Ohio Republicans disguise August ballot language to fool you into eroding our democracy: Today in Ohio

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A state panel has set the language for State Issue 1 on the Aug. 8 election, asking voters about “elevating the standards to qualify for and to pass any constitutional amendment” — but not clarifying that they’re changing the approval requirement from 50% plus one vote.

We’re talking about trying to trick voters into minority rule 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:

We’ve talked repeatedly about how Republican lawmakers keep using dirty tricks to reduce democracy in Ohio and end majority rule. What is the latest sleazy step they have taken to try and fool unsophisticated voters into reducing the power of their vote?

Every time the U.S. Census Bureau released new numbers, Cleveland’s population gets reduced. We keep thinking that the trend will reverse. What do the latest numbers say?

This is hilarious. Jim Jordan’s committee on the weaponization of government is now fighting over who’s doing the weaponizing? How did the latest meeting go?

Does Sherrod Brown’s summer camp, which he coordinates with Ohio manufacturers, sound like it would be a fun way for kids to spend part of their summer?

So what did the Cuyahoga County Council have to say about the claim by Chris Ronayne’s staff that the county executive has sole discretion on demolishing the historic but obsolete and vacant former Juvenile Court building.

With retired teachers howling about big bonuses paid to their pension investment advisors, did the board do something that might placate the pensioners?

What is a monofill, and why is one that could be built in Lorain County controversial?

You’d think that a city like Cleveland would not have room or needs for new roads. But the city is building one. Where is it, and what’s the purpose?

What were the most popular names in Ohio in 2022?

We have an Apple podcasts channel exclusively for this podcast. Subscribe here.

Do you get your podcasts on Spotify? Find us here.

If you use Stitcher, we are here.

RadioPublic is another popular podcast vehicle, and we are here.

On Google Podcasts, we are here.

On PodParadise, find us here.

And on PlayerFM, we are here.

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

[00:00:00] Chris: Ohio’s Republicans are ated again, trying to play on the idea that Ohioans might be stupid into fooling them into doing something stupid. It’s today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinny. I’m here with Lisa Garvin, Laura Johnston and Leila Tasi.

Laura, I think. That’s the only way you could describe what they’re doing. They’re counting on Ohioans to be dumb. They’re underestimating the intelligence of our fellow Ohioans. We’ve talked repeatedly about how the Republican lawmakers keep using dirty tricks to reduce democracy in Ohio and end majority rule.

What is the latest sleazy step they have taken to try and fool unsophisticated voters into reducing the power of their vote?

[00:00:47] Laura: They approve the ballot language for the August eight election on this party line vote of three to two. The language does not include any explanation of the current rules, so it only says what we be changing to, not [00:01:00] what we’re changing from, and the group, one person, one vote, they oppose what is being called now.

State issue one. Because it’s the only thing. On the August election ballot, they asked them to be more explicit in describing the status quo. They got rejected. Uh, secretary of Stink, Frank LaRose said after the meeting that this was done for brevity. But come on guys. The is the idea is that they’re trying to stack the deck and there might be a lawsuit over this cuz the one person, one votes.

Folks said, this is illegal. And what really gulls me is the way that they describe it is saying they’re elevating the standards to qualify for and pass any constitutional amendment. And Elevate has a positive connotation, which they got into with Frank LaRose. And don’t you love what people are always like, well, the dictionary says, and that’s his, his

[00:01:50] Chris: defense.

I, I, it’s, it’s ama it’s not amazing because I think they’re counting on the Supreme Court to be in their pocket. As these challenges come, yes, this is clearly wrong. [00:02:00] You’re not allowed to do this. You’ve gotta tell people what you’re doing. You are reducing the value of your vote. You’re making it harder for voters to change the constitution.

You’re lowering the power of the voters. You’re not elevating anything, and they’re. One, they’re counting on people not to pay attention. And look, let’s face it, you know, in northeast Ohio we’ve covered this and we continue to cover this. Our audience and our readers are well aware of this dastardly deed.

