CLEVELAND, Ohio – U.S. Sen. Jon Husted is urging the federal Treasury Department to investigate a Chinese company’s acquisition of Epic, a reading platform that reaches students in nearly every American elementary school.
We’re talking about what the technology does and what information it could send to China on Today in Ohio.
Listen online here.
Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin, impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.
You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.
Here’s what we’re asking about today:
Why is Sen. Jon Husted worried about China learning what American kids are reading? Is Go Dog Go some kind of state secret?
Ohio had been planning to change how it pays daycare centers in a way to help them be more stable. Why is it postponing that move?
First, Frank LaRose loved a system where states could share information about voters, to combat fraud. Then, after MAGA activists criticized the system, LaRose withdrew from it. Is he back now in a new system that does pretty much the same thing? What happens when MAGA attacks it?
Before Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb solicited proposed for developing the lakefront land around Browns stadium, he had thousands of touchpoints with the public about what they want. What did they say?
Rocky River schools have been through the ringer with inappropriate behavior by adults, and one of the egregious cases involves the former school resource officer at the high school. What did he do, and what is his sentence?
What is City Councilman Richard Starr saying about the investigation into the devastating Rainbow terrace fire from earlier this year?
How hot a ticket is Kamala Harris on her book tour, and when is she coming to Cleveland?
Out sister site in Alabama has an investigative project out this week on how a pesticide is linked to Parkinson’s Disease, and one of the people they profile is an Ohioan. What’s the gist of the project, and who is the Ohioan?
Speaking of Parkinson’s, how big of a problem is it in Ohio compared to other states?
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Chris Quinn (00:01.265)
It’s Tuesday on Today in Ohio as our week, we’re weak and our year winds down. It’s the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Leila Tassi, Lisa Garvin, and Laura Johnston. Leila, why is Senator John Husted so worried about China learning what American kids are reading? Is Go Dog Go some kind of a state secret?
Leila (00:27.123)
Oh my gosh. I feel like we’ve been talking a lot about Go.Go. But Houston and three other Republican senators are asking the Treasury Department to take a hard look at this popular kids reading app called Epic. And parents know what this is. This is the app that teachers use in class and parents use it at home. It’s in about 94 % of U.S. elementary schools and it reaches something like 75 million kids.
That’s the scale that has everyone’s antennas up because Epic was just bought out of bankruptcy for $95 million by a company tied to China called Tal Education Group. And that’s where Houston’s concern kicks in. The app tracks kids’ reading habits in real time, what they read, how fast they read, what they like. So teachers can tailor instruction. But the senators worry that because the new owner is subject to Chinese intelligence and data security laws,
that information could theoretically be accessed by the Chinese government. So this isn’t really about China cracking the code on Go.Go, but it is about children’s data privacy and whether a foreign adversary should own a platform embedded in nearly every elementary school in America. And the senators are also concerned about editorial control. They argue that whoever owns Epic controls what books and learning materials kids see.
And they draw a straight line to past concerns over Confucius Institutes and Chinese influence in US education. Houston’s framing is that parents want more say in curriculum, not less, and certainly not through a platform owned by a company tied to Beijing. So it’s also worth noting the sale already went through US Bankruptcy Court and a judge allowed it despite last minute Justice Department concern. this letter is essentially asking for a retroactive national security review.
Chris Quinn (02:19.757)
So am I reading it right that this company knows each kid by name? They know what John Smith is reading in real time, or is it more they can see generally what people are reading? Is it individualized data?
Leila (02:38.308)
I, if you drill down to that level, I’m sure you can get individualized data because each kid uses this. It’s sort of like an e-reading application. So.
Chris Quinn (02:49.211)
So China could use this data to build a massive database of pretty much what 95 % of the kids in America, who they are, what their rough age is, what their proficiency is in reading, how smart they are, what subjects they’re interested in. They would have access to all of that. Wow.
Leila (03:10.364)
Potentially, I guess you could say you could make that argument.
