CLEVELAND, Ohio — Never before Donald Trump has a U.S. president had a mug shot taken. So even though cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer rarely publish mug shots, we put it on the front page.

We’re talking about the photo, and the fact that so many Senate hopefuls from Ohio and presidential candidates overall, 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:

After his humiliating defeat over Issue 1, which he was using to block a proposed amendment to legalize abortion in Ohio, did Secretary of State Frank LaRose violate the duties of his office to write false ballot language for the proposed abortion amendment Thursday?

Wayne National Forest in Ohio is named for a guy who chased native Americans out of the state. Native Americans successfully persuaded the federal government to consider changing the name. Why is J.D. Vance so agitated about that?

Former Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and company are back at work on a constitutional amendment to end gerrymandering in Ohio. Meanwhile, we’re gerrymandered. Any chance the existing redistricting commission will obey the constitution and fix that?

Baldwin Wallace University has plunged into a transportation wave sure to explode in the future. What is it, and how does it put the university at the forefront of what is to come?

How is Obamacare the best proof out there that politicians would rather fight with each other than get things done, and how does this largely break with what voters want?

Jim Jordan’s on the rampage again. Who is the latest target of his wratch, simply for doing her job? And isn’t this the kind of weaponization of government that he rails against?

We talked yesterday about the Wednesday night rainstorm, but our team spent a lot of time reporting on the damage. How bad was it?

Who are the former Cleveland City Council members who have been deemed unfit to serve as Cleveland Municipal Court judges by Judge4Yourself, the rigorous process for assessing the strength and weaknesses of judicial candidates?

We love to complain about them. Mostly because they are terrible. So why are they some of the fastest growing airlines in Northeast Ohio – and the United States?

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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 have a mugshot on the front page of the plane dealer today, even though we have a policy of generally not using mugshots. This one’s different. He’s the first former president to actually have one. We’ll talk about it a bit. To start today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the plane dealer.

I’m Chris Quinn here with Lisa Garvin, Laura Johnston and Layla Tassi. Like I said, we do have Donald Trump on the front page of the plane dealer, a mugshot. We, several years ago, probably four or five now, decided to stop using mugshots because we felt that they had a race element. That was unfair that we got mugshots from police.

That police are biased. The bias gets in. It’s also unfair to people. It’s the worst picture they generally ever will take. It’s humiliating. There are better ways to do this, to be humane. We stopped and we also removed 10,000 from our archives, but not Donald Trump. Donald Trump is the first [00:01:00] president. To have one.

He’s the first president to be indicted like this on all these criminal charges because he’s a criminal. He tried to overthrow the government of the country. His mugshot belongs on the front page of every newspaper and every website in the country. What did you all make of the ridiculous buffoonish pose that he made in his mugshot?

[00:01:21] Lisa: I think he looks like a cornered animal, quite frankly. Oh, good. Defiant but fearful

[00:01:27] Chris: underneath. Wow. That’s a great description. Laura. Layla,

[00:01:32] Laura: I, I didn’t know what kind of face he was trying to make. I mean, if you look at those mugshots, and, and I honestly, I was like, oh, it’s kind of plain. It doesn’t have the, the ticking of the height in the background, in the stereotypical BugShot.

It’s not like he’s holding up a sign that says Donald Trump. Um, I, they, they run the gamut, right? Some people are stone faced, some people are smiling, and I’m not sure what he was trying to convey. But

[00:01:56] Chris: 200 years from now, people will be looking at that mugshot [00:02:00] and making fun of it. I think

it

[00:02:01] Leila: looked like a promotional poster for that reality show.

He used The Apprentice. I mean, didn’t he used to make that kind of face whenever he would be in, you’re fired. Yeah. Yeah. That you’re fired. He just, he looks like he’s trying to be intimidating. He’s trying to, Um, convey that sense that he’s gonna fight this, that he’s so full of anger and, uh, um, yeah, he’s

just

[00:02:26] Laura: such a, do you think he like practiced it in the mirror?

Oh, like many times he’s like, yeah, this is what I wanna convey.

[00:02:32] Lisa: Well, some said that he had his chin lowered because it ha it hit his double chin. Oh, that’s obvious.

[00:02:37] Leila: That was the first thing that struck me was like, oh, you can’t. See all his gobble gobbles under his chin.

