Ohio’s JD Vance has spent a week stepping on rakes and embarrassing himself. Will he stay on the ticket? Today in Ohio (2024)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Since his anointment as Donald Trump’s GOP running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance has been put under a microscope for past policy reversals and contentious remarks.

We’re talking about Vance’s vice presidential candidacy, and whether it sticks, 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.

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 else we’re asking about today:

JD Vance, Trump’s vice presidential candidate from Ohio, had a pretty awful week. What are some of the revelations that emerged about him, and how has he responded to the controversy?

People have debated all year whether a presidential candidacy by anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy would hurt Joe Biden or Donald Trump more. Now that debate will have to be about Harris v Trump. Will that debate impact Ohio voters?

Ohio’s back-to-school sales tax holiday long has been a bit of a gimmick, a small break to parents looking to pick up some items for their kids before classes begin. The holiday has gone upscale and is hardly a gimmick now. What can people buy now under the tax break, and how much could they save?

We saw enormous financial benefits in Cleveland from the Superman movie production, but as we said last week, winning those productions is based on state tax credits. Ohio just announced some more of those. Who gets them?

Is it any wonder people are losing faith in Cuyahoga County government? What’s the story behind the selection – and after we found ut about it, the deselection – of former Cleveland City Council member Basheer Jones as a graduation speaker for children aging out of foster care?

Is it climate change? Is it drought? Is it simple good luck? Why is it that each of Ohio’s fruit crops this year is coming in two weeks earlier than usual, with the latest being peaches?

Every school district in Ohio is required to have a policy. How will Cleveland Schools deal with cell phones when students return later this week?

You’d think the knowledge that a camera is running would change the behavior of police officers, but we’ve got another case of video showing some pretty awful behavior by a Cuyahoga County deputy sheriff. What happened?

Edgewater Beach has rocketed up in the number of days that sewage is in the water. Two other beaches have it regularly. How is it that the U.S. Epa could remove these three Cleveland beaches from a list of special concern? Are they somehow getting less gross?

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 Google Podcasts, 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 (00:02.284)

It’s a Newsy Tuesday on Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from Cleveland .com and the Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Lisa Garvin, Laura Johnston, and Leila Tassi. And we’re going to start off talking about Ohio’s very own JD Vance, unless he’s California’s very own JD Vance or Kentucky’s very own JD Vance. Not really clear what he can call home, but Trump’s vice presidential candidate, who is ostensibly from Ohio, had a pretty awful week.

Lisa, what are some of the revelations that emerged about him and how is he responding to all of this controversy?

Lisa (00:38.847)

Well, I think the big one, the one that got the most traction was when he said something in 2021 about childless cat ladies and how miserable they are and they shouldn’t be the ones running the country. Lots of blowback on that, including from the Kamala Harris campaign. Vance went on Fox News this last Sunday and he said, well, that quote was taken out of context and out of proportion. He said that the Dems have no agenda to run on and that’s why they’re doing this. And he says,

that Democrats are explicitly anti -family in their policies. And then there was his transgender law school roommate, Sophia Nelson. She had a bunch of emails between her and Vance during their time in school. They were friends for a long time. She sent these emails to the New York Times and this was years of their friendship.

And then that friendship abruptly ended when Vance supported an Arkansas measure that banned gender affirming care for minors and made it a Class C felony. So that’s when Sophia said she had had an, or he had enough of her, I guess, didn’t want her in his, you know, in his feed or whatever. But her emails did show an evolution from a never Trumper to an avid supporter of

And Vance saying that he hated police after the 2014 killing of a black teen by white officer in Missouri. so Nelson says, well, he’s amassing more power by expressing exactly the opposite of what he was saying years ago.

Chris (02:09.996)

Well, I don’t know that he’s amassing more power because he’s got a negative reaction in the polls. And that may be the first time that’s ever happened. You announce your vice presidential candidate and more people don’t like him than like him. We had an interesting brainstorm session last week to talk about how we’re going to go about covering him. And one of the reporters asked the question, when did he get so angry? Because after he wrote his book and he was making the rounds, he wasn’t

angry JD Vance. was kind of a gentle JD Vance and Pete Krause who covered this event they had in Cleveland where he was the featured speaker remembered because he looked he went looked at his story that Vance looked out into the crowd and I was in this crowd and he saw I don’t know 15 to 20 black people in the crowd and he said hey I you know I’m looking at you and your story is my story I identify with you. Could you imagine him saying that today? He was this

Lisa (02:39.827)

Mm -hmm.