Chris Quinn (03:13.967)
It’s kind of frightening. I don’t think any parent when they sign up for something like this thinks that that data could be scattered to the wind like that. And it seems like they’re kind of too late here that there ought to be better guardrails and protecting kids names. I mean, should every kid in America be in a database that can be handed around like that just because a company that is beholden to China buys it. It’s an interesting conundrum, but what do you do now?
The sale’s already gone through, China likely already has the data.
Leila (03:48.264)
Yeah, you know, I kind of thought it was a little funny and ironic though that that they’re concerned about the government overreach into education when it comes to, you know, the Chinese government being able to determine what materials kids engage with, because that, course, is is the province of Republicans, right? Only Republicans can decide which ideas are dangerous and which lessons cross a political line that
Chris Quinn (04:10.223)
Right.
Leila (04:16.764)
that kind of thought policing is, you know, is in their wheelhouse. So they can’t give that up to the Chinese. That’s our job. I know it’s a first thing I thought of. was like, that’s right.
Chris Quinn (04:23.611)
Yeah. We don’t want China brainwashing you. That’s our job. That’s our province. What are you doing? Get out of this. Right. Jerry Serino wants inside those kids’ heads. Get China out. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Ohio had been planning to change how it pays daycare centers in a way that would help them be more stable. We talked about this earlier in the year as a great idea to help fortify our much needed daycare. Why is it postponing that move, Laura?
Laura (04:53.761)
because it’s a Biden rule and the Trump administration says, you don’t have to do this. We’re going to change the rule anyway. Because right now, child care providers who are paid through the government are based on child attendance. So if a kid misses a day, whether they’re sick or their parents stays home with them or something else, that provider doesn’t get paid for that day, even though the staffing is the same, the planning is the same, the space and the food and all of that is the same. So it would make…
Daycare and childcare centers a lot more stable if they could count on the money based on enrollment. And that’s what Biden wanted to do. was giving about $70 million more a year to childcare centers in Ohio. But in August, Trump administration said, we’re gonna put that on hold. And also a co-payment assistance that the Biden administration also wanted to offer, which would add up to about $19 million.
and said, hey, brakes on that, we’re going to come up with our own rules, but they haven’t come up with them yet.
Chris Quinn (05:54.025)
He just knows no depth of being vile, right? This is about kids. Daycare centers, the way they get paid now, if the kids don’t show up, they don’t get paid, how do you plan for paying your staff and paying for your supplies? The Biden administration saw this and said, no, this isn’t right. We need to make them safe. It was about the kids. But because it’s Joe Biden, Trump doesn’t care about the kids. If Joe Biden did it, I’m going to stamp it out. I want to erase his presence.
Laura (06:06.893)
True, the teachers are there regardless.
Chris Quinn (06:22.287)
no matter how many people suffer. It’s vile. And look, this is a guy who reached new depths of vile yesterday when he issued horrible comments about the death of Rob Reiner. He’s just a vile human being. Everything that comes out of his mouth is vile and evil and mean-spirited. He is attacking children just to go after Joe Biden. I just cannot understand why Republicans stand by this monstrous human being.
Laura (06:33.099)
Yes.
Laura (06:50.305)
Yeah, the states had planned for it. Ohio put aside the money and it’s only fair. You have the enrollment, you have the teachers, you have the space, you have everything you need for those kids. Pay them because we know that a lot of these are small businesses. Some are nonprofits. They’re not operating with big margins. It’s really expensive to pay childcare because of the ratio it takes for the teachers to the kids. And that’s why childcare is so expensive. And that’s why so many families need help. But in Ohio, we have
some of the lowest threshold for helping in the entire country. You have to make less than 145 % of the poverty line in order to even get public assistance. And Mike DeWine has tried to raise that. The state legislature says no. And what’s really galling is that we’re spending about a billion dollars on publicly funded child care.
But only $250 million of that is coming from the state coffers. The rest is coming from the federal government. So think about, like, we could offer more if we would just raise this threshold and help more families who are hurting for everything, basically. And we just don’t want to as a state. Yet we’ll spend a billion dollars on private school vouchers. Yeah.