[00:02:43] Chris: I thought, I thought though they removed wigs for mugshots and he evidently has his on.

[00:02:48] Lisa: He he does. That’s not a wig. That’s yeah, that’s a comb over. Have you? Yeah. It’s

[00:02:51] Leila: totally a comb over. Haven’t you ever seen that, that famous clip of him on, on some late night show where I think it was Jimmy Fallon, like glowing in the wing. Nowhere Jimmy, he lets, [00:03:00] he let one of the late night show hosts toss all

[00:03:02] Lisa: his hair.

Oh yeah, I remember that. Oh, look it up.

[00:03:04] Leila: It’s it. It’s so embarrassing.

[00:03:07] Chris: He’s a buffoon. He really is. It’s, it’s still, we say this all the time. We said it the other day after the debate. The fact that Republican leaders pledge fealty to this criminal who tried to destroy our government is one of the most embarrassing moments.

We’ve ever had in our country. And it makes you understand things like the rise of Mussolini. We just wake up, the guy tried to destroy the country. He’s a buffoon. He’s not smart. And yet all these people, including those running for the Senate in Ohio, Bernie Moreno and Frank LaRose worship at the altar of this terrible, terrible person.

That’s why his mugshot is on the front of our platforms you’re listening to today in Ohio. After his humiliating defeat over issue one, which [00:04:00] he was using to block a proposed amendment to legalize abortion in Ohio, did Secretary of State Frank LaRose violate the duties of his office to write false ballot language for that proposed abortion amendment Thursday, Laura?

[00:04:14] Laura: I don’t know why I didn’t see this coming. I figured the language for the petitions was approved. That got through Dave Yost. We had all of these hundreds of thousands of people sign it. Then the same language could be on the ballot. No problem. But these guys never fail to come up with a way to thwart the will of the people.

I mean, that’s what it feels like to me. So the ballot board has a Republican majority, Ohio, secretary of State, Frank LaRose, four appointees, three. Um, And the Republicans voted in favor of this ballot language. The Democrats opposed it, and the backers of the amendment might be suing over it. Of course.

Take that to the Supreme Court. That’s Republican dominated. I’m not sure how good. That’s what that’s gonna do. But the ballot language calls a fetus an unborn child. It uses the word pregnant woman instead of pregnant patient. And it really kind of [00:05:00] condenses the reproductive decision part of it, saying that Ohioans have the right to one’s own reproductive medical treatment, including, but not limited to abortion.

And the way that they stite the, you know, the exception for the health of the mother kind of feels like. Anything could happen. And, and that’s the way that the right to life people are taking it, that you could abort a fetus up to, you know, whenever, even if it’s ready to be born and right. And it’s just, it’s, it’s,

[00:05:30] Chris: it’s frustrating.

Look, it’s, it’s, it’s not accurate. It doesn’t portray the amendment as it is. What, what this tells me. I conjecture during the issue. One thing that Frank LaRose is actually stupid. Because what he did was so over the top, it was gonna backfire. And there’ve been some focus groups done in rural parts of Ohio where that in fact was one of the chief reasons people there voted against issue one.

They felt like the legislature had held outlawed August elections and then Frank LaRose and and Huffman from the Senate put [00:06:00] it on the ballot to slip it by, and it really did bother them that they would play these games. This is the same thing. This will backfire. They’re playing dirty. They’re using their positions to play dirty.

They learn nothing. If they would’ve been a little more subtle, they could have pulled it off. But now the message is gonna be Frank LaRose upset because he lost so badly. I mean, Ohio completely rejected him after months of him being on the stomp is doing it again. Putting his thumb on the scale, that will not go well.

Ohioans don’t like when you cheat. Uh,

[00:06:32] Laura: yes. And when you go into the the ballot box, this is gonna be issue one. On the ballot, I believe. Do you actually sit there and read the whole summary? I mean, I know what I’m going to sit to vote for when I get my ballot, and I always vote early, but it’s not like I’m reading it for the first time and they’re like, Hmm, what do I think of this idea?

No voters like you’ve said this a million times, they already know how they feel about abortion. They already know how they’re gonna vote in November. So we don’t know that changing fetus to unborn child is gonna change [00:07:00] anyone’s mind. It’s

[00:07:01] Chris: not, but what’s going, what this is going to do is steal people to fight back.

