Combine Maureen O’Connor with voters energized by stomping Issue 1, and gerrymandering looks doomed! Today in Ohio

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Former Chief Justice of the Ohio Supreme Court Maureen O’Connor is one of the leaders of a citizen coalition, pushing for a statewide vote in 2024 to strip elected officials of their power over Ohio’s redistricting process.

We’re talking about the effort to quash gerrymandering — once and for all, on Today in Ohio.

Listen online here.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with impact editor Leila Atassi, editorial board member Lisa Garvin 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:

Gov. Mike DeWine came to Cleveland Wednesday to talk about crime. This, after all, is the summer of crime in the city, fueled by easy-to-steal cars and guns. What did the governor say?

Why did Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose – fresh off his humiliating defeat over Issue 1 – part ways from his much respected spokesman?

How does former Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor think Issue 1 will affect her drive to end gerrymandering by removing elected officials from drawing district lines

Lots of machinations continue behind closed doors as the Haslams continue to seek public money for a major renovation of the football stadium – or a new one. In the meantime, the city of Cleveland has to keep maintaining the stadium. What’s the latest bill?

The judge in the federal case against Donald Trump for his efforts to overthrow our government had something to say about the Jan. 6 insurrection when she sentenced an Ohio defendant. Does it reveal any bias the judge might have against the former president?

We’ve wondered whether the recreational marijuana question likely headed to the November ballot will have organized opposition. Now we know?

No one expected Mike DeWine would run for office again after he completes his second term as governor. How did it make that official this week?

Inc. Magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest growing companies in the United States has a bunch from Ohio. What are some of the Greater Cleveland businesses to make the list?

How can the best cookie in Ohio come from a pizza shop?

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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.

[00:00:00] Chris: How about that? Governor Mike DeWine came to Cleveland to talk about crime. It’s something we’ve been wondering about for quite some time now. Finally happened, it’s first up on today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from Cleveland Dot. Com and the plane dealer. I’m Chris Quinn. I’m here with Elisa Garvin, Courtney Alfi, and Laura Johnston.

Before we start, we mentioned yesterday those first energy cards, the, the refund, HB six shenanigans, uh, for dollars and cents, tiny amounts that they would expire at the end of this month. They expire in August, 2028. They’re still pretty much useless. This is still a terrible scam, but the cards last longer so they can rattle around in your junk drawer for years.

Let’s begin. Governor Mike DeWine did come to Cleveland Wednesday to talk about crime. This, after all, is the summer of crime in the city fueled by easy to steal cars and guns. Courtney, what? Did the governor have to [00:01:00] offer a tired Cleveland weary Cleveland Clevelanders that are sick of the crime?

[00:01:06] Courtney: Yeah.

The governor appeared for this big press conference yesterday at the fourth district on the city, southeast side, and he, you know, was joined with local leaders who have been calling for more support from the state. And, and, and DeWine outlined several ways the state seeking to help address violent crime in Cleveland this summer.

Which, you know, as we know a lot of folks are saying this, this wave is unprecedented. So DeWine announced the results of a surge of state troopers the day before on Tuesday that had fanned out across that whole southeast portion of the city. They used helicopters and cars and ultimately netted. I. 20 felony arrests.

They recovered four stolen cars and four illegal guns. And DeWine told us they may run but they can’t hide. He said every parent has the right to raise their children and live in a neighborhood free of crime and violence. And DeWine told us that surge of troopers. [00:02:00] Will happen again sometime in the coming days, but, but that won’t be announced.

We don’t, we won’t know when they’re amping up their efforts here. And separately, the governor talked about the Ohio Investigative Unit kind of surging up in Cleveland. The O I U does liquor control and, and they’ll be targeting places that sell alcohol, that are, that are known for illegal alcohol sales or drug trafficking, prostitution, things like that.

And, and broadly speaking, the state Highway patrol troopers, they’ve been in Cleveland in higher numbers since May to do largely traffic enforcement. Right. But at some point, They said yesterday that the, the patrol started helping with criminal investigations.

[00:02:42] Chris: Yeah, I, I haven’t seen the trooper anywhere in the city, so I find it hard to believe that it’s ramped up that much.

