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Crooked River Cast Show 61
65 Plays1 month ago
Crookedrivercast.com
Crookedrivercast@gmail.com
- Trump in China.
- Iran/Cuba.
- Ohio Medicaid fraud triggers funding Freeze.
- Ohio facing Federal SNAP penalty.
- More Ohioan’s to lose SNAP benefits.
- Dewine announces Yost’s replacement.
- Gas prices and what to do about them.
- First Energy ordered to make new data center rules.
- Ohio lawmakers create data center committee.
- Universities announce layoffs.
- Drones on Lake Erie.
Good things:
- When is Memorial Day this year?
- USS Cleveland.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Episode 61 and Ohio Focus
00:00:12
Speaker
This is the Crooked Rivercast. Who's that? Well, that's Rob and Tom. Two guys just trying keep track of what is going on in the great state of Ohio. Get loud today.
00:00:23
Speaker
Show 61 for May 18th, 2026. And, yeah, you guessed Another week of all kinds of stuff that's gone by. Let's do it. Stop ranting.
00:00:41
Speaker
I'll brambly in the morning, Tom. In the morning. How you doing on this fine, fine morning? Not out yet? No, it's not out. You got clouds?
00:00:52
Speaker
I can't even see it through my basement window. I'm doing all right. Good. A little tired. I am doing it. You tired? Yeah, I'm a little tired.
00:01:04
Speaker
A little late night and early morning.
Reflections on Baseball Game Experience
00:01:08
Speaker
Good combination. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, I did something that I have not done in know quite a long time What's that?
00:01:17
Speaker
I went to a baseball game. Ooh. ah Yeah. Team formerly known as the Indians. Yeah, whatever that team that plays up by the lake. can't remember what they call them now. I wore my traditional baseball gear.
00:01:32
Speaker
Chief Wahoo? I had racist stuff all over the place. I had a hat, had a shirt, I had a jacket.
00:01:41
Speaker
It was very strange. think it is the first time I've been to a ball game since the name changed. Not just since they announced the name. I think the last time I went to a game was 21. Now, as much many people don't know, is i I think I went to...
00:01:59
Speaker
we I probably went to 10 to 12 games a year, usually. and Not always, but 6 to 12, something like that every year. Okay. And I haven't been to one since 2021. twenty one And the only reason I went to that one is the same reason I went to this one.
00:02:13
Speaker
It was work work-related. Yeah. It was free. That's a bonus. I do have a review. Okay.
00:02:24
Speaker
So you remember the Terrace Club? Yeah. The windows on the left field. Well, they took all the windows out and made that like mini suites. Right. Right. I heard they were going to do that.
00:02:36
Speaker
Yeah. When it was that? That's where we sat. That was done last year. Last year was the first year. This is the second year. Okay. um yeah Oh, that's where you sat. You had a suite out there.
00:02:47
Speaker
Yeah. I've sat in, they have a similar thing at the, what's Rocket Field Mortgage something or other, whatever the arena is named now.
00:02:58
Speaker
And they have it like at the end, at one of the ends of the arena. And I got some hockey tickets last year, year before last, brought the family there. And it's nice. You get like six or eight seats, like kind of, and at this case at the arena, they're like tabletop kind of height, but like just kind of a bar you have like in this little area. And then you can walk up back to it.
00:03:18
Speaker
to the bar and to the buffet, which of course is always good at a ball game or any kind of sports event. But this one, hit they had prime rib and pork chops. Oh, yeah. Like a real buffet. And they had a whole other side, which is where I concentrated on, which had the bratwurst, the hot dogs, and the nachos.
00:03:33
Speaker
Right. And of course, beer. But I did get kind of made fun of.
00:03:44
Speaker
i had some fruit in my beer.
00:03:47
Speaker
Did you get the bumbleberry or something? I did. i did. Yeah. um What's the name of ah the beer? Had some fruit. Fat heads. They have the fat heads has a bar there. They have a little stand out and right field.
00:04:00
Speaker
So they're like the, they're like all over the place. But yeah, I was like yeah, i'll get bumbleberry. And then somebody like, what's that in your, your beer? I'm like, oh, oh yeah. That's fruit. Oops.
00:04:12
Speaker
It's so delicious though. It was more like, look at that beer holding onto the fruit cake. If I remember correctly, the person introduced me to Bumbleberry was you.
00:04:24
Speaker
Yeah, i like Bumbleberry. It's a good summer brew, if you ask me. I like it in the summertime. It is really good. was that It was a nice layout. they hit They did a really nice job with it. a much you know It was a day game.
00:04:37
Speaker
And that's pretty decent crowd. think I think they broke 5,000.
00:04:41
Speaker
Oh, wow. Is it that bad? A day game in May. It's a day game in May. little chilly. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Clouds are in and out, and it was probably in the low 60s, high 50s, little bit of wind. We were standing out in ah and and between the arenas. was kind of chilly.
00:04:57
Speaker
Remember the days of the Jake? The Jake. It didn't matter what the day was like. It was sold out. Yeah. Yeah. Which reminds me back to, i don't know if we, I think we talked about it, the dynasty that won nothing.
00:05:12
Speaker
um The 90s. Yeah. But probably rant about that for a while. They've done a lot to the ballpark, which is great to see, especially knowing that the Browns are tearing down their ballpark stadium that was built five years after, four years after? was it Yeah, five years after.
00:05:33
Speaker
was 99's when they came back, and that ballpark was built in 94, the baseball park. And they've renovated that thing five or six times, like major renovations.
00:05:44
Speaker
um And the first one I saw was out in a right field. they took the last five sections of seats out, but three quarters of the seats.
00:05:57
Speaker
So the first section of upper deck seats, like the first four that are, those are all still there and anything above that. They, they took it out and they, I'm going to do this last year, a year before, I think a year before. And they, there's like a pavilion up there and all kinds and it's kind of like open.
00:06:10
Speaker
It's like, you can see through. It's kind of really weird. i Anyway, enough about that, but I would check it out if you have the, the opportunity. to go up in that but new, I think it's, of course the name is a little, it's the North Coast Social.
00:06:27
Speaker
It's about as gay as that beard.
00:06:31
Speaker
Wait, wait, I had, nope. One of those. was one of those. Anywho, so that was, it was there was a a tough work day.
Trump's China Visit and Its Implications
00:06:45
Speaker
Moving on, I guess, to The news, the news, lots of, lots of talk this week. Lots of, lots of China, China talk this week, Tom.
00:06:57
Speaker
Trump in China. Would did you catch any of that stuff? Anything going on in China? Just blurbs here and there. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. There's, it depends. I guess i like anything else, it depends on who you talk to or what you listen to or whatever and how, how it went.
00:07:15
Speaker
ah You can't say, I mean, like they're commenting on things that they don't know about, like what they said. Like, oh, we didn't have this. No, I mean, they're twisting their words sometimes.
00:07:27
Speaker
Or assuming a lot like, yeah well, they didn't talk about this or they didn't talk about that. And think somebody me brought up one of the back and forth. It's like, well, we don't know everything they talked about, do we? They did a lot of talking outside of, you know.
00:07:42
Speaker
what was reported and all this other stuff. ah Here's what I thought. Here's the win for me.
00:07:49
Speaker
The People's Republic of China national band played YMCA for Trump. It was, it was on the list of me. I think that's a win.
00:08:01
Speaker
Yeah. I think they wanted him to, they wanted him to do the dance. Yeah, maybe.
00:08:10
Speaker
I thought that was pretty funny. And, you know, there's a couple, let's go over a couple of things, I guess, real quick. Got the couple of clips from his interview with Sean Hannity. And he goes over a couple of things.
00:08:24
Speaker
Kind of, you know, what they want from us, what what do he got, what, what, What deals are they talking about? I guess that the, probably the biggest one would be oil. They kind of talked about energy and what they can, what how how we can help by selling China some of our oil.
00:08:42
Speaker
And here's what had to say. It probably is a deal to be had on the energy front, which would be great for our country. So... so I told him, I'd love to see you buy oil from Texas and Louisiana, from the United States, Alaska.
00:08:57
Speaker
We've got so much of it. And he said he likes the idea, like to talk about that. I think it'll happen. Yeah. That's a big deal. That's a big deal. I don't know. That would be a huge announcement. Look, they're doing it right now. They're sending Chinese ships up to buy oil. They do.
00:09:14
Speaker
So China buying oil, i don't know. Do they buy anything from us now? I didn't even, imagine it's not much, if anything. I don't think they were buying any oil from us. It would make sense when not necessarily in in China's eyes, the United States is not really the place you want to be relying on your energy from.
00:09:31
Speaker
Especially as of, you know, last couple of years, last year or so, maybe in the last few years, or even before um Biden too, it was a little bit hostile-ish, kind of, you know, what little pushback, a little pushback, which I personally think China respects in a lot of ways. You're right. I Googled it, so it has to be true.
00:09:52
Speaker
China has buys ah crude oil from the United States, but it has increased drastically of late. good So I imagine they just bought ah bit here and there, I guess.
