CLEVELAND, Ohio – Ohio’s six state-operated regional psychiatric hospitals are currently at 96% capacity. Their populations are almost exclusively made up of people who arrived from the criminal justice system.

We’re talking about what an Ohio working group recommends to better serve mental health issues 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.

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Here‘s what we’re asking about today:

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine wants to change the state’s approach to mental health, and a task force he created came out Thursday with all sorts of meaningful recommendations to help people, including those behind bars. What are the key proposals?

We’ve talked about how much smarter Pennsylvania has been about automating turnpike tolls, while Ohio created a confusing system that has baffled some drivers. But the Ohio Turnpike takes a big step now into the future at the far Eastern gateway. What is it?

I remember this like it happened yesterday, but it was more than a quarter century ago. Why are airport officials intend on reversing that long-ago decision to move the Cleveland airport car rental facility a mile away from the airport?

Speaking of the airport, we said earlier this week that the Spirit Airlines bankruptcy filing would have little affect on Cleveland travelers going forward. But the airline’s difficulties had a profound impact in October. How so?

We haven’t talked much about Ohio’s Covid numbers in recent months because they’ve been low, meaning we did not have much to talk about. But this time last year, Covid numbers in Ohio were climbing quite a bit, so are we seeing that happen again as the holidays approach?

It’s probably good that this guy lost. What did a Northeast Ohio Republican and failed candidate for the Ohio Senate get accused of involving his campaign this week?

It’s not every day that a criminal goes out of his way to provide all the evidence needed to lock him up. Who did a Cuyahoga County jury indict this week based at least partly on evidence he quite willingly provided?

Laura is hoping against hope that Taylor Swift shows up in Cleveland next month for the Browns game with Kansas City. Did the Rock Hall help out with an announcement this week?

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

Chris Quinn (00:00.994)

Wrapping up the week on Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer will be here Monday and Tuesday next week and then be off for the holiday coming back the following Monday. I’m Chris Quinn here with Lisa Garvin, Courtney Astolfi and Laura Johnston and Lisa, let’s start with you and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. He has long said he wants to change the state’s approach to mental health. He recognizes it’s a big affliction.

He created a task force to look at the mental institutions in the state and what can be done to make it better. They came out with their meaningful recommendations yesterday. What are the key proposals?

Lisa (00:41.895)

Yeah, this was called the governor’s work group on competency, restoration and diversion. And the group was made up of judges, corrections officials, mental and behavioral health people and attorneys and so forth. They began work in April of 2024 to address the lack of beds in Ohio’s six state operated regional psychiatric hospitals. They found that nine of 10 beds are taken up by those in the criminal justice system, what they call forensic patients.

So they’re coming from jails, they’re coming from competency restoration orders and treatment for non-guilty by reason of insanity. And this limits their ability to help people who are not in the criminal justice system. So they came up with 15 recommendations in six different areas. They had overall recommendations, pretrial diversion, the judicial system, they looked at that, systems navigation.

jail-based services and restoring residential treatment access. So their overall recommendations, they said that they need new crisis services and support existing ones like the 988 crisis line. So everybody has somebody to call.

They need to recruit and retain behavioral health and criminal justice workforce people and increase their inpatient treatment capacity and then provide housing support as people transition out of the system. And I’ll stop there so we can discuss or whatever.

Chris Quinn (02:05.714)

I love that there’s a serious recognition in this report that a lot of the things that end up being criminal justice issues really are mental health issues and that they’re looking at ways for diversion and taking other steps, giving people services behind bars because there’s not enough of that so that when they do get out, they might have some ability. But with the goal of reducing the number of people in the institutions so that you don’t have to commit a crime.

to take advantage of what’s offered there. Basically the story says the only way to get into the place is to commit a crime. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work.

Lisa (02:41.393)

Right, right. And they really wanna bring these services to the jail. They feel like some of these should be jail-based, like expanding behavioral health treatment there, including medications for substance addiction and available prescribers and providers at the jail. And they also wanna have residential treatment access, so community-based residential facilities as they transition from inpatient care.

And also they looked at the judicial system. said they really should, you know, streamline their compency evaluation motions with screening tools to determine who should be evaluated in the first place.

Chris Quinn (03:21.61)

The report shows a level of compassion we often don’t see with mental health. We’re about to move into an era, I suspect, in the Trump administration where there’s a lot of meanness and cruelty. you know, Elon Musk announced yesterday that the way he’s going to get people to leave the workforce is to force federal workers to be in the office five days a week. I mean, that’s mean, right? That’s like, ha ha, let’s make them so uncomfortable they flee.

