CLEVELAND, Ohio - Ohio House Republicans are showing some dissent from the plan to back the $2.4 billion Browns stadium in Brook Park.
We’re talking about votes against state bonding -- plus infrastructure around the planned development -- on Today in Ohio.
Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin, impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.
You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.
You can now join the conversation. Call 833-648-6329 (833-OHTODAY) if you’d like to leave a message we can play on the podcast.
Here’s what we’re asking about today:
We thought Ohio might finally be over its coal problem, with the end of subsidies to coal plants born from the corruption of HB6. But with our Legislature completely in sync with anything Donald Trump says or does, will Trump’s executive orders about coal this week revive coal in Ohio? What did Trump do?
Ohio has a bona fide measles outbreak. How bad has it become since a single case was reported in Ashtabula County?
We’ve seen plenty of bickering and even some odd legislation about a potential I-71 interchange at Strongsville, but do we finally have a path forward on solving the congestion there?
The Ohio House passed its version of the budget late Wednesday, but we saw some genuine bickering about the Browns stadium deal, of all things. What was the sticking point?
Dirt bikes have been big news in Cleveland Columbus, with riders taking over streets and intersections as police crack down. They’re also at the center of a theft ring that was broken with indictments in Cuyahoga County. Fortunately, these thefts do not appear to involve violence. How did they work?
Our readers complain quite a bit about their inability to reach Republican senators and members of Congress, but we don’t talk a lot about the Democrats. Shontel Brown, for example, has been active, public and available to constituents in dealing with the fallout of Donald Trump’s reckless governing. What did Emilia Sykes do this week to fight back against Trump?
How significant is the University of Akron’s sale of the downtown Quaker Square complex?
With people thinking a lot about inflation, we have a story about deals. From police. Where can you get some pretty good prices on some pretty good stuff, courtesy of police work?
Who is the first professional athlete – and Northeast Ohio native – to be turned into a Ken doll in Barbieland?
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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.
Chris Quinn (00:01.267)
We wonder whether the legislators in Ohio are hearing some angry comments from residents about funding sports stadiums. Some very odd moves yesterday in the very Republican Ohio house that were fairly hostile to sports stadiums, even though things moved along. We’ll be talking about it on Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the Plain Dealer.
I’m Chris Quinn here with Lisa Garvin, Leila Attasi and Laura Johnston. Laura, let’s go with coal first. We thought Ohio might finally be over its coal problem with the end of subsidies to coal plants born from the corruption of HB6. But with our legislature completely in sync with anything Donald Trump says or does, will Trump’s executive orders about coal this week revive coal in Ohio? What did Trump do?
Laura (00:35.49)
Okay.
Laura (00:57.634)
couldn’t believe reading the story by Sabrina Eaton because it really feels like we’re in a different century, like maybe not even the 20th century, maybe back to the 19th century because Donald Trump on Tuesday signed four executive orders meant to rekindle the coal industry after years of decline. The amount of coal that we are using is shrinking as a percentage of our energy use. And obviously we talk about it all the time on this podcast. We need more energy. And Donald Trump knows that. It actually is something we all agree on.
And he says the value of untapped coal in our country is 100 times greater than the value of all the gold at Fort Knox, and we’re going to unleash it. This is just despicable. mean, yes, we need more energy, but we need green energy, and we need wind and solar, because when coal is burned, it emits toxins that are linked to health problems as well as carbon dioxide that’s linked to global warming. Although Trump says this is a new green scam, and he says coal is beautiful and clean.
And he wants to roll back any kind of EPA order for clean air that would be affected by coal so that we wouldn’t enforce clean air requirements anymore. It is just nuts to think we’re going to go backward this far.
Chris Quinn (02:10.549)
It’s like, let’s let kids smoke cigarettes. Let’s put arsenic back into pressure treated wood. Let’s, yeah, right. Let’s put lead back in the paint. That was great paint. That paint lasted for years and years. We’re gonna bring it back. I’ve often compared today’s leaders to Fred Flintstone, but this literally is Fred Flintstone, because coal is the prehistoric fuel. It’s crazy to...
Laura (02:14.316)
YES!
Laura (02:18.08)
Lead paint is great, come on!
Chris Quinn (02:37.233)
say we’re going to burn lots more coal because talk about creating greenhouse problems. It’s just it’s almost like they get up every day and think how can I do more wrong things? How can I? Right. It’s just this is dumb. We’re finally getting away from coal, a major step forward in energy. And, you know, our clowns in the legislature.
