CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Ohio Senate’s two-year budget plan seeks to reduce money for foodbanks, defund housing for pregnant women, eliminate tax credits for affordable housing and reduce support for childcare — all while giving tax cuts to the wealthy.

We’re talking about the proposed budget’s cruel attempt at austerity 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:

With all the money the Ohio Senate wants to spend on nearly universal school vouchers and tax cuts, because the state is so flush, what are some senators proposing to seriously slash unemployment benefits?

Has Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne done a big flip-flop on the danger to children sleeping overnight in a county building because there is no where to take them? Wasn’t there sex trafficking and rape going on?

Let’s talk again about the Ohio Senate budget. We did a deeper analysis of the budget that we talked about yesterday, and we found a good bit of cruelty in it for people of lesser means. What did we discover?

We’ve talked a good bit about how long we’ve gone without rain. Are we now officially in a drought?

That drought has affected our air quality, as has all that smoke from Canada. That made us wonder, should we wear our N-95 pandemic masks to be safe?

Not all the weather news is bad. We wondered whether all this sunlight might be lifting the collective mood of Northeast Ohio. Is it?

Finally, with sunsets over Lake Erie setting the smoke and haze from Canada aglow, we have a rare chance for special photos this week. What tips does our photographer, Dave Petkiewicz, offer for shooting some?

The City Club of Cleveland has been it its namesake building for years, on the second floor at East 9th Street and Euclid. It’s moving. What does our columnist Steve Litt say about the new location?

A hot story last week involved a sermon by a Bay Village priest involving LGBTQ issues and a congregant who stepped up to challenge the priest before being escorted out of the church. We knew police were called, and now we know why. Who was arrested in this incident?

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

[00:00:00] Chris: We got the Ohio Senate really going after poor people and a couple of stories we’re talking about today, on today in Ohio, the news podcast. Discussion from cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn. I’m here with Lisa Garvin. Lela Tassi. And. Courtney Taffi. Lisa, we’re gonna start with you again.

I just don’t understand what’s going on with the Ohio Senate. They are really going after people who are in dire straits with all the money they wanna spend on nearly universal school vouchers, which would go to a lot of wealthy people and tax cuts that would go to mostly wealthy people because the state is so flush.

What are some senators proposing to seriously slash in the way of unemployment benefits?

[00:00:43] Lisa: Well, they’re proposing Senate Bill one 16, which is co-sponsored by Senator George Lang, the Republican from Butler County. They’re trying to address gaping financial holes in the unemployment benefit system, which is teetering on insolvency and really has been for years.

And the [00:01:00] common wisdom is either, the only way to do that is to either cut benefits or make employers pay more. But it sounds like this bill is gonna do both of those things. Things. So Senate Bill one 16 would reduce the number of weeks of benefits from 26 weeks down to 12 to 20 weeks depending on the Ohio unemployment rate at the time.

Um, those that are qualifying for the maximum 561 weekly benefit. Cannot receive dependent children payments that add up to about 119 to $204 a week. If this bill is passed, it would decrease benefit payouts by 39% and save 7 billion through 2036 according to an analysis by the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services.

And employers would have to pay jobless taxes on the first 9,500 of employee income. That’s up from $9,000, but they would get. Fewer benefits paid because the tax rate would go from 2.4% to [00:02:00] 1.4% by 2027. So employers would be paying 31% less over that time, and that’s almost 5 billion through 2036. So yeah, the O D J F S says they are headed for insolvency.

If nothing is done, they seem to support Senate Bill one 16. They say it would reduce that chance for 10 to 13 years. But then after that, There would be fewer options for further benefit cuts in the future. So the only way to raise revenue would be steep, steep tax increases. So that doesn’t sound very good.

Um, the Ohio Chamber of Commerce support Senate Bill one 16, they say it’s a long standing priority of the chamber to fix the system, and it would be more costly if it. Fails. A Ffl, c I o President Tim Berger says this bill is a non-starter. He says it doesn’t address the key issue, which is that employers have been short-changing the system for decades.

I, I just

[00:02:52] Chris: don’t get this. The, the unemployment is the safety net. Everybody is at risk at some point of losing their job, largely through no [00:03:00] fault to their own. The economy gets bad. We saw what happened during the pandemic and in 2008 and the Great Recession, and this is how society makes sure. That people have shelter and people can eat food.