Chris (03:07.2)

this kind of decent, gentle representative of Appalachia, even though he’s really not. And at some point he became this angry guy saying such hateful stuff as the cat lady comment. What triggers that? Was it just to get Trump’s endorsem*nt when he ran for Senate? I mean, is he that fickle in who he is and what his integrity is about that on a dime he would change his entire personality?

Lisa (03:34.543)

Yeah, that’s the thing that bothers me. mean, because he was a pretty avid anti -Trump -er at one time. And the flip -flop is nothing short of stunning in my mind. And I kept thinking, well, maybe he has another agenda. He’ll get in and be a centrist. But I think that dream is gone. And you know, his wife, Usha, is an Indian American. She’s the daughter of Indian immigrants. And white supremacists wasted no time in going after him for that.

you know, attacking her Indian heritage, even though she clerked for Brett Kavanaugh. They married in 2014 and Vance says, obviously she’s not a white person and white supremacists are attacking us for that. But he said, quote, but I just, I just love Usha. And that’s the most human thing I think he said in a long

Chris (04:20.874)

Yeah, he loves Usha, who you could argue is a great symbol of immigration and what this country stands for, but he’s also one of the most anti -immigration people on the stage. I wish I understood how you could just be that much of a chameleon. Some people wonder, is this an evolution because he’s young and he’s been learning more and more, but the more you look at it, the more it seems like rank opportunism. His rapid

change on abortion. Absolutely no abortion under any case, no exceptions, not for rape or incest. And now he supports the abortion pill. How do you do that? That’s, abortion is the binary issue. You’re either against it or you’re in favor of it. How do you go from one to the other and not explain what the revelation is other than, I want to line up with Donald Trump because my job is to be his puppet and do whatever he tells

Laura (05:17.056)

Don’t you feel like he’s just throwing things out to see what maybe people will embrace? Like that idea that English is a as the national language or this idea that like if you have kids, you should have more voting power. Like where did that come from? I they are so out of the blue. Like what are you thinking that it’s very clear there’s no thought process coming in here. It’s just like spitballing. But like at a very weird level, usually you keep that to yourself until

Lisa (05:28.816)

Yeah.

Laura (05:45.364)

have a formulated plan that makes

Chris (05:47.82)

But we used to be a state that had John Glenn and George Voinovich. Those are the kinds of people that we had representing us on the national stage. These aren’t guys that changed on a dime, that just gave up their positions overnight because it was convenient. This runs so counter to what we in Ohio have always wanted from our politicians. He does not represent Ohio, and yet...

Leila (05:48.257)

Thank

Laura (05:51.732)

Mm -hmm.

Lisa (05:52.574)

Mm.

Chris (06:15.06)

Everybody in the country is talking about him like he’s an Ohioan. He’s become the butt of terrible jokes. And John Oliver did a hilarious bit on the phony, the phony story came out about him having sex with a couch. It’s not true and it’s weird how viral that went, but Oliver was hilarious. If you have a chance, check it out on YouTube. Yeah. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.

Lisa (06:23.809)

yeah.

Lisa (06:34.834)

Yeah, it was. It was great.

Chris (06:40.246)

People have debated all year whether a presidential candidacy of anti -vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy would hurt Joe Biden or Donald Trump more. Now that debate will have to be about Harris versus Trump. Leila, will that debate impact Ohio voters?

Leila (06:56.27)

Well, it seems perhaps Chris, because Kennedy has just filed his candidacy paperwork to appear on the ballot in Ohio. His campaign submitted 13 ‚000 voter signatures to the Ohio secretary of state’s office, and now election officials need to verify at least 5 ‚000 of those signatures for him to make it onto the November ballot. Kennedy isn’t the only independent candidate in the mix though. Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, filed her paperwork last month and she’ll appear on the ballot as a nonpartisan candidate.

