CLEVELAND, Ohio – Gov. Mike DeWine declared a public health emergency to stop the sale of intoxicating hemp — both beverages and candylike products.
We’re talking about some Republicans already pushing back on Today in Ohio.
Listen online here.
Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin, impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.
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:
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine apparently got fed up with waiting. He’s been trying to regulate intoxicating hemp products for at least a year and a half, yet the Legislature remains in the pockets of the hemp producers. So, what is DeWine doing to force the issue?
What, is Cleveland trying to become the Villages in Florida? What not cool vehicle is Mayor Justin Bibb trying put on Cleveland streets?
A lot of people are howling about a hasty seemingly secret deal by Ideastream and Cleveland State University to end a student-run radio station at the school so Ideastream could turn it into a jazz station. What do we know about how this came about? Why all the stealth?
Will they also teach about the harmful side of Christianity? What do lawmakers want to legalize in Ohio classrooms?
Lorain County is not waiting for the Legislature to do something about property tax complaints. What is its solution for some who feel the squeeze?
Northeast Ohio has had an inexplicable record-long stretch of months without a U.S. Attorney. Has that stretch formally ended?
How is Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court measuring its success in a new gun monitoring program?
Leila, you wrote a passionate column this week about guns. What was your specific position?
How are Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland VA giving the sense of touch back to some people who lost it?
More Today in Ohio
Cuyahoga County pays fired jail leader $45K after already giving him $200K to do nothing
How the Browns and Brook Park are trying to control regional transportation without input
Ohio’s 2-tier school system: Why superintendents get their pension paid but teachers don’t
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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.
Chris Quinn (00:01.409)
I think we have a battle of Mike DeWine versus the Republicans in the legislature. It’s the first story we’re talking about on Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Lisa Garvin, Laura Johnston and Leila Tasi. Lisa, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine apparently got fed up with waiting. He has been trying to regulate intoxicating hemp products for at least a year and a half.
Yet the legislature remains in the pockets of the hemp producers. So what did DeWine do yesterday to force this issue and in his mind, protect children?
Lisa (00:39.816)
Yeah, he issued an order yesterday that declares intoxicating hemp products to be a public health emergency and orders all intoxicating hemp products removed from public display and they cannot be sold for the duration of the emergency, which is currently 90 days. So it gives authorization to the Ohio Department of Agriculture to exclude intoxicating hemp products from the legal definition of hemp in the Ohio revised code.
There’s an October 14th deadline to remove the products. And then if they’re not removed by October 14th, they’re subject to seizure and people who sell them could face $500 a day fines. So DeWine in his order says, I’m taking action today under the authority of my office to get these products off the streets and off the shelves while the general assembly continues to work on legislation. So.
There is legislation. It was Senate Bill 86. It was passed by the Senate, but it’s languished since then. And this would restrict sales of intoxicating hemp to dispensaries only and only to people age 21 and older. And that’s, believe, sponsored by Senator Steve Huffman. But Representative Tex Fisher, a Republican from Mahoning County, says,
He’ll file a resolution ending the order in early November. He says that hemp product manufacturers will be devastated if they have to get rid of their inventory.
Chris Quinn (02:03.944)
Yeah, right. It’s all about the economy. It’s amazing to me that the legislature hasn’t moved on this because the wine from the beginning effectively showed this stuff is marketed to kids. It’s all in gummy bags and it looks like candy. And when he came out and he said, I can’t believe this stuff has been sold in gas stations. We have to stop it. It seemed like a no brainer. Right. I mean, we regulate the heck out of marijuana.
Lisa (02:28.308)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (02:30.645)
But because they’ve toyed with hemp to get the intoxicating presence up, that stuff is just sold willy-nilly with no rules whatsoever. Yet, the lawmakers refuse to do anything because they’re just bought and paid for by whoever wants to throw money around. I think DeWine has put them in a very tough position. By doing the order, he’s forcing them to come out into the spotlight, and that guy in Mahoney County did, to come out and say, I’ve got to protect the producers.
Lisa (02:59.817)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (02:59.873)
Give me a break. That’s ridiculous. This stuff, of course, should be regulated. The sad thing is that the liquid, the beverages that have been infused with this have become popular. It’s a popular replacement for alcohol, which people are trying to get away from because it’s dangerous. There is no, I don’t believe, marijuana equivalent in the dispensaries. So those beverages that people are using to get away from alcohol will no longer be available.
unless we somehow legalize them in the dispensaries.
