Nearly a third of Cleveland voters will have different polling locations for the May primary, raising concerns about disenfranchisement.

Northeast Ohio food banks will lose millions of pounds of food due to government cuts.

And medical experts urge vaccination after a measles outbreak among the unvaccinated in Ashtabula County.

Ideas is next.

Hello and welcome to IDEAS.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you for joining us.

Cleveland's voter participation, less than 50% is already far lower than that in Cuyahoga County.

What will ward redistricting do to that number?

There's concern because nearly a third of voters will cast ballots in new Cleveland polling places this year.

Food banks in northeast Ohio are worried about how they'll feed families after a second big cut from the federal government.

Ohio health officials are pushing vaccination to get in front of a measles outbreak in Ashtabula County among unvaccinated people.

And Senate Bill one aimed at what backers call Wokeness on college campuses, is now headed to Governor Mike DeWine's desk for a signature.

Joining me for the roundtable from Ideastream, Public Media health reporter Taylor Wizner from the Marshall Project, Cleveland editor in chief Phil Trexler, and in Columbus, Statehouse News bureau chief Karen Kasler.

Let's get ready to roundtable.

After ward maps were redrawn to accommodate two fewer council seats, there is now concern about confusion in this year's elections in Cleveland, beginning with a may primary.

Almost a third of Cleveland's voters will have to go to a different polling place than the one they used in November.

According to an Ideastream public media Analysis of Board of Elections Data.

Taylor The worry here expressed by council member Charles life is this could suppress turnout in a city where turnout already is not stellar.

Yeah, as we just heard, Abby Marshall, our reporter here at Ideastream, has been covering this.

She just gave some stats that 46% of Cleveland voters have turned out to last year's presidential election.

That's less than the county's turnout at 66%.

So people in Safe District are already complaining that, you know, having polling sites that are further away means it's going to be harder for people to get to.

I know one woman commented on a post on a Facebook post saying it's going to take her two busses to get to a polling space instead of one.

And she has mobility issues.

So, yeah, this could certainly be a challenge.

It's interesting because the council members were thinking the board of Elections should have brought them in on this a little bit more.

But council took so long to do the redrawing of these ward maps.

The Board of Elections said, You don't have that kind of time.

You might have had to give some input into this.

So this is what it is.

These polling places are what they are, and it's a big election year for Cleveland.

Residents will be voting on a mayor and all 15 council seats, some of which are hotly contested in the September primary.

Yeah, that's right.

Abby Marshall is closely watching a couple of contested races.

New Ward 12.

It's a fracture district of Ward 15, which is currently held by Spencer, who is not running.

Then there's new Ward seven, which is downtown Ohio City, Tremont, a church hallway that's sort of like McCormick's current ward, but he's also not running.

And then so far, Austin Davis, the mayor's current senior policy advisor and an attorney and enterprise manager, Mohammed Faraj, have also announced they're running.

So it's an important thing.

The idea that there's a lot of seats up, you want to make sure that people are able to get in there.

The worry that they have that council members and I saw a couple of them quoted in various stories about this after Abby Story, Charles Life and Rebecca moore as well, is that people will show up at a polling place, wait in a line, and then be told at the end of it, Nope, this isn't your spot.

I know.

Can you imagine?

You know, you're trying to get your kids to school or get to work and then you spend all that time waiting and you can't vote.

I mean, and we have an election coming up in May, so we'll see.

Taylor the Board of Elections says it'll notify our voters via email.

It'll have a voter education campaign at ten Cleveland Public Library branches.

Discussions like this are another way to get the word out, to let people know that things have changed.

You should check.

You can go on to the Board of Elections website yourself and take a look at where you're polling places.

But council members say they want more from the Board of Elections.

That's right.

Yeah.

After Abby story came out yesterday, City council members sent out a press release demanding several actions from the Board of Elections.

Among them, they want detailed explanations of why the polling locations were changed.

They want to revisit and reconsider changes where there was no real good reason for that change.

They want to implement clear communication strategies to notify voters of their polling location changes, including the mails, social media, other local outreach efforts that tended to work well.

And then the council also wants the Board of Elections to release a list of voters who were impacted.

Karen Taylor mentioned that there is a primary coming up in May, but there's not a whole lot on that ballot.

In fact, I looked in Cleveland there specifically one issue.

It's the statewide issue, too.

