Ohio lawmakers, auditor try to intimidate school districts suing the state over funding: Today in Ohio

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Ohio Auditor Keith Faber sent a letter to school district treasurers across the state wanting to know how much public money they’re spending to sue the state over private school vouchers.

We’re talking about whether that’s a scare tactic 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:

Who is behind the move to find out where school districts across the state got the money to sue the state for defunding public schools?

Nuclear plants without huge cooling towers? How can that be? What’s the proposal for new energy production in Ohio?

Every time we think Lordstown motors is down for the count, finally, as a fly-by-night enterprise, it comes up with the save. What move is the someday electric truck maker making to avert a shutdown?

Reporter Sabrina Eaton says this happened because Ford got static from Congress about it. What’s the latest on the battle over AM radio?

This is ridiculous. How many Ohio cities make the bogus list that just came out of the top 50 cities for mosquitos?

Flu shots have been a sign of fall for decades now, but are we reaching a point where we may not need them anymore?

Cleveland City Council has messed with Mayor Justin Bibb on electric rate plans and the West Side Market. So what did the council do with his $50 million jobs plan?

Sticking with the Bibb/council theme, did the council do anything to block the mayor’s plan to jumpstart lakefront development with a North Coast Authority?

Because of his presence in the Marvel universe, people were talking Tuesday about the surprise death of actor Ray Stevenson. For Clevelanders, though, Stevenson might be better known for playing one of Northeast Ohio’s most notorious characters. What was the movie?

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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: I received some notes of appreciation from listeners for our posting. The specific conversation we had about issue one as a separate story on cleveland.com. It was the transcript of our discussion. We’ll try and do that anytime we talk about issue one, but I don’t believe we’re talking about it today.

On today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the plane dealer. I’m Chris Quinn. I’m here with Lisa Garvin, Laura Johnston, and because it’s Wednesday, Courtney Alfi and she has some city hall stuff to talk about later on in the podcast. First up, who was behind the move to find out where school districts across the state got the money to sue the state for defunding public schools.

Lisa, this feels a little bit big, brothery and sinister to me. Maybe not. It feels

[00:00:50] Lisa: a whole lot. Big brothery to me, but state auditor, Keith. Faber in a letter to Ohio School district’s dated earlier this week is asking how much these [00:01:00] schools have spent to sue the state for defunding public schools. Faber said in the letter that it was requested by the legislature.

Um, there is a lawsuit, it’s called the Ed Choice Vouchers Heard Ohio lawsuit that was, it’s formally titled Columbus City Schools versus the State of Ohio. But 135 school districts are plaintiffs in this suit, including Cleveland Heights. And University Heights schools. So school treasurers, they got the letter Monday.

They haven’t told this Friday to respond. Um, FA Faber said in the letter that he wants to gather information and provide greater transparency, but when asked, he had no further comment on the issue. The, uh, executive director of the Ohio Coalition for Equity. And advocacy of school funding. William Phyllis said he got a whole lot of calls from school treasurers about this.

You know, they’re wondering if they need to comply immediately. They don’t really know, you know, whether they need to do this by Friday. Uh, he says, Phyllis contends that funds for lawsuits are legal [00:02:00] expenditures, but he said the die is cast for the budget this year. And he said that Senator Matt Huffman will get his universal vouchers and the district will get what’s left over.

[00:02:11] Chris: What, what’s one, I don’t think Faber has the ability to compel this. Faber has the ability to do audits, but I don’t think he can send a letter and say, tell us this. But I, I take back what I said at the top of the podcast because this does have an issue. One angle. Mm-hmm. This is the legislature saying, we are your lords and masters.

How dare you challenge what we’re doing. We’re gonna use intimidation tactics to frighten you. This is the same legislature that does not want Ohio residents. To have any power whatsoever to change the Constitution. That’s what’s on the ballot is issue one. If that passes and you have to get signatures in every county in the state, it’s never going to happen.

And if you have to get a 60% vote, it’s not going to happen. This is the same thing. They, they, they’ve decided they are going to. [00:03:00] Tate to Ohioans. What’s gonna happen? Regardless of popular opinion, regardless of what voters want, and how dare these school districts challenge the savaging of their money?