00:10:06
Speaker
Yeah, just kind of fill in, you know. You got to have multiple sources. You got to keep everybody's beaks wet. In case of conditions like this, you got to have relations with a bunch of different countries because, we'll go on to, I guess, even further into it as far as oil. But the other thing, they a are going to buy jets, possibly, maybe.
00:10:32
Speaker
see what really yeah yeah 200 uh boeing jets ah maybe oh okay yeah it was i mean kind of sort of possibly could have it just been let's see what he says what does he want from the u.s um a lot of things we talked about we talked about a lot of things too many things to discuss but a lot of things we had a very good meeting but we want things from them um One thing he agreed to today is going to order 200 jets. That's a big thing, Boeing. 200 big ones.
00:11:07
Speaker
That's a lot of jobs. That's a lot. Boeing wanted 150, got 200. He ah he said, i sort of, i think it was a commitment. I mean, you know, sort of like a statement, but I think it was a commitment.
00:11:21
Speaker
You know, 200, mean, it was a commitment. Yeah, he's talking about he wants to buy jets. A lot of stuff that he talks about is that. Yeah. Yeah. They want to buy jets. They want to, it's the start of the conversation, start of negotiations. And I bet China wants jets with no tariffs or something, you know, something like that or or a deal of 200 jets is lot of fricking money, man. They talk about 747, 737, whatever it is. You're talking hundreds of millions of dollars a piece like that.
00:11:50
Speaker
And, uh, I don't know if those jets are hundreds of millions. Are they? and know I know, like, i wasn't the, wasn't the, oh, no, you know what, I'm i'm thinking about the USA 1, the president's plane.
00:12:08
Speaker
What is that called? What are they called? Oh, ah Air Force 1. Air Force 1. That was, like, over $4 billion, right? Yeah, but that's that's that's the 747, so that's different. Well, I mean, it would automatically be more, but just, for example, new 737 MAX, that's maybe between $100 million okay I mean, for 15 to see us. So, I mean, but if they're talking 747s, but those are a couple hundred million.
00:12:34
Speaker
And, you know, from China, they're probably looking at bigger planes. Got lots of people. 747. 747 is like $418. $400 talking quite a bit of money there. Oh, that production that 747-8. but four and a million dollars peace yeah so you're talking quite a bit of money there oh that production of that seven forty seven dash eight that stopped producing that in 2023 and they cost $418 to $419. Damn. a big plane.
00:13:08
Speaker
Quite a bit bigger than ones we're used to flying out of Ohio. Yeah. yeah du these i don't I don't think we can even take a 747 in... i think they used to come to Cleveland. I don't think they You need special gates for all those too.
00:13:20
Speaker
You need bigger everything. Huh. Okay. But yeah, you know, 200 jets, you know, could save Boeing. Boeing's kind of have been had some hard times lately, so that could help.
00:13:33
Speaker
And then, of course, ah the the Iran came up.
00:13:38
Speaker
Iran is, and don't know, there's too much to even go over. It changes by the hour. Iran's sinking boats now, hijacking boats. We're shooting their boats and sinking their boats.
00:13:55
Speaker
Is it Iran or is it some maniac out there? wow That's it. you know You know what I mean? Like not, mean, is it their leadership since like, we don't even know what's going on.
00:14:08
Speaker
It's almost like you're looking at my clips, Tom. Here you go. Maybe they're in some, maybe they're in some turmoil as, as Trump says here. having a lot of turmoil. They got nothing but turmoil inside.
00:14:18
Speaker
and it's an amazing phenomenon. Nobody wants to be the president. You it's like they say, who wants to be president president? No, no president here. Anybody want to be president? if I don't want to be president. But I've known you long enough to know you you don't have infinite patience.
00:14:35
Speaker
You have patience. You're being patient. No, I'm not. I'm not going to be much more patient. No, I'm not. um They should make a deal. Any sane person would make a deal.
00:14:46
Speaker
But they might be crazy. They're having a lot of turmoil. Might be crazy. Herein lies the problem, right, with Iran and any of these people, these religious governments in the Middle East.
00:15:04
Speaker
crazy. Iran in particular has a group called, ah and i I heard about these 15 years ago, called the 12ers. And their goal, and this it's it's the people behind the Ayatollah and the and the president of Iran, people don't hear about.
00:15:22
Speaker
And they their goal is to bring back the Messiah. And the one way to do that, bring back Allah, whoever, whatever. one And the only way to do that is something to the effect of, the only way the Messiah comes back is if the world's on fire.
00:15:38
Speaker
Something like no wars and famine and you know death. So how do you negotiate with those people? Similar in Iraq and Afghanistan. How do you negotiate with people who would die for what they, before they let you help?
00:15:55
Speaker
You blow them up. Exactly. You, you, you put political pressure, financial pressure, military pressure. This is, I think what we're seeing here and the people on the inside have to take care of them.
00:16:07
Speaker
Somebody eventually is going to, there's I think there's, cause we, we see them talking about, well, we have this proposal, 15 point plan, whatever it was. And then they're bombing, then missiles are launching. So it looks like there's two, two factions here, at least two, probably more like 15, but yeah,
00:16:26
Speaker
And there's a case. It has to be taken care of. And I think the longer this goes on, it hurts at home, but the longer this goes on, the more the world's going get involved and be like, come on, lady. And as we see, final clip from this Hannity interview is China would like to help.
00:16:41
Speaker
President Xi would like to see a deal made. He would like to see a deal made. And oh he did offer, he said, if I can be of any help at all, I would like to be of help. He did say that. Yeah, he did say that. And look, yeah anybody that buys that much oil has obviously got some relationship with him.
00:17:00
Speaker
But he said, I would love to be help. If I could be of any help whatsoever, he'd like to see the hormones straight open. He said, if I could be of any help whatsoever, I would like to help.
00:17:13
Speaker
So if the world doesn't want to help, the world doesn't want to help, the world can't,
00:17:20
Speaker
come up with enough testosterone to take care of Iran. Well, how about we just force your hand or Germany wants to send a ship there or has sent a ship there.
00:17:35
Speaker
Hey, we're good. I mean, yeah, gas prices are going up. we'll talk about that later, but we're not shutting down our, our economy because you can't get oil out of the straight. Well, I guess you guys got to ah pony up some, uh, some balls and,
00:17:49
Speaker
And help out a little.
00:17:52
Speaker
I would guess his goal is to have this done in the next month, month and a half. i don't think you want I don't think he wants people ah paying this forecast over through the summer before the midterms.
00:18:06
Speaker
No. No. I think is' it's it's a good strategy if you can get it done. think we're working our way towards that. And...
Iran's Turmoil and International Dynamics
00:18:18
Speaker
We're getting more help from the national community, international community, which is what we need. It's what they need. Like, and I think China sees, okay, when when this all flushes out, it's not going to be Iran running the straight.
00:18:34
Speaker
There's no way that anyone's gonna let that happen. it might as well, hey, we they still want the oil. So if they get, if they, if you could bring these people in to help clear this out and take care of Iran, then everybody's in better shape.
00:18:50
Speaker
I don't know. Seems, seems risky, but. Will Iran ever go back to being what it was 50 years ago? It has the potential to. You got to get rid of these crazy people. They got to be killed. Literally, they there's no, again, somebody who will give up their life before they even take a hint of help in this situation like this is not somebody, you can't negotiate with these people.
00:19:15
Speaker
Right. Now, I mean, besides with the bullet. I would think, the bulk of the country wants it to go back to what it was. Right. Yeah. Okay. So because most of the country, why isn't anybody pushing back there?
00:19:34
Speaker
I think they are. well i don't know if we see it, if we can see it, but they, I think also one of the reasons we went in at this time, because they were having these riots, they were having these protests all over Iran. Okay. In the street. And then yeah Trump kept saying, Hey, keep, hold it back. Helps on the way, helps on the way. And then a couple months later we're bombing.
00:19:52
Speaker
Right. like were I, you know, we're all over Iran, special forces, whoever is going to be trying to move this along.
00:20:03
Speaker
It would be a phenomenal move to have gas prices plummeting, you know, in there four months before the midterms. Well, it it needs to happen because, I mean, summertime, people people want to travel.
00:20:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:19
Speaker
That is true. We'll actually talk a little about that later. Maybe I should have moved things around a little bit. But here we are.
00:20:28
Speaker
So I guess that kind of wraps up that. now I guess the next thing, Cuba looks like it's about to collapse. we We've we got the head of our ca CIA meeting with, the think it was the president, wasn't it? of of Not the president, because the president is the one they want to arrest. But somebody from Cuba, maybe was the president. I don't know.
00:20:46
Speaker
But they seem like they want to go, oh, please, please, don't don't invade. Please, please. We don't want to do it. fun let's Let's talk first. Let's talk first. That seems to be interesting. They're half the, half the islands got no power or something.
00:21:01
Speaker
Got no energy. They're about to collapse. So that's going to be the next. It's weird. All these things that said they were said were impossible to do over and over again.
00:21:12
Speaker
Iran's still up in the air, of course, but so is Cuba technically. Well, isn't Cuba like part of the plan? Yeah. It's just controlling the oil. It's the Trump doctrine.