That’s what issue one showed. That was a walloping. They took Frank Rose and they just spanked him and said, cut it out. We expect better from our elected leaders, and here he is again. I mean, it’s just, it’s a shock. He has been described universally nationally as the biggest loser of issue one. I mean, it’s just been humiliating for this guy as he tries to run for the Senate and now he’s doing this, it’s not gonna go well.

I I, you would think that his Republican colleagues who the ones that have brain cells, would say to him, Hey, hey, don’t do this. Mm-hmm. This was a mistake last time. Let’s play it straight. And he didn’t. I don’t know what the Supreme Court will do because it is kind of cooked, but. They also were elected, so if they put their fingers on the scale, they saw the results of issue one, maybe they’ll wise up and do the right thing for once.

You are listening to today in Ohio. Let’s keep the outrage going. Wayne National [00:08:00] Forest in Ohio is named for a guy who chased Native Americans out of the state. Native Americans have successfully persuaded the federal government to consider changing. Forest name, Layla. Why is JD Vance so agitated about that?

[00:08:15] Leila: Man, this dude is so predictable. I, I feel like I probably could have told you what his objections were about this without even reading the story, Chris, but the, uh, the Forest Service on Monday formerly proposed, changing the name of this 244,000. Acre forest to the Buckeye National Forest because there were requests from tribes and local community leaders that were offended by by the the or previous name.

In a press release, the Forest Service acknowledged that General Anthony Wayne’s legacy includes leading a violent campaign against the indigenous peoples of Ohio that resulted in their removal from their homelands. And because of that, Naming this national forest after him is offensive to many people, but [00:09:00] never to miss an opportunity to do the wrong thing.

Senator j d Vance asked the Top Forest service in US Department of Agriculture officials to oppose this change and he said the name change would denigrate Ohio History and represent, quote, a lack of fidelity to our nation’s founding generation. He, he, he says, uh, you know, Wayne Heroically served our nation in a time when its continued existence was not a foregone conclusion.

He fought wars in one piece for our government. The government you now serve and hued Ohio out of rugged wilderness and occupied enemy territory. Just as the United States would not exist without George, Washington, Ohio would not exist without Anthony Wayne. So,

[00:09:45] Chris: yeah. So the enemy, the enemy was Native Americans.

Right? That’s what I’m talking about here saying that’s

[00:09:49] Leila: exactly what he’s saying here. Right. Right. I mean,

[00:09:53] Chris: this gets back to the whole idea that we, we probably shouldn’t name things for people. Yeah. Because as times change, [00:10:00] our views on things change. So there’s been this massive movement. Across much of the country to remove the names of people from monuments and things who were slaveholders.

And even though it was acceptable a long time ago to be slaveholders, we look at that and say, my gosh, how could we have done that as a country? It’s the worst thing probably we’ve ever done in the history of this country. So we’re get, we’re wiping that off as we should. Why? Why? Name things for people, right?

Why not just do it the way you know Buckeye, who can take offense at a Buckeye?

[00:10:32] Leila: Also, I, I just, why is he fighting this fight? Come on, man. There’s, there are so many more important issues. This is so just, I mean, and, and his letter is full of, of dog whistles. You know, he says like, you know, it would greatly benefit Ohioans and all Americans if our government could be counted on to defend our founding fathers instead of capitulating the politically motivated renaming efforts.

Uh, what I mean, it’s just, [00:11:00]

[00:11:00] Chris: it’s the dog whistles. And look, there is a, a serious threat of white supremacy in parts of the Republican Party, and this is the guy who has been to East Palestine. How many times and how many times has he sent press releases out to help the largely white? Place of East Palestine, but he doesn’t really care about the Native Americans.

Native Americans have a point here. This guy ran him out of the state. He devastated a culture. They really don’t wanna see a federal park named for him. You can kind of see their point,

[00:11:31] Laura: right? I, I wonder if there’ll be more. I. Movement toward this. I, you know, I worked in Fort Wayne, Indiana, same guy. And so you wonder if more people will bring, bringing up those kind of things.

Or even Columbus, Ohio, right? Like we’ve renamed a whole bunch of cities, have renamed Columbus Day. So I, I think you’re right. Like we might, we might be seeing a whole different wave of this now.

[00:11:53] Chris: Stop naming things for people ‘cause we’re all human. We all have failings. Just name it for innocuous stuff [00:12:00] you’re listening to today in Ohio.