But if you live outside of Cleveland and maybe Columbus and Cincinnati, they’ve covered it some too. Y you’re not gonna be aware there. There is no kind of honest newspapers in those areas. TV news doesn’t cover this because it’s hard. They cover crime and weather and so it, how do you get the message out?

That’s what they’re counting on. They’re counting on people in rural Ohio to, if they show up at the polls, if they even know there’s an election, to see that word elevate and say, oh yeah, I’m all four elevation. Let’s elevate. Well, exactly, [00:03:00] and kill, kill the power of their vote. And it’s just, it’s one of those.

It’s such a cynical thing. Frank LaRose is really Darth Vader. He is counting on people to be stupid and reduce their, their time, their seat at the table, and it might work.

[00:03:17] Laura: It might work because the, the double speak and the money they’re throwing into this, and I completely agree that it’s dastardly. I still picture those mustache twirling, but that’s what the one person one vote said.

This is an attempt to get one over on the Ohio voters. I personally haven’t seen any of the campaign so far, but that is really gearing up because early voting starts in less than two months. So we are going, that’s gonna be.

[00:03:42] Chris: It’s lies. It’s all lies. They’re all, it’s going

[00:03:43] Laura: to be lies. Lies. And it’s going to be focused on abortion because this is what they’re telling people.

Cuz that was the end goal, right? Kill the abortion rights amendment. That’s the only reason we’re having an August election. So that’s how they’re gonna push this by not talking about taking away people’s votes and taking away their rights and making it [00:04:00] harder to change the Constitution for anything in the future.

They’re gonna say, protect babies. Vote

[00:04:05] Chris: yes. Now the whole Supreme Court will have two questions. One, the August election is le illegal because the legislature outlawed August elections and they didn’t overturn that law before they did this. So if the Supreme Court follows the law, they’ll invalidate the election.

The second thing is, mm-hmm. This language violates the law. You have to. To tell people what you’re doing, this disguises it. It’s just there is no shame. They just have given up any thought about democracy and real leadership and are trying to amass power. It’s today in Ohio. Every time the US Census Bureau releases new numbers, Cleveland’s population.

Gets reduced. We keep thinking this trend inevitably has to reverse at some point. How low can you go, Layla? What do the latest numbers say?

[00:04:53] Leila: Well, I see this as the glass half full story of the day, Chris, because we’re still losing population, but [00:05:00] it’s slowed down a bit. That’s good news. So an estimated 3,782 fewer people were living in Cleveland in July of 2022.

That’s a 1% drop to an estimated population of 361,607. But the year before that, Cleveland was down 6,428 people, so our population loss is slowing. The census of 2020 placed Cleveland’s population at 372,624. That was the lowest total since 18. 90. The peak of Cleveland’s population was in 1950 when we were at just under 920,000 people.

However, out of 18 Ohio cities with over 50, I’m sorry, out of 18 of Ohio cities with over 50,000 people. 11 of them lost populations, so we’re not alone. Lakewood saw a big percentage decrease. They’re down 1.2%. Columbus, on the other hand, saw an increase [00:06:00] by 0.5% and they remain the 14th largest city in the US with a population of just under 908,000.

So rivaling Cleveland in its heyday, but uh, back to the glass being half full. I saw graphic on the US Census Bureau’s website that lists the 15. Fastest declining cities in the US and there are no Ohio cities on it. So that’s good.

[00:06:24] Chris: I, the sad thing for me is the last time we had the numbers, it had slowed down too.

We wondered at the time, okay, is this rock bottom? Do we start turning around and while. We still, it, it’s still slower. We’re not at rock bottom yet. We’re at least this time we haven’t turned. And hopefully the next time we talk about this, it’ll reverse. I mean, you have had people moving into downtown Cleveland, you have had some residential development, and I thought this might be the time.

And so while you see it as a glass half full, uh, you know, I still feel like the dry, no, the glass is draining

[00:06:59] Leila: [00:07:00] away. Well, what else needs to happen? In order for us to turn around the trend, we need to have jobs. So perhaps Justin BIB’s initiatives will get us there. I mean, they’re looking to do that whole, uh, they have that plan to assemble land, to make it ready for developers and, uh, encourage businesses to come in headquarter here, and we’ll see.

