CLEVELAND, Ohio -- FirstEnergy Corp. made $2.5 million in secret payments to a dark money nonprofit that backed Republican Mike DeWine’s 2018 gubernatorial run.
That was as the company was executing what would become the biggest public corruption scheme in state history. We’re talking about politicians’ interests being bought 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.
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More Today in Ohio
- With Ohioans ready to change the state constitution to raise the minimum wage, Statehouse Republicans suddenly offer compromise: Today in Ohio
- Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost takes aim at Joe Biden’s transgender policy: Today in Ohio
- They want $1.2 billion of our taxes to pay for their playhouse? Could the Haslams’ request be any more ridiculous? Today in Ohio
Here’s what else we’re asking about today:
We’re going to have to start calling the first discussion on this podcast Jake Zuckerman story time, with what he’s been reporting lately. Another big one Monday. How much did FirstEnergy provide secretly to a dark money group supporting Mike DeWine for governor in the months before the HB6 scandal. And remember, DeWine is the one who appointed FirstEnergy darling Sam Randazzo to the state’s top utilities guy.
While we are talking secret FirstEnergy dark money spending, who else did Jake find was a beneficiary?
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is not content to let this case play out in the regular courts. Why is he before the Ohio Supreme Court about the state’s rigid transgender care law?
Cleveland State’s in trouble. Notre Dame College is closing. Now we have Lakeland Community College in a tough spot. What’s going on there, and what’s going on with Ohio higher educational institutions overall?
Anyone who has dealt with a senior citizen who’s having issues with the Social Security office knows what a hardship this next story could be. What is the Social Security office in Warrensville Heights closing for 90 days?
Remember Tamia Chappman, the 13-year-old girl who was walking to the library in East Cleveland when she was killed by a car speeding from police in a chase? Nearly five years later, how has the family’s lawsuit been resolved?
Akron sure seems like a city in need of a federal consent decree. How has it made the optics even worse in the case of the 13-year-old who was playing with a toy gun and was shot by police?
We need to tie up that case in which a Cleveland Heights tattoo artist sued a video game company for showing LeBron James’ tattoos without permission from the artist. What was the verdict?
We thought we were finished talking about the Hulett ore loaders that one defined the Cleveland lakefront, but there’s new about the big building where the Huletts were manufactured. What’s up?
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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.
chris (00:01.73)
some big news about Mike DeWine in the first energy case. That’s what we’re talking about first on Today in Ohio. It’s the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the Plane Dealer. Chris Quint here with Lisa Garvin, Leila Tasi and Laura Johnston. Let’s get going on Mike DeWine. We’re gonna have to start calling the first discussion on this podcast, Jake Zuckerman’s storytime with what he’s been on top of lately. Another one, big one on Monday.
Laura, how much did First Energy provide secretly to a dark money group supporting Mike DeWine for governor in the months right before the HB6 scandal? And remember, DeWine signed that bill and he also appointed First Energy darling Sam Randazzo as the state’s top utilities guy.
laura (01:43.159)
$2.5 million, that’s what we’re talking about. This is while First Energy was executing what would be the biggest public corruption scheme in the history of Ohio. This $2.5 million was made in secret payments to a dark money nonprofit that backed Mike DeWine’s 2018 gubernatorial run. So the payment went to State Solutions. That’s a 501C4 nonprofit. It can collect unlimited money to spend on politics. It doesn’t have to reveal.
chris (02:07.838)
We keep calling this a $60 million bribery case, but there’s so much more money at play in this. And all of these guys say, well, the law doesn’t let us coordinate. And they kind of say, we didn’t know about it. Why would First Energy give $2.5 million to somebody and not let them know about it? That makes no sense. Of course you want them to know. And First Energy has proven they expected stuff for their money. That’s why they bribed $60 million to...
laura (02:12.411)
It’s contributions, it’s funded in part and associated with the Republican Governors Association. And two contributions of a million dollars each are listed in First Energy’s internal giving list as RGA, Republican Governors Association. A third contribution, $500,000, is listed as DeWine. And the governor spokesman says he didn’t know anything about it. He said that candidates cannot lawfully coordinate with the 501c4 organizations.
