so he says...
00:40:05
Speaker
It says, of LaRose's referrals, about 1,000 appear to be instances of illegal voter legallial registration alone. And LaRose notes only 167 examples of not as citizen non-citizens allegedly casting a ballot spread over the last eight years and of four federal elections. i think there's a I think there's actually a lot more than that.
00:40:30
Speaker
I bet there is, yeah. Yeah. But, you know, you need the evidence. ah oh What were they changing? That you have to show an ID and proof of citizenship, right?
00:40:45
Speaker
What was that? Here in Ohio. Didn't we just, weren't they working on something like that? I don't remember. I don't recall. A couple of months ago. Maybe, yeah. i don't I don't recall their proof of citizenship because isn't that...
00:40:58
Speaker
Well, right now, you you don't have to show proof of citizenship. have to show a a state ID. Yeah, that doesn't prove you that it doesn't prove anything, really. yeah to get a state ID, what do you need, though? You need a social security card.
00:41:11
Speaker
You don't need proof of citizenship. You need a birth certificate, that kind of stuff, right? Mm-hmm. No, well, I don't know. I think you need a couple of those things. Yeah, you need a couple of things. I forget, but I don't think you need proof of citizenship.
00:41:29
Speaker
Correct. I don't think you have to show proof, but I think if you give them certain documents, it's proof that you're a citizen. No. like my wife My wife just became a citizen. When she went to renew her license, she just said she's a citizen.
00:41:44
Speaker
You know, she never had to show anything. I don't i don't believe. i'll I'll double check on that. If I'm wrong, we'll bring it up. Yeah, I'm honestly not 100% sure. I just think there's... First of all, if that's not the case, then it should be.
00:41:59
Speaker
you're going to get an Ohio license or Ohio State ID, you should be able to show something that least proves. So I guess in the past, what would she show? Because there's, I don't know. yeah and I'm trying to remember what you have to show to get your ID to get ah a license. And it's been a while, so I don't remember.
00:42:15
Speaker
Green card. Okay. Well, that that's proof of residence, but that's not proof of ah okay citizenship. So I think you should, well, yeah.
00:42:28
Speaker
I don't know, what what what am I going to bring to to the election or to an election day to prove I'm a citizen? Well, for me, that that's easy. Birth certificate.
00:42:40
Speaker
So you're going to come to the so the voting booth with your birth certificate? yeah No, no, no. I think what they're trying to do is that when you register to vote, to... Oh, when you register. I'm sorry. I'm thinking... Which previously you didn't have to.
00:42:53
Speaker
now i now Now I'm following you. Sorry. I was... we Maybe I should have taken some drugs. um Okay, I see. where're So you're talking about registration. I'm thinking, okay so in order to register, you have to show that you're that you're a citizen. I don't remember when was the last time I registered to vote. I can't remember. it's I was like 20.
00:43:11
Speaker
Well, you probably, when you moved from ah Parma? ah never I never filled anything out. I just went to vote. I don't ah don't know what I did, oh actually. okay. Well, anyways, we're kind of just... Yeah, we're in the weeds now. But anyway, yeah.
00:43:25
Speaker
But a couple of months ago, we were talking about when they, one of the things they want to fix is people, when they register to vote, that they have to show proof of citizenship. Yes, do remember that. Yep.
00:43:36
Speaker
Which is needed. i don't, ah anybody who says it isn't, just try to pull the wool over your eyes. I'm only bringing that up because do think there are a lot of non-citizens that vote.
00:43:53
Speaker
and Just, just anecdotally, I know people that have done it. They got IDs and everything, but they, they never had to show proof of citizenship. And they, they're like, yeah, I'm a citizen.
00:44:04
Speaker
How was that? How crazy is that? Yeah. Like you, you have to be a citizen to vote, but you don't have to prove you're a citizen to register to vote. and so And it's been that way forever. It's like, how is that even a thing?
00:44:16
Speaker
Yeah, well, you know, we we're kind of built on a trust type of thing. Yeah. i think I don't think people were nefarious previously.
00:44:30
Speaker
now Now you're getting now you're getting a people coming in over the border without even knowing who they are. There could be little bit more intention to screw things up.
00:44:43
Speaker
Yeah. Previously, it was kind of like, well... there you know Because it was all based on the same type of world. We were all all kind of the same moral values. Now it's, I don't know.
00:44:54
Speaker
um I don't think it is. Yeah, now you have political parties in favor of massive illegal immigration. i want, hmm. Never mind. I can't be related.
00:45:06
Speaker
No, no, not at all. Yeah. So, ah and is he yeah he's even getting crap from Republicans. Yeah. And they're saying, well, you're just a Trump toady and you're just doing like, well, I mean, these are I guess it doesn't seem like a lot, but if he's got a thousand cases, you know, there's a lot more and why not, why not punish people and make examples out of them so other people stop doing it?
00:45:33
Speaker
Now, they' have no there's no record. They don't care. They're not going to get busted. and If they do, nothing's going to happen. and I'm glad he's doing it. Yeah. I think he's getting pushback because nobody wants to admit that it's not a perfect system here in Ohio.
00:45:48
Speaker
That's true. That's a good point. That might be pretty good. Well, we'll see what he continues to do. I'm not not sure. We'll see what the DOJ does. and maybe they Maybe they take it up. maybe they i'm I'm sure they will.
00:46:00
Speaker
I think they're really looking into... election process more than in past administrations. So see what comes of it. See what comes of it.
Tax Policies and School Funding
00:46:10
Speaker
Next, we have more critters at work.
00:46:14
Speaker
And this is Ohio Bill 503, which would give earners more power overt taxing Over tax income tax reciprocity credits.
00:46:26
Speaker
Yeah, my goodness. Earners more power over income tax reciprocity credits. So what is what is income tax for so reciprocity? So if you work in city a but live in the city B, a lot of places you pay income tax in both.
00:46:46
Speaker
Some areas you would get a residential credit and in some cases you can even get on the other side. think it goes, does it go both ways?
00:46:57
Speaker
And this bill, what this bill would do would give the the way I read it, this would give the school boards the authority to levy property taxes. No, not not not property taxes, b land taxes, not just on your property. Right now your taxes your property taxes are based on how much building you have on that property.
00:47:21
Speaker
It takes in consideration the land and really, it's really, what really jacks up the price is how much, the bigger building you put on a property, the more tax you pay, correct? Right. Yeah.
00:47:32
Speaker
This would allow school boards to levy taxes on your land. and not your property. What that would do is people who just own empty lots as an investment, they'd have to pay taxes. Farmers would be paying ah land tax unless exempted for some way.
00:47:49
Speaker
You're exempted when you're farming because you're farming. There's a ah cove. ah ca a tax credit, like when you're using land for farming.
