Today in Ohio, the daily news podcast of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
CLEVELAND, Ohio – A transgender Ohio woman wanted to change the sex marker on a birth certificate, but the Ohio Supreme Court on Tuesday effectively upheld a probate court’s decision to deny the request.
We’re talking about whether formal documents should be allowed to be altered 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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Here‘s what we’re asking about today:
Is a birth certificate a historical record, a document that should stand for all time? Or is it something that can change as the life of a person changes? The Ohio Supreme
While federal prosecutors seem bent on protecting the FirstEnergy executives and others who paid for the biggest bribery scheme in Ohio history, the attorney general’s office is pounding away. Does it look like it’s about to get another pound of flesh for the Statehouse corruption scheme?
And is it possible additional FirstEnergy executives might face criminal charges from the attorney general?
A couple of small-town stories that are interesting beyond municipal boundaries. First, the University Heights mayor offended a lot of people with a post-election social media rant. What did the city council have to say about it?
And in tony Solon, we saw fisticuffs at a council meeting. What was it about, and how violent did it get?
The days of colleges profiting hugely off of their athletes while not sharing the bounty with them are ending. What step did Gov. Mike DeWine take Tuesday that will result in paydays for the athletes?
Former MetroHealth CEO Akram Boutros wants his day in court. What did he do Tuesday?
What deal did University Hospitals make a with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center about medical helicopters that could help save lives?
Daytime television watchers in Cleveland are losing a show that has been on the air for almost two decades. What is it, and why is it going away?
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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.
Chris Quinn (00:01.096)
It’s Wednesday on Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Laura Johnston, Lisa Garvin, and Courtney Astolfi, who’s here most Wednesdays, but is also here all week. Is a birth certificate a historical record, a document that should stand for all time unchanged, or is it something that can change as the life of the person changes?
Lisa, the Ohio Supreme Court laid the question to rest for this state this week. How?
Lisa (00:34.424)
but only because they couldn’t reach a majority decision. This was the case of a Clark County transgender woman, Haley Adelaide. She was born a man and she wanted to change the gender on her birth certificate. So she went to probate court where you do that kind of thing and she was denied. But there was an appeals court ruling that said birth records cannot be corrected unless there was a mistake on the gender in the first place. And they ruled that Adelaide didn’t provide evidence that
the gender was incorrectly recorded at the time. So three Republican justices, Joe Dieters, Patrick DeWine and Sharon Kennedy said neither, you know, the appeals court or the Supreme Court had a constitutional power to consider this appeal and that the case lacked any adversity. Patrick Fisher, a Republican, joined the three Democratic justices in a majority opinion. They said both courts
do have the authority to hear the case. Adversity is not an issue, but the four of them could not agree on a way forward. So three of them said they would affirm the probate court decision, which would mean her gender would be changed on the certificate. Bruner said she would overrule the probate court decision. I’m sorry, the probate court decision was denying it to her. So Adelaide’s attorney Jed eggs.
Chad Eggspuler said he’s disappointed in this non-decision. It fails to answer important legal questions after three years of litigation, and it leaves a disparate approach that’s taken by the various county probate courts here in Ohio.
Chris Quinn (02:08.314)
It’s a tough one because records are records, right? And so once a record is created, you’re not supposed to destroy it and you’re not supposed to change it. And I wonder if there’s some other path here that the legislature could create so that you’re not altering records, which, you know, as an institution, we’re not crazy about, but you’re still giving people
Lisa (02:12.097)
Yes.
Chris Quinn (02:34.13)
the ability to have something they can use when they’re seeking driver’s licenses and other things that classifies them as the gender that they now use. I can see why the judges are all splintered all over the place because this is very challenging. You want people to feel good about what their records say about them, but once the birth certificate is made, it’s changing. just seems like you’re doing something odd there.
Lisa (02:49.07)
Mm-hmm.
Lisa (03:02.35)
Yeah, no, and I agree. And transgendered women were born men, just like transgendered men were born women. So they still have that XY chromosome. But some of their advocates and attorneys say that, you know, they feel that, you know, when you provide your birth certificate, there going to be questions if the gender doesn’t match what you are. But I’m trying to think of how many times I had to produce my birth certificate. The only time I remember in recent memory was to get that real ID driver’s license.