Lisa (03:32.532)
You we did make a point when we talked about this earlier is that the issue with the beverages is that they’re probably subject to more regulation because they’re being sold and distributed to through beer and wine companies. So there’s going to be an automatic layer of regulation where it’s these THC, you know, Delta nine and so forth enhanced, you know, hemp products are sold anywhere at the seven 11 wherever.
Chris Quinn (03:55.607)
They just need to regulate this like they regulate marijuana and everybody would be fine. Yeah, right. But the fact that they haven’t and that Mike DeWine had to take this extraordinary step and their immediate reaction is to stop this step tells you everything you need to know about our corrupted legislature. They don’t serve people. This is a danger to kids, man. This is I mean, Mike DeWine from day one has said, look, we got to protect kids from getting this stuff. And the legislature is like, no, no.
Lisa (03:59.952)
and alcohol.
Lisa (04:11.816)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (04:25.045)
The hamptries is making good money to hell with the children. This has put them in a tough spot. If they don’t act appropriately, a whole lot of people are going to be asking them why. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. What is Cleveland trying to become the villages in Florida? Laila, what not cool vehicle is Mayor Justin Bibb trying to put on Cleveland streets?
Leila (04:43.078)
It’s golf carts. And yeah, it totally sounds like Florida retirement community vibes here. But what Justin Bibb is proposing is not quite letting Clevelanders cruise around with a drink in hand. He wants to let businesses operate golf carts on city streets, mainly downtown for short trips and tours.
And this idea came after companies like Bob’s Bike Tours and the Golf Cart Girl Cleveland said that they would like to offer rides for people who can’t or don’t want to pedal or who just want a quick shuttle between bars and stadiums or hotels. So these would be electric carts capped at 25 miles per hour, only allowed on streets with speed limits under 35.
and limited to licensed operators, not rentals for anyone who wants to just kind of joy ride around. The proposal includes inspections, annual $150 fees, and you have to have clear markings showing which business owns each cart. council members are intrigued by this, but they’re very wary because safety and nuisance driving are big concerns. Nobody wants a repeat of the dirt bike chaos, although that would be…
absolutely hilarious if the dirt bikes were replaced by packs of golf cart drivers popping wheelies in intersections.
Chris Quinn (06:06.765)
Well, I just think of these as the real geriatric set. And I know out on the islands, they’re big deal and people all are excited about them. But generally speaking, this is what people do who are the older set. I’m just surprised the city that’s trying to be cool is going with golf carts.
Laura (06:30.54)
I mean, my kids love golf carts like that was their favorite thing when we were on vacation in North Carolina. We had a golf cart for the week and I mean, because they I think they think they’re fun and in Rocky River there are a couple of families that have golf carts that drive them on the streets. They have a license plate. You’ll see them like parked in a parking lot somewhere. And I’ve always said like this would be so cool because it’s a mile square community. You don’t need a car to get to a lot of places, but I got a Jeep Wrangler, which is like the closest car you could get to a golf.
Chris Quinn (06:48.525)
you
Laura (07:00.27)
I think.
Lisa (07:01.256)
Well I have a question though is it are these gonna have drivers or do you rent them to drive yourself?
Leila (07:01.568)
I am.
Leila (07:07.628)
No, these are, these would have drivers, I believe, there for those tours and yeah, so it’d be kind of like a professional service for people who need a lift. But what I’m wondering about is that city council just spent weeks talking about how reckless driving has gotten so bad that they might need to bring back traffic cameras to catch speeders and red light runners and stuff. So in that context, feels a little contradictory to.
Lisa (07:10.248)
huh.
Laura (07:10.444)
Yeah, it’s like a tour.
Leila (07:32.784)
green light these slow moving open air golf carts in that same environment, doesn’t it? I mean, if Cleveland’s roads already feel unsafe in a full-sized car, it’s hard to imagine feeling secure riding in what’s basically a battery powered lawn chair next to a speeding SUV.
Laura (07:47.918)
you
Lisa (07:49.444)
Well, but it is one step up from those electric scooters, which by the way, I haven’t seen any on downtown streets lately.
Leila (07:56.23)
Bye.
