Is Issue 1 originator Frank LaRose illegally running a de facto U.S. Senate campaign? Today in Ohio

CLEVELAND, Ohio — An elections complaint accuses Secretary of State Frank LaRose of illegally running a de-facto campaign for the U.S. Senate for months without disclosing how it was funded.

We’re talking about a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission again LaRose, who recently announced his run for U.S. Senate.

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:

If Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose illegally running a de facto campaign for the U.S. Senate without disclosing how it is being funded?

Who’s the latest Biden administration official to get roasted in the circus that is the House Judiciary Committee with Jim Jordan as the ringleader?

One more Ohio politics story. Who is an early candidate for Ohio governor in a campaign that is still 3 years away?

Let’s talk crime. First up, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor’s office release d a disturbing video of teenagers beating someone severely and firing off guns after arriving at a gas station in a bunch of stolen cars. What is this about?

The video brought three elected city officials to the press conference to talk about how out of control crime is. What did they say?

The understaffed Cleveland police are finally get some help from elsewhere. Turns out that the help arrived in May and is being expanded. Who’s providing it?

In what appears to be a first in Northeast Ohio, which school district has decided to arm some of its staff?

Let’s talk about another schools story. Ohio joins a list of states offering certain products for free to students. What are the products?

We’ve talked a good bit about the surprisingly high turnout in early voting for Issue 1 on the Aug. 8 ballot. And we set out to learn about some of the elections workers who are making early voting to easy. Who are they and why do they do it?

Our very own Hayden Grove, a social media specialist handling sports, has a sidelight as a Sinatra-style crooner. And a whole lot of people got to hear him this week. Where did Hayden do his singing Wednesday?

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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’ve got an interesting mishmash of politics and crime, although I guess anytime you talk about politics these days, there’s a crime. It’s today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the plane dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Lisa Garvin, Alila Tassi, and Laura Johnston. And we’re gonna start with.

The politics side, or maybe it’s also a crime, is Ohio Secretary of State, Frank LaRose illegally running a de facto campaign for the US Senate without disclosing how it’s being funded. Lisa, interesting allegation.

[00:00:34] Lisa: It is, and it comes from Ralph King, who is a Cleveland area Republican activist. He filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission back on July 17th, which was the very same day that LaRose announced his US Senate run after months of speculation.

Um, he said that the leadership of Ohio Fund, L L C Pac has been raising, he’s been raising money for that PAC since it was established in [00:01:00] March in LaRose. Raised about a $1 million for that pac, which has funded polling for LaRose and other G O P Senate candidates since at least June. But here’s the situation.

King says LaRose has been acting as a candidate since the beginning of the year, and he’s thumbing his nose at the process. So potential candidates that are testing the waters are allowed to do certain things, are allowed to conduct polling and do other activities without filing. Regular disclosure statement reports and so LaRose announced his Senate bid after other candidates had already filed their campaign expense reports for the second quarter of this year.

So his first disclosure for the campaign will not occur until, October. So official candidates are subject to contribution limits of $3,300 per donor. They can only raise that much for supportive outside groups like this Ohio Leadership Fund pac. So, um, the statement that when he ran, when [00:02:00] LaRose said he raised that million dollars for this group, he king feels that that’s broken, that rule.

[00:02:06] Chris: It’s amazing to me how many people I’ve talked to recently who, who feel like Frank LaRose is a completely different person than the Frank LaRose they knew. Mm-hmm. Six, seven years ago. He’s just in all kinds of trouble. Suddenly he, he’s got this going on. He’s got. All of his issue, one stuff where the other candidates for Senate are, are attacking him for not doing his job as Secretary of State because he’s so busy campaigning.

And then he did something he’s never done before. He endorsed Donald Trump this week. What’s that

[00:02:37] Lisa: about? I mean, I, I, I, I, I don’t know craven politics. I, I really don’t know. I mean, obviously he’s courting that base and maybe he thinks, but I would think because it looks like Trump, if he endorses in this race, it looks like he’s leaning towards Cleveland businessman.

Bernie Moreno has been, who’s been slavishly, you know, [00:03:00] devoted to Trump and has been openly seeking that. So I think this is maybe just a. Just a desperate move, quite frankly.

[00:03:08] Chris: But, but he’s got a lot to contend with now. You know, he, he, he is very busy campaigning for issue one, rather than being Secretary of State.

