Early voting is way higher than predicted for Issue 1, Frank LaRose’s move to throttle the voter: Today in Ohio

CLEVELAND, Ohio — In Northeast Ohio, county election boards are seeing 10 times the early votes they saw at this point for last year’s August primary.

Voters are finding lines when they arrive at the polls. We’re talking about the huge early turnout for Issue 1, which would make it harder for Ohioans to change the state constitution, 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:

We are one week into early voting, and something surprising has happened. The people behind Issue 1, the underhanded move to reduce the power of the voter, were counting on the traditionally low turnout of August special elections to sneak this one through. What’s happening?

What are we to make of a request by the Cuyahoga Board of Elections of an agency that registered 11,000 new voters leading into August?

I don’t know Jon Husted thinks he can be elected Ohio’s next governor after all the snafus that have occurred with the state’s unemployment system, snafus he kept promising would be fixed. What’s the latest nightmare this office is causing for Ohioans in need?

Surprising almost no one, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is officially funning for U.S. Senate, hoping to be the Republican who challenges longtime incumbent Sherrod Brown. Is there anything noteworthy in this news?

Being the CEO of FirstEnergy these days must be like running the White Star Line after the Titanic sunk. Brian Tierney gave us an interview on what he’s doing and what he hopes to do to right this ship. What did he say?

The big question when the pandemic relief ended was what would happen to people who needed that help to get food. We now have the answer. What is it?

Does Parma have a legitimate beef with Hyundais and Kia, or is the city just jumping on a bandwagon in case there’s a payday? We’re talking about lawsuits filed by cities over the ease of stealing these cars

What is the gun of choice for criminals in the Cleveland area, and how easy it for people to make that fun into a rapid-fire automatic weapon?

Why is Ohio budgeting $1 million for security for next year’s total eclipse? Is the state worried someone is going to shoot up the moon?

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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: We’re one week into early voting and something surprising is happening. That’s first up on today in Ohio, the news podcast. Discussion from cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn. Also here is Lisa Garvin. Laura Johnston and Layla Tassi, who spent yesterday at her favorite place on Earth, Cedar Point.

Let’s get to it. We are one week into early voting. Something surprising has happened. The people behind issue one, the underhanded move to reduce the power of the voter. Were counting on traditionally low turnout of August special elections to sneak it through or what’s

[00:00:39] Laura: happening. We are not looking at the 8% turnout we had last August, the turnout that Frank LaRose predicted, and I think a lot of Republicans were expecting.

And in northeast Ohio, we are seeing huge numbers of people showing up early to vote. You have three weeks. From today until election day to vote. Everybody just your [00:01:00] reminder, uh, if last week’s voting patterns hold Kaga County’s on Port Pace to hit 80,000 total vote by mail requests and more than 20,000 early in-person votes by August 1st.

That’s obviously when issue one is on the ballots. The only question on the ballot, and that would exceed for the early and absentee voting, the total number of people who voted in last. Years, August primary, which was the second primary you had because of gerrymandering. That was 90 2042 people. So, I mean, just massive amounts, uh, counties around northeast Ohio, they’re seeing 10 times what they saw last August.

[00:01:35] Chris: Yeah, I, I, this is, and we’re seeing it in other cities as well. Yeah. This is a. Very good sign that the conniving of the people behind this is being thwarted. And, and we’re hearing for, well a lot of thoughtful people are looking at this saying, this is way over the top one. You put it in August because you’re sneaky.

You shouldn’t get rewarded for that. Two, you’re reducing the vote of the people that the people behind [00:02:00] it have tried to make this a liberal versus conservative. You know, they, the ads out of state liberals wanna rec. The constitution, but thoughtful conservatives have looked at this and thought, wait, this destroys my vote too.

It’s not, this is not a liberal conservative thing. The, the, the far right is always going to go that way. I swear they would vote for fascism if they thought it was a right versus left thing, and if Donald Trump told them to. Right. I mean, I, it’s, uh, the, some, the emails I get, it’s like, you know, ha ha you leftist, and, and it’s like, this is not about left versus right.

This is about the voter. This is about the power of the vote. But clearly they’re just not thinking any. Any logical look at this would determine it’s a bad idea. Um, but you’re seeing it, you’re seeing, you’re seeing people from the right and the left. They want to get their vote in. They’re really worried about this.