Former Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor and company. You’re back at work drafting a constitutional amendment to end gerrymandering in Ohio. Meanwhile, we’re gerrymandered. Any chance of the existing redistricting commission will obey the constitution and fix that. Lisa. Well, given

[00:12:20] Lisa: that secretary. Of state Frank LaRose is on that commission.

I have my doubts, but they have finally set a meeting. They’ve set a meeting for September 13th to start to draw new legislative districts. This would be their first meeting since May of 2022. And the map that was used last year for the November elections was ruled illegally gerrymandered, but a federal court ordered it to be used for the elections with the proviso that they would create a new one afterwards.

So this first. Meeting will be organizational Noel. They say there will be some, there have been some preliminary talks about scheduling the Mapmaking. There also has been some talk about specific [00:13:00] district lines, but there are no draft maps circulating at this point. Senate minority leader, Nikki Antonio, the Democrat from Lakewood, said it’s been really slow going.

And earlier this year, Senate president Matt Huffman said that he wants to see new maps by mid-September, but. I don’t think that’s gonna happen. The commission members are hoping for a better process this time. They hope that Republicans and Democrats can find common ground on the commission. They hope that they can get approved maps by mid-December, and that would be in time for candidates to file for the March primary next year.

[00:13:35] Chris: Yeah, this is all mood in my mind because I do believe Maureen O’Connor will be successful. Her, the first draft her group put out was rejected by Dave Yost for a bunch of language reasons, which need to be fixed, but we will be voting on that next year. So if they do these maps, they’ll last for what, one term?

Uh, but my, my bet is there’ll be more gerrymandered because now the Republicans know they’ve got, The [00:14:00] Supreme Court cooked, they’ve got what they want there. The, the Supreme Court will approve pretty much anything they send over. I bet we end up with a worse situation than we have now. Yeah. I’m not

[00:14:10] Lisa: optimistic.

And as far as Congressional district maps, the Ohio Supreme Court got the maps back from the US Supreme Court and they have to decide if those existing maps are constitutional. Now, chief Justice, Sharon Kennedy says, uh, she is, Asking 30 days for both sides to file arguments on these congressional maps.

Now,

[00:14:31] Chris: if Frank LaRose did have brain cells that functioned and his fellow Republicans were smart, they would make a more balanced map because then when the gerrymandering amendment is on the ballot next year, they’d have something to campaign against. Mm-hmm. They could say, look, The system kind of worked.

Mm-hmm. We have fairer maps, but given what he just did with the language on the abortion amendment we talked about, they’re not gonna do that. They’re going to overreach, put their thumb on the scale and guarantee that that [00:15:00] gerrymandering amendment passes. You’re listening to today in Ohio, Baldwin Wallace University has plunged into a transportation wave.

Sure to explode in the future. Laura, what is it and how does it put the university at the forefront of what is to come?

[00:15:15] Laura: This is called nefi. It stands for Northeast Ohio Flight Information Exchange, and it’s basically highways and street signs and maps for drones, so that. It’s the infrastructure we need so that we can fly drones safely, both commercial and private.

And BW worked with a company and they got $225,000 of ARPA money from Cuyahoga County to do this. It’s in its most rudimentary form, but it’s going to grow and add more data safe. Sources as it grows. So it so shows potential hazards that drones don’t wanna fly near. It shows places like schools, operators can see any advisories posted by local offic officials, like the Ordinance on drones or a special event.

And then Neo Fix [00:16:00] uses sensors to track those drones, keep track of flights, and then use that information to give public officials a clear picture of how many drones are up there and how they’re being used.

[00:16:10] Chris: You know, you think back to the, the days when there were predictions that there’d be tons of air, taxis and travels.

Think back to the Jetson, back to the future, right? And, but, but we’re, we’re going to see that it’s just not gonna be with people in them, at least not in the beginning. And it will create a lot of traffic. It also is gonna create some danger. ‘cause if those things come down and hit you or your car, the results can obviously be devastating.

So it’s smart. To try and figure out traffic patterns. Mm-hmm. And safety zones, and for Baldwin Wallace to see that this early in the game and try to establish itself as as a center. That’s pretty brilliant. I think. Yeah,

[00:16:50] Laura: I think the whole idea makes a lot of sense because if you are operating a drone, where do you get the information that you need?

