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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Bipartisan legislators want Ohio to hold companies behind AI chatbots liable for suggesting harmful behaviors. We’re talking about cracking down on artificial intelligence 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: Last week they were prohibiting you from marrying an AI, because it’s not a person. But now Ohio lawmakers want to be able to penalize an AI if it gives bad advice. How would that work. When is the last time someone was convicted of trying to strangle someone – clearly a seriously violent crime – and not go to prison. What was the sentence for Bobby George after he admitted to trying to strangle his girlfriend? Congressman Max Miller wants to regulate and tax cryptocurrency. How does he propose to do that? A weekend party at an Airbnb mansion in Bath Township resulted in wild gunplay and a whole lot of injured kids. Why is it so difficult for police everywhere to contain these kinds of parties at short term rentals? What gets into peoples’ heads that makes them think it is all right to send revenge porn? What’s the story behind the revenge porn charges against the former president of Summa Health Medical Group? Yesterday was Election Day. There was no doubt that Justin Bibb would get a second term as Cleveland mayor, but we had some contested City Council races and some interesting races in the burbs. What were the highlights? MetroHealth followed through on its threat to cut care for the needy, part of the hospital system’s effort to be solvent. What’s the upshot of the decision? Where do things stand in the burgeoning controversy over how many secret pleadings the former execs of FirstEnergy have filed in court as they battle charges of fueling the biggest corruption case in Ohio history? Blizzard of Oz? The Fast and the Furious? You have to wonder about the motives for this one. Why does Cleveland Hopkins International Airport want to come up with names for its snowplows? More Today in Ohio Terrible timing: Disabilities board may seek property tax hike during year of tax rebellion Public cash “goes poof:” Millions disappear in Huntington Building’s looming foreclosure Northeast Ohio homes are $200,000 less than America’s median. Why don’t millennials flock here? We have an Apple podcasts channel exclusively for this podcast. Subscribe here. Do you get your podcasts on Spotify? Find us here. RadioPublic is another popular podcast vehicle, and 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. Chris Quinn (00:01.346) Well, Republicans took it on the chin across the country last night on election day. And that’s a good sign because it tells Donald Trump that his move to authoritarian government may be coming to an end. I should remind everybody more people voted against Donald Trump last time than voted for him, even though he tries to make it sound like he had a big victory. But last night, people spoke up. Let’s hope the midterms move in a direction to reclaim democracy. We’ll be talking about election results on Today in Ohio. It’s the news podcast discussion from cleveham.com and the Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Laura Johnston, Courtney Astolfi and Lisa Garvin. Courtney, last week, they were prohibiting you from marrying an AI because it’s not a person. But now Ohio lawmakers want to be able to penalize an AI if it gives bad advice. How would that work? Courtney (00:56.364) Yeah, the House is taking aim at AI chatbots that have encouraged users to harm themselves or in instances where AI chatbots are, you know, playing a role in folks’ suicidal thoughts, basically. And the lawmakers here have put forth a bipartisan bill that would make the AI companies legally liable if their chatbots go down this kind of road. This is House Bill 524. It’s sponsored by a Columbus Democrat, Christine Cochley. and Ty Matthews, a Republican out of Hancock County. And what this measure would do is it would give the AG power to investigate cases where chat bots promote self harm or violence. The AG could also issue cease and desist orders and seek civil penalties of up to 50 grand for each violation. These proceeds would go to the state’s suicide and crisis line. And, you know, this comes in the context of growing questions about what chat pods are the info they’re offering people. mean, you look at that case out in California where a 16 year old boy died by suicide after exchanging messages with Chad GPT. know, Chad GPT is said to have written him a suicide note in that case. And Ohio lawmakers are, are, you know, trying to look out and get ahead of this. And they say it actually dovetails Chris with that bill from last week saying that you know, this would allow them to hold the companies liable because AI under that other bill wouldn’t be considered a person and have that liability. Chris Quinn (02:31.234) What I’m surprised about with both of these pieces