CLEVELAND, Ohio — Ohio rules that took effect Tuesday zero-out a previous requirement that medical marijuana patients pay $50 annually and caregivers pay $25 a year to register for the program.
The state hopes that by zeroing out the fee, medical patients will continue to access the medical program, instead of becoming adult-use customers. We’re talking about weed 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 else we’re asking about today:
Ohioans can’t buy recreational marijuana yet, but getting medical marijuana is easier as of this week. How so?
The Cleveland Museum of Art is giving up another cherished piece from its collection because of its history of having been looted. What is it, and what will become of it?
It’s hard to believe the Ohio Supreme Court did not see a civil lawsuit in this horrifying case. Why did the Supremes reject a cause of action against the former East Ohio Gas for turning off an elderly woman’s gas, even though she was fully paid off, directly causing her to freeze to death?
How is Ohio Sen. JD Vance working to insert himself deeper into the story of Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York, work you could describe as interference?
How much were the vintage baseball cards worth in a recent Northeast Ohio heist, and are any of them still missing after a suspect’s arrest?
How do people in the Grow Don’t Mow movement pick which invasive species to remove from their sites, given that they don’t have the resources to remove all of them.
Venture capitalists are turning the non-profit Summa Health into a for-profit hospital, so what becomes of the non-profit money that the system has?
What’s the latest but oddly named group that might get a special Ohio license plate?
Who is the mom of a distressed 12-year-old in Cuyahoga County blaming for her son’s afflictions, and what is she doing about it?
Every year in May and June, we see what looks like cotton floating around here. It’s not cotton. What is it, according to reporter Pete Krouse?
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 (00:01.205)
Another eclectic mix of stories on Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland .com and the Plain Dealer. Chris Quinton here with Lisa Garvin, Leila Atassi and Laura Johnston. And Lisa, let’s go straight to the weed. Ohio people can’t buy recreational marijuana yet, but getting medical marijuana is easier as of this week. How is that so?
Lisa (00:25.742)
New rules went into effect yesterday that were approved earlier this month by the state’s Joint Committee on Agency rule. And one of those rules is eliminating the medical marijuana card fees for patients and caregivers, which were $50 a year or $25 a year respectively. I don’t know whether that’s going into effect right away, but I assume it is. Also, another rule allows dual use dispensary applications to be available online by June 7th.
The Division of Cannabis Control will process the applications as they come in. They have no set date for submission or approval, but they’re expected well in advance of the September 7th deadline that was set by the initiated statute. Division spokesman James Crawford says, we expect most applicants with current medical permits to be approved and it won’t be a lengthy process because they’ve already gone through it.
There are 124 medical dispensaries in Ohio right now. He says most will be awarded a dual use license unless there are issues with their new application. Now, Jamie Callender, the Republican from Lake County, who’s been shepherding this through the legislature, he says he anticipates recreational will be available early to mid -June or at least by July 4th. The division of cannabis control is not so optimistic, but they’re saying well ahead of September.
Chris (01:39.061)
Ha ha ha.
Chris (01:45.589)
Yeah, we just keep pushing this off. The good news is, though, that they’re waiving the fee for medical. For the people that are actually using medical experts to guide them on their journey, to use marijuana to help them, whatever their malady is, they would stop because you could just buy it for free now. You don’t need the medical card because why pay that fee if you don’t have to? So wiping out that fee might persuade them to continue to see.
the expert advice on how to navigate it because as we’ve discussed, there are so many variants to medical marijuana that address various elements of what you need. It’s kind of hard to navigate.
Lisa (02:26.382)
Right, and people do need because there are CBDs, there are THC levels, there are different administration methods, and so doctors need to guide patients for their particular malady for this.
Chris (02:37.013)
And one of our colleagues has talked about this journey and every time you hear the details, you think, wow, this is so much more complicated than back in the 1970s when it was just bags of weed. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. The Cleveland Museum of Art is giving up another cherished piece from its collection because of its history of having been looted. What is it, Laura, and what will become of it?