Chris Quinn (07:57.153)
Well, here’s my feeling. If the sheriff’s office wants to engage and chase us downtown, let them chase the golf carts because you’re not going 100 miles an hour. You are talking to somebody who has a kid actually hot wired a golf cart. was like 12 or 13 years old. I grew up on a golf course and it was sitting up on the golf course and I used a paperclip to ingeniously get it started. Me and my friends had a good time driving it around and then parked it at a Jovohova Witnesses Hall.
Leila (08:02.886)
Or give them golf carts.
Lisa (08:06.324)
There’s an idea.
Chris Quinn (08:26.187)
so that they’d have a big conversation about how did the golf cart get here? Great story. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. A lot of people are howling about a hasty, seemingly secret deal by Ideastream and Cleveland State University to end a student-run radio station at the school so Ideastream could turn into a jazz station. Laura, what do we know about how this came about? Why all the stealth and why weren’t the students
Laura (08:29.747)
my gosh.
Chris Quinn (08:55.767)
part of this decision process.
Laura (08:57.634)
These are very good questions and I have a feeling we don’t yet know the entire story. We have records requests out and so we hope to get to the bottom of it. But CSU on Friday announced in this kind of happy talk press release that it transferred operations of 89.3 FM to Ideastream. That’s ending nearly five decades of campus programming. And it’s what you think of with college radio. All sorts of kids got to try out being DJs. They had all sorts of different music that they played.
But now it’s going to be an all jazz station. And I loved our Plain Dealer headline today. It had the words jazz hands, which I was like, that was classic. So people are mad about this. There are about 200 people that came to a protest on Tuesday because they feel like they didn’t get a say. And it’s mourning the loss of WCSB as a student organization that brought together the community.
Chris Quinn (09:48.747)
I’ve been hearing from people nonstop about this. They’re very angry about it and they’re disappointed that two institutions that they’ve generally respected would let them down this way. I don’t understand the CSU side of this. They are a school. They are about education and a student run radio station trains kids to do all sorts of things. It’s the engineering, it’s the on air, it’s the music, it’s the running it, the managing of it.
Laura (09:57.294)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (10:16.097)
And it’s all gone. Now it’s just going to be managed by IdeaStream, the big monster public broadcaster, and it’s about jazz. Now I’m a huge jazz fan, have been for years, but it is a tiny audience and it’s not really the student audience. Let’s face it, there aren’t a whole lot of student jazz fans. I don’t get this. I don’t get why CSU would abandon the students, turn it over to IdeaStream.
to appeal to an audience that has nothing to do with the school, because it remains the license of Cleveland State University. They’ve done a terrible job explaining this, and I think the protests and the spotlight will stay on them until they come clean. How did this come about?
Lisa (10:58.174)
Can I give my perspective as a long time radio person and an NPR anchor for six years is that, first of all, when they change formats, you don’t give people a chance to do a farewell broadcast. You don’t really tell them I’ve had a time. I mean, this is typical standard operating procedure when a radio station changes formats. And they typically escort you to the edge of the property line that very day so there’s no theft or sabotage. So this is kind of…
how things are done in the radio world. And yes, I think a student station going away is a bad thing. The same thing happened in Houston with Rice University. But you know, at least it’s not…
Chris Quinn (11:35.607)
Wait, stop, stop, stop. So did the public radio station there take over the Rice University station? Same thing, same exact kind of thing, huh?
Lisa (11:41.798)
Yes, they did. Yeah, they took over the frequency. Yeah, it was KTRU, Rice University. And NPR used it because they had classical and news and they wanted to split them into separate stations. I understand the student, know, yeah, I really like independent radio, but it’s better off that they went to NPR. You know, my station, KUHF in Houston was licensed to the University of Houston. We had student programs, we had student things.
Hopefully they’ll do that. Hopefully the students will still have a say, but it’s a heck of a lot better to be bought by an NPR affiliate than a corporate radio station.
Chris Quinn (12:18.721)
How well did they explain it to the public when it happened there? Because that’s what’s missing here, is any kind of real explanation about the reason for this.
Lisa (12:30.446)
I don’t remember. People of course were mad because TRU was around for a really long time, it ended up, like I said, students were able to work at this new station and get credits for working at the station. So hopefully CSU does that.
Chris Quinn (12:49.783)
fascinating perspective. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Well, they also teach about the harmful side of Christianity. Lisa, what do lawmakers want to legalize in Ohio classrooms?