The deadline for independence is, August 7th. Kennedy is of course the son of former U S attorney general, Robert F. Kennedy, but he’s, he’s obviously not expected to win this election. His role will be perhaps that of a spoiler. Polls in Ohio show Kennedy drawing around 5 % of the vote. Interestingly though, he started his campaign seeking the democratic nomination and

brought on former US representative Dennis Kucinich from Cleveland as his campaign manager for a while, but last fall he decided to go the independent route.

Chris (08:01.342)

What’s sad is I hear from people that say, I’m going to vote for Kennedy because this was before Biden dropped out because they were so disgusted with the other candidates. And Kennedy’s nuts. mean, his whole anti -vaxxer stuff is just pseudo -science for people that don’t care about science. There is nothing about this guy that merits him being taken seriously as a politician in any way, shape or form. He is a joke. And yet here he is. He’ll be on our ballot.

and there will be people that vote for

Leila (08:32.014)

So people, so which kinds of voters do you think will be attracted to Kennedy versus Jill Stein, for example, for those who don’t want to vote for one of the major party candidates? Do you think that Kennedy is drawing more Democrats or Republicans or people who don’t affiliate with either? what, do you think this is going to break?

Chris (08:50.498)

I actually think Harris getting into the race means he hurts Donald Trump, not the Democrats. I think if Biden and Trump were both in the race, people would have just thrown their vote to him just to throw it away. They wouldn’t have cared. They would have known he wasn’t going to win, but they weren’t going to vote for Biden or Trump because he didn’t want either of them. I think that’s less likely now. I think the Democrats have a legitimate candidate kind of who, if they play their cards right, is exciting and could really energize the

while the Republicans still have Donald Trump, who most people really don’t want anything to do with. So I think he’ll drain votes from Trump, which gets back to what I said yesterday about how I’m not sure Ohio could not get into play because of people like Kennedy and Jill Stein.

Leila (09:37.976)

How about Jill Stein though? you think she’ll play the spoiler on the other

Chris (09:44.03)

I don’t know. don’t know. mean, she’s been on the ballot. That party’s been on the ballot a bunch of times. It hasn’t really played much of a spoiler. I don’t know. I think, look, the Democrats have a candidate now. I mean, that’s what everybody kept saying. Why can’t we have a choice? Why can’t we have a choice? Well, by Biden doing what he did, which I give him huge points for doing one last public service for the nation he served so long, by him taking that valiant

He has given the nation the choice that it wanted. Harris is a really good alternative to Donald Trump. And so I don’t know that these third party candidates will play into it. I think people might get excited about Harris. We’ll have to see. This is the fastest moving election year I’ve ever seen. It was only two weeks ago that we had the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. It seems like a year ago at this

Leila (10:34.254)

What I’ve observed so far among the people around me is that those who are attracted to voting for Jill Stein feel very strongly about the war in Gaza and feel that Harris is very closely aligned with obviously Joe Biden’s foreign policy agenda there. so I do think that at least from that percentage of voters, Jill Stein is going to take those votes.

Lisa (10:41.767)

I feel that Harris is very closely in line with obviously Joe Biden’s foreign policy agenda there. so I do think that at least from that percentage of voters, Joe Biden is going to take those votes.

Chris (11:04.192)

Although I do see some signs that Harris may break with Biden on that policy. I’m not sure that she’s going to be lined up the way Biden has been. think you might see some difference there to, to, we’ll see. don’t know. Fascinating stuff. a, I mean, it seems like we got a long time to go before the election. We don’t, but how much could happen between now and then? You’re listening to Today in Ohio.

Ohio’s back to school sales tax holiday long has been a bit of a gimmick, a small break to parents looking to pick up some items for their kids before classes begin and they begin way too early. I Cleveland schools reopened this week. The holiday has gone upscale this year and it’s hardly a gimmick now. Laura, what can people buy under the latest version of this tax break? How much could they save?

Laura (11:55.04)

You can buy nearly anything that’s a good, not a service, that’s not a boat, a motor vehicle, alcohol, cigarettes, any kind of tobacco really, or vape material. So if you want to go to a restaurant and eat food at that restaurant, you’re not going to have to pay taxes. If you want to buy some kind of luxury item that has nothing to do with back to school shopping, go for it. As long as it’s less than $500, you’re not going to have to pay taxes on that.