What’s good about this is up until now, because Cleveland police are so decimated, there was no pushback on the Kia. I mean, these guys were just going out, stealing cars left and right, racing around with [00:03:00] guns, and, and it’s been a rampage with no accountability, no pushback. At least there’s pushback. At least those guys now know that on any given day, there could be a massive sweep in which they get locked up for the rest of the summer.

It was about time they did something like this. We have desperately needed the help. I wonder how much of an effect it has if you were running around stealing cars and and causing all kind of hooliganism. Would this worry you that on any given day there’s gonna be helicopters and patrol cars everywhere

[00:03:34] Courtney: you, you know, one thing that struck me about this whole, whole big to do with the governor yesterday was.

I mean, it sure seems that, you know, BIB’s been pointing the finger at Columbus talking about essentially lax gun laws, and, and this appears, this finger pointing at Columbus. I mean, I guess it appears to have inspired some response from Columbus. But you know, reporter John Tucker kind of injected some reality here in [00:04:00] this story as well.

You know, everyone was talking about partnerships and working with the state, but. There are short-term partnerships between the state and local officials. That’s a pretty routine thing we do see in Cleveland. And DeWine acknowledged that yesterday Tucker reported, and it’s still kind of unclear what makes these collaborations that have been happening recently different than collaborations that routinely occur, occur.

But, um, DeWine, we asked him why, why such a level of collaboration, if this is like what, it appears to be a bigger boost than normal. We asked him why such a level of collaboration hasn’t been standard procedure throughout the year, and, and he told us we can’t promise. What we can’t promise is that every day we’ll have a helicopter up or involved in other communities, so, You know, this is helpful, like you said, but there is like some routineness that’s part of

[00:04:54] Lisa: this

[00:04:55] Chris: too.

The other thing that I’m surprised we’re not seeing, we do have a [00:05:00] lot of police departments in Cleveland. It’s not just Cleveland. C M H A has one. The the R T A has one, Metro Health University Hospitals, Cleveland Clinic, the University Circle, I mean, they go on and on and on. Why not coordinate with all of them?

So when you go out on a day like yesterday to sweep, you can do it with twice as many and really get the, the message out that we’re all working together on this. It would probably build better intelligence gathering as well. I, I’m just glad we saw something because up until now, For the kids that are stealing the cars.

There really was no, no retribution. I mean, once in a while, police might arrest one, but there wasn’t anything to say. Cut it out. There are consequences for your actions and as we talked earlier this week, the number of cars stolen in this city doubled in the first six months of this year compared to last year, so that’s outta control.

Thanks, Mike DeWine for coming. Hope we see you again. You’re listening to today in Ohio. Why did Ohio’s Secretary of [00:06:00] State, Frank LaRose fresh off his humiliating defeat over issue one that’s given him tons of national attention as the loser of the year? Why did he part ways from his much respected spokesman, Laura?

Because

[00:06:12] Laura: he slammed Trump on Twitter, and we don’t really know the details of this. We don’t know if Rob Nichols got fired or he quit, but this happened days after some Trump allies who some of them support his opponent, Bernie Moreno up. Um, Frank, Frank Larose’s opponent in the Senate race called attention to several social media posts that Nichols made on Twitter.

They criticize, they insulted Trump. His name doesn’t appear on the deleted account. Yeah, since deleted account, but it’s pre, it’s. It’s possible to piece together the identity by details he previously shared. But what’s interesting about this is that LaRose was not all pro-Trump until very recently, and he was critical of him in the past.

Didn’t endorse him in 2016. In 2020, but, and also I would like to point out, as some people at our newsroom did yesterday, [00:07:00] this is not a. Campaign spokesman. This is a spokesman for the Ohio Secretary of State. He’s paid by taxpayers, not the rose’s campaign contributions.

[00:07:10] Chris: Look, uh, reporters form relationships with spokespeople and there’s give and take.