And I do think, well, we’ll talk about that in a minute, but, um, it, it, it’s just an interesting thing. I was overjoyed to see it. It’s crowded. My wife went down and voted yesterday morning, and the parking [00:03:00] lot was. Just about full and Wow.

[00:03:03] Laura: Yeah, I wanna, I don’t wanna deter anybody from voting because like you said before, it’s very efficient and fast.

Oh. And they have lots of people working there and people directing traffic. So if you’re worried, oh, it’s too busy.

[00:03:13] Chris: No, no, no, it’s not, it’s fine. You’re in and out in five minutes. They really have it down and they’re great. They’re really helpful and cheerful, and they get you where you need to go. It’s a, it’s a well-oiled machine, and we’re hearing that that’s the way it’s working elsewhere.

Um, and I think there’s nervousness about. Mail, you know, the post office and games that could be played. If you go and vote in person early, you know your votes counted. You, you can

[00:03:38] Laura: machine track your you, you can track your ballot online. I have always voted by mail. I’ve never worried about the post office.

You put two stamps on it. I mean, even if you don’t, you probably get it delivered anyway. I love that. The return address on your ballot. Envelope is also the Board of Elections, so they don’t send it back to you, but, so you can go and track your ballot and make sure that it’s there, it’s been received. If you have any issues, you [00:04:00] can, you can deal with it then.

But yeah, I, this is a huge turnout and I’m so glad to see it and people are talking about it and I mean, three weeks to go. So. I think we’re just gonna see the momentum build. Make it

[00:04:12] Lisa: that I have to say, oh no, I just have to, I had a little anecdote when you’re talking about people talking about it. I went, you know, I have to go inside the post office to mail my mail now because it gets stolen if it’s outside.

So I’m going inside and mailing something. This lady was right ahead of me and she stuck the ballot and she turned her thing. She goes, I just voted by mail. Yeah. She was so excited she had to talk to a stranger about it. I, I, I, you, but,

[00:04:35] Chris: but I’m getting that. People are sending me notes. Left the right saying I voted today.

Some are saying I voted yes, but the bulk of ‘em are saying I voted no. You get the feeling that they’re think, you know what? The legislature played dirty. They outlawed August elections. They tried to sneak this through. Dammit, I’m not going to stand for it. And they’re proudly standing up to it. And you, you just get the sense there’s some momentum going on.

We’ll have to see [00:05:00] three weeks, the election day, you’re listening to today in Ohio. What are we to make of a request by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to have an investigation of an agency that registered 11,000 new voters leading into August. Lisa, is this a concern?

[00:05:18] Lisa: They think that it might be, but they just wanna make sure that this is not a more widespread problem.

But yesterday, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections voted to ask the Secretary of State’s office to investigate Black Fork Strategies, which is a voter registration group. Uh, the Board of Elections found 18 irregularities among those 11,000 new and updated voter registration cards, but they’re not sure whether it’s just a statistical blip or whether it’s indicative of a larger problem, which is why they wanna look into it.

So, Uh, deputy Director Anthony Klo says there were like unanswered questions. Records were changed without the voter’s knowledge. There were wrong addresses. There were signatures on provisional ballots last [00:06:00] November that didn’t match the registration cards, but did match previous voter. Provided registration cards and three of them were for deceased people.

Uh, black Fork Field Director Bri Andrew says they’ve been doing this without issues since 2015. They have an internal review process to guard against frauds fraud, but Ger says, you know, back. When they met back then, a few years ago, they met with Black Fork to discuss that they had typical sloppiness in their cards that they turned in.

There were missing dates of birth signatures, illegible cards, addresses not matching, missing the 10 day submission deadline, and Black Fork promised to investigate and provide training if needed. They thought it was a training issue, and this was a few years ago, so they felt that these. 18 irregularities.

Were like a, a next level up kind of concern.

[00:06:51] Chris: I always question the idea that signatures don’t match, because depending on your, your situation signatures vary. I mean, who hasn’t signed [00:07:00] the FedEx screen when look at their signature and seeing a wavy line? It’s just, that’s an odd one to me that they’re trying to guide it based on the signature.