Laura (02:42.669)
Right.
Laura (02:49.634)
Yes, how can I make this country worse?
Chris Quinn (03:02.549)
If the general says we’re going to do coal, let’s go back. Let’s subsidize those places. Let’s put money into coal power development. But, you know, they don’t think for themselves. They’re all brainless clowns. They click their heels and say, yes, sir. So I’m worried that this will result in the development of more coal burning energy plants in Ohio.
Laura (03:23.926)
just because you say coal is clean does not make it actually true. And coal, did not realize this, was the dominant form of electricity in Ohio until 2019, finally supplanted by natural gas. We finally, which you know is green energy in Ohio, even though it’s not. So Ohio is still a hub for coal mining. We have more than 4 % of the nation’s recoverable coal reserves and seven of the state’s 10 operating mines or surface mines, three other were underground.
Chris Quinn (03:34.985)
Yeah, yeah.
Laura (03:53.79)
And in 2022, Ohio used about nine times more coal than it mined. So I had no idea that we were a coal mining state, that we still use this much coal. And I would love to believe that we are looking forward and we are going to correct ourselves on solar. But you’re right, Chris, the way that people kowtow to Donald Trump and Houston, you know, just got his endorsement. just, nobody thinks for themselves. And if he says, start digging, they’re going to go for it.
Chris Quinn (04:22.185)
It’s a sad state of affairs. It’s just Donald Trump, he also put out an executive order last night to demand high pressure and shower heads. So it’s good to know that he’s got his priorities in the right place.
Laura (04:31.566)
I know. When you texted me that I was like, it’s it is like onion headlines. How is this real?
Chris Quinn (04:36.041)
haha
All right, but that’s what he did. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Ohio has a bona fide measles outbreak. Lisa, how bad has it become since that single case was reported in Ashtabula County?
Lisa (04:52.493)
Yeah, there are now 25 confirmed measles cases in Ohio, most of them in Ashtabula County. There are 10 there, so that number hasn’t changed in a week, but there are 14 cases in Knox County. Seven of them are Ohio residents and there’s one now in Allen County. Knox County health officials say that they’re isolating the people or the people with measles are isolating themselves and their symptoms are being closely monitored. They’re also doing contact tracing.
and they want to work with those who have been possibly exposed to the measles. In the United States, there are 607 confirmed cases, although that number is probably already outdated. Most of them are in Texas at 505 and 56 in New Mexico. We’ve had three deaths now, two children in Texas and one adult in New Mexico. They were all unvaccinated. So there are several states now that have outbreaks, which is, know, confirmed cases that are related.
of three or more. So there are several outbreaks across the US now.
Chris Quinn (05:52.381)
Yeah, it’s not surprising Ohio’s there. We’re a very red state and red states fight vaccinations, which idiotically exposes people to things that can harm them. It’s too bad that we are not grasp the science here and everybody been vaccinated to stop this horrible disease from spreading. I doubt we’ve seen the end of it. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.
We’ve seen plenty of bickering and even some very odd legislation about a potential I-71 interchange at Strungsville, but Leila, do we finally have a path forward for solving the congestion there?
Leila (06:29.833)
Hopefully this will lead to that because for more than 30 years, Strongsville and Brunswick have tossed around the idea of adding that interchange on I-71 at Boston Road right near their shared border. Early on, both cities liked the idea, but over time, the conversation got a lot more complicated. Strongsville sees the new interchange as a way to ease traffic jams, especially around South Park Mall. But Brunswick’s worried it’ll just push more cars onto its local roads and cause more headaches.
Up until now, no one had done a full study to figure out if the interchange was actually the best solution or if there were better options. And so that’s finally changing. After a lot of political back and forth, lawmakers repealed a previous plan that would have forced the state to build the interchange without further study. Instead, they ordered a full blown corridor study. So the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency and ODOT are teaming up to look at the whole picture.
not just Boston Road, but a stretch of I-71 from Pearl Road in Middleburg Heights down to Ohio 303 in Brunswick. And they’re considering everything from adding an interchange to widening ramps, improving local roads, even diverting traffic elsewhere. So no decisions have been made yet. Brunswick city manager says he’s relieved though that common sense has finally prevailed. He’s hoping the study finds smarter fixes for the traffic Strongsville’s rapid development has created.