00:21:26
Speaker
The, our hemisphere should be a safe haven for Western ideologies and Western cultures. It's kind of the way we're working, working our way South next will be in the South America. Cause that's the next problem.
00:21:39
Speaker
Now what's Russia up to? Russia has their handful, has their hands full with Ukraine. Okay. Which I think is tied together. I, I, I don't think there's a way Ukraine makes the headway they've made without the United States in the background.
00:21:55
Speaker
I don't think so. You mean U.S. doing this in Iran? i mean, like, intelligence-wise. Oh, yeah. Of course. And and help. we're We're not advertising like we were. But I feel, at least, it's not a coincidence that all of a sudden all talks with China or with Russia on Ukraine have broken down. And now Ukraine has been hitting Russia really hard.
00:22:22
Speaker
And not on the, not talking about military wins, talking about drone attacks deep into Russia and major oil facilities that are ablaze. and And this is over the last few weeks and exactly where you need to hit them. If you want, if you want to make them hurt. Now, the problem with Russia making them hurt is they've got those special bombs that, you know, clear out entire countries that call nuclear weapons that Russia's doctrine for nuclear weapons is way different than America.
00:22:50
Speaker
They have a way quicker trigger than we do. So you you risk that. But if you want to hurt their war effort, if they can't sell as much oil, it's really going to hurt their war effort.
00:23:02
Speaker
And that's, it sounds like somebody's somebody who knows what they're doing kind of a plan. You know maybe somebody who's been on the international market and negotiated for a while and kind of knows, hmm.
00:23:14
Speaker
Almost like something that no other presidents wouldn't do because it makes sense. It's actually a strategic, strategically makes sense, but we wouldn't want to do that because we got to drag these wars out as long as possible.
00:23:27
Speaker
You can't do that kind of stuff unless you're carrying a big stick. Well, and yes, unless you actually care about solving You have have a twitchy Rob. If you actually care about solving it is my point, though. Yes, you're right. You have to have the twitchy eye. But I don't think previous presidents, I don't think Biden cared about solving it. I think he just wanted to drag it on. Biden, all he cared about was his rocking chair. Come on. When I mean Biden, I mean all the people behind him, not Biden himself. Well, all they care about is themselves.
00:23:54
Speaker
Well, yeah, making more money. That's my point. Yeah, yes. These are moves that somebody who actually wants to solve, a lot of these things we're talking about domestically and internationally are, are hey, how about, let's go let's go way back to to his first presidency.
00:24:10
Speaker
Hey, there's no way we can move the embassy and in Jerusalem to Jerusalem. Hey, look, we moved the embassy to Jerusalem and nothing happened. Like all these things were were told we could never happen because no one, ever they they didn't want them to happen.
00:24:25
Speaker
Southern poverty law, you know, feeding the feed in the KKK so they can keep it going. so Anyway. Wow. wait Kicking the can down the road. That's all it is.
00:24:37
Speaker
Yeah. well yeah this this is These are like long-term solutions he's trying for. Filling the can with money and then kicking down it road. That's Well, filling their pocket with money. yeah Like picking up the can, filling full of money, and then filling their pocket and kicking it down the road.
00:24:53
Speaker
For the next guy to fill his pocket with money. Yep. ah what What a great analogy we just had. Oh, wouldn no, that was awful. so Okay, moving on to...
00:25:04
Speaker
I think that was all I had, Iran deal. Yeah, okay. So it'd be nice to have China help with Iran, just to wrap it back around. That'd be good. they They are the biggest losers in all this because they get most big at the most oil, I think, out of Iran.
00:25:19
Speaker
And i think also was mentioned that they were talking about, had discussed China not supplying Iran with military weapons. Now, right how much can you believe them?
00:25:33
Speaker
I don't know, but it's at least they're saying that. It's something.
00:25:39
Speaker
Well, you could believe them about as much as their eyes are open. As far as you can throw them. But that's something. That's better than saying, no, don't tell us what to do. Yeah, yeah. At least that.
00:25:51
Speaker
And then, you know, the whole YMCA thing. It was a win. It's a win-win. Moving on something. Trump do dance? I don't think so, no. Yeah, that'd be kind of weird. I would think we would have seen that. That would have been amazing.
00:26:05
Speaker
Yeah. I'd like the handshake. The handshake was just, it was, it looked like two, two, two alpha males, not to give ge z too much credit, but trump says he's very tall. He's very tall. He said, yeah. Oh yeah. He is. Of course. to just To stay at the leader of China for this long, he's, he's ruthless is what he is. And yeah, we're going into how, how you stay in communist leader for that long? but But But it was it was a it was it was quite the ah quite the scene.
00:26:35
Speaker
If you haven't seen it, I would check it out. I got to see that. Yeah. I mean, it's nothing in like, oh my gosh, but there, are you know, Trump's, let's say it was a stark difference from our previous president. nina You know, was wandering around the stage while the Chinese president's going, hey, you're going to shake my hand?
00:26:51
Speaker
It wasn't that bad, but it was close. Moving on. to a follow-up, a continuation of last week's, a story from last week, which is now starting to snowball.
Medicaid Fraud in Ohio
00:27:07
Speaker
And that's the Ohio, the fraud in the Ohio Medicaid system. And it seems it's got some national attention and a new task force.
00:27:19
Speaker
Yay, a wild task force because we suck so bad. and they're the GOP Oversight Committee Task Force on Defending Constitutional Rights and Exposing International Abuse is now on the case.
00:27:33
Speaker
And I think the first thing they're doing, yeah, first thing announced was Daily Wire. is this part we're goingnna Basically, use this is part four. Daily Wire's got like, I think we got three articles on Daily Wire.
00:27:46
Speaker
And Medicaid investigators triggers the investigation that they kind of uncovered. Well, they they kind of didn't uncover it, but we'll get into that. But it triggers a $1.4 billion dollars spending freeze.
00:28:02
Speaker
And i think after this report, they're going to, they're not ah they're not approving any new
00:28:10
Speaker
new Medicaid or Medicare home health home businesses for the foreseeable future. um And my notes.
00:28:22
Speaker
Yes. Looking at my notes, Ohio. Read the first part of the article, bonehead. Okay. After the Daily Wire investigates ah investigated investigation into waste, fraud, and abuse tied to government-funded home healthcare industry, Trump administration has moved on Wednesday to freeze over a billion dollars worth of spending and is ah warning states to root out fraud or pay the price. Let's listen to the little background here here we got from Fox News on Medicaid fraud.
00:28:52
Speaker
Congressman Warren Davidson is calling for stronger oversight of Medicaid after a recent audit found an error rate of nearly 16% in the state system. That means that millions or even billions of dollars could be at risk for waste or fraud. Our senior correspondent Mike Tobin shows us tonight. He's in our Midwest Bureau.
00:29:11
Speaker
Scrutiny over Medicaid fraud now turns to suspicious billing in Ohio, something the vice president has been talking about for months. We know that the fraud isn't just happening in Minneapolis. It's also happening in states like Ohio. A state audit found almost 40 percent of Medicaid's home health services dollars spent in Ohio went to just one county. Franklin County, of which Columbus is the seat. And more than 40% of that money went to just two zip codes. The addresses are all within four miles of each other. The overall tax dollars in question run into the billions. 800 million to 4 billion is real money.
00:29:47
Speaker
It's real money for Bob and Betty Buckeye, who we all work for, and it's real money that we want to see get fixed. Home health care providers are supposed to care for people in the dignity and comfort of their own homes. Fox News tracked two buildings within the Franklin County zip codes that house a total of more than five dozen home health care businesses between them. The suspicion, like other Medicaid fraud cases, is that services are billed but underdelivered or not delivered at all. We, of course, want to make sure that the payments are going to people that, let's say in an extreme case, is the person that's receiving home care still alive?
00:30:21
Speaker
Are they being cared for? Does someone show up and care for them? What does that care look like? Governor Mike DeWine wrote that Ohio has extensive oversight mechanisms like signed activity logs, background checks on providers and electronic visit verification.
00:30:35
Speaker
The state auditor tells us loopholes exist. The numbers don't reflect that they have the controls in place to stop what could be a very large situation of fraud.
00:30:46
Speaker
Now, placed in charge of the Medicaid Fraud Task Force, the vice president is turning investigators on his home state. And as he posted on X to take immediate action to prosecute any fraudsters involved and stop all further payments as appropriate.
00:30:59
Speaker
John? A lot of this going around. Mike Tubbin, Forrest in Chicago. Mike, thank you. Yes, a lot of this going around. Uh-huh. So DeWine says they've got extensive
00:31:14
Speaker
programs, mechanisms to stop fraud, like background checks. Like, um let's see, they they have GPS, GPS monitoring or registration for when you go to these home healthcare places. Hmm.
00:31:33
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. and I'm not sure how well they're doing in this. And for for one of the reasons, the the so the GPS
00:31:46
Speaker
registration is meant to use the, I think there's an app or something you register that you're there for how long you're there. And there is a system in Ohio for that, but it's voluntary.
00:31:59
Speaker
And half the people don't use it.