Chris Quinn (08:00.208)
Yeah.
But that’s a separate issue. The issue here is they were trying to help these places be healthy. And think about it. Think about the two stories we just talked about. What’s the bigger threat to children in Ohio? The dearth of quality child care or that China might know their reading go dog go? Now, what is John Huston all all huff and puffing about? It’s about China in the books. Where is he to contrast what the president is doing to child care? That’s where he should be. That has a
direct ramification for Ohio children and he’s silent. Where’s Bernie Moreno? You care about Ohio kids? Stand up to your guy and say, don’t do this. Just because Biden did it doesn’t mean it’s bad. This helps our kids. Silence.
Laura (08:46.231)
Yeah, I totally agree with you, but there’s no law that says Ohio can’t pay per enrollment. Other states do it. They’re just saying you don’t have to. So if Ohio doesn’t have to, it’s not going to do it because we don’t care enough about child care. Like we could have all the legislators, we could have DeWine saying, you know, Trump’s not making us do it, but it’s the right thing to do. So we’re going to go ahead and do it anyway.
Chris Quinn (09:08.433)
You’re listening to Today in Ohio. First, Frank LaRose loved a system where states could share information about voters to combat fraud from people who tried to vote in two different states. Then, after MAGA activists criticized the system, LaRose withdrew from it, saying it’s bad, bad, bad. Lisa, is he back now in a new system, does pretty much the same thing? And what happens when MAGA attacks this one?
Lisa Garvin (09:33.502)
Yeah, it’s kind of the same old system but with a new fancy name. It’s called the Alexa Network and Ohio is joining with nine other states to share their voter data to keep the rolls accurate and to pinpoint any fraud. Most of our all of our neighboring states are part of this group including Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
But there was an analysis done by the Center for Economic Policy Research a few years ago. They found out that about 3 % of voters are double registered. And these are people who have just recently moved or they’re snowbirds, they have a second home. But they say trying to vote in two states in the same election is extremely rare. Violations do carry a fine of up to $10,000 and up to five years in prison.
Larose says he wants to work with these other states to find people voting illegally and casting multiple ballots in the same election. But as you said, this is kind of just 2.0 version of Eric, which was the Electronic Registration Information Center. And that was a similar state partnership that they were tracking moves and voter deaths. Larose, as you said, praised it until conservative media claimed that Eric favored Democrats and undermined election integrity. And he dropped it like a hot potato.
Chris Quinn (10:48.911)
Yeah, this was the case that for anybody that wanted to see it showed just how Lily Liver LaRose is that he doesn’t stand for anything because he was full throated in support of the old system until all of a sudden the MAGA folks said it’s bad. And then like you said, hot potato now he’s back again, but the same thing will likely happen. And watch if MAGA comes out and says, we hate this system. He’ll, he’ll immediately turn tail again. And it shows you everything. He doesn’t stand for anything except supporting.
Lisa Garvin (10:58.279)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (11:18.917)
MAGA and the Republicans and he’s running for attorney general,
Lisa Garvin (11:23.227)
I believe so. don’t know, did he file? I don’t know. you know, the thing about LaRose is he’s always trumpeted the integrity of Ohio’s election system. And then he turns around and said, well, there’s fraud everywhere. And it’s like, what do you believe? This is like cognitive dissonance.
Chris Quinn (11:40.689)
It is. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Before Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb solicited proposals for developing some of the lakefront land that we’ve been talking about, the part around Brown Stadium, he had thousands of touch points with the public about what people want there. What did they tell him, Leila?
