CLEVELAND, Ohio - An Ohio Senate committee on Tuesday unanimously passed legislation that backers say will eliminate add-on charges to customers’ monthly electric bills and, they hope, spur development of new, natural gas-fired power plants.
Under the law, all utilities would need to undergo a full rate review every three years. We’re talking about how some companies, like FirstEnergy, have gone more than a decade without a rate review, on Today in Ohio.
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.
You can now join the conversation. Call 833-648-6329 (833-OHTODAY) if you’d like to leave a message we can play on the podcast.
Here‘s what we’re asking about today:
Northeast Ohio knows well the value of Head Start programs to help kids be ready for school, but those programs are under threat of the out-of-control Trump administration, which is slashing jobs and initiatives with abandon. How many Ohio children benefit from Head Start?
Because we were chagrined to learn we were mispronouncing it, we asked Jeremy Pelzer to write a story so everyone would know how to say it right. What did we learn about the pronunciation about a certain Ohio governor’s name?
What does the future of our energy bills look like in the vision of the Ohio Senate?
What was the point of the Cleveland Browns seeking to file an amended complaint in their lawsuit to block the city from impeding their move to a covered stadium in Brook Park?
Speaking of the Browns. They have top draft picks this year for the first time in four years, because of that horrifying deal they made for Deshaun Watson, and they are turning it into a higher level party than in the past. How so?
The Republicans managed to make transgender politics central to their message in 2024, and the Democrats fell flat on their face trying to handle it. Those issues remain political long after the elections, though. What’s the latest on a severe Ohio law involving transgender children?
How far have vaccination rates fallen for Ohio kindergartners just as Measles is picking up steam in parts of the country?
Cleveland announced what could be a huge investment in affordable housing Tuesday. How would it work?
Ohio is a big farming state. Ohio is the birthplace of aviation. How does Max Miller want to combine those two facts into an initiative?
How many special and official days, weeks and months have Ohio lawmakers put on our calendars?
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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.
Chris Quinn (00:00.973)
It’s Wednesday. That means Courtney Astolfi is back in the house after not being here last week. Good to hear her voice. It’s Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Laura Johnston, Lisa Garvin and Courtney Astolfi. I mentioned yesterday that we’re turning some of these conversations into individual stories on our website using AI to help generate them, although a human’s hands are all over these things.
and they’re getting red in large numbers. people asked for something like this, this may be the answer. We’ll keep experimenting. Check them out on cleveland.com. Northeast Ohio knows well the value of Head Start programs to help kids be ready for school, but those programs are suddenly under threat from the out of control Trump administration, which is slashing jobs and initiatives with abandon. Laura, how many Ohio children benefit from Head Start?
Laura (01:02.696)
33,465. This is the children who attended Head Start in the 2023-2024 school year, and that’s according to the Big Ten Early Learning Alliance, which is this research collaboration among professors at Big Ten universities. So it’s not just for sports anymore, and that includes Ohio State. They put out this research brief because Project 2025 advocated for eliminating the program, and we know that that’s kind of been a playbook.
for the Trump administration. The White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, DOJ, has cut other programs that serve vulnerable people such as Department of Veteran Affairs, USAID, all sorts of things that people have been protesting against. And the report says that changes to Head Start would actually be particularly consequential in rural areas where Head Start makes up a large share of the available early care and education. Of course, Head Start is 60 years old. It serves families
or below the federal poverty level by providing early learning for kids and educational and employment supports for parents as well as for kids with disabilities. So it is wide-ranging and what’s interesting in Ohio is that we’ve got a whole lot of rural areas.
Chris Quinn (02:14.943)
I can’t understand. Well, I do understand it. You know why? This is a program that helps a lot of kids who are in poverty. A lot of kids in poverty are not white. Trump administration has shown that it has no regard for anybody who’s not white or as one of the listeners to our podcast pointed out yesterday, white males. So, so I get why they’re doing it. This helps people in poverty of people of color get caught up in school. He doesn’t care about that, but we know.
Laura (02:21.041)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (02:43.297)
in Northeast Ohio, how important those first five years of life are for brain development to get kids ready for school. And Head Start is, barely makes it in. We need more programs aimed at helping children this year on get ready. If we cut this, it’s going to set Ohio just back and back and back. All the employers that say,
We need competent people to be employees. They should scream about this because this is about the future.
