CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio chairman Sam Randazzo got a win, when a state appeals court overturned a Franklin County judge’s order allowing the Ohio attorney general’s office to seize up to $8 million in assets.
We’re talking about the latest in the House Bill 6 scandal on Today in Ohio.
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 for free by sending a text to 216-868-4802.
Here are the questions we’re answering today:
We thought the next news we’d discuss about Sam Randazzo, the former Ohio public utilities chief who FirstEnergy said it bribed, would be about criminal charges. Nope. We have news about Randazzo winning a significant battle with law enforcement authorities. What is it?
Our Washington DC reporter, Sabrina Eaton, examines whether Donald Trump’s endorsement of a couple of Congressional candidates, which helped them in the primaries, will be helpful or harmful in the general election. What is her take?
With less than 100 days before Armond Budish’s time as Cuyahoga County executive ends, why is he about to launch a two-year study on whether the county can cut staffing?
Unlike in neighboring states, marijuana is not legal for general use in Ohio, just medical use. Yet this weekend we will see a marijuana summit at the IX Center. Who is that for, and what is it about?
We were unable to report on restaurant inspections for a couple of years because the pandemic suspended them, but they’re back, and readers cannot get enough of them. Laura, what are some of the highlights – or low lights – of what we’ve reported so far?
We mentioned the IX Center. Not that long ago, we thought it was permanently closed. Now, it’s up and running and getting some big renovations. What’s the word?
More bad news about Covid, based on a Case Western Reserve University study. What danger does it pose for children?
We’re less than a month from predicted peak color for fall in Northeast Ohio, which is followed by the inevitable drop of leaves. Our gardening columnist suggests we stop raking. How would that work?
Leila’s favorite professional athlete has now become the other of a professional sports team. Who is he, and what does he now partially own?
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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.
Chris: [00:00:00] We haven’t talked about the HB six scandal in what, two weeks? But we’re talking about it today. It’s 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 Lela Tossi. And let’s get right to it. We thought the next news we discuss about Sam ran Daso, the former Ohio Public Utilities chief, who First energy said it bribed would be about criminal charges.
We have news about Ranzo winning a significant battle with law enforcement authorities. Lisa, what is it?
Lisa: Well, the 10th Ohio Appeals Court, uh, made a ruling earlier this week. Uh, Judge Laurel Batty Hunt, they overturned a Franklin County Common Police Court order that was gonna seize up to $8 million in assets from PCO chairs, former PCO chair Sam Ron Daso, and uh, in.
The Franklin County Court Judge Chris Brown, allowed the Attorney General [00:01:00] Dave Yoast to freeze up to 8 million in Randazzo’s assets. But Yost was really focused on the sale of four properties worth 4.8 million, and then a $500,000 home that Randazzo transferred to his son. All the money, the proceeds from those sales went into a brokerage account and Yost was worried that it would just be, you know, just go.
Wherever and not be traceable. So, uh, you know, he ordered that, but then the judge in the common police court, Chris Brown, said, Oh, well we can, you know, put that up to 8 million, which is kind of odd, and that’s why it was overturned. So, um, the Ranzo appeal to this seizure made five arguments. Uh, the appeals court agreed on two of them.
Uh, they, they, uh, they said that Judge Brown abused his discretion by saying that. Irreparable injury that would justify the seizure of these, uh, assets. And there was no explanation or no evidence. And also they found that Judge Brown failed to comply with state laws on garnishment, which requires a court appearance by [00:02:00] Randa before they can do that.
Because what happened was they, you know, the original order ordered the garnishment of ranzo assets at three financial institutions. So, oops. Well, this.
Chris: What makes our judicial system pretty great, right? Because everybody has rights. Everybody’s protected. The state did move too quickly to get this stuff.
They didn’t really justify why they should have it. What, what did the ruling say? The, the, the court hearing on this lasted minutes. I mean, they, they didn’t do due process. Mm-hmm. and even though First Energy said, Yeah, we paid millions of dollars of bribes to that guy, and this big criminal investigation is going on, you.
Have to respect rights. He has rights. He’s not convicted of anything. There’s nothing in the record that that would say you get to take it. And Dao team clearly didn’t do the due diligence. So pretty much the right thing happened here, right?