00:32:05
Speaker
Have you heard have you heard any local news talking about this? You would think there'd be the headlines, right? It is not in any of the local news sites, no.
00:32:18
Speaker
So I've got three Daily Wire articles, Fox News reports.
00:32:25
Speaker
Yeah, mate I bet it's on the... um Jack Winder's site. He was talking about it. Yeah, but he's not mainstream. No, no, no. i'm just saying, yeah. no I'm talking mainstream.
00:32:36
Speaker
Even like the ones out of Columbus, I'm look i'm searching online. Yeah, yeah. And the the articles just aren't really there. and when lester following Unless they're reporting on the Daily Wire article.
00:32:49
Speaker
I don't even know if they're doing that. This is like huge news and nobody's talking about it. like So your average... Joe Schmo coming home from work, having dinner, watching the, even you know, the, not the evening news, but the, whatever they call that. Dinner time news. You sit down you watch five, five o'clock news, six o'clock news, whatever.
00:33:09
Speaker
Yeah. You're not hearing any of this. It's crazy. So, really so the audit, there's an audit from the state. No, I guess I get, let's, let's go with this, this way first.
00:33:22
Speaker
couple different ways I can go with this. I wouldn't sure. But if you remember, this is not the first time we talked about this. I mean, we talked about this all the way back last week, but also quite a few months ago, like yeah a year ago, six months ago.
00:33:37
Speaker
Do remember? At least six months. i yeah I don't know if it was a year ago. but yeah Let's see what um Jack has to say. Here's a little clip from his show about, well, it's not the first time we've heard of this. And it's convenient all that we have extensive fraud prevention in our Medicaid system.
00:33:57
Speaker
But yet, I think the government's office announced more fraud prevention on Medicaid because we've got so much that we need more. But here's here's what Jack has to say. it reminds us of a Mr., I think Michael Duvall, who sent a letter, started looking into this. mete He was thinking $4 to $6 billion dollars in and Medicaid fraud.
00:34:16
Speaker
And here's what Jack has say. State Representative Mike Davila, if you don't know his name, you need to get to know it. We've talked about him on this show a lot, particularly with the great work he did in investigating the Medicaid system a year ago.
00:34:32
Speaker
Actually, a year and a half ago. We published the report a year ago when he found six billion dollars in payments that run through Ohio's system that didn't have the proper oversight.
00:34:44
Speaker
ah Nothing. But yet a like a year later, DeWine wants to act like he's got it all under control. And so Davila went out to X today and said, because remember, DeWine talked about the ah new fraud prevention initiative to strengthen and build upon longstanding efforts to fight fraud, waste and abuse in the Ohio Medicaid system. So Davila says the only thing.
00:35:08
Speaker
that has been long in development is persistently ignoring and denying these in similar is instances of fraud, waste and abuse and allowing cabinet officers to do the same.
00:35:19
Speaker
So I'm going to call it what it is. It's a cover your ass operation by Governor Mike DeWine. That's how I see it. And he's going to have to forgive me and the Lord's going to have to forgive me for my foul mouth.
00:35:34
Speaker
there's something awfully screwy going on around here.
00:35:41
Speaker
or or um you know, we actually could probably play this too. Move on! Nothing to see here! Please disperse!
00:35:50
Speaker
That's what DeWine's office was saying all week. nothing There's nothing going on. it's just I remember things on fire behind you. I remember ah talking about that. I can't believe it's been a year, yeah over a year.
00:36:03
Speaker
Wow. yeah Mike Dovilla, he your rep too? he's He's my rep. i yeah i think i don't i don't i don't think so, but maybe he's close.
00:36:16
Speaker
He's a rep adjacent to him. So they have an audit, right? They audited it and said, ah if the state has an electronic validation system, oh, sorry, Fader, go back to this.
00:36:30
Speaker
They examined payments in 2022 and found 44% of personal service claims had no electronic verification.
00:36:38
Speaker
And the result was in approximately 1.1 billion in claims not supported by EVV, which is electronic, electronic verification, whatever, electronic visit verification.
00:36:53
Speaker
So what over a billion dollars does not even have that as, so we have the system. but it's only volunteer and it's because of privacy concerns.
00:37:05
Speaker
All of a sudden everybody's worried about their privacy. And if you're taking state funds, but, but your privacy is very important, but I wonder what the notifications or the location data or settings are on your phone for Facebook.
00:37:20
Speaker
Worried about your privacy all of a sudden. um The audit said if the state has an electronic verification system, then using it should be a condition of payment. Spokesperson for the Ohio Medicaid department, Stacey O'Grady told the Daily Wire that this was done in March of 25. Oh, I ah mean it.
00:37:43
Speaker
ah But shortly before EVV was made mandatory, it was neutered as a fraud prevention tool. The most important feature, GPS coordinates captured by an electronic device was made optional and defaulted to off.
00:38:01
Speaker
Effective July 1st, 2024, GPS functionality with any EVV applicant or device may only be activated with the signed consent of the individual receiving services.
00:38:17
Speaker
So if you've got a daughter who needs a little extra cash, you can sign her up and then you say, oh my privacy, I don't want to use EVV. I'm sorry.
00:38:30
Speaker
You're getting money from the quote unquote safety net. Your privacy, I'm sorry, you you got to give up some those.
00:38:40
Speaker
O'Grady disclosed that the Daily Wire, to the Daily Wire, that GPS is turned off in nearly half of home visits and reliably court a reliable coordinates presented in only 53 of electronic records.
00:38:55
Speaker
Okay. I believe says somewhere... You can also manually change these and that a bunch of them is two stories mixed up actually, but I'm looking for it.
00:39:13
Speaker
Yes. He said that the common fraud scheme involves a patient and caregiver colluding to have the government pay for non-existing work, in which case the patient could simply refuse GPS verification of the caregivers presence.
00:39:30
Speaker
said Fader's audit said the Ohio, that Ohio spent 146 million contracting with Sandata, a company that produces EVV devices and software resulting in Ohio providers being able to use Santa's, Sandata's, keep wanting to say Santa for some reason, Sandata's software for free.
00:39:56
Speaker
Nonetheless, the state allows home caregivers to use their own software instead of potentially including software that simply transmits fake coordinates.
00:40:07
Speaker
So that you, hmm, gee, nothing to see here, people. Okay, so, and then we go on to talk about, well, they they they do background checks.
00:40:22
Speaker
Oh, do they? Do you remember this from last week? Um, let's talk, i'll pull one. I cheated and pulled a clip from last week. The who, who's behind this? So we do background checks, but what does it matter? Let's, let's, let's review one.
00:40:40
Speaker
Pick a few doors at random and you'll find the industry is a get-rich-quick scheme for people who oftentimes are the last ones you'd want put in charge of health. Let's pick the door that says, Home Healthcare LLC, out for a quick break.
00:40:54
Speaker
The company's owner is listed in Medicaid records as Mamusu Kanu. According to public records, she has a slew of criminal infractions, including theft, assault and malicious wounded, as well as civil judgments and tax liens. True Home Health Care received $100,000 in December 2023 alone, despite having only 15 patients, according to newly released federal data.
00:41:17
Speaker
Kahn was charged with felony aggravated assault in Virginia and convicted of theft in Columbus in 2004, 2005, and 2006. Oh, that's it. in a phone interview, Mamusu Sue Kanu denied that she had a criminal record. if I do, it doesn't have anything to do with nobody. They satisfy you before you do anything. She's suggesting that the government knew and didn't have a problem with her criminal background.
00:41:44
Speaker
And from what we've seen in our investigation, she's probably right. Incorporation documents don't list Canu's name, only a man named Aliu Conte. Conte has faced 30 charges in Franklin County Court alone, including for endangering children.
00:41:59
Speaker
They face foreclosure in Columbus immediately before opening their Medicaid business. The couple have been partners in crime for decades. On December 12, 2004, both Canu and Conte were charged with theft in Columbus. Conte told The Daily Wire, Yes, I do have a lot of records. But the Ohio Department of Medicaid is fine with that, he said. put in my application, the government's Medicare, they check, they see all my...
00:42:28
Speaker
my history and they approved the business to operate. Now, Conte had a roster of fake names that he would give to the police, such as Osman Kanu and Gabise Gabla, leading to multiple fraud convictions. The thing is, the government is not just blind to wrongdoing that should be disqualifying in this field. It's going out of its way to provide special help and actually enable these immigrant business owners. In 2012, the Ohio Nursing Board permitted Conte to become a nurse under a probationary agreement that acknowledged his repeated fraud and violent tendencies. The probationary licensure was contingent on his meeting certain terms, including being honest, disclosing his employers to the nursing board, and refraining from crimes. He did none of those. but
00:43:11
Speaker
He was convicted of DUIs in September 2014 and November 2014. When he submitted an application to review his nursing license in 2016, he falsely said he hadn't been convicted of any crimes and that he was unemployed, even though he was in fact working as a nurse. His license was suspended in July 2017. Now, in September 2017, Conte told the nursing board he intended to seek alcohol dependency treatment and regretted his actions.
00:43:37
Speaker
Just eight days later, he was arrested for DUI yet again. That's right. it was I it was a reason I wanted to get to the end. Yeah. Background checks, huh?