I mean, maybe that’s what we need. We, but we absolutely need more jobs. That’s what will turn the tide. Yeah.

[00:07:27] Chris: I, I think there might be something else at play, and it relates to our first discussion. Mm-hmm. You know, we know that people are leaving the coast, the expenses are high, and now they can work from home.

A lot of them, they don’t wanna live. And the expensive areas, I, they, they may not be coming to Cleveland because Ohio has become a ridiculous state. Mm-hmm. It’s heading toward authoritarianism and. Every way you can. And young people generally don’t believe in that. They, they are more idealistic and they might be thinking, I don’t need to go to Cleveland.

I can go to Pittsburgh, I can go to Detroit. The Pennsylvania [00:08:00] and Michigan are not becoming ridiculous the way we are with lawmakers. Pretty much lying repeatedly to AMAs power.

[00:08:09] Laura: And look at what we’re doing with the state, uh, colleges. Why would you wanna come here for college if you’re being told you have to, you know, you can’t think freely and you have to follow these precepts.

No, no. But if you were to choose, would you live between Ohio and Michigan? Like, I probably, if I got a choice, we move to Michigan,

[00:08:25] Chris: but Jerry Sino says it’s about free speech. He’s making it more free speech. It’s, you know. Right. I thinks like, I

[00:08:31] Leila: think you guys are giving people. Too much credit for paying attention to this stuff.

I don’t think anyone outside of Ohio is paying attention to those news stories, and I, I agree

[00:08:40] Laura: that they’re not a attention to the specifics of the news story, but I think it’s getting out. I mean, Ohio went eight points for Trump the last time we voted in JD Vance. I don’t think you’re missing that.

[00:08:52] Chris: I don’t know, Leila, if you were to pick up and move to another state, uh, you’re a journalist, so maybe your proclivity is different.

You would check it [00:09:00] out. I mean, you would wanna know what I’m getting into. Uh, I think they would look it up if they were considering it. You’re listening to today in Ohio. Lisa, this is hilarious. Jim Jordan’s committee on the Weapon Nation of Government is now fighting over who’s doing the weaponizing.

How did their latest meeting go?

[00:09:16] Lisa: Well, it was pretty fractious. The select subcommittee on the weaponization of federal government had a hearing on government abuses, and that included testimony from three F B I alleged whistleblowers or disgruntled employees, whatever, who say that they lost their privilege and sent security clearances after identifying act.

Activities that they deemed appropriate at the agency. So one of the agents, uh, Garrett o Boyle, he testified he was suspended after telling a supervisor about possible illegal activity. Stephen Friend said he was questioned about using SWAT to arrest a January 6th suspect who was willing to surrender.

And agent Marcus Allen accused was accused of cons. Conspiratorial views after challenging [00:10:00] the official January 6th narrative. Now, uh, the committee’s top Democrat, the de Democrat DA delegate, Stacy Plaskitt from the Virgin Islands, says we’ve become a clearinghouse for testing conspiracy theories that Donald Trump can use for his 2024 campaign.

She says that they did not get. Any of the witness testimony before the hearing began, and she says, you know, they’re undermining law enforcement to pave the way for extremists to undermine elections. This is defund the police on steroids and Democrats. Others on the committee say, Jordan is the weaponize, he’s weapon.

Weaponizing his position and they were called that Trump urged Congress to defund the F B I in d oj, which Jordan went along with. So, yeah. And there’s a question, are these guys whistleblowers or are they just disgruntled employees? And it seems that they’re, this revolves around their actions around January 6th.

[00:10:56] Chris: It’s just been so ous since Jordan created [00:11:00] and took over this committee. It seems like everything they do is intended to create culture, war, fury, and get them on Fox News and, and make their ugly statements, and the Democrats are in the minority on the committee obviously. But they’re speaking up. They say, come on, this is ridiculous.

Cut it out. What are you doing? It’s just the shame. There’s probably some things to look at. There probably are some legitimate areas to examine, but because you shoot scattershot in every direction, it just creates mm-hmm. The circus atmosphere, which this clearly seemed to have broken down into.