Lisa (13:01.628)
It’s called House Bill 486, also known as the Charlie Kirk American Heritage Act, that’s being sponsored by Republicans Gary Klick of Sandusky and Mike Dovila of Berea. So this would allow teaching about the positive impact of Christianity on American history. And they claim that teachers hold back on that out of fear of being accused of proselytizing their students.
So Click says this removes invisible shackles that hinder full transparency and teaching of American history. And he said it’s named for Charlie Kirk because he brought to light important historical facts that people didn’t like to hear. So this would apply to public and charter schools, not private schools.
a Democrat from Columbus, Beryl Brown Pickle Antonio, says the bill only talks about Christianity and it may violate the First Amendment clause that against establishing freedom from government establishment of religion. yeah, so Click says, well, it focuses on Christianity because those are the complaints I’ve personally received and many Christian groups came from Europe to settle in the United States. Now the bill doesn’t allow teachers to say that Christianity is superior
to other faiths, but that gives me cold comfort.
Chris Quinn (14:17.537)
Look, if we want to teach about the history of Christian religion in United States, let’s do it. But it’s not just the positive impacts. Let’s talk about the negative impacts. Let’s talk about the mega Christian churches of the 70s and 80s in which the pastors were doing all sorts of sleazy things and ended up getting defrocked. Let’s talk about the Catholic Church’s abuse of
children left and right with the sex scandals that we’ve reported on repeatedly. It’s, it’s, it’s fine. It’s all part of the history, but you can’t segregate out and just say you’re going to teach about the positive parts without talking about the bad parts because they’re pretty much co-equal. Anybody disagree with that?
Lisa (15:02.461)
No.
Leila (15:03.384)
No.
Chris Quinn (15:04.193)
Ha ha.
Laura (15:04.258)
Definitely not. there’s a whole lot that you could, mean, Christianity is an integral part of American history and world history, but there are a lot of downsides and you have to have the context.
Chris Quinn (15:15.975)
Yeah. Yeah. So teach away, but teach the whole history. Let’s not hide the parts you don’t like.
Lisa (15:23.604)
Yeah. And let’s not forget the missionaries who, you know, forcibly changed native Americans, you know, into, into white, you know, into the white, right? All of that, all the things and naming it for Charlie Kirk. Is that the biggest dog whistle you ever heard in your life?
Laura (15:30.776)
smallpox blankets and all the things.
Ugh.
Chris Quinn (15:38.509)
Yeah. Well, and it’s like it’s Gary Klick. He’s become the cartoon character of the legislature. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Lorraine County is not waiting for the legislature to do something about property tax complaints. What’s the solution there for some who are feeling the squeeze?
Laura (15:39.79)
Charlie Kirk heritage. Like this is Ohio, he’s not from here.
Leila (16:03.834)
Well, county leaders have come up with their own local relief plan aimed at seniors, veterans, and residents with disabilities who’ve been hit hard by the big jump in property values over the latest reappraisal. They’re basically adding a county level version of Ohio’s homestead tax exemption. This is a credit that lowers the taxable value of a homeowner’s primary residence. So if you already qualify for the state exemption,
you’ll automatically get the county’s version too, no extra paperwork. For seniors or people with disabilities making $40,000 a year or less, the credit knocks off taxes on $28,000 worth of their home’s value. And for disabled veterans, that doubles to $56,000. So it’s all locally funded, there’s no help from the states, and it kicks in starting with the 2025 tax year. County leaders say it’s a way to give some immediate relief to residents who are feeling the squeeze.
while the rest of Ohio continues to kind of debate whether the property tax system itself needs a bigger overhaul.
Chris Quinn (17:09.067)
The problem, of course, is if you exempt some people from taxes, the rest of the people pay the taxes. This is piecemeal. It’s what we talk about repeatedly. Everybody is attacking this in a piecemeal fashion, which isn’t solving the problem and will lead next November to the abolishing of all property taxes and a chaotic stretch in Ohio. I salute them for trying to do something, but
Leila (17:16.292)
writes.
Chris Quinn (17:37.665)
This isn’t the solution. Our tax system is wholesale busted and no one is trying to fix it in the macro. They all keep doing little things like this. This will stick it to a whole lot of people who really can’t afford it, that are not covered by this. And the more you do this, Anna Staver did a great story about how many taxes have been exempted. The rest of us pay the burden and that burden is what has created fury.
