CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland Browns have released their own study, claiming that a $1.2 billion public subsidy to build a domed stadium in Brook Park would generate at least that much in economic activity for Northeast Ohio annually.

We’re talking about the study’s biased findings, 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.

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Here‘s what we’re asking about today:

In what has to be the most tone-deaf endeavor in the history of impoverished Cleveland, the Haslams continue trying to get a gigantic sum of tax dollars for their fantasy of a domed stadium in Brook Park. What’s their latest tired tactic in the timeworn stadium playbook to try to convince people this bad idea is a good one?

How does the Ohio House want to increase the penalty for students who write threatening social media posts or other frightening items?

This year is the 100th version of the holiday lighting display at Nela Park in East Cleveland, and we’ve put together the definitive story on how this originated back in the days before Christmas lights even existed. What’s the story?

Uh oh. We have a sudden and kind of dramatic increase in Covid cases after the Thanksgiving travel. What are the numbers, and can we take some solace in comparisons to last year?

Seems like we talk about a story like this almost every week. What’s the latest bounty of unemployment fraud that investigators attribute to a contract worker hired during the pandemic crunch to help people get their benefits?

Is the best defense an offense? Millennia, the owner of iconic buildings in downtown Cleveland and run-down subsidized housing everywhere, is under HUD investigation, with the president’s greater Cleveland home being raided recently. What unusual step did Millennia take in response Thursday?

Is Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine claiming the state’s new cell phone policy for schools is already a success?

The filming of the new Superman movie in downtown Cleveland over the summer had everyone talking. Are there signs we are close to seeing some of the official footage?

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

Chris Quinn (00:00.771)

Laura Johnston was so disappointed. She wouldn’t be here this morning because she wanted to talk about the fantasy that the Haslam have of a gigantically expensive dome stadium that we pay for, but we’ll be talking about it in her absence. It’s Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Rick Ruon standing in for Laura, Lisa Garvin and Leila Tasi. Leila, let’s go straight to it.

And what has to be the most tone deaf endeavor in the history of impoverished Cleveland? The Haslums continue trying to get a gigantic sum of tax dollars for their fantasy of a dome stadium in Brook Park. What’s their latest very tired tactic in the time-worn stadium playbook to try to convince people this bad idea is a good one.

Leila (00:49.871)

Well, this week, the Browns released an economic impact study that claims that a domed stadium could attract up to one and a half million visitors each year, which is double what the current Lakefront Stadium draws. And they argue that this would generate one point two billion dollars in annual economic impact for the region. And it’s funny how that’s exactly the amount of money that they want taxpayers to kick in for this project. Right. But critics, including county executive Chris Renane, are

I don’t know, skeptical to say the least. They’re calling the study biased and questioning its optimistic projections. Here’s the quote, know, Ronane said that, biased report attempting to justify an unprecedented sum of taxpayer money for a new stadium does not change our position and we’re going to have to throw a flag on the play. Love the pun. And that’s actually one of your favorite, one of your favorite lines on this podcast. But meanwhile, go ahead. I’m sorry, Chris.

Chris Quinn (01:42.637)

Well, I’m right, because… Go ahead. Go ahead.

Leila (01:47.569)

I was just going to say Cleveland mayor Justin Bibb released his own study recently and in it, you know, he warns that that moving the stadium out of downtown could harm the city’s economy and art. He argues that there’s not enough demand for that project. And the Browns claim instead that a dome stadium would benefit the entire region, even outside Brook Park, by drawing events like Taylor Swift concerts at WWE matches and college sports tournaments.

But the Browns point to cities like Indianapolis and Detroit as examples of Dome Stadium success. But frankly, the events that they envision for the new Dome Stadium in Brook Park, like these major concerts and monster truck shows and expos, they’re already hosted at existing local venues like Rock and Mortgage Fieldhouse and the IAC Center. So the concern is that instead of creating new economic activity, Brook Park Stadium will just pull the events away from existing venues that

taxpayers have already invested in and they just don’t have good answers for those very clear points that Courtney raised with them.

Chris Quinn (02:48.833)

No, they’re pathetic. This is another pathetic example. We did the story that shows that every time somebody promises a stadium is going to have economic impact, it doesn’t prove out. We’ve done it. We’ve looked at it. It’s nonsense. We’ve done the story that shows the number of performers that can fill a dome are few and far between. There just aren’t that many of them. So it’s not like there’s dozens of them and they don’t come to Cleveland. There aren’t that many. There aren’t that many Taylor Swift and she’s

wrapping up a tour and it’s not gonna be on the road for a while. What amazes me about this is, this is Charlie Brown and the football, right? The sports team’s owners, the billionaires that have wealth beyond anybody’s imagination, repeatedly come to the public and say, this is good for you, it’s a great economic development thing. We go running up to kick the football and the truth comes out, the football gets pulled away and there is very little economic result.