At least in Ohio for the next two years, we have a governor who has some compassion for people that are battling some demons. Good report. I hope it goes somewhere. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We’ve talked about how much smarter Pennsylvania has been about automating turnpike tolls while Ohio has created a confusing system that has baffled some drivers. But the Ohio turnpike takes a big step now, just on the eve of the Thanksgiving driving season.

And it is at the Far Eastern Gateway. Laura, what are they doing?

Laura (04:20.535)

All right, so they are eliminating the toll booths that you have to drive through to go into Pennsylvania or to come into Ohio from Pennsylvania, as long as you have your EZPass. So you got to follow along with me here. If you’re going east leaving Ohio, there is no toll for that section of the road because they’re assuming that you’re going both ways, kind of like a bridge. You’re gonna pay just on the westbound coming into Ohio.

So the fare is $2.75 if you have an EZPass. You’re going to just keep driving under those big overpass kind of sensors. But if you have to stop because you don’t have an EZPass, that’s going to cost you $4 with your cash or credit card at the toll booth. About 70 % of drivers on the Turnpike have an EZPass. I definitely have an EZPass. It makes life a lot easier. That’s why it’s called that.

But it is confusing because unlike Pennsylvania, like you mentioned, or other states, there is no straight out open rolled tolling that you’re going to just take a picture of your license plate and get it sent to you. If they have to do that because you didn’t stop, they’re going to charge you an extra fine on top of that.

Chris Quinn (05:34.626)

When I drove to Pennsylvania in August, it was so night and day different. The idiocy of the Ohio Turnpike and the smooth operation of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. This is a good step, but there is there is something people need to know. If you don’t have that transponder on your windshield, you don’t get red and you’re going to get the fine because it’s not going to register people that always try to hold their transponder up. You can’t do it. Doesn’t work. And so.

Laura (05:52.952)

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Chris Quinn (06:02.49)

It’s time to put it where you’re supposed to put it so that it works efficiently. You’re listening. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. I remember this like it happened yesterday, which tells you how old I am because it was more than a quarter century ago. Why are airport officials intent on reversing that long ago decision to move the Cleveland rental car facility at the airport a mile away from the airport? Courtney?

Laura (06:07.564)

Right, you want to make sure that it’s reading it, so go ahead.

Courtney (06:31.49)

Yeah, airport officials want to bring this thing back by the terminal and get it close to like the actual campus of where folks are. And, you know, we talked to airport director, Bryant, Fran, Francis Bryant, and, you know, he told us that it’s just a better experience. Customers vastly, vastly prefer not having to do the shuttle game and wait and go off site to get to their cars. It’s just inconvenient for everybody and nobody likes it. So.

as part of the airport’s renovation program. You know, this is going to take several years, many years to put together and the moving the car rental facility back near the terminal. They’re currently looking at it, maybe getting that done by the end of the decade, but there’s a lot of stuff ongoing, but that is a priority for the airport. And, you know, this all kind of came up when our travel writer, Susan Glaser was returning from a recent trip to Seattle.

and just wrestled with an insanely long line out there. And it got her reflecting on Cleveland’s situation. So she sought out an update from the airport director. You know, what’s interesting here is that Susan’s gripes in Seattle are the same ones that travelers have here in Cleveland. You’re waiting a long line for a shuttle. You don’t know if you’re going to make it to check in and get to your flight in time. And it just adds this whole extra step when the car rental facility is so far away.

and everyone’s trying to get back to the terminal. It just gums things up.

Chris Quinn (08:02.938)

This was a trend, I think, back in the 90s to do this. I remember I was living in Orlando and they did it. And in Orlando is this gigantic tourist airport and they built this huge facility. But, but it just causes lots of delays. get to the, finally get to the airport in Orlando, you’d have to ride the train from the terminal to the main area, walk for a mile, get on a bus, go there. It just slowed you down and nobody who’s traveling wants extra needless delays.

Cleveland did the same thing. It’s a mile away. You had to rely on these useless shuttles. It’s a stupid idea. If you’re supposed to make travel faster and faster. So it’s not surprising that this trend has been reversed. Squandered a lot of money on the place, but it came from the rental car companies as is the new facility, right?

Courtney (08:52.442)

Absolutely. So we’re going to have to figure out how this funding works, but some pieces are already in place. Like you said, this doesn’t work like the rest of the airport renovation where the airlines are paying for it. This price tag is on the airline or the car rental companies and the drivers who rent from them. And it’s going to be current estimates put it about $220 million to relocate it back to the terminal at Hopkins. And we’ve got some funding that’s clear.

A couple years ago, the city added a new $6 per day fee on car rentals to help fund it. So that’s a piece of the puzzle. But airport officials are still negotiating with the car rental companies themselves for their portion of the bill. That’s gonna have to get figured out. There’s a lot moving with the airport renovation. But like I said, the goal is to have all this in place and hopefully get it there by the end of the decade.