of legislation is the Republicans clearly aren’t getting the JD Vance memo. JD Vance was thrust into politics by the tech oligarchs that want no regulation on things like AI. There was a great story this week, I think it was in the Washington Post, about how JD Vance was part of a group that got together a few years back. made a movie that was... I think a fictionalized version of this recently on Netflix. They got together to say, need an oligarchy elite that influences government because we can’t leave it to the proletariat to make the decisions. And they want to make sure that technology is unrestrained. They believe in going ahead full bore on tech. So putting these kinds of rules in runs completely counter. to what this group is doing. This group did thrust JD Vance, this nobody from nowhere into a heartbeat away from the presidency. So I’m surprised. I’m not surprised the Democrats would do it. I’m surprised Republicans would do it because they’re all about not regulating tech. Courtney (03:41.688) Yeah, I mean, I have that thought too, Chris. I’m wondering, you know, we talk so much about lobbyists and industry influence on our lawmakers in Columbus. I wonder if AI companies just haven’t gotten around to pumping money at the state level yet. Maybe they’ve started at the federal level. I’m curious about that as well. You know, not necessarily smooth sailing ahead. At least one Republican downstate wants to potentially tinker with this bill. He wants to clarify how broad the attorney general’s investigative powers would be in this case. So there is some Republican pushback maybe starting to take shape, but the bill is bipartisan. So I’m not sure there. Chris Quinn (04:24.542) I, my bet is this one doesn’t get passed. The first one about not marrying an AI. don’t think anybody in the tech world would care about that. Maybe they would, but I think this one, the memo will come down. We don’t want regulations on technology. That’s the whole thrust of this is that the guy, you know, the cryptocurrency AI, they want free sailing and they plan to use their influence and power to make sure that people run in the country know that. and obey them. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. When is the last time someone was convicted of trying to strangle someone? Clearly a seriously violent crime and not go to prison. We don’t have the answer to that question yet, but we are working on a story. What we do know is what the sentence was for Bobby George after he admitted trying to strangle his girlfriend, Lisa, what was it? Lisa Garvin (05:06.186) you Lisa Garvin (05:18.058) Yeah, so Bobby George actually pled guilty earlier this week to attempted strangulation in a June 2024 incident involving his girlfriend who is unidentified at this point. So he gets five years of probation. He cannot have any contact with a victim or her family. He has to report to his probation officer every three months and has to submit to drug testing. So George agreed to skip grand jury proceedings and admit to the fifth degree felony charge in exchange for the probation. Prosecutors had earlier tried to charge him with attempted murder and rape. So now it’s dropped to a fifth degree felony. Jefferson County prosecutor, Jane Hanlon, who handled the case because Mike O’Malley had a conflict of interest, said a jury trial could have caused further harm to the victim. She said that, you know, I believe that George abuses women and it took this young girl to hold him to account for his actions. And this, he will be a convicted felon for the rest of his life. So the victim was not in court. She sent a letter detailing the incident that was read out in court. The relationship became controlling and abusive. In this incident, she was choked multiple times. He threw her around the house and then forced a towel down her throat as she prayed in a closet and said, do you think God’s gonna help you now? But George is defiant. In a statement, he said the original allegations were proven false. He was never interviewed by law enforcement after the incident. He pled guilty to avoid affecting his family and his employees. And he pulled out the Trump card. said, Trump was targeted by his political enemies with prosecutorial power. And so was I, and he was vindicated and I will be vindicated too. Chris Quinn (07:01.334) Yeah, you can’t say I’ll be vindicated when you plead guilty. He admitted it. This is not some phony thing. He admitted it. He wasn’t vindicated in any way, shape or form. He admitted trying to strangle this woman, trying to stuff a towel down her throat to stop her from being able to breathe. I don’t get why he’s not in prison. If you admit that, why aren’t you going away? You are a dangerous felon. Lisa Garvin (07:05.631) Thank you. Lisa Garvin (07:24.042) Mmm. Chris Quinn (07:29.354) It’s stunning to me that in this place where he is saying, did it, which the judge makes you admit it. It’s not, I’m only saying