Lisa: Yeah, and it looks like there was a little bit of overreach on the ags part and the fact that, you know, he [00:03:00] wasn’t just going after, you know, the funds that he was worried about.
You know, they, he got up to $8 million. So, and then a judge, the appeals court judge Blunt’s opinion, she said, Well, you know, they didn’t say how they came up with that 8 million figure, but she did want to stress that the ruling. Only covers procedural issues and doesn’t reflect any opinion on the underlying merits of this
Chris: lawsuit.
Well, Dave Yo is trying to make sure that the harm Randazzo did, which is well documented that Ohios get compensated for it. He cost Ohio a bundle of money, and so it’s good that Dave is trying to protect the Ohio interest. He just has to do the job correctly. I, my reading of this is that the door is wide open for Yost to go back into.
And do this right and try and freeze those assets pending the, the completion of all the, the criminal cases. Is there anything there? There was nothing the judges said about, This is over. You’re done. You can’t have the money.
Lisa: Well, other than [00:04:00] the fact that she says this doesn’t, you know, attack the underlying merits of the case.
I, I kind of read between the lines there and said, Well, you know, there are other ways to
Chris: go about this. Yeah, I, I expect we’ll see Dave’s team making another appearance. Interesting story. We’re still waiting for developments involving Randazzo. The investigation and the HB six is taken forever. It’s today in Ohio.
Our Washington DC reporter, Sabrina Eaton examines whether Donald Trump’s endorsement of a couple of congressional candidates, which help them win the primaries will be helpful or harmful in the general election. Laura, this is fascinating because the center voters, the undecided voters are not hard line Trumpers like the people in the Republican party, and the feeling is they don’t wanna have Trump be high and present because it could hurt.
Laura: Right. The idea is that the primaries are where the most extreme voters go, so you’re trying to appeal to the, that arm of the party, and now you’re trying to get all the central people, the people who [00:05:00] might not have voted in a primary. So Miller seems to be trying to distance himself from Trump now that he’s facing a Democrat, although that Democrat has, um, Deemer has a whole lot less money and name recognition probably than Matt Miller.
So this is actually my district. It’s Western and Southern Cuyahoga County, Medina and Wayne Counties and Northern Holmes County, if you remember, that was Anthony Gonzalez of Rocky River and Bob Gibbs of Holmes County who were elected from there before. Long term con. Anthony Gonzales is pretty new, but they both decided not to run for a reelection, maybe in part because of the backing of Trump for Miller.
I mean, he worked, Miller worked in the White House. He had his endorsement, he had his favor. He, he got married at a Trump golf course in in August, and I think that scared some people away. But now that we are. Coming toward the general. Here’s what Miller said. He said, Yes, I have Donald Trump’s endorsement.
Yes, I’m proud to have it, but [00:06:00] I am not Donald Trump. If you look at our campaign, if you look at the issues that we’re focusing on, I am not engaging in the same type of political rhetoric as President Trump does.
Chris: Yeah, it’s interesting. Uh, they are trying to distance themselves from Trump. They approached us about elements of a story we ran trying to get us to remove them, which didn’t make much sense to me.
I, I think they do recognize that the center voters. Are not Trump fans. I mean, Trump, you know, tried to overthrow the government of the United States. January 6th is one of the worst moments in our history, and most people in the center get that, that that was a bad thing. And it’s just interesting to me how the minute they win the primary, they.
They pivot. I mean, did you see the guy in Massa, I think it was Massachusetts, to win the primary. He kept denying that, that Biden won the election and as soon as he won the primary, he turned around and said, Nope, Biden was the winner. . I mean, it’s, I mean, that was, that was the most naked kind of form of [00:07:00] this, this subterfuge.
What we’re seeing in Ohio is a more subtle form
Laura: of. Right, but Max Miller said the same thing. To be very clear, Joe Biden is our president. I don’t know if he said anything different before the election, but he said he is still saying there are a lot of irregularities within the election that need to be looked at immediately.
So he is trying to walk this really fine line of not angering any hardcore Trump fans and still trying to sound like a reasonable person. And then Matthew Deemer, he’s a Bay Village podcaster. He was unopposed in the Democratic primary. He hopes that those ties to Trump. Make a big difference for people voting for him.
He also thinks that abortion is the biggest issue facing women in this country and, and voters. And Max Miller is saying no, but I think it’s the, I think it’s inflation. I think it’s the economy, and I think that really crystallizes two huge issues in this. Upcoming election and what the parties want it to be about.