And you’re going to save the most money in Cuyahoga County because we have the highest sales tax in the account in this state. So for every hundred dollars you spend here, you’re going to save eight bucks on those eligible items. So that could really add up if you’re buying that graphing calculator for your middle schooler and the backpack and the whatever and all the back to school clothes and shoes and the Nikes they have to have. So, yeah, but I mean, you get to treat yourself to this is not just for kids anymore, because when it started in 2015,

It was $75 or less, and it was basically on clothes and school supplies.

Chris (12:58.74)

It says that this applies to online. So does Amazon adjust its computers for that period where it no longer charges you sales tax or do people have to file some kind of waiver?

Laura (13:01.077)

Mm -hmm.

Laura (13:09.152)

I would think there are so many of these in so many different states and they seem to be around the same time that the retailers are aware of it and adjusting for that period because we’re talking 10 days right now. This isn’t just a blip. It’s more than a week. So I would be surprised if you had to fight it. I mean, maybe some small retailers that you’re buying online, but the big ones should know what they’re

Chris (13:30.914)

I’m trying to understand what their real motive is here. Originally this was, hey, parents have to go spend a bundle of money, and it’s gone up every year, what it is, to get their kids ready, let’s cut them a break, which I don’t think anybody could debate. But I get this tax break, right? I mean, we all get this tax break. You don’t have to be a parent of a kid. You don’t have to have anybody going to school. So for 10 days, I get to buy stuff and not pay taxes on

Laura (13:39.582)

Mm -hmm.

Laura (13:47.176)

Mm -hmm.

Lisa (13:54.761)

But you know, we’ve had these unrelenting stories about the economy and how people, know, even though the economy is roaring, people are suffering. I mean, they’re paying more for groceries, more for rent. So, you know, I think it’s gonna resonate with people like

Laura (14:08.81)

But this isn’t going to affect your grocery bill or your rent, unfortunately, which

Lisa (14:12.159)

True, but it would give them some leeway, allow them to save 8 % on any other purchase that they make. I think that will resonate with people who are a cash

Laura (14:22.528)

I agree, but they’re probably not buying $500 items, likely.

Chris (14:26.07)

What is the philosophy behind a...

Leila (14:27.188)

I’m going to do some home improvement stuff there during that week. I’ve got a fence to put in for my new puppy.

Laura (14:35.552)

I mean, do you think people really wait to buy stuff just for that week?

Chris (14:40.162)

That’s a big savings, man. 8 % on 500 bucks is a lot. Is that the max per item or is it the max per person? mean, could you buy... So you could spend a fortune and not pay 8 % on all that is pretty high. What’s the philosophy on giving the break to restaurant dining?

Laura (14:49.928)

Item per item.

Laura (14:59.744)

I asked the Republicans who passed this, I’m not entirely sure their motivation here. The thing is, this isn’t a given every year. They have to look at the budget and where the state ends in the previous fiscal year. They have to have at least $60 million in unanticipated revenue. And then they can calculate how many days the tax holiday is going to last based on how much money is available. it couldn’t make next year if we don’t have this much money in the budget, we might not be able to say, okay,

10 days, $500, it could be adjusted down if the state isn’t collecting as much in taxes.

Chris (15:35.062)

What are the ten days again?

Laura (15:36.8)

It starts today and it runs through 1159 of 10 days from now. So is that next next Thursday?

Chris (15:46.752)

All right. There you go. Good news. Save some money. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We saw enormous financial benefits in Cleveland from the Superman movie production. But as we said last week, winning those productions is based on state tax credits. Lisa Ohio just announced more of those. Who gets

Lisa (16:05.439)

Yeah, there are 17 projects that are going to receive a total of $36 .7 million in tax credits for filming in Ohio. That includes 14 films, some of them filming right here in the Cleveland and Northeast Ohio area. And these are working titles. We don’t know whether, you know, what the final title will be, but one is being called Syndicate. They’re getting $4 .7 million. A movie called Kicking It is getting $1 .2 million. And then a group called the AEW 2024 -2025

productions, they’re getting 1 .3 million. And a movie called Privilege is getting 1 million. These again are all filming in Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. The largest credit, 10 .7 million goes to a title called Epiphany that’s going to be filmed in the Cincinnati area. Also some television productions, Columbus Quartet mini series is getting $3 .3 million. They’re filming in central Ohio. And Tina, the Tina Turner musical,

will be filmed in Northeast Ohio and Springfield. This is actually the first Broadway production to get tax credits. They’re getting about a half million dollars in tax credits.