chris (02:36.662)
Householder it’s why they bribe the oh the utilities chief Samorin dozzo with four plus million This is unbelievable. What people really have to understand is you would never know about this if there weren’t civil lawsuits As fallout in hb6. How many more millions of dollars were poured into dark money? Funds by all the companies that get freebies from the state legislature. We talk all the time
laura (02:42.363)
and said that Dewine has long supported nuclear generation in Ohio, that he had an existing position on the issues and they wanted to support a candidate who had these positions. But it’s just, this is on top of a lot of other things that have been piling up about Houston and Dewine.
chris (03:03.21)
about how this legislature does things that don’t serve the residents and they put the interests of the industries first. Well, how much is the oil and gas industry put into dark money funds that we have no idea about? Maybe that would explain why they’re fracking under state parks, something that DeWine and the legislature have signed off on. It’s defied imagination, right? We keep talking about why would they do it? Well, what if there’s millions and millions of dollars there that we don’t know about?
This is a small window into an enormous problem about state government being bought and paid for.
laura (03:40.759)
Mm-hmm.
laura (04:29.703)
Absolutely. And we’re talking about a six-year-old donation at this point. So you’re right. Who knows how many were made before that or how many were made after that? And the whole point is it’s called dark money because you can’t see into it. We look at campaign contributions every time there’s a deadline. They go through the reports. They say who’s giving money? Who’s giving the maximum amount of money? And that’s all public. But the dark money can support whoever they want and take whatever kind of money they want. And they never have to tell anyone. It’s actually, when you think of it
chris (04:43.074)
But let’s go back though. We talked about the nonsensical passage of a bill to stop cities from regulating tobacco, which was being used by kids. It made no sense. And when you look at campaign contributions, they’re big, but they’re not multimillion dollars like this. So how many millions of dollars have the tobacco companies?
laura (04:59.679)
Hard to believe that this is legal and because they are buying politicians and they’re telling them what to do. And we have zero ability to see who’s pulling the strings behind these politicians. You wanna take this a step further. We talk all about civil discourse and people and gerrymandering and why the legislature is so broken. Talk about the fact that they run for election.
chris (05:09.454)
poured into dark money accounts to buy these guys off. It’s the only thing that makes sense. The nursing homes got a big sloppy kiss from the legislature this year. After not for some years, did they finally figure out, oh, we gotta put millions into the dark money fund to get more millions from the legislature. And it’s all on the backs of us. This is all tax dollars.
laura (05:25.355)
they can whoever raises the most money a lot of times wins. That’s why they do this dark money so they can stay in power so that they can keep getting reelected.
laura (05:43.447)
Mm-hmm.
laura (05:53.587)
because they’re not legally allowed to be multi-million dollars like that.
laura (06:06.56)
Mm-hmm.
chris (06:06.742)
Yeah, and but this does because of this window, because you now see the way the government worked in this case, just this case. Look, the what First Energy wanted in HB6 had been denied repeatedly by previous administrations. KASIC wouldn’t do it. The legislature wouldn’t do it. They then got Householder in, they got the wine in, and all of a sudden overnight, there was no discussion. They ram-rotted that thing through.
laura (06:20.063)
Right. And we just talked about the puppy mills, right? That the cities are not allowed since 2016 to pass laws against puppy mills being sold in their towns, which is just very specific, right? I mean, we know that the legislature type likes to take away home rule powers from the cities, but this is specifically about dogs. Who’s in, you know, who’s giving them money behind the scenes? If you look at everything the legislature does and this has come out in the documents in HB6, basically, it was
chris (06:35.126)
that they bought what they wanted, and now we know they put more millions in than we even knew about. So go back now, all of these nonsensical discussions we’ve had, it now makes sense. This is where the money is. You just can’t see it because they’ve passed laws that allow themselves to get gigantic sums of money to support them that we never see. It is the antithesis of transparency in government. We’re supposed to have media watchdogs as part of our government. We’ve all been blocked from seeing it.
laura (06:48.887)
telecommunications or something that they were saying they couldn’t get what they wanted passed and the answer was like, well, they didn’t give us money. I mean, they’re only doing what they’re getting paid to do.
chris (07:04.766)
This is one of the biggest scandals I’ve ever seen. What did First Energy expect it would get for the $2.5 million? I can’t wait to see more depositions in this from the people that made the decisions to provide that money. What do they think they were getting for it?
laura (07:06.364)
Mm-hmm.
chris (07:47.786)
No, no, I think in the end he didn’t send the plane.