Chris Quinn (09:50.098)

Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. Speaking of the airport, we said earlier this week that the Spirit Airlines bankruptcy filing would have little effect on Cleveland travelers going forward. But the airline’s difficulties had a profound impact on Cleveland in October. Lisa, how so?

Lisa (10:09.011)

Passenger volume at Hopkins Airport dropped 7 % last month over the same month last year. And this was after several months of steady passenger growth. Airport Director Bryant Francis says it’s in part due to Spirit Airlines cutting back routes to a single daily flight to Fort Lauderdale. They cut five routes earlier this year. He says October is normally quiet, but it was just more so last month. They saw 848,400 passengers pass through Hopkins.

Year to date though, 8.6 million travelers. That’s 4.5 % higher than last year. And they’re on pace to hit over 10 million passengers this year. And that would be the most since 2008 when we were still a continental hub. And he says they’re still gearing up for a very busy holiday season.

Chris Quinn (10:58.352)

Yeah, I imagine the airport will be madness next week. Somebody sent us a study this week though, that showed that the percentage of delayed flights over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend traditionally is actually quite low that people do get to where they want to go. It’s just madhouse at every airport. So you’ll have the turnpike with the confusion of the new thing for people who are driving. You’ll have madness at the airport. We’ll be talking about it when we all return.

You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We have not talked much about Ohio’s COVID numbers in recent months because they’ve been low, meaning we didn’t have much to talk about. But this time last year, COVID numbers in Ohio were climbing quite a bit and they kept climbing all the way through the holidays. So Laura, are we seeing that happen again as the holidays approach?

Laura (11:49.524)

No, gratefully, thankfully, no real news to report on the COVID front. They stayed steady this week. They were 2,239 last week, 2,250 this week. And that’s from the State Department of Health reporting. So compared to last year, that was over 8,000 cases. So we’re at a quarter of what we were looking at last year. And that began that climb in early November and just lasted through the holidays.

So while we have the COVID numbers climbing in August and September, we are thankfully low around the holidays where everybody’s gonna be inside. Don’t think many people will be wearing masks. I we just talked about travel. I was in the airport last weekend. I saw a few people wearing masks, but most didn’t. So if it was out there, it would spread.

Chris Quinn (12:38.076)

Yeah, I’m positive I got my COVID infection in an airport, so I’d be wearing a mask. Are you vaccinated with the new vaccine?

Laura (12:45.304)

Yes, I did get that and my kid, well, one of my kids got it and he ended up sick from it. But yes, we are all vaxxed and protected and it’s one of those things that I’m not gonna regret being prepared.

Chris Quinn (12:58.726)

No, no, you got to do what you can to avoid it. And as the holidays hit, it will rise probably a little bit. Good that it’s not the same trend as last year. I don’t think we’ve actually seen patterns develop where COVID operates the same way year after year. It just is, it comes and goes, I guess, based on the variants. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. It’s probably good that this guy lost.

Laura (13:19.79)

Yeah, I mean, go ahead.

Chris Quinn (13:24.7)

Courtney, what did a Northeast Ohio Republican and failed candidate for the Ohio Senate get accused of involving his campaign this week?

Courtney (13:33.798)

some pretty brazen theft from his company, according to a civil lawsuit filed by companies affiliated with 3B Holdings in Cleveland. 3B Holdings is the former employer of John Leisler. He’s a Summit County Republican who lost his election earlier this month to Casey Weinstein of Hudson. And Leisler is now being sued by his former employer. They’re saying that he stole $4 million from the company.

including a whopping $800,000 that they say he pumped into his campaign. And Leisler is a former school board member. Like I said, he lost in the election, but the lawsuit is saying that when he was CFO of this Cleveland company, he padded his salary by just wildly high amounts and also did some unauthorized usage of company credit cards. And through all that,

800,000, they say, ended up in his campaign, 200,000 to his mortgage, 400,000 down payment on a beach condo in South Carolina, student loans, car payments, all sorts of stuff. And what’s interesting about this lawsuit is that it seems to have a lot of evidence backing up these allegations. So on top of all sorts of documents showing, you know, alleged proof of these crimes,

It also includes just kind of what seems to be a stunning admission, according to his former boss from Leisler, the day after election day in which he supposedly went went to the CEO and admitted all this to.

Chris Quinn (15:14.29)

Yeah, but I don’t get about this. This is a civil suit. Why isn’t this a criminal case? The evidence seems pretty clear that the laws are being violated and yet they’re having to proceed civilly to try and recover what’s been lost.

Courtney (15:29.486)

Yeah, that really stuck out to me as well too, but because this all seemed to have happened so recently, wonder if just the the civil, you know, the lawyers are quicker than prosecutors in this case, I wonder that this.