Leila (18:06.544)
That’s right. Yeah, piecemeal is the right way to describe it. Even with this local homestead boost, it only helps a narrow group of people, seniors, veterans, disabled. For everyone else, working families whose assessments shot up and whose incomes didn’t, there’s no relief.
Chris Quinn (18:24.301)
You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Northeast Ohio has had an inexplicable record long stretch of months without a US attorney. Laura has that stretch finally and formally ended.
Laura (18:37.806)
Yes, this is good news for Northeast Ohio. It’s the longest ever stretch. The last confirmed US attorney was Justin Herdman. He left in January of 2021. So now finally, the US Senate voted on Tuesday 51 to 47 to confirm David Tupfer as the US attorney for Northern District Ohio. He was among more than 100 of Trump administration nominees, confirmed in a single vote that was under new Senate rules changed in September that allowed multiple lower level
nominees to be approved at once. Because obviously this is the reason we haven’t had a confirmed AG is not, sorry, not an AG attorney. Okay. U S attorney. Thank you. U S attorney is that the Democrats and the Republicans have been fighting for that many years in Congress and nobody wanted to get this done. So he’s served on the role since July. That’s when Pam Bondi appointed him on a temporary basis. He’s from Warren.
Chris Quinn (19:16.823)
US.
Laura (19:34.466)
He’s for the first U.S. attorney in more than 117 years from the Mahoning Valley, so representing that area. And he’s been a frontline prosecutor for 25 years.
Chris Quinn (19:45.419)
Yeah, let’s be careful about saying this was because of a fight between Republicans and Democrats. The largest stretch of this for pretty much the entirety of Joe Biden’s term in office. J.D. Vance was responsible for blocking it. He he was playing games and depriving Ohio, Northeast Ohio of a U.S. prosecutor, which gummed up the whole office. This is J.D. Vance’s fault. Once Trump got into office, it’s taken nine months, but
The biggest stretch comes back to our wonderful vice president.
Laura (20:17.87)
who was representing the state. So we’ll have to see how this changes anything in the office. If it does, he’s worked in the Federal Prosecutor’s Office since 2008, a wide variety of cases, drug trafficking, rings, violent and white collar crime, all out of Youngstown, but also supervised Youngstown and Akron branches lately. So he’s moved around a little bit. I hope he’s a good prosecutor.
Chris Quinn (20:41.739)
You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Lisa, how is the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court System measuring its success with a new gun monitoring program?
Lisa (20:51.646)
Yeah, that program is called the Juvenile Court Gun Reduction and Intervention Program, and they are showing promising early results. So this is an option for those youths arrested on weapons charges that don’t pose a high enough risk to be detained. So, so far nine youths have been approved, and what happens is they get an ankle monitor and they’re sent home for the night with a promise to return for their arraignment in court the next day.
then the judge decides if that monitoring or other oversight will continue or whether they get detained. So Chief Probation Officer Sarah Pubent says, this fast tracks the court process and access to intervention services. The kids get to stay in the community where there are more options to get them back on the right track and they can be with their family. Prosecutor Mike O’Malley wouldn’t discuss the program with us, but the participants are controlled by his office. So he’s the one who basically picks the ones who will go through this program.
Pubent says, typical charges for kids in this program are improper handling of a firearm or a weapon, having a weapon while under disability. And this is distinct from those who use guns to threaten and harm others. There was a similar program established in 2023 for nonviolent car thefts. And that’s been really successful. 116 kids have taken part so far. Only one of them skipped their court date and only one re-offended while on probation.
Chris Quinn (22:15.147)
That’s the key is we discussed earlier this week. It’s what you do with them to stop them from committing new crimes to getting them back on track. So it’s good that they’re seeing a drop in recidivism because they’re not putting them into an institution where they’re surrounded by criminals that coach them on being a better criminal. But the court’s got to do a good job in analyzing the needs of each kid to steer them in the right way. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Leila, let’s talk about a different
gun story you wrote a passionate column about them this week what was your position
Leila (22:49.39)
Yeah, I wanted to use this column to kind of make the simple but urgent point that red flag laws really do work. We know that they do. mean, states that have them, like Connecticut, Indiana, even Florida have seen fewer suicides and in some cases, fewer gun homicides. And red flag laws allow police or family members to petition a court to temporarily remove firearms from someone who poses a danger to themselves or others.