[00:11:35] Lisa: And Jordan released an 80 page report just before the hearing began, in which he claimed that F B I leadership is pressuring agents to reclassify domestic extremism cases to make it look like extrem extremism is on the rise, and that the F FBI is purging agents with conservative beliefs.

So well that that’s

[00:11:56] Chris: the narrative. Does anybody really wanna argue that extremism [00:12:00] is not on the rise in America right now? I mean that, how can you say that with a straight face? Of course, extremism is on the rise. Nobody has to create phony documents to make that

[00:12:11] Laura: appearance there. There are a lot of things.

I wonder how Jim Jordan says with a straight face,

[00:12:16] Chris: Yeah, it’s just bizarre. Mm-hmm. Interesting story. It’s on cleveland.com and you are listening to today in Ohio. Does she Brown summer camp, which he coordinates with Ohio manufacturers, sound like it would be a fun way for kids to spend part of their summer.

Laura, I can say with 100% certainty, I would’ve hated this.

[00:12:37] Laura: Yeah, it wouldn’t be my favorite way to spend a summer. There are no, as far as I know, beach trips on here or swimming pools, but some kids may like it. There’s a lot of STEM stuff involved. It, it does sound a little bit like, you know, Olympic, uh, or like science Olympiad or, or some of those.

Extracurricular school activities. So, but it, and it’s free gonna put that out there right now. Free for [00:13:00] fourth through eighth graders, typically lasts around a week. And Shared Brown works with local governments, 36 programs in 26 counties this summer to provide this for kids that the camps help young Ohioans learn about careers in their communities.

They tour local manufacturing facilities. They hear from experts, they do team building exercises, they work on a project for their community. And I mean, some of the ideas. They, they do sound cool. Like a program for girls in science, technology, engineering, and math. A perrysburg program that’s gonna tour a solar plant.

Ashtabula is focusing on robotics and agriculture. So if you’re into that thing and you wanna learn, this is a great opportunity to get your hands into the field for free for a week in the summer. But no, I, this is not like, you know, running around the neighborhood with your best friends.

[00:13:44] Chris: Right when I was a kid for 10 weeks, the summer was mine.

I didn’t wanna do anything like that. And I, uh, if my parents had made me do something like that, I’d have been furious for losing a week of summer.

[00:13:55] Laura: I have a story coming next week on summer camp and how difficult it is to find [00:14:00] for kids. Like literally got up at 6:00 AM one February morning to make sure that I could sign up my kid when.

It opened if, you know, if you weren’t in within 10 minutes, you didn’t get a slot. So it is difficult to find Summer care for kids. Hats off to She Brown and these organizations from making it available for free. I hope kids have fun. So I’m, I’m not gonna criticize anything. Kids. Yeah, actually kids

[00:14:22] Chris: and, and if a kid doesn’t have a lot of kids in their neighborhood to play with, this is a good way of getting together with other kids your

[00:14:28] Laura: age.

It’s giving, getting them interested in something academically like without being, Doing a worksheet. Right. So if it gets them interested in a field, that’s great. You know

[00:14:36] Leila: what, I know a lot of kids who would probably do this. This is this. I mean, kids are into all kinds of different stuff, and don’t underestimate the, the number of kids who would be thrilled by this sort of thing.

Mm-hmm. I have a friend whose son, mm-hmm. Goes through phases. And one of his phases was he was obsessed with the sewer infrastructure and he would go to people’s houses and be like, can I take a look [00:15:00] at the pipes underneath your sink? And he would just like study them and look at them and you know, we went to a pool party and he wanted to go see the pool pump.

And he spent half the time like, that’s gonna be the kid. That’s the kid.

[00:15:10] Laura: Be your handyman.

[00:15:10] Leila: That’s the kid who wants to do this. There’s tons of them. That’s right. How old is this

[00:15:14] Chris: kid? He’s 11. Wow. Good for him. Yeah. All right. Well, things have changed. Way to go Sharon. You’re, you’re feeding the plumbing fascinated children in the future.