Chris Quinn (15:43.206)

Well, does it have a Cincinnati angle? Because if it involves that federal prosecutor, it’s going nowhere.

Courtney (15:50.842)

Not quite, not quite. We got a Northeast Ohio guy here. But we’ll have to see, we’ll have to keep an eye on the criminal filings because if it is as is described in this lawsuit, then yeah, this is a problem.

Chris Quinn (16:04.794)

Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. It’s not every day that a criminal goes out of his way to provide all the evidence needed to lock him up. Courtney Hoonor, to Cuyahoga County grand jury indict this week based at least partly on evidence that he quite willingly provided.

Courtney (16:21.124)

yeah, big time. We’re talking about 21 year old George Ivory here. He was indicted this week on charges that accused him of making terroristic threats all while he was live streaming on Instagram, apparently. So this all goes back to November 9th when police got a call in the afternoon to terminal tower down in downtown Cleveland. There were reports that a masked man was in there threatening people with a gun.

And the security officers at tower city said he was recording himself on Instagram. So that got police looking for his, for his handle and they found his profile on there. They found him firing a gun in Lakewood earlier that day too. They found him firing or not firing, but pointing a gun at cars on I-90. And cops also noticed footage of Ivory walking through like.

parks around town and pointing guns at moving cars there too. So this is all now culminated in this grand jury indictment. The officers weren’t able to arrest him that day, but they found him the next day elsewhere downtown and he was still carrying the gun, prosecutors say.

Chris Quinn (17:32.306)

This sounds more like a case of Florida man, not Ohio man. It’s that it’s bizarro, stupid thing to do and now he’s locked up and very likely will be convicted because he provided the whole thing.

Laura (17:45.294)

Well, that’s why they use Ohio now as a slang word for Gen Z, right, to mean, I don’t know, cringy.

Chris Quinn (17:53.35)

Yeah, but this isn’t that this is Florida man is the wacko criminal. This is not that this is much more Florida man. You’re listening to today in Ohio. Laura is hoping against hope that Taylor Swift shows up in Cleveland next month for the Browns game with Kansas city. Did the rock call help out with an announcement this week?

Laura (17:55.05)

I…

Laura (18:12.044)

Well, my daughter is really hoping that Taylor Swift comes, but I think if she ends up coming to Cleveland and jaunting around at some places that Travis Kelce used to hang out in high school, that would be really good for Cleveland tourism. And the Rock Hall just happens to be throwing a Swifty Christmas event the day before the Browns Chief game, which is the day after Taylor’s birthday, because, you know, 13 is her favorite number, as all Swifties know. She is turning 35. So if you go to the Swifty Christmas, you can…

do photo ops throughout the museum. There’s Taylor Swift artifacts, including outfits from Reputation, Folklore, and the Evermore videos. There’ll be trivia and a compilation video with highlights and classic videos that’ll be looping. There’s also some book signings with Andy Zalesky, who wrote Taylor Swift, the stories behind the songs, and Rob Sheffield, who wrote Heartbreak is the national anthem, how Taylor Swift reinvented pop music.

Chris Quinn (19:08.176)

Yeah, the Browns are not the draw. would be Taylor Swift who’s the draw. It be the biggest game, Browns game there. Although they did beat the Steelers last night in a Blizzard bowl as the snow was coming down, surprisingly.

Laura (19:19.448)

They did. My cousin was thinking of coming just to see hope that Taylor would be there because she wasn’t able to make it to a concert. I think there’ll be lots of kids watching, you know, to see if if Taylor makes an appearance. did read because she didn’t go to Buffalo for the Bills Chiefs game, and that was right after her Toronto concerts last weekend. And so there was some.

Lisa (19:42.867)

So there was some chatter that she wasn’t going to a way baby this year because of the security.

Laura (19:44.376)

chatter that she wasn’t going to away games this year because of the security risks.

Chris Quinn (19:49.542)

But Travis is coming home, so there is a different, he’s from here, and like you said, he could show her around town. mean, there’s a better chance for here than probably anywhere else. And it doesn’t really matter if she comes or not. There’s gonna be buzz nonstop until the date of the game, and the Rock Hall certainly got its clicks in to make sure they’re part of the conversation.

Lisa (19:51.825)

Mm-hmm.

Laura (19:51.863)

Right.

Lisa (20:12.957)

Well if he, if she does come I hope Travis takes her to Dracy’s because I know that’s his favorite pizza place as is mine.

Chris Quinn (20:21.006)

and that will bring traffic to a standstill throughout all of University Heights. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. It’s a short one. Have a good weekend. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Courtney. Thanks, Laura. Thank you for listening. We’ll be back Monday and Tuesday next week talking about the news.