I did it to avoid a sentence that’s worse. They’re saying you did do this. You’re confessing to it right here by pleading guilty and he did. Why is he not in prison? Lisa Garvin (07:50.004) Well, I don’t know much how much pull the George family has in Cleveland. I mean, they’re a prominent business family here. I don’t know how much influence they have on, you know, the system. Chris Quinn (08:00.034) Well, make no mistake about it. No matter what he says, he has admitted to being a violent abuser of women. And if you go to his restaurant, you’re supporting somebody that does that. He should be in prison. I’m amazed that the judge let him go. I’m amazed. And it does. I’m getting tons of email from people saying, do you think he would have gotten off if he were a black defendant? Do you think he would have gotten off if he didn’t put money into the political coffers of all these politicians? Lisa Garvin (08:28.168) Mm-hmm. Chris Quinn (08:29.942) And you know, the answer to that is no, he would be in prison. Anybody else would be in prison. How does this guy walk free while being defiant after admitting that he abused her? Shocking, shocking story. Lisa Garvin (08:42.676) I wonder, yeah, I wonder if he’ll ask President Trump for pardon. Chris Quinn (08:47.52) Yeah, but he can’t get it because it’s not federal. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Congressman Max Miller wants to regulate and tax cryptocurrency. Laura, how does he propose to do that? Laura (08:59.782) This is a crypto tax bill that has some bipartisan support with Nevada Democrat Stephen Horsford, and they’re both on the tax writing House Ways and Means Committee together. So what they’re saying is, the cryptocurrency industry spent more than $130 million to sway federal elections last year, and they want to make sure that they regulate the cryptocurrency. And this is going to complement previous efforts to do this, including something called the Genius Act, which is guiding and establishing national innovation for US stable coins. You got to love congressional acronyms. And that establishes this regulatory framework for all of this $250 billion market that’s specifically for stable coins, which is a type of cryptocurrency that’s tied to the value of an asset like the US dollar. So he says, His bill is going to resolve these ongoing questions about how cryptocurrency should be taxed and still position the U.S. as a global leader in digital assets. I still have so many questions about cryptocurrency. I mean, we are spending a lot of time on it in government and in the state too. And I mean, how many Americans are investing in this right now? Just rich people? Chris Quinn (10:10.348) I’m shocked the Republican like Max Miller is talking like this. The New Yorker did a terrific story last year about how the cryptocurrency is just squashing anybody that gets in their way, including Sherrod Brown. mean, Bernie Moreno is in the Senate because the cryptocurrency industry funded the campaign because they saw Sherrod Brown as somebody that was working against them. The story was a jaw dropper because they have incredible amounts of money and they use it as muscle and the Republicans all love it. give it to us, we won’t regulate you. It gets you back to our first conversation on this episode. But Max Miller’s a Republican. What’s he thinking? I wonder if he’s feeling like, hey, you put all that money behind Bernie Moreno, I could have a tough race. I want money, so I’ll talk about possibly regulating you so that you pay attention to me and give me money. That could work the other way. They could say, Max Miller’s bad news, get rid of him. Laura (10:48.006) and a Trumpy one. Laura (11:02.487) Laura (11:06.3) I don’t know. mean, obviously there’s probably some bad blood between Marino and Miller at this point because of their personal relationship. I don’t know if that weighs into it, but it is, I mean... Chris Quinn (11:17.376) Wow, wouldn’t that be interesting if he’s doing this because the cryptocurrency industry helped Bernie Moreno, who was his father-in-law, and so he’s trying to get even. I hadn’t even thought about that. Laura (11:30.608) That’s the first place my head went. But you’re right that it is interesting. We’re seeing a Republican talk about regulating crypto because, you know, what we have Ohio Republicans saying that we want to make Ohio a crypto leader because this does seem like something that’s very popular with rich people. And if you can’t even pay for groceries, you’re not investing in crypto. But it should be regulated because it’s there’s so many unknowns out there. It’s really scary. Chris Quinn (11:31.832) Ha ha ha ha. Chris Quinn (12:00.142) You’re listening to Today in Ohio. A weekend party and an Airbnb mansion in Bath Township resulted in wild gunplay and a lot of injured kids. Why is it so difficult, Courtney, for police pretty much everywhere to contain these kinds of parties at short-term