You’re listening to today in Ohio. So what did Kga County Council have to say about the claim by Chris Ronans staff? That the county executive has sole discretion on demolishing the historic, but obsolete and vacant. Former juvenile court building, Leila, we threw the flag on that yesterday. Cause no executive has that power.

And guess what?

[00:15:47] Leila: Well, council President Pernell Jones said he’s giving Ronna and his staff the benefit of the doubt because they’re so new to the job, but he hopes that. Ronan spokespeople will think before they speak next [00:16:00] time. Ouch. So the backstory here, as you said is, is that Chris Ronan is proposing that the county demolished the old juvenile justice center and he’s 22nd to make way for this giant bridge that’ll stretch over the highway there and reconnect downtown to the central neighborhood.

But Renee’s deputy chief of staff in charge of communications and strategy, David Razo, told our Steve Lit. That Ronna can unilaterally decide to approve that demo and that council approval would only be necessary to approve county money as a funding source for the demo project. And Steve even called Razo back to double check that take on it.

And Razo doubled down on his explanation that Ronan would be using his executive powers to approve the demolition plan. Well, I mean, that’s not how government runs obviously, and Council President Jones wasn’t having it yesterday. He specifically keyed in on RA’s claims that the county has already decided to demolish the building and will only maintain [00:17:00] ownership of the land not needed for the project.

Jones said that that’s an indication that some amount of money will be required and that the plan clearly contemplates transferring at least a portion of the property for the Innerbelt widening project, which isn’t possible. Without council’s approval, both the county charter and the county code give council powers over several important functions that would be central to the Innerbelt Projects Project.

And for one, the council controls the purse strings, meaning it would have to approve any contractors hired to do the demolition work and any county money used to pay for it. But they also have to approve any future sale lease. Maintenance or administration of the property along with any intergovernmental relationships that govern its use.

So Rasm tried to walk back his statement on Thursday and, and said he, he was misinterpreted. He said he doesn’t, he didn’t intend to suggest that counsel wouldn’t be a part of the decision making and he stressed that the administration does not believe it can act unilaterally.

[00:17:59] Chris: Yeah. [00:18:00] Right. Hey, walk it back.

Miscommunication. We gave him two chances. This isn’t the first time we’ve gone at him and he’s doubled down on something and come across looking bad. Thi this was preposterous and I, I wanna point out, because some readers said, boy, the county council is being petty. No, they weren’t being petty. We did this story.

We were uncomfortable with the fact. That we had a front page story in the Plain Dealer in which a ranking county official said something that we knew was not true. We went back and went to the county council to ask them about it. They didn’t raise their hands. They were responding to us and it, look, it’s preposterous.

If you’re gonna liquidate a county asset, you gotta have both sides of government agreeing on that. Nobody has the power to do anything unilaterally like that. It was a stupid thing to say, and I think parnell’s, right? They should think before they speak. You’re listening to today in Ohio with retired teachers howling about big bonuses paid to their pension investment advisors.

Did the board do something that might placate the [00:19:00] pensioners, Lisa?

[00:19:02] Lisa: Yes, they did. The, the Ohio State Teacher’s Retirement Ser Service Board approved a 1% cost of living increase for retired teachers, um, that will take effect, uh, on their retirement anniversary after July 1st of this year. But they also delayed an increase in the required years of service to tap into the pension.

By five years, they would’ve required 35 years in August, but they pushed that decision back to 2028. This 1% cost of living raise will cost the pension 825 million, but realize that’s from an 88.7 billion fund. Um, they also delayed a decision on what the teachers were really upset about. The 11.1 million in bonuses to investment staff.

They’ve pushed that decision off until they’re meeting in June. And the board also discussed some other things. They discussed whether they should, um, have more cost of living raises of [00:20:00] 1.8 to 2% to counter inflation, and whether or not they should change the. 14% salary contribution to the fund. They were talking about decreasing it for teachers, but decided against it.

And then they will study the pension eligibility issue. But the board got hundreds of emails from retirees, and a lot of ‘em say they want a reduction in years of service, but they don’t wanna reduce their 14% contribution.