Chris Quinn (03:32.264)
Right, but the easy thing for the state to do would be able to create the ability to create an alternative birth certificate so that you can go in and it matches. And so that your birth certificate then matches your driver’s license. I don’t see our gerrymandered Republican legislature doing anything that might help a transgender person, but that would seem to be the answer to this that would satisfy everybody. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.
While federal prosecutors seem bent on protecting the first energy executives and others who paid for the biggest bribery scheme in Ohio history, the attorney general’s office is continuing to pound away. Laura, does it look like the attorney general is about to get another pound of flesh for the state house corruption scheme?
Laura (04:23.191)
It does look like that. So the state has reached a plea agreement in principle with the businesses formerly owned by Sam Randazzo, who was the state’s former top utility regulator. He died by suicide shortly after being charged with accepting $4.3 million in bribes from First Energy Corporation. So two companies owned by Randazzo are set to enter guilty pleas, and they’re working them out this year. They could be filed this week because when Randazzo died, the prosecutors dropped.
any charges against him, but not against these companies. And prosecutors say he used the companies to accept and conceal millions of dollars in bribes from First Energy right before he was appointed chairman by Governor Mike DeWine of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. And so one is called Sustainability Funding Alliance of Ohio that was solely owned by him, had no other employees, and his income flowed directly to him and his wife. And the other is IEU Ohio Administration Company.
And the prosecutors say these were paper only instruments. They were used to execute and conceal the scheme. And he could play all sides of the case. So he would represent his clients, First Energy, and himself, and basically skim a little off the top out of all of these transactions and deposit bribes into these businesses.
Chris Quinn (05:41.19)
Yeah, it’s one of those that I’m glad the attorney general is doing what he’s doing because the federal prosecutors, after getting the government officials just have completely gone to sleep, they really aren’t pursuing this to the ends. there’s a lot of money that those companies got that were owed back. So I hope it’s a good settlement. I hope it’s not small money.
Laura (06:03.951)
And the thing is we keep saying this $4.3 million bribe, right? That’s what the charges were. That’s what we know about. That’s a one-time lump payment, believe. And First Energy executives have said that this was a contract that they had to pay out. But this is talking about $13.2 million for a synergy paid between 2016 and 2019 alone. That’s three years, $13.2 million. I know we know that this is the biggest
bribery scheme in Ohio history, but do we even understand how great the scope of this is?
Chris Quinn (06:39.676)
Yeah, I know. Let’s keep it going. Is it possible additional first energy executives might face criminal charges from the attorney general?
Laura (06:47.779)
Yes. So Eileen Mickelson, she was formerly First Energy’s vice president of rates and regulatory affairs. She’s scheduled to testify under oath in a regulatory investigation early next month. There’s seven of these First Energy executives. Most of these I hadn’t heard of. They’re not necessarily big names like Chuck Jones or Mike Dowling. They are being deposed publicly as part of this Ohio Consumers Council investigation and lawsuit.
up next month, but the Deputy Attorney General, Carol O’Brien, is saying to the regulators, please back off because anything she says in this deposition could grant her immunity and prevent prosecutors from charging her with any crimes in the future.
Chris Quinn (07:33.138)
Yeah, it’s a good sign. It tells me that they’re digging deeper, that their investigation is not over and they’re going after more people. Clearly there had to be more people. But let’s face it, there’s the Jack Jones and Dowling, the two top guys, they’re the ones that should be in prison. They’re the ones that were running the company. They’re the ones that authorize the bribes. And the fact that the feds refused to charge them or do anything to punish them just shows you how the wealthy
Laura (07:38.958)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (08:02.12)
hold sway over our justice department. justice department’s afraid to go after people that have money, leaving it to the state officials to have to do it.
Laura (08:11.085)
Yeah, and we don’t know how deep this will go. Obviously, the interesting part of the first two depositions and Jake Suckerman covered them was they basically just pleaded the fifth the entire time, which really makes you think there should be more charges in this investigation.
Chris Quinn (08:29.268)
Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. We got a couple of small town stories that are interesting way beyond the small town boundaries. First, the University Heights mayor offended a lot of people with the post-election social media rant. Courtney, what did the city council there have to say about that this week?
