CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The campaign working to pass State Issue 1 summoned a group of high-end Columbus lobbyists and told they plan to avoid directly describing how the measure’s passage likely would tank an expected abortion-rights ballot issue in November.
We’re talking about the money funneling into the campaign to make it harder to change the Ohio constitution on Today in Ohio.
Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with impact editor Leila Atassi, editorial board member Lisa Garvin 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.
Here’s what we’re asking about today:
We mentioned this was coming Thursday, and come it did. What was in all that inside scoop that Andrew Tobias, our chief political writer, got about the strategy for people trying to pass Issue 1 on the August ballot. This is, of course, the initiative to weaken the power of the voter.
Here’s a thunderclap on the political scene. What is former Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, who resigned under a cloud, arguing in a new court filing about the dastardly deeds of his successor, the very corrupt Larry Householder.
How did Ohio’s senators vote on the issue that is crushing to a whole lot of people under 50, the forgiveness of student debt?
Lots of leaders talk about regional cooperation being key to Northeast Ohio’s prosperity, but we can’t even make our public transit systems cooperate. Or, at least, we couldn’t in the past. But starting Monday, people will be able to ride back and forth between two counties. Which ones, and how will it work?
Just when Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is throwing in the towel on Ohio’s reading educational philosophy for an overhaul, we get a study that says maybe what we are doing works. Even more surprising, it might be the gimmicky Third Grade Reading Guarantee that is the thing that is working. What does the study say?
We’re not complaining, because sunny and 80 is glorious weather, but it has been a while since we had any rain fall in Northeast Ohio, and there’s none in sight. How rare is that, and how might it be affecting all the gardeners and farmers who have just planted fragile seedlings?
We launch another new column this weekend, this one about financial health. It’s got a great back story, Leila, what is it?
Some rock music purists complained when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame started inducting Hip Hop acts, but most have come to see the value of celebrating the evolution of popular music over the decades. Now, though, Hip Hop is getting a huge presence in the Rock Hall. What’s happening?
All right. We talked about how hot it has been. Let’s end the podcast today with something fun tied to the heat. Sean McDonnell, who writes a column intended to help save you money, tried out a popular hack for turning your third-rate food cooler into a Yeti-clone. What did he do, and did it work?
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Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.
[00:00:00] Chris: It’s tough when you’re having weather, like we’ve had the past few weeks to talk about it in any kind of negative term, but the lack of rain is presenting some worries for farmers. We’re enjoying the glorious weather, but it is ominous. It’s today an Ohio. The news podcast. Discussion from cleveland.com and the plane dealer.
I’m Chris Quinn here on a Friday with Lisa Garvin, Laura Johnston and Layla Tasi, and we got good stuff to talk about today. We mentioned this was coming Thursday and come. It did. What was in all that inside Scoop that Andrew Tobias, our chief political writer, got about the strategy for the people trying to pass issue one on the August ballot.
This is of course, the initiative to weaken the power of the voter. Well, the backers
[00:00:48] Leila: of Issue one summon this group of Columbus lobbyists to talk strategy around getting this passed in the August special election, and some who attended, told Andrew Tobias [00:01:00] that the upshot of the strategy that came out of this is, Is to stick to the talking points around protecting the Constitution from special interests.
That’s the concept that they hope most Republicans can rally around, and they want the messaging to avoid reminding people at all. About the 60% super majority that would be required in the future to pass a constitutional amendment. And they very much want to avoid reminding voters that this is all part of the long game to make sure the reproductive Rights Amendment doesn’t pass in November.
They’re worried that those two things, the super majority and the anti-abortion plot, Might be too divisive even for Republicans. So they wanna de-emphasize those facts and spin their base instead on this garbage about how subverting democracy somehow equates to protecting it from special interests.
Specifically as it relates to abortion. The strategy is that the formal Yes. On issue one campaign. We’ll avoid talking about it altogether, but [00:02:00] that two major sets of social conservative factions within the YES coalition groups, supposing abortion and groups supporting gun rights, will handle mobilizing their own members on those issues that matter to them.