Lisa (02:47.502)
Hehehehe
laura (03:01.752)
This is a 2200 year old sculpture. It’s from the Ptolemaic dynasty. And it’s a statue of a man that’s believed to have been looted during World War II from a museum that is now located in Eastern Libya. So the Libyan Department of Antiquities wanted it back. And the Cleveland Museum of Art, which we’ve talked about a number of times, has with these claims that they don’t really have the proper provenance and the ownership of these antiquities has decided that this
is a pretty clear line and we’ll give it back. But the Libyan Department of Antiquities will let the sculpture remain in view in Cleveland as a loan for a couple of years. So they are working together on the next steps.
Chris (03:43.701)
This week, the US returned dozens of objects to Italy. It was a big story because of all of the evidence that had been looted over the years. This is a pretty important piece, but at least Clevelanders will be able to look at it for a little while longer while it stays in the museum.
laura (04:00.952)
Correct. So there are a number of these, something like two to 33 of them, Statue of Man known worldwide. There’s 14 with inscriptions, 19 including the Cleveland one that don’t have the inscriptions. They range in size from less than half of life size, like the Cleveland piece, to life size are larger. So.
These are very rare, 33 is not very many. And what they looked at is a couple of photographs, a 1950 publication that documented excavations that took place in 1937 and 1938 of this palace in Cyrenaica, which is now in Eastern Libya. And they believe it was likely, quote, lost in 1941. That’s when an archaeological museum was destroyed during the British occupation during World War II. And then there was a picture in 1960. So they…
They have this physical documentation that they say this is pretty clear and it is so rare that there’s probably not a lot another like it.
Chris (04:59.317)
Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. It is hard to believe the Ohio Supreme Court did not see a civil lawsuit in this horrifying case. Laila, why did the Supremes reject the cause of action against the former East Ohio gas for turning off an elderly woman’s gas, even though she was fully paid up, and directly causing her to freeze to death?
Leila (05:20.689)
This completely feels like it was dismissed on a technicality. The state Supreme Court sided with Enbridge Energy over the family of this 81 -year -old Lakewood woman because they said that the woman’s estate should have brought the case as a complaint before state regulators rather than as a lawsuit. And the backstory here is that Enbridge had cut off gas service to Virginia Vigras on January 10th of 2022.
Lisa (05:36.206)
regulators rather than.
Lisa (05:43.15)
service to Virginia Bygrass on January 10, 2022, because she had refused to let the company technicians inside her house to inspect her meter. Her account, as you said, was filled in full at the time. But 19 days later, she found dead of hypothermia frozen to the floor of her bathroom, because a toilet pipe had actually been leaking on the floor, which is why she was frozen. She was found wearing several sweatsuits.
Leila (05:47.313)
because she had refused to let a company technician inside her house to inspect her meter. Her account, as you said, was paid in full at the time. But 19 days later, she was found dead of hypothermia, frozen to the floor of her bathroom because a toilet pipe had actually been leaking on the floor, which is why she was frozen there. And she was found wearing several sweatshirts, pajamas, extra socks, a bathrobe and a blanket.
and medical examiners believe that she died about nine days after the gas was cut off. Police had found a sign on the door that said, don’t ring bell, Ohio quarantine, COVID -19, Ohio curfew, suggesting that she did not want the technician in her home because of COVID precautions. She was immunocompromised and she quarantined herself during the pandemic to protect herself. And members of her church delivered her groceries and according to the lawsuit, she was essentially mute.
Lisa (06:27.15)
that she did not want the technician in the building to have the children for talking. She did need a compromise.
Leila (06:43.761)
and relied on notes and letters to communicate. So just a very fragile person who was in this predicament, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Friday that the matter should have been brought to the PUCO, which regulates gas companies that is more familiar with the legal and operational issues of natural gas distribution. So the PUCO would be the body that would determine whether Enbridge had conducted a lawful shutoff in this case.
Chris (07:09.237)
Yeah, but the family doesn’t get damages that way. This is astounding. I don’t know what the Supreme Court is thinking. They killed this woman. They turned off her heat in January in Cleveland. What do you think is going to happen to her? This story is one of the most outrageous that I’ve seen a utility do. They killed her. They turned off her heat in January. Even though she was fully paid up, you could see on her door that she was petrified of getting infected.
Leila (07:14.225)
All right.
Lisa (07:14.99)
Mm -hmm.