Leila (03:43.985)

Alright.

Chris Quinn (03:44.653)

I don’t think people are buying it now. Charlie Brown has finally wisen up. And this is nonsense. This is a tired playbook that’s not going to work. I think people have reached the point of we’re fed up with billionaires soaking us for our limited tax dollars so they can make more money while they tell us it’s good for us. This study is nonsense. You can’t believe it. It’s nonsense.

and yet they’re going to take it to Columbus and show it to Matt Huffman and say, see, we could make a lot of money here. I hope. I’m so glad to see Chris Renne throwing down the gauntlet saying, absolutely not. This far and no farther. Justin Bibb has done the same thing. No way, no how, not going to happen. And the state should say the same thing. If the Haslams think this is such a valuable commodity, build it yourself and reap the benefits yourself. There’s 1.2 billion in benefits.

Go ahead, build it. You’ll collect that 1.2 billion, but that’s not what they’re doing. They’re trying to rob us of limited tax dollars. Remember too, this is the week where both the city and county governments had to borrow money, 40 million roughly, to pay for existing stadiums for bills they didn’t know were coming.

Leila (04:58.485)

Right. mean, they’re asking for so much money. They haven’t shared a single detail on how they would accomplish this plan or where this money would be coming from. I why should the public trust this when so many critical details remain hidden from view? With the county refusing to contribute and state lawmakers hesitant, why keep pushing a plan anyway that clearly lacks widespread support? What alternative funding strategies are they prepared to seek?

I mean, the bottom line for me remains that this is not the best use of public funds. Not only is their analysis of the economic benefits full of crap, but also those dollars could and should go toward higher priority needs in the state, like affordable housing or workforce development. I what are we doing even talking about this?

Chris Quinn (05:45.967)

Look, basically we’re saying instead of removing lead paint from homes in Cleveland that’s poisoning kids and destroying their future and wrecking the economy, we should give it to billionaires so that they can make more money by charging people $150 to park in a remote lot. They are so tone deaf to the city that they have moved to, they should just get out of here. I mean, they’ve been here for a decade, they don’t understand the economics of this place, and they just keep coming.

They just keep coming. They’re going to Chris Renne. We want your money. We want your money. We want your money. Look at this. Look at this. And it’s all this bright, shiny nonsense when there is no money. There isn’t one point two billion to give to the billionaire owners of the Browns. They have billions of dollars. They have tons of money that they could spend to build it themselves. And they won’t. You know why? Because stadiums are profitable enterprises. Nobody wants to own them because they’re money losers and they require a huge amount of upkeep.

Leila (06:23.888)

Mm-hmm.

Chris Quinn (06:43.533)

This is sleazy beyond words and we’re calling it out. Throwing the flag, the haslums. They’re so unimaginative. You would think they would come up with a new argument, but they keep going to the old playbook and we’re not buying it. It’s false.

Leila (06:53.263)

Right.

I hope that the public sees through this study. I privately commissioned studies like this often overestimate economic benefit and downplay the risks to the taxpayers. I really hope the public sees it for what it is. It’s so flawed. I mean, they’ve cited cities like Indianapolis and Detroit as examples of domed stadium success, but those cities have larger regional populations and existing reputations as major event hubs.

I mean, how can Cleveland realistically expect to compete when we lack comparable demographic or logistical advantages? This is, you know, I hope that this doesn’t, you know, just bamboozle the public.

Chris Quinn (07:36.429)

I don’t think it will. From the people I hear from, they’re enraged at this ask. They see the Haslums as completely out of touch. They want them to sell the team because they just don’t believe they have the best interest of Northeast Ohio at heart. It’s only about them and making more money off that team. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. How does the Ohio House want to increase the penalty for students who write threatening social media posts or other frightening items, Rick?

Rick Rouan (08:06.418)

Well, they want to give schools the chance to suspend kids for up to a full school year for writing threatening manifestos, social media posts, hit lists, and other acts of what they call imminent and severe endangerment. So under Ohio law, they can already dish out year-long suspensions for kids who bring guns or knives to the building or make bomb threats. But a bill that passed in the Ohio House this week expands the offenses.