The internal polling tells ‘em they’ve got 50% support for issue one right now. Oh God, this is so scary to think about, but they noted that the support is pretty tepid while the opposition is really intense.
[00:02:26] Chris: So this initiative, which was born in SLS and hypocrisy, it’s put on the August ballot, even though they’ve outlawed August elections because nobody votes, they intentionally put it on the August ballot because nobody votes, and they’re hoping to sneak it through.
Now the strategy is let’s mislead all the voters and not tell ‘em what the purpose is. We’re not gonna tell ‘em that this would require 60%, that 40% of Ohioans would dick. Life to the other 60%. We’re not gonna tell ‘em this is about abortion. We’re trying to keep it illegal in [00:03:00] Ohio, even though the majority of Ohioans want it.
We’re gonna claim this phony baloney issue that we’re protecting the constitution for special interests when what we’re really doing is protecting it against the voters. We don’t want the voters reviewing what the legislature does and passing their own rules. This is the most sinister plot in the history of Ohio.
Involving voters. I just, it’s amazing. We keep going down this
[00:03:26] Leila: path. I agree. I was sort of surprised, and maybe I shouldn’t be, but I was surprised that the strategy would involve not discussing the abortion piece because I
[00:03:37] Laura: would’ve assumed that.
[00:03:39] Leila: A lot of Republicans would, would be more likely to support issue one if they tied it to that November ballot issue.
Don’t, am I wrong? Yeah, but the
[00:03:49] Chris: majority of Ohioans don’t want that. And in every state where abortion has been on the ballot since the DOD decision, the. The abortion rights wins. So they [00:04:00] know that if this becomes a referendum on abortion, they’re gonna lose if and, and if they’re honest in explaining to people, we’re spiking majority rule and depriving you of any ability now to keep a check on our runaway gerrymandered legislature, it would fail.
So we’re not gonna tell you that either. The distressing thing in this story is. The, these guys are well organized. They think they’ll have six, six and a half million dollars. I mean, this was a shakedown, a lobbyist, Matt Huffman, senate president called these guys by invitation only and then said, we’ll be calling you.
We expect you to pony up the money. Of course, that means it’s quid pro quo. The legislature will give the lobbyists whatever they want, like they always do. Mm-hmm. Meanwhile, The antis are not set up. They’re these, these folks are hoping they can get this stupid message out about protecting the constitution into the atmosphere before the other people even ramp up.
What’s amazing is we only have eight weeks and voting starts when In four weeks, five weeks. Yeah. Right,
[00:04:59] Leila: [00:05:00] right, right. It’s,
[00:05:01] Chris: it’s When does the campaign ramp up? When do the anti start explaining, Hey, you are giving away your seat at the table.
[00:05:10] Leila: I know, I
[00:05:10] Chris: know. It’s a great story by Andrew Tobias. Rarely do you get into the heads of nefarious elected leaders who are plotting against the citizenry.
That story does, it’s really quite good. It’s on cleveland.com and you’re listening to today in Ohio. All right, Lisa, this is a thunder clap on the political scene. What is former Ohio House speaker Cliff Rosenberger, who resigned under a cloud, arguing in a new court filing about the dastardly deeds of his successor, the very corrupt Larry Householder.
[00:05:43] Lisa: Rosenberger who resigned in May, 2018 during an F B I probe of his spending and travel habits. He, uh, submitted a filing on householder’s Criminal Docket on his case in the criminal docket. And what he’s doing is he’s seeking recognition under the Federal Crime Victim [00:06:00] Rights Act. He says that householder and lobbyists.
Neil Clark waged a campaign of lies, rumors, and misinformation that led to his investigation in downfall. He says he probably could have finished his speaker term without economic, reputational and emotional injuries that were inflicted on him by householder and his cronies. He said he was collateral damage and householder’s rise to speaker, and he pointed out texts that discussed how householder in his allies.
Talked about plants to destroy Rosenberg by asking about his travel, uh, and his luxury condo that he rented from a prominent G O P donor and, and other things. Householder’s attorney Steven Bradley says, well, they’ll look at the filing and respond accordingly, but no further comment on that. So, yeah, this is.