[00:20:25] Chris: Yeah. Which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, right. To keep something solvent. If you’re going to have.

More people get in on it earlier. You gotta have more funding for it somehow. So I, mm-hmm. I get the quandary there. The look, the, the fact that they’re paying extraordinary sums to investment advisors for what is been a mediocre performance while for many years declining to offer cost of living. I. Does kind of stink.

Mm-hmm. So I, I’m not surprised the teachers have screamed. Uh, and it sounds like the board is at least trying to listen now. If, if, if they don’t listen, they’re gonna get [00:21:00] out and voted out. The teachers have the controlling interest on who’s on the board you are listening to today in Ohio. Laura, what is a monofil and why is one that could be built in Lorraine County so controversial?

[00:21:12] Laura: It’s when you basically take the stuff from your incinerator and. Take that hazardous waste that’s been incinerated and bury that residual ash on your property. So this is Ross Incineration Services in Eaton Township that’s near North Ridgeville and Lorraine County. The company wants to rezone land and so that they can dispose of this construction.

Prop, you know, these, this ash on the same site, residents are concerned about potential health risks associated. They don’t know what else they’d wanna do with the property in the future. They don’t know if they wanna increase the incineration capacity. So this has been going on for a while. People have come out to meetings, they’ve been upset.

Currently, they, they ship their residual ash from their operations to a site in Michigan, but now they wanna put it. On site, they’ve actually reduced the total acreage that [00:22:00] they wanna rezone since the original. So they’re kind of starting over the process.

[00:22:05] Chris: You gotta put it somewhere. Right, right. And, and a lot of states aren’t really happy about getting other states waste.

[00:22:11] Laura: Right. And so they’ve actually been getting some of the waste from the Norfolk Southern, um, contaminated soil. So neighbors are also concerned about that. What’s interesting, and I wasn’t really aware of this in 93, George Voyage was governor. There was a moratorium put on new permits for hazardous Wades incinerators in Ohio.

That just changed in January. Senator Rob McCauley slipped language into Bill at the last minute that provided an exception for plants that had been operating prior to April 15th, 1993. So we’ve talked a lot about how things get done in this state. I’m just gonna leave that there.

[00:22:47] Chris: Okay, we’ll have to see if this moves forward again, or if the anger of the residence really has put it off or changed it dramatically.

It’s today in Ohio. Leila, you would think that a city like Cleveland would not have room [00:23:00] or need for new roads, but the city is building one. Where is it and what’s the purpose?

[00:23:04] Leila: Yeah, well, the county is building this road, which will be called East 26th Street, and it’ll be situated between Community College Avenue and Central Avenue.

This is gonna cost 2.1 million. It’ll be 785 feet of concrete connecting an improved central recreation center to housing that’s being planned by the ca Metropolitan Housing Authority. Sounds a little pricey to me for such a short stretch of road, but it includes, I guess, electric water, sewer, and sidewalk infrastructure.

So, I guess, um, the new Road was proposed as part of former county executive Armand Buddha’s Central Neighborhood Surge. Remember that that was supposed to improve the streets and spur development in Central and increase internet connectivity and job creation and. Financial literacy, but I, I feel like the only other project I’ve heard of coming about as a result of that surge was the affordable internet [00:24:00] plan.

I’m really curious to know what other services were pumped into this neighborhood to make life better for residents there. Cuz Buddhi announced this central surge idea around the same time that he announced he’d be proposing anti-discrimination housing laws and. We didn’t see that come to fruition really.

And I, I sense that those initiatives aligned with this period where he was weighing his chances at reelection and once he decided he wouldn’t run, you know,

[00:24:28] Chris: I, uh, when I saw the headline for this, I thought it was going to be a new road. They’re building off of Opportunity Parkway at the, uh, Carter. Uh, it’s right next to the Meyer. There’s a road that is across the street and they’re extending it alongside, but it’s not, so there’s two new roads being built in Cleveland.

Uh, I wasn’t aware of either. You’re listening to today in Ohio. All right, Lisa, let’s end it with fun. What were the most popular names in Ohio in 2022? And thank you for your note yesterday that the list was [00:25:00] missing on cleveland.com because of you. We got it up.