Remember, the school funding system in the state was declared unconstitutional. The schools all have a role here in fighting to make sure there’s equitable education. That’s what they’re doing. Shame on favor for, for doing the bidding of the legislature on this. Well, and

[00:03:29] Lisa: Phyllis went even a step further.

You talked about intimidation and he said, This constitutes witness intimidation, which he says is a third degree felony. And honestly, he’s giving them a really short deadline. He’s saying, okay, by the end of this week, you gotta have these figures. It’s like, really? So there is a question, I mean, you know, these treasurers ask Phyllis, do we have to comply?

And he’s like, I don’t really know. So we’ll have to see. Well, whether they can hold him to that. It is

[00:03:54] Chris: almost ex parte. You’re, you’re going outside of the lawsuit situation to [00:04:00] try and intimidate it. Look, it’s, it’s getting clear and clear that the Republican super majorities created by gerrymandering is changing the whole way.

This state is governed and people are no longer in charge. It’s every step these folks take is to reduce. Any chance of anybody questioning what they do, and Matt Huffman’s the leader of it all, he’s probably the most sinister politician we’ve seen in 20 years. You’re listening to today in Ohio, nuclear Plants without Cooling Towers.

Laura, how can that be? What’s the proposal for new energy production in Ohio? Yeah,

[00:04:37] Laura: this would be a new kind of nuclear plant that wouldn’t need those cooling towers because they’re using nuclear waste from other reactors as. Fuel. They’re much smaller than what we’re used to thinking about with Davis Bessie, or the peri nuclear plants, which by the way, still operating even though House Bill six, that part of it has been repealed.

And the first energy subsidiary said, [00:05:00] well, they needed that 1.3 billion bailout in order to. Not close and go out of business, but anyway, so apparently there’s still a nuclear market in Ohio, so much smaller. This would be enough to power 25,000 homes. That’s 30 megawatts of power at full capacity. And this company is called Olo.

It’s from California and it’s considered these cutting edge plants that would be built in southern Ohio. That was a long shuttered facility built to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. So, Yeah, it’s a problematic site to begin with. It’s not like you’d wanna live on it.

[00:05:38] Chris: I, I, I’m completely fascinated by the idea that you can generate power with spent nuclear fuel.

The image of this thing I’m te I said it looks like a highway rest area. It doesn’t look

[00:05:49] Laura: like a nuclear plant or an A-frame, uh, ski lodge. You know, it’s that really peaked

[00:05:54] Chris: roof. And it doesn’t need cooling water and the whole threat of a meltdown, that’s why you need all of the [00:06:00] water. It cools it down and it’s why you have the big cooling towers.

With the steam coming out, we’re gonna have to come back and really go into the science of this so people can understand how you can use this spent fueled this way. Fascinating development. I’d never heard of this before.

[00:06:15] Laura: Had you? No, not at all. And I, they wanna apply for tax credits for green energy. And I was like, wait, I, I, mm-hmm.

I mean, I know in Ohio we consider natural gas, green energy. No. Actually

[00:06:27] Chris: if, look, if you already have the spent fuel, I. And you’re just taking more energy out of the spent fuel that is green energy. Cuz you’re not, you’re, you’re, it’s no, there’s no fossil fuels. You’re not putting anything into the air and with, without the danger of the meltdown.

Thi this could be a great development. I just wanna know how it works cuz I, you know, I understand how nuclear plants work. We all have known that since through Mile Island almost caused a nuclear meltdown.

[00:06:54] Laura: I’m glad you have the knowledge in your head of how exactly a nuclear plant was. Know, it’s, I would not be able to explain it.[00:07:00]

Yeah.

[00:07:00] Chris: Well, if you were a reporter in the eighties, you would, but the, this doesn’t do that. So I, I wanna know more. Jeremy did a great job on this story. We got a reader to thank this for laying it out so simply. But I think we need a graphic and some real elementary, uh, discussion of how this works. I, I, I would think that if this is as good as it sounds, these things would be everywhere.