rentals? Courtney (12:18.988) Well, in Bath Township at least, there are rules in effect against this, but they don’t have much teeth. So this mass shooting that injured nine folks over the weekend, you know, reignited this debate about how to prevent Airbnb’s from turning into party houses. Authorities said this shooting happened during a birthday party that they promoted across social media. And while Airbnb said they’ve banned this user who rented this house, I mean, it doesn’t really get to the broader problem of how do you prevent this stuff from happening in the first place. Like I said, Bath has zoning laws, but those violations are civil and that doesn’t really give police any tools to prevent things or stop this from spiraling out of control. Bath Township folks say that they’re looking at tougher enforcement. We’ll have to see what form that takes. They also were working with Airbnb, but again, this is kind of after the fact and It’s been difficult for municipalities to get ahead of this. We’ve seen several attempts by local cities to do actions that could prevent this kind of thing. You know, in Seven Hills, they had a crazy one in 2018. They have a permit inspection and annual registration fee system set up for their short-term rentals. Perhaps that’s an option there. Chris Quinn (13:36.056) This is a million dollar plus house that was advertised as a mansion party far and wide. It’s hard to tell exactly how many people showed up. And when the gunshots rang out with multiple guns, kids are running everywhere and I think fell off ledges and a bunch were airlifted to hospitals. We’ll eventually get to the bottom of the whole thing. takes a while on stories like this, but you do wonder what can you do to stop something like this? that the person that owns the house and there’s a sword in ownership history put it up for airbnb rental and i guess there’s no control over what happens next Laura (14:14.308) What the? Lisa Garvin (14:14.45) And the owner was out of state. He was an out of state owner. Laura (14:17.498) Right, who had transferred it to his wife because he had his own legal issues. we did have a story overnight that one of these youth were released from the hospital. So that’s good news because we didn’t know how badly all of them were injured. Bath put out something on their Facebook page that’s basically saying these legal consequences are going to include zoning enforcement fines, potential legal action. And they’re basically telling their residents, if you see something, say something. Because this is a really Tony area, everything is spread out in Bath. You have to have an acre and a half to build on because it’s all septic systems. And I grew up in Bath. My parents, my sister, they still live there. So obviously this is really big news in town. And there are cars parked all over the streets. These streets don’t have sidewalks. They don’t have streetlights. And so people would have noticed, right? And so they’re basically saying, if you have concerns about a large gathering in your neighborhood, call immediately to the police department. And if you Chris Quinn (15:11.895) You Laura (15:14.714) you know of a property being used for an Airbnb, let us know because we want to enforce this. Chris Quinn (15:20.526) All right, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. What gets into people’s heads that makes them think it is our right to send revenge porn? Lisa, what’s the story behind the revenge porn charges against the former president of Summa Health Medical Group? Lisa Garvin (15:36.318) Yeah, he’s 45 year old Vivek Bala who lives in Copley, Ohio. He was indicted for violating Ohio’s revenge porn law, which is a fifth degree felony. He’s accused of sending an explicit photo of a woman to her family and friends, her business partners and others on social media back in October. The, you know, if he’s convicted, that’s a one year prison term and a $2,500 fine. He was fired from his job as president of SUMA Health Medical Group just a few days after the incident. The woman said she was afraid of Bala and she waited to file the police report until after she left Ohio with her kids because she feared for her safety. He told police that others had access to his phone and it wasn’t him, but he does have a checkered past. So in 2013, he was arrested and charged with domestic violence by Richfield Village Police. He pled no contest to disorderly conduct in that case. He’s currently free on $5,000 bond. He will be arraigned in December in Summit County Common Police Court. And there is a temporary restraining order that was issued by Barberton Municipal Court. So he can’t have any contact with the woman or any of her friends or family. Chris Quinn (16:49.462) He just would think though that as he’s sitting there with the message on his phone, common sense would come in and say, okay, nothing good could come of that. I wonder if alcohol is involved. It just, seems like this is such an easy judgment call. This will end up badly. If you do this, bad things will result from it and not for the person you’re trying to harm as much as for yourself. And yet it happens all the time. And you just, you look at it and think, what is going through your head? This will not end well. Lisa Garvin (17:06.152) Mm-hmm. Lisa Garvin (17:19.614) And it’s indefensible. I mean, you there’s proof. You sent it, you put it on social media, and then you say, no, somebody else had access to my phone. Right, buddy? Chris Quinn (17:27.274) Right. It’s just we see it all the time. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Like we said yesterday was Election Day. There was no doubt that Justin Bibb would get a second term as Cleveland mayor, but we had some contested city council races. We had some interesting tax issues in the burbs. We had some interesting races in the suburbs. Laura, what are some of the highlights of the results? Laura (17:52.679) I think the biggest thing to look at is the taxes because a lot of suburbs were on the ballot for this. As everybody knows, there was no statewide issues. This is all local. And this is the stuff that comes out of your pocketbook. So poor Parma, they haven’t passed a tax since 2011 for their schools. And they were not successful. Amherst, Vermillion, Wycliffe schools all failed no matter what they were trying to do, whether they were doing a straight up property tax or they were trying to get creative and use income taxes. There were some taxes that passed, some at alcohol, drug, mental health passed an additional tax. They said they really needed it to deal with the fallout of COVID. Geauga passed one for parks. Shaker schools for operations. Now Shaker has a well-deserved reputation for high taxes, but they have people who really support their schools there. but we all know, we’ve been talking about property taxes a lot recently, that this is a very difficult environment to pass a new tax when you have people saying, I can’t, I can’t afford my current taxes. We had about 26 % turnout in Cuyahoga County, so not huge. Chris Quinn (18:58.038) I just think this is the worst possible time to put a tax on the ballot. There is absolute fury among taxpayers. the best thing that could happen would be to rethink taxation in a macro sense across Ohio. How should we pay for things? How much should be borne by local people? How much should come out of state taxes? But to put taxes on the ballot right now, you almost have to be out of your mind. Shaker will always approve taxes. still little bit surprised they approved two yesterday, but because they are the most heavily taxed in the state, but I’m not surprised to see most of the others falling badly, partly because people don’t know what the future taxes are. I do believe there’ll be a question on the ballot next year to abolish property taxes. The legislature may try to neutralize that with its own. Laura (19:30.3) Mm-hmm. Chris Quinn (19:53.41) property tax reform saying don’t vote for the bad one vote for ours to try and head off the chaos but to put taxes on the ballot this year was probably a questionable thing to do. So what were some of the the races for various seats? Laura (20:09.948) Well, I was really excited to see the Mentor School Board slate of candidates kept their seat. They defeated a conservative slate that wanted to shape the board around culture war issues. And the reason I was, I think anybody was paying attention to this outside of Mentor was because of Bernie Moreno. And he’s the one who berated the school board president for letting a kid accused of porn back onto campus, which was completely untrue. And he just said, as a mother, how could you do this? It was total culture wars. dog whistle and you know, I’m so glad that people supported their school board in that case and rejected Moreno’s claims. That was good to see. In Cleveland Heights in your town, you’ve got a brand new mayor and a new bunch of charter amendments that are supposed to increase checks and balances between the mayor, which is a phenomenon in town to have a strong mayor and the council. And then obviously you said Justin Bibb kept a seat and a bunch of of city council seats. only seven votes, I think, that separate Tanmay Shaw from incumbent Denny Kelly in Cleveland City Council in Ward 12. Chris Quinn (21:21.454) Right, but Ken Starr beat Rebecca Marr in a good contest and did Mike Polance continue his reign as the longest serving councilperson in history? Yeah, well, that’s a pretty big deal because he was running against another incumbent. Sadly, Joe Jones won big, even though he’s had a terrible series of controversies. He did beat Juanita Perrant. Laura (21:32.902) Yes. Chris Quinn (21:45.536) Interesting. It’s always interesting to me how much attention is paid on the off-year election night on our website We actually I think get more traffic in these off-year elections than we do in the