[00:25:03] Lisa: Oh yeah. I was like, where’s the list? I wanna see if found.

I’m on it and I wasn’t. So, data from the Social Security in administration for last year says that in Ohio, the number one boy’s name was Oliver. 665th 656 boys were named that, followed by Liam, Noah, Henry, and Theodore as the top five girls. The number one name was Charlotte. 583 girls have that moniker, followed by Olivia, Amelia, Sophia, and Ava.

Now Nationwide, the number one names are Liam for boys and Olivia for girls. But here in Ohio, Olivia and Charlotte have kind of swapped places. So last year Olivia was number one and Charlotte was number two. And then, Liam was number one for boys and Oliver, who’s number two. So those four names seem to be the most popular both here and nationwide.

Looking for our names, I found [00:26:00] Layla, but spelled l a y L a, number 23. Um, that’s obviously after the Eric Clapton album, Christopher. Made it to 77 with hundred and 58 and Quinn, a female name was number 34 with 199 Get outta

[00:26:16] Chris: town. You know my daughter goes by that. She doesn’t go by her first name.

Everybody she does, everybody calls her Quinn. Yeah, it’s bizarre to me cuz it sounds like it’s Coldblooded, but that’s what it is. She’s Colleen. Mm-hmm. We named her Colleen. She’s Colleen in my mind. But for everybody else, it’s Quinn. It’s interesting that that’s that high. What about, yeah,

[00:26:33] Laura: what about Laura?

I’m sure

[00:26:34] Lisa: it’s not in the top. Laura is not on the list. Laura’s not on the list. And Lisa is

[00:26:39] Laura: not on the list. But you know, Lisa, you are of your generation. I, there’s lots of Lauras that I know that are about my age and, and you know, you think, God, there’s, there’s so many Olivias and Charlottes and you know mm-hmm.

Madison’s or whatever, and, but you think about all the girls in my grade that were Jenny, right? Like everybody, I probably graduated Jennifer. Eight. Jennifers, a couple of Kelly’s [00:27:00] Amanda’s, Jessica’s, you know, so you always know how old someone is based on their name, right?

[00:27:06] Leila: I am. And there were

[00:27:07] Lisa: probably like five leases in my high school and there were lots of Amy’s, lots of Jones, lots of Joanne’s.

[00:27:13] Leila: I’m, I’m troubled by the rise of popularity of the name Layla, though. I do, I don’t like going at all. I always enjoyed being the only one. And now there’s all these children named Layla, and when people scold their kids and I overhear it, and they’re calling, you know, they’re like, Layla, get over here. And, and I just have like a, you know, identity crisis every time I remind you of

[00:27:34] Chris: your own child tonight.

So, so look, let me, let me ask you this, because all three of you have names that end with the letter a four of the top five girls’ names end with the letter A. What do you make of that?

[00:27:48] Lisa: Well in other languages like Spanish, that’s that how you know it’s a feminine name because it ends in a, so I don’t know.

But what I found interesting in the boy’s side, there are lots of biblical [00:28:00] names, Ezekiel, Micah, Isaiah, Josiah, and then some weird names for boys. Number 22 was Maverick, really? Number nine. Yeah. 298 boys have the name Na Maverick and then Atlas. Was number 95 for boys. Wow. And, and for girls Paisley was number 36.

Oak Lynn spelled o a k l y n N was number 62.

[00:28:30] Laura: They have a brother named Plaid.

[00:28:31] Chris: If you call your kid your son, Atlas. It’s like calling him Hercules. He’s going to be challenged in school, and that’s a risky thing to do. Anyway, I’m looking for the annoying

[00:28:45] Leila: ones on this list. We,

[00:28:47] Chris: the whole list is online thanks to Lisa’s alert, noticing that even though the story said the list was concluded, it was not, and we fixed it.

So thank you, Lisa. Thank you, Laura. Thank you, Layla. Thank you, Lisa. Thanks to everybody. Listen to this [00:29:00] podcast. That’s it for the week. We’ll be back Monday talking about the news.