CLEVELAND, Ohio — Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens indicated Tuesday that he’s in no rush to pass major changes to the state’s new recreational marijuana legalization law, parts of which take effect Dec. 7.

We’re talking legislators listening to the will of the people 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 else we’re asking about today:

We saw a lot of bold words in the days after voters approved the abortion and marijuana initiatives in landslides last week, and we wondered at the time whether cooler heads would eventually prevail. Looks like Jason Stephens is the cooler head on marijuana legalization. What’s he saying about changing the law voters approved?

And what about abortion. Are some cooler heads emerging on that issue as well, after we saw the ridiculous push to remove judges from considering whether abortion laws violate the new constitutional right to the procedure?

We have a couple of other abortion related stories. With the overwhelming vote by Ohioans to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution, what does chief political writer Andrew Tobias say about how that might play into next year’s Senate race?

Finally, an Ohio Senate committee took up a bill that would cost taxpayers as much as $10 million a year to help out pregnancy centers that work against abortion. What’s that about?

You’d think that prison would be the last place you’d be able to run a drug ring, but it has happened over and over again in recent years, and now a Maple Heights guy is charged with doing it with help from a con man in Italy. What are the details?

From the Statehouse to your house. Is there an organized effort under way to remove loud leaf blowers from residential neighborhoods? It’s the time of the year for them, so a lot of us are thinking about their racket.

The plan to set three fires in Cuyahoga Valley National Park seemed alarming when first reported, but the idea was to wipe out invasive species. Why has the park service killed that plan?

We noted yesterday that every city, village in township in Cuyahoga County supported the abortion amendment. Not quite with legalized marijuana. Which one opposed it?

Cuyahoga County has some crisis-level problems to address, like it’s horror-filled jail, but not everything it does is about a crisis. What fun thing is the county getting behind to give the public something new to do in June?

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

Chris (00:01.681)

We record this podcast today just fresh off the news that Deshaun Watson is out for the rest of the season with a broken bone in his shoulder. What a nightmare. That whole affair has been the Browns in a great season are now without a quarterback. It’s today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the plane dealer I’m Chris Quinn here with Lisa Garvin, Courtney Astolfi and Laura Johnston.

Let’s go. We got a lot of stuff to talk about with marijuana and abortion a week after the election. We saw a lot of bold words in the days after voters approved the abortion and marijuana initiatives and landslides last week. And we wondered at the time whether the cooler heads in Columbus would eventually prevail. Laura, it looks like Jason Stevens is the cooler head on marijuana legislation. What’s he saying about changing the law that voters just overwhelmingly approved?

Chris (01:50.725)

Yeah, we talked about it at the time. The Republicans have proven to be the sorest of sore losers. And so when they lose the way they did in August and in last week, they say over the top things about how they’re going to take control. But there was huge blowback from people when they heard this. Our top story for 24 hours was about how Mike DeWine was saying that we know surprises and where they go with the marijuana. People don’t trust this government because they voted for something.

That should matter. You know, there’s some thought that they ought to change the Constitution so that an initiated statute can’t be changed after voters approve it for five years or something. The fact that they were racing to do it. Stephen seems to be the sanest person in power in Columbus. There’s no rush. There’s plenty of… Yeah, but he said the right thing, right? There’s no rush. We have time. We can…

take a look at this and be smart about it, right? Let’s be thoughtful about the approach instead of doing all the ridiculous Matt Huffman nonsense. Matt Huffman is the opposite. He’s like the biggest fire thrower.

Chris (03:08.097)

Well, Matt Hoffman’s clearly making the case that it shouldn’t be him because he’s just out of control with his silly pronouncements. My question is, okay, on December 7, you can start to grow marijuana, but there’s no place for people to legally buy seeds, right? Because you’d have to buy seeds at a dispensary.