Yeah.

And that is an infrastructure issue.

It's a two and a half billion dollar bond proposal.

It's basically renewing one that started back in 1987 that helps fund county bridges, local and county bridges and roads and things like that.

So it's that's the only other thing.

But a reminder that you can vote by mail in Ohio.

And I think that opens up like 30 days before.

So while that's not an option that everybody automatically considers, it is an option that's out there.

If you find that your polling places move somewhere, that's going to be very difficult for you to get to.

This week, the Greater Cleveland Food Bank learned it'll lose £553,000 of food between April and July as a result of cuts in federal support that on top of other planned cuts from the federal government and possible reduction from the state budget.

The Akron-canton regional Food Bank also is bracing for a future with less food for the hungry.

Taylor, who will be impacted by the federal cuts to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, to the Akron-canton Regional Food Bank.

Yeah, I mean, if you don't use the food bank, you might not realize just how widespread it is.

I mean, the greater greater Cleveland Foodbank serves Cuyahoga, Georgia, Lake Ashtabula, Ashland and Richland Counties, and then Akron-canton serves Summit Stark, Carol Holmes, Medina, Portage, Tuscarawas and Wayne County.

I mean, there really isn't one community that's not going to be impacted by these cuts.

And in each of those communities being served by these food banks, more and more people are seeking assistance.

Yeah, they have been.

Yeah.

I mean, it's a trend we've seen since the pandemic, you know, But in 2023, they saw a real increase locally, regionally of people needing more assistance.

But but this year is even worse.

You know, Akron-canton president and CEO Dan Flowers said more people came in last year than any point during the pandemic, even even more than 2023.

So and we're we're hearing that throughout the region.

The Second Harvest Food bank of north central Ohio, President Julie Chase Moorfield, said during their last fiscal year, her organization saw a 32% increase in the number of households visiting the food pantry.

We had a great conversation about that on The Sound of Ideas this week.

Kristen was Ocala called in.

She's the CEO and president of the Cleveland Food Bank and she had some thoughts about whether, you know, how they found out about this.

It was it was a lot of advance notice.

How was this conveyed to the food banks?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You almost wonder if this is a byproduct of the Dodge cuts.

But no.

Kristen says her staff only discovered about the cancellations when an employee checked the status of the orders and saw that they had been canceled.

So, yeah, this is this is highly unusual for how these communications are generally, you know, given between the the USDA and the food bank in the state, it's usually more of a collaborative response.

Right.

So we're seeing the fallout from, as you mentioned, cuts throughout the federal government.

This is one we'll see how that filters through the community.

Susan has an opinion on that.

Susan in Willow Wick sends an email.

She says, I think it's so callous.

We have a food pantry at our church that has been that has seen 60 people at one time.

We've relied on the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.

But now it may be hard if people have to be turned away.

That's Susan's point of view.

Can I add one thing here?

Please do.

There is also a cut to food banks in the budget.

State budget has about $15 million less for food banks.

Governor Mike DeWine has said it's related to one time money from COVID relief funds that were put into food banks that now is not available.

He said he's trying to work on that.

But food banks are very concerned about the state budget and the funding they're getting from the state in terms of making sure the food banks continue with the increased demand.

Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court Judge Lesley Ann Celebrity has admitted to ethical violations after sustained reporting on her actions by the Marshal Project.

Mark Point.

She said in a court filing this week that allegations about her steering hundreds of thousands of dollars to a close friend with appointments as a receiver in divorce cases were fair and accurate.

Phil, this is work that you guys started in 2023.

I thought it was for me, it was pretty shocking to see a filing that said, Yep.

Yeah, it was.

It caught us actually by surprise as well.

You know, Mark, 24, started this story back in 2023.

Based on a tip, you know, if you're familiar with how the courts operate in Cuyahoga County, we're actually northeast Ohio.

Mark the stories, name the receiver in this situation and a close friend of judge celebrities he has his hands in a lot of places, has been talked about, has been written about for, you know, 15, 20 years.

But never have we seen a judge actually brought up on ethics violations before the Supreme Court.

So that's what happened.

And there was a number of allegations that were made against the judge that she actually would steer these cases, take cases, persuade other judges to give her these cases.

And these are lucrative divorce cases.

These aren't your run of the mill divorce cases.

These are the folks the rich folks are getting divorced.