He did go to New Jersey to have dinner with Trump and endorse Trump when he’s weeks away from this special election. And, and now this is a pretty serious allegation that he’s not even. Operating properly as a Senate candidate, and it just sets him up for criticism. Bernie Moreno will attack him for being, for being a failure if issue one goes down that he champion this thing, and Bernie’s already come out and said he’s pushing it as the.

The, the abortion issue when he should be saying this is about protecting the constitution, which Bernie, that’s just completely false. It’s not about protecting the constitution and

[00:03:54] Lisa: LaRose did, uh, you know, uh, respond to King’s, uh, file with the F e c? He said [00:04:00] that he has been following the law all along for candidate’s testing the waters.

He calls that complaint a silly political. Will stunt that he expects to see more of on the campaign trail. And he says that they carefully followed the rules. But you know, federal candidates who raise or spend more than $5,000 have to file an official campaign paperwork, the F E C, and that includes, Regular campaign finance reports and that really bothers me.

So we’re not gonna know anything about his campaign in for several months.

[00:04:30] Chris: And look, maybe what he really wants is name recognition and so he doesn’t care how he gets it. Bad name recognition is as good as good name recognition, and he wants people to know the name of Frank LaRose, if that’s his goal. He has certainly been successful.

We’ve talked about him a good bit. You’re listening to today in Ohio. Who is the latest Biden administration official to get roasted in the circus? That is the House Judiciary Committee with Jim Jordan as the ringleader. Layla.

[00:04:58] Leila: Well, it’s Homeland [00:05:00] Security Secretary Alejandra Mayorkas. Jim Jordan said during this hearing, Record numbers of people entering the country illegally.

Terrorists and fentanyl have crossed the southwest border during President Joe Biden’s, two and a half year administration. And the influx of immigrants has just overwhelmed border communities. And the Republicans repeatedly said that the nation’s border control policies facilitate fentanyl trafficking, and they said that’s a direct result of mayor’s dereliction.

One Republican literally said, When people die of fentanyl poisoning, it’s your fault. And they told him he should be impeached if he doesn’t resign first. The Democrats defended me orcas by pointing out that the Biden administration has deported over two and a half million people in the last two years.

That’s nearly as many people as President Obama deported in his entire eight years in office, and they said that border apprehension numbers are. Down 70% of what they were just 10 weeks ago. And importantly, they said the drug trafficking problem is largely [00:06:00] because of US citizens bringing it into the country, not immigrants, and that it’s coming in through official ports of entry.

88% of those arrested for fentanyl trafficking are US citizens and Myorca denied claims that the border’s open. But he said that the immigration system has been broken forever and that they’re working to manage it. Securely and humanely.

[00:06:21] Chris: I, I don’t think most of America pays attention to this ‘cause it’s kind of nonsense.

It’s just Jim Jordan firing in every direction. But maybe his goal is just like Frank LaRose might be name recognition. Maybe Jordan is just trying to appear on Fox News and the other conservative stations ‘cause. I’m sure they roll with this. ‘cause I get emails the next day, you know, from people thinking it’s the biggest scandal in the world and it’s being covered up by the liberal media.

But maybe, maybe it’s the soundbites, maybe because Fox News will always run this stuff. Like it’s significant. That’s what the goal is.

[00:06:57] Leila: That probably is true. I do wonder, you [00:07:00] know, how, how, what should our approach be to covering this? You know, we’ve, we’ve set policies in the past where we give less oxygen to, to, uh, fires like this.

And I I wonder, should we be letting Jim Jordan suck up these headlines like this? Hmm.

[00:07:15] Chris: Well, I think in, in the way we cover it, It, it gives you the idea that he’s an out of control shooting in all directions kind of guy. It’s, our stories are very even and, and, and show it to. It’s a circus. I mean, we we’re showing it to be the circus.

He is an Ohio Congressman. I. That is pulling in one administration official after another into an official hearing of Congress, you know, to stand in the three rings and have everybody run around and make noise. So I also

[00:07:45] Leila: really appreciated the way Sabrina Eden set up the story. She subordinated the nonsense.

I. To, to the rest of it. I mean, she really buried some of the stuff that is, uh, completely ridiculous. And I, I noted that as I was reading it. I was [00:08:00] like, well done, Sabrina.