My signature has evolved mightily over the years, and sometimes when I look at the, the, the version. That they have there. It’s like, well, I don’t really look like that anymore. They’re gonna let me vote, but you know, I have my driver’s license. So it’s kinda proof.

[00:07:22] Lisa: Yeah, and I think, like I said, I think the County Board of Elections is just trying to be cautious and make sure there’s not a pattern here.

So the case now goes to the Secretary of State’s Public Integrity Unit, which was created last October to probe suspected voter fraud. The case could then go to the Attorney General’s. Or the county prosecutor’s office for possible criminal charges if needed, or to the Ohio Elections Commission for election law violations.

[00:07:47] Chris: Okay, you’re listening to today in Ohio. I don’t know how John Houston thinks he can be elected. Ohio’s next governor. After all the snafus that have occurred with the state’s unemployment system snafus, he has repeatedly promised to fix [00:08:00] Layla. What’s the latest nightmare this office is causing for Ohioans who are in need?

Reporter,

[00:08:06] Leila: Jeremy Pelzer tells us that the state’s beefed up anti-fraud system automatically freezes unemployment accounts when it flags, suspicious attempts to access them. And that means folks are forced to spend hours on the phone sorting that out and unfreezing their accounts. And recently it sounds like that wait time has been about four hours.

In some cases, the long. Wait time is is largely due to an uptick in fraud attempts. The week of June 25th to July 1st, 28% of the 21,000 new jobless claims filed in Ohio were flagged for poten for potential fraud, and the following week, 65. Percent of the initial unemployment claims were frozen because of fraud Suspicions.

It’s unclear how many of these scammers were able to actually steal money, but as for the long wait times, the state says they just haven’t found a better way to verify people’s [00:09:00] identity than to have them call in and wait in line to talk to a rep.

[00:09:05] Chris: Yeah. You know what makes no sense about this to me is that the BMV has built a pretty complex system for creating your, your tamper proof ID with them.

Mm-hmm. So that you can do things like handle your card titles and all, and it, and what they do is they verify you through a credit bureau. So if your credit’s frozen, you have to unfreeze it so they can do it. But once you do that and you create your secure password, you’re good to go. I mean, you’re pretty solid.

It’s a very secure system. So, Why don’t they use that if an unemployment office to try and block this? I mean, it sounds like it’s just a giant sieve that any hacker can get through. Right? And then once they try to get you, you’re done. You can’t get unemployment benefits and you’re, you’re, you lose your home, you lose your food.

It’s just idiotic that they won’t do things to help people out. Right? These are people that have paid into the system. I mean, this is insurance. We all have this insurance and [00:10:00] when you need it, they’re supposed to serve it. And Ohio’s doing a terrible job again. Yeah. And the state

[00:10:06] Leila: says the problem isn’t that the system itself is getting hacked.

It’s that data breaches at outside agencies, including the ones from years ago at Target and Experian are, are giving crooks people’s personal information that they’re using to try to file. FRAUDULENT claims or take over an existing unemployment account. Although OD J F S acknowledged that last week, they were able to identify the problem that was attracting so many scammers and put a fix in place, they wouldn’t say what that was for security reasons.

But it occurs to me that that means the problem was actually theirs to fix, not simply due to data breaches at other institutions.

[00:10:43] Chris: I don’t know. It’s if they can get this right in the, in the bmv, you would think they could create a single Ohio ID that’s impervious and it, it’s incumbent them to do so, and they just keep screwing this up.

And maybe they don’t care. Maybe they figured the jobless people don’t [00:11:00] have credibility. They’re not, they, they, they don’t deserve to, to be worried about. But it’s, it, this is. Something that happens to a lot of people in Ohio. They lose jobs on occasion, and this is supposed to be the safety net and they’re not providing it.

Mm-hmm. You’re listening to today in Ohio, surprising almost no one. Ohio’s Secretary of State, Frank LaRose is officially running for the US Senate, hoping to be the Republican who challenges longtime incumbent she brown. Laura, is there anything noteworthy in this news?

[00:11:31] Laura: Maybe when it arrived, which we speculated on yesterday.