Laura (03:12.116)
Absolutely. And what’s interesting is, like you said, rural areas are going to be hit the hardest. So that is not necessarily people of color. mean, if you look at the demographics of Ohio. So I don’t know if this is something that’s protected by that rural kind of agrarian feeling that is so overwhelming in Ohio. I completely agree with you. We did the first 2000 Days project years ago.
at Cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer. And what’s shown is that if kids are under duress and they’re distressed and their families have trauma or whatever, kids can’t grow. Their brains don’t develop properly. It’s like lead in the houses, right? You’re just creating kids with problems and Head Start helps to get kids ready for school, but it also provides that early childhood, the high quality early childhood.
care that is so important that these kids grow up to be productive, successful, happy, healthy members of our society.
Chris Quinn (04:18.587)
I’m glad we did the story to put it in the perspective because now people will know how this could have a very dire impact on Ohio if he does it. All those people that voted for Trump, this is the result of that. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Because we were chagrined to learn we were mispronouncing it, we asked Jeremy Pelzer to write a story so everyone would know how to say it right.
What did we learn Courtney about the pronunciation of a certain Ohio gubernatorial candidates name?
Courtney (04:52.234)
Yeah, with the race heating up here, it’s good to know that Republican contender Vivek Ramaswamy pronounces his name as Vivek, not as Vivek as lots of folks have been mispronouncing it since he did his presidential bid back last year. And Vivek kind of corrected the record on the pronunciation of his name. Back during a Fox News interview in July, 2023, he did so with a freestyle rap, which was kind of cute to watch.
He pointed out that Vivek rhymes with cake. So that’s an easy way to remember his name. The Columbus area Republican is going up against AG Dave Yost and potentially others in the Republican primary race for governor. And like I said, since he ran last year, he’s faced all sorts of mispronunciations. Former vice president Mike Pence was one of those who called them Vivek and his last name has been Butcher too. But when we’ve seen Vivek on the
campaign trail, he’s really tried to emphasize his first name to obtain that needed name recognition. And we talked to political consultants who tell us that it’s common for folks with difficult or longer last names to rely on that shorter first name to really stick in people’s brains for when they go to the polls.
Chris Quinn (06:11.267)
I’m just surprised he hasn’t made more of an issue of it because I’ve heard people mispronouncing this everywhere. It wasn’t just us. And it was only because I think Lisa brought it up. Yeah. And we said, well, boy, how do you pronounce that? And started looking that we realized how wrong we were getting it. Of course, Lisa is the former broadcast person who had to be very focused on name pronunciation. So we appreciated her bringing that to
Lisa (06:22.203)
Yeah, it was me yesterday.
Chris Quinn (06:39.159)
everyone’s attention. Hopefully this will start to spread and people will at least pronounce his name correctly.
Courtney (06:46.028)
What’s interesting is that Jeremy went out and talked to some longtime Ohio political consultants and they kind of talked to us about the politics of names and name recognition. And one told us that having a different name like Vivek’s can really be a plus in a race. Terry Casey was talking to us about campaigning for another difficult name candidate back in the eighties, Scott Olslinger from North Canton. And Casey told us that when voters were introduced to him,
They were more likely to actually remember his name because it was unusual. So Casey said this kind of setup can be a challenge, but it can also be an opportunity.
Chris Quinn (07:23.705)
Well, it didn’t help Kamala Harris, that’s for sure. How many times was her name mispronounced before people came to terms with it? You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Lisa, what does the future of our energy bills look like in the vision of the Ohio Senate?
Lisa (07:40.591)
Well, there’s a lot of stuff to go through here and some of it’s actually good stuff. So let’s get rolling here. This is Senate Bill 2, also known as the Energy Bill, and it’s one of its co-sponsors, Senator Bill Reineke, a Republican from Tiffin. He says a floor vote is possible today in the Senate. Among the things, and this is interesting, ESPs, which are electric security plants, which we really commonly known as riders.
These are charges that are put on our bill for capital projects. They’re not itemized in our bills. So Senate Bill 2 would eliminate ESPs and riders. It would be replaced with a full rate review every three years. Some utilities have gone over 10 years without a full rate review. And some people have said that they’re using riders and that’s kind of a sign of overcharging. They would also end the bailouts of two coal plants in Ohio and Indiana.
that were given those subsidies in 2019, customers have paid nearly $680 million to three utilities since then, 172 million last year alone. The bailouts will end when the bill becomes law, not in 2028. And, an attorney and lobbyist for AEP, Frank Strigari says,
They’ve asked for a reasonable transition time. They said if we don’t get it, it could be higher cost to our customers if we have to raise capital from our investors. But lawmakers were unmoved by that argument.