Interesting.
[00:06:47] Chris: When Rosenberger went down, when the f b I raid his house and all sorts of stuff was flying, you never quite knew what was going on. We, we, there was speculation, there was thought that he [00:07:00] had taken trips and there was that thing he did with Disney out in California, but there was never any concrete there.
He, he had a resign in disgrace and his name was muddied ever since, but they never charged him. And you, you wondered what this was about. If this is opening the window on what happened, that this was an intentional ploy by Larry Householder to launch a federal investigation of Cliff Ro. Cliff Rosenberg, to get him out of the way.
Larry Householder should be charged with that. I mean, that, that is completely criminal. If I go to the feds and paint a picture of somebody committing crimes, that’s artificial to to, because it’s a political rivalry that’s that’s serious. Problems. And I, I’d never heard this before, and if it’s true, it really clears up this situation that’s been in mystery for years.
[00:07:52] Lisa: Right. And this could be the tip of the iceberg. It sounds like. There was a pretty concentrated campaign to get householder, the speaker’s gavel and [00:08:00] Cliff rosenberger. Apparently was in the way. So he’s seeking protection as a crime victim. It’s very interesting. I think that, uh, the focus or, you know, there were a lot of things.
He took a lot of trips. He took 50 trips in three years. Most of them were for business. But the big one that I think the F B I focused on was that August, 2017 trip to London with lobbyists for the payday lending, uh, uh, business. And, you know, there was a payday reform bill in the legislature at the time.
[00:08:26] Chris: But he was never charged. Yeah. So you gotta think that this was phony baloney. But why? I mean, just a, a shock. This came outta nowhere. And it’ll be interesting to see where it goes next. You’re listening to today in Ohio. How did Ohio Senators vote on the issue that is crushing to a whole lot of people under 50?
The forgiveness of student debt. Laura, I was surprised that the Democratic LED Senate voted the way it did.
[00:08:53] Laura: Yeah, that is surprising. But the breakdown in our state, not so surprising, the US Senate voted 52 to 46 on [00:09:00] Thursday. They wanted to rescind the student love for loan forgiveness program that President Joe Biden announced last year, and our senators split on the measure.
Cincinnati Republican JD Vance wanted to overturn the program Democrat. She brown voted to support it. So you have the Republican Democrats split there. This is the plan that Biden announced last summer to cancel up to $20,000 of student loan debt as held by the US Department of Education, uh, only for borrowers who make less than $125,000 a year or 250 do thousand dollars for married couples.
The that’s. Pretty high bar. And so this has been on hold while the Supreme Court weighs its legality. The house actually last week re voted to reject the loan forgiveness. That was a two 18 to 2 0 3 margin with support from all of Ohio’s Republicans and oppositions from the Democrats. So again, a partisan split there.
But Biden says he’s gonna veto it so they don’t have a veto proof majority.
[00:09:55] Chris: It’s just interesting that it passed the Senate. I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t have thought that would be the key, but [00:10:00] it is such a divisive issue. Mm-hmm. For America, largely, older Americans look at it with SCO and saying, you gotta pay your debts.
You gotta pay your debts. And younger Americans who couldn’t have afforded school without borrowing gigantic sums of money, say you broke the deal, you’re supposed to make education affordable. But you baby boomers, you let. The, the bills go ridiculous. You didn’t have to pay ridiculous bills. Mm-hmm. We need relief and that causes all
[00:10:24] Laura: sorts of ugly disrupt.
Yeah. I think a lot of people see this as, Is is unfair because they didn’t go to college because they couldn’t afford it. They don’t wanna pay somebody else’s loans that they went to college or they said, well, they got through college now. They should be able to afford it. And I, I agree that most people don’t understand the crush of student debt that people are taking on to go to school these days and how it’s hurting the economy in the long run because they can’t buy houses and they, it’s taking them longer to settle down and to, you know, I don’t, I don’t think that’s completely understood, but I do understand the feeling of, that’s not fair.
I paid [00:11:00] off my loans. Why can’t you pay off yours?