Leila (12:00.665)
Well, people were remarkably consistent and surprisingly practical about what they would like to see on the lakefront. They didn’t come in asking for, you wild futuristic mega projects and things like that. Over years of workshops and surveys and conversations, more than 5,000 responses, in fact, they kept saying some of the same things like make the lakefront usable every day for everyone. And they talked about basics first, places to sit and watch the sunset, green space,
walking and biking paths and benches and shade and access to the water. Comfort and accessibility came up again and again, not just for big events, but they want a place where you’d actually want to linger on a random Tuesday, for example. And from there, the idea has got more fun. People wanted activation. They want small shops and food vendors, maybe a couple of restaurants and live music, festivals, art and cultural events. 60 % said lakeside dining.
would feel very Cleveland. Nearly half said a real beach would be wonderful. Families kept saying, don’t forget the kids, playgrounds, interactive arts, spaces that work across the generations. There were also some wonderfully Cleveland suggestions like a zoo or aquarium annex or a water park or a roller skating trail, a home base for Great Lakes cruise ships came up. But running through almost all of it was the
one big clear value, which was public space. People literally wrote public, public, public. They want the lakefront to belong to everyone. They wanted affordable, welcoming, connecting the east to the west and tying back into the city instead of being cut off by highways. So when Bib and the Waterfront Development Corporation went looking for developers, they were not starting from scratch. They were starting with a very strong mandate from residents.
Don’t wall it off, don’t over privatize it. And don’t forget that Lake Erie is Cleveland’s greatest asset here.
Chris Quinn (13:59.961)
What’s important about this, this is a tiny piece of land. This doesn’t even include where the stadium sits because when they did this, it wasn’t clear that the stadium would be coming down. But now we’re also talking about 450 acres. It’s Berkeley for an airport. That’s not what these people were asked about. But I think we can start to extrapolate. I think Burke offers a much greater potential. You could do something dramatic and big and unique. And I hope
Leila (14:19.976)
Sure.
Chris Quinn (14:29.435)
there’s a new conversation to really envision that. This is a small piece. How many acres are we talking about here? Like 50 something?
Leila (14:36.296)
I, that’s a great question. mean, I know that the stadium alone sits on what, 50 acres? So I’m not, yeah. great. Can you imagine how transformative?
Lisa Garvin (14:42.323)
believe it’s 177 acres, if I’m not mistaken, yeah.
Chris Quinn (14:45.111)
Is it? Okay. Which is about the size of Acacia Park. mean, that’s a pretty sizable piece of land.
Leila (14:51.696)
Right. And then you add to it, Burke, if that comes online, this is going to be just an incredible moment for Cleveland to have all of that activated space on the lakefront. We expect to hear pretty soon which developer was chosen for this project. And then I guess we’ll know more details and we’ll know for sure how closely the plan will adhere to the wishes of the people or whether they did all this public outreach just to be able to say that they did it.
Lisa Garvin (15:17.363)
Actually, I need to make a correction. That number is incorrect. That’s the acreage of the new stadium site, so I apologize.
Chris Quinn (15:25.379)
Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. Rocky River schools have been through the wringer lately with inappropriate behavior by adults and one of the egregious cases involves the former school resource officer at the high school. Laura, what did he do and what is his sentence for that?
Laura (15:42.562)
This is so disturbing. illegally searched the law enforcement database to gather information on women and students. And he was sentenced Wednesday to six months in prison. He’s 55 years old. His name is Michael Bernhardt. And he admitted to three counts of unauthorized use of the Ohio law enforcement gateway. He’s arguing, though people do it all the time, which is not a great defense. It’s still illegal. He can no longer be a police officer, thanks
goodness, but what really swayed Judge Timothy McCormick was the victim’s statements and that this isn’t necessarily about the going into the database, but the fact that he was grooming girls as young as 14 in high school, exchanging all sorts of messages and then meeting up with them later. A relationship turned physical when a girl turned 16. I just have to reiterate how awful this is. This is a police officer placed in the school so that
you know, obviously keep the kids safe, also have a good rapport with kids so that they have a good relationship with law enforcement. Keep them on the straight and narrow and he’s the one that is just preying on them. It is so awful.
Chris Quinn (16:52.753)
Yeah, I was a little bit surprised that judge said he was thinking of not sending him. He’s going to be in jail, not prison. But the six months actually seems kind of light to me because what blows me away is he was doing this for 10 years. Do they not have safeguards on this system where they can detect that somebody’s using it inappropriately? He was looking up girls all the time and then he was looking up people in their lives. I it was really over the top bad. And I just can’t understand how that can go on for a decade.