big National elections and I think part of the reason is because there aren’t a whole lot of places to go for the information But people were on our site checking on things all night last night Laura (22:06.736) Yeah, I think when there’s the big national one, you’re looking for, you know, what states are turning red and blue, which is such a, mean, I the Electoral College makes us look at states that way, but is, like you said at the beginning, the more people voted against Trump than for him, not a realistic way of looking at the country. But they just look at these big picture things. But these local elections are the ones that really decide, you know, what’s coming out of your pocketbook to pay taxes, what rules you have in your city, who represents you at the very Lisa Garvin (22:17.482) So, can even see that more people voted for dead, for dead, not in the realistic way of looking at the country. But they just look at these big picture things. But these local elections are the ones that really decide what’s coming out of your pocket. Laura (22:36.112) basic level of government and what your kids are learning in school. So they’re very important. Chris Quinn (22:39.31) But on the other hand, when you look at the numbers, I’m stunned by how few people voted. In the Ken Starr-Rebecca Morrow race, Starr got 800-some votes and she got a few hundred fewer. That’s ridiculous. mean, think about how few people are picking their council person. Hundreds of votes in the entire ward. that says everything about the just how... Yeah, the numbers of... Laura (22:54.714) Yeah. Laura (23:04.934) disenfranchisement of people. They feel powerless. Chris Quinn (23:09.1) The pure numbers of votes was I know it’s low, but this was even more stunning than I thought. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Metro health followed through on its threat to cut care for the needy part of the hospital system’s effort to be solvent. Courtney, what’s the upshot of the decision? Courtney (23:28.834) Yeah. So after we got word last week that if Metro had officially, you know, made the change that it’s been considering here for months, we can get a feeling of how this is going to affect Cuyahoga County residents on the ground. You know, on one hand, Metro health is cutting, you know, money that it until now had paid for people’s bills. It’s reducing at different levels, how much it’s paying based on income level for folks. Now the poorest folks can still get 100 % coverage as long as they participate in financial counseling. And that’s really the upshot Chris of what we’re talking about here. Combined with these cuts to charity care, Metro is at the same time pushing more people to get enrolled on health insurance, because that would also tackle their growing problem of their charity care bill now exceeds a million dollars a day. It’s doubled in the last couple years and Metro health can’t keep up. So they see their move as If we can get more folks enrolled, that lets the insurance cover their bills. It gets MetroHealth off the hook and it gets people, you know, the coverage they need. But we’re going to have to see if it actually plays out that way in practice or people are just dealing with the lower subsidies. I don’t know how willing folks will be to enroll in health insurance. We’ve got to see how that plays out. And that’s ultimately going to tell us. you know, where folks are left with this policy change. If they’re getting good coverage till, or if they’re struggling to make ends meet, we’re going to have to see how this carrot and stick thing interact as this new policy rolls out. Chris Quinn (25:08.334) I don’t know, when I look at this story and then I combine it with the series of stories that Cuyahoga County reporter Caitlin Durbin has written about services that are being cut to the needy and you look at what’s going on in the federal government and cutting the SNAP benefits just temporarily, how far back do you have to go in history to the last time that this country has made it so hard for people that... need a little aid is 1929. mean, we’re going back to the depression. Every day we have a headline about how there are fewer resources available to be the safety net. And this is one of them. This is a reduction of the safety net. And I get why they’re doing it. I get why the county is doing it. But it’s it’s a depressing state when we pay all this money in taxes and yet we don’t have enough to help those who need the help. Courtney (26:04.228) Yeah, Metro’s weathering quite a financial storm. All the changes at the federal level, the looming Medicaid cuts, Ronane pulling back their subsidy here locally. I mean, there’s just a lot of factors working against them. know, Metro Health sees this as a way to keep their finances in order to keep serving folks another day. Chris Quinn (26:25.582) You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Lisa, where do things stand in the burgeoning