But this announcement also comes right after the close of the campaign finance reporting period for the second quarter of the year. That gives LaRose the chance to avoid making a public report until mid-October so he’s got more time to raise money because he is not independently wealthy like the other folks running in this race.

And to unseat. She Brown. We’re looking at a primary field with Bernie Moreno and Matt Dolan. And so LaRose [00:12:00] is more of a typical traditional politician who’s paid some dues and, and served a long time in government, has a young family and is going to have to raise money on his own. He’s 44, he’s from Hudson.

Um, and he’s saying, well, in the statement he, that he filed as a required paperwork. He put out a, you know, a statement about why he’s running. You can take it for what he says it is. When I see the fundamental changes the left is trying to make to this country, I fear they’re ruining the country love and taking the country in a real dangerous direction and I can’t allow that to happen.

Sorry, that wasn’t an interview I guess that he had had with Andrew Tobias. I don’t really understand exactly what he’s talking about there, but that’s why he says he is running well.

[00:12:39] Chris: Bernie Moreno’s saying he is a rhino Republican in name only. I don’t, so I guess he’s not conservative enough. And look, let’s remember.

He’s the guy behind issue one. He said nothing about issue one while he was running for reelection last year, but no sooner did he get reelected, he started pushing this stupid idea and he’s everywhere trying to get people to vote [00:13:00] for it. So he is tied inexorably to this issue if this thing goes down. I just don’t see how he’s gonna survive that.

Uh, I, I don’t really think he has much of a chance of winning this primary. I was a little surprised he announced because if issue one goes down, I. He might wanna rethink his plans. Yeah, I do think the timing he got out there now, because if it does go down and he announced, like I said yesterday, every news story would say fresh off the disgrace of losing on issue one, he’s seeking to be the Senator of

[00:13:31] Laura: Ohio.

Obviously Frank LaRose is very ambitious, right? It’s just why did he get it in his head to do issue one like who? Put that there. I,

[00:13:41] Chris: I, he, he, he’s ambitious, but who is Frank LaRose? He’s a big waffler. You there. He’ll say whatever he thinks he needs to say to win. He doesn’t stand for anything. You know, he, he tried to make Ohioans believe that the election system is flawed and when he is pressed, he would never [00:14:00] stand up for it.

And he, well, Ohio’s fault, but Ohio’s is. Fine. Right, because he’s, he in charge of it. But, but it, but he’s undermining the confidence of Americans in the voting system, which is, he knows it’s totally bogus. The guy doesn’t stand for anything, and I think he’s gonna be vulnerable to some serious criticism from the other candidates.

And then if he, if he were to prevail in the Republican primary, I think he’d have a hard time against Sherard Brown. Even with Ohio leaning

[00:14:25] Laura: red. Well, that’s the thing. This is gonna be a really closely watched contest in this country because the Republicans are trying to take control of the US Senate.

So she’s going for his fourth term. Is this going to be. You know, something that makes a difference. I don’t know. But, but she

[00:14:40] Chris: stands for something. He, he doesn’t waffle. He’s, he’s, he’s authentic. He’s genuine. He’s the same guy he was 20 years ago. And Ohioans have put him into office repeatedly. So you stand him up against a guy who stands for nothing.

And I, I’m not sure that that red wave of Ohio works, plus [00:15:00] if issue one goes down and. The abortion amendment passes in November. It might. It’ll be interesting to see how that energizes voters and whether that rift continues. You’re listening to today in Ohio. Being the c e O of first energy these days must be like running the white star line.

After the sinking of the Titanic, Brian Tierney gave us an interview on what he’s doing and what he hopes to do to write the ship. Lisa, what did he tell us? Yeah,

[00:15:27] Lisa: he had a couple, three things. I mean, basically it all boils down to reengaging with. The public and restoring their trust in first energy. So the 55 year old attorney started his job June 1st.

He’s the first c e o from outside First energy in its 26 years of existence. He started out trading and selling energy at Houston based Enron during, uh, when deregulation of the industry was. Taking place. He then joined American Electric Power in 1998 and became its C F O, uh, in 2009. And then he left in [00:16:00] 2020 and is now work and was working for Blackstone Investment Firm before being hired to this new job.