Chris Quinn (09:03.853)
Yeah
Chris Quinn (09:10.081)
What this is a great story that’s on cleveland.com in that it takes complex issues and makes them very easy to understand. And you’re right. It’s loaded with stuff. One of the most interesting parts of this story is that first energy has not sought a review of its rates in years and years. And the legislators are speculating it’s because they’re getting all this money from those riders you discussed and that their rates are too high.
Lisa (09:27.875)
Mm. Mm.
Chris Quinn (09:38.745)
Part of the requirement of this bill would be a three-year review of electric rates, which would finally squeeze First Energy out of jamming us for all the money they don’t need.
Lisa (09:51.223)
Right, exactly. And you know, these riders, know, another thing was customer refunds, which is tied to the riders. It forces utilities to refund all costs after the Ohio Supreme Court finds that they were unreasonable, unlawful, or otherwise improper rate charges. So, yeah, it sounds like they’re kind of, as you said, squeezing the utilities with this bill and I’m glad to see it.
Chris Quinn (10:15.467)
We’ll see how long it stays that way. First Energy has been able to buy these people off repeatedly. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. What was the point of the Cleveland Browns seeking to file an amended complaint in their lawsuit to block the city from impeding their move to Brook Park where they want to build a covered stadium, Laura?
Lisa (10:17.42)
Last, yeah.
Laura (10:37.15)
They wanted to make clear that really they’re still in greater Cleveland. So the Modell law does not apply because they’re not trying to move out of state basically. So the Brown’s attorneys on Tuesday asked a federal judge if they could file an updated lawsuit. So they didn’t officially file it. They asked if they could, but they attached this updated lawsuit. And it said that they didn’t really have a lot of new legal arguments, but it tried to show that this is different.
than when Art Modell moved the team to Baltimore in the 90s. And that was when it was still under the lease with the city. It says that they’re just moving just outside the city limits, not 375 miles away. And that this way we won’t overburden Cleveland taxpayers with a new stadium. At the same time that we were talking about this story in the newsroom, I got a basically press release kind of like thing to...
Brown’s fans just doubling down that they want to relieve Cleveland of any expense to update the current field and they want this new home.
Chris Quinn (11:45.271)
Yeah, the press release they sent out was basically doing what their filing did. It’s doubling down on the idea we’re not moving. And look, let’s face it, whether you think Brook Park is a good idea or bad idea, whether you think it should be in Cleveland or not, the idea of the Art Modell law was to stop a team from departing the way they did when they went to Baltimore. It was not something like they did in Boston, where they just moved the team elsewhere.
Laura (12:04.596)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (12:12.949)
in the region. They would still be the Cleveland Browns. And I’ve said from the beginning, I don’t think this Art Modell law is constitutional. I think once this gets to the adjudication process, it’s going to get tossed. But for some reason, they clearly think they need to emphasize this because like you said, there’s not a single new legal argument in the amended lawsuit they want to file. They just want to go deeper in saying, we’re not moving. We’re not moving.
Laura (12:41.833)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (12:41.965)
And then the thing to the fans saying that I wonder if they did a survey and people are misunderstanding.
Laura (12:48.828)
Maybe. I’m not really sure. mean, the city’s still saying the city’s still fighting this, right? I mean, there’s two current lawsuits going on, one in common please court, one in the federal court. And it’s clear the Browns want the federal court one to go forward while the city wants the common please to go forward. And that one is not even quite as far along. So we’ll have to see this play out. But the Browns say, you know, we need to break ground on a new stadium next year.
who are to be ready for the start of the 2029 season. I’m sure they would like all of this legal mess to just go away and everybody to sign off on everything and they can build their $2.4 billion home with a whole lot of taxpayer money.
Chris Quinn (13:32.813)
I don’t know about everybody signing off and everything, but I do think the courts are going to resolve this fairly quickly. It seems like it’s a pretty simple question to address and they’ll quickly address it. I wish I understood the reason for yesterday’s bluster. I have said a long, long though, that if there’s no publicity about this new stadium in the media for about six, eight weeks, they create something. And maybe that’s what this is. Maybe nobody’s talking about this. Let’s throw something out there.
Cause like you said, there’s really nothing new. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Speaking of the Browns, Courtney, they have top draft picks this year for the first time in four years because of that horrifying deal they made for Deshaun Watson. They’re turning their draft into a higher level party than in the past. How so?