To know to fly it safely. So the [00:17:00] cities, police, fire departments, they can all publish information, get it directly to drone operators in real time, and then they’ll be able to find it.

[00:17:08] Chris: Yeah, it’s a cool story. Check it out. It’s on cleveland.com. You’re listening to today in Ohio. How is Obamacare the best proof out there That politicians would rather fight with each other than get things done?

And how does this largely break with what voters want? Layla, it’s the latest installment of our civil discourse series. Yeah. Lucas

[00:17:29] Leila: Deli, who’s been writing stories for this series, used the healthcare debate as a perfect example of how when we divide ourselves into these partisan camps, we really lose sight of opportunities for compromise, even when the compromise seems like it should be an easy win for, for both parties.

Everyone remembers the contentious debate over the individual mandate. The requirement of Obamacare that everyone purchased health insurance or face an individual tax. That penalty was eventually repealed under [00:18:00] Trump’s tax reforms, but the idea there was that insurance only works if there are enough low cost rollies to balance out the sicker higher cost enrollees, and that turned out to be a pillar of making sure the Affordable Care Act worked.

But perhaps people don’t realize that the individual mandate was actually an idea born out of a conservative think tank in the 1980s, and that many influential lawmakers supported that idea. They loved it. Republicans loved it because it put the responsibility to get health insurance on the individual to fund a service that benefited them.

Democrats actually hated it because they thought employers should take on the brunt of the responsibility for their workers’ healthcare costs. But later when it became an important part of the Affordable Care Act, Democrats changed their minds to line up behind President Obama’s proposal. So lawmakers and the American public kind of found themselves at a crossroads.

As Lucas writes, this could have been a perfect opportunity to work together. [00:19:00] Republicans could have taken credit for a program they created, and Democrats could have boasted about a program that their president of their party shepherded well.

[00:19:09] Chris: Well, but think about that though. I mean, the Republicans put something on the table that they really believe in Obama campaigns against it.

The Democrats campaign against it, and then they come back and they say, you know what? That’s a good idea. Let’s do that. Instead of like you just said, saying, wow, victory. We got it done. Obama embraced the Republican idea. They said, oh, you like it. Oh, we’re not gonna do it now.

[00:19:31] Leila: Right? I mean, the chance to compromise turned to crap because.

Allegiance to political identity groups. And, and so Lucas explores how once people are entrenched in these groups, it, you know, people within them tend to express host hostility to outsiders. Even when doing that is not in their best interest. And as a result, Many people are more likely to vote against something than for something they [00:20:00] support, and it’s a phenomenon that they call negative partisanship.

Lucas then dipped into the results of our scientific survey that was conducted with a partnership of Baldwin Wallace University in Bravery Angels, Ohio. And interestingly, it turns out that most of the people who responded to the survey said they would rather their elected leaders compromise. Then risk progress for the sake of ideology or fidelity to their party.

[00:20:26] Chris: Except for one group, there was a, the, the percentage of Republicans that want compromise instead of sticking ‘em to their guns was disturbing. Yeah, that’s true.

[00:20:36] Leila: The group most likely to say that they would prefer that a politician compromise, even at the occasional expense of their own values, was Democrats.

66% of Democrats said that they preferred compromise moderates 62%. But the opposite was true of respondents who identified as conservatives. Nearly 42% of conservative respondents said that they prefer [00:21:00] politicians who consistently fight for their values, even if it’s at the expense of

[00:21:04] Chris: progress. Yeah, that’s a problem.

I mean, we, we need progress. We need people to get together. That’s what compromise is about. You give a little, I give a little, we all end up with something that’s not quite what we want. But it moves us forward. It’s disturbing that there’s a group of people that would rather, you know, take the game home than, than finish it out if you don’t go by their rules.

Uh, I should say, I heard from Lauren Copeland at Paul and Wallace this week, and she’s been hard at work, refashioning some of her curricula to adopt. Much of what she’s been learning. This Civil Discourse movement seems to be growing. These stories do resonate with readers. Lucas is is online. I don’t think we’re gonna put it in the Plain Dealer for another week or so, but look for it.

It’s well worth reading. This was the best example of the breakdown that you could have because it was something that they should have agreed on. You’re listening to today in Ohio. [00:22:00] Jim Jordan is on the rampage again, who is the latest target of his wrath simply for doing her job. And isn’t this the kind of weaponization of government that Jordan rails against?