So he says one thing he wants to do is he wants to restart, lobbying again, but with guardrails in place. Place. I mean, obviously after HB six, we want to see some kind of guardrails. He wants to engage with lawmakers, regulators at the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio and customers. He said, for example, they were not involved in legislation that ultimately failed, that would’ve given utility.

Millions in economic development funds just for speculative properties. Um, but he didn’t say where first energy fell on that legislation for or against. He wants to re-engage with customers. He said they need more messaging over sharply rising prices. He said 80% of their customers did avoid higher rates by shopping around earlier this year, but they need to get to that last 20%.

But he also wants to build a future grid. He expects demand to only increase. He says things like data centers, [00:17:00] uh, more from, uh, people moving from gas to electric stoves, electric vehicles, and he says, new investments in transmission lines and local wiring will be needed to meet future demand. All

[00:17:11] Chris: right, let, let’s step back a minute just to talk about that whole lobbying thing where he said First Energy wasn’t in the conversation for the part of the legislation that would’ve given them carte blanche to do whatever they want in developing property and make us pay for it.

And he wouldn’t say which side he was on. I think it’s a pretty good bet. We know what Saudi was on. He would’ve been on the side of give us carte blanche and make the customer pay for it. That’s what HB six was. So first energy saying they’re, they’re gonna get back in with guardrails. Nope. They’re not, they’re gonna, he wishes that he would’ve been in that conversation to persuade this legislature to do what they did in HB six, which is screw the taxpayer, screw the rate payer.

That’s a very dangerous sign in my mind. The fact that he wishes had been, he had been in that conation, Mike DeWine, rightfully [00:18:00] vetoed that that was just a huge mm-hmm. Gift by the legislature to the utilities and for him to say he wishes he had been in it. It’s just shades of HB six for me. Well, and

[00:18:11] Lisa: if he’s guar, if he’s committed to transparency, he should have said where First energy fell on that legislation.

Yeah, so good point. It makes me think that they were for it, you know, if they didn’t say anything about it. Yeah,

[00:18:22] Chris: I that, that, that, you know, all the other stuff he said is, you know, they did do great messaging so people would know their rates are going up and I credit them for that. They’ve done some other things, but for me that was just a gigantic red flag.

First energy, which long had controlled the State House, we. Demonstrated how they own that place is itching to get back to it. Nothing good comes of that. Uh, he, he also said the rate payers expect them to be in that conversation. I’m a rate payer. I, I don’t, I would prefer you’re not in that conversation.

Just speaking, is one rate payer here you’re listening to today in [00:19:00] Ohio? The big question when pandemic relief ended was what would happen to the people who needed help to get food? Lela, we now have that answer. It’s not good. What is it? Yeah, it’s

[00:19:10] Leila: not good. In, in March through June of this year, the greater Cleveland Food Bank has served 33,000 more people than during that time in the year before.

These are just some of the busiest times the food bank has seen, and they attribute that in large part to the end of the federal assistance that was extended through during the pandemic. In March, 673,000 households throughout the state lost an average of $172 in monthly food benefits. That amounts to.

One and a half million Ohioans who were receiving that benefit, joining another one and a half million who didn’t qualify for it, but are still struggling to make ends meet. And of course when that happens, people turn to food banks. The, the Mid-Ohio Food Collective service visits went up to. Went up by 41% in May compared to May of 2022, [00:20:00] and 14% of visitors are coming for the first time there.

The Akron Canton Regional Food Bank, which has been serving record numbers of people since the pandemic began, has less than half the food they need to meet those needs. And the, the Cleveland Muni lot, which is where the greater Cleveland Food Bank holds. Its bi-monthly drive-through distribution events.

Those lines are sometimes miles long and, and food banks are really hurting for resources. They’ve been getting fewer donations than in years past, and inflation and supply chain problems have been awful for them. They also need volunteers. So it’s, it was, uh, quite a scene there for our, you know, reporters and our reporter and photographer were there this past week, and they saw for themselves how, how great the demand is.

[00:20:47] Chris: Yeah. The, the lines have been horrific. Yeah. And that’s why we sent somebody out there as people were writing to us, saying, Hey, this has gotten beyond pandemic. And, and this is just separate from people who [00:21:00] regularly go to the food bank to get food. Exactly. This is, like you said, the big, the big lineup.