Courtney (14:20.906)
Yeah, in what couldn’t be a more appropriate move for Browns fans who have suffered through, you know, a losing home team for decades. The iconic singers behind Don’t Stop Believing are coming to town. So Journey, you know, the megastar rock group is going to be playing an exclusive concert for current Brown season ticket holders during the draft party here in Cleveland on April 24th. And ticket holders are going to get one free ticket for each sheet on their account.
And the party’s going to run for about two hours until 8 p.m. when the first round kicks off and then everybody will be turning their attention to the draft.
Chris Quinn (14:57.017)
What’s sad in Cleveland is the draft. The draft day is the biggest day of the year because they stink. So the games are not big. The opening day game isn’t big as the draft. The draft is the one day where you can dream a little until your dreams are dashed onto the rocks and they have another losing season.
Courtney (15:18.798)
Yeah, I mean, the team does have the number two overall pick, like you mentioned, and they’ve got 10 total picks, but I, you know, we’ll have to see where they go in building up the team seats and ticket holders at least have this fun to look forward to. They’re supposed to be getting updates through the Brown’s mobile app. So if you’re a ticket holder, keep an eye on that. And then starting the week of April 7th seat selection is going to kick off. So fans can get in there and try and snap up the best seats available.
You know, one thing I was curious about this was whether this concert is open to others as well, or is it just for season ticket holders?
Chris Quinn (15:55.747)
I don’t know. You gotta give them credit though for trying to make a bigger event. is something that fans get pretty excited about. I was surprised when I saw this one roll across.
Courtney (16:04.866)
Big name, big name.
Chris Quinn (16:06.681)
You’re listening to Today in Ohio. The Republicans managed to make transgender politics central to their message in 2024 and the Democrats fell flat on their faces trying to handle it. Those issues remain political long after the election though. Lisa, what’s the latest on a severe Ohio law involving transgender children?
Lisa (16:30.511)
Yeah, the 10th Court of Appeals has put a hold on House Bill 68, which is a House, an Ohio law banning transgender minors from getting hormone or treatment or puberty blockers. This reverses a lower court decision that let that law take effect last August. So the Ohio ACLU sued on behalf of two transgender teenagers. They say that the fact that this is being combined with a ban on transgender athletes and girls sports.
violates Ohio’s single subject rule. The original judge in this case, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Michael Holbrooke said both of these had a common purpose to regulate transgender people and that it was a legitimate subject. The appellate court agreed on that point, but they said that House Bill 68 was sweeping and inflexible, you know, with parents' ability to access medical care for their kids.
David Yost is going to appeal. says, there’s no way I’m going to stop fighting for these unprotected kids. And he said that the ruling green-lighted permanent medical interventions against minors.
Chris Quinn (17:37.507)
You remember this is the law that Mike DeWine vetoed because he said parents should be the ones making decisions about the kids, not state lawmakers that are pushing their Trumpy Trumpy agenda. I’m not surprised Yost did what he did, but he’s going the Trumpy way. And Vivek Ramaswamy is the Trump candidate. And if Yost keeps trying to do that, he’ll be Matt Dolan in this. He’ll come in second and he will not be the candidate.
Lisa (17:40.633)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (18:05.805)
governor. I’m surprised he’s not trying to stand apart. He didn’t just say I’m going to defend it. You quoted it. He was over the top and harumph, harumph, trump, trump, trump, trump. So we’ll see what the Ohio Supreme Court ultimately rules. That’s where it goes next, right? You’re listening to Today in Ohio. How far have vaccination rates fallen for Ohio kindergartners just as measles is picking up steam in parts of the country, Laura?
Lisa (18:12.603)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Lisa (18:23.931)
correct.
Laura (18:36.02)
we are down to 85.4 % of kids, kindergartners, up to date on their vaccines for this school year. That’s down from 86 % in the previous year. And that’s all of the vaccines. If you’re looking at the MMR shot, the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine that dropped from 89 % last year to 88.3 % this year. And that compares to about 92.5 % in 2019, 2020 before COVID.
shut down the world. That national rate at the time was 92.7. actually, sorry. The national rate is 92.7 for last year. So Ohio is quite a bit underneath the national average, which doesn’t surprise me when you look at how Trumpy this state is and how there’s, it’s kind of like solar, right? It’s, it’s this idea. We don’t want to look at the science. We’ve somehow made vaccines
partisan and if you’re super Republican, you don’t like to be told what to do and that includes vaccinating your kids even against some devastating diseases and measles is one of the most contagious infectious diseases. It’s highly transmissible, spreads through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes, up to two hours lingers after that sick person has left a room. So we’re seeing a lot of it in Texas right now.