The best spokespeople understand this is a big game and they get to know each other. There’s not a lot of animosity. Rob Nichols is way up on the scale of quality spokespeople when he was with John Kasick. Reporters largely respected him. He, he’s a decent guy. When we were putting the ballot together to the, the absentee ballot application to run in the Plain Dealer and online for issue one, it was his office that certified, yes, you’re good to go.

That’s the right one. Others didn’t go through that step and put the wrong one out, but, but Rob’s a good guy and. It’s stunning that Frank LaRose would get rid of him or part ways with him over something like this. It’s just more evidence that Frank LaRose is just a [00:08:00] terrible leader. He’s a coward, he’s a, you know, sycophant now to Trump.

And like you said, Laura, he used to be opposed to Trump, but now he wants to be Senate and he’s. Begging for Trump’s endorsement. Uh, it just, it shows Ohio more and more how lacking in character this guy is. It, it

[00:08:18] Laura: is, and actually I was reading an Inquirer story from 2020 where he said he wouldn’t endorse a candidate for president because it’s the job of the elections.

You know, he’s the chief of the elections in Ohio. He has gotta make sure they’re secure and safe and he wanted to be. You know, encourage civility in politics. He said he told them that making self-government work again may be my generation’s man on the moon. And I was like, wow, this was three years ago, and look how far he’s come and also how much has devolved since then.

And I just thought that was fascinating that he is gotten to the point where his spokesman is no more because he criticized. A, a president who’s under, what are we at four indictments on Twitter.

[00:08:59] Chris: I [00:09:00] suspect Rob Nichols, uh, is not disappointed to be gone. The Frank LaRose, he originally joined to be a spokesman for the office, is not the Frank LaRose today.

And, and Rob probably has more integrity

[00:09:12] Laura: and I wish him luck. I mean, I, I think you’re right. He is an upstanding guy and hopefully he’ll represent somebody else and we’ll work with him again. Yeah, I

[00:09:20] Chris: hope so. You’re listening to today in Ohio. All right, Lisa, you get a meaty one. How does former Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor think issue one will affect her drive to end gerrymandering by removing elected officials from drawing district lines?

She

[00:09:35] Lisa: seems to think that the, uh, issue one election and results have actually educated voters on the constitutional amendment process, and she also believes that momentum will carry through November, 2024. Um, Maren O’Connor joined Citizens, not Politicians, which is a coalition for a constitutional amendment to establish a 15 member independent redistricting [00:10:00] committee on the 2024 ballot.

They did submit their first batch of signatures to the Attorney General’s office. This week for verification. So yeah, she feels like, you know, people have learned more about, you know, how constitutional amendments are done, how they get on the ballot, um, you know, how hard they are to pass sometimes. And when they do pass, it kind of really shows, you know, the will of the people.

Um, yeah, it’ll be interesting to see. And she’s one of two former Ohio Supreme Court justices on this coalition. The other one is Yvette McGee Brown, who’s a democrat. Um, they will need, Hun, uh, more than a hundred thousand Cigna, like, I don’t know how many, but more than a hundred thousand signatures to get on the ballot.

Next,

[00:10:44] Chris: yearm O’Connor is a force of nature, so when she gets behind an idea, I would bet heavily that she’s going to get it through. She did all the right things as the chief justice during the redistricting. You know, three of her Republican colleagues were going along party lines. They did [00:11:00] not have a legitimate.

Reason to dissent, and they kept dissenting. I mean, justice DeWine didn’t even get off the, the case involving his father as we talked about. And she held the line, she kept saying, no, no, you gotta go back and do it again. And she remember in her first opinion on this, she basically did a opinion that said, Hey Ohio, you ought look at this.

‘cause putting elected officials on this doesn’t work. So when she left office, she. Dedicated herself these last eight months to putting together this proposal. And I think she’s right. I think issue one has awakened a bunch of people to the fact that Matt Hoffman and company are trying to amass power instead of serving the public.

And that will carry into next year. 2024 is gonna be hell of an election year. You got the President, you got the Senate, Yik, you’re gonna have gerrymandering. And if the people who woke up. To issue one and spoke so loudly about issue one, recognize what’s happening to our government. She, [00:12:00] she’s right, that momentum could be meaningful.