00:48:00
Speaker
were they I would imagine they would continue with that in this bill. Yeah, they would they would have to. i mean We are assuming, no though, though. Let's just be clear. Probably would. Probably would. but Yeah, because there's there's also forestry thing if you have If you have like 10 or more acres full of forest, you get a ah nice tax credit.
00:48:22
Speaker
So for example, this is an article, a resident South Hewlett, which has a 2% income tax rate, who commutes a half hour into Cleveland, which has a 2.5% tax rate, right is effectively paying 4.5% on the money they make, 2.5% to the city they work and 2% to the city they live in.
00:48:44
Speaker
Other places like Rocky River, residents who work in Cleveland pay 2.5% Cleveland tax and a 0.5% Rocky River tax. like But it sounds like most cities offer a exemption.
00:48:59
Speaker
A lot do, yes. Yeah, I think most. I think you're correct.
00:49:05
Speaker
But not Cleveland probably. Yeah. Well, not no, not Cleveland, but like my city offers a, it doesn't offer a great exemption, but it does. It's one of the higher, ah one of the lower ones, I should say.
00:49:18
Speaker
So who should really be giving these, who should be getting a lion's share of income taxes? For me, I immediately think the place you live, you should be paying more than the place you work. Well, I don't know. Are you using more where you work?
00:49:33
Speaker
I don't think so. Are you using more resources? Yeah, don't think so either. But ah here here's ah of Ohio's 100 most populated cities, there are 16 in Northeast Ohio that don't credit taxpayers for full amount in taxes that they pay to places they work.
00:49:51
Speaker
Yeah, like the example South Euclid is one on that list. A 2% tax with no credit. this would give This would give the ah taxing authorities the ability to make their own decisions on it.
00:50:05
Speaker
it so So it says in the article, at least. i don't I don't know. think... i think The thing is, though, you're going to a company to work. They're already paying taxes to that city.
00:50:18
Speaker
And you're there. Yeah, you could argue you're there more than maybe you're at your house sometimes. But like i said, you're you're going to a company that has property and is paying taxes. The fact that you would think that in most cases, unless they get some, you know, sweetheart deals like a lot do. But that to me, I look i look at it that way and say, no, I think i should my the credit should be from the city I work in, not the city I live in.
00:50:43
Speaker
And I think, I don't know. it's I don't know. It's just the way it falls in my head. i just i think I think Cleveland taxes because they have no residents. it They have nobody taxed.
00:50:54
Speaker
That's good point. That's good. Well, raise the tax on the business. Well, then the businesses will move. So it's the catch 22. Yeah. ah Well, we did have, ah because we were talking about like last week they had well, we those levies everything. The week before we were talking about what happened, you know, comparing, I think it was Amherst and Parma.
00:51:15
Speaker
You know, Parma went for a property tax levy. Amherst went for an increase to their income tax levy and, you know, they both lost. But my my thought was, well, at least give Amherst some credit for trying to do something different.
00:51:28
Speaker
Maybe just spread it out a little bit more fairly over across the residence. And we did get a email from, well, from the J-stroke, who has emailed us before.
00:51:41
Speaker
And his thought, well, he disagreed with some of what we had said as far as the fairness. He said, I disagree with fairness of income tax levies replacing property tax levies. And a couple points he said was,
00:51:56
Speaker
you know what he brought up the reciprocity like how does this work with reciprocity if you're really relying on income tax to to fund a lot of the services you know what what how's that going to work and then he did also brought up hey uh what happens as people retire what happens to their income tax where does that go but how much how much do the cities get from that so first of all thank you for the email it was quite a nice see email he uh but Had ah had ah a disagreement and gave us some points, and I i agree with a lot of them. I i just think it's there's more than one way than skin a cat, and income tax would not but it only be a part partial way to fund schools and that kind of stuff.
00:52:35
Speaker
I think he took ah issue with my saying it's more fair. Yeah, which, ah i don't know, maybe maybe fair fairness.
00:52:46
Speaker
Fair or fairness isn't the right word to use Yeah. I thought it was it was going to be... Diversified, maybe? Yeah, little bit more... That's kind of where i'm going with it. You know, spread thinner amongst everybody that's working. Because what about the households that have more than you know one or two people working?
00:53:12
Speaker
And right now we have a single point of failure but when it comes to school funding. Yeah. property values decrease or something happens in that range. And so why not spread it out? That's going be my income tax increases. One of the ways, but I think we're, we've got, we're sometimes we can't see this forest from the trees, I guess would be the same, but and not to say that, not to say the J stroke, I'm just saying in general, we can do, it would be better if we had two or three sources of revenue for schools.
00:53:42
Speaker
You'd have a more consistent,
00:53:45
Speaker
you You would think you'd have a more consistent revenue stream.
00:53:50
Speaker
It'd harder to disrupt because... Am I am i crazy or... No, I i don't know. I'm... a Well, i'm like I'm just looking at email right now. I'm going through it.
00:54:04
Speaker
And... he just mentions He mentions retirees. You know, if you just get... Income tax, you know, they're they're retired. So all they got is a retiree income. So they're not going to be taxed. But doesn't a city have an ebb and flow of, I guess, citizens in the city that are younger and then older? I mean, there's like a flow of, and a natural flow to the average age of a city. It might change yes for a decade and then then it rebounds. Because like ah just from an anecdotal thing,
00:54:42
Speaker
The street I grew up on was all old people. There was like myself, my sister, and only a couple other kids out of, let's say, a hundred hundred houses.
00:54:55
Speaker
And then over the next decade, It was all young people. So it just kind of, i don't know. I i think there's an ah flow or just a constant change.
00:55:08
Speaker
And I think that's part of his point. And it is at, on the bottom end of that, when you've got more retirees than not, how does that affect funding of? um so Then you have less schools don't or less children.
00:55:20
Speaker
True. You have less children. um You know? ah yeah Well, yeah. And we'll get into actually some of that later on with when Cleveland, school what Cleveland schools is doing. But I also would say, he brings up, maybe we compromise with taxing some of the income, a retirement income, which is ah is maybe a solution, but I would also bring up, I think a lot of people's retirement now is income tax is tax taxable income.
00:55:43
Speaker
If you pull from a 401k, isn't that taxable? yeah yeah so that would be taxable i mean obviously not everybody pulls from a 401k some still do pensions and and so on which i don't if you pull from a pension you pay tax on that yeah of course okay so that's is income tax so that would so what so what wouldn't you pay tax on if you retired an ira because that's that means just less tax i guess you're not you're you're but i don't think it would go to zero if you're retired but you'll probably be less than if you're working yeah well yeah Yeah, right.
00:56:14
Speaker
I'm just flushing it out. You're also like tax, you know, if you're property taxing the person's been living there 40 years, he hasn't had kids in the house for the last 20 years. yeah What's he paying that much for for school at that point?