And there's going to be dispute over their finances.

So they bring in a receiver, that receiver, Mark Notary, who will handle their finances and get paid a lot of money to do that.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars in one case.

Oh, absolutely.

And I mean, this is not like like being court appointed to defend somebody in a criminal trial and the rate is $10,000 for that.

We're talking.

When I looked at some of these numbers, they were massive.

Oh, they're they're huge.

And it's you know, it's a it's a great moneymaker for Tory, who is not an attorney.

So, I mean, he's charging hundreds of dollars an hour to pay someone's bills.

And it kind of got under the skin of one of the divorces.

And.

Yeah, and he was quite outspoken.

He hired a private detective to go around and to film the judge and stories meetings captured a kiss.

You know, the judge initially said this is just an innocent relationship and lifelong friends, an Italian thing, an Italian thing.

And, you know, the state disciplinary Council decided to investigate this and brought the allegations.

The judge initially denied it, took some shots at the Marshall Project reporting, frankly.

And suddenly this week, the judge said, no, Ms.. You know, you guys reported that she's admitted to being in love with.

Yeah, she admitted to being a she's you know, she's married and it's a, you know, a personal thing with her.

The but it's, you know, obviously not a good thing when you take a case from another judge's docket with the intent of going after and a point in your friend to be a receiver.

Yes.

So her relationship really is inconsequential here.

And whether they have a romantic relationship or they're just friends, the point is the next step is where there's trouble, which is your friend or romantic partner is somebody who's benefiting from cases that you're.

Yeah, you're right.

Let's not lose sight of the fact that the FBI is also looking into this.

There is a grand jury investigation that is going on.

Subpoenas have been issued.

They're examining records in the domestic relations court, targeting the conduct of the judge, as well as Mark Battery.

And it's never a good thing when the FBI is on your case.

Right.

And so that's that's going to be fascinating to watch to see where that goes.

But this is certainly a step where she avoids testifying.

There's no there's no other there were a whole litany of, you know, other judges who are going to have to go down there to Columbus to testify in this case.

That's all out.

So, you know, the thought was, is that this will benefit celebrities in a way where she doesn't have to go on the record and testify in the case while the FBI is investigating.

So what happens now is the Ohio Board of Professional Conduct where there would have been this long hearing.

Instead, what happens?

Yeah, this is this is essentially like a, you know, not as a guilty plea and we're going to go right to sentencing.

So now they're going to 30 days.

They're going to come back with closing arguments.

Each side is, you know, this is really about mitigation.

Now, this is the judge saying, you got me.

Don't hurt me with the sanctions.

I mean, she could actually face a license suspension and have to go off the bench.

And, you know, the celebrity's family is, you know, is historic in the city of Cleveland, in Cuyahoga County.

So, yeah, it's a major blemish on the court and we'll see.

It could be a license suspension.

It could just be a slap on the wrist.

And she goes about her business.

But and we'll know that in a month or so, it probably longer.

The closing arguments are in writing.

We're going to submit those within 30 days.

So it probably take several months before the Supreme Court will ultimately, you know, there'll be a recommendation to the Supreme Court.

Then the Supreme Court has to sign off on it.

Now, that's an example of dogged journalism, certainly.

Yeah.

Great job by Mark Poynter.

Ohio Department of Health director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff announced this week the state is dealing with an outbreak of measles in Ashtabula County.

There are ten measles cases, nine with ties to an adult unvaccinated male who was the state's first measles case of 2025.

TAYLOR The Ashley Billy County resident we mentioned, was unvaccinated.

It appears so were all of those who also contracted measles, all of whom were connected to him.

Yes.

Yeah.

So that man was connected to nine cases that were discovered by the O.D., eight by H. And Ashtabula County Health Department and all of them were unvaccinated.

So I think, you know, we have some additional information from the county health department.

They say they've looked into all of those people.

They've contact them, contacted them all, and they're monitoring their care.

But it doesn't appear at this time that there are additional exposures.

But yeah, that's going to be continued to be monitored.

So obviously, vaccination has become a real hot button issue since COVID, but we've been getting measles vaccinations forever.

The MMR vaccination, measles, mumps, rubella and and the medical professionals are saying now this is really the biggest defense that you've got to be vaccinated.

So and even those who are my age might seek to get a booster at this point, too.

