Is Cleveland picking a fight with Brook Park over the airport, or is this about the Browns stadium? Today in Ohio (2024)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The city of Cleveland announced Wednesday that it will soon start deposing Brook Park residents as part of a seven-year-old lawsuit, stemming from a decades-old dispute between the two cities. But what really motivated the city to send out a news release about this case now -- when City Hall is usually so tight-lipped about pending litigation?

We’re talking about the possibility that beneath it all is the simmering tension over the future home of Browns Stadium, on Today in Ohio.

Listen online here.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin, impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.

You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.

You can now join the conversation. Call 833-648-6329 (833-OHTODAY) if you’d like to leave a message we can play on the podcast.

Here’s what else we’re asking about today:

Mike DeWine had some strong words for Ohio drivers during this orange barrel season. What were they?

Plenty of people lined up Wednesday to testify about a drag story hour bill in the Ohio Legislature. What is the bill about, and what was the testimony?

Twenty years later, Cleveland and Brook Park are still fighting about land for an airport expansion that stopped being a possibility long ago. What’s the latest, and is there a subtext here that might have to do with a professional football team?

The Ohio House has passed very little legislation in the current session, but a House committee was unanimous on one measure this week. What is it?

Mike DeWine banned a bunch of synthetic drugs that have shown up in the state. What are they, and why does it take an order by DeWine to deal with them?

Anyone driving around Tremont can see the sad site – the dismantling of a historic church dome made famous in the movie The Deer Hunter. What’s happening?

Is Cleveland getting any better when it comes to dogs biting mail carriers? What’s the latest ranking, and why is Cleveland always among the worst for this?

Is it official? Will the people of East Palestine have to pay taxes on whatever money they receive as compensation in the big train wreck last year?

Let’s talk about scary spiders. Everywhere you looked this week, you read about the Joro spider, which really is the stuff of nightmares. Huge. Garish appearance. It flies. And it’s venomous but not deadly. Why are we talking about them?

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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.

Chris (00:01.841)

And the regular gang is back for a Thursday episode of Today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland .com and the Plane Dealer. I’m Chris Quinn. I’m here with Lara Johnston, Leila Tassi and Lisa Garvin. And Lara, you will start. Mike DeWine had some strong words for Ohio drivers during this orange barrel season. What were they?

laura (00:24.661)

He’s ordered state troopers to increase the enforcement of speed limits and other traffic safety laws in the work zones on highways. He wants to deter unsafe driving that could lead to deadly crashes. And he wants to make sure that people are paying attention. So they’re focusing on speeding, impaired driving, distracted driving, and reckless driving. They started Memorial Day weekend in 10 construction work zones around the state. That includes I -90 in Cuyahoga County, I -77 in Summit County.

And the troopers who have federal funds to work overtime, they’re supposed to spend more time patrolling those just construction zones with cruisers, motorcycles, and helicopters. This is the part of the podcast where I mentioned I did get a speeding ticket on Memorial Day weekend on I -71, but it was not in a construction zone. So they’re publicizing this because they want people to be aware of it. It’s not like they’re trying to just get more money for the state. They are trying to slow people down because...

Since 2019, there have been 26 ‚000 crashes in road work zones and causing 99 deaths, nine of whom were road workers and more than 9 ,000 injuries. That’s five years. That’s a lot of people killed.

Chris (01:33.393)

There’s a couple of things about this that are worth talking about. One is that construction zones by their very nature are kind of dangerous. You’re narrowing lanes, you’re reducing the number of traffic lanes, and it’s not really set up for speed traps and things. There’s not very easy places for troopers to be to pull out. It’s not like when the highway is in its normal shape and they have those divides that they can sit in and get people.

laura (01:41.141)

Mm -hmm.

Chris (02:02.769)

It’s just a little worrisome that it it creates an extra level of danger for the troopers as well as For the motorists driving through those zones I I hope that they’ve built in a good bit of safety into this because people do drive like imbeciles in construction zones the second thing though is a Lot of times you drive through a construction zone There’s there’s miles of the barrels and no work being done and I’ve always wondered why we don’t adopt

laura (02:29.461)

Mm -hmm.

Chris (02:32.145)

what they have in our neighboring state of Michigan, where the speed limit in the construction zone is set for when the workers are present. So if you’re in a six mile construction zone and they’re only working in one area, it’s very effective. People all slow down to about 40, 45 miles an hour to protect those workers. But for the rest of the zone, they’re able to go at a different speed.

laura (02:42.165)

Mm -hmm.