00:43:49
Speaker
Background checks. Interesting. um ah Yeah, you do background checks, but it doesn't seem to matter if you're if you're certifying people with multiple theft and fraud convictions.
00:44:05
Speaker
It's a conviction or two. um Yeah. It's just, you know, just theft, like literally in the same city, multiple times by the same two people. Good Lord. But like, like the spokesperson said, when we first talked about this, this kind of fraud few months ago, it's part of doing business, Tom, hard doing business.
00:44:28
Speaker
yeah So they got 40% of the money. of the money
00:44:34
Speaker
going to one county, Franklin County, which is Columbus, 40% of that money is going to two buildings with over 60 healthcare care companies owned by the same company, the same person, the same whatever it is.
00:44:55
Speaker
He owns like six or seven buildings, learned last week.
00:44:59
Speaker
That's 10%. I think I read that's 10%. Yeah. That means 10% of all home healthcare care companies in the state are located in the seven buildings owned by one landlord in Columbus.
00:45:12
Speaker
Columbus is Somali neighborhood. Wait, did he say Somali neighborhood? 10% of the money, the billion dollars, hundred million dollars.
00:45:24
Speaker
Was that, that i think yeah. So home home health companies in Ohio, which were, let's see, Federer's Audit in 2022, there were 2,479 home care companies in Ohio, which were paid $1.8 billion. I mean, that means 10% of all home health care companies in the state are located in the seven buildings owned by that one landlord, which is in highlighted in our in the second installment that we talked about.
00:45:48
Speaker
We talked about that last week. It was of the clips.
00:45:55
Speaker
They don't even care. They know they're getting away with it. They don't even care. And be honest with you, thank you, because this is how you get caught. You get greedy. A little too brazen for me, right? Or stupid. Because we are talking about the low IQ here.
00:46:11
Speaker
Yeah. They figure out how to rip us off.
00:46:17
Speaker
Yeah. i guess it's not too hard, so you can be low IQ. Yeah, that's because if you're low IQ, this is... it's And I guess tied into this is also, I mean, I ran into this story, which is Ohio is at risk of a massive snap penalty.
00:46:45
Speaker
This is a story by, oh, this is a Buckeye Institute article, article, story, don't know, buckeyeinstitute.org. I've never seen them before. I don't, But they go through basically
00:47:02
Speaker
Ohio is facing a massive payment if they don't get their fraud, their snap fraud under control. Because right now they're saying Ohio has a 9% payment error rate.
00:47:17
Speaker
9% of snap payments are going to people who don't shouldn't get them.
00:47:22
Speaker
And the new law. It's part of doing business, right? Yeah, it's just fraud. It's the cost of doing business. Almost 10%. Part of the new law.
00:47:31
Speaker
So here, let me read this. Since 2023, SNAP erroneous payments have been steadily rising likely to to food and nutrition services lenient requirements during, can you guess, Tom, during?
00:47:42
Speaker
COVID? COVID! Fucking COVID! Ugh. Extending certification periods, foregoing face-to-face interviews. I mean, what could go wrong? And ignoring ah periodic periodic reporting encouraged individuals to falsely inform.
00:48:00
Speaker
Hey, what do you know? when When the cat's away, the mice will play and steal everything from you. Most states also have allowed SNAP EBT cards to purchase food online, but only a handful used EBT chip security to reef to reduce fraud.
00:48:20
Speaker
And that's kind of, they're looking at a bunch of payments from out-of-state payments for on the SNAP benefit program. I know there's online payments and out-of-state. That blew me away. i was like, yeah what the hell is going on here?
00:48:34
Speaker
So in fiscal year 2024, Ohio snap error payment rate was approximately 9%. Two points. here Here's the good news, guys. Here's the good news. It's two points lower than the national average.
00:48:46
Speaker
Oh, yeah, Ohio.
00:48:51
Speaker
So the national average is 11% error rate. That means there's many states I could only, I can't think of, what and no states come to mind that would have a higher error rate than 11%, like,
00:49:04
Speaker
i don't know Illinois, California, New York, Seattle, Oregon. um So now the new law requires that states with a 6% or higher you know erroneous payment rate, that's even high in my opinion, pay between 5% and 15% of the benefit cost.
00:49:26
Speaker
So instead of splitting administrative costs, the federal government will now only cover 25%, leaving states responsible for the remaining 75%, which that's where it comes in.
00:49:38
Speaker
If they don't get this under control, to looking at a match cost of an extra $321 million. dollars If it fails to lower the error rate below 6% by fiscal year, 2028, Ohio's error rate persists at current levels, it will face a $588 million costs.
00:49:56
Speaker
in matching costs Evil Trump administration. Add it again. Yay. More fraud.
00:50:10
Speaker
And then the next story, like you know what? Alaska is the highest. 25%. Are you freaking kidding me? No. It's all those indigenous people.
00:50:23
Speaker
Washington, D.C., 13% is the next one. Georgia, Florida, New Mexico, Massachusetts, and South Dakota.
00:50:34
Speaker
Oh, South Dakota actually has the lowest at 3%. And
00:50:40
Speaker
and that's too high. Well, I would think like 1% to 2%. Under under should be. Yeah.
00:50:49
Speaker
But, you know, they're keep they're trying to hold the states accountable and saying, hey, get this stuff under control. how much would it How much of it would be states covering it up too?
00:51:02
Speaker
Well, oh loosening the requirements. like Right, right, right. Like with Medicaid, you know. And that that's a lot of this too is his background. Yeah.
00:51:17
Speaker
Yeah, they go through, ah i mean this this is a very long, it's not too long, but there's a lot here to to take a look at. so I would go read it if it's something it really bugs you. It'll just bug you even more if you go read it. So please do. Yeah.
00:51:35
Speaker
Basically that's the, I think the one there there is some EBT yet chip security to reduce fraud. That's a snap in 2020 or three snap erroneous payments have been steadily increasing. um Most States also have allowed snap EBT cards to be purchased food online and, but only a handful. 9% again, we're going through all this. Sorry, repeat myself, but there was something in there that you you can use. They have a
00:52:02
Speaker
more of a, you you have to use your location or something like that to make the payments. And that that was another thing that was,
00:52:11
Speaker
yeah. so federal law requires Ohio to better supervise SNAP payments and reduce program um problematic fraud, waste and abuse. Failure to do so will mean paying stiff federal penalties, adopting a more integrated, collaborative data sharing infrastructure will help meet federal standards, protect taxpayer resources, and ensure fiscal responsibility.
00:52:38
Speaker
And Senator Houston, Houston's Upward Mobility Act will protect beneficiaries by easing disincentivizes that create procedural or perpetual welfare traps. You know, again, more fraud. ah Like half of our budget is fricking fraud. I'm telling you.
00:53:06
Speaker
You know, and ah good in New Mexico, over 20% of the population receives SNAP benefits.
00:53:15
Speaker
No wonder they're blue. Like, i that one, that state always kind of confused me. Would it have to do with a lot of Native American Indian population? Yeah.
00:53:26
Speaker
Do they vote, really, though? Good point.
00:53:34
Speaker
I don't know. Yeah, don't i don't know. Some do. I imagine some do. I i always thought that works thought it was because of that, but now I'm like, are... Is it the Native Americans taking most of the SNAP benefits? Could be.
00:53:48
Speaker
Could be. Yeah. They usually, in those states are usually the um some of the most impoverished people for whatever reason. That wouldn't make sense, but still 20%. Come on, man.
00:54:02
Speaker
Come on. Come on, man. Yeah, they got 21 and a half percent. yikes
SNAP Benefits and Fraud Issues
00:54:10
Speaker
I can't believe Alaska's 12, 25% error rate or your erroneous payment rate. And the next one down is DC at 13.
00:54:17
Speaker
and Holy cow. What's going on? and Is it too cold to to do a lot of these things? Listen to this. I mean, I don't have the whole story here, but this this is straight from ah the USDA.
00:54:28
Speaker
Alaska, approximately 25%, heavily skewed toward overpayments, though in an improvement from previous years. Oh. But not necessarily you're not able to get payments. They're just giving you way too much.
00:54:44
Speaker
A lot of people. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Okay. Well, I think the next related story I had to throw in was, oh no. 1300 in Cuyahoga County have lost their SNAP benefits
00:55:01
Speaker
with thousands more at risk. Wait.
00:55:07
Speaker
Let's listen to the idea stream, see what they have to say.
00:55:12
Speaker
About 1300 Cuyahoga County residents no longer qualify for the federal supplemental nutrition assistance program. I'm ideas from public media's Gabriel Kramer reporting that benefits will run out at the end of the month.
00:55:25
Speaker
Changes to the federal budget changed the eligibility requirements for SNAP. Kevin Gowan, the director for Cuyahoga job and family services, says the guidelines change who was considered an able bodied adult requiring more people to wear jobs to receive benefits. So the concern overall is food insecurity is going increase and it may have a of ah a compound compounding effect beyond the simple benefits. The work requirement was previously applied to able-bodied people 18 to 54 and is now required for adults up to 64 years old and parents whose children are 14 and older. Gowan says about 4,000 more people will be notified of lost SNAP benefits in the next 6 to 12 months. Gabriel Kramer, Ideastream Public Media.