[00:12:02] Lisa: Yeah. And she, like you said, she spent eight months drafting this proposal with several co-authors and they did look at other states, and Michigan in particular, but they say they want a plan that’s specifically for Ohio and some of the early details. They want to keep current and former elected officials.

Party operatives, lobbyists and large political donors off of the commission, they are not allowed to be elected or appointed. Members will be selected by a panel of four retired judges, two Democrat and two Republican, and then the, the panel will select 45 finalists from these applicants divided among.

Democratic Republican and independent members, and it’s kind of a complicated process. From here on out, they’ll draw randomly six names from the finalists. Those six will choose the nine remaining members of the redistrict. Commission from the other finalists. I’m sure there are more details that they’ll be working out.

What I love

[00:12:58] Chris: about this story is we [00:13:00] have the, the hero and the villain more O’Connor, the, the champion of the people. The hero. Frank LaRose. The Snidely whiplash, trying to keep us from doing anything right. So it’ll be a fun story to cover in 2024. You’re listening to today in Ohio. Lots of machinations continue behind closed doors as the haslams continue to seek public money for a major renovation of the football stadium or a new one.

It was even an icky looking dinner that they had at the Sure Bee Club with the Mayor Justin Bibb and the county executive Chris Ronin that they’re not talking about. Not a good look for those guys. In the meantime though, Courtney, the city of Cleveland has to keep maintaining the stadium and what is the latest bill?

[00:13:45] Courtney: Yeah, Cleveland got what’s essentially its annual bill for stadium repairs and council yesterday was moving that through. I guess the good news this time around is that it’s only $3.4 million for taxpayers for this year’s bill. [00:14:00] Last year it was around $10 million, but this go around, the bulk of the money is to repair pedestrian ramps.

Basically the material they’re made of has been corroding and, and that’s just something they gotta keep up with. They call that an emergency repair, but this money also includes some gutter repairs and to fix the air conditioning in one area of the stadium, you know, $3.4 million for that. You know, this, this doesn’t have to do with those ongoing discussions about a potential upgrade for the stadium that’s looking more down the road at the next lease, right?

This year’s money still falls under the terms of that. Original lease from the nineties and the city says, you know, we have to pay these. If we don’t, we’re in violation of our contract with the Browns and basically they could take us to court. So city, you know, says they have no choice, but we, you know, this whole discussion of, of where we’re going with the stadium and what that future deal is gonna look like.

I mean, that loomed large. Anytime you [00:15:00] talk about the stadium now everyone’s just kinda waiting to see what the, the next big. Potentially put public expenditure will be there and Oh,

[00:15:09] Chris: or if there isn’t one, I mean, I, I do think there is a sentiment this time around that there is no public money.

Cleveland’s broke county’s, broke county has to build a jail and a justice center. And maybe there are creative ways to do this outside of the public sphere. Time’s running out though, I mean, the lease expires in 2026. Right? So 28, you’re three years away. If you’re going to do a major project, you gotta start getting to the brass tacks of it to get it done before 2026.

2028. Um, oh, is it 2028? All right, so we got five years. We’re we got plenty of time, then we can have more Sherby Club dinners and more. More

[00:15:46] Courtney: mystique. I’m pretty sure the guardians deal too ran up closer to the end of the lease expiration. I mean, the. It’s, you’ll expect some kind of resolution, but yeah, no, now’s an important time and kind of those future potential costs.

Loomed large in the [00:16:00] room yesterday, whenever the stadium comes up, like everyone’s thinking about what could be coming down the road with it. And you know, the Mayor’s Office of Capital Projects director, Jamie DeRosa. Kind of gave a nod to that. He was explaining to counsel that, you know, he said the Browns have been very practical with what actually needs to be repaired through these annual requests versus what they might seek in an eventual wishlist that would be folded into a potential public financing deal.

And you know, DeRosa said that, you know, the city and or the brown, you know, we really make sure it’s. Paired down to what’s needed. So he said, quite frankly, we don’t run out of money to make these repairs. So, you know the city’s saying that they’re being diligent about the money they’re sinking into this facility and the run up to what could be another major public investment.