Chris (02:58.769)

I think people get very annoyed in long, long construction zones where nobody’s doing any work. And that does seem to be the way it works in Ohio.

laura (03:07.605)

Well, I think there’s two, I mean, the two things that you brought up. They’re using helicopters. So my guess is in those really tight squeezes where you have the concrete barriers on either side and you barely have enough room to drive, they’re not going to pull you over in there. They’re going to use the helicopter to get your speed. And then once you get out of it, they’re going to have a bunch of cops in cars and motorcycles pulling people over left and right saying, we got you back there. That’s my guess. As for the other one, I totally understand what you’re saying. I would prefer that situation too.

Lisa (03:22.622)

And once you get out of it, they’re going to have a bunch of cops in part of the motorcycle pull over, left and right, saying, got you back there. That’s my guess. As for the other one, I totally understand what you’re saying. I would prefer that situation, too. My guess is they keep it at 60, which is usually, would it be more of a speed limit in either case anyway, or whatever they set it at, because you are already driving through a narrower.

laura (03:35.637)

My guess is they keep it at 60, which is usually the normal speed limit in Kuygo County anyway, or whatever they set it at, because you are already driving through a narrower area than you normally would be. Or sometimes you jog lanes and you’re actually driving on the other side of the highway. And because there’s less room, they just want you to go slower.

Chris (03:57.489)

Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. Plenty of people have lined up either in email or in person to testify about a drag story hour bill in the Ohio legislature. What is the bill about, Lisa? And what was the testimony?

Lisa (04:13.854)

It’s House Bill 245, which creates a new crime called unlawful adult cabaret performance in front of children. The proposed penalty range is from a first degree misdemeanor to a fourth or fifth degree felony, depending on the circ*mstances. The second hearing was yesterday in the House Justice Committee, and probably one more hearing will be held before it goes to the House floor. So ahead of this, the committee...

received 44 letters supporting this bill. And then four of them who were proponents also addressed the committee yesterday. Bill sponsor Angie King, the Republican from Selena, Ohio says it protects city councils from lawsuits if they cancel drag events in city parks. And that’s, I’m sorry, that’s what her brother -in -law, Pastor Jason King said when he testified yesterday.

He said that at one event in Selena, vendors had items depicting male genitalia that children saw and maybe touched or purchases, and that he also saw a preteen carrying a vulgar Trump sign. There’s a similar law in Tennessee banning drag shows for minors that ruled, it was ruled unconstitutional in a First Amendment violation by two federal judges. So that law is on hold right now.

Republican Richard Brown, a Democrat from Columbus says the city’s park rules already prohibit indecent language, obscenity and nudity. Why didn’t they enforce those violations or make any arrests? Is this law really necessary?

Chris (05:42.801)

It’s not necessary. It’s just more of the dog whistling that goes on in Columbus, especially in an election year. This is kind of silly that we’re going through all this. The law is clearly not necessary. They come up with some anecdotal evidence to say, my gosh, this is happening. We have to stop it when that is not largely what happens at these shows. It’s just sad that our elected leaders get swallowed up in this kind of hyperbole.

Lisa (06:09.918)

Well, and I think they’re conflating two different things. So Mr. King, Pastor King testified about a pride event in a local public park. He wasn’t talking about drag queen story hours. They’re not gonna be obscene in front of children with a story hour. You know what I mean? It seems like they’re trying to make it, paint it all with the same broad brutch when they are not the same.

Chris (06:26.609)

Right.

Chris (06:32.177)

Right. It’s election year posturing instead of thinking about the greater good and it likely would be held unconstitutional, although I don’t know. And it would have to go to federal court because you can’t count on our Supreme Court in Ohio to do the right thing almost ever. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. All right, this is a very weird one. 20 years later, Cleveland and Brook Park are still fighting about land for an airport expansion that stopped being a possibility long ago. How long ago?

I was covering City Hall and that was going on. What’s the latest and is there a subtext here that just might have to do with a professional football team?

Leila (07:01.374)

Hahaha

Leila (07:08.91)

I think there might be. I mean, Chris, to borrow one of your favorite phrases, which also happens to be a football analogy, Courtney Astolfi threw the flag on this news release that the city blasted out yesterday. This news release is announcing a really procedural turn of the screw kind of development in an ongoing case that it just seems so out of character for the city to send something out like this, absent any ulterior motive. And we had to ask the questions. The announcement was that.