00:56:09
Speaker
So basically, they're able to work.
00:56:14
Speaker
The good news for them, I mean, like you can get a job. that the snap Snap says that, and your doctors say you're able to work. So how bad is it?
00:56:26
Speaker
Well, the county initially had more than 20,000 people at risk for losing SNAP benefits due to these changes. Wow, that's a lot of people.
00:56:37
Speaker
Gowan said his office found about 75% of those people were eligible for exemptions under the new rules. Oh, okay. So basically all you got to do is go to your doctor, convince your doctor that you're not able-bodied.
00:56:51
Speaker
And if he puts notes in your, you can write a note or whatever. And then you go to Ohio Jobs and Family Services and show them that and you get exempted. Do we need to start investigating doctors now? I was thinking this. I think that's, first of all, that's one check and balance, right? i That is way better than it was before, I think.
00:57:11
Speaker
I don't know how it was before, actually. Whether you just check a box, say, I'm not ably able to work, and that was it. So at least maybe this is that, a little bit of a check. But what are the requirements? What are the guidelines? What does your doctor have to do?
00:57:27
Speaker
Again, knew people. I knew a guy that was on, don't know if he was on Medicaid, but he was definitely on Social Security early. I mean, he was in his 50s. ah Disability? Disability. Yeah, he was on disability because he hurt his foot.
00:57:43
Speaker
So, he i mean, he couldn't work anywhere because he hurt his foot and got part of his foot amputated in a motorcycle accident. Yeah, he still rode his Harley. So...
00:57:55
Speaker
how able-bodied are you if you can still ride a motorcycle down the street? What did he do though? What did he do as it for a living? Nothing.
00:58:07
Speaker
No, no, no. He used to be an iron worker. Well, yeah iron worker. Okay. Okay. No, he was, sorry. He was an iron workers union. And I was like, Oh really? He's like, yeah, we made toothpaste containers. What?
00:58:18
Speaker
Yeah, they were unionized under the iron workers. Oh, I see. Because okay because the met there's metal in the ah toothpaste things, or at least there was. Yeah, yeah. And so they were unionized under that local.
00:58:31
Speaker
And I said, so you still can't make those? I mean, I didn't obviously say that, but I was thinking, oh, that means you, mean, you could do something. He could walk. He could ride a motorcycle. Yeah.
00:58:44
Speaker
No, I know. I was just curious. I mean, no, yeah, no i yeah yeah that's what that was my, my, yeah. was like well How, how loose are these requirements? Because that guy could have worked. I mean, he obviously he's not going to be digging ditches or bailing hay, but right I mean, you could be, you could work at a gas station.
00:59:05
Speaker
I mean, you're not going to pay your bills, but you'd be something. Yeah, yeah that's the thing. I mean, he was probably making decent money at the toothpaste place. He had other jobs. He had other jobs that were not above board.
00:59:19
Speaker
and he got And he got benefits. So, I mean, like the guy wasn't rolling in or anything, but still.
00:59:27
Speaker
So basically... These 1300 people that lost their benefits in the 4,000, won't be 4,000. When they get the letter, they're, they're advising people to talk to your doctor, get these notes on your, on your account. If the doctor were, you know, basically go doctor shopping and they don't say that, but I said that and Get it on your, in your medical history. And then but you get the letter. you can call the Ohio Department of Family Service, Jobs and Family Services, and then they will help you get the exemption. So there'll be another thousand or two that out of that 4,000 that probably get there. But I mean, well, I feel so far as from go work. Sorry.
01:00:10
Speaker
There's that. There's more people. Cut and...
01:00:18
Speaker
Good thing I got a good memory, Tom, because I forgot to put it in the list. But hey, check out the blog every Monday. CrookedRiverCast.com We have all of our stories. A lot of our audio clips are in the stories. or You can watch them yourself.
01:00:33
Speaker
Go through them. Tell us where we're right. Tell us where we're wrong. Send us an email then after that. Tell us how awesome we are or or not at CrookedRiverCast at gmail.com CrookedRiverCast at gmail.com And we really appreciate you listening.
01:00:47
Speaker
I also appreciate if you leave a comment, give us a review on your favorite podcast app. really helps get to
Ohio's Attorney General and Gas Prices
01:00:55
Speaker
show more exposure.
01:00:58
Speaker
CrookedRiverCast.com. Check out every Monday. Blog drops when the show does.
01:01:05
Speaker
right, Tom, let's go on. We can, let's see where we're at here today. Oh yeah, right on time. Good. Hit some of these, some of these headlines now. This one probably could have brought it up into the Medicaid fraud part, but DeWine announces his new attorney general pick. I went, what?
01:01:27
Speaker
What? Did you know that he was, that Yost was leaving? Yeah, I heard it, but I know i never ah heard why he's leaving. assumed it was after he was out of office.
01:01:40
Speaker
No, no. Well, no, I knew he was resigning before office. like eight more It's eight months before he's leaving, right? Yeah. But I never heard why he's leaving. It it was bizarre.
01:01:51
Speaker
Well, they say it in this article. article I got a clip from ah News Channel 5, of course, Morgan. Morgan's on the case, and... Well, I kept the beginning part only because it says what he's doing and and ah only the only the way the mainstream media can do it.
01:02:09
Speaker
Of course. Before the governor was here in Cleveland, he was naming a new Ohio attorney general. Safety director Andy Wilson is going to take the spot. The appointment takes effect next month when Dave Yost officially steps down. Yost is leaving that position early to join a Christian conservative law firm.
01:02:28
Speaker
Ohio's about to get a new top cop. He's got to point that out. He has carried out everything I've ever asked him to do. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine appointed Public Safety Director Andy Wilson to become Attorney General, replacing Dave Yost, who's leaving for a job in the private sector. Responsibility of leadership and what it means to do your duty. First group that that duty is is duty the Ohioans that that we serve.
01:02:52
Speaker
Wilson is a longtime ally of DeWine's and has worked as an attorney for decades. He was Clark County prosecutor but joined DeWine's criminal justice policy team to help reduce violent crime, better train law enforcement and improve school safety. While DeWine and Yost disagreed on many topics, especially social issues, Wilson and the governor are more aligned. Do you think that that will help some of your priorities moving forward? Andy Wilson was clearly, in in my mind, the right person. When I asked how he would address the Trump administration's priorities, Wilson said that he would always uphold the law, no matter the political issue. He says he'll start speaking with the AG's team as soon as possible, especially on the future of cases like the retrial of former First Energy executives that ended in a hung jury in March.
01:03:37
Speaker
I got to sit down with the trial team. like let's Let's talk about it. It's a mistrial. I want to know why it was a mistrial. He will only be in the position for seven months as a new attorney general will be voted into office in November. DeWine decided to go with Wilson over GOP nominee Keith Faber, who is currently state auditor. The idea of appointing one or maybe all of the statewide office orders just didn't seem right to me. If Faber had gotten Yost's job, a chain reaction of appointments could have taken place. Faber's seat would have opened for Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who was running for auditor. LaRose's seat would then open for current Treasurer Robert Sprague. We're only six what six months away from the election. For me to step in as governor and appoint literally every single statewide office holder i just didn't look right to me, didn't seem right to me, didn't seem like something that I should do.
01:04:29
Speaker
Now, Yost has congratulated his replacement, wishing him luck, continuing the work that he's done for seven years. At the Columbus Bureau, I'm Morgan Trout reporting. Yeah,
01:04:42
Speaker
so if he appoints the guy actually running for attorney general, then it just moves. There's all these ah all these vacancies that have to get filled for the next eight months.
01:04:57
Speaker
But it's convenient at this point in time because one of the, one of Yost's complaints during this whole Medicaid fraud, ah what going through this whole Medicaid fraud thing currently is he, he has no power.
01:05:09
Speaker
He has no power to do anything and they've, and they've neutered a lot of different root requirements. Is this guy going to be any better? I mean, how many times have they say he's, he's, he's DeWine's man? Yeah, he does whatever he wants.
01:05:21
Speaker
Yes, he does. He's done everything I've asked him to do, DeWine says. Yeah. Huh. Hmm.
01:05:28
Speaker
So that was kind of convenient. And let's see. Next we have, moving on to, oh yes, gas prices. Gas prices is quite high. Quite high.
01:05:40
Speaker
You know, 510 kind of shocks you. 502. I haven't seen that yet. I haven't seen anything over 5, but if I have 499, what's the difference, right?
01:05:51
Speaker
Yeah, right. I checked on, I think I paid 460. I felt like I got a deal, which is... I know. i know. No, you know what? I, uh, when, when the last time it got up to that price right around five bucks, my wife and I were like looking at a house out in the country and which would have been like about at a 45 minute to hour drive.
01:06:13
Speaker
It was about 45 miles for, for both of us. And we were like, man, with these gas prices, there's no way we're going to do that. Cause we didn't know how long it was going to go for. Right. Right.