laura (07:50.388)
Mm-hmm.
chris (08:01.082)
Oh, I know. It’s. And now we find out there was two and a half million that went to support him. Shocking story. Well done, Jake. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Lisa, while we’re talking about first energy, dark money spending, who else did we find was a beneficiary?
laura (08:10.603)
Well, and Jake details all the things that DeWine has done for First Energy that we know about. He signed HB6. That was worth more than a billion dollars to First Energy because we’re talking about rate increases. We’re talking about those nuclear power plant bailouts. He appointed Sam Randazzo. He ignored warnings about Randazzo. People were saying, don’t hire him. Don’t appoint him. He dispatched, and I forgot this, he dispatched the state plane to deliver legislators to
laura (08:42.023)
Okay. And he hired the first energy lobbyist as his legislative director in 2010, while the company hired a top DeWine official as a lobbyist. So there’s just a lot of ties here.
Lisa (09:10.306)
It’s our favorite Senator, Matt Huffman possibly. Back in May 2019, a first energy controlled 501C4 nonprofit, Partners for Progress, sent five checks totaling $300,000 to another dark money group called Liberty Ohio. Now Liberty Ohio was referred to in an email from first energy lobbyist Ty Pine as the Huffman C4. So let’s walk through the timeline here.
chris (09:34.49)
I’m sorry.
Lisa (09:37.526)
So two weeks before the first 50,000 check was sent on May, 2019, Highbridge Consulting’s Ray Yunkura emailed Pine a PowerPoint overview of Liberty, Ohio. That got forwarded to a first energy lobbyist and then forwarded to Partners for Progress Treasurer, Michael Van Buren. And Pine was asking, is this what you need on the Huffman C4? One day after the first check was written, a first energy lobbyist
chris (10:00.182)
Yeah, it’s amazing. Everything we’ve talked about here, this is not how government’s supposed to work. It’s not representative government. It’s not supposed to be based on cash payments. This is as scandalous as anything I’ve ever seen in the state house. And yet, because there’s not media, strong media throughout the state, most Ohioans don’t know about it. They know about it in Northeast Ohio because we pound it. And people who read...
Lisa (10:05.51)
Mike Dowling texted CEO Chuck Jones and says, we’re gonna need C4 infusion. And first energy lobbyist, Danny McCarthy, he said that first energy lobbyist, Danny McCarthy, was on his butt about giving to Huffman the next Senate presidents. He want us to give him a lot because Huffman can get things done. And, you know, Senator Matt Huffman has not been implicated in the HB6 scandal.
chris (10:23.918)
Capital Letter and our other platforms know about it. The people who listen to this podcast know about it. But so much of the state is unaware that their government has just been for sale for years now.
Lisa (10:33.774)
Let’s be clear about that. He said that he never created or controlled a 501C4, and Huffman spokesman John Fortney says that five-year-old emails from campaign operatives and lobbyists is nothing more than hyperbole, big talk, and false assumptions.
chris (11:00.498)
You are listening to Today in Ohio. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is not content to let this case play out in regular courts. Wait, why is he before the Ohio Supreme Court about the state’s rigid transgender care law?
Lisa (11:28.026)
Well, there’s another thread here that I want to bring up. Lobbyist Neil Clark, who was implicated and indicted in the HB6 scandal, but killed himself in 2021. He told undercover FBI agents and recorded phone calls that Huffman has his C4 already set up. He’s going to be the next Senate president. He has 18 of 24 Republican votes.
Leila (12:06.536)
Well, last week, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Michael Holbrooke put a temporary hold on House Bill 68, which goes into effect on Wednesday and bans minors from obtaining gender affirming care. The block prevents the state from enforcing it for 14 days or until the judge has another hearing on it, whichever comes first. Holbrooke is a Republican, and he was really persuaded by arguments made by the ACLU of Ohio, which is suing over the law on behalf of two 12-year-old transgender girls.
who are arguing that the law violates four sections of the Ohio constitution. But Yost on Monday asked the Ohio Supreme Court to review the judge’s temporary block. He’s saying that the decision affects millions of people across the state rather than just the two people who brought the case. And that means that it’s too broad. The block also affects a separate part of the law that bans transgender girls and women in women’s sports. And Yost argues that should be narrowed.
chris (12:42.934)
But you know, a judge does have that power because when a case is in court, the judge has the power over the case. That’s a that’s a red herring statement if I ever heard one. Why did he go straight to the Supreme Court? Why didn’t he follow proper channels here?