Chris (07:18.033)

Hehehe

Leila (07:36.846)

The city is going to soon start deposing Brook Park residents whose properties are involved in this old ongoing lawsuit. At the heart of this lawsuit is an agreement between Cleveland and Brook Park that was forged back in 2001 to resolve two issues from the nineties when the two cities were battling over Brook Park’s efforts to buy the IEX Center and Cleveland’s efforts to pave a third runway at Hopkins through a Brook Park neighborhood. They, they,

was eminent domain discussions and things like that. The terms of the agreement that they finally settled on allowed Cleveland to buy up to 300 properties without using eminent domain. And Brook Park then agreed to drop its efforts to buy the IEX Center. Cleveland did tear down most of the houses, but about 70 remained when the city decided to bag its runway plan. So now Brook Park says those homeowners’ property values have been decimated because

There are vacant lots everywhere. Brook Park says that the city has to make good, the city of Cleveland that is, on their promise to offer to buy those residents out of their homes. That lawsuit has been in progress for seven years. A common please judge recently granted Cleveland’s request for summary judgment, but then late last year that was overturned on appeal and now it’s headed for trial. So that brings us up to the present moment where kind of out of the blue, the city announces that Brook Park residents can expect to be deposed soon.

And in this news release, Cleveland also painted Brook Park as seeking to enforce legal documents that could force the city of Cleveland to buy property, private homes in Brook Park against the homeowners wishes, which Brook Park says is not true. Brook Park is just saying Cleveland is legally bound to offer to buy the properties and homeowners are not required to accept those offers. They can say no. So what is this announcement really about? Could it be that...

The motivation in sending this news release had nothing at all to do with the lawsuit, but rather is a form of gamesmanship in this drama over whether the Browns are going to stay in Cleveland or move to Brook Park. Could the city have announced the deposition of Brook Park residents just to stick a finger in the suburbs eye? I mean, a couple of weeks especially after Brook Park City Council passed a resolution encouraging the Browns to move there. So I’m not sure, you know,

Chris (09:53.585)

Well...

Chris (09:59.313)

Right, right.

Leila (10:02.894)

I’m sure this is just Cleveland City Hall kindly giving a heads up to a couple hundred suburban homeowners by blasting it out to the entire world.

Chris (10:12.401)

Well, the other thing you should be aware of Cleveland should be careful of having a battle with Brook Park because in the past, Brook Park has picked their pocket that I X center deal you talked about the way that was settled. This is hilarious. Cleveland got the I X center and Brook Park got the NASA Lewis research center that that or the NASA Glenn research center that used to be in Cleveland. All the taxes from it came to Cleveland.

And in that negotiation, NASA goes to Brook Park and we get a big empty building where they have home and garden shows. It was one of the dumbest deals you’ve ever heard of. And it’s been great. Yeah. I mean, it was great for Brook. It was great for Brook Park, but what was Cleveland thinking? The other thing that throws me about this is, look, they had a plan to build another runway because back then that’s what the vision was and they abandoned it.

Leila (10:50.126)

and the IEX amusem*nt park, don’t forget. Now we’ll have that jingle in our heads all day.

Chris (11:08.881)

Ultimately, though, you may want that land for a runway. The airport is completely locked in. If you have an ability to get these 70 properties to build in that that capacity for the future, why wouldn’t you? Because if you don’t get it, if something else were to happen to it and you did need to expand, you won’t be able to get the land. There’s no way you can expand around there any other way. So why not?

just buy the 70 properties, put that in the bank and have it there in case air travel changes in such a way where you need the land.

Leila (11:44.302)

I mean, is it guaranteed that all 70 are going to sell their homes? Not, I don’t think it is. I think that’s, so then what? Then you have to go to eminent domain for nothing. And you actually, I don’t think you can do eminent domain until you actually have a project, right? Like, I don’t know.

Chris (11:50.513)

Yeah, but you get a bunch of them. Look, we...

Chris (11:58.833)

Right. They won’t be able, but, but, but say you could get 50 of them. I mean, you know, look at the way the Haslums assembled that land around their training facility in Berea. It took them four years. They bought parcel by parcel by parcel, and now they’ve assembled this massive track that they can do some cool things with. Why wouldn’t you do that with the airport? Because it’s not like you can do anything else. This is, this is valuable land only for the airport. I don’t know why they’re fighting it so hard.

But this does seem very petty. They never talk about ongoing lawsuits, ever. And they put out a press release. So, good for Courtney.

Leila (12:30.894)

Mm -hmm, ever. They always know comment ongoing litigation. This was so unusual. And they just kind of played it off as like, this is a public service announcement.