01:06:24
Speaker
Well, there's a couple things happening. The Ohio state legislature is looking to put a moratorium on gas taxes. And then there's Ohio state legislatures on board. They're all talking about in Washington, a butt a pause on federal gas tax.
01:06:42
Speaker
And I thought, well, what does that mean dollar wise? They may not want to do this because people start realizing that Ohio's gas tax currently sits at 38.5 cents per gallon and 40 cents a gallon for diesel.
01:06:55
Speaker
And federal gas tax is 18.4 cents for gas and cents for diesel. Yeah. Basically 60 cents in gas, right? Or tax. Yeah. 55, 60 cents in tax. I thought it was a little bit more than that, that's still a lot. That's still lot. Considerable amount.
01:07:13
Speaker
ah Yeah. They keep creeping up. I think that, well, people are, cars get more efficient and then, uh, you know, those crazy EV people. Don't you care about the roads?
01:07:25
Speaker
And, uh, I think that's basically, they're talking about a moratorium, and by you know by by the time they figure this all out, gas prices will be down to three-something gallons.
01:07:37
Speaker
Yeah, you know, the thing, the sad part even if they took out all the taxes, we'd still be paying over four bucks a gallon. Yeah, it'd still be four cents a It's not that great.
01:07:48
Speaker
Make a dent. That's 50 cents a gallon. That's considerable. Mm-hmm. still gonna it would It's still going to be, i mean, um and like, I'm not getting below quarter tank.
01:08:00
Speaker
I'm trying to, I don't want to see it $112 for, for Philip. I don't want to. No, no, no. I mean, no I got the small tank too. I don't even have the big tank. in my Same here.
01:08:13
Speaker
Like, yeah. Oh, quarter tank time. Get gas. Keep it under a 90. And that's that's about it on that. Going on to next one we have on these quick hits that we're trying to do here. First Energy ordered to make new data center roles.
01:08:30
Speaker
So the regulatory organization, PUCO in Ohio, has given First Energy and all their companies 30 days to submit numbers showing how much more large data centers should pay for transmission costs they create.
01:08:50
Speaker
So currently,
01:08:54
Speaker
currently traditional industry, industrial customers, for example, cover 60% of their connection costs and the rest gets spread across everyone, everyone else's electric bill.
01:09:06
Speaker
Right now, AEP, which is a our our power committee ah company in the Columbus area, plans to create a new customer category for data centers using more than 25 megawatts of power and requiring them to pay or cover 85% of their connection costs. and the PUC ordered first energy to come up with its own number.
01:09:31
Speaker
That's kind of the meat of that one. They want to, they're kind of pushing first energy energy to figure this out instead of right now the current system is what it is. So, and that's, that's like they said, they usually cover about 60% of their costs and the the other 40% gets spread out between everybody on everybody else's bill. And you'll see ah that transmission cost line on your bill, something that affect, that's what they're talking about when they're stop building these things. They have to fix a, uh,
01:10:02
Speaker
you know fixed transmission lines or substation. that They're allowed to yeah spread that out. Yes. And if Google's putting a power, a data center that needs extra power, Google can afford it. Yep. Okay.
01:10:14
Speaker
And you know what? I meant to clip it, but there's been more and more people are posting the noise that these things make. Dear Lord, man, if I was anywhere near that, it what was that?
01:10:26
Speaker
Just a drone of. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it would, it would, uh, it can mess you up, man. I got, i meant to clip some. I'll have it for next week. And there's all that. The, I think we did talk about this a little bit, just a frequency of the, of the, and what you're really hearing a lot of is the fans from the coolers.
01:10:46
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But it it creates like a, ah like a droning. Like, i matter I don't know what, we're kind of just, getting this frequency thing. And a lot of people get messed up by it. Mm-hmm.
01:11:00
Speaker
Messages. Send them to space. Yeah, but the latency is going to be, that cable is going awfully long. Nah. And let's see, next on the data center front, we have the Ohio legislature, which, you know, as legislatures love to do, they create committees.
01:11:19
Speaker
They are creating a committee on data center committee and about the, year well, it's, you know, it's like say the corporate world is meeting after meeting after meeting. Well, this committee is going to, to get accurate and relevant info on data centers. Let's listen from the idea stream. Let's listen to the little clip I have from them.
01:11:42
Speaker
Ohio is one of the top states for data centers, and people around those facilities and future sites are sounding the alarm about their land and water use, utility costs, and jobs created. The data center industry is starting to push back.
01:11:55
Speaker
Two Republican state lawmakers say they're putting together a joint committee to look into those citizen concerns and how the companies building those data centers are responding. The Ohio Joint Data Center Committee meeting later this month includes six Republicans and two Democrats. Republican Senator Brian Chavez says this is a fact-finding effort to bring in experts, government officials, citizens and others, but admits it could end up superseding a data center study commission the House passed unanimously in March.
01:12:23
Speaker
We took a look at it and we felt like this was going to be a much faster process. And so this doesn't necessarily have to replace it, but it seems to be the quicker vehicle that we're going to pursue right now.
01:12:35
Speaker
Chavez says the goal is to get accurate information out and adds that data centers provide services that are important to everyday life. Higher energy costs and environmental damage are among concerns raised about data centers, and an effort to ask Ohioans to ban large data centers this fall continues.
01:12:52
Speaker
Karen Kessler at the Ohio Public Radio Statehouse News Bureau. Yeah, I don't know how.
01:12:59
Speaker
I'm not sure how 200 data centers. Or beneficial, but whatever. Something, maybe some checks and balances, hopefully. You can see that.
01:13:10
Speaker
Seems like they got a couple things going on now. I mean, I don't know. Are they listening? I mean, they're doing something. but I mean, they're they're making headlines.
01:13:21
Speaker
Are they really doing anything?
01:13:25
Speaker
A lot of money flowing around for data centers. Hmm.
01:13:31
Speaker
All right. Moving along. Next, we have this horrible article. Universities announced layoffs. Oh, no. Universities announced layoffs as the university officials oppose consolidation plan.
01:13:47
Speaker
And we've been talking about this, right? well Yeah, but ah we talked about last week with a couple of people. Yeah. I would think this is because of the the cliff is we're on the edge of the cliff, right? Yeah.
01:14:01
Speaker
The population cliff. Yeah. Vivek wants to close down universities. That's what I know. i said Well, yeah, I get it. But they're looking further than the headline. And these are these universities sustaining themselves?
01:14:14
Speaker
Because it doesn't seem like they are. if If you can't bring enough students to cover your costs, then I guess you need to downsize, right? Or no, no, build more buildings. That's right.
01:14:27
Speaker
That's what they're doing in public schools. Declining enrollment, but yet we got many more buildings. Oh yeah, of course. Why not? ah So Kent State is the one in this article. it plans to lay off as many as 45 of its employees due to $18 million dollars deficit in the university's next fiscal year, which begins July 1st.
01:14:47
Speaker
Central State University expects, Central State University expects to lay off many of its employees to avoid financial ruin, according to 91.3 WISO.
01:15:00
Speaker
That wasn't WKRP in Cincinnati, but KSU President Todd Daikon told that could be concerning approximately 1.3% of people will lose their jobs.
01:15:11
Speaker
Hold on.
01:15:15
Speaker
Adding that those who will lose their positions will receive notices sometime in May and are eligible for 90 days of severance pay.
01:15:25
Speaker
Let's see, there's a couple of things that I...
01:15:32
Speaker
So there's somewhere in there where they're like, they we we don't want to di di in dip dip into the savings account. And that's not good because we we make, oh, here it is. If you have a structural deficit and you don't correct it, it's just going to so get worse and bigger and grow exponentially.
01:15:52
Speaker
He said, which is, he is, think this is, uh, Icon or day con. And he says, according, he said, according to the Acro Bacon journal, we rely on the interest from our savings account. Cause they have ah like a rainy day fund.
01:16:08
Speaker
Um, the fund of of the, we rely on the interest from that savings to fund about $14 million. dollars
01:16:18
Speaker
So if they dip into it, then they'll it's it's twofold because they'll start losing some of that but those interest dividends. And they heavily rely on that. I'm thinking and you might want to invest in something other than a savings account.
01:16:30
Speaker
I'm sure it is, but who knows? I mean, there are college people, so they should, they don't know. um Yeah, but bet that's it, basically.
01:16:42
Speaker
ain't got enough students, cut it. Yeah, we're going to see it more and more. Yeah, and that's that's why I brought up in that conversation. I go guys, we do we are in agreement that there's less and less kids every year. Like, they're we're not having as many kids every year. Oh, yeah, that's a fact. I go, so who goes to college? Kids, right?
01:16:58
Speaker
So who's? We talked about while ago, Cleveland State's the same problem. I think there are they're getting double hit because I think less kids give a crap about going to college now and the, and the population decline.
01:17:14
Speaker
Yeah. So it's a, it's a smack down right now on the colleges. It's a little shock because we're we're getting off of just a huge incline. And i mean, Kent state has been growing over the last 15 years.
01:17:27
Speaker
They've built buildings on top of buildings and their campus has gone, so gotten so much bigger. And now, now what, for all for what? Now they got to shut it all down. Not all of it, but they got to start consolidating and well, they don't want to consolidate. Okay, fine. Then close one of them.