Chris: Well, and look with what’s happened over the last two [00:08:00] weeks with the stock market, even if it was abortion, maybe it’s shifting more heavily to the economy. I don’t know it. This is a very interesting election season because of the abortion decision. We’ll have to see good stuff by Sabrina Eaton. Check it out on cleveland.com, and you are listening to today in Ohio.
With fewer than 100 days before Armen Buddhist’s time is Cuyahoga County Executive ends. Why is he about to launch a two year study of whether the county can cut staffing lava? This makes no sense. It seems like he’s sabotaging the next administration.
Leila: It does sort of seem that way. This is another questionable initiative to be launching in the waning days of Armen Buddha’s.
They plan, they plan to put out a request for proposals for a consultant to reevaluate the county’s operational and organizational structure to determine whether the county’s payroll is the right size or, or if maybe they can permanently do more with a less. They’ve already been dealing with some pretty [00:09:00] serious staffing shortages at the county.
They’re down 1200 employees earlier in the year, and currently they have more than 800 vacancies and Buddha’s Chief of Staff Bill. Suggest that maybe in some of those departments though, he couldn’t point to examples of which ones we may maybe we don’t really need to fill those jobs. He said we’re down a lot and we’re still functioning.
There are going to be a lot of positions that are on the books that have been on the books for just a really long time, and maybe we don’t have to fill them all. And you know, we’re talking about workers who are responsible for. A lot of stuff. Health and human services, public safety, justice services, infrastructure, maintenance and improvements, and tax collection, a lot of stuff.
And in some of those departments, the county has been aggressively trying to recruit more staff council, increased pay for corrections officers to help support the jail. And just last night, county council approved raises for social workers to improve conditions that children and family services and to try to recruit.
[00:10:00] Dozens, if not over a hundred social workers. But you know, Mason questions whether other departments already have the staffing needed to perform the expected duties. And of course, all of this is on the eve of a transition of power.
Chris: Yeah. Well, I I also go back to the budgeting period last year where, where Budh told everybody any unfilled positions we’re just wiping ‘em off the books.
He outraged the prosecutor, Michael O’Malley. It’s, What are you talking about? You can’t wipe off the positions. I gotta hire people to get people prosecuted. We have this big bubble of people we haven’t processed through the pandemic, and, and I didn’t understand it then. And I understand this even less except if he’s laying the ground.
To say when I left office, the county staffing was X and look what my successor did to bloat it. Uh, you don’t launch a two year staffing study when you have fewer than a hundred days left in your administration. And Chris Roan said that. To Caitlin. Mm-hmm. , he said, This is ridiculous. You, this is completely inappropriate to do [00:11:00] this when you’re gonna be gone in less than three months.
Yeah. He,
Leila: he was totally offended that Buddhi would impose this on the next executive and, and on taxpayers for that matter, because a study like this cost money. He said that, you know, he’s been pushing a, a reorganizing count of county government in a. Budget neutral way that would create several new county offices to address housing and transportation and immigration and, and, uh, a county ombudsman office to handle complaints and connect residents to available resources.
So whatever this consultant comes back with. Might or might not fit in with his vision for that. And, you know, to have to deal with a two year study of, of, you know, that’s just, uh, it’s just ludicrous to have to, to put that on the next, the next executive. Lee Winegard, the Republican candidate said, you know, well actually this is, this is what I’ve been talking about, you know, cutting the size of the county payroll by about 800 jobs is, is in keeping with one of his campaign promises.
So he sees this, this study, Kind of [00:12:00] a step in the, the direction of where he, he would be headed.
Chris: I love the idea though, that they’re trying to portray themselves as spend thrift after having squandered 66 million in slot funds, 50 million on the medical market. It’s just there’s such,
Leila: maybe that’s the strategy here is that, you know, we’ve been accusing them of, of squandering so much money that on the way out the door, they wanna look like they.
Do care about saving money, and it’s all about optics,
Chris: but they’re supposed to serve the people. The county’s sole purpose is to provide services in several areas, and that’s where the focus should be , and so they’re pulling back from that and building golf clubs. It just doesn’t make any sense what they’re doing.