But that it, it, it is frightening how many people are relying on that assistance to feed their families. Right? But

[00:21:12] Leila: also, you know, it’s our responsibility to make sure that families and children are fed and, and shifting the burden to food banks is, is wrong.

[00:21:22] Chris: Yeah, that’s, it’s a scary moment. Okay. You’re listening to today in Ohio.

Does Parma have a legitimate beef with Hyundai and Kia, or is the city just jumping on a bandwagon in case there’s a payday? We’re talking about lawsuits filed by cities over the ease of stealing those cars. Laura, what’s Parmas got to say?

[00:21:42] Laura: Basically maybe a little bit more than Cleveland, cuz it sounds like they’ve really had to chase down some of these scoff laws and some dangerous chases in, in.

Evolved too. According to city law director Tim Bo Doak, he says, this crime wave has had a significant impact on law enforcement [00:22:00] operations, emergency services, and public safety. And they said the police department is under considerable staffing stress. I mean, we have talked at length about Cleveland and how hard it is to staff their police department.

You have to think that other cities are feeling the same thing. So they’re seeking unspecified damages. They’re accusing Kia and Hyundai of trying to maximize profits at the sake of public safety and. They said that there were police chase chases of stolen Kia and Hyundais. They increased from one in 20, 20 to 10 last year, officers in 2022 spent 333 hours at car theft scenes.

That’s a tenfold increase from 2020. And when they talk about chases, there was a dangerous high speed chase in October when a 14 year old driver crashed his car into a home.

[00:22:45] Chris: Yeah. Although they don’t have to chase in Cleveland, they don’t chase, and so you’ve had less of that. The difference I think, between Parmer and Cleveland, quite frankly is Parma is investigating the car thefts.

[00:22:56] Laura: Yes. A

[00:22:56] Chris: hundred percent. Yeah. Cleveland, the, the [00:23:00] car gets found, they tow it to the impound lot. They jack the owner a second time, make them pay the impound lot fees, but they’re not really investigating the thefts. It sounds like Parma has documented a serious expenditure of police time on the car thefts and are saying, you know, Were owed the money because you do such a terrible job at keeping your car safe.

I, I still don’t understand why the car company has not done a full recall and changed this to fix it. This continues to

[00:23:27] Laura: be a huge problem. Done some problem you’ve done kind of software patch, but I don’t think that fixes it. It’s not enough. It’s, it’s, and I don’t understand why anyone buys a Kia right now.

[00:23:36] Chris: Well, but the, these are some older model cars, but I, I just don’t get it. This is a huge, huge blemish on the reputation of this company. Fix it before you pay millions and millions in losses and have to fix it anyway. You’re listening to today in Ohio. What is the gun of choice for criminals in the Cleveland area, and how easy is it for people to make that gun [00:24:00] into a rapid fire automatic weapon?

Gun,

[00:24:02] Lisa: Lisa, so, so the most popular gun in the Cleveland area is the nine millimeter. It’s usually a Glock, but also Beretta makes nine millimeters. They’re easy to obtain, they’re easy to hide, and they’re very customizable. The Cleveland Police Department has seized 965 guns through May 25th of this year.

That’s an average of seven a day. Pistols and shotguns are the most common ones being confiscated and, uh, alcohol, tobacco, and firearms data says that there’s a 50% increase in crime guns that have been recovered between 2020 and 2021. Sergeant Perry Bentley with the crime gun intelligence. Center says that Glocks and Berettas have name recognition.

They’re reliable. They can be converted into an automatic weapon with a thimble sized device called an auto sear. It allows the gun to be fired, you know, 20 rounds a second to be fired from this gun. It’s available online for about 20 bucks. Uh, they seized weapons with auto [00:25:00] Sears, rose. From 300 in 2020 to 1500 in 2021.

Also, as we saw in that July 8th mass shooting in the warehouse district, downtown nine millimeters can take an extended magazine quickly and easily. Um, the gun that was used in this was had an extended magazine on it, and he also said that there are two sources of crime guns. They’re either stolen or they’re obtained through an illegal straw purchase.

[00:25:25] Chris: The, that, that gizmo that turns them into automatic weapons. I had not heard of that before. That’s frightening because if you’re shooting at people downtown as this guy was and you’re, you’re having in an automatic mode, you can spray bullets so rapidly, it just tears into people. Uh, tho those have got to be illegal mechanisms.