But that's what we're hearing from Vanderhoff and from others.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's it's so sad.

This is a disease that was eradicated and just just in this country in any case, and just by the fact of declining vaccinations from the 20 tens till now, we're seeing just more opportunity for for measles cases to come into this country and spread among people who aren't vaccinated.

So there's a real push by LDH and by, you know, the ASH, the county health department and in Knox County and just everywhere in the state to get those those unvaccinated folks vaccinated in Knox County because there was also a case there.

Yes.

Yeah.

To mention there there's there was an exposure there as well, not an outbreak, though.

The definition I found of an outbreak is three cases.

That's right.

Yeah.

So so that ten cases, Najibullah is an outbreak.

But one case would not be.

But yeah, no, but in Knox County there's there's a lot of concern there because you know, the sort of the neighboring Amish communities there, which historically have had low vaccination rates.

So, you know, talking about, you know, low vaccination rate and herd immunity, if just one case gets American, you know, spread to 13 people, to another 13 people.

And quickly, you can balloon into something that we're seeing in Texas or New Mexico.

So there's a lot of concern there.

Republicans added a draft amendment to the state budget that accommodates the Cleveland Browns request for a $600 million bond package to cover the state's portion of a proposed new domed stadium in Brook Park.

Democrats say it should be removed because there are huge unanswered fiscal questions.

County and city, though, haven't changed their stance that local public funding for this move is a bad bet.

Democrats in the House to Karen want that amendment to be next because they're worried that we haven't looked into the numbers closely enough.

Yeah, this is a draft amendment, so it's not in the budget yet, but it looks like it could be.

And we find out on Tuesday when House Republicans in the super majority released their budget.

But the proposal for $600 million in 30 year state backed bonds seems to have gone over fairly well with some Republican lawmakers.

And this draft amendment not only would add that 30 year bond package of $600 million, which would cost the state about $1,000,000,000 over that 30 year period, it would not only add that to the budget, but it would also eliminate Governor Mike DeWine's proposed sports facilities fund, which he wants to pay for by doubling the tax on sports gambling operators.

So we still don't know if that's in the budget, but that was one thing that doubling that tax, that's one thing Republican leaders have said they don't like.

So we've been trying to push DeWine a little bit on whether he would veto that.

He's not saying he would.

He's saying that conversations could go on.

There's a long way to go.

But the question about the numbers is a serious one, because the Haslam sports group's projections of $2.9 billion that would be raised in tax revenue from the Dome stadium and the surrounding project in Brook Park, those numbers have not been independently verified yet.

And the Democrats who wrote this letter to Republican leaders said they need to be.

Well, if the state votes for this and the county and the city eventually don't come up with the money that the Browns say they need for this, does the state I mean, if there's nothing built, the state wouldn't be on the hook, right?

Well, that's a good question, because if indeed the budget goes through and this is not vetoed because DeWine does have the option to do a line item veto in the budget, and he has used that option before several times, then that, as I understand it, once the bonds, once the permission is given, the bonds are out there.

And so even if the county funding falls apart, I don't know if the state is still on the hook.

And these are general revenue or general obligation bonds.

So the state has to pay them and it's about $40 million a year over 30 years.

So there are a lot of questions about this.

You The Ohio Senate voted to approve the changes in Senate bill, one that were made last week by the House.

That's the higher education overhaul bill that seeks to remove what backers call liberal bias on public college campuses and now goes to the governor who has signaled he'll sign it.

The bill prohibits diversity, equity and inclusion training programs on campuses, bans faculty from striking, requires intellectual diversity on controversial subjects, requires mandatory course, focused on U.S. history.

And it would also mandate the cutting of certain majors, if not enough people are taking those majors at certain colleges.

So Karen DeWine has indicated he'll sign it.

He wants to read it over first.

Yesterday, we saw Jim Tressel, the lieutenant governor in Cleveland, at CSU, saying he's fully in support, although he didn't answer the question about whether he thinks college campuses are full of liberal bias.

He was saying he liked it because he thought it would make colleges more efficient.

Yeah, and I think that's been a question that a lot of opponents of Senate Bill one have asked.

If there's any where's the proof that there is what conservatives say is liberal indoctrination on college campuses and how would this bill actually prevent that?