Chris (07:38.485)
with COVID or whatever else because of her immune system. She had communication issues and she freezes to death. Can you imagine her final days? Her heat’s off, she doesn’t really know why, she keeps putting more clothes on and then she freezes to death in her bathroom. How is that not a cause of action where the family can sue the bejesus out of East Ohio Gas and it’s new owner?
Lisa (07:46.062)
Mm. Mm.
Leila (07:47.921)
No.
Leila (07:53.969)
It’s terrible.
Chris (08:04.597)
to get compensation. They owe here and the PUCO is in the bag for utilities. They’re not going to help.
Leila (08:06.193)
Well…
Leila (08:10.577)
I know. I wonder, I mean, if the PUCO were to determine that this was an unlawful shutoff, I wonder if then they could they could file a lawsuit at that point. But I but you’re right. I just don’t I wouldn’t have faith in the PUCO to make the right determination here.
Chris (08:26.933)
Look, they they took an action that killed somebody that seems like it is what civil court is supposed to be about. The Supreme Court got this whole state is in the pocket of utility companies. This is just outrageous. I can’t imagine that means she’s 81 years old. And that’s how her life comes to an end, even though she was paying her bills. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.
Leila (08:30.449)
Ugh.
Chris (08:53.941)
How is Ohio Senator JD Vance working to insert himself deeper into the story of Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York? Work you could argue, Lisa, is interference.
Lisa (09:05.55)
He’s just fetching a stick for his master Trump. Senator J .D. Vance wants Attorney General Merrick Garland to launch a criminal investigation of Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the New York City hush money case. He says that Merchan illegally deprived Trump of his First Amendment rights. Merchan issued a gag order back in March to keep him from bashing witnesses, prosecutors and court staff, which he did.
and they said that it was threatening, inflammatory and denigrating. And that was upheld by a New York appeals court. In his letter to Garland, Vance says that Murchin is refusing to dismiss jurors with anti -Trump bias and barring exculpatory evidence. And he says that’s a criminal deprivation of Trump’s rights. He says a GOP presidential candidate has been made powerless to question witness credibility, the impartiality of the judge and prosecutors motivation. And he said,
that prosecutors have shown to be plausible co -conspirators and might’ve had some ex parte communications. But later in an interview on Fox News, Vance acknowledged that Garland is unlikely to take up the case, but he says he wants a document retention request for a future attorney general to consider.
Chris (10:22.613)
I guess if you’re if you believe in authoritarian government, you have no respect for the separation of powers. There’s the judicial, there’s the legislative, there’s the executive, and he’s in the legislative. He’s not supposed to interfere with what goes on in the courts, but he doesn’t respect the rule of law. He has no business interfering in this. He’s just like you said, being a lapdog for Trump because he’s so desperate to be the vice presidential candidate.
Really, I think he wins the prize, worst senator from Ohio in history. He just keeps making it worse for us.
Lisa (10:58.35)
Well, and the thing about the First Amendment rights, first of all, Trump holds court outside of the courthouse every day. You know, he gets on Truth Social. They only called two defense witnesses. Trump himself refused to go on the stand in his own defense, so, hmm.
Chris (11:13.621)
Yeah, I know. He’s got such a big mouth, except when he’d be under oath, he didn’t. And in the courtroom, the jury can’t consider that. But in the court of public opinion, everybody knows the guy was too much of a coward to face his accusers. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Laura, how much were the vintage baseball cards worth in a recent Northeast Ohio heist and are any of them still missing after a suspect’s arrest?
laura (11:42.904)
Two of them are still missing, but the total for the 54 cards we’re talking about is $2 .1 million. This is the kind of money that makes my kid think he’s going to get rich saving his hockey cards and why, yeah, they’re all over his room. I feel like there’s so many husbands and wives are like, you threw out my cards or moms and sons and most of them will never be like this. But we’re talking about a 1909 Walter Johnson card and a 1941 Ted Williams card.
that are still missing and they don’t know where they are, obviously. This was part of a package that was going to be sold at the Strongsville Sports Collectors Convention in April. And there’s a sports memorabilia business in Los Angeles called Memory Lane that shipped the cards to the best Western plus in Strongsville for this convention. An employee was supposed to pick them up there, someone from Memory Lane. They didn’t get them. So they.
Officers conducted a search warrant in May 23rd at a home on Roanoke Avenue in Old Brooklyn. They recovered 52 of the cards.