Chris (04:00.285)

The idea that elected leaders would go against the vote of the people, that’s what authoritarian governments do. That’s what would-be dictators do. When the voters speak, you really have to listen to them. We are the power. The voters are in charge. And people like Matt Huffman, that, like, no, I know what’s better for you than you do. You’re going to do it my way. They’re the most dangerous politicians right now in America. The ones that just say, I don’t…

care what the voters said, I’m going to do what I think is best. That’s not what democracy is about. And of course you have now people saying, well, straight democracy is bad. The people are too stupid to be in charge. Ohioans are proven. They’re pretty smart, way smarter than the people they’ve elected to the legislature.

Chris (04:51.697)

You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Okay, Courtney, what about abortion? Are some cooler heads emerging on that issue as well after we saw the ridiculous, likely unconstitutional push to remove any judges from considering whether new or old abortion laws violate the new constitutional right to the procedure?

courtney (05:11.096)

Yeah, cooler heads are prevailing. And again, we can look to House Speaker Jason Stevens here. So he weighed in on this idea put forth by four House Republicans. They wanted to introduce a bill giving state lawmakers, not judges, the sole power to decide when abortions are legal now that we have this in the Constitution. And this would basically upend the separation of powers and our structure of democracy. And Stevens told us

Thankfully, he doesn’t consider this serious legislation. He said he believes in the constitution and the three branches of government. And he basically dismissed this as quote, schoolhouse rock type stuff. You know, I mean, that says it all right. I mean, it’s just basic fundamental how our system works. And, you know, he doubled down. He said, we need to make sure we have the three branches of government here. And.

Chris (05:51.003)

Yeah.

courtney (06:02.888)

We also heard from Governor Mike DeWine a little bit here too, not quite as strong of a statement, but he told reporters earlier this week that he’s skeptical such a proposal would even make it to becoming law because only a few folks are pushing for it.

Chris (06:17.453)

It would be completely unconstitutional. We have a system in which the courts are where the review is made. If I believe a law is illegal, violates the Constitution, that’s what the courts are there for. It’s not for the legislature. This was Looney Tunes. Again, we’re getting to people that don’t believe in democracy. They don’t believe in the Constitution. They took an oath to support the Ohio Constitution and immediately they’re throwing it out the window.

because of abortion. It’s like, what are you doing? These people should not be allowed to serve. If they are willing to trash the whole basis for state government, they shouldn’t be allowed to represent us in state government.

courtney (07:00.268)

And you’ve got to wonder what the, you know, the gerrymandering Ohio Supreme Court rulings that were ignored, how that emboldened folks to kind of toss out basic aspects of our system, perhaps. I don’t know. That’s a thought lingering in my mind. But, you know, for Stephen’s part, he’s not interested in this approach, obviously, but how he does want to move forward with addressing issue one now that it’s the law of the land.

Lisa (07:21.022)

the how he does makers

courtney (07:27.368)

Steven said kind of next steps in his mind is that lawmakers should turn towards addressing Ohio’s, you know Really high infant mortality rate and focus on other things that could help babies and moms in this state now like

Chris (07:39.889)

It’s a good, and that’s, he’s right. That’s what we should do. I mean, the people that have opposed abortion don’t care about the kid once it’s born because there’s, we have this high mortality rate and we have incredible levels of poverty. He’s right. That’s what we should do. That’s where the focus should be.

Lisa (07:42.212)

right. That’s what we should do. I mean, the people that have opposed abortion don’t care about the kid once and for because we have this high mortality rate, we have incredible levels of poverty. He’s right. That’s what we should do. That’s what the public should do. Yeah, we’ll have to see. We know those comments from Matt Huffman in the days after the election wants to undo it.

courtney (07:59.26)

Yeah, we’ll have to see. We know those comments from Matt Huffman in the days after the election. He wants to undo issue one’s passage. But, you know, Stevens and Governor DeWine in recent days have said they don’t think conservative lawmakers should jump on that train this quickly. And Mike DeWine told us that the Bible tells us there’s a time and a place for everything. And his experience tells him timing’s everything. He doesn’t think the timing’s necessarily right to go back to the ballot on issue one.