Yeah. And it’s almost like free

[00:07:22] Laura: energy. So this is a 3,700 acre site south of Piketon. It was once hosted the. Portsmouth Gases, diffusion plant, which I had never heard of, but this had been, there’s longtime environmental concerns. So they’re cleaning this up. They’ve been cleaning it up since 2001. They think they have another 11 years to go.

So if you’re gonna put a nuclear power plant somewhere, it does make sense to put it on something that already has issues, right, that nobody else wants to use. You’re not gonna put it on a green site.

[00:07:52] Chris: You just hope this is real and it’s not some phony fusion thing, some fly by night. But we’ll see. You’re listening to today in [00:08:00] Ohio.

Speaking of fly by night, every time we think Lordstown motors is down for the count, it comes up with the save. What move is the someday electric truck maker making to avert the shutdown? Courtney?

[00:08:13] Courtney: Yeah, so it’s making some stock moves here in an attempt to get its shares trading for more than a dollar.

They’re currently sitting at 28 cents, and this all factors into this proposed deal that has yet to close with Foxconn to buy the plant. So let me walk you through the stock part of things. There is a, there’s a lingering thread out there from the Nasdaq that that’s saying, it it that Lordstown Motors is at risk of being delisted here if the price doesn’t increase per share to more than a dollar.

So today Lordstown Motors is going to combine individual shares, 15 to one, essentially, and then that one share that comes out on the other end of this process will hold the value of 15 shares in today’s. 28 cents price. [00:09:00] So that’ll put it above a dollar per share. And Nasdaq, or excuse me, Lordstown Motors hopes this averts the NASDAQ issue and lets the Foxconn deal come through.

The board approved this move on Monday, and, and like I said, Foxconn was supposed to buy 10% of Lordstown Motors stock. But Foxconn said this Nasdaq issue is, is, is putting Lordstown motors in breach of of that contract.

[00:09:27] Chris: Seems like some financial slight of hand, though it’s not. It’s not that they’re raising the value of their stock, it’s that they’re changing the structure to make it look like they’ve raised the value of their stock.

And I wonder what Foxcon will think about that. Maybe because. They’re technically no longer in breach, it’s fine. Uh, and Nasdaq will be happy that they’re more than a dollar, but it doesn’t seem like they’re really changing their financial fortunes. It’s just a paperwork

[00:09:54] Courtney: deal. Well, it seems like this move is an option that’s out there.

The Hall of Fame village in [00:10:00] Canton went through a similar process in December, and, and, and, and Lord Sound Motors is out here saying that this move, like you said, it might satisfy Foxconn’s. What it’s calling incorrect interpretation of the ability to close here and, and Lordstown Motor says that it is ready, willing, and able to close despite these staff numbers.

So they say they’re in a good place to finish this off with Foxcon.

[00:10:27] Chris: We’ll see you’re listening to today in Ohio. Reporter Sabrina Eaton has had a good time writing about this issue. She says the latest development happened because Ford got static from Congress about it. Lisa, what’s the latest in the battle over.

AM radios in vehicles.

[00:10:45] Lisa: So Ford, Ford Motor Company c E o, Jim Farley reversed his company’s earlier decision to remove AM radios from 2024 Ford and Lincoln Vehicles. In a tweet, Farley said he changed course after speaking with policy leaders [00:11:00] about the importance of AM radio for emergency broadcast. Uh, US representative Bob Lata from Bowling Green was sent a bipartisan letter last week to top automakers asking them to keep AM radio, and then that led to the bipartisan AM for every vehicle act that was introduced in Congress.

Um, JD Vance, our senator, is a co-sponsor of that, and in a statement, Bob Lata thanked Ford for keeping am He says it’s free. It will ensure Americans have up to date news, weather, sports and more for their location. And far though, he, as he did before, He continued to point out well, you know, AM is available via satellite and streaming and, and digital platforms, but that kind of evades the issue a little

[00:11:41] Chris: bit.