It would also allow suspensions of up to 180 days, which is roughly the equivalent of a full school year for students who commit acts that would be a criminal offense if they were an adult, as long as it results in serious physical harm to people or school property. The bill says that superintendents have to develop conditions to for reinstating students who have been suspended, including some sort of an assessment by a psychiatrist or a psychologist.

to determine if they pose a danger. So the proponents say the current system lacks the flexibility that school administrators need to be able to dish out these punishments, but opponents are fearful that it could be unfairly applied. They say research that black students are more likely to face suspensions than white students, for example. We’re not really sure yet if the bill has the momentum to get over the line in the final days of the General Assembly.

It would still need to run through the Senate in the next few weeks here and then go to the governor’s desk if it clears that hurdle.

Chris Quinn (09:37.632)

This doesn’t take discretion away, right? The decision would still be up to the local school officials whether to give as much as a year or not. It doesn’t make it automatic that if you write a social media threat, you’re out of school for a year.

Rick Rouan (09:48.168)

That’s right.

Yeah that’s right so it it’s up to a year and it’s essentially giving it’s maintaining the local control over exactly what that is but it’s putting the option on the table for them.

Chris Quinn (10:05.487)

That’s a tough one because kids are dopes, right? Going on social media to say, know, I hate my teacher, I wish my teacher were dead is stupid and requires addressing, but does that deserve the draconian step of losing a year of education? But on the other hand, we’ve seen that as the preamble to some real atrocities in schools. So having the counselors and the experts be able to make an assessment and meet out the

Rick Rouan (10:08.091)

Exactly.

Chris Quinn (10:35.501)

resulting penalties probably a good idea.

Lisa (10:38.062)

I think it’s time for the stick, quite honestly. I mean, there are kids that go phone in bomb threats because they don’t want to go to school. And that affects everybody. I mean, they need to realize that social media has consequences.

Chris Quinn (10:50.669)

Yeah, it’s just automatic one-year suspension if you do that would seem to be out of keeping. The whole reason we have juvenile court is so that experts will look at kids and figure out what’s the best way forward. If this were a mandated thing, it would be more concerning. giving the, I agree with you, Lisa, given the schools the tools to deal with this stuff definitively is a good idea. So you’re listening to Today in Ohio.

This is the 100th version of the holiday lighting display at Nilla Park in East Cleveland and we’ve put together the definitive story on how this originated back in the days before Christmas lights even existed. Lisa, what’s the story?

Lisa (11:31.854)

Yeah, so tonight at 530 the lights will go on for the 100th time in Neela Park for their Christmas display along Noble Road. Cleveland boxer and Olympian Morel Moe McCain will be throwing the switch and these lights of course are on 24-7 through January 6th.

So NELA stands for the National Electric Lamp Association, which was the original company that was later bought by Thomas Edison’s General Electric in 1911. It is the nation’s first industrial park. It was built that year on an old vineyard site and then GE moved to their 92 acre campus there in 1913. Their very first holiday display was 1924.

That was the same year they founded the Neela School of Lighting. At this point, less than 50 % of US homes had electricity and they were working on lighting products that were not yet in the marketplace. And actually the early days of the Neela displays were actually testing some of their new products. So like at one point they said they were using like car lamps to illuminate these cardboard cutouts and they were just testing to see how long these lamps would go.

and Debbie George, she’s a former Neela Park employee and she’s the outside contractor who designs the displays and also the National Christmas Tree in DC. She’s done that for the last 16 years and she said, know, employees later would compete for the best display using the new products that they had developed. And mini lights, the ones we know of Christmas lights today were developed in the 1920s and 30s at Neela Park.

Neela Park was closed to traffic in 1958. They used to let people drive through the campus to see the lights, but it got too crazy so they moved the displays closer to Noble Road in 1959. But my first year back in Cleveland, 2017, they opened the campus for the first time in 60 years. I sat in the line of cars for two hours waiting to get in and it was worth every minute of waiting.

Chris Quinn (13:34.135)

It is kind of surprising though that they started this lighting display before Christmas lights were even in existence. Christmas lights, I was surprised to see. They’d only been around a few decades before I showed up on the scene because you just take them for granted now and they’ve been using them there now for decades. But this began just as lighting up displays, like you said, with lights they were testing to see if they could last. So very cool story. Check it out, Paris.

Lisa (13:49.217)

Mm-hmm.