Lisa (08:07.49)

you know, Stephen and Governor Duane in the next few days have said they don’t think those are the block makers who jump on that train just quickly and they might do anything to provide for the system to become a place for everything and we’ve experienced over time that everything is necessarily right to go into the ballot. If you won’t, like they’ve been suggesting. They are not going to quit abortion.

courtney (08:28.753)

like Hoffman suggested.

Chris (08:30.126)

They are not going to put abortion on the ballot that way in 2024 when there’s a Senate and presidential race. There’s no way they’re going to put that on there next year, maybe in 2025. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We have a couple of other abortion related stories. One is about the ballot next year with the overwhelming vote by Ohioans to enshrine abortion rights in the Constitution.

Lisa, what does our chief political writer, Andrew Tobias, say about how that may play into next year’s Senate race?

Lisa (09:02.102)

Well, Andrew definitely said that this is giving our incumbent Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown a lot of ammunition going into the 2024 Senate election race against his opponents, all three of whom, Matt Dolan, Bernie Moreno, and Frank LaRose, have opposed abortion and have voiced support for a national abortion ban. Brown could be the face against those efforts.

And both issue one elections, the one in August for the, you know, wanting to change the threshold and issue one, the abortion issue will prove, has proved that voters will turn out on abortion and reproductive rights issues. Michael McGovern, who’s a democratic strategist on the issue one campaign says, it’s a core part of our values as progressives and it’s absolutely a winning issue going into 2024.

We had widespread state support. It still would have passed, issue one still would have passed by 51% if you remove the three largest urban counties, Cuyahoga, Franklin and Hamilton counties. So this is widespread support. Republican candidates of course are downplaying the election results. LaRose’s campaign team says it was good politics to back issue one, both of them. They’re raising the.

voter threshold and the reproductive rights amendment. And it will play well with Republican voters in the March primaries. Matt Dolan says that this could trip up his opponents, Moreno and Larose, but he said, this will force Sherrod Brown to explain why tax money should fund abortions seven to nine months into pregnancy. And other Republicans though, say that they’re kind of glad it won’t be on the 2024 ballot.

The Republican Party chair for Ohio, Alex Triantafilou, says he’s not in favor of the legislature reviving the conversation. He says, we really need to understand the voter mindset and listen to them carefully before we take any additional steps.

Chris (10:56.697)

Yeah, the Matt Dolan comment was ridiculous. That’s not what Sherrod Brown’s going to do. What Sherrod Brown’s going to do is say, hey, Ohio, you voted to enshrine abortion rights. My opponent, whoever it is, wants to go to Washington to take that right away from you. He’s going to do that, I bet, month after month after month. And it really locks these guys down, whichever one prevails. They’re on the record. They can’t backtrack. They can’t waffle.

Abortion is on the ballot next November. Make no mistake about it. And Sherrod Brown has an upper hand. Because look, issue one in August, people went to say, you’re not gonna play dirty to stop me from enshrining abortion. Issue one in November, they went to the ballot in huge numbers for an off year to say, I want that right. And now you’re gonna have a candidate that has pegged their campaign to killing that right. Sherrod.

got a huge boost last week.

Lisa (11:54.472)

Well, and I wonder though, because they probably will be recalculating their campaigns, Dolan Moreno and La Rose, we’ll see what they do, because you know, they might take the Glenn

Chris (12:07.913)

But that didn’t work either. I don’t think there’s anything they can do to walk it back. And they’re already on the record. They want a national ban. They want to shove their will into the face of the majority of Ohio voters, and yet are asking those voters to support them. I think they’re all in trouble. This is a game changer for next year. And depending on how the Democrats and Sherrod Brown play it, it just gives them a big boost.

You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Finally, an Ohio Senate committee took up a bill that would cost taxpayers as much as $10 million a year to help out pregnancy centers that work against abortion. Lisa, what’s that about?