Courtney (08:46.946)
Yeah, they went hard at their Monday meeting University Heights City Council voted unanimously. So seven to zero to censure the mayor, Michael Dylan Brennan over these post election Facebook posts in which he was talking about quote Trumpies in city government. So this Facebook post it’s now deleted from the mayor’s official mayoral page, but that right after the election, he had written that that he was kind of
asking the over 4,000 Harris voters in University Heights to pay attention to who the Trumpies are in city government and to quote, your values in next year’s municipal election. And he was talking about how important it was to clean up local government and have a level of government that represents our values. In this post, he also referred to council members, Michelle Weiss and Sherry Sachs as MAGA council members.
And he accused them of using red campaign money to get some elected to council last year. So then this also dovetails with some of the precincts in which these council members live. They’re primarily, they’re, they’re home to a large population of Orthodox Jewish folks. And the resolution that council passed called that out. It said that Brennan was calling out the city’s predominantly Orthodox Jewish and Catholic precincts.
that he needlessly conflated the presidential election with local politics to divide residents.
Chris Quinn (10:21.02)
Yeah, he was out of line. A mayor should not be criticizing how the residents choose to vote. There are reasons that Orthodox Jewish people might be voting for Trump. He’s a hard line in favor of Israel and what’s going on over in the Middle East. But it’s just not the mayor’s purview. There were lots of people, there still are lots of people that are very worried about where this country is headed with Donald Trump as president, especially with the frat house that he’s building for a cabinet of looney tunes.
But, and you know, as mayor of a bunch of people that probably you’re feeling much like he is, he could say to the residents, hey, we have our values, we’re gonna move forward. But to call out people and try and villainize people who took advantage of their right to vote, it kind of scares people from voting. It’s a mistake, you shouldn’t do it. So the council slammed him, right?
Courtney (11:15.21)
Yeah absolutely and and brendan was conciliatory to you know to some degree he did delete the post any said you know i i feel essentially that you know there are important values here i’m standing up for like reproductive rights like lgbtq rights like transgender community rights but you know he also said something that points to some potential political ulterior motives for the center that’s what the mayor at least said.
His term is up next year and there’s going to be a mayoral election next year. We’re waiting to see if he, when he formally declares or if he formally declares he’ll run at the same time, we’re waiting to see if one of the council members, Weiss throws her hat in the ring too. So he pointed to that kind of political fighting as part of the route here.
Chris Quinn (12:03.26)
Yeah, except he, but he made himself vulnerable to it. I mean, the way to avoid having people play politics with you on something like this is don’t villainize your residents because you don’t like the way they voted. It was a stupid thing to do and he’s rightly been slapped for it. Residents might remember it when they come to vote on the next mayor. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Lisa, over in Tony Solon, we saw fisticuffs at a council meeting this week. What was that about and how violent did it get?
Lisa (12:32.43)
Yeah, we really don’t know what it was about because they didn’t, the live stream didn’t catch what they said to each other, but two men were arrested and charged after a fight during city council meeting that continued into the parking lot with one of them allegedly trying to run over the other one. So charged are 57 year old Adam Waldbaum. He’s charged with disorderly conduct. 61 year old David Fleiss was charged with disorderly conduct and aggravated menacing.
So the incident began during the public comment period of the city council meeting. They were talking about a petition that was circulating that was calling on city leaders to condemn the Chagrin Valley Islamic Center. Solon Mayor Edward Krauss, who’s a Jewish man, he had an October statement defending this center. But the men during the meeting, these two men said something to each other. Again, we don’t know what they said. And they were told to stop disrupting the meeting by the police chief.
Flais got up to leave. said something to the woman next to wall bomb. This woman had just finished talking in support of this petition. so things heated up, Flais threw a punch. He knocked off wall bombs, the meeting had to be suspended and the men were, were taken out of the building. But then later wall bomb says Flais drove his car at him in the parking lot and just barely missed him. So crazy stuff.
Chris Quinn (13:53.064)
Yeah, and it’s intolerance. This is another example of the raw edges of emotion we have in this country following the election. The idea that they would take a stand against an Islamic center is ridiculous. You don’t want to do that as a government. You’re supposed to welcome all of your residents and support it. The mayor did the right thing. But everybody’s
got such ride as nobody’s really thinking about civility at the moment. People are doomsaying or they’re celebrating and this is where it leads.