[00:08:01] Chris: Yeah. I mean, this is how you handled this. That’s, that’s what we did. And we’re not talking about it today, but, but Andrew Tobias covered the city club debate.

Yesterday over issue one, which it’s a ridiculous to call it a debate ‘cause there is no argument in favor of issue one. It’s just nonsense that Frank Esto was out there and Andrew covered it exactly that way. This is the context of this discussion. So as you read it, you realize there is no argument.

This is. This is just a stupid idea that the mm-hmm. That some people are using to mass power and stop abortion from being legalized. Um, it, it takes skillful writing like Sabrinas and Andrews to put this together in a way that the readers can see what the truth is because mm-hmm. The, the way Fox News and others will cover this, it’s just propaganda.

You’re listening to today in Ohio. We got one more politics story in Ohio, who is an early candidate for governor in a campaign that is still three years

away.

[00:08:57] Laura: Laura, Dave Yoss. I don’t [00:09:00] know that anyone was really surprised by this, but State Attorney General, Dave Yost updated his state political organization marking on a.

Form that he filled with the Secretary of State’s office, that he’s now running for governor and a spokeswoman confirmed that, that he’s preparing to run for governor in 2026. That’s when Mike DeWine is barred by term limits from running for elect reelection. Obviously, we know John Hu’s been waiting in the wings for the past five years waiting to run, so he had little to say about that move at the when, when he arrived at the Ohio State Fair to open that up.

[00:09:36] Chris: I look a Yost Houston battle will be interesting. They’re very different candidates. Mm-hmm. They have very different backgrounds and Yost is very smart, so I, this could be interesting. What also is interesting is not a single Democrat on the horizon. The Ohio’s democratic bench remains. Empty. It’s bog mind boggling how, how little we [00:10:00] have going in the thing Ohio for the, for an opposition party.

[00:10:04] Laura: The thing is the DeWine race, I mean, we had, there were two legitimate democratic candidates in, you know, former mayors of Cincinnati and Dayton, and like that was the most legit democratic candidate I can remember for governor in a long time. And it’s still, the race wasn’t even close and it wasn’t much of a race.

[00:10:24] Chris: But the reason is that that uei didn’t run a real campaign. Yeah. To win in Ohio, you have to have party operations in every single county. Mm-hmm. You’re not gonna win rural counties as a Democrat, but you can win more votes than you might otherwise. If you have an organization and really didn’t, she had plenty of stuff to lie before one.

Yeah. Abortion for one. Well, yeah, abortion was right off the bat. Um, you, you had all the pain DeWine caused with the unemployment office. Mastering gerrymandering you had. Right. He refused to, to obey the Supreme Court. [00:11:00] You had all, remember all those old people that wanted the vaccine and Mike Dewey’s website.

Was useless

[00:11:07] Laura: for them. The one we paid millions of dollars so you could easily find where there’s vaccine available,

[00:11:12] Chris: right? There was so much she could do, she didn’t do any of it, and then she had no party operation. And until that comes back, until you have a sensible person that understands the Obama method of mobilizing people that believe in you, it’s not gonna happen.

I mean, and we have an example. And next door that Gretchen Whitmer, she knows exactly how to do it. If somebody would just follow that, they could do it, but I don’t, I don’t have any idea who the Democratic candidate will be.

[00:11:41] Lisa: I wonder if Tim Ryan will resurface as a gubernatorial candidate.

[00:11:45] Chris: I. Boy, it’d be tough though ‘cause he’s out now campaigning for what?

Coal or something. Oh, is he? Yeah. What is the job he has that went

[00:11:53] Lisa: completely in

[00:11:54] Laura: the opposite? It was random. I don’t remember what it was. It just was like, huh?

[00:11:59] Leila: It’s like [00:12:00] natural gas or, yeah. Yeah.

[00:12:01] Chris: It was bizarre. A bizarre turn for him. Yeah, I mean, I just don’t, I don’t see it. So I, and look, Sharon Brown is up next year, um, and he knows how to, to galvanize people, so maybe a candidate can piggyback off of what he does.

We’ll have to wait and see. You’re listening to today in Ohio, and let’s talk some crime. First up, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s office released a disturbing video of teenagers beating someone severely firing off guns after arriving in a gas station in a bunch of stolen cars. Lisa, what is this about?