Lisa (12:52.138)

Yeah, this is Senate Bill 159. It would provide tax credits for businesses and individuals who donate money to pregnancy crisis centers. Hearings are underway on this bill right now. It would cost the state about three to $10 million a year. There are 175 pregnancy crisis centers in Ohio, and they’re typically faith-related. They counsel women against abortion, but they do provide prenatal counseling and other resources.

The Republican from Ashtabula, Senator Sandra O’Brien, testified. She says that Ohio is a leader in defending the unborn. It’s more important than ever to support women with unexpected pregnancies. And she disagrees that this goes against the will of the voters. She said that it removes the government from pregnancy health decisions, although the government doesn’t want to remove themselves. And state resources to crisis centers, is it even constitutional? We talked to some legal experts. They say that the courts would…

probably be okay with this. The state does have free speech rights to encourage public support for these crisis centers, as long as they don’t mandate that women go to these centers.

Chris (13:58.045)

Yeah, I don’t really see the issue with trying to encourage people not to have abortions. I mean, why would that be a bad thing if that were to take place? It’s not denying anybody the right. It’s not compelling them to get the counseling. It’s just having these centers that work against that have a little more funding.

Lisa (14:21.31)

Well, and you actually make a very excellent point, Chris, but a lot of women go to these pregnancy crisis centers thinking that abortion is an option. So they’re not really, you know, they’re selling themselves as a crisis center, but they’re going to do everything but allow an abortion. So I think a lot of women are misled when they go to these centers.

Chris (14:40.101)

Oh, okay. Well, an interesting move coming just a week after the big vote. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. You would think that prison would be the last place you’d be able to run a big drug ring, but it has happened over and over in recent years. And now a Maple Hypes guy is charged with doing it with help from a con man in Italy. That’s a new wrinkle. Courtney, what are the details?

courtney (14:40.905)

Yeah.

courtney (15:02.592)

This is a wild tale. There was a big press conference yesterday and we learned about this Maple Heights guy. He served in 10 years in Lucasville’s Max Security Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. And federal, you know, investigators say that from behind those bars, he was working with this Italian con man who’s been likened to that infamous American con man, Frank Abagnale, the Catch Me If You Can movie. You know, this Italian guy, it sounds like he has quite a story.

passed and the Maple Heights gentleman was working with them to import drugs into the states from Italy, China, India, and Mexico. That’s what we heard from federal prosecutors yesterday. Maple Heights gentleman Brian Lumbas Jr. is behind bars for stealing a million dollars in a scheme back from 2013 and his partner here, Giancarlo Miserotti, has, like I said, a story passed in Italy.

Italian authorities yesterday, you know, called him a skilled forger. He’s been arrested. Lumbus is already obviously in custody. And when they, when they arrested the Italian man, they seized a bunch of money from him, forged money and money forging equipment. He’s awaiting extradition now to Cleveland. But basically investigators here have linked this group’s importing of drugs to the death of a 45 year old man in Tennessee and, and.

11 members of this ring have been charged, 7 have been arrested, and 4 of those facing charges are the Maple Heights man’s siblings and a child.

Chris (16:39.653)

I just don’t understand how this can happen in jail. This requires quite a bit of coordination, and you’re in jail. So it would all have to be done on the phone. So, and they listen to the official phones, so they should be able to pick up any kind of drug dealing conversation, or is on a cell phone, which we know have gotten into the prisons, but you would think that would be caught. It’s just amazing to me that you are on an island away from society.

And yet you’re still able to coordinate this massive drug ring internationally.

courtney (17:13.264)

Yeah, it’s wild. You know, we did see that federal prosecutors considered some phone conversations here as they were going through the case. So I imagine they went back and listened to what was said there. But it’s worth noting this is the second time this year the feds have charged someone with running a large scale drug ring from Ohio prisons. The other one was based at Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown, and the Ohio Department of Public Safety director told us that

This investigation into the Maple Heights man, Lumbus, stemmed from his time at that same prison in Youngstown. So the public safety director told us he started a new unit that’s gonna focus solely on investigating organized drug trafficking in Ohio’s prisons.