Chris (17:12.994)

I take it that’s going to be a movie production of the show. So the show will be performed here and will just be the place where they film the stage production because Tina Turner really doesn’t have much of an Ohio connection. Very cool. It’s nice to see that the state is recognizing the financial windfalls you can get by bringing these productions to Ohio. And it’s great to see that we’ll have some of them in the Cleveland area.

Lisa (17:18.345)

Correct.

Lisa (17:21.928)

where they film

Lisa (17:38.559)

Right. And we have $75 million a year to give away. So with this and the Superman movie, we’ve given away about $48 million. So we have about $27 million left to give out this year.

Chris (17:50.146)

Cool story. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Is it any wonder people are losing faith in Cuyahoga County government? What is the story behind the selection, and after we found out about it, the deselection, of former Cleveland City Council member Bashir Jones as a graduation speaker for children aging out of foster care? Layla, as we discussed yesterday, we’re scratching our heads over the thought process that went into this.

Leila (18:06.463)

you

Leila (18:16.974)

Yes. yeah, Bashir, Bashir Jones, who was on council for one term before he left his seat to try to run for mayor in 2021. He’s been under federal investigation for the past couple of years related to dealings involving the community development corporation and in his former council ward and a number of nonprofit and community agencies. So that’s the backdrop here. But last week, Eagle Eye reporter, Caitlin Durbin, she spotted his name.

on a county spending list that was headed to the Board of Control for review. The county was planning to pay Jones $2 ,950 bucks to speak at a high school graduation event in August for kids who were aging out of foster care. And the county planned to also buy $2 ,000 worth of his book, A Journey to Leadership from Pain to Inspiration. However, after Caitlin asked the county,

why they would hire Jones for that speaking gig when he’s under investigation, as well as a number of other questions about why and how much the county typically pays speakers at such events. Then the county decided to cancel this arrangement. Maybe they had no idea what Jones was facing here. County spokeswoman Jennifer Chach confirmed that Jones would no longer be speaking at the event and that a new speaker had not yet been identified, but she didn’t answer the questions

why Jones was initially selected or why they bagged the deal. And Chach simply kind of pointed to the county’s procurement policy, which says that departments can make purchases up to $5 ‚000 without the board of controls approval. Jones, we’re not quite sure what he’s been up to since he left council or since he lost the mayor’s race. His LinkedIn profile lists him as a motivational speaker and CEO of Life Development,

He describes as a real estate company focused on helping religious institutions and nonprofits develop land. But we couldn’t really verify the existence of this company. On the Secretary of State’s website, we just weren’t sure if this is a real thing. So there are lot of unanswered questions around this deal.

Chris (20:32.876)

We’ve been talking a lot about puppies of late just because we have, and this has the every feeling of the good puppy, bad puppy thing. If this were an innocent mistake that they simply didn’t know he remained under investigation, this is where the puppy would come up, its tail be wagging and would go, what? What’s going on? What’s up? This is not that. This is the puppy that picked up the rotten chicken in the street and has got his head down and is trying to hide it from you. They blew this. They have made this look shady.

with their subterfuge and not answering the questions we ask about it and we got weird answers inside okay if there’s weird answers there must be something pretty shady going on with this who picked them but you know who decided to spend money on the books as you asked yesterday have they ever paid a previous speaker or bought their books which we’ll find out this this now stinks and it they could have just said ups

Leila (21:15.436)

That’s right.

Chris (21:29.942)

We didn’t realize that investigation was still going. Of course we don’t want him to speak while that cloud is over his head. So we rescinded the invitation. Thank you, Caitlin Durbin and cleveland .com for bringing it to our attention. But they didn’t. They’ve been really secretive and weird and giving us cross signals. So this is the rotten chicken in the dog’s mouth with the dog trying to hide it from you. And we’re reaching down the throat of the dog to pull it loose before they get sick and throw up everywhere.