Yeah, I, I just wonder how many people truly listen to AM radio. We talked about the other day and people said, I listened to the. To sports games on it. But it ju it seemed like this was very quickly becoming part of the culture war, like, like gas for home cooking. Remember how quickly that mm-hmm. Blew up and went away.

Uh, [00:12:00] this seemed like the same kind of outrage. Maybe it’s a safety issue. I just, I, it’s Republicans once again forcing an industry to do what it wants, and they claim to be the ones that don’t wanna regulate industry. I, I will

[00:12:13] Lisa: say this, having worked for a couple of small AM Daytimers in my early career, Daytimers, meaning they only broadcast during the day, um, is that.

It is it, it’s hyper local and you know these stations, some of them have like crazy pastors, but they also have news. They also have, you know, local interest. And as you say, newspapers in these areas are dying out. I would hate to see AM go the same way.

[00:12:37] Chris: Well, an AM signal does travel further. That’s Oh yeah.

Another benefit to it. The FM signal is more localized. So AM is a way of reaching a lot of people easily. And who knows, in a post-apocalyptic world, we might need it. You’re listening to today in Ohio. All right, Laura, this one’s ridiculous. I’m just not just throwing one flag. I’m throwing a dozen. How many Ohio cities make this bogus list that just came [00:13:00] out about the top 50 cities in America for

[00:13:02] Laura: mosquitoes?

Three? And I completely agree with you because how is it just happening to be the three biggest cities in Ohio and. I, I, this list is full of really big cities, so, and Florida doesn’t even make the top 10, which to me, which is ridiculous. So it’s ridiculous. But it’s according to Orkin, which is the national pest control company, and they’re loo looking at like the number of calls per.

P, you know, population. So it’s not like this is a census study or something, but Cleveland was the highest ranking. Ohio City. It ranked 18th among the US a drop from 13 last year, Columbus was 27, Cincinnati was 42nd, and the top three mosquito cities on the list are Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, which also happened to be the three biggest cities in the country.

So, Okay, look,

[00:13:47] Chris: I grew up in New Jersey, which has lots of swamp land. I lived in Delaware and Florida. Two more states with lots of swamp land. You could not go outside after five o’clock without bug spray. You would be beset by mosquitoes. [00:14:00] You’d look down, there’d be five on your arm. Moving here, one of the most delightful aspects of living here is.

There aren’t any. We got lots of things that eat ‘em. You don’t have the swamp land. It that this, to say Ohio ranks for mosquitoes is just ridiculous.

[00:14:17] Laura: Yeah. I, I mean, unless I’m going camping, I, and so you’re sleeping outside, uh, which yes. Then definitely you need a bug spray. But I mean, other than a citronella candle, once a while, I, I rarely put on bug spray.

Even to be out in the evening around my yard. Yeah, they’re, I mean,

[00:14:33] Chris: they’re out there. It’s not like we don’t have mosquitoes. It’s how West Nile virus circulated. But in terms of degree, I, I mean, y y yes, you need to be careful at night, pretty much wherever you are, but any city on the East coast, trumps Cleveland, anything along the East Coast, because there’s so much swamp land.

This is just, or, and making stuff up. I, I, this was one of the most bogus of these rankings we ever. God, we get rankings [00:15:00] every day that we don’t write about. But this was so ridiculous. I felt like we should point it out. You know,

[00:15:05] Laura: they were gonna rank Midges. I would put Cleveland way up there. Midge, go ahead Lisa.

[00:15:10] Lisa: No, I was just gonna say Houston came in at number nine, which I’m shocked it’s not higher because in Houston they drive around with fogging trucks at night, you know, to, you know, fog for mosquitoes. They’re pretty bad there. Yeah. Surprised. They’re number

[00:15:22] Chris: nine. Yeah. The, the whole list is, is cockeyed you’re listening to today in Ohio.

Flu shots have been a sign of fall for decades now, but are we reaching a point where we may not need them anymore? Lisa?

[00:15:36] Lisa: Um, yeah. And actually this is all coming out from the rapid development of vaccines for Covid. As we know, they used what’s called M N R A vaccine. Vaccines to treat Covid, and that’s been pretty successful.