Laura (16:57.847)
Sorry.
Laura (17:15.735)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (17:22.757)
and no one notices.
Laura (17:24.461)
There’s so many questions and you know, this is my community. My kid goes to this high school and the principal who was overseeing this during this time and you know, we’ve talked about all sorts of other things that happened in Rocky River schools at the time is now gone and they’re looking for a new principal. The superintendent is gone and I’m personally very glad about that because I agree. How could this go on for this many years and he’d been in the school since 1994, I believe.
And this is just so wrong on so many levels. These girls are going to be, you know, they’re dealing with this for the rest of their lives. That’s what their parents said. And it’s supposed to be a person of trust.
Chris Quinn (18:04.729)
You watch though, he’ll get out in six months. He’ll have the record sealed and then he’ll be asking us to remove him from our archives. Not going to happen. I’ve just kind of, I, when this all happened to the school district was not good about transparency. And so it’s, I feel like now we know what this was about in full detail and it’s really, really bad. So six months doesn’t feel like enough. You’re listening to today in Ohio.
Laura (18:10.407)
No way.
Chris Quinn (18:32.591)
What is city councilman Richard Star saying about the Cleveland investigation into the devastating Rainbow Terrace fire from earlier this year, Lisa?
Lisa Garvin (18:41.745)
Yeah, he’s not happy about it. That fire was June 26. It was an explosion at the Rainbow Terrace Apartments. 44 units burned. 120 people are displaced. Over $3.5 million in damages, but they still have no answers on what caused that fire and explosion six months down the line.
So Ward 5 Councilman Richard Starr wrote a letter to the Bibb administration demanding updates on the investigation. He says residents have been asking, you know, if there was negligence or code violations that could have caused this and are there steps being taken to prevent future incidents at the apartments? No response, he says, from the property manager of Independent Management Services, which manages that property. They’re Michigan-based group. They have not answered any of his inquiries.
Displaced residents are complaining of being relocated to squalid conditions. We talked to a couple of them, Eon’s Jen Moses. She’s a 23 year old mom with two kids. She says that the Cuyahoga Metro Housing Authority has relocated her several times. Every apartment they moved her to had serious issues. And then it turned out that her two year old son tested positive for lead.
Kayana Bell, lost, two of her kids were severely burned in this fire. We did a story on that. It was a great story. She said she had to move to a home that had no working oven. And then, you know, there was somebody who died in this too. Cordale Sheffield died trying to save one of Bell’s daughters.
Chris Quinn (20:11.245)
Olivia Mitchell’s done terrific work in documenting everything that’s happened here. And I’m I’m with Star. I cannot understand why we don’t know anything. And I’m starting to wonder if maybe Cleveland has some culpability. There was talk that there were no firewalls in the attic between the units. And it was an old building. And so it predated those codes. But if there was any work done in that building since the code was changed, then it would have applied. And I wonder if Cleveland
housing inspectors didn’t do their job and get this to be safe. I don’t understand why six months later we don’t have answers. This thing spread super fast. It was hugely tragic. Like you said, there was a death by a hero trying to rescue people. And how can we not know anything all this time later? You hate to think it’s because, well, these are poor people. We don’t care about poor people if it were, you know,
wealthy people in the suburbs we’d have a million answers but i wonder if cleveland dropped the ball on inspections of this building
Lisa Garvin (21:14.131)
Here’s my question, why would a city hire a third party to manage the property? Isn’t it their job to manage the property? I don’t know.
Chris Quinn (21:22.127)
I don’t I I think he was it’s private right I thought it was private but it was. I it was I thought it was subsidized by housing Lila do you know.
Lisa Garvin (21:26.482)
I thought it was Public Housing Unit. I could be wrong.
Leila (21:31.568)
It’s yes, yeah, it’s a it’s it’s it’s a building. It’s a facility that accepts housing vouchers, but it’s privately owned and operated.
Lisa Garvin (21:38.638)
okay, okay.