[00:11:03] Chris: Okay, you’re listening to today in Ohio, lots of leaders talk about regional cooperation being key to Northeast Ohio’s prosperity, but we can’t even make our public transit systems cooperate or we couldn’t in the past. Starting Monday though, people will be able to ride back and forth between two counties.
What a concept, Layla, which ones and how will it work?
[00:11:25] Leila: Well, folks will be able to ride between. Cuyahoga and Summit Counties, the Akron Metro Regional Transit Authority will begin running fixed route bus service to and from the greater Cleveland Regional Transit authorities, Southgate Transit Center, which is on Warrensville Center Road in Maple Heights.
It will also make stops at Metro Bus stops along Northfield Road in Cuyahoga County, and riders will be able to transfer from buses. With one transit authority to the other. So the new Akron Metro r t a routes are numbers 31 and 32. Those routes are gonna run every hour on weekdays and Saturdays through Hudson, [00:12:00] Twinsburg, stow, and Macedonia.
It’ll continue to Northfield and end at that transit center in Maple. They’re hoping that this regional cooperation will open up opportunities for, for residents in both counties, summit residents who wanna take advantage of jobs in Cuyahoga, Cuyahoga, and. Cuyahoga residents who might pursue industrial jobs in Macedonia and Twinsburg.
So yeah, this is a step in the right direction for regionalism. Right?
[00:12:24] Chris: Well transportation is the very definition of regional cuz you’re going from one place in the region to another. Right. It never has made sense to me that we have all these different transit systems. We have a regional planning agency, the the no ACA that encompasses a whole bunch of counties.
Why couldn’t we have a transit system that does the same thing?
[00:12:44] Leila: Right. Yeah, I totally agree. And, and yeah, I think that the, the opportunities that this opens up for, uh, residents in both counties is, uh, it’s, it’s a terrific, terrific, uh, synergy here.
[00:12:55] Chris: Great step You’re listening to today in Ohio, just when [00:13:00] Ohio Governor Mike DeWine is throwing in the towel on Ohio’s reading educational philosophy.
For an overhaul. We get a study that says maybe one part of what we have works even more surprising. It might be that gimmicky third grade reading guarantee. Lisa, what does a new study say? This
[00:13:17] Lisa: study was done by the Ohio Education Research Center at Ohio State at the behest of Ohio xls, which is a business leaders group that wants to improve K through 12 education.
So they studied third graders in the. 20 13, 20 14 and 20 14, 20 15 school years and how they performed on language and math tests in subsequent years through the seventh grade. So they looked at 623,000 students who were, who advanced, and 21,000 students who were held back a year. They found that those who repeated the third grade did better.
And both reading and math and those who advanced along with their peers, and they found that the gap between retained and advanced [00:14:00] students narrowed every subsequent year. It was largest in the fourth and fifth grade, but then dropped, you know, every year after that. And retained third graders improved very rapidly, 90% improved their language arts.
Um, and then 53% moved up one performance level and 21%. Re, you know, achieve proficiency. And they say there are benefits in retaining students, but overall the third grade reading guarantee is not really improving. Reading scores, it’s been around for about 15 years, and they found that in 2017, only 29% of fourth graders were reading Proficient.
[00:14:38] Chris: What is fascinating about this is in the macro sense, it’s not helping our students get smarter. Mm-hmm. But on the micro sense, it helps the kid, the kids that are held back, become better at reading, better at math and. And then Excel as they go forward. And that was kind of the goal. I, I think when John Kasik put the third [00:15:00] grade reading guarantee in, he wasn’t talking about the macro.
He was saying, we have got to help Ohio students learn. And if we have a third grade reading guarantee where they get held back, we’ll help those students If we hold them back and they’ll get better. What do you do now? It’s a, it’s because they’re ready to abolish it. It hasn’t been a place since the pandemic began and they were gonna kill it.
And if they don’t kill it, it comes back next school year. What do you do now if you’re a lawmaker? I, I
[00:15:28] Lisa: don’t know. But that 90% is amazing. You know, of course a lot of, there’s a lot of rhetoric about, you know, the, you know, the emotional impact of being held back and not advancing with your peers, and that that might be more of a problem than the learning problem.