I, I just don’t get it. They have tons of money in the to play with and they’re gonna stick it to people who through no fault of their own need. Some of the help. And let’s face it, we’re all paying into this. I mean, this is insurance. We all pay into it. And if, if they’ve been. Providing extra cash to employers because they’re bought and paid for by lobbyists, they ought to go back and get some more.

This is just an absolutely horrible message. We’re gonna give tax cuts to the wealthy. We’re gonna give school vouchers to people who don’t need ‘em because they can afford it. But we’re gonna stick it to the people who are in the most dire straits.

[00:03:48] Lisa: Yeah, and this is, Uh, yeah, this is very distressing. I, uh, you know, there is a bunch of money floating around and let us not forget that massive amounts of fraud during the pandemic, let [00:04:00] billions of dollars get out the door to the wrong people.

Part of that due to an antiquated IT system. So, I mean, there that there are root causes that need to be

[00:04:08] Chris: fixed here. Yeah, you’re right. I forgot about that. The, yeah, it’s billions of dollars walked out the door that they’re never getting back because they. Cuz they allowed fraud. A very distressing story, and it’s just the first of two we’re gonna be talking about today in which they are sticking it to poor people.

You’re listening to today in Ohio has Kga County executive, Chris Ronan done a big flip flop on the danger to children sleeping overnight in a county building because there is nowhere to take them. Wasn’t there sex trafficking and rape going on? Lela, how can he take this and make it sound like it was no big deal.

[00:04:43] Leila: It’s really difficult to understand why Ronna is behaving the way he has lately with regard to this issue because the problems at the Department of Children and Family Services predate his time in office. He could just go about the work of heroically fixing them. In fact, you know, as Caitlin Durbin points out [00:05:00] in her story, he campaigned on a pledge that he would do exactly that, and he is indeed facilitating those necessary changes.

He’s trying to find alternatives to housing kids in the county office building, but for some reason, He’s simultaneously attacking the news reporting that brought these issues to light in the first place. And in doing that, it creates the impression that he’s downplaying the severity of the problem in a way that seems extremely hypocritical and frankly, pretty dismissive to the D C F S workers who.

Courageously reported these problems in the first place this week at A D C F S board meeting, romaine suggested that media reports on the problems at that building might have been overblown as ployed to increase profits, and he accused the media of blaming D C F S employees, including all of the higher ups.

For circumstances that Roan beliefs were outside of their control. He said, I quickly acknowledged on week one in this job the complexity of the Jane Edna Hunter problem [00:06:00] and how that needs to be better communicated to media and others, despite any efforts that my team has already made. There was a terrible bias last year that frankly sold newspapers, so to speak, or got clicks.

He, he, he said that this became a political football during the campaign, and it was just a terrible bias on the media’s part. But, you know, honestly, when he says it was a political football, what he means is that he picked up that ball and ran it to the end zone because he campaigned on detailed plans for fixing the problems that.

The media reports illuminated, he called it a broken system, a situation that was completely unacceptable, and he suggested, you know, all kinds of fixes, faster hiring staff bonuses, paying the providers more to hire, staffing, and increased bed space. Uh, things like that. Um, and, you know, he said the bottom line is this.

D C F S is understaffed and undersupported leaving positions unfilled and cutting experienced staff puts lives at [00:07:00] risk. And he promised to take every step possible to ensure it doesn’t happen. I, I’m not exactly sure why he wouldn’t just go about the work of fixing it and. And understand that, you know, the reports, there is nothing inaccurate about the reporting on this in No, no.

[00:07:17] Chris: It’s, it, the attack on the reporting is just totally bogus. Th this was serious stuff. I mean, there were kids being trafficked, there were kids in danger. This was a, a serious crisis. And look, we didn’t unveil it. Two county workers showed up at a county com council meeting to say, we’ve got a crisis, man, you gotta fix this.

And then Caitlin fully explored it to show. All of the different dangers going on. Right. And like you said, Chris Ronan picked that up and ran on it. He said repeatedly, I’m gonna fix this. It’s travesty. What he’s doing now makes no sense. In, in this meeting, it was a meeting with the DCF s board, which I, I get the impression from Caitlin’s story.

They’re thinking ca they didn’t know Caitlin was on there. Right. So they could say this cuz they asked, did you, did you say you were there? It’s a public [00:08:00] meeting. Moses, you

[00:08:00] Leila: don’t have to do anything. When Caitlin called the county to connect with Ronan about, The comments he made at the board meeting a county spokesperson, asked her if she had identified herself as a listener on the board meeting, which was a public meeting streamed on the teams platform well,

[00:08:15] Chris: And integrity.