Leila (13:02.5)
And he pointed out that Ohio courts are permitted to grant preliminary injunctive relief only to parties before the court and only as to provisions that allegedly harm them. In a news release, he said, one judge from one county doesn’t have the power or does not have more power than the governor’s veto pen, which is clearly a reference to Mike DeWine’s attempt to veto this law after he spoke with families who said that their kids wouldn’t be alive today if not for gender affirming care.
chris (13:10.774)
Well, it’s a separation of powers, right? I mean, to say, a judge doesn’t have the power over the governor, it’s like, yeah, that’s why we have three different branches of government. What you’re trying to do is kill off one of them, except he’s playing, hoping for party politics before the Republicans and the Supreme Court. Otherwise, I mean, go through the process. He’s making this an emergency request so he can bypass the normal court procedure. The Supreme Court, if it weren’t in the bag, would send it back, say no.
Leila (13:30.268)
lawmakers of course overrode that veto. So we’ll wait and see. Go on.
chris (13:40.51)
Attorney General Yoast, you know the rules, go through the proper process here. He’s I think he’s reeling because he got caught up so badly last week in, in being on the wrong side of Biden being on the ballot. I mean, he just was wrong and everybody was howling about his position. I think he’s trying to get on firm footing, but this is not the way to do it. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.
Leila (13:49.012)
I don’t know. I mean, and to your point about that the judge does have that power, I mean, this judge very well could rule that this is completely unconstitutional, and that will apply to the whole state. So yeah, I’m with you on that.
Lisa (13:49.306)
I don’t know. I mean, and to your point about that this judge does have that power. I mean, this judge very well put rules and this is easy to talk to the police for the whole. And that will apply to the whole state. So yeah.
chris (14:04.578)
Cleveland State is in trouble, Notre Dame College is closing, Baldwin Wallace is in trouble. Now we have Lakeland Community College in a very tough spot. Laura, what’s going on here and what is going on with Ohio higher education institutions overall?
Leila (14:05.086)
That’s the point.
Lisa (14:05.15)
Yeah, that’s the point.
Leila (14:10.777)
Exactly.
Leila (14:35.086)
Mm-hmm.
laura (15:11.743)
This isn’t just an Ohio problem. This is a national problem. And the number of kids going to college has been decreasing across the country since 2010. In Lakeland, it actually peaked in 2012. So it’s been dealing with this decrease ever since. And we are going to keep seeing a shakeout of colleges across the country, both private institutions, public institutions. The literature I read, and we’re going to be delving a lot deeper into this on cleveland.com and in the Plain Dealer, is that the
Lisa (15:15.678)
number of kids going to college has been decreasing across the country to 20. The late.
laura (15:41.475)
Most elite institutions are probably going to be fine. They have so many applicants, it’s not a big deal to them to see a drop. But for all the rest, there’s just too many for the number of kids who want to go to college. And it’s not just the number of the population of that age group, which is a problem. We’re going to see a cliff on that soon. But it’s also people deciding that college is not worth this incredible cost that you have to take on. You know, we’ve talked about the rising cost of college for a long time.
chris (16:10.402)
But so many are. I mean, we’re seeing it all over the state. And I put a note out on my text account yesterday and got a pretty heavy response from people. I wondered whether the state, the WINE, or somebody could step up and say, let’s take an organized approach to what is going to be a reduction in the number of institutions. It’s inevitable we’re going to have fewer institutions, there aren’t enough kids. So instead of having this cutthroat survival of the fittest, would it make more sense for the state?
laura (16:10.567)
Now, people are looking at that and how long they’d have to pay back those loans and saying, I don’t want to do that, even for community college. So right now Lakeland Community College, which is located in Kirtland in Lake County, has about 5,000 students. That’s down from that 9,400 students in 2012. But they haven’t made a huge number of reductions since then, which has really hurt their bottom line. They went from a teacher-student ratio of 1 to 21.
chris (16:40.162)
pays for a lot of higher ed to kind of manage it. And somebody pointed out that when Strickland was governor, he had Eric Fingerhut put together such a plan, but then John Kasich was elected and he killed the whole thing. I just, this is not going to end well for anybody. They’re all, they’re all scraping. Why not think about some, some mergers? Do we need a Kent State University and an Akron University? Or do we need a CSU and an Akron? They both have law schools. Could we get by with the single law school?
laura (16:40.463)
in 2012 to 1 to 10 now, which sounds great if you’re a student, but not if you’re trying to pay the bills. They’ve also undertaken some renovations, they’ve bought a new building, and they just don’t have the money to seem feasible. This auditor, Keith Baber, says they’re headed for a fiscal crisis. Yes.