Meanwhile, Strongsville City Council president said he’s glad that something’s finally happening too, but he warns that the area’s growth means a solution, any solution, needs to come sooner rather than later. The study is expected to wrap up by the end of next year and there’ll be public meetings this spring for residents to weigh into.
Chris Quinn (08:13.781)
All right, dare I say that shouldn’t this have happened long ago? Isn’t this the purpose of NOACA to spot emerging traffic trends and do these studies? This is a long standing issue. It goes back probably two decades. It’s so frustrated. The state, the state legislator, Patton, is he a house now or is he in the Senate? He keeps bouncing back and forth that he, that he got legislation passed to force an interchange there, which was
Leila (08:19.423)
course.
Chris Quinn (08:42.387)
incredibly unusual. It’s now been abolished, but they should have done this a long time ago. It’s like, we’re going to do our job now. praise be. Everybody’s all excited. Where have you been, Noacka? You should have done it 20 years ago.
Leila (08:56.767)
Absolutely. It’s stunning that it’s taken this long and it’s been so controversial because with an issue like this, with two neighboring cities that see the same problem in totally different ways, you have to have objective, data-driven look at the full corridor. That’s the only way to move it forward. Instead of fighting over assumptions, the region will finally have hard numbers and a range of solutions to work with.
It takes some of the politics out of it and puts the focus back where it should be, which is on what actually makes sense for traffic flow and safety in the long term.
Lisa (09:32.345)
But I wonder what will happen though if they do pick the Boston Road interchange. If the studies find that that’s the best one, you know, is this controversy just going to boil up again?
Chris Quinn (09:42.887)
It might, but at least there’d be data to back it up. At least you’d be able to say, look, folks, this is the answer. This is what we have to do. My bet is that they’ll be looking for alternative workable solutions to this. But I just marvel that it’s taken this long to get there. really, Noaka should have done this way back when. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.
Leila (09:44.456)
Yeah.
Right.
Chris Quinn (10:06.757)
Okay, the Ohio house passed its version of the budget late Wednesday. It’s loaded with terrible things. These guys are pretty much criminals in elected office. But we saw some genuine bickering about the Brown Stadium deal of all things. This has been a Republican being jammed through from day one, but there were breaks put on at one point. Laura, what happened here?
Laura (10:29.582)
So this is over how much the Browns should have to put in escrow, basically, in case the $600 million of bonds that the state borrows that the money coming in from the development doesn’t pay those off. So the Browns have said originally, hey, we’ll give you $38.5 million. You can put it in an account. It’ll make interest, and that’ll cover any shortfalls. But the legislature says, no, we want more of that.
The idea was to raise it to 50 million, which would grow to about 200 million over the life of the bonds. And that passed, but five House Republicans voted against it in part because some think we should not be using public dollars to finance billionaires pet projects, which, you know, a lot of us on this podcast would agree with. So state representative Ron Ferguson, that’s his opinion. And then he ended up leading an effort.
trying to nix another piece of the budget that allows the state to provide loans to fund road work and other infrastructure financing of the professional stadiums. So not necessarily the Browns’ new home itself, but anything around that. know, 480, 71, all the roads in Brook Park. So that actually nearly failed by 50 to 49. Ferguson said he wanted to propose an entire repeal of the Browns’ package altogether.
but that parliamentary rules that he could not do that.
Chris Quinn (11:54.057)
There’s two things to kind of focus on here. One, we’ve been hearing for a long time and we’re supposed to get this any day. The state delays public records in an inexcusable way, but that there’s an analysis out there that says that the Browns revenue projections to pay back these loans are not accurate. And I wonder if the legislators have seen that, even though we haven’t, and have decided to try and get some cover. But the second thing you talked about where they’re trying to prohibit
infrastructure. We know that a stadium in Brook Park is going to turn the highways out there into an absolute nightmare anytime that stadium is used. Traffic already gets very backed up going into the airport on the holidays and big travel days. You add in all those people going to a stadium, you won’t get to the airport, you’re going to miss flights. No one has talked specifically about what they’re going to need in Brook Park to adjust for this.
but that could be another billion dollars when you start thinking about road costs. My bet is that the legislators are hearing from angry taxpayers, because we hear from them all the time. They’re dead set against spending money on stadiums. The Hasm’s are trying to say, look, you’re not spending any money. This is a loan. It’ll all get paid back and we’re covering it in case there are shortfalls. But this highway thing would be taxpayers paying for it.