[00:22:11] Lisa: Lisa? I. This is so predictable of him. I mean, as head of the House Judiciary Committee, he sent a letter demanding that Fulton County, Georgia DA Fannie Willis provide information on her communications with the Department of Justice and the executive branch officials. And he wants to know how much federal money her office re.

Thieves in the letter. He said, circumstances around your actions raise serious concerns about whether they’re politically motivated. He also noted that Willis launched a campaign fundraising website four days before the Trump indictment in Georgia, and she set a March 4th. Trial date, which is the day before the Super Tuesday primaries, and he said that’s designed to interfere with the election.

He also wants to determine if there’s any coordination and overlap between Willis and Special [00:23:00] Counsel Jack Smith’s investigations and, um, you know, but he’s done this before. He launched a probe into Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg after Trump was indicted for falsifying business records in New York.

He sent many letters to Attorney General Merrick Garland about Smith’s cases in dc, which was overturning the reelection results and in Florida with the improper handling of classified documents. And I might mention none of those probes went anywhere.

[00:23:27] Chris: Well, I hope she tells him to stick it. I mean, he disobeyed a subpoena from Congress with no ramifications.

She doesn’t work for him. She works for the people of Georgia. So I hope she tells him I’m not, I’m not responding. You’re, you’re a, a strutting fool trying to make. Political waves and get on Fox News and other channels with your nonsense. So no, not gonna tell you go away, but I, and see what happens.

[00:23:51] Lisa: Then I did note though, I, I, I read that Georgia actually passed a law this year that created a commission that allows them to remove prosecutors, [00:24:00] and apparently the state Republican party in Georgia is wanting to do just that with Fannie

[00:24:04] Chris: Willis.

Yeah, we’ll have to see how they do it. I mean, a grand jury brought that set of indictments. Uh, if Georgia is an interesting state, right, because they voted for Biden and they don’t like what’s going on, I think that kind of heavy handedness could come back to bite him if they try it. You’re listening to today in Ohio.

We talked yesterday about the Wednesday night rainstorm, and our team spent a lot of time reporting on the damage. Then the last night on the east side, we got hammered. I’m speaking in a house that only has power because I’m operating on a generator, and if you look at the first energy map, it is just a ton of spots with.

No power. Laura, how bad was the Wednesday storm and how bad was the Thursday night storm? Well, it

[00:24:49] Laura: depends where you lived, right? One spot in Lorain County on Wednesday night, they got more than seven inches of rain, and roads became rivers. Sewers were overwhelmed. Basements [00:25:00] flooded all over the place. The roof of the pinball shop in North Olmsted collapsed.

There was that parking garage in Lake County, I believe that collapsed. We don’t know exactly what happened there, but Molly Walsh, one of our reporters, talked to a homeowner who wore garbage pails on his feet to SS Slosh through his basement. He said the water came straight from Clifton Boulevard, and that’s what we heard from a lot of people is that these storm sewers were completely overwhelmed.

So it wasn’t just like the water from their road, or sorry, from their yard that got into their basement. I mean, it was pushed up from. From the street and just deluge.

[00:25:32] Chris: The guy in the, in the trash cans was trying not to get shocked as he turned, unplugged, or turned off the power. So I guess he was using those trash cans, his insulation.

That’s a risky thing to do. If there’s a chance, you’re gonna get shocked. You gotta be more careful than that. But I guess he did what he had to do the. The garage. I, I don’t know that we can say it, but geez, it does seem like we have a recent trend of apartment parking garages failing. I’m not sure I’d wanna live in an apartment building with [00:26:00] the garage these days.

Last night there were tornado warnings, right where I live in Cleveland Heights and the region around midnight. The power went off here at 1207. Still off. Uh, what is going on with our, with our weather? This is the kind of weather you might get once every 10 years, and we’re seeing it. Two nights in a row,

[00:26:17] Laura: right?

Or you know, three times when you look at that big storm a couple weeks ago. And so Pete Kraus talked to a state climatologist and asked, you know, is this climate change? And because if you’re me and you’re looking at this going, this just seems like the repeated, this never happened before. You know, these big storms, really hard rainfall, that the damage that’s being caused is.