These hundred days can’t go by fast enough. It’s today in Ohio. Unlike in neighboring states, marijuana is not legal for general use in Ohio, just medical use. Yet. This weekend we will see a marijuana summit at the IX [00:13:00] Center. Lisa, who is it for and what’s it about?
Lisa: Yeah, it’s called the Ohio Cannabis Health and Business Summit.
It’s going on this Saturday and Sunday at the IX Center, and they’re expecting about 2000 attendees from several states. So this was founded in 2019 by, uh, Cleveland area resident, Lenny Berry, I guess he used to be a local DJ here. He wanted to give public access to good medical information about marijuana because he was so tired of all the misinformation and lies that were out there.
So that’s why he started it in. And he the very first one, or the only one really because, uh, it was sidelined by Covid. The last two years he got 650 people to the Crown Plaza Hotel and Independence, Although it took him a while to find a venue because of the subject of the conference, but he’s expanded it.
This year. So they’re gonna have people from the marijuana industry, they’re gonna have business people, lawyers, healthcare people. They’re gonna have 60 speakers, including, uh, the first medical marijuana [00:14:00] patient here in Ohio, Insurance people cultivators. So it’s really just kind of an all. Encompassing conference, they will have con physician consultants on hand.
They will discuss medical marijuana with attendees for free and for $99 you can get a recommendation because you need a recommendation to get a medical marijuana card. Um, they’re also gonna have like a little bitty, like job fair. They’re gonna have career opportunities with a panel of industry experts.
So, yeah. Wow. You know, and Barry, he’s been in the business for a. He used to own a, a dispensary in Lakewood, but he’s currently p part owner of a factory that manufactures CBD and hemp products.
Chris: Well, and it is, I think, inevitable that we will have legalized general use marijuana. So these kinds of things will become more regular.
But what did you say about the, For $99 you can get a medical marijuana card. So you just go in and you say, I ache and gimme a card.
Lisa: Well, I guess the doctor will have to, you know, assess your symptoms to see, but I think the [00:15:00] list has grown. It used to be 21, you know, conditions. So yeah, so for a hundred bucks, you know, you can get a recommendation and then that gets you one step closer to a medical measure.
Oh, wow.
Leila: That, that’s, there might be one step missing in there. I think you do need to bring something from your, your general practitioner with you. But I might be wrong, but I think that’s true.
Chris: Sounds like you’ve explored this.
All right. All right. Good stuff. It’s today in Ohio. We were unable to report on restaurant inspections for a couple of years because the pandemic suspended them, but they’re back and reader. Cannot get enough of them. Laura, When we publish a story about a county’s inspections, it becomes our number one story of the day.
So what are some of the highlights or lowlights of what we’ve been reporting so
Laura: far? Zachary Smith has reported four of these lists so far. We’ve done Lake and Lorraine counties, and then a city of Cleveland and then a Cuyahoga list. And it’s so interesting looking at just the [00:16:00] number of restaurants there were like, I think 48, 4400.
Businesses that received citations in Cuyahoga County and then there’s only like 865 restaurants in Laine County. So, which I was stunned by. These lists have a, obviously a lot of names on them. There wasn’t, we we’re listing the worst. Cases, we’re not gonna list all 4,400 that have uh, problems in Cuyahoga County, but just the absolute dire situations that you probably wouldn’t go to.
I love the one in Lake County. The worst had 134 violations. That was hibachi stays house in Paynesville. It is since closed, which. You think? Okay, that makes sense. Uh, there are gas stations, there’s a McDonald’s, a Burger King, a subway, um, some Chinese restaurants. Nothing really shockingly like high end that I would’ve been like, Oh, wow.
I wouldn’t have expected to see that there. But, No, no,
Lisa: I, I, I. Hooi in Beachwood, a Chinese [00:17:00] restaurant, which is has three restaurants across the city, was on that list, which kind of shocked me. Well, there you go. And that’s in
Laura: Beachwood Place. Yeah. Yeah, you definitely, you definitely wanna check out these lists to see if your favorite spot is in here, because each restaurant in Ohio is inspected twice a year, plus any follow ups needed to check on any identified problems, and then other places that.
Food to a lesser extent, maybe it expected once a year, like Giant Eagle is on this list. One of the giant Eagles, uh, the La Plaza supermarket, some violations are really minor and some are fixed at the time of the inspection. They, and the analysis that we did that Zachary did, does not count violations that were labeled as corrected.