It was what shows when you think no one’s watching or listening? I mean, basically the message there is, oh, had I known you were there, I wouldn’t have said that, which is scummy. But the, his, his main purpose in this 45 minute meeting was to discuss the valiant work of D C S F workers in dealing with this crisis.

But, but he posed it in such a way as to make it sound like we criticize those workers, which is. Not even close to true. I mean, the workers were the ones that brought this forward and we championed that. Our stories were about the administrative failures of this program. I can’t believe that he, he went down this road and it’s disturbing because you start to think he’s been in office five months.

Has he become Armand Buddhi already? Has [00:09:00] he already become somebody that’s gonna be kind of ridiculous and not. Represent the taxpayer. The smart thing yesterday to do would’ve been to say, you know what? I was really there to try and champion the workers. I went too far. It was a stupid thing to say. Of course, this is a big crisis.

And of course the reporting on it was valid, but we got nothing. When Caitlin called for an official comment, they wouldn’t even respond. Yeah,

[00:09:23] Leila: I know. I, I don’t understand why public officials never understand the, how to interact with the public and the media and, and how to best make their message, uh, heard.

It’s, it’s, uh, very

[00:09:36] Chris: troubling. Wow. And to to, to act like this was sensational and to say, we’re trying to sell newspapers, get clicks. I mean, God, it’s so cliche. It’s a ba, it’s a sad day for Kayak County. A lot of people put their faith in this guy and this is a terrible sign. And you wonder if this is the curse of Eric Waer.

You know, he brought in Eric Wazer as a chief of staff. Everybody loves Eric Waer, but he’s gone and look at this gaff [00:10:00] already a week after he is left. Check out the story. It’s on cleveland.com. You’re listening to today in Ohio. All right, let’s talk the second part about the Ohio Senate. We did a deeper analysis of the budget that we talked about yesterday, and we found a great deal of cruelty in it for people of lesser means.

Courtney, what does our story lay out?

[00:10:20] Courtney: Yeah, my goodness. My job was kind of on the floor seeing all, all the cuts that are proposed in the Senate’s budget. And, and I’ll just give you kind of a sampling here. It, it would slash money for housing program for pregnant women. It would reduce money for food banks compared to what DeWine in the house wanted.

It completely does away with a half a billion dollar tax credit for affordable housing, which is very important in Cleveland and, and I’ve heard local officials concerned about that move. It. It gets rid of a proposed free school meal program for poor kids, and it imposes [00:11:00] new work requirements for Medicaid and food stamps and a bunch of anti-fraud measures for public assistance, even though there’s really no evidence that there is widespread fraud and.

This, these changes could be on the table along with others that really take Amit at Social Services in Ohio. When the House and the Senate sit down to, to hash out the final budget version before they ship it off to Mike DeWine, by that June 30th deadline, and, and DeWine will have the power to veto individual line items.

But he can’t go in and add things back in. So we’ll have to see what comes outta that negotiation process. But like you said, the cruel, the executive director of the Ohio Association of Food Banks. Called this budget really cruel and shortsighted, and, and she said it kind of feels like a full scale war on the poor and the,

[00:11:55] Chris: oh, and it was yesterday, we were getting notes from people that were [00:12:00] lined up for the food bank, and they said that the line was longer by a factor of 10 than had been before.

The snap benefits were reduced. The pandemic snap benefits. I th th this is common at a time when people need this stuff. Look, they’re going after the unemployed. They’re going after the hungry. They’re going after the homeless. And the only thing they’re not putting in the budget is, you know, torture tools for kittens, puppies, and bunnies.

[00:12:23] Courtney: You know, and it’s, you know, it’s e it might be easy to dismiss that these are programs, poor people. This, this, this impacts a ton of Ohioans. It made data from the US Census, found an estimated 727,000 Ohio households. Didn’t have enough to eat in the last week, about 12,000. Said they were worried about the threat of eviction over the next two months.

Estimated 12% of Ohioans live in poverty, nearly 17% of our children do. And these programs take aim at that. I mean, I wanna throw out some examples here. So, so one of the slashes [00:13:00] would be in public childcare supports reducing that income eligibility level from 160% of the poverty level down to 1 45. Uh, the, then let’s talk about housing.

DeWine wanted a hundred million affordable tax, affordable housing tax credit. The house bumped it up to 500 million. Senate completely gets rid of, gets rid of that and replaces it with a program to help repair homes for existing homeowners. Another example here, the House and Mike DeWine wants 16 million in housing supports for pregnant women in state in unstable situations.