Laura (12:57.144)
Hmm.
Chris Quinn (13:21.779)
I’m wondering when that shoe drops, right? Are the Haslam’s really going to come forward and say, well, you know, the roads are going to be jammed. You really should spend more money, public money to fix them. And this was so close. So they know something. They know this is out there. And, and wow, what a betrayal of the public trust. It’ll be if after all this debate about a $2.4 billion stadium, it turns out it’s a $3.4 billion stadium because of all the work that needs to be done.
Laura (13:34.039)
Right.
Chris Quinn (13:51.273)
to get those roads ready. Another argument for why this thing should be downtown because the infrastructure already exists. This is scary, but it’s also a good sign. People are furious and the legislators, the Republicans who cannot give enough to the Haslums are frightened of the ramifications.
Laura (13:55.917)
Right.
Laura (14:08.002)
Right.
I completely agree. It’s interesting and it’s rare to see discord among Republicans. We talk all the time. Their leaders say, spit spot and they’re in line. So to see them break away on this, especially with Matt Huffman pushing it is a good sign of breaking that they’re thinking and that people are calling their representatives and saying, I don’t want to spend my tax dollars on this.
in Cleveland. I maybe part of it is that it’s Cleveland and they don’t like Cleveland if you’re in a rural part of the state. I know it’s technically Brook Park, but we’re talking about Northeast Ohio and Cuyahoga County. So, yeah, I don’t know. It just feels like we’re finally waking up to this idea because we’ve been paying a whole lot of tax money for decades for these stadiums. I mean, whether you want to talk about the Guardians and their brand new seats or the escalators at Rocket.
What is it, Rocket Arena now? Like, we have paid for all of those things and we’re gonna keep paying. And I’m glad somebody’s finally standing up and saying, this is not how it should work.
Chris Quinn (15:13.429)
Well, it shows that Matt Huffman isn’t quite the power broker he thinks he is when that many of his members vote against him. I he thinks he’s king and he acts like it. This other also says more about Mike DeWine’s plan to tax the sports betting companies, because you could use that money for the infrastructure around stadiums. You could say any needs for a stadium will come out of that fund. And, you know, DeWine had said,
Laura (15:24.171)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (15:40.371)
will pay for 40 % of a stadium with this money, but they could change that. They could say, look, we’ll pay for 25 % of a stadium with this money and the other 15 % will dedicate to infrastructure. We’re gonna do some stories now looking at traffic counts and things around there. It will be terrible if this comes to another enormous taxpayer bailout for the infrastructure over there. And we haven’t seen any discussion of that. This is a sign, this is an omen.
that bad things are afoot and the taxpayers are about to get pounded by this terrible Haslam plan. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Dirt bikes have been big news in Cleveland and Columbus with riders taking over streets and intersections as police cracked down. They’re also at the center of a theft ring that was broken with indictments in Cuyahoga County. Fortunately, Lisa, these thefts don’t appear to involve violence. How did they work?
Lisa (16:37.751)
Yeah, four people were indicted on 94 counts in connection with a theft ring of motorcycles, dirt bikes, and ATVs. They operated in 2023 and 2024 across 10 states. So indicted are Cleveland residents, Donald Jordan, Jamal Mobley, and Janaya Henderson, and Glenn Grisby of Maple Heights. So they used Facebook Marketplace. And when you think of that, you think that you meet up with the, you know, the buyer and seller meet and then the, you know, the buyer steals from the seller.
right then and there. But what they did, they did use Facebook Marketplace. They would offer to buy the vehicles listed for sale, but they would pay with counterfeit money. So the buyer, the seller didn’t realize they were being duped until they tried to put the money in the bank or whatever. They would offer more than the asking price and then they would gain the seller’s confidence with several phone calls before the sale would take place. Assistant Cuyahoga prosecutor Ryan Bocock says, this is just one group and one time period.
This whole theft thing has been going on for several years. He says there are many Facebook marketplace accounts and many of them go unreported. He says, you know, unfortunately these are hard to trace because, you know, off-road vehicles like ATVs and dirt bikes are not registered like regular commuter cars. So they encourage people to file police reports if you’ve been ripped off in this way, even if the theft was months or years ago, because they’re trying to get a handle on this.