Leila (21:46.306)

Very weird.

Leila (21:57.26)

That’s right. know, and simultaneously, you know, County Executive Chris Ronane is trying to get less oversight over, you know, how much the county can spend without the Board of Control’s approval. And, you know, he wants to increase the spending thresholds that can just kind of slide by. This doesn’t really bode well for that, for making that case, you know? County Council is going to talk about that in September. And this really

Chris (22:20.588)

No, no it does not.

Leila (22:26.542)

I mean, if not for Caitlin looking at every line item on, and honestly, I think I misspoke yesterday, Chris, when we were talking about this, this was under the spending threshold. This was under the $5 ‚000. So this doesn’t have, didn’t have to be approved by the board of control. This was merely like a review. They were looking at the long list of, of little expenditures and you know, Caitlin looked at it and, but for that, there’d be a group of kids who’d be getting their inspirational talk from Bashir Jones for,

Chris (22:52.011)

It would have

Leila (22:56.622)

You know, $5 ‚000, he’s going to pocket for that 20 -minute speech.

Chris (22:58.37)

The value of quality journalism and quality journalists. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Is it climate change? Is it drought? Is it simple good luck? Laura, why is it that each of Ohio’s fruit crops this year is coming in two full weeks earlier than usual with the latest being peaches?

Laura (23:20.672)

I think it’s a lot of it is the warm weather that we’ve had. I went cherry picking in early June. I could not believe it was happening already. If I hadn’t seen these posts on social media of people like, I’m picking my fruit, I would have been lost in the dust. This is the public service from Paris Wolf. If you want to pick fruit this summer, you’ve already missed your blueberries, your cherries, your strawberries. It is peach season early already, so you can go pick some peaches. Actually, the earliest varieties

apples are already ripening at a lot of the orchards around here. So you’ll be able to start picking those in August instead of September. It’s funny because usually apple picking is a fall activity and you maybe pick up a pumpkin on the way out. And I feel like our seasons are just getting topsy turvy with climate change.

Chris (24:07.286)

Yeah, I love apple season. can’t wait for it to start. Yeah, fascinating stuff. I mean, we knew it with strawberries, because strawberries were gone before most people knew they were there. But very interesting. It’s continuing. But they’re saying that there’s nothing special about it. It’s just been good weather. It doesn’t indicate that we’re having any kind of weirdness or problems. Nobody is saying that this is going to be some chronic issue. It’s just a good year in very much the same way we’ve had some very bad years.

Laura (24:13.909)

Mm -hmm.

Laura (24:35.072)

Right, and so it is early, but the crops are seemingly normal other than that. No one’s saying, it’s a really bad year for this fruit or that fruit. And so it seems like a normal amount of it. The grapes could be really good because the longer you leave those on the vine, the better it is for winemaking. So there again, 15 days early, the vineyard’s out east from us.

They’re close to 1900 growing degree days for vineyards and that’s way ahead in heat summation. That’s according to vineyards. If you like Ohio wine, this could be a good season, a good year of vintage for Ohio

Chris (25:16.556)

All right, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. Every school district in this state is required to have a policy. Lisa, how will Cleveland schools deal with cell phones when students return later this week? I still can’t believe we’re making kids go to school in the first days of August. What is wrong with us as a society?

Lisa (25:30.193)

in August.

So as Cleveland school children return this fall, this week or whenever, there’s a new phone policy that will be taking effect. They will be using secure storage methods, including the yonder lockable pouches that we’ve talked about. That’ll only be for some students. They have other secure measures, but we don’t know what they are just yet. So kids who get a yonder pouch, the phone is locked into the pouch.

but they carry the pouch around with them. So they’re responsible for it during the school day. Parents of Cleveland school students can contact their child’s school to find out what their policy requires. So apparently it’s not a blanket policy across the district. Different schools are gonna have different ways of doing this. This of course follows guidelines set out in HB 250 that mandated all Ohio schools establish a policy to limit cell phone use.

Yonder in a news release said that 65 % of schools that use their pouches saw improved academic performance, 74 % had better student behavior, 83 % saw increased classroom engagement. So taking cell phones out of kids’ hands during the day has measurable benefits.