Chris Quinn (14:01.721)

Wolf did a wonderful job with it. It’s on cleveland.com. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Uh-oh, Leila, we have a sudden and kind of dramatic increase in COVID cases after the Thanksgiving travel weekend. What are the numbers and can we take some solace in comparisons to last year?

Leila (14:18.673)

Now the state reported 3,081 new cases this week. That’s up from 1,902 the week before. you know, while this, is a jump, it’s worth noting that this time last year, however, weekly cases were much higher, hovering around 8,000 as the holiday season fueled a surge in cases. Vaccination rates, however, continue to tick up with over a million Ohioans or about 8.4 % of the state’s population.

getting the updated COVID vaccine since its rollout in August. That’s an increase of about 29,000 people in the past week. Hospitalizations and deaths also saw slight increases, unfortunately. There were 119 new hospitalizations, seven new ICU admissions, and 18 additional deaths reported this week. Overall, COVID has claimed the lives of 44,500 Ohioans since the start of the pandemic in 2020.

So while the numbers are far from the peaks of years past, health officials continue to encourage vaccinations, of course, and staying mindful of precautions, especially with the holiday season in full swing now.

Chris Quinn (15:29.581)

It were less than three weeks from Christmas and the numbers are up. So it does make you a little worried if you’re planning to travel, especially airport and air travel, that you’ll have a greater chance of exposure to it. We hadn’t seen an increase like that in quite some time. They’re still low and compared to last year, really low, but that doesn’t mean they won’t rise. It was interesting to see that there’s been an uptick in vaccinations over the past year, which

Which is good because as we know they were politicized to the point that people weren’t getting them.

Leila (16:02.243)

Right, right. I mean, it’s still only about 8 % of the population here. I wish that, you know, there were creative ways to kind of communicate the importance of vaccines to the masses, especially as we navigate the season of gatherings and travel. I don’t know. It’s worth thinking about how we keep momentum and protecting ourselves and our communities even now, five years after the start of the pandemic, right?

Chris Quinn (16:23.119)

I’m vaccinated. think everybody on this podcast might be. So yeah, I’m serious about keeping me from spreading it. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. This seems like a story we talk about almost every week. What’s the latest bounty of unemployment fraud that investigators attribute to a contract worker hired during the pandemic crunch to help people get their benefits,

Leila (16:24.953)

Me too. Me too.

Rick Rouan (16:47.074)

You’re right, these cases are popping up pretty routinely now. So the latest inspector general’s report says that a contract worker improperly authorized about $1.2 million in pandemic unemployment assistance, including nearly $50,000 for herself. During the height of the pandemic closures, unemployment had skyrocketed. So Congress sent money to the states to boost benefits for those who were on the unemployment rolls, and the state was wholly unprepared for the explosion and claims.

They struggled to administer the new money and really their own money as well. And so they hired these contractors to help out. In 2021, the state dished out $7.6 billion in benefits. And since then it has identified millions of dollars in fraudulent claims. In this particular case, the IG says that one of the contract workers for Ransdad USA, which is a temp staffing agency,

Improperly approved dispersals to 34 people whose requests for aid had been on hold because they lacked required documents such as employment verification, ID verification, other eligibility documents. Investigators determined that many of them that this person approved were for family members or acquaintances in addition to herself. While the IG has referred the report to the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office, so far no charges have been filed.

Chris Quinn (18:12.333)

I’m amazed at how frequent we’re seeing these and they’re all for large amounts of money. And it just makes you think, is everybody dishonest? Is the only reason people don’t break the law is because they worry they’ll get caught? Whatever happened to people doing a job with integrity because that’s what you’re supposed to do. It just seems like anybody who got these jobs, it’s like, I see loopholes. I can cash out big time and they do.

Rick Rouan (18:38.718)

Well, mean, the numbers are in a vacuum big, I mean, relative to the billions of dollars that were dished out, you know, we’re talking about a minority of people. I don’t want to paint with a broad brush on the people who were dishing out the unemployment number or the unemployment checks. I mean, we have a one point two million dollar case here. I think there was a three million dollar case a few weeks back that we wrote about. So.

I mean, you’re right that there’s a lot of money kind of going out the door, relative to 7.6 billion, I’m not totally sure that it’s a huge, huge percentage, but in a vacuum, that’s a lot of money.