00:56:27
Speaker
I don't know. There's a better way. There's got to be a better way. And it's not necessarily about whether you tax my house or all that. You're taxing me for something I haven't gained anything.
00:56:38
Speaker
right i If you're taxing me on my income, I've gained that. I get why i I wish you didn't have to, but I understand the argument of taxing my income, but I have not incomeed anything from from my house.
00:56:50
Speaker
and and And it's not a coincidence that these keep going up and that lot of the stuff we've been talking about is these auditors and taxing authorities in cahoots with the appraisers in some strange way.
00:57:04
Speaker
Like everything goes up, up, up.
00:57:08
Speaker
So there is a better way. There is a better way. Definitely a better way. And all these band-aids they want to put on it, no. Lobbyistforcitizens.com. We'll just put that in there for plug. Yeah, thanks for the email.
00:57:24
Speaker
Yes, thank you for the email. And thanks for the tip for Spread Eagle Tavern. Yes. I checked the menu out on that, man. i we We are going to check that out.
00:57:36
Speaker
Yeah, look really it looked really cool. Like a nice look like an old school, I don't know, look like an old house maybe or something. that used to yeah Yeah, it kind of reminds me of what's in, us there's a place in Strongsville.
00:57:49
Speaker
Man, it starts with a P, I think. I forget. But anyway, yeah, it's like an old school tavern restaurant. Looked pretty high-end. Yeah, and real quick, he also mentioned that we talked about our accounting here in Cincinnati. He brought up what just happened a while back Ripman, Ohio. It sounds like the residents were overtaxed for 15 years.
00:58:12
Speaker
Didn't look too much into it. but Because of human error, it says. Oh, yeah. Yay. Thank you. So, yeah, check out the Spread Eagle Tavern in in Hanoverton.
00:58:27
Speaker
and Okay, next on our list of great stories where we did the income tax.
00:58:36
Speaker
And let's talk about land taxes.
00:58:40
Speaker
Can we just talk about that? No. yeah we just Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah, we do I kind of put them to it. Yeah, theyre they're very much related. So it's it's so there's a bill.
00:58:50
Speaker
Does it have a bill number yet? SJR 7? I don't think that's really a bill. So Dave Thomas, Republican from Jefferson, has put this bill in there. He wants to, like said, give the authority to the but taxing authorities, local taxing authorities, to actually bring back The land value tax.
00:59:09
Speaker
Let's see what he has to say. weve got a little clip because there's there's a quite a, but this is idea stream story. always like there. It's because he has those short clips a minute long all the time. I could have to do a lot of editing. So I like it.
00:59:21
Speaker
But here's what they say. There's a, see if you can catch the, uh, guy made me laugh a couple times.
00:59:29
Speaker
According to the Ohio School Boards Association, earlier this week, voters greenlit almost two-thirds of the local property tax levies on ballots across the state. That came even with bubbling frustration over high property taxes. What some have said is due to inaction on state lawmakers' parts.
00:59:46
Speaker
Under the Ohio Constitution, cities and towns and schools can tax property, not land. That means how much an owner shells out in taxes is determined by both their land and the properties built on their land.
00:59:59
Speaker
Senator Bill Blessing, a Republican, is making a case to turn that on its head through a land value tax. It is considered the best tax if there can be such a thing. that it It's one that doesn't discourage development. It's one that benefits will accrue to the citizens the most.
01:00:19
Speaker
Letting jurisdictions do so would require an amendment to the Ohio Constitution, which is why he introduced Senate Joint Resolution 7 last month. Sarah Donaldson at the Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau.
01:00:31
Speaker
I pulled the clip. I'm going to use it. So little background, what they're trying to do. and don't I don't know if it's going go anywhere. doubt it. But that kind of some, it's the best tax, Tom.
01:00:43
Speaker
It's the best. Best tax is no tax. The best. Yes. And oh yeah, it's going to really help spur development. How? So that when companies come in and buy land, so they, you know, later on they can develop it and then not have to pay taxes on it. Maybe they won't buy the land.
01:00:57
Speaker
I don't know. That's the first thing that came to my head. I don't know. I don't know how taxes can any taxes can be spurring development. It's usually the other way around, isn't it? We have give them tax breaks. Duh.
01:01:10
Speaker
All right. so that So that's the next thing. I'm not sure. I said, I'm not sure what's what's ever going to come of that. doesn't seem like it has very many sponsors. ah statue So keep an eye out for a land value tax.
01:01:22
Speaker
Again, tax me on something haven't gained on.
01:01:26
Speaker
Next, we get a little more local here. We're going talk about a couple of Cleveland stories.
Police Reform and Civic Engagement
01:01:30
Speaker
ah Well, a couple Cleveland, couple Canton. Bernie Marino is asking for an update because apparently the Cleveland Police Department is under federal review.
01:01:47
Speaker
And they have a a group of people that is paid pretty well, it seems, to oversee this group or the police department.
01:02:03
Speaker
And I think sometime after the election, President Trump had put together, well, you know, I got little backgrounder here from the I-Team. This is the I-Team tag team, I like to call it. This is the Gaelic tag team from Fox 8. little background and some comments from Marino.
01:02:22
Speaker
Last winter, Senator Marino spoke out about this to the I-Team. Furious, we revealed some members of the monitoring team earning up to $750 an hour. Charging thousands to prepare for and attend council meetings. Even charging for writing a sympathy note when an officer died. Thank you for exposing that. I think the citizens of Northeast Ohio and the voters and taxpayers at Cleveland owe you a debt debt of gratitude for doing that. And I'm very, very hopeful that we can put an end to the reign of terror, the stealing. And I'm going to call it that the stealing of taxpayer dollars.
01:02:58
Speaker
Last spring, the president issued an executive order to have all consent decrees reviewed within 60 days. The senator's letter points out police oversight has ended in a handful of cities, but not in Cleveland.
01:03:10
Speaker
For every dollar we spend on doing, you know, the monitoring, so this is a dollar that could have been spent on something that actually would have promoted public safety either directly or indirectly. You think? City Council also has raised questions for this story. The mayor's office released a statement.
01:03:28
Speaker
saying the city of Cleveland is committed to constitutional policing and will remain focused on making our citizens safer and our police force better. The I-Team will check back with Senator Marino. In Cleveland, Peggy Gallick.
01:03:41
Speaker
Ed Gallick, Fox 8, I-Team. The I-Team tag team. I should definitely use that. gave him permission. So Marino's asking for answers in 10 days. It's already been a few days since this article came out.
01:03:54
Speaker
So these he's looking for answers. And so is the Trump administration. they They want to know what, like like the clip said, they're spending all this money monitoring the police. what have you What have you come to? it It's been a while.
01:04:08
Speaker
Let's come up with a plan. And some cities have taken themselves off or fixed what they had problems apparently, but not Cleveland. So yeah. So you charged to write a sympathy in the letter, apparently, allegedly, about ah a death of an officer to the family.