Chris (12:45.877)
Yeah, it seems like the perfect crime of opportunity for somebody. They saw these vintage cars, they walked away. It’s a 27 -year -old who’s accused of this, of course, innocent until proven guilty.
laura (12:56.536)
Right, yeah, I don’t know how you know, I guess you know because they’re coming all the way from LA for a show that they’re super valuable, but I don’t know anything about baseball cards. So does this person just happen to know a lot about cards or just figure, well, if they’re coming this far for this show, they’ve got to be worth something.
Chris (13:15.829)
And chasing down those final two could be difficult if they’ve been sold already. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. How do people in the Grow Don’t Mow movement pick which invasive species to remove from their sites given that they don’t have the resources to remove all of them? And Leila, you’re going to have to start by explaining what Grow Don’t Mow is.
Leila (13:36.497)
Yeah, it’s tricky. This is a very difficult situation. Grown -up Mo is the movement of folks who have decided to come together to restore sites to natural meadows. And making the decision about which invasive species to eliminate from these sites is difficult because every invasive plant that’s listed by the Ohio Invasive Plant Council…
has been found in these sites. So it can be overwhelming. And their sites have far more non -native plants than native ones. So when it comes to making the decision of which ones to pull, they have to use their resources wisely and pick their battles. And that means focusing on the ones that have the greatest negative impact on the site’s biodiversity and going after the ones that pose the greatest harm. John Barber is the co -head of Friends of Heights Parks and Friends, wait, I’m sorry, Friends of Heights Parks.
and friends of Lower Lake. He’s been referred to as the prophet of the Grow Not Mow effort. He gave columnist Susan Brownstein a great example of how these groups set their priorities. He said that in his experience from attaching tracking devices to migrating birds, he finds that glossy and common buckthorn, for example, are especially detrimental to wildlife because buckthorn berries cause diarrhea in migrating birds like warblers and thrushes.
These berries will weaken them and threaten their survival. So for that reason, buckthorn is a top priority for removal from the grown out most sites. Japanese bush honeysuckles are another plant that’s on this list. Barbara described recent research showing that berries from these bushes change water chemistry when they fall into waterways. And that negatively impacts the native aquatic creatures like wood frogs and other shrubs like this include barberry, privet and burning bush.
So to remove these things, they never use chemicals. They pull these plants out by the roots using a tree wrench if needed. So really interesting to hear how they tackle these non -native invasive species.
Chris (15:44.949)
Most of the ones you mentioned though are plants that I can remember for most of my life, people planting intentionally. And privet hedges were a thing through the middle of the last century. So all these things that people have been planting all these years turned out to be terrible.
Leila (15:49.297)
Yeah.
Leila (16:01.297)
Yeah. Well, and he offered Susan some tips for readers who were interested in how to remove invasive species from their own yards. Essentially, you just have to start with your most invasive berry -bearing shrubs and then work in small areas to keep the project manageable and to avoid feeling completely overwhelmed if you happen to have a lot of invasive species on your property.
Chris (16:24.277)
Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. Venture capitalists are turning the nonprofit Summa Health into a for -profit hospital. So Lisa, what becomes of all the nonprofit money that’s in the system now that can’t be used in the for -profit setting? What happens?
Lisa (16:40.206)
Yeah, the pending sale of the nonprofit SUMA Health System to the Health Insurance Transformation Corp or HATCO, venture capital firm, will create a charitable foundation with the money that remains from the sale after all debts are paid. The sale price on this pending sale has not been disclosed yet. SUMA Health says their new foundation will focus on the specials, or rather the social determinants of health in Akron and the surrounding region, although their particular focus has not been named yet.
They already have one foundation that raises funds for patient care, research, and medical education. So when a nonprofit hospital is sold to a for -profit entity, it creates what’s called healthcare conversion foundations. There are several examples in Northeast Ohio. They’ve distributed $28 .7 million in grants just in 2023 alone. One of the examples is Barberton Citizens Hospital. It funded a new high school with…
$58 million, it opened in 2001. They were sold to a for -profit back then for $86 million. The Sisters of Charity sold two of their hospitals in the 1990. The money from that conversion funded a nonprofit for homeless youth and they’ve distributed $6 .5 million in grants between 2021 and 2023. Also St. Luke’s Medical Center where my dad used to work that was sold in 1997.