And those that are critical may lead immediately to a foodborne illness according to the Ohio Department of Health, They. Impose fines, but they can suspend or revoke operating licenses for really
Chris: bad cases. So, so I think what Lisa just said is what we hear of all the time, people pour over these things to see what they know.
LA Plaza is one of my favorite places that if you need make any [00:18:00] kind of Mexican food, they have everything, every kind of pepper. It’s, it’s a great place. So you see that it’s like, man, it’s, that’s, that’s
Laura: bad. And the yours truly on at Playhouse Square. That one raised eyebrows for me. 49 food inspection violations.
Mm.
Chris: And and that’s what happens. People scan this, they go, Oh my gosh, we go there. Should we stop going there? And it’s just fascinating how much people pour over these. I mean, I’m not kidding. Every time we publish one, it just rockets up. Everybody’s looking at it. We’re talking about trying to parse them a little differently, not just by geography, but by different kind of cuisine or something.
Uh, just. To show people what’s going on, but, uh, they’re, they’re all on cleveland.com. You can find him by searching for restaurant inspections or under Zachary
Laura: Smith’s buy, right? And he has, um, a tag that all of his are listed. So if you find any of his stories, you’ll find all of the inspections right there.
Chris: Yeah. Good stuff. Today in Ohio, you’re listening to it. We mentioned the IX Center. [00:19:00] Not that long ago. We thought it was permanently closed. Now it’s up and running. We’re gonna have shows. We got something this weekend. We got the Christmas connection coming, but it’s getting some. Big renovations. Layla, what’s the word?
Well, it’s
Leila: no indoor amusement park, which means we’ll never have to hear that God for sake, and jingle again, even though just
Laura: mention, I didn’t know that. That is never coming back . Well, I mean, it still lives down in your head. The Ferris wheel
Chris: is gone, so Ferris wheel’s gone.
Leila: Yeah. And what is it without the Ferris wheel?
Right? .
Laura: But it’s all those scary. That that are pulled around on
Leila: trucks. It was nausea inducing machines. But anyway, yes, reporter Sean McDonald tells us that contractors are working six days a week building these two huge walls in the IX Center, which will create a new 530,000 square foot event space, and it’s gonna section off about 720,000 square feet for leasing opportunities.
These renovations are gonna include new L e D lighting. New electrical and HVAC upgrades. The IX Center is [00:20:00] gonna get new paint carpets and an upgraded parking lot on its east side. The Industrial Realty Group, which now leases the building from the city of Cleveland, said it’s spending about 50 million on these renovations.
They’re actively showing the building, but they haven’t announced any tenants yet. And those are tenants who are expected to use the facility for light industry or warehousing and irg. Is erecting a giant soundproof wall to divide that tenant space from the exhibition space where they’re going to continue to host all of all of our favorite events, like the Home and Garden Show and the upcoming Christmas connection.
They’re saying that the renovations should be done. In time for the start of the Christmas connection on November 18th. But, but Laura’s contractors told her her addition would be complete outta her
So let’s see how they do on the, you know, 2 million square feet of the IX center. I dunno. ,
Chris: when, when I was reading this story, what I was thinking is, does anybody notice any of this when you go [00:21:00] to, to the IX Center for a show? You’re paying attention to the stuff that’s there. It’s the cars and the car show, or I guess the Christmas goods and the Christmas show.
Do you ever notice the lighting or the carpeting?
Laura: Yes, a hundred percent. It’s this ridiculously ratty like red carpet and those weird star shaped things, the hangover and the benches that are like, Purple molded plastic. Yes. I’m always like, When is this thing gonna get upgraded? So I’m very
Leila: excited.
Lisa: Wow.
Well, in event planners, you know, that’s what event planners look like when they’re looking at space. You
Laura: know, I spent a lot of time at the boat show for a couple years in a row. Like
Chris: a lot of times, Lisa, you say event planners are looking at up, they wanna see upgraded lights, they wanna see upgraded carpet.
It’s important to them.
Lisa: Well, I, sure, I mean, you know, the space is, you know, nine tens of, you know, their, their display. So yeah, they want it, you know, they want a good backdrop for their
Chris: products. I, I guess if that was just considered the place a big pit that has the space [00:22:00] for big shows, so. You go to the shows.