Chris Quinn (21:41.009)
And it had had trouble before. just, there’s a lot of questions and I’m glad Star is, is raising. He, it’s not like he, he grandstanded on this. waited six months, but it’s come on. What, what happened here? How do we make sure it doesn’t happen somewhere else? There’s a lot of suffering that resulted from it. And maybe what the city really needs to do is to turn this whole investigation over to a independent party. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.
Layla, how hot is a ticket to Kamala Harris with her book tour and when is she coming to Cleveland?
Leila (22:13.884)
This ticket is very hot, Chris, and Cleveland is absolutely on this list. Kamala Harris is heading back out on the road in early 2026 with an expanded book tour to her memoir, 107 Days is the name of the book, and tickets are moving fast. This isn’t a casual author stop. It’s being billed as a conversation with Kamala Harris with onstage discussion, reflections on her presidential run, and a lot of focus on
resilience and civic engagement for people who feel burned out by politics. The proof that it’s a hot ticket is in the prices, honestly. In many cities, seats are already limited and resale prices are climbing, especially in bigger markets. And Cleveland is actually one of the pricier stops, which tells you something about the demand here. She’ll be in Cleveland on Wednesday, February 25th at the Key Bank State Theater at Playhouse Square. It starts at 7 p.m. The show is sold out.
And if you got a ticket, you know that these tickets are going for as much as a couple hundred dollars, depending on where you’re sitting. Much more on some resale sites if you’re trying to get a ticket now. The format is intimate by design. There’s conversation, audience Q &A, and optional meet and greet packages that include a signed copy of the book and a photo with Harris. It’s not a stump speech or anything like that. It’s supposed to be more reflective. But this is obviously a political figure who still draws a crowd. So yeah, it’s a hot ticket.
Chris Quinn (23:37.393)
Yeah, I looked at some of the prices, 225, 300, 325. You’re right, it’s a hot ticket. People want to hear from her. I think it says something about the current political climate. She is hinting that she’s going to make another run, and I guess people want to hear from her.
Leila (23:55.369)
I feel like what’s been really fascinating about Harris lately is how unfiltered she’s become. I haven’t read her memoir, but I suspect that it reflects what she’s been saying too in these long form interviews that I’ve been listening to and reading that she’s not smoothing over what happened in 2024. She’s really naming it. She’s been blunt about feeling abandoned after stepping up as the Democratic nominee and
I listened to the diary of a CEO interview where she didn’t dance around any of this. She said President Biden was so bitter about being pushed off the ticket that he and his inner circle essentially went silent and offered no real support while disinformation about her just really spread unchecked. It was stunning how candid she is.
Lisa Garvin (24:47.751)
But it sounds like a whole lot of sour grapes to me, quite personally.
Leila (24:51.74)
Well, I but I think the things that she’s calling out really happened in the background. she, you know, I don’t doubt that Joe Biden was, you know, not treating her the way he should have during that time. She was kind of thrown into the mix at a very late moment and had to carry the mantle. So I don’t know. I think people are dying to hear all of that in this unfiltered way.
Chris Quinn (25:17.769)
Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. Our sister site in Alabama has an investigative project out this week on how a pesticide is linked to Parkinson’s disease. One of the people they profile is an Ohioan. Laura, what’s the gist of the project? And who is the Ohioan?
Laura (25:35.33)
Yeah, I had no idea about this pesticide. It’s called Paraquat, and it is super dangerous. I you can die from getting contact with it on your skin. And between 11 million and 17 million pounds of this are sprayed annually in the United States to help grow all sorts of crops like cotton, soybean, corn, even peaches. And the use is increasing. It doubled from 2012 to 2018, but there are links to Parkinson’s disease. And so there are thousands of lawsuits.
suing Sagenta, which is the company that developed it, and Chevron, which sold it until 1986 about these, you know, the cancers and all sorts of things that people have. Basically, the lawsuits are on Parkinson’s. And the folks who did the story from M. Live in Alabama talked to a winery owner in Valley City, it’s in Medina County, about his experience. And he hadn’t even
worked with it for that long, but there are these links. The companies say that’s not causation, but they have been working on settling some of them.