Chris Quinn (18:03.679)
I would love to get a look at the counterfeit money. It’s not easy to counterfeit cash these days. And I’m just a little bit surprised that it’s not resulting in federal charges because when you make fake money, it’s a federal crime. But man, they were successful a lot of times. It seems like a lot of people came, they got their bag of cash, they looked at it, were fooled by it, and then walked away and realized they just lost a lot of money. Interesting case. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.
Lisa (18:10.137)
Mm-hmm.
Lisa (18:25.185)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Quinn (18:33.373)
Our readers complained quite a bit about their inability to reach their Republican senators and members of Congress, but we don’t talk a lot about the Democrats. Chantel Brown, for example, has been quite active, public and available to constituents in dealing with the fallout of Donald Trump’s reckless governing. Lela, what did Amelia Sykes do this week to fight back against Trump?
Leila (18:55.647)
Well, Sykes, who represents Akron, teamed up with other Democrats on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee to demand some answers from NASA. They’re sounding the alarm about DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Elon Musk. And here’s the problem. Sykes and her colleagues say that Musk loyalists have been given deep access to NASA facilities and data without going through normal background checks.
Some of them even used to work for Musk’s companies like Tesla, raising serious conflict of interest concerns, especially since SpaceX, Musk’s other company, has billions in NASA contracts. Sykes signed onto a really tough letter this week, accusing NASA of ignoring security protocols and failing to be transparent about who’s inside their systems. She and other Democrats are pressing hard to get those answers and warning that the situation could put national security and America’s space program at risk.
It’s a pretty strong example of how Sykes is trying to hold government agencies accountable for the lingering influence of all of these decisions and making it clear that Congress, at least the Democrats, won’t back down when it comes to oversight.
Chris Quinn (20:05.513)
Well, I expect she’s going to face a tough challenge when she runs next year and having this kind of record might help her. The Democrats have zero power, so whatever they say is almost insignificant. But they are out there. They are trying to rally some support. And you got to give them credit because they know they don’t have any ability to change anything. And the only thing they have is the power of the megaphone.
Leila (20:14.417)
Right.
Lisa (20:32.889)
I’ve been very interested to see because you know when when Chantelle Brown ran for Congress she was running against Nina Turner as I recall and I felt like Chantelle was a lightweight but she really has gotten out there and she’s been at the forefront she’s been leading protests she’s been speaking loud I mean I’ve been really impressed with her.
Chris Quinn (20:50.995)
Yeah, she she’s been everywhere. again, she can’t get anything done. But the fact that she’s public and giving people a chance to vent because they’re so angry with John Hughes, they hate Bernie Moreno. The people send me the responses they get from these folks all the time. And they’re embarrassingly stupid. I mean, they just come back with with nonsense over and over again. And it infuriates the recipients. If you go to the trouble of
reaching out by letter or email or however to a congressperson and you get a pat on the head. It’s just you never forget that this person was completely unresponsive and even Democrats respected Rob Portman, a Republican, because he always had a substantive response whether they agreed with it or not. But these guys, they don’t care. He used to actually send out a release this week saying he’s been busy
talking to constituents, which is baloney. People are furious they cannot reach this guy.
Leila (21:54.961)
I...
Lisa (21:55.009)
And isn’t it interesting that the women that are making the most noise are black women, Jasmine Crockett in Texas, Chantelle Brown, Amelia Sykes. I just find that a very interesting trend.
Chris Quinn (22:05.353)
Look, their day will come. The pendulum is going to swing. The midterms are going to be ugly for the Republicans. And whatever whatever groundwork they can lay for that now makes sense. Donald Trump’s completely out of control. Look, this thing with the tariffs looks to me like it’s just profiteering. He even put out a message yesterday before he changed the tariffs, saying bye. Almost as an alert to wealthy people that he’s playing with the market.
Leila (22:05.534)
I think.
Chris Quinn (22:32.317)
And eventually we’re going to find out there are people that got very rich because of betting on what Donald Trump is doing.
Leila (22:39.977)
Well, and if Democrats in the meantime are disempowered in Congress, I think the next thing that they should be turning their attention to is to corral the dissent among citizens. That should be their most important mission right now, is to find a way to funnel all of that energy into massive protests and action from the grassroots up.