Lisa (14:26.462)
And the fact that there was a petition online circulating to like condemn this center, although the petition has disappeared from social media, but still it was out there and people obviously very upset about it. Yeah. I was kind of, I was more upset about what they were fighting about than the fight itself.
Chris Quinn (14:42.29)
Yeah, who wants to live in a city that would take a stand like that? That would be embarrassing if the government did something like that to a great number of the residents there. And the fact that it’s breaking out in city and city council is there to run the city, right? spend the tax money to make sure the roads are paved and the residents are taking care of this kind of thing keeps breaking into council meetings. And it’s pretty ugly. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.
The days of colleges profiting hugely off their athletes while not sharing the bounty with them are ending. Laura, step did Governor Mike DeWine take Tuesday that will result in paydays for the athletes?
Laura (15:21.071)
He signed an executive order so colleges in Ohio can directly pay the student athletes for their name, image and likeness. So the NCAA and all these other athletic conferences have entered into a proposed settlement for a variety of antitrust lawsuits. So if those get settled, this would go away. But it does mean that right now the colleges, as long as they’re not using state money that’s been given them, can pay the athletes directly because before it’s been coming from third parties such as
collectives or through sponsorships. And this way, these kids who are, who are entertaining literally millions of Americans every week when they’re playing their sport can be paid for the work that they’re doing, really.
Chris Quinn (16:07.572)
Yeah, it’s the four years the athletes in college have basically played. They get their their education, which the colleges have always said that’s worth a lot of money, but it’s nowhere near what the colleges make. And they risk their future if they get seriously hurt in college. They don’t make the big pro money and a lot of them don’t go on to the pros anyway and never get a piece of that huge pie. Think about the money that OSU rakes in on the Buckeyes.
Laura (16:14.575)
Mm-hmm.
Laura (16:32.271)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (16:34.9)
all on the backs of these players on the field to have gotten very little. The whole game is changing now. It’s overnight and it feels like it’s changing. And Mike DeWine recognizes this is where we’re headed. And so he signed the order because you’re going to need it for OSU to compete. States that don’t do what Mike DeWine did, if they have big schools on the national stage, will fall off of it because this is all very competitive.
students.
Laura (17:05.699)
And obviously in Ohio, this probably just affect maybe University of Cincinnati, but mostly Ohio State, right? Because the vast majority of schools don’t make money on their athletics. They spend a lot of money on athletics. But when you have Ohio State, when you have these giant conferences and you add in, you know, the big 10 as what, how many 15 schools now and they’re playing on the West Coast and these kids are traveling all the time while they’re supposed to be taking classes. I’ve got to say that probably makes
school really stressful. definitely not having the same kind of party time fun as a lot of kids who are just going to the games to watch. I think it’s only fair that they be compensated.
Chris Quinn (17:46.58)
Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. Former MetroHealth CEO Akram Butros does want his day in court. What did he do Tuesday, Courtney?
Courtney (17:55.834)
Well, he refiled his lawsuit that had been dismissed. So this lawsuit is against MetroHealth and it’s bored. And Boutros is again alleging defamation, wrongful termination and breach of contract here. He originally sued the hospital weeks after he was fired in late 2022, but he dismissed that lawsuit about a year ago, citing health issues. Well, fast forward to now, and we’re just a few days out after.
State Auditor Keith Faber released an inconclusive report about whether Boutros received unauthorized bonuses worth $1.9 million. Faber’s report concluded that Boutros’ activity wasn’t criminal, and it said the board wasn’t effectively overseeing these payments that are kind of the heart of the issue here. So a few days after that report comes out, he’s now back in court with a refiled lawsuit. He pointed to some of the findings in that auditor report.
in his new paperwork that’s filed with the court. He’s seeking an unknown sum, but he’s claiming that his firing cost him millions in potential job prospects and in lawyer fees and everything that goes along with that. And he maintains in this new lawsuit, he was unjustly fired from his position and publicly defamed with quote baseless accusations.
Chris Quinn (19:17.308)
It’ll be interesting to see if this ever goes to trial. A trial would have embarrassing moments for both sides. And I wonder if he’s counting on a settlement to avoid ever having that kind of testimony in court. Because clearly, if he was giving himself bonuses, even if it was somehow authorized and the people who employed him didn’t know it, something was wrong. There’s nobody that would agree.