To me, pretty obvious. He’s saying, you know, you can never point to one specific storm and say that one was climate change, that this is a ridge runner storm. They’re common around the Great Lakes. This time of year, at least this was Wednesday night, we’re talking about, they’re on the periphery of these hot high pressure systems, and they bumped up against a colder and drier air mass to the north and east, and then moisture came up [00:27:00] from the Gulf and then they had these.

Big storms. I mean, remember when we were looking, if you were looking at the forecast far away last weekend, we thought we were gonna have like 93 degrees, um, and hot on. Thursday instead it got humid and it got warm, but it didn’t get dangerous by any means, and it was only for a short period of time. So, I mean, the forecast is always changing and we, we didn’t get what they had expected originally four or

[00:27:26] Chris: five years ago, looking ahead because of climate change and because of the destructive storms, we bit the bullet and put in a generator just because of this kind of thing.

And I’m glad we did. ‘cause the power seems to go out. Way more often now than it ever did before. And I don’t remember the last time I heard winds like were howling around here last

[00:27:45] Laura: night. I mean, those pictures I saw on 90 of the people in the boats, it’s just like that, right? It’s at the highway. It’s not a river.

And you know, I think people, this, this week has just been a lot of water. We’ve talked a lot about how many inches over normal [00:28:00] we are, but it’s been a wet August. Everything feels kind of damp.

[00:28:04] Chris: You are listening to today in Ohio, Layla, who are the former Cleveland City Council members who have been deemed unfit to serve as Cleveland Municipal Court judges by judge for yourself the rigorous process for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of judicial candidates.

Well,

[00:28:20] Leila: five of the candidates who are running for Cleveland Municipal Judge got high marks. But yes, these two Cleveland City Council members who, who judge for yourself did not recommend for the bench. They were TJ Dow and Jeff Johnson. They flat out refused to participate in the interview process, so they kind of both shot themselves in the foot here, but they also both bring some baggage with them to, uh, to their candidacy.

I mean, TJ Dow, he faced a number of scandals during his time in public office. Most notably, he had been accumulating his annual discretionary spending allotments from city council in the hopes of building this neighborhood resource center that never actually [00:29:00] materialized. So, After he lost his council seat in 2017.

Dow attempted to transfer more than $700,000 of his ward’s money to remember. Former Ward four council member. Yeah, Ken Johnson. It was ridiculous. Who was then LA later sentenced to prison for siphoning tens of thousands of dollars from his community, and then Dow also blocked approval for apartment development in his ward until the developer donated.

Nearly half a million dollars to a fund for this community resource center. He wanted so badly and, and also he, he dodged property taxes for a while. He published his own book and then charged the printing cost to city council. There were just, just a whole bunch of stuff comes.

[00:29:40] Chris: Yeah. He was a terrible city councilman and the voters.

Recognize that. What about Jeff Johnson though? Yeah, Jeff

[00:29:46] Leila: Johnson, he was, he was once a state senator who was convicted of extortion in 1998 and, and sentenced to 15 months in prison. He later served under Mayor Jane Campbell and was elected to Cleveland City Council, [00:30:00] and he served there for a number of years until he stepped down to.

Launch an unsuccessful bid for mayor. He’s currently a magistrate for, for Cleveland Housing Court. I, I covered city hall when Jeff Johnson was on city council. He was, he was a very passionate councilman. Right. And, and my experience with him is that he was, he was very contrite about the crime he had committed and had worked really hard to, to serve the public in a forthright way after that.

[00:30:27] Chris: Uh, and there was a very strong argument. That the crime he committed was entrapment because they went at him repeatedly to take a bribe. He kept saying no, and then he finally took it. But I think if he would’ve participated in the process, he would not have come out, not recommended. He, I agree. You know, he, he did fight for things that I.

The community wanted it as a city councilman, like you said, he was passionate about his causes. I, I don’t, I think that he did overcome his past, both as a Campbell administration member and in that role, so I’m a little bit surprised. I mean, he’s, [00:31:00] he’s working in the court system now. Why wouldn’t he participate?

I

[00:31:03] Leila: know, I, I, I can’t quite understand that. It’s very unfortunate. ‘cause I think the evaluation would’ve turned out differently for him.

[00:31:10] Chris: I agree. Judge, for yourself does a great job evaluating judicial candidates because most people have no idea who to vote for there. We always carry the rankings. We have a story on cleveland.com.