Lisa (16:44.386)
which sounds great if you’re a student, but not if you’re trying to pay the bills. They’ve also undertaken some renovations, they’ve bought a building, and they just don’t have the money that to be feasible. The auditor keeps favors that they’re headed for a fiscal price. So many are. Yeah. And they’re paying it all over the state. And I think I know that.
chris (17:10.226)
Should there be an Ohio State University system like the SUNY system in New York, where you have Ohio State University at Cleveland and Ohio State University wherever, and then start culling these schools so that you can be robust, because otherwise it’s gonna be death by a thousand cuts across the state and they’re all gonna get weaker.
laura (17:24.203)
Mm-hmm.
Lisa (17:47.923)
Mm-hmm.
chris (18:15.998)
Okay, but all right, so it’s not OSU, but there’s got to be some way to look at this and say we want each region served. What can we do? I think that’s a great question.
Lisa (18:23.55)
And I think cities that host these like South Euclid, which is losing Notre Dame pretty quickly, cities have to be proactive in thinking that this could happen to their campuses that they host as well and figure out what to do and you know how to head it off if they can or what to do if they can’t.
laura (18:40.103)
Yeah, if University, if John Carroll closed, would University Heights have to change their name? I agree with you, Chris, that there needs to be a deep look at the programs being offered. I don’t know how well an OSU branch campus system would go over it. The thing is there’s already OSUs all over the place. There’s one in Worcester. If you’re a freshman and you’re not in the Honors Program, it’s really difficult to even go to the main campus at this point.
Lisa (18:46.169)
right.
chris (18:46.674)
No, because we’re giving it all to the industries that are paying dark money and buying off the legislature. Yeah, the vouchers. The reason I think they don’t do it is because if you do that, you’re picking winners and losers. And as we’re seeing with Notre Dame, every school that gets shuttered has a big alumni association that’s furious and that hurts your support politically. But to leave these schools to just
laura (19:12.616)
Yeah.
chris (19:13.07)
go at each other. This is ugly. I don’t see how Lakeland continues. They’re in big trouble. This is one of the worst audits we’ve ever seen, but we’re just at the beginning. Wittenberg is another one somebody sent me. We’ve talked about Baldwin Wallace’s problems. Is any school other than the gigantic ones robust?
laura (19:18.951)
Well, instead of Jerry Sorino calling in college presidents to lecture them about American history, maybe this is what the state should be doing in figuring out how to help them because we’ve talked again, they don’t give as much money as they used to these state schools. We are not supporting them with our taxes as much as we used to.
laura (19:43.64)
and private K through 12 schools.
chris (20:01.73)
Well, power and the ability to provide some aid. It’s just this is right now Helter Skelter, and we’ve known it was coming for more than a decade. All of these demographic predictions came because they could see how many kids were born that this was going to happen. And it feels like we’re totally unprepared.
laura (20:23.679)
And these are different categories, right? Like Wittenberg, Baldwin Wallace, Notre Dame, those are all private independent institutions. Finley and Bluffton are merging. We haven’t written about that. It’s in Northwest Ohio. And then there’s a separate issue of the state-supported public schools and the community colleges. These are, I mean, they all have similar problems, but there’s probably going to be different solutions. The state can’t make the private schools do anything, but they definitely have some power over the public universities.
chris (20:30.99)
All right, we’ll be talking about this for a long time to come. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Anyone who has dealt with a senior citizen who is having issues with the Social Security Office knows what a hardship this next story could be. Lisa, why is the Social Security Office in Warrensville Heights closing for 90 days and maybe longer?
laura (20:56.573)
Right.
laura (21:12.043)
But COVID really did fast forward it a lot, I think. And a lot more kids are going to school online. So you don’t need the same kind of infrastructure.