01:04:26
Speaker
but That's pretty scummy. yeah me And Submarino's just really asking for but some clarity. What the heck's going on with this? And we'll see if he gets anything. I don't think he will, but
01:04:43
Speaker
don't know. We'll see. Any thoughts on that one? no
01:04:49
Speaker
that'll be see what he let's see what he comes up with uh you let's let's we could take some of that money and use it elsewhere yeah it's just three members of the group have earned more than 500 000 is that each member 500 000 or is that total not that i mean one way is better than other i guess no and yeah Yeah.
01:05:14
Speaker
Three members of the group have earned more than $500,000. It seems like I would go with the total. Yeah. But it's an it is an assumption. This is, yeah. We're getting ripped off.
01:05:27
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. Federal tax. Is that federal tax dollars? i don't even know. Who's paying for these groups? And regardless, but you could be spending that money on let's see paying cops more hiring more cops cop training for the police officers so we have better cops you know i hmm something just came to me how weren't they just talking about defunding the police not too long ago and now we're we're spending gobs of money gobs of money to monitor the cops now
01:06:04
Speaker
Even like those two are not, they don't go together. Well, one's ah one of them doesn't one's a slush fund. Yes. One of them doesn't fit.
01:06:15
Speaker
Anyway, that's that's what's going on with the Cleveland police. And if you... If you got anything you want to tell us, maybe we're not covering enough of, covering too much of something, give us some feedback on the show.
01:06:28
Speaker
Send us an email, quickerrivercast at gmail.com. When the show posts on Monday, go to the website, quickerrivercast.com. Check out the blog post. You can follow along with all of our stories. I mean, provided I get them in the right order for...
01:06:41
Speaker
Or a webmaster. Sorry about that. ah But check us out. you If you want to dig deeper in and and see we're what we're missing, then maybe can give us some help. So share the show. Send it to your friends. Anybody you think would be interested. would really appreciate you listening, especially all the way through this part.
01:06:57
Speaker
Halfway through the show. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
01:07:03
Speaker
This is a doozy, Tom. This one's a doozy. City of Canton has decided... to ban public comment at city council meetings.
01:07:15
Speaker
What? Yes. Yes. Here's the, uh, here's another idea stream, ah little background on this city council, Canton city council.
01:07:28
Speaker
Some Canton community members are speaking out after city council banned public comment during meetings. I'm IdeaStream Public Media's Anna Huntsman. Council members voted 8-2 to eliminate the public comment section of council meetings, citing safety concerns, disruptive comments, and threats against council members on social media.
01:07:45
Speaker
Lorinda Johnson regularly attends meetings and says not all speakers are unruly. It's disappointing that others are in a way punished or like our right to speak is taken away.
01:07:56
Speaker
Johnson says the ban targets certain community members, like people who are unhoused or elderly, who may not have access to phones or email. There's a feeling of being left behind, feeling that they have something to offer. And if they know that they can go um to city council and be able to speak and to directly engage, that's huge. City council will vote on its rules when the new term starts next year and may revisit public comment procedures.
01:08:19
Speaker
Anna Huntsman, Ideastream Public Media. So they can't take the heat. So what'd they do? Just ban public comment at city council meetings. yeah Eight to two vote.
01:08:33
Speaker
I guess they don't want to hear. mean, you can still send an email and call because that's the same. Not. there's a there's like This is awful.
01:08:43
Speaker
Yeah. And I don't think this is the first city to do it by by any stretch of the meaning. I think there's other cities that do a lot of this stuff and or have least limited public comment in some way.
01:08:55
Speaker
They are saying, hey, you still can email and call. And here's a little, here's a little. So some speakers come to Canton City Hall very upset over something that Canton City Council is not responsible for.
01:09:11
Speaker
And then city council members are annoyed and rolling their eyes at the person instead of helping them understand who the right elected official is to help them.
01:09:22
Speaker
um i could I could see that happening. Yeah. Yeah. But and instead of figuring out the problem, they're just ban it. Yep.
01:09:32
Speaker
And they, I mean, they can, every city council, they can always overturn this or, you know, they they could do this at any point. They just vote for it and overturn it. So they're saying maybe down the line, they're going to look at it, but they're they're worried about death threats and unruly comments and people getting angry at them at city council meetings.
01:09:50
Speaker
I think they're worried about not having answers.
01:09:55
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. Oh, wait, this one.
01:10:01
Speaker
Bunch of wusses. Come on. Can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. Yeah, I wonder if they just had it one or two disruptive people. But I mean, can't you just have them removed? or Or did they?
01:10:15
Speaker
What's disruptive? You know what I mean? like so yeah Yeah. So maybe what we could do, though, is you could check out, what is that called? CitizenPortal.ai? Mm-hmm.
01:10:26
Speaker
and start, I don't know, is there a ah Canton City Council meeting we should look up and to see how unruly these people are getting? I will look into that. You know, there's good use for that. It's even there.
01:10:39
Speaker
citizen portal.ai is where they have all the ah streams of city council meetings and that kind of stuff. Check it out. It might, hey
School Closures and Community Impact
01:10:49
Speaker
if you yeah can help the show, you can go find one of these unruly people and send us the clip and maybe we can revisit the story. But I'm questioning what they mean by unruly.
01:11:00
Speaker
Somebody raised their voice a bit. Could be considered unruly. Yeah. Since they're crying like little babies all the time.
01:11:10
Speaker
Oh, that's that public comment. Gone in Canton. next next Next to be gone is ah whole bunch of schools in Cleveland.
01:11:22
Speaker
that's so cold. um that
01:11:26
Speaker
But apparently they don't need all these schools. So... i I started reading this story and i kind of immediately had questions and on the story, which basically says they're closing 29 schools,
01:11:46
Speaker
but only shutting down 18 buildings.
01:11:51
Speaker
I said, how does that make any sense? Well, and do i have a clip on this one? I think I do, don't I? Yeah, I do. Let's go with the clip on Cleveland Schools.
01:12:04
Speaker
And let me get it. Yeah, this is News Channel 5 and kind of what's the plan? and what do they got in store for And what does the city have to say about it? Nancy Diamore knows how a school can become much more. It's a family. It's a community. Her great-granddaughter is a fifth grader at Mary Church Terrell. There's several of us that walk, and if the school closes, we really don't have a lot of options.
01:12:30
Speaker
One of 18 buildings Cleveland School District plans to close next year as part of a broader cost-cutting move announced last week. Cleveland's mayor says a redevelopment strategy is in the works.
01:12:40
Speaker
In the next couple of weeks, you'll see a plan be announced from my administration in partnership with CMSD. outlining our vision for those old school sites to ensure they're integrated to a broader community development strategy for those respective neighborhoods But Nancy's skeptical and sad you should be i think it's a waste i mean what are you going to do In 2021, the city and the school district put a dozen buildings on the market, including the historic Wilson School here on East 55th Street.