Chris Quinn (19:20.661)

Yeah, we’re working on a story that about how there there’s a certain level of federal prosecutor that won’t take a case that like this unless it has a gigantically high threshold. So there’s a whole lot of people that got away with this. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. It took forever for Akron to release a video of the police killing a 15 year old, but they finally did yesterday and it raises some disturbing questions. Lisa, what do we know?

Lisa (19:48.878)

So this incident took place Thanksgiving night in Akron. A 15-year-old, Jasmeer Tucker, was killed in an incident with Akron Police Department officers. There were two officers parked in a patrol car. They were doing work on another unrelated case and they heard gunshots nearby, so they went to investigate around East Avenue and Vernon-Odom Boulevard. They found Tucker with a loaded gun. One officer shot and killed him. He later died at the hospital.

Both officers are currently on paid administrative leave as is Akron PD’s policy. Body cam footage was released yesterday. They came from three body worn cameras and the dash cam, but there’s no sound for 30 seconds. But apparently after the sound did come on, the officers repeatedly yelled at Tucker to put his hands to his sides minutes after he was shot.

Mayor Shamus Malik in a statement released yesterday said the gun was recovered from Tucker’s zipped jacket pocket. And he had many questions, including why did the officers use a rifle and not a handgun? Why? And apparently the body cams are automatically turned on when they’re near a cruiser that has activated lights. He wonders why didn’t the police turn on the body cams themselves? So.

Apparently there’s no audio for 30 seconds on these videos. you know, go ahead.

Chris Quinn (21:08.429)

Yeah. Yeah. It, it makes no sense. I’ve watched it all and they’re just acting like it’s, it’s absolutely normal that the cameras come on, but the audio doesn’t start recording for 30 seconds. So you, you actually see the officer with the rifle who pulls the trigger. It’s all silent. So you don’t have any clue what he’s yelling to the kid, if anything before, and then the sound comes on after it is an interminable period.

where the multiple cops are going, suspect, put your arms to your side, suspect, suspect. And he’s down. They shot him and they don’t go up to him. Finally, in a mass group, they walk up, they handcuff him first, turn him over, unzip his jacket. They’re not tending to him at this point, even though he’s handcuffed, and find the gun with the big magazine in it inside his jacket. The one thing I will note is the officer who shot him

when the sound comes on, he’s telling the other officers the kid was reaching to his side, which is where the gun was. But the idea that there’s no audio with the video, that’s just stupid. It seems like that’s designed to cover stuff up. It just doesn’t make sense that as soon as that camera comes on, everything is recorded. And I would love to hear their excuse for taking forever to go tend to the kid after he’s shot.

Lisa (22:33.23)

Yeah. And you know, they said that apparently the 30 seconds of silence is because the video was buffering, but we really don’t know that. Mayor Shamus Malik is going to have a press conference today along with his police chief. Also Tucker’s family along with their lawyer are going to have a press conference today at 11 o’clock. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is looking into this incident.

Chris Quinn (22:41.348)

That’s

Chris Quinn (22:56.527)

Look, you turn on record on your iPhone, you don’t get 30 seconds of buffering a video before the audio comes on. That’s preposterous. This is supposed to be high tech equipment. I just don’t get why we’re not seeing or hearing what happened in the pre-seed. We know that the police were in their car, they heard shots and they went over. So they’re looking for somebody with a gun. They see him and apparently they’re trying to stop him and then they shoot him.

It’s a disturbing video that they released but I’m glad the mayor’s raising all the questions he’s raising because they do need to be answered But we’ll now have a long period before we know anything because the Attorney General will investigate, right?

You’re listening to Today in Ohio. the best defense and offense? Millennia, the owner of iconic buildings in downtown Cleveland and rundown subsidized housing everywhere, is under HUD investigation with the president’s Greater Cleveland home being raided recently. Lela, what unusual step did Millennia take in response on Thursday?

Leila (23:59.995)

Well, the company has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, challenging its process for imposing civil penalties, which Millennia says is unconstitutional. is seeking $7 million in penalties stemming from accusations that Millennia misused $4.9 million in subsidies intended for low-income housing. But Millennia argues that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision supports their claim

that HUD’s administrative process violates their right to a jury trial. So the company is asking a judge to stop HUD from continuing its proceedings and to ensure that the millennial’s legal costs are covered. This legal battle follows a series of controversies for millennia. As you said, HUD’s inspector general accused the company of mismanaging the funds, which led to a federal raid on millennia owner, Frank Sinito’s multimillion dollar home in October.