Chris (17:59.337)

Great. It’s a great story. Probably could make a movie out of it. We’ll have to think about whether we can pull the pieces together for an interesting podcast. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. From the State House to your house, is there an organized effort underway to remove loud leaf blowers from residential neighborhoods? It’s that time of the year for them. And a lot of us are thinking about their racket. Laura.

Lisa (19:10.558)

Well, the gas powered ones are yes.

Chris (19:30.357)

The question I have though with leaf blowers, because they require quite a bit of power, can an electric one work as effectively as the gas powered ones? You see those guys that work for the big companies and they’re walking behind the roll around ones that are just enormously powerful. If you had a battery operated one doing that, would the battery last long enough to keep them going all day?

Lisa (19:55.218)

It only lasts about a half an hour. My neighbor actually has a Ryobi battery powered blower that he lent me. He saw me raking the leaves by hand and it ran out after about 30 minutes.

Lisa (20:21.822)

Right. Yeah.

Chris (20:23.453)

Yeah, it’s just with the battery powered lawnmowers and the battery powered snow throwers, they have big batteries on them, but you’re not carrying them around. You’re rolling them around and with the snow throwers, except for the roll around ones, you’re carrying it and so you can only carry so much battery. But it’s interesting. They are loud. I think, I don’t know that anybody doesn’t get annoyed by that constant whine of it this time of the year.

Lisa (20:43.95)

Mm-hmm.

Chris (20:51.621)

So maybe we’ll figure out some technology that makes it better. We did get a question from a reader asking if there’s a difference in the nutritional quality for the soil of different tree leaves. We don’t know, but we’re going to find out.

Chris (21:10.789)

But now you will and we will figure it out.

Lisa (21:12.514)

But yeah, I do know that black walnut leaves are not good for your lawn.

Mm-hmm.

Chris (21:26.381)

Not Susan Glazer, Susan Branstine, but…

Chris (21:33.137)

You’re listening to Today in Ohio.

The plan to set three fires in Cuyahoga Valley National Park seemed alarming when first reported, but the idea was to wipe out invasive species. Now it’s dead. Why has the Park Service killed the plan, Lisa?

Lisa (21:49.51)

Yeah, and again, controlled burns have long been a forestry control practice, but plans were for controlled burns in three areas of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park to control invasive vegetation like autumn olive. They were supposed to be finished by today, but they had to cancel because the firefighters had to assist with a wildfire that’s currently burning in the West Virginia New River Gorge National Park.

This fire has been burning for over a week. It’s in a remote section of the park that’s mostly used by hunters. And the fire was dying down because they got some rain. But then after Friday, they got breezy, dry conditions and the fire rekindled. So they need a lot more assistance down there. And actually, I didn’t know this and it makes sense, but the national park burns were to be done by park staff, but also trained firefighters from.

Pennsylvania and West Virginia. So all of these firefighters are probably focused on this national park fire. They’re not sure when they’re gonna reschedule these controlled burns. They’re usually done in the spring and the fall. The sites that they were gonna focus on was the 40 acre Richfield Coliseum site, Terra Vista Natural Study area and Valley View, and the Borrow Pit in Boston Township.

Chris (22:59.269)

Yeah, we’ll have to see if they come back and do it next spring. I mean, one of the issues last spring is we had lots of smoke coming over from Canada, and I’m not sure anybody would have done a controlled burn when that was going on. I guess that was early summer, so maybe there’s time in the spring. We’ll have to see if they come back and do it. It’s today in Ohio. We noted yesterday that every city, village and township in Cuyahoga County supported the abortion amendment.

Lisa (23:07.596)

Mm-hmm.

Chris (23:25.937)

It’s not quite the same with the legalized marijuana question. Which one opposed it, Laura?

Chris (23:54.417)

Hahaha.

Lisa (24:09.73)

Kaya Hoga.

Chris (24:11.601)

No, no, where in Cuyahoga?