Chris (12:43.761)

They blinked. They blinked. They’re showing their cards to Brook Park. This is a mistake. Brook Park picks their pocket. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. The Ohio House has passed very little legislation in the current session, but a House committee was unanimous on one measure this week. Laura, what is it?

Leila (12:51.022)

Yeah.

laura (13:04.053)

This is a resolution and we all know how much impact those end up having, absolutely zero. But this blames China for implementing economic policies that encourage the production of fentanyl. And we all know that that’s this very potent synthetic opioid that is hugely dangerous. It’s present in four out of five fatal overdoses in Ohio in the last year. So this has to go to the House, full House for a vote and then would go to the Senate.

But it doesn’t go to the governor because this is not a law. It’s a resolution. They just say, we, the members of the 135th General Assembly of the state of Ohio, condemn the People’s Republic of China campaign of attempting to destabilize and divide the United States and the broader region through its tolerance and facilitation of the global drug trade.

Chris (13:50.897)

What’s the point? Why do this?

laura (13:55.317)

I mean, I guess they’re making a statement that they’re against drugs and at least they’re blaming China for this and not talking about border issues. I mean, it is a big problem in Ohio. In 2022, nearly 5 ‚000 Ohioans fatally overdosed on drugs. That was a little bit down from the year before, but the vast majority of these are involved fentanyl. It’s dangerous. I just don’t think that their resolution is...

Chris (14:21.617)

matters.

laura (14:21.941)

there. Yeah, I mean, if you want to do a public awareness campaign, that’s one thing. But I mean, we’re talking about it. I don’t know that people who, you know, I don’t know this is going to trickle down.

Chris (14:32.337)

You know, listening to Today in Ohio. Well, you could do what they’re doing, which is meaningless, or you could do it like DeWine did, which is concrete. He banned a bunch of synthetic drugs that have shown up in the state, Leila. What are they and why does it take an order by DeWine to deal with them?

Leila (14:46.126)

These are nine synthetic opioids that state officials say are more potent than fentanyl. They’re called nitazines. And shortly after Dewine issued this executive order banning them, the state pharmacy board added them to the state’s list of illegal drugs, meaning they’ll be treated just like heroin, fentanyl, and other illegal opioids. Dewine did this initially back in 2022 for seven chemically similar substances. But since then, black market chemists have gotten

really innovative and have come out with different formulations of these things. The Pharmacy Board works with the state, Ohio Narcotics Intelligence Center and other agencies to identify emerging drugs and then they update the state criminal law accordingly. Apparently, nitazines were developed in the 50s as a potential alternative to morphine, but they were never brought to market because they’re so dangerous. Today, they aren’t authorized for medical use anywhere in the world. There’s one variation called proto -nitazine.

which is at least three times more potent than fentanyl. But they’re popping up as a factor in overdose deaths in Ohio. In 2020, there were three nitazine -related deaths. That number grew to 77 in 2023. They sometimes are combined with other illicit drugs, including other types of opioids.

Chris (16:05.073)

Is there any idea where it’s coming from? Is it coming from China?

Leila (16:08.974)

I don’t know. I mean, it seems like the black market is pretty robust. I was interested to hear about black market chemists who are these evil geniuses out there. My gosh. Luckily, naloxone is effective against nitazines. Naloxone is that life -saving drug that reverses opioid overdose. But in the case of these particular drugs, it may take more than one dose is what they say.

Chris (16:20.689)

Yeah.

Chris (16:35.121)

Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. Anyone driving around Tremont can see the sad sight, the dismantling of a historic church dome made famous in the movie, The Deer Hunter. Lisa, you get this question because aside from me, you’re the only other person on this podcast who was alive when The Deer Hunter was released, believe it or not. What’s happening with the church?

Lisa (16:52.542)

Wow, that’s kind of scary. Yeah, that movie came out in 1978, for crying out loud. But yeah, and I actually took a beautiful photo of St. Theodosius domes a couple years ago, and I actually put it up on my Facebook page after the fire. But the main dome on the 113 -year -old St. Theodosius Orthodox Church is

slowly being dismantled by construction workers after that roof fire last week. They say it’s structurally compromised. They were worried that it might topple over, so they’re taking it down. There’s at least a million dollars in damage done to the church. I mean, the roof was mostly affected, but if you’ve seen pictures of the interior of the church, all that water they put on the roof went down into the church. So the Dean of St. Theodosius, Father Jan Czizmar says, we’re gonna fix it. We’re gonna save our home in place of worship.

and he doesn’t blame the roofers who accidentally caused the fire. He says more work will be needed to stabilize both the rest of the roof and the church. And if the repairs aren’t complete by Sunday, they’ll have to have a temporary place of worship. He said that seeing the main dome dismantled is like partially taking away our legacy. It is the oldest Cleveland Orthodox Church. And for anyone who doesn’t know that the main dome represents Jesus.

