Episode 31 - 13 May 2022 News Roundup

Today’s Friday the 13th, 2022, and it’s time for your weekly News Roundup episode, where I read the news so you don’t have to. A lot happened last week and there’s a lot coming up in terms of local events and things to do that you won’t want to miss, including things going on tonight, so don’t wait to listen! As always, you can find the show notes for this episode on my website at discoverdaytonpodcast.com. Organizations mentioned in this episode include: Ohio Statehouse Central State University Sinclair Community College City of Dayton Ghostlight Coffee 2nd Street Market Gulzar’s Indian Cuisine AES Five Rivers Health Centers Dayton Peace Prize Dayton Council on World Affairs Hall Hunger Initiative Heart Mercantile Mission of Mary’s CSA Dayton Women’s Rights Alliance Top of the Market Liftoff Entertainment Humane Society of Greater Dayton Blind Bob’s Shiloh Farmer’s Market NCCJ Dayton Beer Company Liederkranz-Turner German Club Salar Wiley’s Five Rivers MetroParks The Neon Yellow Cab Tavern TheatreLab Dayton PNC Arts Annex Show Transcript: Hello and welcome to the Discover Dayton podcast, the show that’s all about the Gem City’s past, present, and future. I’m Arch Grieve and I’m your host, and today’s episode is the weekly news roundup for Friday the 13th of May 2022, so if you’re superstitious be careful today. There’s a lot that happened last week though, including an update to Ohio’s redistricting process, good news for Dayton residents on their electric bills, and the opening of some new places to eat downtown, as well as lots of stuff to do this weekend and beyond, so stay tuned! And now for last week’s news: Well, the news about the Ohio congressional district maps isn’t great, as towards the end of last week the Republican-dominated Ohio Redistricting Commission voted down a set of maps drawn up by the consultants that they hired, and then immediately voted to approve a set of maps that the Ohio Supreme Court has already declared unconstitutional. Protestors in attendance yelled “shame,” at the commission members, but their cries were ineffective in causing any type of change amongst the members because the Republican members of the commission have no shame. Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who is a commission member, explained his rationale for supporting the third set of maps by claiming that it would be the easiest set of maps for local boards of elections to use. At the end of the meeting, Democratic Minority House Leader Allison Russo read out a “minority report,” which laid the blame for the redistricting process mess at the feet of her Republican counterparts. Also happening at the state level right now is discussion around a bill that would put an end to local municipalities’ abilities to manage short-term rentals, such as Airbnbs. House Bill 563 is currently being debated at the Ohio Statehouse, with opponents of the bill saying that it would take away home rule from cities and curtail their ability to self-govern, so now is your time to contact your local representative or senator if you have an opinion about it. Central State University’s Dayton Campus is getting a cash infusion from the U.S. Department of Commerce, which is awarding the HBCU $3.6 million in ARPA funds to quote, “tackle workplace shortages,” which have been made worse by the pandemic. Much of the money will go towards funding workshops that are geared towards educating students about advanced materials, advanced manufacturing, IT, and advanced data management. Central State is also putting in an additional nearly $90K towards its Workforce Training and Business Development Center, which will specialize in employment-related training. As a result of the expansion, Central State is expecting a 50% increase in enrollment this fall and expects to go from 2,000 students to 3,000 who are physically attending campus classes, and from 4,000 to 7,000 students attending online. Just for full transparency for this next story, I need to acknowledge that I am a Sinclair employee, but Sinclair has had some good news recently in that it graduated a record number of students at last week’s graduation ceremony, with 8,919 students being awarded degrees or certificates, or a 14% increase over last year. Of those, a record number were also black men, 1,548 students to be exact, as well as a record number of minority students at just over 3,000. There’s good news for Dayton residents recently from the city, which is that they recently announced that residents will be getting 100% renewable energy starting in June of this year which will be 30% cheaper than AES Ohio’s standard service rate, which is the company that used to be DP&L. They also assured residents that Dayton will not be impacted by the recent rate hikes proposed by AES thanks to the new aggregation program. Savings are expected to average approximately $300 per Dayton customer over the 12-month period that the deal is in eff...