They’re using their foundation to close the health inequity gaps in the surrounding neighborhood.
Chris (18:10.421)
Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see how much this new foundation has when all is said and done because a lot of people have donated to Sumo over the years too. So we’ll see. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Laura, what’s the latest but oddly named group that might get a special Ohio license plate?
laura (18:28.824)
I mean, you probably won’t like it because you’re not a huge cat fan, but this is the Weirdo Cat Lovers of Cleveland. And that name sounds so bizarre, which is why we put it on the front page today, but it’s actually a nonprofit with a lot of members that does good work for cats. So if the legislature approves it, you’ll be able to pay $25 extra to get one of these plates. $15 goes to the nonprofit, which traps and neuters feral cats to control their population.
And then it also helps cat owners pay for food, water, and emergency veterinary care. The other 10 bucks goes to the BMV. Ohio offers tons of specialty license plates. You see them driving around all the time. I have the Lake Erie Lighthouse one. And the reason I have that is because the regular Ohio license plate is so ugly that I was like, yes, I will pay more to get a license plate with a lighthouse on it. But so this is just adding to it. But the cat club has 19 ‚000 members.
Chris (19:27.445)
Yeah, it’s a serious group with a funny name. And we should mention that our late colleague, Niki Delamatt was very much involved in this and there’s a tribute to her on their site. Their website is loaded with information. And so while people hear this name and they think, my gosh, why would you have a license plate like that? They do serious work. They do a lot of good. And I think they believe that if this license plate is out there, it will bring more attention.
and probably some more funding to help them with their mission.
laura (19:57.944)
Right, so if they get 150 plates, that’s $2 ‚200. But I think more so, you’re right, Chris, this is about recognition. Because if you see that on a license plate, if you’re walking through a parking lot or something, you’re going to be like, what in the world is that? And you might just Google it, and you might just find an organization that you’re like, I would like to support.
Chris (20:16.885)
And of course, one of our colleagues is walking through the newsroom heard us talking about this story and they thought that the name cat weirdos was redundant. So we’ll leave it there. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Who is the mom, why is the mom of a distressed, no, excuse me. Who is the mom of a distressed 12 year old in Cuyahoga County blaming for her son’s afflictions and what is she doing about it? Layla?
Lisa (20:25.902)
Hahaha!
Leila (20:41.777)
This story has been a talker in our house. I can’t wait to hear what you guys think about it. This mom, Sonja Foster, she’s suing the companies that make popular video games like Fortnite and Madden because her 12 -year -old son is addicted to them. She’s accusing the companies of intentionally designing games to make players become addicts. And she says that her son’s addiction caused him to suffer severe emotional distress.
lose friends and exhibit bouts of extreme rage and anger. Reporter Adam Friess tells us that this lawsuit in federal court is part of a growing trend of similar cases filed across the country against these game makers like Take Two Interactive, Microsoft, and EA Sports. According to the companies, however, these games have tools that help parents monitor their kids’ gaming habits. They argue that billions of people across the globe of all ages and backgrounds
play video games in a healthy, balanced way. So any argument that blames the gaming companies is total garbage. And the mom in this lawsuit says that these games are extensive and take hours to beat. And that is what keeps a kid engaged for longer than is healthy for them. Her 12 year old son started playing video games at age four and he plays about five to 10 hours per day. He lost friends, he developed poor hygiene and he has physical outbursts when told to stop.
playing. So what do you guys think about that?
Chris (22:08.077)
Well, well, a couple of things. Hey, look, my, my son played video games and we, we had a system where every week we gave him some little tokens and each was worth some number of minutes. And when the tokens were done, he couldn’t play any more video games. And I do think the parent has a role here for sons playing too much video game. Tell them to stop. I don’t get it. This isn’t the only one. The people in Uvalde, Texas are going after some of the video game makers too for.
Leila (22:27.377)
Yeah.
Lisa (22:28.526)
Hmm.
Chris (22:36.501)
blaming them for the massacre that happened down there. You know, it’s an interesting one, but I do think the parent has a role. And if this theory works, if you can show that the video, through correspondence or whatever you get in discovery, the video game companies tweak these things like slot machines to play on certain centers of the brain to make them addictive, that’d be interesting because then it is a manipulation.