So the National Institutes of Health are enrolling volunteers for a clinical trial of an experimental M N R A flu vaccine that could cover most or all of the [00:16:00] flu strains circulating in a particular season. And they say this could actually be the end of annual flu shots because an. Universal vaccine would eliminate the need for developing annual vaccines and protect against future flu outbreaks.

So the effectiveness of a flu vaccine currently is anywhere from 15 to 70%. 60% is supposed to be a great response, but the current method of creating flu vaccines, for those that don’t know they’ve been doing this for, uh, 70 years, what researchers. Pick the four most likely strains to circulate each season.

Those strains are injected into chicken eggs where they replicate, and then that virus is killed or attenuated and then purified and created, you know, for vaccines. It’s very time consuming, inexpensive. Now, M N R A on the other hand, instructs the body to make its own virus, and it focuses on parts of the virus that are common across all strains, making it universal and the process takes less than a week.

So this phase one [00:17:00] trial, Is starting at Duke University. They’re only enrolling 50 people right now, 18 to 49. But I expect this will blossom as it moves through the clinical trial process.

[00:17:10] Chris: Yeah, I’m, I’m a big believer in the Mr. Na vaccines. I don’t think I would volunteer for something like this. It’s like, it’s a little bit too out there.

I hope it works because I get the flu shot every year as many people do. Um, but, but man, experimental injections, that’s,

[00:17:26] Lisa: yeah. But you’re, you got, you got M N R A for your. Covid ain’t your boosters,

[00:17:30] Chris: so I love it, but I was tested a bit before we got it. This is the big test. I I, it sounds like it’s a great development because mm-hmm.

As you know, they, they miss, you know, but every fourth year it seems like, they say, yeah, a flu shot really doesn’t cover the strains that we need to get to. Mm-hmm. And so, mm-hmm. You’re listening to today in Ohio. Cleveland City Council has messed with Mayor Justin Bibb on electric great plans and the West side market.

So what did the council do with [00:18:00] his biggest proposal in a while? His 50 million jobs plan, Courtney.

[00:18:05] Courtney: Hundred percent on board with it. You know, city council this week passed this big plan from Mayor Bibb. This money really represents the largest single allocation of Cleveland’s historic ARPA money here.

So this is the biggest chunk coming out of Cleveland’s, half a billion dollars or so in this 50 million. City officials, a hope that the figure goes above 50 million. They hope that the county and state chip in, we’ve gotta see if that happens. But basically this 50 million starting pot of money, BIP sees this as an opportunity to reverse decades without migration and job loss in Cleveland.

We all know Cleveland’s woes. We knew where we were in the past. We know where we are as a city now with population and employment, and this is the big bid to kind of maybe turn that ship around using what they call once in a generation money to do it. And council, like I said, is, is on board with this plan.

[00:19:00] They, they had some issues with some other pieces of this latest, latest ARPA proposal, like you mentioned, the west side market. But this one’s got everybody’s full support and I really liked the conversation and the comment. From Councilman Mike Pesic this week. He’s been on council since the seventies.

He really provides that, uh, long, long view of what’s been going on at the city. And, and he said this, this 50 million plan has essentially been in discussion for decades. Quote, we watched one plant, one factory close after another, and we all kept asking what was the game plan? Essentially, this is the city’s game plan here they wanna take.

Publicly owned land, but potentially buy up some privately loan owned land, clean it up, do brownfield remediation, get it packaged with a nice bow, and make it available to employers to move into the city.

[00:19:52] Chris: You know, it sounds more and more like the deal that Biden and the Republicans in the house will [00:20:00] make might include clawing back unspent ARPA money, unspent pandemic.

Funds money, this counts as spending it. I’m, I’m, I’m betting that this would no longer be vulnerable to the clawback. Um, do you know if the city has other unspent, unc uncommitted ARPA money still at play? Yeah,

[00:20:21] Courtney: so I’m, I’m, I’m curious about where this goes in DC as well, because of that reason, there is some money that’s essentially been.