[00:12:36] Lisa: Yeah, this was, they wanted to use this video as an object lesson as to, you know, what’s going on and. You know, although the answers about what they’re gonna do about it are a bit lacking. But anyway, um, there was a Tuesday sh beating and shootout. It was about 12:40 AM at the Shell Gas station at East hundred 40th and St.

Clair. So 12 teenagers, including a 12 year old girl, were arrested [00:13:00] and faced several charges, including felonious, assault and receiving. Stolen property. Four of them arrested, have pending juvenile court cases. Three of those four had previous arrests for stolen cars, and another four of those arrested had previous similar convictions.

So, um, Connie Prosecutor Michael O’Malley, uh, Cleveland Police Chief Wayne Drummond and Mayor Bibb released this video during a news conference yesterday. It’s quite, and it’s annotated actually. It shows the suspects rolling up in three stolen Hyundai and Kia cars that were stolen from Tremont and University Circle, and then some of them approached a 34 year old man who was just sitting on the.

The ground outside the store, they just began punching him for no reason. Um, one pulled out an AR 15, put it on the ground, another one picked it up and used the rifle butt to hit the victim. The victim went inside the store and things seemed to stop at that point, but then the teens remained in the parking lot and then for really no reason at all, they started firing [00:14:00] their guns and fired off several rounds, unsure what they were shooting at.

And O’Malley says, this is just proof pos positive that. Lack of theft proofing in Hyundai and Kia. Cars and weakened gun laws have allowed criminals to wreak havoc. Um, he also said that the Juvenile Defen Detention Center currently holds 160. I don’t wanna say inmates, but people charged with high level violent crimes and he says they don’t have the staff to hold anymore.

[00:14:31] Chris: Well, some of these they arrested have been charged with stealing those cars before. Mm-hmm. And, and what a mix. Right. Any kid who wants one can have, have their own car. To roll anywhere they want. Guns are everywhere, and so it’s just wreaking havoc. I was disappointed that the police chief described them as animalistic because that just hardens the edges.

I mean, we’ve gotta somehow get to these kids to, to help them understand you. This is not acceptable [00:15:00] behavior, and if you start calling them things like animals, I, I just don’t. I don’t think you’re gonna open that line of communication.

[00:15:08] Lisa: Oh, and Drummond stood behind his characterization of that. You know, he says, look at that video, he says, to attack a man doing absolutely nothing is animalistic behavior.

And it’s unacceptable. Look, it’s

[00:15:19] Chris: brutal. It’s, it’s hard to watch. They beat him and beat him and kick him, and I mean, it, it’s just, it’s a terrible thing. But what’s going on? What would drive a band of young kids to that kind of just pointless violence and it’s endangering the whole city. This is a bad thing.

Key and Hyundai really have some explaining to do why on Earth they have not recalled every one of these cars and fixed it. They’re causing all this and I, they’re gonna lose. Billions probably before all the lawsuits are over because of what they’ve done. You’re listening to today in Ohio, that video brought three elected city officials to the press conference to [00:16:00] talk about how out of control crime is Leyla.

What did they say?

[00:16:04] Leila: Well, prosecutor Mike O’Malley was there with Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and his police Chief Wayne Drummond and two city councilmen, Mike Ensc and Anthony Ton were there, and they all echoed this concern about the unprecedented level of violence we’re seeing among Cleveland youth.

Citywide homicides are up 27% compared to this time last year, and shootings are up more than 10%, and O’Malley said that kids are driving those statistical spikes. Murders committed by children this year are currently at 23, and that’s the same level as for all of 2021. Now, chief Drummond insisted during the press conference that the rising crime is not related to the fact that the police force is painfully understaffed, their short 250 officers from what is budgeted and after the press conference, Mike Ens said Drummond is full of crap.

He actually said it more harshly than that. In fact, he said, [00:17:00] anyone thinking there’s no correlation between police visibility and rising crime is living in dreamland, but the officials offered up some of their theories on, on what’s going on here. Bibb talked about how easy it is to steal Kias and Hyundais.

And, and often crime sprees are beginning with stolen cars. O’Malley talked about how Republican lawmakers have turned Ohio into a shooting range basically with, with its liberalized gun laws. And Drummond talked about the role that parents play in the problem, but the consensus was that something’s gotta give because residents who can flee have said they will.