Chris Quinn (26:43.631)
Yeah, think Lisa will remember Paraquat like I do. Because when we were, it was used to wipe out marijuana fields,
Lisa Garvin (26:46.78)
yes. yes, I was just…
Lisa Garvin (26:53.435)
Yeah, exactly. In the 70s, they sprayed Mexican marijuana fields. And people were freaking out because they thought, you know, the pot they were smoking had paraquad in it.
Laura (26:53.948)
yeah.
Chris Quinn (26:57.23)
Yeah.
Laura (27:02.359)
Well, they’d be dead. mean, this is so deadly. Like at the time that Dave Gilbert, the Ohio man, was spreading it on his fields, the precautions were wearing rubber gloves, a heavy shirt, and goggles. Now you have to have respirators and closed cabs and other safety measures. But most countries seem to have banned it, like 70 countries have banned it. China won’t let it be used, but they’re manufacturing it, which is crazy.
I mean, I’ve talked about this on the podcast before. My dad has Parkinson’s and it’s just an awful debilitating disease and it’s horrible to watch. And Parkinson’s diagnoses in this country are increasing like crazy. Right.
Chris Quinn (27:43.505)
Yeah, right, we’re gonna talk about that in a minute. What threw me was seeing Paraquat again. Unlike Lisa, I remember the huge controversy of the 70s when it was being used in Mexico. There was abject fear by marijuana users back then, but I don’t think, Lisa, I’ve heard of it since the 70s, have you?
Lisa Garvin (28:02.899)
I haven’t either. thought that it was completely out of use. And I want to point out that it was our federal government that was spraying the Mexican marijuana fields. It wasn’t the Mexicans doing it. But yeah, I haven’t heard about it since then. I thought it had been taken off the market.
Chris Quinn (28:13.124)
Yeah.
Laura (28:17.453)
But it’s being used everywhere, including in golf courses. And this one stat, that even living within a mile of a golf course increased the risk of Parkinson’s by 126%. So we should all be aware of it, whether or not we live on a farm.
Chris Quinn (28:17.542)
Great work.
Chris Quinn (28:30.837)
Great work by AL.com. Thanks for sharing it with us. You can find it on Cleveland.com. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Speaking of Parkinson’s, Lisa, how big of a problem is it in Ohio compared to other states? There’s new information out.
Lisa Garvin (28:45.011)
Yeah, we’re kind of high on the list. Ohio and surrounding states have some of the highest death rates from Parkinson’s disease. In Ohio, it’s just over 10 deaths per 100,000 population. That was in 2023. Surrounding states, Pennsylvania was 9.5, Kentucky 10.2, Michigan was 9.8.
West Virginia was 10.5. The highest in the nation was Kansas at 11.5. So we were only, you know, point and a half below them. And then the lowest was New York at 6.2. So about 1.1 million Americans have Parkinson’s. They diagnose 90,000 new cases every year. The highest prevalence tends to be in the Rust Belt, Florida and Southern California. The risk factors, it’s one and a half.
times more common in men than women. mostly onset is mostly in the early to mid sixties. then environmental exposure is a big risk factor, pesticides and toxins and manganese and welders, which makes me think that’s why the Rust Belt has such a high prevalence of Parkinson’s.
Chris Quinn (29:51.697)
Yeah, and you could see Florida having it because a lot of people from the Rust Belt migrate there when they retire. It is frightening to think that a lot of these cases are based on environmental exposure because we’re we really don’t have a lot of control over that in our lives. And as Laura points out, it’s devastating disease. I mean, you just wither and weaken and it’s horrible. I would hope.
that we would get a much better handle on what the causes are so we can remove them from the environment.
Lisa Garvin (30:23.525)
And there is no cure. It’s a progressive disease. It affects your neurological system. It can be controlled with medications and physical therapy, but only up to a point.
Chris Quinn (30:33.849)
All right, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. That’s it for the Tuesday episode. Thank you, Leila. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you, Laura. Thank you for being here with us. We’ll return Wednesday to talk about the news.