I wish somebody would take on the snack food industry for the same thing. They have, no, no, think about it. They have made the snack food as they do experiments to get to the point where it’s just at the edge of being disgusting, just salty. It gets very, very salty, very, very sugary to the point where people will turn it away and they step it back a little to make it addictive. So if you can go after a video game company for making it addictive, why can’t you go?
Lisa (23:08.138)
Wait.
laura (23:08.152)
Hahaha.
Leila (23:08.433)
Well, here’s the thing.
Leila (23:30.481)
Well, that’s what I’m thinking here. I mean, the thing is the goal of every industry in a capitalistic society is to get you addicted to their products. That’s true about fast food. It’s true about junk food. That’s true about cell phones and social media. In those examples, I mean, the user’s attention span is the commodity. They make money the longer they can manage to hold your attention captive. And yes, it’s difficult to safeguard your kids from the lure of all of these addictive products.
Lisa (23:39.47)
Mm -hmm.
Leila (23:59.569)
I mean, in this era, it might actually be one of the toughest parts of parenting, but it’s your responsibility and we have choices. I mean, I usually refrain from judging parents because I feel like we’re all just doing our best and it sucks out here, but this case should get tossed. I mean, my husband and I were just talking about, man, our kids are eating way too much junk food. Let’s come up with a plan for the summer to clean it up. We’re never gonna stop buying this. We’re gonna stop buying that. Those are our choices.
Lisa (23:59.822)
I mean, in this era, it might actually be…
Lisa (24:07.502)
Yeah.
laura (24:11.448)
Mm -hmm.
Lisa (24:14.766)
Yeah.
Leila (24:25.425)
Nobody is delivering these products to our house and our kids are just stumbling upon them. We’re the ones who bought two bags of Doritos. I mean, what the heck, right?
laura (24:32.248)
Hahaha!
Lisa (24:32.782)
Right. The thing that alarms me, I think, especially when I see in grocery stores kids, you know, they keep their kids quiet by giving them the iPhone or the iPad. This woman had her child playing video games at four. She had many years to intervene. And the problem is once these kids hit puberty and they get bigger than their parents and you try to take their Xbox away, they might smack you down. So she kind of created this situation.
Chris (24:33.173)
But…
Leila (24:41.361)
Right!
Leila (24:55.633)
Kids, and kids can’t moderate themselves. I agree. Sometimes you do need to give your kid the iPad, like you’re waiting in a waiting room and you need them to be quiet or something. I get that. I try not to judge when it’s like a one, but like it’s your job as a parent to moderate them and to help them find the sweet spot where they’re enjoying it and not becoming addicted. You cannot sue every industry that’s trying to capitalize on that. I just, I’m sorry. That’s my soapbox for the day.
laura (24:59.48)
Yeah, 100%.
Chris (25:24.277)
Two things, Lisa, our pediatrician when our son was four said you should get him to play video games because he needed fine motor control. So it was the therapy. But no, nobody would. But back then, you know, I’m old. What I recall back when casinos were being legalized in Ohio, we did a whole bunch of stories on the science of the casino. And one of the best ones was a piece we did about the evolution of the slot machine.
Leila (25:31.729)
Nobody would ever say that today. No pediatrician would ever tell you that.
Lisa (25:31.886)
dear. my God.
No.
Chris (25:52.566)
and how it had been developed to trigger the same centers of your brain that heroin hits to make it addictive. The sounds, the vibrations, it really was intended to keep you sitting there hitting the button over and over and over again, which seems criminal to me that you would do that because especially with people gambling problems, you are taking full advantage of them beyond their control.
If the video game makers have done the same thing to mess with the brains of adolescents, then I don’t know. I think that there should be some controls on that. Congress could regulate that or something. But this lawsuit… Yeah, but if you don’t know the way it’s affecting your kid’s brain, this lawsuit could get us the discovery that shows exactly the science behind what they’re doing as they program these.
Leila (26:30.737)
Parents or parents.
Leila (26:38.225)
How do you not know?