It’s supposed to help. Infant mortality and the Senate bill slashes that down to a a $3 million. So in all these instances, you have DeWine in the house wanting a higher level, and the Senate just, just gutting these

[00:13:50] Lisa: programs.

[00:13:51] Chris: Well, giving huge outlays of cash to wealthy people. I mean, that’s the, the contrast.

They’re, they’re taking this money away from the people [00:14:00] who need it most so they can give tax cuts that’ll largely go to wealthy people. If we, as we’ve described, and this almost universal school voucher, which will cost what, a billion dollars in the end for people that don’t really need it. And, and that’s the thing is they’re shifting, they’re stealing from the poor to give to the rich.

It’s just a, it’s, it’s cruel. I mean, that is the word that people were using. And that’s, that’s the signature of Matt Huffman’s, senate president. And, and Matt

[00:14:25] Courtney: Huffman gave some, I guess, explanation supposedly of why this is happening, talking about a shortfall and tan of money, and he wants to get folks thinking about, How that potential shortfall could, could hit in the future.

But I, I just, that doesn’t track, to me, that doesn’t make much sense in my

[00:14:43] Chris: mind. No, no. It’s disturbing. It, it all has to be reconciled, but, but what a shocking turnabout you’re listening to today in Ohio, we have talked a good bit about how long we’ve gone without rain. What are we Day 18? Day 19, are we now [00:15:00] officially in a drought?

Courtney?

[00:15:01] Courtney: Well, most of Cleveland and, and much of Cuyahoga County and part of Lake County is, is not in a drought quite yet, but we are, we are categorized as abnormally dry. And this information comes from the US drought monitor, which we found out this week that most of the state is, is now in moderate drought conditions.

There’s that little chunk in Cuyahoga County in a portion of Lake. Up by the lake that is doing a little bit better than the rest of the state, um, areas of Appalachia and a portion of Western Ohio is in that little bit of better state. But, but for the moderate drought conditions that applies to all of Medina, Portage Summit counties, most of Gaga and, and most of Lake and Lorraine counties, and those outer chunks of Cuyahoga County, kind of at the fringes of the county.

And an an estimated 7.9. Million Ohioans are living in the area [00:16:00] affected by drought now.

[00:16:02] Chris: I, I haven’t checked the weather forecast. Is it still predicting rain finally this weekend? Yes.

[00:16:08] Lisa: I’m looking at the, uh, forecast, a 60% chance of rain Sunday night and a 90% chance of rain Sunday night. I’m sorry, and a 70% chance of rain on Monday.

[00:16:17] Courtney: So, Relief may be

[00:16:18] Chris: on the way. Finally. Yeah, we, we need, we definitely need it. You’re listening to today in Ohio, the dry spell has affected our air quality, as has all that smoke from Canada, which made us wonder, should we wear our N 95 pandemic masks when we’re outside to be safe. Lisa, it seems like there’s a difference of opinion on

[00:16:37] Lisa: this.

Yes. Um, but some experts are saying that they might be necessary, especially if you’re in a, a group like the elderly or the kids or if you have a lung condition, so sensitive groups. But they’re saying if you do wear a mask, really the only ones that are gonna filter out these fine particulates are k N 90 fives or N 90 fives.

They say that surgical or cloth [00:17:00] masks and can only block larger particles from entering your nose and mouth. But you know, and of course air quality changes hour by hour and sometimes minute by minute. But Thursday morning the air quality index in the Cleveland Akron Lorraine area was 154. And you know, once you get up above 150, that’s unhealthy for everybody.

But like I said, it kind of changes. So, uh, It depends. Of course there are some people who will never wear a mask again because of ideological reasons. But you know, when you think about it, this is why people in Beijing wear masks because the pollution is so, so bad. They’re used to wearing masks. I, I did see quite a few people out with masks.

I didn’t see a whole lot of N 90 fives, but people were realizing, cuz really it’s sometimes you can taste, actually taste that

[00:17:47] Chris: smoke. I know it, it has been, you could feel it. I, what blows my mind is, Before three and a half years ago, I don’t think 95% of America knew what an N 95 mask was, and then it [00:18:00] became the thing you needed for the pandemic.

But now we need ‘em again. Would’ve thought we would come into a point where it’s like, oh, remember those masks put ‘em back on because they. Air around you is unhealthy. Right?