But Laura, you know, I, I take, I stand corrected if that’s what you notice when you go in. Okay. This is,
Leila: that’s funny. I, I would’ve made the argument that you don’t notice that stuff, but as soon as she said ratty red carpet, that is the thing that popped in my head about the IX center. Is ratty red carpet.
Chris: Okay, well, we’ll have to check it all out. I kind of like the way Sean described the gigantic walls. It just sound, he got into the detail of how you build these enormous things. Okay. It’s today in Ohio. We got more bad news about Covid based on a case Western Reserve University study. Lisa, what danger does it pose for children?
Lisa: Actually, this is kind of shocking. I mean, uh, this, uh, study from the case Western Reserve University Medical School found that there is a 72% increase in type one diabetes in patients under 18, six months after a confirmed covid diagnosis. Now, just to be [00:23:00] clear, type one is used to be called juvenile diabetes.
This is usually something people are born with or, or they develop at a very early age. It has nothing to do with insulin. Resistance, like type two. So study co-author Pamela Davis says, Well, you know, type one is considered an autoimmune disease. Type two is not. So because in type one, the insulin cells are attacked by the body’s immune system.
So this study, she says, reinforces a suggestion that covid increases autoimmune responses in in the body. They, they’re worried that they may see. Substantial increase in type one diagnosis in the coming years. And they say that this risk is, is consistent across all ages from birth to 18 years old Co-author wrongs you says More study is needed to see if this risk persists after six months and they have to learn how to treat Covid related type one diabetes in children.
But she says they’re also looking at changes in development of type two after [00:24:00] Covid infection. So it might. Effect on type two diabetes, which there are many more people with type two than type one in in the us. Yeah. This is
Chris: kind of terrifying. I’m somebody that deals with three different autoimmune conditions and the last thing you want is to have another thing where your body is attacking itself.
I hope that that is not, does not become one of the long term effects of this, but it also is explains why every time they have a new vaccine, I jump out to get it. This is, this is scary stuff. And if, and if kids. And autoimmune disease early in life, it does make them more vulnerable for the rest of their lives.
So it’s pretty terrifying study. And they, and they did this, this is one of those gigantic wide scale studies where they look at, what was it, A million people or something? It was, Yes. Mm-hmm. , so it’s not, it’s not some small study. This was pretty, pretty,
Lisa: but 72% increase. That’s like unbelievable
Chris: almost.
It’s scary. Very scary stuff. It’s today in [00:25:00] Ohio, we’re less than a month from predicted peak color for fall in northeast Ohio, which is followed by the inevitable drop of a lot of leaves. Our garden gardening column is just suggesting we stop breaking. Laura, count me is skeptical. How would that
Laura: work? I love this column by Susan Brownstein cuz she is always so practical and always advocating what’s best for the environment and not just what’s the prettiest way to do your garden.
So in this case, it’s letting your leaves alone basically stop breaking ‘em, stop blowing them to curb. And when they fall into your garden bed or the woods, just leave them alone. And if they’re on your grass, you can run them over. Well, the mulching mower, if they’re on your patio or something like that, she’s got a leaf blow.
Like, um, I don’t know. She, she somehow picks them up and shreds them and gets them back into her garden. She basically says, This is free fertilizer. They leaves decomposed very quickly. By the spring, they’re no longer visible. They add nutrients to the soil. They suppress weeds and feed beneficial microorganisms that keep the lawn healthy.
[00:26:00] So this is like gold for your leaves. Why are we wasting our time and energy and gasoline? So, Just to get rid of them. So you have have to mulch ‘em. Right? You gotta mulch '
Leila: em. Yeah. You can’t just let ‘em sit and ride.
Laura: They’re, Cause they kill of them. Do not let them. They will kill your grass.
Leila: Grass. So that’s not totally lazy.
That takes effort.
Laura: But if you’re gonna still mow your grass anyway and you know, you keep mowing till November. Then, yeah,
Chris: she must have small trees. I I, I, There’s no way There’s a gigantic, gigantic oak tree in the yard behind mine, and when it drops the leaves, they’ll come into my yard for some reason.
There’s no way, I mean, if you tried to mulch, you know, four inches thick of leaves, you’re, you’re, you’re gonna kill your grass.