[00:16:52] Chris: Okay, you’re listening to today in Ohio, the judge in the federal case against Donald Trump for his efforts to overthrow our [00:17:00] government had something to say about the January 6th insurrection when she sentenced an Ohio defendant. Laura, does it real reveal any bias the judge might have against the former president?

[00:17:12] Laura: Uh, that’s what Trump thinks, and that’s what he took to his true social media platform on Monday to question the impartiality of this judge, the federal judge, she’s out of, uh, Washington, DC and she’s a high hi assigned to hear the election conspiracy case against him. And do you remember the case of Christine Pola, the teacher who’s sentenced in Willoughby from January 6th?

Oh yeah. This is what the one we’re talking about. So she sentenced her last October. And the judge, um, her name is Chut Kin, she, uh, Tanya Chut Kin, who would by the way, has been appointed since June, 2014, and she’s born in Kingston, Jamaica, which is interesting. She basically said she, she went along the sentencing guidelines, but she said that she had.

[00:18:00] Never up before broke the law, and she didn’t hurt anybody, but she was among the first people in the building. So she has this very long statement about why she’s giving the sentence where she di what she does. And the part that Trump quoted says, I see the videotapes. I see the footage of the flags and the signs the people were carrying and the hats they were wearing, and the garb and the people who mounted the capitol were there in fey and loyalty to one man.

Not the, to the constitution of which most of the people who come before me seem woefully ignorant, not to the ideals of this country and not to the principles of democracy. It’s a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day. So I think that remains free to this day, is what Trump is talking about, that he, she obviously wants him behind bars.

It it, but she doesn’t have a diatribe against Trump or Her speech was very long and detailed.

[00:18:51] Chris: You know what this is about? I mean, Trump is very clearly a white supremacist. It’s killing him that a black judge is going to hold his fate in his [00:19:00] hands and he wants to get rid of her. That’s that, that, well, I’m

[00:19:03] Laura: sure he wants to get rid of every judge and replace

[00:19:05] Chris: them with people who are Trump.

Yeah, but I mean, come on. He has. Played to the white supremacists across the country, so it’s gotta just eat away at him that this is the judge who’s on his case. She’s not biased. If you look at her record, she’s an esteemed jurist who has done a terrific job. There’s no reason she should be removed from the case, but it’s, it’s.

Killing him that he’s got an answer to her.

[00:19:29] Laura: Yeah. She got her bachelor’s degree from George Washington University and her JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School where she was associate editor of the Law Review and a legal writing fellow. So, I mean, I went and looked up her bio and I was like, she seems very impressive.

Well,

[00:19:42] Chris: and she’s put him on notice that if he keeps up this nonsense, she’s gonna hasten the trial and get this done quickly. She seems like she is not going to put up with nonsense and the only way. If he gets convicted, that he’s gonna get out of it is if he gets elected and pardons himself. Interesting story [00:20:00] by Sabrina Eaton.

It’s on cleveland.com and you are listening to today in Ohio. We’ve wondered whether the recreational marijuana question that is now definitely headed to the November ballot will have organized opposition. Lisa, now we know.

[00:20:15] Lisa: Yes, we do know, and we also know as of yesterday that the recreational marijuana, uh, statute will make it to the November ballot.

They did certify the signatures, so there’s a coalition of various groups that are gearing up to oppose this. They’re calling themselves Protect Ohio workers and families. So some of the people who have signed on to this include the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association, the Buckeye Sheriff’s Association, Ohio Adolescent Health Association, Ohio Veterans First, the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police, the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association.

Veterans Court Watch and a group called Smart Approaches to Marijuana, and some of the committee members include former [00:21:00] Republican Chair, Jane Timken, and Senator Mark Chu of the Republican from Richland County, and Smart approaches, c E O, Kevin Sabot. So Nico Lasko, who’s with the, he’s the c e o of the Ohio.

Children’s Hospital Association says recklessly expanding access to marijuana will exacerbate problems that are threatening children’s lives and health, including in unintentional ingest of medical marijuana products, poisonings and et cetera. Uh, a committee member Angela Phillips, who’s the c e O of Phillips, Tube group in southwest Ohio says this campaign will be David versus Goliath.