[00:18:11] Lisa: Right. And there is a free website now that you can check, you know, they have live air quality readings. It’s called Air Now. It’s a collaboration between the epa, noaa, the Centers for Disease Control, nasa, and the National Park Services.

Um, they’re color coded from green, which is good, and maroon, which is hazardous, and they haven’t interact. And map a smoke tracking forecast and guidance for outdoor activities. And basically they say if, if the reading is 150 or above, you should really stay indoors.

[00:18:41] Chris: Okay. You’re listening to today in Ohio, sticking with the weather.

Not all the news is bad. We wondered whether all this sunshine might be lifting the collective mood of northeast Ohio. Layla, are you feeling happier?

[00:18:53] Leila: Of course I am. That’s the dichotomy that we’re grappling with right now. On one hand, we, we haven’t had a drop [00:19:00] of rain since what May 20th. So the plants and the crops are suffering.

But on the other hand, all that glorious sunshine, Julie Washington points out that physicians and sociologists say that sunlight is a powerful agent of health. Exposure to sunlight increases vitamin D production, which in turn increases our serotonin levels, and serotonin is our happy hormone. So higher serotonin levels can decrease stress levels and improve mood focus and sleep quality and, and just create an overall sense of calm and sunlight creates positive social interactions too.

Um, when serotonin levels are on the rise, it strengthens bones. You know, we’re, we’re actually kinder to one another. Studies show and our mood improves even further. We, we can get outside and do stuff like exercise or. Be with other people. Julie spoke with the owner of a local winery who’s been just thrilled to welcome 50% more guests to her wine’s patio this season.

And the metro parks have been [00:20:00] booming with visitors too. But, uh, you know, Canadian forest fire smog ruined everything, so nevermind.

[00:20:07] Chris: I have, I really have enjoyed it. I’m going to miss it when it’s over. Uh, but I, it’s, it’s good to see that people have taken full advantage of it and are in a better mood as a result.

Finally, with sunsets over Lake Erie, setting the smoke and haze from Canada, AGLO, we have a rare chance for special photos this week. Courtney, you live by the lake, so I gave you this question. What tips does our photographer Dave Perowitz have for shooting good photos?

[00:20:34] Courtney: Yes, these are some really helpful tips and I’m, I was so pleased to find this cuz I was trying to take photos the other day and they weren’t coming out.

So I’m sure a lot of folks will appreciate what Dave educates us on here for photography. So apparently there’s a simple trick here to getting a cool shot of this hazy sun. That’s burning through the, the smoke and the atmosphere. Basically, Dave tells us that you need to make sure that the exposure on your [00:21:00] camera is slightly underexposed or slightly darker than you normally prefer for photos like this, and there’s a quick, easy way to do it on your iPhone.

You can just kind of get the, the sun in your shot, get it in the frame, tap it, and then a, a borrow pop up and you can kind of. Drop the exposure there and make it darker. For Samsungs, you gotta go into pro mode, but there’s a similar mechanism there where you can toy with the shutter speed and, and, and make the image darker.

And, and Dave explains that it’s probably best to do these shots the last hour or so of the day. You can imagine that when the sun’s setting, you know, you get those prettier sunset colors normally, of course, but also with this wildfire smoke in the atmosphere. There’s the, the, the, the light from the sun has to travel through more smoke as it’s setting and, and going down to the horizon.

And that really kind of will give you a, a, a better view during that hour. And, and like you said, he [00:22:00] recommended maybe go out over the lake and, and, and that backdrop will be beautiful. I’ll tell you the last sunsets, the last few nights have been eerie, different, really odd to watch.

[00:22:12] Chris: Yeah, like you’re living on Mars and not the planet Earth because it’s just so red.

All right. Thanks to Dave. Check out his tips. They’re on cleveland.com. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. The city column of Cleveland has been in its namesake building for years. On the second floor at East ninth in Euclid, it’s moving. What does our columnist Steve Litt say about the new location? Lisa?

[00:22:35] Lisa: Yeah, the 111 year old city club of Cleveland is moving to 1317 Euclid, which is on the ground floor of the old FW Woolworth Building right in the heart of Playhouse Square. This move will take place sometime in September. They do not have a firm date yet. C e o Dan Mahler is thrilled. He says this will create a civic experience that’s accessible and the, you know, the current location, as Steve [00:23:00] Lip points out, has poor street visibility and little.