Laura: I, I do, I do agree that there, there. You gotta be as sensible about this, right? Like, I’ve got her one really big tree that dumps all the time. I will, I will rake that to the curb.
But she’s, I’ve been trying to follow this advice for years now and [00:27:00] it’s like, so, goes against my perfectionist nature just to let the leave sit. Like, I’m so afraid I’m gonna be judged for being like a lazy landscaper. You. You will, but it is good for them. And so I’ve tried to collect them and put them into my garden bed and tried to leave them alone in the front beds where you can’t see them because she’s right.
I mean, they do break down. It is good for, um, it’s good for the soil for the winter, it’s good for the plants.
Leila: So for all my neighbors who are listening, I’m not just the deadbeat on the street. I’m a gardening genius. You’re an
Laura: environmentalist. That’s right.
Chris: Okay. You’re listening to Today in Ohio, Layla’s favorite professional athlete has now become the owner of a professional sports team.
Who is he and what? Does he now partially own Layla ?
Leila: When I read this headline, my first reaction was Na, because it’s LeBron James who I adore and Kevin Love, who is now a Cavs veteran who helped us win the championship in 2016, and they are now owners [00:28:00] of a new. Major League Pickleball team. They’re part of an ownership group that also includes Golden State Warriors.
Forward. Draymond Green, L R M R Ventures, the family office of James and business business partner Maverick Carter, along with a bunch of other people. And the founder of Major League Pickleball is calling this a watershed moment for pickle ball. Uh, yeah. It’s
Lisa: hard to imagine a bigger moment in the history of pickleball, but seriously,
Leila: pickleball is a hugely popular and growing sport.
That’s, that’s kind of like honey, I shrunk the kids on a ping pong table, I guess, And, and LeBron and Kevin Love aren’t, aren’t the first celebrities to invest in teams. They’re probably, I. LeBron is probably the biggest celebrity, but others include retired NFL quarterback, uh, Drew Brees, former tennis champion, James Blake, and podcast host and author Brene Brown and the League’s current season is set to conclude with a tournament in Columbus of all [00:29:00] places On October 14th through the 16th, they’ll be playing for a $319,000 purse.
Next year, the tournament winnings will be up to 2 million, spread across six tournaments, so this is crazy.
Chris: Well, you know, I was talking to our former colleague and today an Ohio panelist, Jane Cahoon, just yesterday and in retirement, she is a big pickle ball adherence. That’s awesome. And I, the more she talked about it, and there was a big Washington Post story about it last week, I keep thinking, Man, I should go try this.
I used to play an extraordinary amount of tennis, and this is easier on the joints than tennis would be. It sounds like it’s just taken over. There’s a battle going on between tennis players and pickle ball players. Cities are converting tennis courts into pickleball courts. It happened
Leila: in our town. Yeah.
Chris: It’s making people unhappy. So there you go. LeBron James, the most famous northeast Ohio isn’t.
Leila: Can I just add, I had an argument with this morning with my husband about this story because he mentioned that they had converted our nearby tennis court [00:30:00] into pickleball courts and that people of all ages seem to be out there enjoying them.
And so I asked, Do you think that we would get into something like that? Or do you think it would be difficult to pick up? And he said, I guarantee you would find it difficult.
And I was like, What? I have hand eye coordination. I played volleyball and my eight year old was getting ready for school nearby and she said, Wait, you, you did play volleyball or you do play volleyball? And I was like, Get, get bus ever. Get
Laura: outta here. . You know, I love tennis and my mom plays pickle ball and I haven’t yet tried it because I, I don’t know, I just, I’m like, It feels like cheating,
Chris: but I’m, I’m, I’m gonna give it a go.
I, you know, Mark, another former colleague, Mark Vosberg and his wife are playing, and at Lisa, have you tried it? .
Lisa: No, but my brother, um, he lives down in Twinsburg. He plays it three days a week. He’s part of this big pickle ball group, but he’s been playing for like [00:31:00] four or five years now. So he was kind of on the leading edge of this trend.
He says now there are so many younger people, it used to be just seniors. And he said, Now there’s a bunch of younger people coming and playing.
Chris: Wow. Okay. Well there you go. Today in Ohio, that does it for Thursday. We’ll be back on Friday to wrap up of. Good news. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks Laura. Thanks Leila. Thank you for being a listener, this podcast.
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