Sound of Ideas

Just in time for Halloween, local historians chat about Northeast Ohio's many creepy corners, and cinephiles discuss their favorite horror films.

After a yearlong battle, the city of Cleveland and the Haslam Sports Group announced a deal this week in which the city ends its objections to the Browns move to Brook Park. The city will get $100 million over 15 years from the team, money to raze the existing stadium and to help Cleveland revitalize the lakefront without the Browns. The city dropped its lawsuit and its challenge to a permit allowing the new complex to exceed Federal Aviation Administration height restrictions. The story begins our discussion of the week’s news on the Friday “Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable.”

Kidney stones are a common ailment that affect 1 in 10 people in their lifetime.

The Ohio Domestic Violence Network recently reported a 37% increase year-over-year in domestic violence-related fatalities. Franklin and Cuyahoga counties lead with the most documented cases.

The two organizations entered into an operating agreement on Oct. 3 to switch the format of 89.3 WCSB to the new terrestrial home of Ideastream's 24/7 jazz service. The decision and communication to students has been criticized by fans of WCSB.

We'll discuss the latest impact of the shutdown on Northeast Ohioans with the congressmember and policy experts.

Gov. Mike DeWine took executive action this week to temporarily ban the sale of "intoxicating hemp" products in the state. DeWine said the products represent a consumer product emergency. The order bans the sale of unregulated products that contain THC derived from hemp including candies and drinks. THC is the psychoactive compound found in the cannabis family of plants. DeWine's executive order is for 90 days. We will begin the “Sound of Ideas Reporters Roundtable” with the governor’s executive action. The Ohio House this week passed -- with some support from Democrats -- two bills that proponents say will give property owners some tax relief. The two bills, which the Senate now takes up, make changes to how property taxes are determined and how schools and other local entities collect the money raised from levies. Eleven protesters have paid nearly $400,000 in restitution in a pretrial diversion program that, if all stipulations are met, will null charges they incurred while protesting the war in Gaza at Case Western Reserve University last year. The protesters, ages 20 to 25, splashed red paint on buildings and sidewalks. They were charged with breaking and entering, possessing criminal tools and vandalism. They spoke publicly last weekend, saying the university is making an example of them in order to quash pro-Palestinian protests. Early voting is underway for the November election. And in addition to levies and mayoral an council races, there is a robustly contested battle for four open seats on the Akron Board of Education. Eight candidates meet this week for a debate sponsored by the Akron Press Club in partnership with Ideastream Public Media, the Akron Beacon Journal and Signal Akron. Our Anna Huntsman was one of the journalists posing questions to the candidates. People are packing independent music venues. That's a good thing. But the venues aren't turning a profit. That's troubling. So says a new report from the National Independent Venue Association on the impact of small music clubs on the state's economy, which estimates the more than 300 clubs made $3 billion last year. Students, alumni and supporters of student-run WCSB college radio at Cleveland State University held a protest this week after the university announced an agreement with Ideastream Public Media to switch to an all-Jazz format programmed by Ideastream.

Local federal workers could miss paychecks and area organizations could see funding cuts because of the standoff in Washington D.C.

Over the summer, Edgewater Beach had to be closed to swimmers three times due to a discharge of untreated water and sewage into the lake after heavy rains. The release at the Edgewater outfall—a huge pipe at the back of the beach—happens when storm runoff and rain overwhelm the system. Cleveland’s system is a combined one where stormwater and sewage are held in the same pipes before being treated. When runoff from torrential storms adds to the mix, the outfalls provide a release point to prevent the system from backing up and flooding houses and businesses. Now, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District has developed a plan to eventually eliminate the outfall onto Edgewater Beach. It involves the construction of a new tunnel called the Edgewater Beach Surge Tunnel to divert away excess runoff and combined sewage. We will begin Wednesday’s “Sound of Ideas” with a discussion about the project with the CEOs of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District and the Cleveland Metroparks. Later, we’ll talk about how pet waste, especially that left on the ground, can impact runoff and impact our groundwater and waterways.

Nutrition misinformation is spreading faster than ever, often disguised as expert advice. In 2022, more than 58% of adults turned to the internet for health or medical information. Today, experts explore how misleading claims gain traction and offer tips to help people separate fact from fiction.

In 2023, Ohioans voted to guarantee reproductive health care access in the state. Since then, lawmakers in the Statehouse continue to propose laws that advocates say are in conflict with what voters decided.

Ohio Auditor Keith Faber this week formally requested the state attorney general begin legal proceedings to appoint a receiver to oversee the finances of East Cleveland. A new state law approved as part of the last budget, and which went into effect Tuesday, allowed the move. East Cleveland is pushing back, accusing the state of cutting off local government funds to the city and saying a state commission meant to guide finances failed. We will begin our discussion of the week’s news with East Cleveland’s finances and what happens next between the city and state.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in five children in America has obesity. One new solution might be GLP-1 weight loss drugs.

Last fall, the NuPoint Community Development Corporation (formerly the Union-Miles Development Corporation) launched a neighborhood history project called Southeast Side Stories. The idea is to document the stories of the Union-Miles, Mt. Pleasant and Lee-Harvard neighborhoods and those in between as well. Using a mix of first-person interviews and multimedia, including vintage photographs and film, the project chronicles the deep roots families have built in the area across generations. Also on the show, we begin with an interview with the president of Slovenia, Nataša Pirc Musar. She addressed the United Nations General Assembly last week in New York and then traveled to Cleveland. The city is home to the largest population of Slovenians outside of their country.

Shelters say that lives are at risk as overcrowding has persisted since the pandemic. They say they're out of space and out of time to help animals in their care, especially dogs.

The harm reduction approach aims to reduce the negative impact of substance use disorder. In Portage County, health officials and Kent State University community members are working toward shared goals by distributing tools such as Naloxone.

A clash erupted this week between Mayor Justin Bibb's administration and Cleveland City Council, led by its president, Blaine Griffin. A council aide downloaded thousands of unredacted documents from a public records database, one he was allowed to access. The administration says some of those documents contained sensitive information, such as addresses, Social Security numbers or medical information that is typically redacted before public release. According to Griffin, Bibb's people called for the council aide's firing, which he characterized as a strong-arm tactic. The aide did nothing wrong and is going nowhere, he said. The story begins our discussion of the week’s news of the Friday “Reporters Roundtable.”

The university's Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence will award Oscar Chacón with the 2025 Inamori Ethics Prize for his work in human rights and immigration justice.

An advisory committee for the Centers for Disease Control made changes to vaccine recommendations in a meeting last week that was described in media reports as tense and chaotic. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices or ACIP changed advice on COVID vaccines to a "shared decision-making model." It also changed its recommendation regarding the combined childhood vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella or chicken pox (MMRV). The committee recommended that children under 4 not be given the MMRV vaccine and instead recommended an MMR vaccine and a separate shot for varicella (chicken pox). The committee tabled a decision on whether to delay the birth dose of the Hepatitis B vaccine for newborns. To begin Wednesday’s “Sound of Ideas,” we're going to talk about the recommendations coming out of the ACIP meeting and what those recommendations mean for those seeking COVID-19 or the MMRV vaccine. Later, Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute joins the program to talk about the Trump administration’s foreign policy in that region.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Zepbound for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea in adults with obesity. Local experts discuss other advances in treatment, including nerve stimulation devices placed under the skin.