I’m just surprised. You can buy them online.

[00:25:48] Lisa: And I had never heard of them before. I mean, we’ve heard of bumps. Stocks and other things, but this takes a, a semi-automatic weapon and basically converts it into a machine gun for

[00:25:57] Chris: $20. I mean, it, it’s, [00:26:00] it’s a frightening moment. I did not know that till I read the story.

It’s a good piece. It’s on cleveland.com. You’re listening to today in Ohio. Layla, why is Ohio budgeting $1 million for security for next year’s total eclipse? Is the state worried somebody’s gonna shoot up the moon and I should point out. The eclipse is happening on the guardian’s opening day game in Cleveland.

Oh, really? Great timing there. You can have all these people looking up at the sun in the middle of the game. Hopefully they’ll hand out glasses.

[00:26:27] Leila: Yeah, so when this total eclipse happens on April 8th, 2024, we will be in the 124 mile wide path of totality. That will extend across 13 states from Texas to Maine.

The largest cities in Ohio that falls within that path are Cleveland, Akron, and Dayton. But there are a lot of smaller communities that’ll also be in that prime viewing area. This last happened in Ohio in 1806 and it won’t happen again until 2099. So the state is expecting this giant crush of [00:27:00] visitors, tens of thousands of people who are gonna wanna see the eclipse here.

It’s expected that there will be more demand for hotels and camp. Sites and significantly increased traffic and boost for demand for emergency services while adding to the burden on local infrastructure overall. So the state has set aside a million dollars to be used to reimburse any eligible response costs for emergency management and first responders in connection the to the eclipse.

The Ohio Emergency Management Agency will provide guidance about what costs are eligible for that.

[00:27:33] Chris: Okay. I don’t get it. Uh, you know, this isn’t like balloon fest where you’re all going to a central location to see the eclipse anywhere in our area You’ll look up. Yeah, right. Just don’t get why you need all the security.

Yeah. People are gonna come here, but it’s not like, There’s some central gathering area where, where you have a big point. Yeah. You’re not gonna have

[00:27:53] Leila: people in, in the middle of, you know, downtown Cleveland, packed in there looking for the eclipse. It’s, yeah, you could probably, the better places to [00:28:00] be will be rural areas.

Honestly,

[00:28:02] Chris: just look up, I mean, I don’t get it, man. A million dollars for security. It just, it throws me. That they, they need this. I, I guess maybe there’s some cities that are gonna say, come on down, let’s view it together. But you know, I think most people will go out in their backyard, put their glasses on and say, Ooh, that’s three and a

[00:28:21] Leila: half minutes.

Right?

[00:28:23] Chris: Yeah. And, and we’re counting on it not to be cloudy, which is a tough one in the spring and.

[00:28:29] Laura: Great Cleveland and I, I think it’s interesting. I remember there was an eclipse when I was in middle school and my mom pulled me out of school to go look at it because the teachers weren’t doing anything right.

That there’s like some guy who’s coming to Cleveland who’s trying to figure out how to get every kid that they can see this eclipse. Because you gotta think, the schools are like, we are not gonna be responsible for children’s eyes. You know, like, so I think that’s a whole nother interesting aspect of the eclipse.

[00:28:56] Chris: Yeah, I, the, the people have gotta make available the, the [00:29:00] protective glasses. I mean, you remember during the one eclipse where Donald Trump just looked up into the sky, bad leadership, bad example. You don’t wanna do that. And if the guardians maintain their game at the time it’s at, they probably wanna hand out those glasses as their freebie, just cuz they don’t wanna be responsible for that either.

[00:29:18] Lisa: But I do wanna remind people that after the last eclipse, or before the last eclipse, Glasses were almost impossible to find. I know. So buy ‘

[00:29:26] Chris: em now. Yeah. Yeah. Now I still have mine from the last one, so I’m set. All right. You’re listening to today in Ohio. That’s it for Tuesday. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks Laura.

Thanks Layla. Thank you for listening to this podcast. We’ll be back Wednesday talking about some more news. I’ll bet there’s an issue. One discussion in that conversation. Just a hunch.