But this study doesn’t seem to bear that out. Yeah, I
[00:15:45] Chris: mean, I, what was fascinating was the person that explained the math increases are no surprise because you can understand the math problems if you’re able to read them. Mm-hmm. And so it lifts all the boats. Just a, a [00:16:00] surprise out of nowhere that I hope influences the discussion.
I hope we don’t just turn the third grade reading guarantee into a culture war thing. Uh, and we actually look at should, should some elephant. Be kept. Um, I, I guess the GCP is part of the group that’s trying to maintain the third grade reading guarantee because of information like this you’re listening to today in Ohio.
All right. I wanna say upfront, we’re not complaining about the weather. This weather has been glorious. We have all loved it and we’re gonna have it for another week. It’s wonderful, but because it’s been a while since we had any rain in northeast Ohio and there is none in sight. Farmers are in a little bit of a predicament.
Laura, what did we report today about the early
[00:16:45] Laura: planting? We don’t wanna sound the alarms yet, so keep enjoying your sunny weather, but if it keeps going for a much longer than what’s in the forecast, then we are going to be worried already. My front yard went from this lush green jungle to brittle brown [00:17:00] seemingly.
Overnight, but it’s, it’s been 12 days since the last time it rained in Cleveland and then we’ve had all of these days where it’s been 70 degrees or warmer. We have the same forecast until at least Thursday, and that’s created these abnormally dry conditions, not just in Cleveland, but three quarters of Ohio.
That’s what was shown in the weekly update of the US drought monitor map. If you look at it, it’s on our website. It’s. Most of the state is yellow now, so it’s abnormally dry. We’re not in a drought yet, but we are below average for obviously for the year and for water. And when you think about that, average is just that, it’s all the water pad all year, and we’re going.
With heavier rain events less often sometimes, so that can really hurt you when, when you get all your rain at one time and it’s not spread out evenly. So farmers, they planted, some of them planted their corn deeper than than normal because of this. So they’re doing okay and the little plants don’t need as much rain as obviously when they [00:18:00] get bigger.
So, so far. We’re doing okay. But if it goes a lot longer, then you can be worried.
[00:18:05] Chris: Yeah. That one plant that’s in trouble is wheat because that’s close to harvesting and this is when it buds. And if there’s not enough moisture, the farmers are worried that the yield will be way down. They, what did they go back to?
2002 was the last time we had this happen or something like that? 2012?
[00:18:22] Laura: Yes. Yeah, so I don’t particularly remember that. But that was where, it was a late spring onset of very rapidly drying conditions and it had an impact on the agriculture cor across the country. Corn yield was way down, 30 bushels lower per acre in 2012, and uh, that was the lowest since 1995.
So that could. That. You know what happens when there’s less yield from the farms, the prices of food goes up.
[00:18:48] Chris: All right. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. We launched another new column this weekend, this one about financial health. It’s got a great backstory, Leila, who’s writing it and what’s it about?
The new
[00:18:59] Leila: column is [00:19:00] called Money Talks, and it comes to us from Darnell Mayberry, who is. By day, a sports writer based in Chicago. He started Money Talks about nine months ago as a personal blog designed to document his journey toward building generational wealth by teaching his nine year old daughter Parker about financial literacy.
So in this introductory column, which we published online Saturday, and it’s going to run in the paper on Sunday, Mayberry first tells us a bit about himself and about Parker, and describes how he moved from Oklahoma City to Chicago to be. A constant presence in her life after the family experienced divorce.
But then he talks about how he recognized that financial literacy is a subject that schools just don’t address very well, if at all. So too many kids are, are left to learn those skills and values on their own. That’s what it was like for him growing up. He, he decided he wanted to start as early as possible with Parker.
So he’s, he’s built these money, talks into his relationship with her, and he says it. It brings him joy to [00:20:00] know that by the time she reaches adulthood, she’ll have a much deeper foundation when it comes to understanding money than he had, and hopefully he says she will have these money talks with her own children one day, and that’s where the generational wealth really begins to build.