And then there are 12 other domes that represent the 12 apostles. And I really couldn’t get a picture. I could only get like six of them in my photograph. So as you said, this was the scene of the wedding scene in the movie, The Deer Hunter. And fun fact, the reception scene, which went on for a really long time in the movie, was filmed just about a half mile away in Lemco Hall, which was built about the same time as St. Theodosius. There is a GoFundMe campaign that was started by Father Sismar.

if you want to help and I’m wondering if they should reach out to deer hunter stars like John Savage, Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep. I wonder if they’d be willing to help.

Chris (18:45.649)

It’s been such a landmark every time you drive down 490 heading west, it’s just it looms so big. So to see the skeleton wood frame that’s emerged as they’ve taken off what I think is copper, it’s sad. It’s just it’s it feels like you’re losing a serious piece of the Cleveland area. I hope they do rebuild it. That’s going to be expensive. It’s it’s so similar in so many ways to what happened at Notre Dame.

where the roofers started a fire that took down the whole roof.

Lisa (19:18.622)

And Father Sismar says they’re gonna need artisans who know 113 -year -old construction methods to fix this. And yes, it will be expensive and insurance is not gonna cover it.

Chris (19:30.225)

You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Is Cleveland getting any better when it comes to dogs biting mail carriers? Laura, what’s the latest ranking? Why is Cleveland always so bad at this?

laura (19:40.469)

I have no idea why we are so high on this list. We’re fifth this year, slightly better than fourth last year, but this is the annual Dog Bite National Rankings. And this is actually based on reported dog bites. So we can’t just say, you know, they did some kind of random survey. This is, they’re adding them up. And we had 44 reported dog attacks against postal workers in 2023. And that’s just one more than 2022.

We were actually the worst in the nation in 2021. The post office says, has tips for this. You keep your dogs behind a fence, on a leash, or in the house away from a door. It says, don’t have kids take mail directly from the postal worker because dogs might see them as a threat. But I don’t really understand who’s just letting their dogs run around their yards and these poor postal workers who walk in my neighborhood anyway, door to door. Why?

They’re getting attacked like their job is hard enough.

Chris (20:41.905)

What is it about Cleveland? There’s lots of cities like Cleveland that have neighborhoods like Cleveland. What is it about Cleveland that has the vicious dogs attacking postal workers? Nobody’s been able to answer it. People have posited theories about the way the neighborhoods are designed, but it all sounds like nonsense to me. I just don’t understand why we are so bad at this.

laura (21:04.661)

I completely agree with you, but apparently it’s statewide because Cincinnati was eighth and Columbus was 10th in the nation for this. So overall, Ohio is third worst when you look at states. It just seems like common sense to me. Like your dog should not be running around able to bite a mail carrier. That should not be happening.

Chris (21:25.969)

I guess that Midwestern gentility does not translate to our canine friends.

laura (21:31.605)

Well, just to remind people, insurance claims for dog bites cost an average of $65 ‚000. And if a carrier feels unsafe delivering to your house, they can stop delivering and you’ll have to get a PO box.

Chris (21:44.945)

You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Is it official, Lisa, will the people of East Palestine have to pay taxes on whatever money they receive as compensation in the big train wreck from last year?

Lisa (21:56.958)

In most cases, they will not. The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department say that most payments to victims of that February 2023 train wreck and chemical spill to be categorized as disaster relief, which would make it exempt for most taxes. Senator Sherrod Brown made that request. The exemptions include inconvenience payments for Norfolk Southern Railroad and reimbursem*nts for relocation, medical expenses, home repairs, and replacing things like clothes and

clothing and household items. Not exempt are payments to businesses, lost wages and payments to property owners to give access to their property for cleanup. If you have already filed a 2023 tax return and reported the disaster relief money as taxable, you can file an amended return and claim a refund of those taxes paid using form 1040X. If you have not filed your taxes yet, you don’t need to report qualified disaster relief payments.

even if you get a 1099 miscellaneous form, taxable payments will continue to be required to be reported.