Them being David, of course, they think, they say it’s not easy, but it’s necessary to avoid deterioration in other states that have been tricked into believing the marijuana lie. She says that recreational marijuana will. Forever damage Ohio if we let this happen. But the coalition to regulate marijuana like alcohol, they’ve actually shortened their name.

They’re calling it just [00:22:00] like alcohol. Tom Herron says, we’re confident that voters know our message. Then they’ll see through any inaccurate. Information from the opposition. He says they will have to do more than the same old debunked talking points that voters in 20 other states have rejected.

[00:22:15] Chris: Yeah, there’s a good debate to be had on this, but this group has already come out strident and ridiculous instead of.

Trying to have a debate. What should Ohio do? What’s best for the children? They’re, they’re jumping up and down and lighting a fire. The thing is, when you look at them, none of them are big money groups, and this is going to be about the advertising. The pro marijuana folks are going to be, well moneyed. I don’t know where these guys are gonna get their money, who, who’s gonna fund the anti campaign?

[00:22:48] Lisa: That’s actually a very good question. And I mean, you know, the, just like alcohol campaign has a running headstart. They’ve already raised $3 million and you know, they’ve got another couple of months to raise more money. So it’ll be [00:23:00] interesting to see how this, what the opposition campaign looks like and whether they’ll have enough money for TV ads.

Well,

[00:23:06] Chris: and we know from polling that. The electorate largely favors legalization of marijuana, so they have to erode some of that, and they’re not gonna do it with this kind of screeching, I mean, if they had a thoughtful approach to it, maybe, but so far you could see right off the bat it was this kind of crazy.

Kind of stuff we saw in issue one

[00:23:29] Lisa: didn’t work well, and they’re using that protect word. Remember, you know, protect Ohio women. That’s the, you know, the anti-abortion group. And now they’re saying Protect Ohio workers and families. So that’s their buzzword,

[00:23:39] Chris: protect. And it didn’t work in issue one, actually, it kind of did.

We did protect the constitution from outside interests by defeating issue one you’re listening to today in Ohio. No one expected. Mike DeWine would run for office again after he completes his second term as governor. How did he make that official this week? Courtney?

[00:23:58] Courtney: Yeah. He closed out [00:24:00] his political spending and contributions by terminating a state political campaign account.

So he filed that paperwork. It’s over. He’s term limited. He’s gotta leave office in 2027. So, like you said, this isn’t that big of a surprise, but how he closed out the account is, is noteworthy here and. So, so what happened is he had just slightly over $4 million left in that account after he beat Nan Whaley last November.

And DeWine used that remaining $4 million to pay himself back finally for $4 million he spent during his first run for governor back in 18. That was a tight year close race with Democratic RI candidate Richard Cordray. So he needed a little bit of, um, self-help with that spending and, and he finally got around to paying himself back.

[00:24:50] Chris: And now that he has that money, maybe he can go buy some better players for his minor league baseball team.

[00:24:54] Courtney: You know, this kind of practice of, of loaning yourself money and paying yourself back. It, [00:25:00] it does happen. It’s, it’s legal. It’s, it’s pretty common. At least from candidates who are independently wealthy as we know.

DeWine does come from, you know, money, that family business that started out in agriculture items before it branched into other things. Like you said, that minor league baseball team. So we do see politicians, I. Moving their personal funds over and then back in it. It does get some criticism from fellow donors who wanna see that money spent out on campaigns, but Dwayne’s been saying he was gonna pay himself back for years now.

[00:25:31] Chris: Okay. You’re listening to today in Ohio, Inc. Magazine’s list Of the 5,000 fastest growing companies in the United States has a bunch from Ohio, or what are some of the greater Cleveland businesses to make the list?

[00:25:45] Laura: Well, would you have picked sauerkraut? Actually, yeah,

[00:25:47] Chris: I would. That’s, that company is on fire.

[00:25:50] Laura: It is, it’s Cleveland Kitchen, formerly Cleveland Crowd that tops the list among companies in Cleveland Fund. That flip was second in the area, and the Connect group in Shaker [00:26:00] Heights was third. So, I think magazine ranks these companies based on revenue growth in the latest listings. They look at the percentage of growth from 2019 to 2022 for this specific, uh, listing.