Lisa (21:43.262)
Well, the reason is high staff attrition. They just don’t have the staff. So the Warrensville Heights Office of Social Security will be closing for 90 days starting in May. They’ll be taking phone appointments and in-person appointments for only limited or critical situations until May 8th. There is no comment on when or if this office will reopen.
American Federation of Government Employees Local 3448 head Michael Murphy says, Social Security Administration staffing nationwide is at its lowest since 2011. Warrensville Heights is far from alone. Many experienced workers retired during the pandemic. What he would like to see is the Warrensville Heights office become a training center for new employees. They lost a lot of institutional knowledge with these retirements, and he’d like more money to hire Social Security staff. They are...
chris (22:06.986)
I’m surprised that this is an office that has a hard time finding workers because these are federal jobs that has a great pension and generally federal salaries are pretty good but I wonder if the Social Security Administration doesn’t pay well for this kind of work. It’s tedious work and you’re dealing with a lot of upset people but it’s still, it’s one of the few jobs left where you get a pension that takes care of you deep into your retirement years. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.
Lisa (22:34.606)
desperate for people. They’ve been forced to shortchange their training so more mistakes get made and offices are consolidating. But Senator Sherrod Brown and Representative Shantel Brown, who represents Warrensville Heights, are asking the Social Security Commission to take the steps needed to reopen the Warrensville Heights office. They say it’s a major issue for their constituents.
chris (22:36.95)
Remember Tamiya Chapman, the 13 year old girl who was walking to the library in East Cleveland when she was killed by a car speeding from police in a chase? Nearly five years later, Layla, how has the family’s lawsuit over this tragedy been resolved?
Leila (23:43.056)
Tamiya’s family agreed to settle their lawsuit against Cleveland for $4.8 million. Tamiya was killed in 2019 after a 15-year-old suspect in a high-speed chase careened off the road and struck her. That chase reached speeds of more than 80 miles per hour, and it ended on Euclid Avenue. This is one of the largest settlements in Ohio involving a police chase. In 2014, Cleveland paid $3 million to the families of Melissa Williams and Timothy
chris (23:55.134)
The sad thing about this was for the longest part of this, it wasn’t a high speed chase. These guys were involved in a carjacking and a target on the west side. Police got behind them, but they didn’t know they were there and they were tracking their movements. But then after a long way to the east side, they picked up on that they were being followed and gunned it. And that’s when everything went south. This is one of the saddest stories.
Leila (24:10.728)
who were involved in that 2012 pursuit that ended when police fired 137 bullets into the car that they were in. Stanley Jackson, the attorney for Tamiya’s family, told reporters that in Tamiya’s case, the police didn’t follow their own pursuit policies. They operated with no common sense and supervisors failed their duties to letting this chase reach those high speeds on residential streets. A city spokesman pointed out that the chase began with the carjacking of a 72-year-old woman.
chris (24:22.978)
You were in the newsroom when this was breaking and we’re overseeing the coverage, weren’t you?
Right.
Leila (24:39.504)
outside a grocery store and he put the blame for Tamiya’s death on the suspects who chose to flee from police that day.
chris (24:51.118)
She’s just walking from school to the library like any kid would and ended. It’s very sad. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We need to tie up the case. Or no, I’m sorry. Akron sure seems like a city in need of a federal consent decree. How has it made the optics even worse in the case of the 13 year old who was playing with a toy gun and was shot by police?
Leila (25:12.723)
Yeah.
laura (25:18.971)
Yes, it was right before Christmas. And I remember I remember that it really clearly because it was, I think, a Friday night. And it was one of those things that you’re just wrapping up and this horrible thing happened. And it was an all hands on deck kind of moment in newsroom. But it’s so sad. We call a lot of things tragedies, but this one really hits you.
laura (26:04.223)
This is awful. Tavion Coons Williams is 15 years old. He was shot by police. Thank God he’s mostly okay as far as I know. He’s shot in the hand. But he’s now charged with possessing a facsimile firearm. This is a first degree misdemeanor. He was charged on Friday. If you remember, he was shot on Britain Road in Akron’s Goodyear Heights neighborhood on April 1st. A woman had called police that a black youth was pointing a gun at houses in the neighborhood.
chris (26:12.126)
Yeah, well, they’re right about this. You’re allowed to have a gun. Ohio has pretty much cleared the decks. I don’t get how they can charge him. And what does it say? I mean, clearly, you don’t want to shoot this kid. Clearly, this cop operated way too fast and Akron has some explaining to do, but to turn around and hit him with charges, it’s unbelievable. This police department is...