How shall we say washed clean of the ARPA requirements. They used it to make up for revenues. They would’ve received the pandemic, really pushed the economy and tax collections down so they were able to use that money. And, and offset that and put that in the general fund. I believe, you know, I’m not sure what’s happening in DC specifically, but I believe that money that’s been put through that revenue recovery process and is just pure general fund money now, I’m assuming that’s free, but, [00:21:00] but where they’ve been pulling different money from, it’s been different for different projects.

So I don’t. Know what the figures are that could be potentially at risk there. W

[00:21:09] Chris: well it’s very foggy, but they keep talking about it and every time I see it, I think, well, every government that has money left is gonna rush to get it spent cuz nobody wants to send back millions of dollars that they were being careful about spending.

We wanted our governments to be careful about this. I’m like what the county government did here, but, but by being slow, you could risk. Losing it, it sounds like. Again, it’s very foggy, but uh, I would think that committing the way they’re doing or washing it the way you described would alleviate Cleveland from having to send it back.

Interesting. We’ll have to see how quickly they get this going. It’s today in Ohio. Let’s stick with the bib council theme. Did council do anything to block the mayor’s plan? The Jumpstart Lakefront development with the North Coast Authority. We’ve been talking a lot about lakefront development. Bib had the idea to create an [00:22:00] independent body to be charged with it.

[00:22:03] Courtney: Yeah. Again, on Monday we saw council move through these proposals, so we did not have opposition that that stood in the way there. They’re signed off on and the green light to move forward, it is done. So approved on Monday, like you said, was this ability to create the North Coast Development Authority.

It would be a public-private agency that’s really established to guide big lakefront projects and get them over the finish line. There’s a thought out there that all these plans that have come and gone over the years didn’t have someone that could really shepherd and foster them through over the finish line.

That’s why we have all these unfinished lakefront plans. So this is, you know, local leaders, big bid to, to make that happen. Finally, and and what we also saw from council this week was some startup money for this agency. They okayed 3 million in federal aid, ARPA dollars. To get this authority going, and they approved another 3 million for a proposed [00:23:00] downtown lakefront connector.

That landbridge idea we’ve been hearing about for years. So not only do we have this authority okayed by the city, we have some some seed money that can get it going and the authority. It’s important to know that they’d be empowered to raise. Hundreds of millions of dollars here in private capital, put together that with public grants and, and hopefully carry out these, these big projects.

[00:23:26] Chris: We should say that because I think there’s still some confusion about this, that in the latest iteration of these, Lakefront plans. We, we don’t have the closing of access to the highway. It was originally proposed. It got a lot of people in the west side nervous. When we talk about the land bridge, they’re, they’re still talking about that, but it’s without the cutting off of the shoreway.

Right.

[00:23:51] Courtney: You know, Steve Litz been following that well. He’s laid out different options that they’re considering. I’m not, I’m not sure where that part of the [00:24:00] planning process stands.

[00:24:00] Chris: Yeah, I’m pretty, I’m pretty sure that’s dropped off the face because it had so much opposition to it. We should make that clear you’re listening to today in Ohio because of his presence in the Marvel universe.

People were talking Tuesday Bay about the surprise death of actor Ray Stevenson. For Clevelanders, though Stevenson might be better known for playing one of Northeast Ohio’s most notorious characters. Laura, what was that movie? That was

[00:24:26] Laura: to kill the Irishman in 2011, and he played Danny Green, the Irishman.

So Green was killed in a car bomb in 1977, and obviously huge lore in Cleveland. Stevenson didn’t spend any time in Cleveland during the production. The movie was shot in Detroit, but he did attend the premier at the Cedar Leaf. Theater. And so he died Monday at 58? Yes. He was in the Marvel Universe in the three Thor films and Oscar winning r r r and an epic series on H B O called Rome.

And I love what he told the plane [00:25:00] dealer in 2011. He said, it’s such an amazing tale from such an amazing period. It’s a slice of Americana. Cars didn’t get any bigger, lapels didn’t get any bigger, the mustaches didn’t get any bigger. Mm-hmm. And for that manner, the criminals didn’t get any bigger.