Chris (23:03.345)

Okay, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. All right, let’s talk about scary spiders. Layla, you were sending me information on this the other night. I don’t know if I could even sleep. Everywhere you look this week, you read about the Juro spider, which is really the stuff of nightmares. It’s gigantic, it’s garish, it flies, and it’s venomous. Why are we talking about them?

Leila (23:21.386)

I’m sorry, Chris, I forgot that you have this touch of arachnophobia and I’m sorry if I gave you nightmares with this, but I started seeing these stories pop up all of a sudden this week predicting that these monsters were headed to the East Coast. And then I saw that Ohio was on the list of states where they could show up soon. So this is the Joro spider, this invasive species from Asia that scientists believe somehow arrived in the Southern U .S. from Japan in 2021, likely on a

Chris (23:29.617)

Yeah.

Leila (23:50.926)

cargo ship or hitchhiked on a traveler or something. I’ve read some accounts that say that they’ve been in Georgia since 2013, but I think 2021 is the year we’ve settled on. The spider is well established in the South, but now they’re saying it could make its way up as far north as New Jersey by the end of the summer. I saw a map showing that they’ve been spotted in Maryland and West Virginia, and that is too close for comfort for me. And the description of this thing is absolutely terrifying in just about every way.

Females have a leg span of up to four inches, which is the size of the palm of an adult hand. And they have these vibrant yellow and gray bodies that are, and then it doesn’t have wings, but it sails through the air by a technique known as ballooning. The spider releases several silk threads into the air to kind of form the silk balloon, which carries it through the wind. Joro hatchlings,

emerge in the spring and early summer. And those spiders ride the winds using their silk, kind of like that scene in Charlotte’s Web when the little spiders are hatching and they fly off. And most web spiders do some form of this, but the Joro spider drops into the wind from a more elevated location, which means its silk can get pretty long and the winds can carry it 100 miles or more, which I think is why they expect the spread. And it’s venomous.

Though as you said Chris, it’s not deadly to humans. The venom just causes discomfort. I’ve read that a Joro spider bite feels similar to a bee sting. So that’s what we’re up against. We didn’t get the murder hornets that were predicted several years ago. So I guess we’re up next for Joro spiders.

Chris (25:35.313)

This ticks all the boxes for terrifying spiders. The whole way it looks, its big long legs that almost glow in the dark, gigantic body. Now, if I, this showed up in my house, I told you I’d have to burn the house down and move to Canada because I can’t handle this at all. They’re huge. When I lived in Florida, there were big spiders in the garage that would run like mice across the floor. And it was, they were bad. This is so much worse.

Leila (25:50.094)

Yes. You know, yeah.

Leila (25:59.246)

Leila (26:02.638)

Really? What kind of spiders were those, did you know? Or just all the insects were huge down in Florida?

Chris (26:05.809)

I don’t know, terrifying spiders. We had a rule in my house that if a spider needed to be dealt with, my wife had to deal with it. I just wasn’t dealing with big spiders.

Leila (26:12.11)

I have, I have, go ahead, Lisa.

Lisa (26:14.878)

I know, and I was just gonna say in Texas, they had them in Texas when I was living there. And when you were walking paths in the forest, you had to be careful, because they would build their web. Their webs are so big, it would go across the path. So sometimes, you know, if you weren’t paying attention or the light wasn’t right, you’d walk right into their web. Ooh, it was creepy.

Leila (26:26.19)

Chris (26:32.209)

this is the Juro?

Leila (26:33.966)

my gosh, I saw a video. There was a video of a guy who was out four wheeling and he at the end was picking these things off of him. There were like 10 of them and he was like, I better keep my mouth closed while I’m headed through the bush like that. I just, it’s absolutely disgusting. But I’ve read that Ohio might actually be a decent climate for these things. Research shows that Jorgo spiders can withstand freezing conditions way better than other species.

Lisa (26:36.254)

Yeah.

Chris (26:47.985)

my god.

Leila (27:00.302)

They have a higher metabolism and a heart rate that lets them withstand these chilly climates that we have and that is helping them spread to colder regions. Another fun fact about these spiders is that their diet consists mostly of small insects, but they have also been known to eat tadpoles, frogs, and lizards, which to me suggests that these things have pretty big jaws.

Lisa (27:25.054)

Hmm.

Chris (27:26.353)

This terrifying, I don’t want to talk about it anymore. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. That’s it for the Thursday episode. Thanks, Laura. Thanks, Leila. Thanks, Lisa. We’ll be back Friday, wrapping up a week of news.