Chris Quinn (20:01.795)
Well, and the other thing it does is it makes your body forget all of the bacteria and viruses you’ve had. So when you get them again, your immune system no longer is ready to block it. That’s one of the nice things about your immune system is it has a memory, the antibodies are there and it wipes them out. What’s sad about this is that medicine is science. It’s fact. And history is replete with people who eschew science and then suffer as a result. So
Laura (20:28.232)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (20:30.903)
When you’re not vaccinated and you get measles, you’ll see people saying, what was me? What was mean? You’re thinking you’re a moron. You could have avoided this with a simple embrace of solid proven science instead of following your Facebook wacko friends down rabbit holes of anti-science nonsense.
Lisa (20:51.597)
Or our, you know, health and human services guy is saying the same thing, take vitamin A. And with measles, you have to be at 95 % vaccination for herd immunity. We’re way beyond, that.
Chris Quinn (20:54.063)
Yeah.
Chris Quinn (21:01.943)
I know. I know. it just happens over and over again. These people that stand on their wacko theories are the ones who ultimately suffer. And it’s just sad because we used to be a nation that embraced scientific achievement.
Laura (21:19.794)
Right. Yeah. People think like vitamin A will cure you and this. Right. And it’s the head of the Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, the head of the Ohio health who had this press conference yesterday and he’s basically trying to tell people, I mean, he is Mike DeWine’s appointee, right? This is a Republican standing there saying vitamin A isn’t going to work. That’s not going to keep you from getting the measles. Like go get vaccinated. And I,
Chris Quinn (21:23.375)
Cod liver oil. Just take cod liver oil, you won’t get the measles.
Lisa (21:24.804)
Mm-hmm.
Laura (21:49.33)
I don’t know how you get through to people, especially when you’ve got people like Kennedy.
Chris Quinn (21:55.213)
Yeah, it’s, it’s, well, we pay the price and then people learn the hard way. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Cleveland saluted what could be a huge investment in affordable housing Tuesday. Courtney, how would it work?
Courtney (22:09.366)
Yeah, so yesterday at City Hall, heard from the mayor, Key Bank and others who were kicking off the Cleveland Housing Investment Fund. It’s now officially open for business. And with this, we’re talking about a pool of about $38 million that the city hopes to eventually grow to $100 million through fundraising. But that money, whatever the final amount is, would be used to help pay for new and renovated housing projects across the city.
We know Cleveland, like many places, is always looking for more housing options. And this is one way that the city and KeyBank want to tackle this. This fund is going to be managed by the national nonprofit community development organization, LISC. They have a local arm here. But what this means is that Cleveland chipped in about $18 million, including some of its federal aid from the American Rescue Plan Act. And they got KeyBank to chip in $20 million.
towards this fund. One key bank executive told us this was really kind of her idea. She went to Detroit to watch, you know, the fruits of a similar fund up there and said, well, why can’t we do this in Cleveland? And part of the goal of the money here is to provide low interest loans and equity investments into housing developers projects who may not have the financing they need to quite get their project over the finish line. This fund will inject about one to $5 million per project.
And then hopefully the money’s repaid back over time so it can be used on future housing projects.
Chris Quinn (23:40.291)
The idea of making it loans and not grants makes so much sense because you just get to keep recycling that money. So many times in the past this kind of thing has been given out as grants and once it’s gone, it’s gone. Hopefully this will work to keep it going into the future for as far as we can see.
Courtney (23:58.702)
Yeah, and if they’re able to raise that hundred million they’re hoping to, they say this could help create up to 3000 new units in Cleveland and they’re going to be focusing these investments in projects that, you know, the money can flow all over the city, but the goal is really to focus on the not so hot markets. So not Ohio city, not downtown, not university circle. They want to pump this money more into places like Glenville and Huff.
Chris Quinn (24:24.973)
Well, I hear there’s going to be some new housing out in Brook Park. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Ohio is a big farming state. Ohio is the birthplace of aviation. What does Congressman Max Miller want to combine those two facts into as an initiative?