Chris Quinn (23:08.733)
We need the million person march on Washington because that’s the kind of thing that is significant. And maybe they can organize that. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. How significant is the University of Akron’s sale of the downtown Quaker Square complex, Laura?
Leila (23:14.111)
All
Laura (23:26.252)
Well, so I have so many memories that flooded back when I read this story because it has been there forever. It used to be the Quaker Oats Company actual silos that they kept the oats in. And so it’s an Akron landmark that’s presiding over the city for years. I went, sang at the church children’s choir there. had my, I shadowed a Beacon Journal reporter when I was 15 and we had lunch there.
And when Akron, you bought this complex in 2007, I was covering it. So anyway, the university just sold the building for $800,000 to Ohio River Investments, LLC, which is not a whole lot of money when you think about it, what they paid for it, which was $23 million in 2007. But apparently it needs $57 million worth of work in maintenance that they just put off. So they’re saying this is a positive step forward that they’re
Going to align their real estate footprint with their student body and erase this ongoing cost of keeping up a historic building it used to be a hilton in downtown.
Chris Quinn (24:33.191)
figured you’d remember it. That’s why I asked you the question. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. With people thinking a lot about inflation, we have a story about deals from police. Lisa, where can you get some pretty good prices on some pretty good stuff courtesy of detective work?
Lisa (24:50.455)
Yeah, this is an online auction site. It’s called GovDeals and this is where police departments get rid of like unclaimed or forfeited evidence, office supplies that they don’t use and other kind of stuff. So we talked with Detective Scott Gorski of the Lindhurst Police Department. He handles the auction items for them. He says it’s really not to make big money for Lindhurst PD, but to keep stuff out of the trash.
They made $4,200 selling about 65 items since 2016. Right now they have some interesting stuff going on and bidding is ongoing until April 17th. They have a PlayStation 4, some Nike Supreme Air Force One shoes that are current bidding is at $10. Apparently these shoes were delivered to a former shoe store and the new owners turned them in and the recipient never responded. So up on the site it went. They also have a gun safe and a whole bunch of other stuff.
ODNR sold that bass boat that was used by the Walleye Tournament Cheaters, Chase Kaminsky and Jacob Runyon. They sold that for $74,500. It was valued at $130,000. Brooklyn sold a 2015 Side Loader garbage truck on GovDeal. So you can find all kinds of stuff on this site.
Chris Quinn (26:03.079)
It’s a cool story from Caitlin Durbin. You’ll find it on cleveland.com and you’re listening to Today in Ohio. There is a light news day yesterday, Leila. So you get this one. Who is the first professional athlete and Northeast Ohio native to be turned into a Ken doll in Barbie land?
Leila (26:20.641)
man, it’s my guy, LeBron James. LeBron just became the first pro athlete ever turned into a Ken doll. Mattel teamed up with the LeBron James Family Foundation to create this doll, celebrating LeBron’s impact on culture, style, and community. LeBron’s Ken, he’s not your basic beach-ready guy. He’s taller than the standard Ken. He’s dressed head to toe in an outfit that LeBron helped design himself. And we’re talking a custom.
varsity jacket, Nike sneakers, Beats headphones, and even a fanny pack. Plus there are special nods to Northeast Ohio like an I Promise bracelet and patches for Ohio and his famous number 23 insignia. LeBron said he was lucky to have role models growing up and now he wants to be that positive figure for the next generation. So this doll goes on sale April 14th. It’s 75.
and you’ll be able to find it at Target Walmart and online. my God, I’m already clearing the shelf for it. I told my husband, I was like, guess what? I’m going to buy this LeBron James Ken doll. And he’s just like, okay.
Chris Quinn (27:19.602)
and you’ll be getting one.
Chris Quinn (27:33.383)
Hehehehe
Laura (27:33.486)
mean, Leila and I were looking at this in the newsroom yesterday. I was like, that a photo of the doll or is that LeBron? Like, I mean, it’s pretty small, the likeness is pretty good.
Leila (27:41.151)
The likeness is so good. It’s excellent. Well done, Mattel.
Chris Quinn (27:48.085)
Okay, like I said, light Newsday and that’s it for the Thursday episode. Thanks, Laura. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Leila. Thank you for being with us on Today in Ohio. We’ll return on Friday to wrap up the week of news. Hopefully we’ll have some.