[00:17:35] Chris: Remember when the big concern was just the dirt bikers that would ride all over the roads? Mm-hmm. I mean, right. That, that seems so tame and, and mild by comparison. This is the, the way the kids in that video fired the guns in all directions, including the, the, the long gun. It’s just, I, I’m amazed nobody got hurt.

It’s, uh, it’s one of those where you could have had all sorts of people die, and I, you [00:18:00] sense the frustration, you know, Mike Ensc, just a couple weeks ago, people pulled up and stolen cars at a basketball court in his ward, get out and they start firing guns. The guys on the basketball court fired back.

They killed somebody in one of the cars. There were, there were. Shell casings all over the basketball court afterwards, and, and he has to go up there and talk to the residents. There’s houses all around. I mean, these bullets are flying in residential areas. Mm-hmm. It’s very

[00:18:26] Leila: frightening. It, it is hard to believe that a stronger police presence wouldn’t affect this problem.

But at the, on the other hand, you know, Drummond pointed out, and, and I can see what he’s saying here, that that shootout that happened or the, the mass shooting that happened downtown recently. Happened at a time and place that where police were heavily patrolling. So police presence isn’t necessarily dissuading the violence.

So what’s the

[00:18:53] Chris: answer? I don’t know. I do think if you have patrol cars in much more visibility in the neighborhoods, [00:19:00] bans of, of kids like this will will be easier to detect. I mean, come on. They pull up. I think, Lisa, you said three. I thought there were four, but it’s a bunch of cars, you know? Mm-hmm.

Clearly if, if you’re a cop now and you see kids, young kids in a key or a Hyundai, that’s probable cause that the car’s stolen. So I, I not having the police presence, they’re just running wild. And so,

[00:19:23] Leila: okay, but what do you do with the kids? Yeah, it

[00:19:25] Laura: is mind boggling. I mean, we’re talking about a 12 year old here, like, right?

Like what? It’s not just police, like this is schools, this is everything. How are these kids so bad already? And I know we talk, we’re we’re gonna. Look into this, but it is unbelievable and so depressing that this, that these kids are this hardened by this age. Mm-hmm.

[00:19:49] Leila: I mean, what are you gonna do with them?

It’s, it’s so, I, I mean, the police, police presences, sure. It could dis, it could keep, it would push the problem elsewhere. That’s what it is. It doesn’t [00:20:00] address the underlying,

[00:20:01] Chris: you’re right. No, it’s issue. Right. What, what is it that is driving these kids to behave in this completely unacceptable. Way. And how as a society do you stop that.

You know? I mean, and if, if I put this out on our website, I’d get 5,000 emails from people saying it’s the parent’s fault. It’s the parent’s fault. But it’s always the parent’s fault. Yeah. But that, but okay, but you, you can’t fix that. So I do understand. But

[00:20:25] Leila: ma I mean, family is, family’s then need more support, right?

Yeah. It’s, it’s poverty. It’s, it’s the pressure of of, I mean,

[00:20:32] Laura: it’s right. They feel, I mean, if you had a future mapped out and you. Believe in that you’re not gonna be getting into trouble. They obviously see no, no future for themselves.

[00:20:44] Chris: Okay, you’re listening to today in Ohio, the understaffed Cleveland police are finally getting some help from elsewhere.

Turns out the help arrived in May and is being expanded or who’s providing it?

[00:20:55] Laura: It’s the Ohio State Highway Patrol. So since May troopers have worked to [00:21:00] enforce traffic laws and reduce crashes in the city, I, I personally haven’t seen. Any highway patrolman out. But then again, I, I guess I don’t drive in all of Cleveland.

The agency’s gonna continue working with the department through August. I mean, I, I’d have to hope that if things don’t get better, they keep going because they’re gonna go beyond traffic enforcement and they’re gonna work criminal cases. They didn’t provide any details though on the duties and the operations that they’re going to.

Aiden and Mike ic, the councilman we were just talking about, he said he recently spoke to Governor Dee’s office regarding help from the patrol. He thinks that presence is going to have a major impact in Cleveland, and he said law enforcement starts with traffic enforcement and that’s where you’re gonna get the guns, the catch contraband, and the outstanding warrants.

Yeah,

[00:21:43] Chris: I, I’ve been all over Cleveland and I haven’t seen a single highway patrol officer. This does raise a question that I think we’re gonna be addressing in a story this weekend. The, the state has been useless really in helping the cities com combat this, this horrible trend. I mean, east [00:22:00] Palestine had a train wreck where nobody died.