He says he believes he can transform his own life, starting with his mindset and behaviors, and that will lead to financial wellbeing. It’s a really uplifting, introductory piece to what will surely become a really popular, regular offering for our readers.
[00:20:28] Chris: Yeah, we learned to Darnell through our columnist Justice Hill.
He actually wrote about him earlier this year. Yeah. And then recommended we take a look. Uh, Darnell has a Akron connection. Terry Pluto re remembers working with him some years ago. He’s with the Athletic now. Um, and we’re excited about this. We’re the. We’re the first ones to reach out to say, Hey, could we run this on our platforms?
I suspect this will be attractive well beyond Cleveland’s market and that he’ll end up being syndicated. And if that’s the case, then we help them [00:21:00] along to getting to more people. But I think our readers are gonna like it. I think our older readers will be fascinated to see somebody of his age grappling with.
Finances in the modern era, and I think younger people might see him as a role model, uh, as to how to get it under control. So it’s good stuff.
[00:21:19] Leila: Yeah. You know, I just edited his second column yesterday. It’s gonna be running on on Saturday online, and it’s about how when his daughter’s interest in these money talks began to waiver.
He kind of plugged into her cultural references or cultural interests and pitched the idea to her of co-hosting an occasional podcast on the topic. And of course that piqued her interest right away. And I just, I just love Darnell’s writing style, which is, you know, as I said, very uplifting, but also very, Open and a little vulnerable.
And his description of Parker is so relatable. I texted him yesterday after I read his column and, and said, I, I think we’re [00:22:00] raising the same third grader. He’s like, he just is, uh, that he laughed. And so, um, I just, I, I agree with you. I think our readers are really gonna enjoy this.
[00:22:11] Chris: Yeah, I’m excited about this one.
It took o it took some months to get, get it all aligned. You know, he had to get permission from his employer. We had to do the contract because we, this isn’t unlike other comms we run. He remains the owner of this content. We’re licensing it. But I’m so glad we’re finally, uh, getting it out there cuz it’s been in the works for months.
And thanks to Justice Hill for the suggestion you’re listening to today in Ohio. Some rock music purists complained when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame started inducting hip hop acts. But most have come to see the value of celebrating the evolution of popular music over the decades. Now, though hip hop is getting a huge presence in the rock hall.
Lisa, what’s coming? Yeah, I
[00:22:51] Lisa: admit I was one of those purists, but I’ve softened my stance in in recent months. So the, the new, the new exhibition at the Rock Hall of Fame is called [00:23:00] Hip Hop at 50 holla. If you hear me, it’s opening June 29th with a big kickoff event. They’ve collected lots of artifacts from seminal moments in the hip hop genre, including.
The Handbill all-star birthday bash for DJ Kool Herk that was in the Bronx in 1973. This is widely as knowledged as the birthplace of hip hop. They also have the video of Saturday Night Live on Valentine’s Day in 1981. That’s when funky four plus one performed. That’s the joint. And that was the first time that hip hop had a national, you know, was on national tv.
They have the fancy jackets at Salt and Pepper War in their, uh, push It video, which is a, a classic hip hop video. They have a section on moguls with Russell Simmons from Run D M C Jay-Z and Sean Diddy Combs. They have a section of socially conscious rappers like Queen Latifa Public Enemy and Kendrick Lamar.
And also, in addition to this exhibit, they will have online educational resource. [00:24:00] Is that supplement, this exhibit that’s available for free to help students who wanna study up on, um, hip hop. It’s at rock hall.com/edu and they say this opening event. There are no details yet on the June 29th kickoff, but they say it’s expected to draw hip hop’s biggest stars.
Details are coming soon. The article didn’t say, but I assume it’s gonna happen in Cleveland.
[00:24:22] Chris: What I like about what the Rock Hall does with these kinds of exhibits is they, they keep trying to bring in different audiences. Mm-hmm. They’re trying to have as wide an appeal as possible, um, and, and give validation to, to the fans of different kinds of music.