Leila (26:44.849)
But to the company’s point, lots of people enjoy these games in a healthy way. They play, they stop, they go to work, they do other things. What are you gonna do, take them off the market for people who are enjoying them without problems? No, same thing with slot machines. Lots of people play slot machines and they’re not addicts. So you can’t take them out of casinos. People would be upset.
Chris (27:08.533)
I don’t know. You walk through a casino, you see those people playing slot machines, they seem like zombies to me. It seems like everybody.
Leila (27:14.001)
The answer to this problem is you come in, you see your kids are doing something for too long, you take it away and go, all right, everybody outside. That’s what we do.
Chris (27:20.229)
Right. Yep.
laura (27:21.4)
Well, and so as a kid, a mom of a 13 year old who plays more video games and has the phone in his hand constantly, it is a constant struggle because I have taken the phone away from him. You know, it’s like you’re here. Enjoy it. You have to take in your surroundings because otherwise they don’t even communicate with each other. Like if you’ve seen a bunch of teenage boys, they’re not even talking to each other. Their their heads are bent over their phone. We just take the Xbox away. We do it. We hide it, honestly, because he doesn’t know where it is.
Lisa (27:43.054)
Mm -hmm.
Leila (27:47.505)
Yes.
laura (27:51.448)
It’s always in a different place because that, yeah, I agree that it is difficult to do it. I’m not a perfect parent at all. It’s a struggle, but you have to try. But I would say this is ranking in one of the top five or 10 issues that parents have to deal with.
Lisa (27:52.142)
in a different way. I agree that it is difficult.
Leila (28:08.369)
Yeah. And the difficulty for parents is that it’s alluring for parents to let your kids do something like this or be on their phone for too long or play video games because it keeps them busy, keeps them out of your hair. So there’s an addicting nature of that too, where you’re like, sweet, I have some time to myself because my kid’s playing video games for 10 hours. But.
Lisa (28:08.942)
Mm -hmm.
Lisa (28:13.646)
So there’s an existing danger of that, too. I feel like, so sweet, I have to talk to myself if I can’t play video games for hours. But when they come off, come back, it is.
laura (28:29.08)
But when they come off of a man, it is like the brain, you can tell when the brain is fried and they cannot have a conversation and everything, that anger that was all in their fingertips while they’re playing Fortnite or whatever, it just like, boom, it is.
Leila (28:33.937)
Yes.
Lisa (28:37.166)
Mm.
Leila (28:38.193)
It’s true.
Leila (28:44.337)
Yep.
Chris (28:44.469)
All right, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. Let’s end by going outside. Every year in May and June, we see what looks like cotton floating all around the air. It’s not cotton, Laura. What is it, according to reporter Pete Krause?
laura (28:57.144)
It is cottonwood. So this is this white cottony substance that is attached to the seeds and basically the hairs that allow the wind to carry the seeds of the cottonwood tree as far away from the mother tree as possible. And if you’ve been outside the last couple of days, you have gotten it in your hair, you might have gotten it in your mouth. We were at a soccer game and it was all over the field. It looks like snow at some point, but if you scoop them up, put them in a pot, you could even grow your own cottonwood tree.
Chris (29:23.317)
I love it. I really every year for a few weeks, I love looking up at the sparkly cotton in the air. I know lots of people that hate it because it comes up gutters and things, but I think it’s one of the magic parts of this year. You say the same, Lisa?
Lisa (29:24.27)
I do too.
Lisa (29:36.142)
Yeah, I call it summer snow. And I always know that it’s right around Memorial Day every year. So you know that right around, you know, the end of May it’s going to happen. And I don’t even know where the closest cottonwood tree is. I keep looking around for them, but they float really, really far away. yeah. It’s awesome.
Chris (29:38.357)
Yeah.
Chris (29:52.181)
Yeah, but if you’re ever under one when the wind is blowing, it is coming down, man. It’s yeah, it is a cool thing. It’s one.
laura (29:58.584)
Now, did you know that there are male and female cottonwood trees that the males produce the pollen and the females create those seeds? Well, you probably do. You know everything.
Chris (30:04.949)
I actually do knew that. I think it’s very cool. Good for Pete. Check out his story. It’s on cleveland .com and that’s it for today’s episode of Today in Ohio. Thanks Lisa. Thanks Leila. Thanks Laura. Thank you for listening. Friday we wrap up the week of news.
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. Read More