Mm-hmm. And Mike DeWine has been there, what, three times. And they have funneled money into this by the boatload and put out press releases regularly. Cleveland. We got people dying. Kids dying, kids shooting. It’s a crisis that I, I’ve never seen before, and it’s been crickets, really, from Mike DeWine. I mean, he’s supposed to represent the whole state.

Mm-hmm. Not just the rural areas. This is a crisis that’s happening here. It’s in Columbus, it’s elsewhere. Where the hell are they? I mean, I don’t know if the, the highway patrol is enough. Should you have the National Guard come in and help patrol the streets? Something’s gotta be done. And he hasn’t paid a bit of attention.

He hasn’t said a word about it despite, you know, all of his East Palestine antics.

[00:22:49] Laura: Well, it’s a good, the each Palestine people went to the State House and complained loudly, actually got thrown out that they weren’t having enough done for them. Even though I feel like there’s been a huge amount of attention.

I, [00:23:00] I agree. I guess, you know, the people who are throwing their lives away and shootings and, and like, you know, just giving up. They’re not going to the State House asking for help. Maybe that’s the difference. But, but, but it does feel like an urban, you know, I’m gonna ignore this.

[00:23:14] Chris: You really, you have to have people go and point out you.

No, don’t. When the people, people are dying in the state that, that we got kids getting mowed down and committing murder. This, the city feels like it’s being terrorized and the governor of the state doesn’t seem to care. That’s, that’s the point. I mean, he should be treating this like the crisis. It is, and there’s nothing and that.

Right. That’s, we’ll be examining this this weekend and hopefully we’ll get some more answers. You’re listening to today in Ohio. Alright, Lisa. It appears to be a first in northeast Ohio, which school district had decided to arm its

[00:23:46] Lisa: staff? The Parma Board of Education passed a resolution last week to authorize certain staff members to carry guns on school grounds.

They’re acting on the recommendations by an out. Side security consultant. So current [00:24:00] school security staff that are not school resource officers are currently not armed at Parma schools. Uh, the Board of Education President Steve Vaughn, says that they really need to be, and he says that they will undergo extensive training with, uh, Parma Police Department first, and they do have.

School resources officers at their three high schools and two middle schools. Now, these are armed police officers, but they really feel like they need more security. Now, this resolution does apply to all staff, including teachers, and when Vaughn was asked about arming teachers, he says he really doesn’t want them to be armed.

But he said, you know, but they, they can be, there can be others who can get trained, but he won’t say who. But he says if somebody wants to be armed, the. Board will review their request and sign off on it if they believe it’s warranted. He says, we have to look at every tool possible to harden our schools against violence.

[00:24:57] Chris: I’m glad I don’t have kids in schools today. Really. This would [00:25:00] make me nervous. I mean, Laura, Layla, you do have kids in schools. What would you think if your district started doing this?

[00:25:07] Laura: I, I am a hundred percent against it. I don’t want anybody, I mean, we do have school resource officers or police officers.

I, I assume they have guns, but, uh, actually we have a story coming up for the weekend. Jake Zuckerman went to something where Mike DeWine was, was talking about guns, I think, and rather than deal with the problem of guns getting to school, he said it’s, it’s just weird how. The response is all these school safety measures.

So places, businesses are selling things, you know, to put more guns in schools and it’s like biting guns with guns and you just end up with a proliferation of guns, which we just

[00:25:45] Chris: talked about, right? Which we’re talking, we’ve been talking about the result of that. It’s just, let’s everybody’ll have a gun.

That’s what we’re gonna be a society where everybody has a gun. Just, it’s a frightening thing. And what message does that send to the students of. You’re listening to [00:26:00] today in Ohio. Let’s talk about another school story. Ohio joins a list of states offering certain products for free to students. What are the products, Layla, and what famous Northeast Ohioan is behind this measure?

[00:26:13] Leila: You know, I had to do a double take at this story because I couldn’t believe our dysfunctional legislature could get it together enough to do something that actually. Improves the lives of Ohioans, but here it is, Ohio girls in grade six through 12 will get free feminine hygiene products at school.