Lisa (24:42.117)
Well, I’m glad to say that at least some congresspeople from Ohio are focusing on non-MAGA stuff. So the Bay Village Republican is stewarding the Farm to Fly Act. This would help develop what’s called sustainable aviation fuels, or SAFs, within existing U.S. Agriculture Department programs. So this would give farmers new markets for biofuels, mostly corn, and it would help the rural economy develop and also build domestic energy resources, all good ideas.
There’s wide bipartisan support for this in Congress and from a wide range of groups including Ohio Corn and Wheat, the Renewable Fuels Association and Airlines for America. A current bill similar to this went to the House Agriculture Committee in draft form but it never made it to the floor last year so Miller’s gonna try again.
Chris Quinn (25:32.729)
It’d be good if they found another outlet for all of the crops we grow here. Although I keep waiting for the electric planes that when you talk about future airports and the difference that they’ll need and take off and landings, we haven’t seen much discussion about that. And I guess while Trump is president, we won’t. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. How many special and official days, weeks and months have Ohio lawmakers put on our calendars, Laura?
Laura (26:03.464)
Well, there are 104 special days, 92 months, and 26 weeks. Obviously, if you add that up, that is way more than one year. So we have a lot of overlap. This is according to the Legislative Services Commission. And 70 % of them have been pushed by Republicans, many of them in recent decades. Some of them recognize the accomplishments of famous Ohioans like John Glenn, Dean Martin, and Toni Morrison.
Others are historical figures you may never heard of, like Charles Fallis, who’s the first black professional football player. A lot of them are to raise awareness about a disease or a chronic condition. The question is, are they meaningful when so many of them obviously overlap? And how do you even know about them unless you were already aligned with that special interest? Well, it’s nice that they are bipartisan, right? Like people are getting along when they do this, but
Chris Quinn (26:47.531)
No.
Laura (27:00.229)
Should they be spending their time on something that matters more?
Chris Quinn (27:04.993)
Yeah, I just don’t know how much it means when every day and every week is another, it’s puppy day. it’s breast cancer day. You, you, you cheapen the things that are important. Like breast cancer awareness is super important, right? You could save lives if people get mammograms, but if you equate that to it’s Buckeye day, Buckeye tree day, and all these other insignificant things, then does it, does it work to get people to actually
Laura (27:16.702)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Laura (27:28.776)
or Donut Day.
Chris Quinn (27:34.947)
go and do it. I think the story traced how it exploded in one legislative session. And that was stupid. We should have said at the time, hey, hey, look, let’s keep a focus on what really is meaningful and changes lives rather than every cause. This isn’t a license plate, right? It’s supposed to be something that spurs action and conversation.
Laura (27:41.534)
Mm-hmm.
Laura (28:01.972)
Right, so it was the General Assembly in 2007, 2008 that added 29 days, including Omega Psi Phi Month, German Heritage Month, and USS Hawking Day. So I think they’re talking about Roy Rogers right now in the State House, that they should have a day after him. There’s the Superman Day.
Chris Quinn (28:20.451)
Him or the restaurant, the fast food restaurant? Which one is it? We’re gonna do a Chick-fil-A day too?
Laura (28:24.756)
The person, I assume. Oh my God, people would probably vote for Chick-fil-A day. People love Chick-fil-A. I mean, I think some of it is interesting. Like the 680, I don’t know how to say that, the 6888, the Central Postal Directory Battalion, that women’s Army Corps group during World War II who sorted that massive backlog of undelivered mail. There’s a Netflix movie about it fairly recently, it’s fascinating.
Chris Quinn (28:30.936)
Ha ha ha.
Laura (28:52.326)
And so the commander was raised in Dayton. I didn’t know that, but I also didn’t know we had that day because there were so many days.
Chris Quinn (29:00.697)
Well, we’re going to get it to the point where they’re going to have to start naming hours because every day is taken too many times. It’s kind of silly. Good story to check out. Lisa? Okay.
Lisa (29:10.021)
I want Lisa Garvin Day, where everyone pays homage to me.
Laura (29:16.252)
Only on this, we should have a Lisa Garvin day on this podcast and we can give you every question. You can just take all the questions and we’ll just applaud you. Because we’d be celebrating Lisa and her thoughts and opinions.
Chris Quinn (29:18.848)
Okay.
Lisa (29:21.351)
Ha
Chris Quinn (29:23.563)
How would that be nice? That’s not a tribute.
Courtney (29:26.157)
Yeah.
Lisa (29:27.515)
I don’t know if you want to let me loose with a mic alone, just saying.
Chris Quinn (29:32.111)
All right, 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 on Thursday.