laura (26:32.211)
A lot of similarities here that jump out at you with Tamir Rice. The officer was Ryan Westlake, a nine-year police veteran who has a spotty history with the department. In the body cam footage, he asked the teenager to show his hand, then shot him within seconds. And the family is obviously outraged, and you so feel for them. The lawyer said, it is not a crime to have a toy gun. It is not a crime to be a 15-year-old playing with toys. It is not a crime to be a black kid in Akron, Ohio.
chris (26:38.918)
out of control. We’ve talked about it repeatedly. They keep getting involved in really bad stuff in a way Cleveland used to before its consent decree. The Justice Department needs to come in and land on them. I can’t believe the new mayor there is allowing this to happen.
laura (27:01.291)
doing what kids do.
chris (27:25.302)
This could result in a massive protest. And it’s just, you don’t do this. The kid, they’re lucky he didn’t die. But to turn around, I just, when that one dropped, you’re thinking, they can’t be that stupid, can they? But clearly they are, right? It’s one that, yeah. Yeah, it’s a shock, and I don’t think it ends here. I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t see a huge protest come out of this, because this is not the answer for what happened in that case.
laura (27:45.183)
Right. And the new mayor, we were giving him accolades saying, he responded very quickly. They put out all the body cam. They released the name and the personnel files of this officer. Because if you remember last summer, that took weeks. Was it last summer, two summers ago? Two summers. That took weeks to get when that young black man was shot after the chase. And so it felt like things were turning around a little bit. But no. It’s um.
It’s really disappointing to see.
chris (28:16.534)
Because it’s so outrageous. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We do need to tie up the case in which a Cleveland Heights tattoo artists sued a video game company for showing LeBron James tattoos without permission from the artist. Lisa, what was the verdict?
laura (28:23.52)
Yes.
laura (28:31.507)
Yeah, what are they thinking? You just want to know what is wrong with you.
laura (28:45.715)
And they’re asking for a dismissal, a firing of this officer who’s now on paid administrative leave, which you just are like, well, he’s getting paid while he’s being checked out. Meanwhile, this kid’s getting slapped with a misdemeanor charge. And yeah, there was a lot of protest after Jaylen Walker. I would not be surprised to see this happening again.
Lisa (29:23.338)
On Friday, the jury ruled in favor of Take Two Interactive, the makers of the NBA 2K video game. This was a lawsuit that was filed by Cleveland Heights tattoo artist Jimmy Hayden, who alleged that use of two LeBron tattoos that he did on LeBron’s game avatar was a copyright infringement. The jury took only 90 minutes to reach their verdict. They found that there was no infringement.
chris (29:36.19)
Yeah, I kind of didn’t think the tattoo artist should win this one. It did seem like they were pushing too far. So the right thing seemed to happen. I wasn’t sure because the copyright law is bizarre. We deal with it all the time, but it seems like this is the right verdict, right?
Lisa (29:49.262)
They found that Hayden and LeBron had an implied license that allowed LeBron to license his likeness, including his tattoos. And LeBron did side with take two in a tape deposition that was played during the trial. He says he didn’t know he needed permission. And furthermore, no one should have rights over what I do with my body. Hayden’s attorney, Todd Tucker, had no comment after the trial, but during arguments during the trial, he said it was straightforward copyright infringement.
chris (30:06.294)
Well, I doubt that when people get tattoos that they’re signing a rights agreement each time, because if they go shirtless or wear a short sleeve shirt, the tattoos are visible to everybody. It just seems like this is crossing the line of common sense. If you are a tattoo artist and you put a tattoo on somebody, you’re allowing them to be seen in wherever they’re seen, which is what the verdict ended up finding.
Lisa (30:18.282)
Why did Take-Two fight so hard against a small business owner when they paid millions in other licensing rights, including music used in the game?
chris (30:31.798)
You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We’re wrapping up for Tuesday. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Leila. Thanks, Laura. Thank you for listening. Come back Wednesday for another discussion of the news.
Lisa (30:41.474)
Well, in the take two lawyers argued, they said, you know, this could have a chilling effect on people getting tattoos. If they feel like their tattoos are copyrighted and they can’t use them the way they feel, that could keep people from getting tattoos. So it would kind of be self-harming their industry.