Thanks to this provision in the the new two year state budget, the state’s gonna spend 5 million on this initiative over the next two years, which will go toward purchasing sanitary pads, tampons, and other menstruation products. This, this was actually a bipartisan effort backed by state senators Nikki Antonio, a liquid Democrat.

And Senate minority leader and, and, um, and, and Stephanie Kunze, a, a Columbus area re Republican. About $2 million in funding will be distributed to help each school district, charter [00:27:00] school and charter non-public school, which includes most Catholic schools, and they’ll. Purchase dispensers for products with, with that money.

And then an additional 3 million will go toward reimbursing schools for the feminine hygiene products that they buy. And schools are expected to have products available in bathrooms by October

[00:27:18] Chris: 1st. I, I just thought it was cool that our favorite former federal prosecutor and Roland was behind this effort.

She worked, I know she worked. Put together a bipartisan kind of approach, which is, like you said, nearly impossible to do an absolute good. So way to go Anne Roland. I, yeah. And it came

[00:27:36] Leila: out of a discussion about what can we do to improve the lives of, of girls in this state. I mean, that, that’s, that’s how it should be done.

Right. Conversations like that. And, you know, I just wanna say, You know, this may seem like a small thing, but the importance can’t really be underestimated. I mean, food stamps don’t cover non-food, non-food essentials, like feminine hygiene products. So, you know, no federal or state program [00:28:00] does. So many, many girls in poverty will skip school.

I. During their period because they don’t have what they need and they feel very unclean. Wow. Many school districts have tried to supply these products and teachers often buy them with their own money and keep them on hand for their students. But I did a column on this, uh, a couple years ago because, um, you know, I’d gotten a letter from, uh, Ron Soter, who used to head up the Boys and Girls Club, telling me about this heartbreaking conversation he had with a girl who came to him asking for $20 to buy these products so that she could go to school.

And I’m just this, this is terrific. Yeah, this is terrific.

[00:28:34] Chris: Applause. Good, good news story in a sea of bad news stories you’re listening to today in Ohio. We’ve talked a good bit about the surprisingly high turnout in early voting for issue one on the August 8th ballot, and we set out to learn about some of the election workers who were making early voting.

So easy. This is another good news story, Laura. Who are they and why do they

[00:28:55] Laura: do it? Yeah, this is a small army of election workers who stand ready to [00:29:00] process your ballots all day at the Board of Elections. And we get more of them between 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM which is the prime time that people are voting early.

So they have about a dozen staffers remaining 22 counters all day, and. It’s a real range of people who are doing this job. College students, retirees, people who just believe in the importance of voting. Uh, and, and they just, they wanna make it easy for people. It seems like everybody has something nice to say about them, that they are smiling and friendly.

They have some chit chat. If you bring your kids, they have stickers and a ballot where you can vote for your. Favorite Disney character. So hats off to these people who are making the August election in, you know, the middle of summer. Really easy for people to get in and get out and vote early.

[00:29:45] Chris: Yeah, they’re very cheerful, easy to deal with, and and efficient in getting you out.

You listen to today in Ohio, we got one more. Our very own Hayden Grove, a social media specialist that handles sports, has a sidelight. As a Sinatra [00:30:00] style crooner, and he might have had his biggest crowd yesterday to hear him sing. Laura, where did he sing and what did he sing? He

[00:30:08] Laura: sang the national anthem at Progressive Field to open up the Guardian’s Day game, and he, he just was so happy to do it.

Like if you ever talk to Hayden, he’s like, A super positive person and he told Josh Duke, one of our social media folks, that he has two dream jobs working for cleveland.com as a social media producer and sports reporter, and then, Developing his career as a, as a singer, and he sings all over northeast Ohio.

I, I know, like he’s been at Crocker Park for tree lightings before and, and community events. So he got to combine these two passions, sports and singing at the Guardians game. And, uh, got to do it and, and have cleveland.com staffers there too. I think we had four. Like staffers at the game who are just watching the game and on top of all the people covering the game too.

[00:30:56] Chris: Yeah. Very cool. You, uh, Hayden actually has a, a [00:31:00] Christmas album that you can get on iTunes. He really has a magnificent voice and at Christmas time he is gone into nursing homes to, to sing for them too. He’s just a wonderful guy who loves to sing. That’s it for the Thursday episode of today in Ohio.

Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Layla. Thanks Laura. Thank you for listening. We got one more day Friday. We will wrap up the week of news.