Chris (26:45.932)

Laura, do your kids go to school with a cell

Laura (26:50.208)

My daughter doesn’t have one yet. She’s going to be in sixth grade, so she is begging for one. My son goes to school, middle school, they put them in their lockers and they’re not allowed to see them all day. The teachers, administrators have made it very clear, if you send your kid a message, they will see it at the end of the day. But we’re talking about high school and I know at Rocky River High School, they do have their phones and apparently it has made lunchtime completely antisocial, which to me is really sad because this should be a very boisterous time to react

unload on your friends and kind of process your day and instead kids are just zeroed in on their screens.

Chris (27:26.314)

Interesting. It’ll be interesting to see how Cleveland gets through this or whether kids start carrying second cell phones, contraband cell phones. Well, no, no, no, you’ll never know. It’ll be fascinating. Kids are pretty inventive. They may come up with some good strategies.

Laura (27:33.904)

God!

Laura (27:41.086)

You know, and we don’t haven’t talked about it on this podcast, but what happened in Pennsylvania with those kids making the accounts of their teachers? You wonder if this will cut down on that out of school kind of cell phone misuse too. I don’t

Chris (27:55.338)

You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We’ve got time for one more. Edgewater Beach has rocketed up in the number of days the sewage is in the water. They had a bad day yesterday. Two other beaches also have it regularly. So Laura, how is it that the US EPA could remove these three Cleveland beaches from the list of special concern? Are they somehow getting less disgusting and you swim in this water?

Laura (28:17.904)

I swim in this water. I thankfully swam Monday morning, so I did not swim today after the Edgewater Tunnel went off with all sorts of millions of gallons of sewage with that burst of rain that we had yesterday afternoon. But Edgewater Villa Angela and Euclid are all part of the EPA designated area of concern for the Cuyahoga River. And that’s because they’re fairly close to the river.

And so that includes the 47 mile stretch of the river and the watersheds of the Cuyahoga and Lake Erie. And over the years, it’s got up to 10 impairments that create this area of concern. And we’ve whittled away down about five of them so far, and they’d like to get rid of this one. So eventually they can get rid of the whole area of concern. They’re asking the EPA to remove this impairment because they’re saying it’s actually not any worse for the E. coli than

elsewhere on Lake Erie. So Huntington Beach, for example, is not included in this area of concern. And they’re saying even though Edgewater has had a lot of problems with the E. coli, it’s not as much as they’re allowed to have without being considered an area of concern.

Chris (29:28.8)

Well, what they’re doing is averaging it over the last five years, but it’s weird they would make this application right after the year where it got really bad again. So yeah, if you go back over the recent years, they had some good years, but they’re making this application after a particularly bad year. And I thought it was hilarious that we published this story. I don’t think two hours later, we got the notice that we just had the worst flow at Edgewater in more than a year or almost a

Laura (29:56.512)

Yeah, it was unfortunate timing because Pete Krauss had this on his list to write for a week or so. But obviously we’re busy and that’s just when it posted and that it was like, this is exactly why there is an area of concern. So when they’re looking at Edgewater, they’re looking at the number of days where water sampling tested above the level of acceptable level of E. coli. And 23, 2023, that was 28 days, 15 percent of the recreation season between Memorial and Labor days, which that’s

big chunk of time. But over five years that you’re averaging, right, it wasn’t more than the 19 days they’re allowed.

Leila (30:34.798)

So can I ask if they do lift the area of concern designation, what does that mean? Does it mean that they would test less often? Okay, well at least that’s true.

Laura (30:42.778)

No, no, no, they’d still do the text. They still do the testing, just like they tested Huntington too. And even that’s not part of this. It would just be lifting this kind of black eye on the Cuyahoga River.

Leila (30:54.702)

So that’s it. There’s no like additional requirement that they wouldn’t have to meet after that. Okay. Cause I want to know.

Laura (31:00.914)

No, still keep up the now cast forecast and the NURSD does the water sampling that Courtney Astolfi wrote about recently. So yeah, you’d still have all the information.

Chris (31:14.876)

Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. That’s it for the Tuesday episode. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Laura. Thanks, Leila. Thank you for listening to this podcast. Come back Wednesday. We’ll be talking about the news.