Sunlight because it faces north, so it’s Playhouse Square. Location will face south. It will have large glass windows and a sidewalk friendly storefront also, they’ll have more capacity, about 50% more. They’ll be able to seat 350 people for their debate. Forums and meetings, um, it’ll be about 14,600 square feet.

Now, the Woolworth Building was built in 1924 by renowned Cleveland Architects Walker and Weeks who also designed Severance Music Center. It’s two stories, but it has steel columns that were built to support more floors because they were gonna build more, but never did. But this structure will allow them to remove.

For those columns to create a column free space inside. And then on June 26th, they’re gonna be lifting these giant trusses to the roof to shift the load to the columns on the edge. So that’ll be a spectacle. But the one thing that’s not moving is the 1940 free [00:24:00] speech mural that’s in the current home.

It was done by Black Cleveland artist, Elmer Brown. It’s. Eight feet by 21 feet. It’s being donated to the Western Reserve Historical Society. Moulthrop says, you know, it’s a great mural, but it was a product of its time. There was only one black person in the mural and they believed that it was the image of the artist himself.

[00:24:21] Chris: Huh. That’s interesting cuz that’s been there for so long. The other good thing for the city club about this is it gets some closer. To Idea Stream, which is their big time partner idea stream broadcast, what they do, and they’ve worked together for years and years, so it gives them a closer location to to that, and they probably could partner on more things you’re listening to today in Ohio.

A hot story last week involved a sermon by a Bay Village priest involving L G B T Q issues and a congregant who stepped up to challenge the priest before being escorted out of the church. We knew police were called. Now we know [00:25:00] why, who was arrested in this incident? Well, so

[00:25:02] Leila: to remind listeners of, of all the backstory here, we told the story of Reverend Tim Guro at St.

Rayfield Church in in Bay talk, talking to his homily about the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, which is an L G B T Q group. That was a war. Awarded the Community Hero Award by the Los Angeles Dodgers recently, and Gro told the congregation that the church was under attack by this group, and he received arousing applause from some in the audience, but one member of the congregation, Avery Arden, who is transgender and uses the pronoun, they approached the mic to say how hurtful those comments were to them.

The person, you know, she. Arden left the church and was being comforted in the parking lot by a couple who also attends the church when a man erupted from the church. The 63 year old William Ruda from Avon Lake, who was there with his wife, his son, and grandchildren, he approached the group and said he couldn’t stomach what he witnessed when the service was interrupted, and, and he began threatening violence on [00:26:00] them.

He ordered them off the church property, which he didn’t have authority to do. And according to a Bay Village auxiliary lieutenant who happened to also be at the Mass, Ruda shoved him and he heard Ruda yell, I’ll beat your A and I’ll blow your effing head off. I’ll kill you before Ruda. Finally calm down.

It sounded like this, uh, this Bay Village lieutenant was very instrumental in deescalating this. At this point, Arden had walked away out of fear, and Ruda was charged Wednesday with two counts of aggravated menacing.

[00:26:36] Chris: Yeah, I th This was after the, the confrontation. This, the, these people were outside, they were consoling each other and, and the, the.

This guy was so exercised, he stormed out of the church and, and did that. It says something about what the priest sermon did. I mean, if they could energize somebody to do such a ridiculous thing, not really what church is about. You’re really not expecting people who go to a church service [00:27:00] to threaten to kill people.

[00:27:01] Leila: Right. Yeah. I mean, I think also this speaks to the, um, terrible hatred and the brazen the brazenness of people who feel like they can just express that hatred in such a. Insane way like that. I mean, you know, just last week Leslie Kuba wrote a column to kick off Pride Month and she mentioned that the Department of Homeland Security recently issued a national terrorism advisory system bulletin warning specific groups to be prepared for domestic violent extremists.

The LGBTQ population is listed among the likely targets of that, and I’m so sorry that that’s the reality that the L G B T Q community has to face, and that that warning is pertaining to what I imagine are coordinated threats of violence. That, but, you know, this is a spontaneous threat of violence that happened in this church parking lot, and that is, um, it’s terrifying.

I’m, I just can’t believe this

[00:27:52] Chris: happened. Well, they’re lucky that the, the auxiliary officer was there, and you’re right, it sounds like that officer was [00:28:00] instrumental in calming this down. We talk about that a lot. That’s the police are Dees escalators and the effective ones are the ones that are able to, to bring an end to this kind of behavior.

It’s today in Ohio. That’s it for the Friday episode. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks Courtney. Thanks Layla. Everybody have a great weekend. Come on back Monday we’ll be talking about the news.