You should do that. Your boss should know if you’re taking $400,000 extra each year. So that would come out in trial and that would be fairly ugly. But of course, the audit did point out that the board was woefully inadequate in its oversight, that the board should have been paying much closer attention to who was getting the dollars. So they’d be embarrassed as well. I wonder if both sides come to some accommodation and it would be public because it’s a public hospital. So they won’t be able to keep it secret from us. We’ll see the check.
These things have a way of dragging out for quite some time.
Courtney (20:19.34)
Either way, I mean, it seems like Boutrous has some wind in his sails and feels confident about getting something after this state report.
Chris Quinn (20:27.02)
Which is odd because it wasn’t an exoneration at all. mean, what they said was we don’t see evidence here to file a crime, a criminal charge. But they’re in no way saying he’s exonerated, he did nothing wrong. And there’s a whole lot they say is very murky and it’s hard to figure out. So I’m a little bit surprised he seems so exuberant because this was not a clean slate.
that they gave him. This was ugly business that happened here. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. What deal did university hospitals make with a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center about medical helicopters that could save lives? At least it’s odd to be reaching so far away, but there’s a reason for it.
Lisa (21:13.718)
Yeah, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center have signed a collaborative agreement that they will, you know, work with each other with their air medical services along the Ohio Pennsylvania border. So air med helicopters have bases in Geauga and Medina counties. Stat Medevac of Pennsylvania is in Crawford, Erie and Mercer counties in Pennsylvania, but they also have bases in Jefferson and Mahoning counties in Ohio across the border.
So this agreement ensures that the closest helicopter is dispatched to emergencies, regardless of which dispatchers took the initial call. So the entities will review the service requests as they come in, and then that’s how they’ll determine the closest available helicopter. So this will mean better and faster emergency response for people along the Ohio Pennsylvania border. And I think it’s a great idea.
Chris Quinn (22:07.976)
Yeah, it seems odd that this cooperation hadn’t been built in before because we are equidistant to where these kinds of things happen. It’s good to see that they’ve come up with a way to as efficiently as possible, get people who are in dire need to medical care. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Daytime television watchers in Cleveland are losing a show that has been on the air for almost two decades. Courtney, what is it? Why is it going away?
Courtney (22:37.442)
Yeah, so we’re talking about channel three’s good company. It’s going to go off the air here in mid January due to corporate restructuring by its parent company, Tegna. And we learned about all this this week. Good company has been on the air since 2005. So that’s pretty long for a locally produced talk show. It’s hosted by Katherine Boyd and Joe Cronauer. And you know, it’s a talk show that kind of combines interviews with sponsored content.
It airs every day at noon on weekdays on WKYC. And we learned that the elimination of the show is due to Tegna centralizing its marketing team. Apparently good company is considered to be a marketing program. And instead of having local folks doing that, they’re consolidating it all into regional teams that’ll handle several TV stations at a time. Tegna has got 64 local stations and
And in this memo out to their company on Monday, an executive said, not everyone will have a seat in that new structure for marketing and good companies on the chopping block as a result.
Chris Quinn (23:46.328)
I’ve never seen this show. It sounds dreadful. I’d never watched 8 Time TV, but when I was in the hospital for five days in September, I was kind of sentenced to, and it is agonizingly bad. So I’m not, I don’t know what this show is, but it says it was more in the infomercial kind of thing, sponsored content. So people coming on to explain why you should replace your roof and they just happen to be the roofer. I don’t know how much we’re actually losing here.
Courtney (24:14.51)
Yeah, you know, looking at more so less so the laws of content and more so like the impact on jobs at KYC. We don’t have a sense of that, which that’s, you know, something to keep an eye on. Tegna wouldn’t say how many local employees here in Cleveland are going to lose their jobs.
Chris Quinn (24:33.436)
Yeah, Catherine Boyd’s done a lot of different things in Cleveland. I believe it’s the same Catherine Boyd who’s on Sirius XM at the Rock Hall for one of the rock stations on Sirius XM. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. That’s it. Short one for Wednesday. Thanks, Laura. Thanks, Courtney. Thanks, Lisa. Thank you for listening. We’ll be back Thursday.