01:13:10
Speaker
Most of those buildings are still sitting empty. Some vandalized, fenced off and covered with graffiti. Still sitting empty because the mayor's words are empty.
01:13:24
Speaker
We're going to have this broader strategy. for Yeah, you've you've tried this already with 12 and they're still empty. there's a couple they've repurposed for like ah retirement homes and stuff. is Really, these buildings are serious buildings. most Most schools are built very well.
01:13:39
Speaker
and the From that era, for sure. Yeah, they were usually the tornado... ah You know, good place to go if you're, oh no, my school had, that's what it was. My school had the, ah was it the symbol for radiation for nuclear strike? Yeah. My elementary school had on it.
01:13:56
Speaker
like Like that was going to help. Yeah. Oh yeah. Talk and cover. um But it was a well-built building and that's kind of the point. And and they have wide court. This some of the other clip that was watching this from the Maroose brothers developer. He was saying, we've done a couple of these,
01:14:12
Speaker
And they can be they can turn out to be very useful buildings because they got wide corridors and you know auditoriums and that kind of stuff. So for certain applications, they they can work.
01:14:24
Speaker
But part of the problem is mostly schools are in there. They have not been kept up. And not many there's not many retirement homes that want to, you know, are you going to take your your parents to retirement home in the worst neighborhood in Cleveland.
01:14:44
Speaker
Yeah. Right.
01:14:48
Speaker
I think they just needed to demolish these and start redeveloping. Part of the issue is, All right, so good part of the issue is, like like we talked earlier, is shrinking class sizes. Less kids, people are having less kids.
01:15:01
Speaker
Boomers are older. you know they We built these schools because of the boomers, boomer generation. Those are gone. They're not gone. They're still here, but they're not they're not the kids anymore. And now we're on second generation after that, whatever it is, lot less kids.
01:15:17
Speaker
So that's what I come up with. I'll say they're closing 29 schools, but only 18 buildings. Because i see this little buried down deep in the article says, in some cases, students won't change buildings.
01:15:31
Speaker
Several Cleveland high schools like John Hay and John Marshall contain several schools in quotes on one campus. Oh, okay.
01:15:44
Speaker
But each with their own administration people. Those will be consolidated.
01:15:54
Speaker
So you consolidated schools. You had already done this a one round of school closings. You took two or three schools, put them into one building, but kept three principals and three ah administrative staff administrative staff for three schools.
01:16:11
Speaker
yeah Let that sit in for a second. Let that sit for second. Hello. I can't figure out why you guys just hemorrhage money all the time. Can't figure out why. So they're closing a bunch of schools and mainly because they don't they don't need all these schools.
01:16:27
Speaker
Right. They have, what does it say? 88 schools in the district. they ah But again, how many buildings is that? I mean, actual school buildings is 88. It doesn't sound like 88. It sounds like maybe 60.
01:16:42
Speaker
but they are going to go, and that and we talk about Cleveland for a lot of, you know, the major, like we talked last, is it's the hub, it's it's what drives a lot of the Cuyahoga County and Northeast Ohio, but this isn't exclusive to Cleveland.
01:16:55
Speaker
You go to Canton, go to Akron, probably not Columbus because Columbus is still growing. Cincinnati, all these school districts are shrinking because there's a lack of kids. So for example, going to go from 61 pre-K through eight schools to 45 and from 27 high schools to 14 by closing 18 schools.
01:17:20
Speaker
I think it's needed. I mean, why haven't they done it sooner? Yeah. Probably should have been done a long time ago. Yeah. and and And some of the problem is you're now going to have to go farther to to get to your school, which in a lot of cases could be very, you know, a hard thing to figure out for families.
01:17:38
Speaker
know, they got to do more busing, something like that. But if you've got a school for a thousand kids and you've got 200 in there, like you're paying and they're old and they're they're very costly.
01:17:49
Speaker
Yeah. So it's probably gonna be a little pain, but it's it's necessary. You can't and and keep going on this. It's not sustainable. Look at your budget. I think they're gonna be 150 million in the hole.
01:18:01
Speaker
This will save them 30 million. Oh, here we go. That's what i was looking for. was rambling to look for this one stat. So he pointed out, cs ah Bib pointed out CMSDs enrollment, which has dropped from 70,000 students in two thousand to 34,000 students today.
01:18:21
Speaker
That's half.
01:18:24
Speaker
So yeah, you don't need all those schools if your students are cut in half. Not literally cut half. The amount of students are cut half.
01:18:35
Speaker
Shut them down, bulldoze them, and sell it. Because I don't know what else they're to do with it. Let's see. Anything else on that, Tom? No.
01:18:45
Speaker
I mean, they got to do what they got to do. Yeah. Doesn't make any sense. And why did they take us so long to figure this out? Yeah. Because it's bureaucracy. Everybody's trying to save their job.
01:18:59
Speaker
right.
Homelessness and City Initiatives
01:19:00
Speaker
Next, we move on to a interesting story. Again, it's about Cleveland, but it's really not exclusive to Cleveland, but it is um is interesting. So we have the living among the dead. That's how I put it in our show notes, because we have a
01:19:19
Speaker
a scranton that's great yeah scranton cemetery in cleveland has got a homeless encampment and well what what did the city what the city had to do what what does the city want to do about it what what's their solution well right now well right let's see what there's here's here's a little rundown of what what they want to do what they've done so far City, I'm told, put out this porta potty as well as the trash can.
01:19:48
Speaker
I'm also told by people living here that the city told them to move into that corner of the cemetery away from the headstones. And I'm 66. You wait till I get 66 to get me in the tent.
01:19:58
Speaker
Tents scattered among headstones, people looking for answers and living on their last resort. It sucks, but this is all they have. Where else can they go? This man who spoke on the condition of anonymity estimates at least 25 people live here at Scranton Cemetery.
01:20:15
Speaker
He says many were priced out of housing and now the government shutdown is costing them food. I ain't getting food stamps this month. What's going on? It's all coming down just like an ambulance. Ronald Williams is retired. so ty lives here because his social security wouldn't even cover rent, let alone other bills.
01:20:34
Speaker
They shouldn't be in a cemetery. People dead should be in there. Ray lives right around the corner and feels for the people at the cemetery. She tells me she's been homeless before and tries to help handing out food when she can. It's hell to be out here wet and cold.
01:20:49
Speaker
So what's getting done to try and fix this? What we want folks to do is to know that there are good people working to to to help. Director of Public Health David Margolius says from voucher programs to helping get applicants on disability to a seasonal shelter program, they are leaving no stone unturned to find a resolution.
01:21:09
Speaker
There isn't any good solution without a housing solution. And so that's what we're laser focused on. While I was at Scranton Cemetery, crews came through for a garbage pickup. The people here are hoping for some help.