And a company had to be GE generating revenue before March, 2019. It has to be a private corporation, not publicly traded, and needs to be based in the United States. So Cleveland Kitchen’s revenue grew by, 621% in three years. So overall on that huge list, it was 956. Some of these are incredibly, incredibly fast growing.

Nashville based care Bridge is the fastest growing company in the United States, grown its revenue by 157144%.

[00:26:42] Chris: Wow, that’s, uh, I know that’s

[00:26:44] Laura: pretty good. That’s hard to even say. Right? And the fastest growing in Ohio is live shopper sassy. That’s a software company based in Finley, grown by 37386%. So, um, obviously these folks are, are onto something.

[00:26:59] Chris: All [00:27:00] right. You’re listening to today in Ohio, we saved the sweetest story for last. Lisa, how can the best cookie in our area come from a pizza shop?

[00:27:10] Lisa: Well, I first wanna say that the best cookie is a very subjective thing, and I’m actually like on the hunt for the best chocolate chip cookie in Cleveland.

So anyway, the Ohio Cookie Company is an in-house bakery at the Ohio Pie Company pizza shops in Brunswick and Rocky River. The, uh, baker owning an owner, Katie Warner. She makes up to 3000 cookies a week and she can, she can sell a thousand just on Fridays alone between the two shops. I. Now she started out selling, uh, her cookies at bodybuilder and power lifting shows and started to gain a following.

Now, she was in a 10 year relationship with Ohio Pie owner Nick Robson, until last year, but they still worked together amicably, and they sat and they thought they really needed a dessert option at Ohio Pie. So Katie said, let me make some [00:28:00] cookies. She has no written recipes, nothing written down. She offers about 25 flavors on.

Any given day, they’re always changing, and she even has at least four vegan options available on any given day. She says the very favorite one is the Reese’s one. It’s a cookie covered with Reese’s pieces and stuffed with a peanut butter cup. Um, another favorite is a blue cookie called the Cookie Monster, the birthday cake flavor, and one that’s inspired by frosted animal crackers.

[00:28:30] Chris: I don’t know how you could do that without writing anything down. She must have like an eidetic memory or something. Right. But, but the, the idea of getting your start by selling at bodybuilding shows is, is cookie eating part

[00:28:43] Laura: of bodybuilding? I thought the same thing. Like, shouldn’t they be protein shakes?

But Alex Darris brought these into the office and cut them up into maybe like sixth or something like that, and everybody got to taste a couple. And the Reese’s one really is, Incredible. [00:29:00] Um, and Ohio Pie is in Rocky River, so. We’ve written about them before and it was, I think Annie Nickoloff had written about their like secret menu pizzas.

They have a fried pickle pizza that has potato chips on it. That is amazing. Mm-hmm. Do you go

[00:29:15] Chris: there regularly? I

[00:29:17] Laura: haven’t. It hasn’t happened for a while. I have to find somebody else who will eat the fried pickle pizza with me. Nobody else in my family is open to that, but, Good for them. I’m glad that the, you know, it’s a local shop and, and the cookies really are delicious.

I still

[00:29:31] Lisa: want, and I am tempted, oh, go ahead. No, go ahead Lisa. I was gonna say, I was tempted when I read the article, I was tempted, oh, I’m gonna have to make the drive. Of course, it’s like a 25 mile drive to either location for me, but still in the quest for the, you know, the perfect cookie. I, I will do that.

I’m telling you right now, I’m not impressed by insomnia cookies. I’m not impressed by crumble. Cookies. The best chocolate chip cookie in my opinion in Cleveland is, On the Rise Artisan

[00:29:56] Chris: Bakery. All right, and I still wanna understand this whole getting the [00:30:00] cookies off the ground at bodybuilding shows.

There’s a story there. I just don’t know what it is. That’s it for the Thursday episode. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks Courtney. Thanks Laura. Thanks to everybody who listens to today in Ohio Friday. We’ll wrap up a week of news.