Lisa (24:15.246)

Cleveland.

courtney (24:20.485)

Hehehe

Chris (24:41.501)

Yeah, this surprised me again, because I did think there are certain communities in Cuyahoga County that are pretty conservative in their thinking, but it does show you just how popular marijuana is becoming. We won’t be able to get it because it’s not recorded this way. I would love to get an age breakdown of the votes, because my bet is people 45 and under voted for it more commonly than older people. It was certainly the older people.

Yeah, but it was certainly the older people we were hearing from who were opposed to it. Of course.

Lisa (25:16.51)

And I think the Baldwin Wallace poll showed that as well, when they did the demographics.

Chris (25:20.369)

Yeah, and it includes our own columnist Ted Dioden who did point out that in his younger years, he was a user, but now he is wiser. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Cuyahoga County has some crisis-level problems to address, to address like it’s horror-filled jail, but not everything it does is about a crisis. What fun thing is the county getting behind to give the public something new to do in June, Courtney?

courtney (25:47.124)

Yeah, so we’re talking here about the county owned Veterans Memorial Bridge and the county wants to use this for an innovative and immersive public experience in June. It’s seeking proposals. So the deadline to put in your proposals on how to creatively use the bridge for these immersive public experiences is Friday, December 15th. And the county, you know, it sounds like it’s casting a wide net to see what good ideas the community comes up with to make this a draw.

for the Veterans Memorial Bridge. You know, this opens every so often for tours. They’re wildly popular. This is a bridge that Clevelanders have some fondness for. So Ronane has previously talked about how to better activate this bridge and make more use of that lower level specifically where the trolley used to run. And this is his way to do it. Well, I have to see what proposals come in. I’m pretty excited to see what ideas people.

Chris (26:47.565)

Whenever I send out a morning text, I send a text out every morning about stuff we’re working on, and if I send out one that’s on the more frivolous side, I’ll get 15, 20 people that send me notes saying, don’t waste your time on frivolous stuff. You should only worry about the big stuff. There’s important things to pay attention to. And I get that. I hear that Chris wants to do this, and I think the jail’s a disaster. The elections office isn’t ready to move. You’ve got a lot of major problems on your hands.

Lisa (26:53.89)

I’ll send out one that’s on the more privy side. Out dead.

Chris (27:17.145)

why are you doing this? But you also have to recognize people do want to celebrate the good things about Cuyahoga County. That’s part of his role too. And I suspect that if they do this, it’ll be mobbed, right?

Lisa (27:24.45)

that’s part of his world too. And I suspect that if they do this, it’ll be bomb, right? Oh my goodness, yes. So there were thousands of people when they opened up the bridge a few months ago to come check it out. And then rewinding that to 2019, the streetcar level back then was opened up for this light and sound project that was created by UK-based art collective, Twin Soup. This was sponsored by the Cleveland Foundation, and it was kind of organized as part of the 50th anniversary of the event.

courtney (27:30.716)

Oh my goodness, yes. So there were thousands of people when they opened up the bridge a few months ago to come check it out. And then rewinding back to 2019, the streetcar level back then was opened up for this light and sound project that was created by a UK based art collective, Squid Soup. This was sponsored by the Cleveland Foundation. And it was kind of organized as part of the 50th anniversary of the 1969 River Fire down below.

But these events at the bridge have just drawn folks like gangbusters. So I imagine there is a hunger for this, like you’re saying.

Chris (28:06.673)

Yeah, although from what I understood for the people that were there, there were some danger areas. There’s holes in the road that go way down. And so I hope if they make this publicly accessible that way, they take great pains to make sure we don’t lose anybody. Yes. Did you go to it?

courtney (28:24.267)

Agreed. I didn’t go. It’s been on my to-do list in Cleveland for years, but I’ve never made it. What about you guys?

Lisa (28:29.641)

Mm-hmm. I’d love to go. I keep missing it, unfortunately.

courtney (28:54.12)

Hehehehe

Chris (28:59.317)

All right, well, when the proposals come in, we’ll talk about them again. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We’re finished for Wednesday. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Courtney. Thanks, Laura. Thanks to everybody who listens. We’ll be back Thursday.