01:21:21
Speaker
The city is working to get ahead of worse conditions. There are folks here who are veterans. There are folks here who have been discharged from the hospital with with nowhere else to go. And so we're doing everything that we can to find a housing solution for folks. I don't think that is becoming a permit solution, but it's something that's temporary to pacify.
01:21:39
Speaker
In Cleveland, Colt Molesky, 19 News. Every stone unturned, Tom.
01:21:46
Speaker
So, yeah, because this picture here in the article is the dude's literally hanging his laundry from the headstone. Aren't there shelters? Yes.
01:21:55
Speaker
The way I understand it, yes. Now, I know in wintertime, maybe they fill up faster, maybe that's possibly a problem. But I don't think that's... There's requirements in a lot of these shelters.
01:22:08
Speaker
Yeah, you can't do drugs. Can't be drinking, can't be drunk, can't be high. but to Not to, you know, say that the... But... And some people, it's...
01:22:19
Speaker
i could I would think, barring the weather, obviously the wintertime would suck, but living in a tent in a cemetery but way better than going to a homeless shelter. Why? Because I'm living on my own.
01:22:30
Speaker
I'm not having to worry about some other homeless guys steal from me. and Yeah, but when you're living in a tent, how do you get yourself up and out of there? ah Yes. i yes um But this guy retired. He's a retiree. How do you retire if you... All you're retiring around is Social Security?
01:22:50
Speaker
it Maybe he never worked. and i was Maybe you shouldn't have retired or permanent maybe you should have partially retired and still have a part-time job. i mean Yeah. yeah He was walking fine. The thing is, he's probably stoned out of his mind. Should be an alcoholic, could have drugged.
01:23:05
Speaker
you know There's all kinds of that stuff. It's not an excuse, but it is part of the problem a lot of times when people are homeless. But the city is doing... I mean, they're just trying to find another government program to put them on.
01:23:20
Speaker
theyre not trying to actually help them. They're trying to enslave them even more. Instead of pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, they're just going to no, no, no. It's not your fault.
01:23:31
Speaker
Listen, here's some more money if I help somebody, my job's done. So then I don't have a job. Mm-hmm. There you go.
01:23:44
Speaker
If you fix the problem, then you're no longer needed. And now you have to go actually get a real job. but You may just hit the nail right on the head, think. That's a huge thing happening in like San Francisco.
01:23:56
Speaker
there's There's a whole ah economy based on homelessness. Well, it began when they got rid of the, when they made it, you're able to camp anywhere on public land.
01:24:10
Speaker
Yeah. So you hear stories of people in LA or in California walking out of their multi-million dollar home to tents on their tree lawn with people shooting up heroin. Like, whoa, yeah, that's what I want to do.
01:24:24
Speaker
And there's organizations that are supposed to be helping, you know, with the homelessness, but but they're they're breaking in the dough. They're making good money. Yeah, they're enabling them to to continue the ah scam.
01:24:38
Speaker
Yeah. And these poor people are suffering instead of, instead of getting better, there's, yeah, they're just enslaved more and more enslaved and onto the system.
01:24:50
Speaker
Never to get off unless, I mean, you really got to work hard to get off it when you're there you that destitute. There are homeless people that just want to be homeless. but Yeah. So, know, I don't know.
01:25:03
Speaker
There's a lot of mental issues. That's what ends up happening to a lot of people who, you know, we used to have asylums to put these people in and now we just give them medicines and medicine and send them out on the street and they end up homeless a lot of times. Because they're not getting help, they're just getting a band-aid.
01:25:20
Speaker
I don't understand how they can be doing in that in a cemetery. Is that a city-owned cemetery? That's a good question, actually. Is it city-owned? i like I don't know about that one. I guess some cemeteries are owned by the city, i assume. I don't know for sure.
01:25:37
Speaker
That's a good question. i'm just doesn't I didn't see that anywhere. i read this article.
01:25:43
Speaker
But also, if you...
01:25:47
Speaker
if you're not going to get help from the city, there's not a whole lot the seminary could do about it. If it if it is privately held, Scranton,
01:25:55
Speaker
and well, you know, is even, ah, well, I'm going waste it. It might be, it doesn't matter if it is, or i was going to look it up, but it could be city owned.
01:26:07
Speaker
sounds like it might be, regardless. i don't think the turnout or the, um, it would be much different if it wasn't, if it was privately held. Right. Because what are homeless people and then then you got to call the cops and if they don't show up, what the heck are you supposed to do?
01:26:23
Speaker
All right. So, don't know. feel bad, and but man, I really wish we could get them some help. So moving on to the
CLAWE Event and Cultural Challenges
01:26:32
Speaker
next story, our last one on our normal story list is one that, I mean, I i looked i saw this story and kind of was like, ah what what's this all about?
01:26:42
Speaker
And never heard of this group. If anyone's ever heard of Claw. You're gay. Well, maybe, but... I mean, maybe, but what... Most likely. What what it some people might be thinking, like, what?
01:26:57
Speaker
The Claw? Is it not... It's not what you think. It's not this. Who's in charge here? The Claw! The Claw is our master. Claw chooses who will go and who will stay. This is ludicrous.
01:27:13
Speaker
What is that from? That's from Toy Story. Ow. I don't remember that. That's from like Toy Story 2 or 3 where they're in an arcade and I forget the story, but I think Buzz Lightyear loses his memory that he's a toy.
01:27:28
Speaker
You know, that was the first one. So Buzz is chasing him through an arcade and he gets into the claw machine. And it's all these alien toys, you know, they're all like, oh, the claw, the claw tells us when to go They take us to the promised land or something like that.
01:27:43
Speaker
Anyway, that's what I thought of when I heard the claw. But no, it is not a toy story. Well, I mean, well, da it's a good point. Yes. a let me let me Let me go on because, yes, you have a point. Claw is the Cleveland leather annual weekend.
01:28:05
Speaker
What is claw? Well, yeah. um According to one of the members, Jim DeLong, 67, it was just all organic.
01:28:18
Speaker
So claw was a annual leather event in Cleveland, Cleveland leather annual weekends where they'd have a weekend of enjoying leather. It's a leather and it brought together leather and kink.
01:28:34
Speaker
community Basically, it's a bunch of fagulas
01:28:40
Speaker
getting together and putting on their chaps. and the And the sad story is that it's moving.
01:28:50
Speaker
It's moving. I thought this was going to be in the good things section. Good things to... Did I say it was going to be in the good? Well, I guess, but I got i got some other stuff, the good things segment, but this is in the end of the show. Funny segment is what it's going to be because.
01:29:06
Speaker
It's moving, and they've, I mean, it's really nothing to do. I mean, they're really just victims in this because it's it's ah just LGBTQ hate is really what is all boils down, according to them, of course.