controversy over how many secret pleadings the former executives of First Energy have filed in court as they battle charges of fueling the biggest corruption case in state history? Lisa Garvin (26:44.052) So there was a hearing last Friday with attorneys on both sides of this case against First Energy former executives, Chuck Jones and Matt Dowling. And they’ve been disagreeing about whether potential evidence should be made public and they did not resolve that. So they will meet again November 21st in a Summit County courtroom to try and hash this out. So Ohio Specialist Assistant Attorney General Matt Meyer last year allowed attorneys for Jones and Dowling. to mark some of their exhibits as confidential. But now he says they’ve abused that agreement to selectively hide evidence from the public. But Jones attorney, Carol Rendon says, you know, it should remain secret until after the trial to avoid tainting the jury pool. And they also want to limit the testimony of Ohio Consumers Council Executive Director, Maureen Willis. They said, you know, she shouldn’t be able to discuss. whether Jones and Dowling’s actions at First Energy caused jurors’ energy bills to increase. And she says that’s just designed to inflame the jury. But Meyer says, this is actually the defining issue of the case, and these things do affect electricity prices. And Attorney General Dave Yost was in attendance. He says he just wants to observe the corruption trial of the century. And he says, if you remove the background of this case, there’s really no context for... context for the defendant’s actions. Chris Quinn (28:07.33) Look, I think Dave Yost is right. I think they’ll probably win this part of it. But I want to talk about the secrecy because that’s utter nonsense to say that it has to be secret because it’ll taint the jury process. Everybody who’s ever charged with a crime would want to do that. Let’s keep everything about me secret. And we’re only doing it for the filthy rich guys who created the biggest scam in the history of the state. Lisa Garvin (28:23.796) Mm-hmm. Chris Quinn (28:32.482) This is wrong on every level. don’t know why Matt Meyer ever agreed to it on the beginning end. This stuff should be public. These guys should be accountable. We talked about this earlier this week in regard to the nine and 10 year olds. They’re going to be tried or going through juvenile court in the torture case involving the five year old. And we talked about these should be open because the community deserves accountability. Well, the two guys that the evidence clearly shows Lisa Garvin (28:37.908) right? Chris Quinn (29:00.056) completely corrupted our legislature, there’s accountability there. The community deserves to see it. None of this stuff should be private. I don’t care what their high-priced lawyers say. This is wrong, and I hope the judge does the right thing. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We got one more. The Blizzard of Oz? How about that fast and the flurriest? You have to wonder about the motives for this one. Why, Laura? Does Cleveland Hopkins International Airport want to come up with nicknames for its snowplows? Laura (29:31.709) think it’s that they’re jealous of ODOT because ODOT has a big public naming contest every year and they’ve never done it before at Hopkins. And did you come up with those examples? Because they’re funny. they’re good. They’re really good. I like them. They’ve been nameless for years, so they’re finally giving them their due. They want to encourage the public. We know that the airport has really been reaching out and trying to get people to engage with it, to come up with its new kind of forward looking future. Chris Quinn (29:41.632) No, AI came up with those examples. Laura (30:01.402) branding. So maybe this is way to do that. This is five multipurpose plows and they’ve got a contest. You got to submit your most creative, clever, or Cleveland inspired snowplow names by Sunday, November 16th. And then they’ll choose the top 20 for people to vote on. You can do this at clevelandairport.com slash snowplow. Chris Quinn (30:22.168) But with ODOT, they put the names on the plows. So if you’re driving down the road and you’re not one of the clowns that crash into them, you actually get to see the name. You don’t really get to see the plows on the runways out at Hopkins. I’m not sure what the point is. Laura (30:28.879) Seriously. Laura (30:38.511) I don’t have an answer for you. Chris Quinn (30:40.856) They’re trying to make the airport seem like it’s all cuddly because all people talk about is the bathrooms. Yeah, that would be a naming contest. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. That does it for the Wednesday episode. Thanks, Laura. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Courtney. Thank you for being with us. We’ll return Thursday to talk about the news. Laura (30:48.578) They should name the bathrooms Cleveland Hopkins Airport.