They give families or police a legal way to step in when someone is clearly spiraling toward that danger zone before that person can do harm. But in Ohio, the political will just isn’t there to get something like this passed. Former Governor John Kasich actually tried to do this in 2018. He was a Republican governor proposing a whole package of reforms. Stronger background checks were included in that. Bans on armor-piercing bullets and bump stocks.
closing loopholes and yeah, the red flag law was also part of that. And it was all grounded in research and framed as a public safety measure, not an attack on gun rights, but the legislature refused to even give it a vote. And then after the horrific 2019 Dayton massacre, Mike DeWine stood on stage while people chanted, something at him. And he promised reform. He even proposed a red flag measure himself. But once again, the legislature killed it.
And over the next few years, Ohio has then gone on to loosen gun laws instead with permitless carry and fewer training requirements and more places that you can bring a gun. So that’s really what I wanted to drive home is that we’ve had level-headed Republican leaders who have pitched this as a way to try to at least mitigate some of the harm that guns do, and it just has gotten nowhere.
Chris Quinn (24:43.009)
Yeah, because we have a bot and paid for legislature with the gun industry. Look, the thing I don’t think people quite get is in Ohio, if you are threatening to harm yourself and others and you are taken to a mental hospital against your will for observation and your gun is taken away from you during that time, which is the police can do the minute you’re released from that hospital, you can go to the police station and get your gun back.
That is your right in Ohio. So the day you walk out of the hospital where you were taken against your will because of the danger you presented to your community, you get your gun back. It’s ridiculous. There is no way you can justify that. That is what the red flag clause is about. And for people that have family members that understand this, they would go and they would work with the court to do this. And the only way you get your gun back then is if a doctor
who is working with you says, okay, I think they have their faculties back and I think it’s okay. Not in Ohio. The person gets it back immediately. It’s just inexcusable that our legislature would rather take money from the gun industry and let them sell willy-nilly than protect the people of this state.
Leila (26:00.943)
And I’ve got to believe that even most gun rights advocates would support something like this because they don’t want guns to be in the hands of someone who could do harm to themselves or others because of their mental state. But our legislature doesn’t reflect the feelings of the people of Ohio.
Chris Quinn (26:19.469)
Imagine being the police officer who was sent to the house where somebody is threatening to harm. They’re in danger the minute they walk up to that house because somebody has a gun. You’re the police officer that deescalates that situation, gets the gun away, takes care of business, and then you’re in the police station five days later when that person walks in and says, give me my gun back, and you don’t have a choice. Think about how wrong that picture is.
Leila (26:26.278)
Yeah.
Leila (26:44.591)
Right.
Chris Quinn (26:48.107)
And that’s what Matt Hoffman and our legislature wants the situation to be. It’s on them. The governors have tried to do the right thing. This is basic common sense. But Matt Hoffman wants people who are mentally ill to have weapons. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Our Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland VA giving the sense of touch back to some people who lost it, Laura.
Laura (27:15.35)
This is a $9.9 million grant that is testing out a new prosthetic hand that allows amputees to, again, have a sense of touch, which sounds really cool. It’s called iSense. It’s short for implanted soma to sensory electrical neurostimulation and sensing system, which is why it needs a short form. But it uses electrodes planted in the arm that detect muscle movement to control the hand and simulate the nerve and the touch sensation. And it uses Bluetooth to connect that all.
So was developed at Case Western Reserve. They’ve received at least one grant already from the Defense Advanced Research Project agencies for this. And they start a study next year. Over four years, they’re going to enroll a dozen upper limb amputees who are going to compare the standard prosthetic arms to this sensory enabled one.
Chris Quinn (28:05.557)
This is the kind of thing that you love to hear about, that unthinkable even 20 years ago, you might be able to give people things like this. It’s just like giving the site back to people. It’s a very exciting development. And again, it’s part of the prowess of Cleveland in healthcare.
Laura (28:23.342)
Yeah, and having a cutting edge research institute that is big on innovation working with a hospital.
Chris Quinn (28:33.214)
And very cool story read about it on cleveland.com you’re listening to today in ohio that’s it for the thursday episode thanks lela thanks lisa thanks laura we’ll be back friday to wrap up the week of news.