01:29:18
Speaker
So what they're they're saying that they have to move to Columbus so they can keep the name CLAW because there'll be Columbus another annual weekend, but they can't do it in Cleveland anymore. And a couple of reasons. So they had a So there was COVID is was a big reason. So kind of lot of this got, they they started getting some momentum in this meeting or weekend or whatever you want to call it.
01:29:42
Speaker
And then COVID hit. and then It's been going on since 2001, by the way. You look at 20 some years. And I'm trying to get this timeline right. So they had a event at a hotel and they lost their deposit.
01:30:03
Speaker
because some pipes burst, pipes burst, and the hotel blamed them for the pipes bursting. And you think that's... Why did the pipes burst? Well, according to the hotel, they claimed that they were throwing... their Not safe for work.
01:30:16
Speaker
Children in the room, you might you might not want them here. No, we're going to keep it clean, but... ah So they they the the hotel had, I think it was a renaissance or something. They had... um claim that they were flushing sex toys down the toilet. You could just say adult toys. That would have been.
01:30:33
Speaker
Adult toys. You're right. You're right But it's still. And that's where the toy story comes in. That's where right where the toy story comes in. And i call BS. Have you seen the price of adult toys? No.
01:30:44
Speaker
I don't know if anyone's flushing those things down the toilet. But just saying. I haven't lately either. But imagine they're not cheap. but Do we have another story here, Rob?
01:30:56
Speaker
Do we? What are you talking about? The price of toys. Yes. I'm just saying. i i they're not They're not cheap. I mean, come on. and They cost money.
01:31:10
Speaker
but why are you just going to flush them down the toilet for no reason? no i don't think so. But I'm obviously tongue-in-cheek on that. but so why would the Well, I believe the hotel. i think they were flushing things down the toilet. I i do, too. I was only making money.
01:31:23
Speaker
Okay. Silly joke then. Why would you flush expensive sex toys down the toilet? but what you when they What happened when they flushed the sex toys down the toilet? They clogged the pipes and pipes broke, so they lost their deposit at $56,000. And I think a bunch poop fell on them i think a bunch of poop fell on them too Does it say that in the story?
01:31:48
Speaker
think so. I mean, is it really does it really make... Oh, never mind. ah and So that was one thing. So they lost a $56,000 deposit.
01:31:59
Speaker
Then ah next year, they held an event. It looks like in Los Angeles, doesn't it? Yeah. Because of COVID, they... And they're... Something to do with the hotel and the pandemic. They only had a choice between Thanksgiving or Christmas.
01:32:16
Speaker
hold their 2021 event so we thought how we thought about how hard it would be for people to get to cleveland during the thanksgiving weekend so we started talking and maybe to do it somewhere else so they decided l la well problem with what happened what happened in la was a little bit more little different than what happened in cleveland the pipes didn't burst But it seems as though, oh wait, no, I'm sorry. They hadn't, I'm, I'm, see, I'm, there's timelines.
01:32:45
Speaker
There's a lot here in this story and scene magazine. They got long stories. They did it LA, but then they come back to the IX center in Cleveland in 2023. They held, they held the claw event was held at the Renaissance.
01:32:56
Speaker
Now the hotel Cleveland. And it seems they had some um some some things that may have jeopardized their event. And what they did was they had a a Claw leadership hosted a horse market, which is a group event in the ballroom of the Renaissance without informing the hotel staff.
01:33:18
Speaker
And it was a group. It was basically horse market would tell me like you're bidding on bitting on people, something that effect. But it was a group. event if you could follow me that normally they had this off-site
01:33:36
Speaker
but ah members of the hotel staff walked in on some very surprising acts that were happening in the horse market so it sounds like that's to me that sounds like the main reason they can't they can't find a venue in cleveland And I can't imagine why, because some, instead of a certain behavior from certain individuals did cause some issues there, but it wasn't everybody.
01:34:03
Speaker
ah few bad apples can really spoil everything. Yes, they can. Yeah. I mean, There's nothing illegal about what we do. Well, here, let's just be fair about this. If this was a just a standard heterosexual event of a similar context and this happened, you should also be kicked out of the hotel.
01:34:22
Speaker
don't care if it's two guys, a woman and a guy, it's two women. it they' and I could see that I'm picturing, I've been to a lot of events at hotels, like for business.
01:34:33
Speaker
I can only imagine what the staff was thinking. Like, oh, the insurance conference was crazy. But look at this one. So they walked in on them doing some pretty nasty stuff, it sounds like, in the ballroom or in one of the meeting rooms of the Renaissance. And Renaissance is pretty nice hotel downtown.
01:34:50
Speaker
So now they're they're they're blaming the Renaissance changing ownership and being anti-LGBTQ plus IA up, down, left, right. Yeah, okay. But really, they just they this is what happens when you get a bunch of guys in the room together, attracted to the other guys,
01:35:10
Speaker
And there's no self-control. Yeah. i mean. No self-control. it the one It's the one thing the opposite sex brings to the relationship is decency and self-control. I guess so.
01:35:21
Speaker
Sometimes, at least. This is like a leather and kink convection can convention. It's like, what you think's going to happen? i can Well, yeah, but they they and they used to plan for that and do it off-site.
01:35:34
Speaker
Yeah, yeah So basically, they could see...
01:35:39
Speaker
group orientation of, yeah, that, that. So they're, they're after moving to Columbus. They're, and I'm sorry to hear it, but yeah, what are you gonna do?
01:35:54
Speaker
That's what happens when you get out of control and they ah no how no hotel hotel in Cleveland will help you because you have such a reputation that you are out of control event. Just a bunch of old gay guys. Yeah, and actually should look at the pictures. bunch of old gay guys. It's hilarious.
01:36:10
Speaker
Yeah, that's pretty funny. Can't control themselves. you could Yes, that and yeah, that's what that kind of what made me. I'm like, no kidding. didn't take those pills for nothing.
01:36:22
Speaker
ah biden pills were I ain't wasting those pills. I'm using them today. ah This made it more convenient. You have to go off site. So, you know, they're going to go to Columbus. And yeah, I guess it is part of the good thing segment because they don't ever have to worry about being downtown during claw.
01:36:37
Speaker
Yeah.
Bernie Kosar's Health and Legacy
01:36:39
Speaker
ah and This was from the Buckeye flame. The story. It's from Scene Magazine, but it's yeah by Ken Schneck, the Buckeye of Flame. So ah they must have grabbed it from somebody, another publication.
01:36:55
Speaker
Yeah, it's funny how I notice a lot of that now. it's A lot of the stories from Ideastream or whoever, they get it from, they buy it from other places. That's the state of our journalism today.
01:37:08
Speaker
Not much of it, actually. Well, you don't have a journalist anymore. yeah They're all activists. Yeah. we have to ah We have to navigate through this crap.