01:17:40
Speaker
Yeah. We spent the entire nineties and early two thousands telling every kid they need to go to college, right? Yes. yeah And, uh, and that, that, that wave is over and then the wave of kids is over too. Yeah. And then they graduated and where's my six figure job?
01:17:57
Speaker
Cause you, you know, the one you promised me for going to college to get a know. Spanish history degree. Yeah. the The biggest problem there is nobody told them they needed to take a real class.
01:18:09
Speaker
Yeah. There was nobody guiding Get a real degree. I'm sitting in this boat right now and is utterly retarded that I'm talking to my 15 year old daughter about what she wants to do for the rest of her freaking life.
01:18:22
Speaker
It is stupid.
Societal Pressures on Careers and Family
01:18:23
Speaker
It's so backwards. Yeah. All they, all they, to all they, all they pressure, especially girls is your career career career, career, career, career. They don't talk about, you know, families not even mentioned. I can't imagine why the population's in decline. Yeah. I don't know. Um, I would say most of it because feminism is a lie.
01:18:44
Speaker
It's a cult. Yeah. I just had this conversation in my office. No, no. yeah. I'm sure. I mean, I said, Hey, you know, well,
01:18:55
Speaker
It started with somebody's son talking to a my coworker, ask, you know, kind of getting dating advice from mom at 27 years old. I thought that was weird. Anyway. what Yeah. Nevermind. Let's, you know, let's save, let's save that for next week's show.
01:19:11
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Cause I could, I could pull some stuff too about that. Just have a little discussion about that. Yeah. That was, this was quite, quite an interesting discussion. it led into a lot of stuff and yeah, we can write that, make a note.
01:19:25
Speaker
Moving on.
Coast Guard's Unmanned Sail Drones
01:19:26
Speaker
next Next, last of our big stories, the story headlines, before we get into good stuff, is while the drone phenomenon is everywhere, including including Lake Erie.
01:19:37
Speaker
Lake Erie drones are coming. Let's listen Fox 8.
01:19:42
Speaker
For the first time, but the United States Coast Guard is launching unmanned sail drones to patrol the Great Lakes. The first two drones on Lake Erie set sail on April 27th.
01:19:55
Speaker
Each drone is 33 feet long with a distinctive orange mast that stands 19 feet tall. The drones are solar and wind powered and are equipped with cameras, radar, and technology that can track the transponders of commercial vessels on the lakes.
01:20:15
Speaker
The Coast Guard says the drones maintained and operated by a California-based company, Sail Drone Incorporated, will be used to monitor boat traffic, gather critical weather information, and when necessary, assist in emergencies on the Great Lakes. The visibility of vessels moving and somebody gets in distress that hopefully could give us ah an alert much sooner than we might otherwise get.
01:20:42
Speaker
The sail drones will also be used to gather data to help track criminal activity, especially near the international boundary with Canada. There's always people moving, weapons, drugs. I mean, that you think of the southeast for that, but, you know, it happens on the Great Lakes as well. And so all the Coast Guard units that need it have access to the portal. And if we see something that we think a police agency or our Canadian partners should have, you know, we'll be able to share it with them. Boaters may be concerned about the sail drones as a potential hazard on the lake, drone especially at night.
01:21:16
Speaker
But the Coast Guard says the drones will be well lit and monitored 24-7 by operators on shore who can take manual control if needed. Coast Guard is not specific about where the drones are patrolling in Lake Erie, other than to say their primary focus for the time being will be around the maritime border with Canada. It's a safety tool, but it's also a security tool, and that's a good sign if somebody knows where it is. It's a deterrent, but then if somebody knows where it is, they could also avoid it if they're looking to do something illicit.
01:21:49
Speaker
Jack Shea, Fox 8 News in Cleveland.
01:21:55
Speaker
So Fox eight news in Cleveland, that man, that guy's voice. I know. had guy at our church that has that. Sometimes he reads the announcements and he's like, why is he doing here? Why isn't on the radio?
01:22:06
Speaker
Yeah. Like, wait, is that God himself announcing these announcements? Kind of sounds like that. echo week guy And ah yeah, so drones on like, when I saw this article, I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm going to fly drones. No, no.
01:22:19
Speaker
so They look like big, those things. Yeah. looks a big surfboard with a sail on it. I forget what they used to call those things. But a big surfboard, 33 foot long, 20 feet high. And as long as there's wind or sun, because, you know, it's always sun in Cleveland, ah they are they'll have power.
01:22:43
Speaker
And what I'm questioning is what they're going to do in the wintertime.
01:22:49
Speaker
Do they take them out in the winter? I don't know. They would just get caught in the ice. Eventually, you have ah the average winter would get most of the ice. gets Well, I would think they'd just bring them in. Pull them out, yeah. so So you're going to have these drones about three months out of the year?
01:23:04
Speaker
It's only frozen for about a month, right? Yeah, but one point until you pull them out, you it starts to get ice on But yeah, so during the dead of winter, you're probably not going to have these on them. But of course, there's not many boats on the water during the dead of winter. so Hey, cool.
01:23:18
Speaker
protect But you can stop the people from walking across the lake. Yeah, snipers do that too. um i think I think this would encourage me to have a mounted gun on my boat just in case it got in my way. i could just take it out.
01:23:32
Speaker
pop pop pop Oh, there it goes. Targets. Hey, look, they put targets out here for us.
01:23:39
Speaker
they're always going to be lit at night. sound like right At night. That's why I said, as long as there's wind or sun. So I think that they're probably not, I thought would they were just solar and I was like, well, how's that going to work? But they have a little wind turbine on it too.
01:23:54
Speaker
It's probably, yeah, is that or just a really long extension cord. All right. Moving
Memorial Day vs Veterans Day
01:24:02
Speaker
along on our show. We have good things.
01:24:06
Speaker
We bring
01:24:11
Speaker
a couple these here. We have Memorial Day coming up, coming up soon. got another week for Memorial Day. That was Monday the 25th. It is the earliest Memorial Day as i guess possible.
01:24:27
Speaker
25th. Sometimes it could be as late as the 31st, but earliest it could be is the which is which think the next time it's on the 25th with this early would be, what does it say? 2037. 2037. That's right.
01:24:42
Speaker
Okay. 2037. And yeah. What's the difference between, know, what's the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day? Oh, you remember the Veterans Day is just ah remembering the veterans and Memorial Days for the ones that lost their lives, right? Right, yeah. That was and that was the art ah the um video they have in the article.
01:25:04
Speaker
Just words, but kind of a slideshow with some words behind it. Yeah, I kind of knew that. I was like, oh, interesting. Yeah, so at Veterans Day, you honor anybody who was ever military and other than dishonor be discharged.
01:25:18
Speaker
The Memorial Days for those who gave up the ultimate sacrifice. Which is their lives. So, yeah, it's coming up in a week, a week from the day the show drops on Monday,
01:25:29
Speaker
twenty fifth so Celebrate this extra three-day weekend. Mm-hmm. It's a long weekend. And this weekend is a big weekend down in, probably should talk about this last week, but you know how we are.
USS Cleveland Commissioning and Closing Remarks
01:25:43
Speaker
Always a week behind. The cleveland the USS Cleveland arrived and to its namesake city this weekend ahead of its historic commissioning ceremony on Sunday. So it'd be the first vessel ever commissioned, military vessel, i believe, commissioned in Ohio.
01:25:58
Speaker
And it is USS Cleveland. couple of cool things you want to check it out. lot of the steel was from, from Cleveland. A couple of people on the boat are from the area. So they're pretty excited about being here and it's going to leave here and go down to Florida. I think that's going to be at station on the coast of Florida or something like that. So it is here. It was here for the week and they're having a ceremony, i think this weekend, last weekend as you're hearing this.
01:26:24
Speaker
um And check it out. It's pretty cool. New, uh, what is it again? It is yeah. and So the building vessel was produced. Yes. Uh, ship has strong ties and steel used to build the vessel was produced at Cleveland cliffs.
01:26:41
Speaker
And then with contributions from local companies, including Lincoln electric and Sherwin Williams. That's kind of cool. I'm trying to see what kind of ship it is. What kind of,
01:26:54
Speaker
remember. doesn't say. what's a war It's a U.S. warship. How's that? ah Yeah, I just don't know what how it was used. classes Anyway,
01:27:06
Speaker
check it out. USS Cleveland. they've they've had I think we've had three or four boats ah named after the city of Cleveland. And it departs Cleveland on May 19th, so you've still got a few days to check it out.
01:27:21
Speaker
That is that, I think. We got everything, didn't we? Yes, we did. Well, on that happy note, I've just got to remind you to check out the website on the blog when this show drops. when you You should already be there at this point if you stayed this long.
01:27:36
Speaker
You should already been on in and out of the website, seen all the articles, read it along with us. CrookedRiverCast.com. Send us email. Please share the show. CrookedRiverCast at gmail.com. Leave us a comment. Leave us a review. we really appreciate listening.
01:27:49
Speaker
And we'll talk to you next week. Peace.