[00:25:13] Chris: Yeah, I mean that that bombing case is just one of the biggest stories out there.

And they had tried to do in green, uh, before, but that was when it finally happened and it was when they made it into a movie. I think a lot of people in Cleveland watched it. Might be watching it again.

[00:25:29] Lisa: Oh yeah. It’s a, it’s a great movie and it’s a shame that it was shot in Detroit. Yeah. And you know where they showed where he, cuz he got murdered right up the street from me at Brainard and uh, Cedar.

Right. You know at the, and I have doctors there at that. It’s a medical building and there’s actually somebody at one cuz their lampposts set throughout the parking lot and somebody at one point put a sticker on one of them right where he died and said, long live the memory of Danny Green. So I went back, I had some shamrock like [00:26:00] beads, so I went and added it to the lamppost.

Oh, neat too. Yeah. And I looked at old photos of the, of the scene and it’s, that is the exact spot where Grant Danny Green died. Also, another story, my, uh, uh, the former mayor of Lindhurst, uh, or the former police chief Rick Perello, wrote the book Yeah. To Kill the Irishman that the movie was based on. Yeah.

[00:26:22] Chris: Yeah, I was surprised. I didn’t, I, I, I’d heard about the, the bombing and the murder, but I was surprised, Lisa, I think as you were to find out, this really wasn’t in Cleveland at all. It was way out where you described. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Interesting. Good, good idea to. Go watch that movie again. You’re listening to Today in Ohio, we left some time because Laura and Courtney live near the lakefront and they’ve been beset by an annoying problem the past few days.

Go ahead, let her rip.

[00:26:51] Laura: The mids are back. This is like the annual start of summer. I mean it’s, it’s sure Memorial Day, but when the midges are back you’re like, that’s it, because the lake has [00:27:00] just warmed up enough that the larvae. Uh, hatch in the bottom of the lake, and then they emerge for a couple of days and they drive everybody crazy.

I went running on Saturday or Sunday and I, I had them in my mouth that like, one went up my nose. They fly into your eyes. They are not harmful. They won’t sting you, but they certainly are annoying

[00:27:18] Courtney: while they’re here. Like you said, it’s a, it’s, it’s gross, but it’s a happy sign of spraying. I I keep getting caught in my hair and it’s nasty, but, you know, good weather’s on the way and.

We can jump in that water soon. Yeah. Like, they’ll

[00:27:31] Laura: like perch on the screen and they seem to like the north side of my house and like you just like, you know, pluck it with your fingertip and they all go scattering.

[00:27:40] Chris: So you have to sweep ‘em up. The, I mean, is it a big mess? Um,

[00:27:45] Laura: Not an even bigger mess than like the, uh, yellow pollen that’s all over my porch.

So, I don’t know. It probably just gets up mixed in all the detri of all the tree droppings that happen. So, no, I’ve never, like, they’re not that big, right? They’re pretty small. So once they fall, they [00:28:00] probably just kind of look like dirt,

[00:28:02] Courtney: you know, when I hate about ‘em, they don’t move. They, you know, you, you’ll go to sit down.

You think they’d fly away outta self-preservation. They just. They, they’re there, they

[00:28:12] Laura: ain’t going anything. They’re, they’re not the smartest creatures. So the idea is like, they come outta the lake, they gotta mate really quick and then they die. That’s right. And they, they then they hatch again in the fall, if you’ll remember like the famous, uh, Cleveland baseball game with the Yankees about the Midges.

So they’ll come back when the lake cools down again to that 60 degree temperature.

[00:28:32] Lisa: And see Chris, you and I are about 500 feet higher than than Laura and Courtney are, so they don’t get up the hill too much. I haven’t seen

[00:28:39] Chris: one of ‘em, so I haven’t either. It’s been lovely Spring where I live, I don’t have to worry about going outside.

And Evan Bugs swore me. That’s it for the Wednesday episode. Thank you, Lisa. Thank you Laura. Thank you Courtney. Thanks to everybody. Listens to the podcast. Come on back Thursday and we’ll be talking about the news.[00:29:00]