But the supporters of Senate Bill one, which was introduced by Senator Jerry Serino, who also introduced a bill that banned participatory budgeting, which we were just talking about, this now goes on to DeWine, who says he wants to look at it, but he's really been strongly hinting that he's going to sign it.

There are a lot of moving parts of this, the ban on most diversity programs, most mandatory diversity programs.

There's a couple of carve outs in there.

The ban on faculty strikes, some of these other things are potentially a big deal and much more strict than Senate Bill 83, which was the one that he had proposed last year that did not actually get through.

And I thought was interesting that House Speaker Jason Stevens last time former House speaker, had said he was not blocking a vote on Senate Bill 83.

There just weren't the votes to pass it.

Well, when it came up this time, he was one of a handful of Republicans, I think three Republicans who voted against it.

So it did have the votes.

And when did when DeWine does sign that it's the starting pistol for lawyers to get moving because you're going to you're going to see a ton of challenges.

Absolutely.

I mean, I think there's also I think there could potentially be the other half of that where unions may look at this and decide a ballot issue is a possibility.

That's what they did in 2011 with Senate Bill five, which was the one that really restricted collective bargaining rights for police officers and teachers and public sector unions.

Unions have already looked at this and said this is the biggest attack on organized labor since Senate Bill five.

So I wouldn't be surprised to see them start mounting some sort of a campaign to push back on Senate Bill one.

And we see colleges already and it's not just from Senate Bill one, but from the federal edicts that have been sent down, cutting their diversity equity and inclusion officer Case Western Reserve this week cut their defense and created a separate type of office that was meant for student development.

Yeah, and Serino actually even referenced some of that when the bill came in to the Senate because it had to go to the Senate to approve the changes that the House made, which were minor changes, essentially just basically clarifying that colleges, public colleges could offer services for people who are disabled and not be in violation of Senate Bill one.

But he mentioned that, you know, some of these things are going to be less obvious, less needed provisions in the law because of what's happening at the federal level.

Yeah, And a case, by the way, the new office would be the Office for Campus Enrichment and Engagement, rather than the diversity, equity and inclusion Office.

Cuyahoga County recently launched a new live music and entertainment task force aimed at supporting local artists and venues.

Cuyahoga Live will focus on workforce development, artist support and making Northeast Ohio a prime destination for live performances.

In a press release, Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne said With this task force bringing together the best minds in the public and private sectors to help us create a successful and sustainable live music environment.

And I know that Sean Waterson over at the Happy Dog has been pushing for this for a long time since COVID.

These venues trying to come back and fill.

When we talk about these local advocates, there's Sean, there's Cindy Barber, who is with the Beachland.

These folks have just really been pushing and advocating.

Now what we have is a structure in the county that might sort of help to make this happen.

Yeah, And I still struggle to get my arms around the fact that here we are, the rock and roll capital of the world, and we're needing a boost from our county government.

But that's the reality of things.

These venues, the musicians are still struggling to recover from the impact of COVID in the lockdowns that came with that.

So there were some they took a survey and, you know, half the people surveyed or approximately half, you know, expressed concerns about the lack of music work.

You know, these are musicians that, you know, and again, we're being compared to Columbus.

And again, we're seeing that we're lagging behind Columbus.

On another issue.

But there is a need, you know, for support, you know, social media generating income outside of touring.

So, you know, Cleveland has the venues.

Cleveland has the musicians.

We just need to coordinate them better.

And again, you know, get the get the fans back into the game.

So to speak, but also to provide some sort of, you know, support for the musicians.

It's just it's a natural for Cleveland, the musicians and the venues themselves.

And we this all comes from a study that we reported on last year that created this task force.

But the idea being, like you said, this is a business.

If we support these small venues, that's good for the city, good for the musicians, good for the fans, good for the city.

Absolutely.

And and I think people just you know, everyone needs a boost.

Everyone needed a boost after COVID.

And I think, you know, there's still this, you know, the struggle that's going on, you know, with with musicians and the venues.

But I think the interest is there.

And hopefully this will this will, you know, help everyone recover and help us, you know, help our county recover.

Monday on The Sound of Ideas on 89 seven WKSU.

How to bring Shaker Square back to its glory days and make it a thriving destination.

We'll talk to Cleveland Neighborhood Progress and the Burton Belcher Community Development Corporation about what the public can expect over the short and long terms.

I'm Mike McIntyre.

Thank you so much for watching.

And stay safe.