Meanwhile, tenants have criticized millennia properties for poor conditions, including infestations and safety hazards. Tragically, there was a gas explosion at one property last year that killed three tenants, and that sparked an ongoing $860 million lawsuit. And despite these issues, millennia remains a major player in real estate. They own 31,000 low-income apartments nationwide and significant Cleveland landmarks like Key Tower. So the case is now moving on in federal court.

Chris Quinn (25:25.379)

Well, we talked yesterday, they just got another $10 million grant for the Huntington building. They’re getting lots of public money. This the bad, the fact that they’re firing back as aggressively as they are is interesting. We’ll have to see how this continues. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Rick, is Ohio Governor Mike DeWine already claiming the state’s new cell phone policies for schools is a success?

Rick Rouan (25:50.678)

By at least one measure, certainly sounds like it’s on track. DeWine’s administration says that more than 60 % of districts and community schools have implemented cell phone restriction policies ahead of a July 1st deadline to develop those policies. That was outlined in legislation that he signed into law earlier this year. The state had developed a model policy and a toolkit to help schools come up with their own individual policies, but

Ultimately, it’s up to them how they want to regulate cell phone use as long as they have a policy there, you know, within the bounds of the law. DeWine says that school leaders who have adopted policies already are seeing some benefits in the form of improved focus from students and even more importantly, as he puts it, better social connections. The data are based on a state education department survey. They got about 98 percent response rate from districts and community schools. And among those,

40 % say that their policies disallow cell phone use during standard school hours, so pretty much the entire day. And then 45 % say that they allow phone use at designated times. Some school policies also vary based on grade level, though.

Chris Quinn (27:05.263)

Yeah, I just was surprised they’re taking credit for success this early. guess saying that districts are adopting it, they kind of have to, is one thing, but to say they’re already seeing classroom results is a little odd.

Rick Rouan (27:18.386)

Yeah, I’m going to be curious to see how they measure that. How do you measure better social connections? He can certainly say that, but I’m not sure what that’s really based on. And improve focus, the same thing. Are we going to start measuring outcomes before and after the cell phone policy? And there’s a lot of things that go into that, school policy changes outside of cell phones. So it’s going to be difficult to isolate whether.

know, getting kids off their phones is truly effective.

Chris Quinn (27:50.227)

You might see some kind of increase in academic performance that is across the board that you can measure much the way they’ve done with accidents after their distracted driving law, but it’s way too early for that. That’ll take several years to see. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. The filming of the new Superman movie in downtown Cleveland over the summer had everyone talking. Lisa, are there signs we are close to seeing some of the official footage for that movie?

Lisa (28:18.26)

Not according to its director James Gunn, although he did have two test screenings of the Superman movie. He talked about them in an interview with the Today Show in Australia, and he says he’s very excited. He says, I know, you know, it’s going to be a good movie when I’m excited to show it to test audiences. And he says, that’s not always true, which is interesting. Some directors know that their movies aren’t great, but he thinks this is a good one.

but he did dismiss rumors that the trailer is coming out December 16th. He said that is not true, but he didn’t offer a date for the trailer. The movie does open next July 11th. David Cornsweat takes on the title role for the first time. Gunn was very impressed with Cornsweat, said he’s one of the best actors he’s ever worked with. And one of his fellow actors, Frank Grillo, said he kind of gave off a Christopher Reeve vibe, which is probably the best thing you can say about it.

So, you know, we had scenes shot in public square, city hall, progressive field, the arcade, and the Headlands Beach State Park over the summer. And our intrepid photographers managed to get some, some of the only, I think, pictures from on the set.

Chris Quinn (29:24.461)

Yeah, we even did a story about everything that went into getting those photos. It was a great deal of fun. I’m sure that when the movie finally does come out, our reporter Joey Morona will watch it and then let everybody know the Cleveland scenes that you can identify and when they might show up in the movie. He’ll do it without spoilers because he’s very careful about that kind of thing. But I think everybody will be looking for those Cleveland scenes.

Lisa (29:50.254)

Yeah, it’s always fun to see your own city in a movie.

Chris Quinn (29:53.751)

Yeah, well, when the Avengers had that massive explosions on East 9th Street, that was one of the coolest things we ever saw. I think this will be similar in many ways. So a lot of fun for heading into next summer. I hope we get some more movies to shoot here. That was a great, great way to chronicle summer fun. That’s it for the Friday episode of Today in Ohio. Thanks, Rick. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Leila. Thank you for being here. We will return Monday with another discussion of the news.