The Ohio Secretary of State’s office is working to validate signatures submitted last week by Citizens Not Politicians.
The anti-gerrymandering group is seeking to place an amendment proposal on the November ballot to overhaul how the state draws its political district maps. If successful, the amendment would create a 15-member commission, made up of five Democrats, five Republicans and five Independents, to draw statehouse and congressional maps. The commission members would be made up of citizens and political outsiders.
The group needs just under 414,000 signatures validated by the Secretary of State to make the ballot.
A second amendment that aimed for the November ballot has fallen short. One Fair Wage was attempting to place a measure before voters to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour but missed the petition deadline.
To begin Wednesday’s “Sound of Ideas,” we will check in with our reporting team at the Ohio Statehouse on both the validation process underway for the anti-gerrymandering amendment and what comes next for the minimum wage issue.
Later, in an effort to level the playing field for developers of color, Cleveland Development Advisors and Cleveland Neighborhood Progress spearheaded the first Cleveland Equitable Development Initiative real estate developer pitch competition this year.
Fifteen developers of color were selected to be part of a cohort where they were mentored for several months during the progression of their development ideas and projects.
The program ended in a "Shark Tank-style" pitch competition, where three people won the top prizes of $50,000, $30,000 and $20,000 in pre-development grants.
The three winning projects hope to facilitate growth in some of Cleveland's underserved neighborhoods, such as the Opportunity Corridor or Slavic Village.
We will meet the winners of the pitch competition as well as one of the organizers behind it.
Finally, people often picture science as an orderly process with a clear set of rules. But that hasn’t always been the case.
Ideastream's Jeff St. Clair recently spoke with a local expert about the erratic world of birding in frontier America and the legacy of John James Audubon. As well as the gaps in Audubon's quest to discover all of America's birds.
Guests:
- Sarah Donaldson, Statehouse News Bureau Reporter, Ohio Public Radio/TV
- Andre Bryan, Managing Partner, BridgePort Group
- Jimi Oluwabiyi, owner of Lael Developers Inc.
- Jermaine Brooks, Realtor and managing member. WRJ Developers LLC
- William Willis, Senior Director, Development Services. Cleveland Development Advisors
- Jeff St. Clair, Host/Producer, Ideastream Public Media
- Kenn Kaufman, Author, "The Birds Audubon Missed"