If you live in Cleveland, it’s good to check it out. Each Bar Association does its own review and then it’s all put together in one rating. You’re listening to today in Ohio. We’re going a little bit long ‘cause we do wanna talk about this last story, Lisa. We love to complain about them mostly because they are terrible.

So why are they some of the fastest growing airlines in northeast Ohio and the United States?

[00:31:47] Lisa: I can only think it’s because of the ultra low price. I mean, you know, at, and these airlines are doing well. I mean, breeze Airways was established two years ago. It’s now the largest carrier at the Akron Canyon [00:32:00] Airport, and Allegiant is number seven in the US of all airlines.

Spirit number nine and Frontier is number 10. But these ultra low cost fares, as Susan Glaser points out. It’s the ticket only. You don’t get carry-on or check baggage. You don’t get a seat assignment or a beverage or a snack and spirit actually, you know, was the one that established carry-on bag fees back in 2010 and a whole bunch of airlines have now adopted that.

But now you know, it’s like $60 one way for a carry on bag on many of spirit’s routes. Frontier, I guess people are upset with them. They’re enforcing the personal item policy very aggressively. So you are allowed one free personal item. I, I guess it fits under the seat. If your personal item doesn’t fit the bag sizer, you gotta pay a $99 fee at the gate.

And if you don’t pay it, you don’t get on the plane. So, um, and she said that most airlines do charge for seat assignments. Glaser herself says she [00:33:00] doesn’t pay for a seat assignment. She says, I’m guaranteed a seat. I don’t really care where it’s assigned.

[00:33:05] Chris: I don’t know. I, I hate to fly even with the better Airlines, because you feel like you’re just chattel.

They can abuse you, they can lie to you. They can cancel your flights willy-nilly for phony reasons. I, I, I mean, I just, I hate it. I. But this adds a whole extra element of aggravation, the, the, the, all of the nonsense that these cheap airlines do. Laura, you’ve used them a lot. I guess for you it’s worth it.

[00:33:31] Laura: Well, when you’re flying with four people, yes, it’s totally worth it. Um, I mean, I would always rather have a nice seat, a free bag. Uh, Boarding. That makes sense. I, I love Southwest because I think it makes so much sense the way that they operate, but if Spirit can get me there for a hundred dollars cheaper, I’m going to take Spirit.

Are these

[00:33:52] Leila: comfortable? Is it a comfortable ride? I’m picturing like a wooden

[00:33:57] Laura: bench. Is airplane comfortable? [00:34:00] I mean, none of them are comfortable. No, but

[00:34:03] Leila: like, I don’t know. Why is it so cheap? Is it just because literally you, they, they gouge you on all of the extras?

[00:34:09] Laura: They do gouge you on all of the extras, and that means sometimes they’re not the cheapest if you’re gonna go and get everything else.

But also because I guess when you fly Frontier, they can just tell you that there’s volcanic ash and figure out how else to get

[00:34:22] Leila: yourself

[00:34:22] Lisa: off. Well, and and you know, and Glaser pointed out that these low cost carriers often don’t have daily flights. So if your flight gets canceled, you can be stuck for days trying to get

[00:34:32] Laura: home.

I, I flew breeze to. New Orleans in February, and they only offered that flight for two or three weeks and they flew out on a Friday night and came back on a Monday at noon or something like that, and that was it. So if they canceled the flight, you weren’t going anywhere. Maybe

[00:34:47] Chris: the answer is, these airlines, all the airlines suggest.

Including in the cost. Everyone who flies gets a marijuana gummy and then you know you’re okay with it. I’m not a marijuana guy, but man, I hate [00:35:00] flying so much because they just, it’s the, it’s like you’re in a foreign country that you’re, you have no rights. They just treat you so badly. Worst.

[00:35:07] Laura: I know. I feel like the worst when you’re in a car, if you get in a traffic jam, at least you can get off.

You know, like you’re in control of your own destiny when you got a flight. That’s it.

[00:35:17] Chris: And you’re paying for it. You’re paying them. You’re the customer, but in this case, the customer’s not. Right. Interesting piece by Susan Glaser. It’s on cleveland.com. Check it out. You’re listening to today in Ohio. Thanks for sticking with us for a little bit longer episode.

Have a good weekend. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks Laura. Thanks Layla. Thank you for listening.