01:37:20
Speaker
Yeah, which is why you were listening to the Crooked Rivercast. And ah even our our beloved Morgan falls for the activism sometimes, too.
01:37:30
Speaker
On to the next. We bring good things to life.
01:37:36
Speaker
ah good things segment well i think this is a good thing i mean it is a good thing and but i mean when you when you get police oh you know i should have pulled that clip that was that would have been pretty good but when you uh here's a story north ridgeville police wrangle four horses on city streets going down center ridge road in north olmstead how did that happen they got out of uh someplace oh yeah maddock road it was on center ridge and maddock road but there's four horsemen running down. I thought at least somebody had this, some apocalypse thing going on.
01:38:14
Speaker
And that's, that was the reports. And they, they tied together some dash cam footage with the ah police 911 calls. And I got four horse, those four horses running down center Ridge road. Uh, you know what?
01:38:26
Speaker
In the report and in the, it does not say where they came from. but I miss that? I'm looking at that now. It doesn't. I, and I listened to the report. The report was just basically the, um, ah audio and footage so it really didn't go over some crazy Amishmen so and the good thing is they they got no no horses were injured and there's a lot of people that had stopped and helped help the police kind of wrangle the horses up sounds like and and got them back to where they belong which yeah it'd be nice to tell us where they came from
01:39:00
Speaker
ah the state of our reporting state of journalism exactly to our point wow that was pretty good All right. And next on the list. Wait, did they save them? Yeah.
01:39:14
Speaker
yeah oh yeah yeah, yeah. They got them all wrangled up. That that was kind of the ah touching part of the story. is It seemed like there was some help from residents and people driving by. lot of people calling and giving the police where they are and you know following them along so that people pulling off the side of the road. So it looks like from a horse farm.
01:39:32
Speaker
I mean, they they look they they got those covers on a couple of them and a picture here and so forth. Yeah. looks like It's North Ridgeville. they There's some some, I think there's a couple of farms out there. Yeah. I imagine that's where it came from.
01:39:44
Speaker
Some kid, some dopey kid left the gate open and now he's getting grounded. That's basically what's happening.
01:39:50
Speaker
So never know when the four horsemen might come. Maybe, maybe it started in North Ridgeville. We'll find out. And finally have a, a, a, what a good story.
01:40:02
Speaker
Bernie Kosar has had some, uh, some, some health issues. He's looking to get a, A liver transplant, 61 years old, former QB of the Cleveland Browns, beloved QB the Cleveland Browns.
01:40:13
Speaker
And boy, does he look different? Yeah. Well, he his liver's failing. He's had five operations to try to get to the point we can get a transplant. So right now they're not getting him one because he's not that in good health.
01:40:26
Speaker
Did he drink his way through that one? He may have. He did a lot of drinking for a long year, many years after. he i mean, he was he suffered from a lot of concussion brain injuries. he Yeah, I could feel that.
01:40:39
Speaker
Yeah. um ah Anecdotally, I have some experience in my personal life with some people who know him pretty well, and they had turned him on to...
01:40:52
Speaker
out of he went i was going out of the country for injections for his concussion his memory his brain issues and you could see ah huge difference in the way when you saw him i was he doing stem cell uh i think it was yeah it was something like that i i didn't i don't remember this has been in many years But my I always thought, mean, he may have been drunk, but lot he did a lot of sounded like it yeah he did a lot of the preseason stuff when he was coming back in. And I think they were kind of giving him a test. That's usually, I can't imagine how they do it.
01:41:23
Speaker
Try you out in the preseason ones. and He was slurring his way around. his words. so I don't know if it was, but a lot of his normal speak was like that. Right. People were saying. And you could hear a difference. I actually met him, I think it was Baker Mayfield's first preie first game he stepped foot on for the Browns preseason game, I think against the Jets, and I met him at a suite.
01:41:44
Speaker
And he he he was not slurring a word. Yeah, that's why I always wondered, because I've i've heard him speak well, and then ah those those times I heard him slurring, I was like, oh my God, what' is he drunk? i like I was thinking the same thing. I didn't know if it was from all the injuries. or but I think he did get get into some trouble with some alcohol, if I remember correctly, but I could be wrong.
01:42:07
Speaker
um I mean, it might be tied together, I'm sure. something to do with. And, you know, lot of these guys are so beat up and the pain that they live through. But he, so he's been going through a lot of health concerns and he's still kind of just waiting, but, you know, to see he can get better so that he can get his liver transplant.
01:42:26
Speaker
and And there's a GoFundMe for him if you if you want to donate ah to Bernie. And I'm sure he's got plenty of bills right now sitting in the hospital. And he he he played for the Cleveland Browns, so he didn't make that much money.
01:42:41
Speaker
And it was a while ago, too. Yeah, and I think he actually went belly up. I think he had some financial issues, too. He's one of those guys. I thought he was on one of those documentaries where they follow the sports guys, you know, and then, I mean, smart guys.
01:42:57
Speaker
he He was in, I think, hockey. He'd owned some hockey franchises and stuff like that. So maybe that's... he ran into some trouble. But bernie co the best story have Bernie Kozler, my uncle told me this, that he was scheduled, so they had a preliminary draft, a local draft for the NFL at one point in time, where they if you had somebody from your area, that closest team could pick you in a draft before the real draft, something like that.
01:43:23
Speaker
But you had ability to pick a local guy over the rest of the teams if they were in in your area. He graduated, first of all, he graduated Miami University, that's one thing. a year early with a business and marketing degree or whatever he has just so that he can get to be picked by the Browns because the next, the following year they were getting rid of it.
01:43:44
Speaker
So he actually upped his schedule, was playing football and got a four year degree in three years. So not a stupid guy. And, and that's how we, that's why he was a good quarterback because he wasn't the most athletic at a killer arm and he, he could read defenses. He was a,
01:43:59
Speaker
genius he wasn't good at running no no definitely I'm not I didn't really pay all that much attention but watching him run was funny yes at best yes and in those late years they basically he he basically had his ankles completely taped yeah ah he couldn't even bend his ankle because he had all his ankle problems right I'm getting sacked all the time because of crappy offensive lines but I digress All right, so go check out the GoFundMe and the articles down there if you're interested. I'm sure Bernie could use the help.
01:44:32
Speaker
And he's starting to recover and hopefully he can get well and get his liver transplant and get on the mend. ah that's That's about Bernie Kosar. And that, on that note, that wraps up show 35.
01:44:49
Speaker
Thank you for listening. Really do appreciate it. Check us out, cricketrivercast.com. Send us an email. Check
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
01:44:55
Speaker
out the blog. Go through the go through the stories as we go through them. And then maybe you can find out where we've gone wrong or what we missed.
01:45:03
Speaker
Shoot us an email. Tell us how we're doing. Really appreciate listening. Thank you for your time. And that is Show 35. We'll talk to you next week. Peace.