And some people say they push it when it’s people like, Dolly Parton getting in, but, but it’s, um, but it’s opening the doors to, to more people. And as we know, any Cleveland resident gets in free because PNCs grant. Uh, so I imagine a whole lot of people will go down to see this and like you said, more details yet to come.
[00:24:58] Lisa: It’ll be interesting though, because [00:25:00] now that they’ve opened it up to hip hop and other genres, they have a lot of catching up to do as far as inductees.
[00:25:06] Chris: Yeah, I know, because it’s been around so long. They all qualify. Mm-hmm. And then the, the rules for getting in are pretty liberal. Good stuff you’re listening to today in Ohio.
All right. We talked about how hot it’s been. Let’s end the podcast today with something fun tied to the heat. Sean McDonald, who writes a column intended to help save you money. Tried out a popular hack on TikTok for turning your third rate food cooler into a Yeti clone. Laura, what did he do and did it work?
This is
[00:25:35] Laura: hilarious. I had no idea what made Yeti so coveted and expensive. I really thought it was just like the IT brand and it comes in a cool colors like aqua. So apparently it’s got a lot more, uh, foam, two to three inches of polyurethane plus the lid and cooler and the interlock with with each other to keep the cold air sealed inside.
Whereas your regular Coleman cooler, it’s got a [00:26:00] hollow lid. So, That is the science behind it. And this hack that apparently is all over TikTok is to take foam, like drill holes in the hollow cooler and insert spray foam in it and let it expand and create a better barrier. So he did this, it took him a couple hours of work.
I love that he found the Coleman cooler on a tree lawn, so he didn’t even buy $40 cooler. He just got it for free. I have to give, you know, props to Sean for being like, The most frugal person. I, he’s fantastic. So he tried this trick. He is not impressed. He, he, it was kind of messy. It was not super easy to do.
And then when he tested it against, uh, rich Ner are his editors, regular Coleman cooler, there was really no difference in, in how fast the bag of ice melted inside it. So basically they still had ice at the end of the day. He’s like, your Cole’s fine. Like, don’t worry about it.
[00:26:55] Chris: Yeah, I, I get what he says about the mess.
If you’ve ever messed with that spray [00:27:00] foam for insulation or whatever, it, it is just a sticky bunch of goo. If you’re careful, you can keep it from getting all over you, but I, I, to, to fix a cooler, it’s not, Not worth it. It’s
[00:27:12] Laura: a mess. And that’s coming from you who builds your own bed. So
[00:27:15] Chris: yeah, I just, I it’s not, it’s not worth it.
I, I didn’t know that, that people were s Scorning Coleman coolers. I’ve used Coleman coolers for years and they keep everything frigid coal. Right,
[00:27:26] Leila: right. So, so he tested it against a Coleman, but did he test it against a Yeti? Because now I’m thinking that you, the Yeti is a scam. That’s the
[00:27:35] Laura: next one. Right?
[00:27:36] Leila: Well, and I
[00:27:37] Lisa: have, I have an igloo. I’m an igloo girl. They’re, you know, they’re made right in Houston, Texas, and I have igloos that are 20 years old that keep things pretty cold for a couple of days. They make a max cold cooler that actually made my food freeze hard when I put it in there. So, yeah, I’m not gonna spend $300 on a cooler.
[00:27:56] Chris: Well, and let’s face it, you know, heat rises, the cold [00:28:00] sinks. So if you have a hollow top, the cold’s not getting out. I, I’m not quite sure what the whole philosophy is there, but anyway, fascinating stuff. Uh, you, like you said, you gotta give,
[00:28:10] Laura: uh, credit to Sean. Yeah, you gotta, you gotta read Sean. He’s got a great sense of humor and he, he talks you through it so.
Go, go read his column. His
[00:28:18] Chris: his Saving You Money column is unlike any other consumer column I’ve ever read. He really gets at questions I think people would have but not have the enterprise to go figure out themselves. His stories on cleveland.com,
[00:28:31] Laura: he said there’s not a lot of stuff on the internet actually testing this.
It’s like, here’s the hack, but like, does it work? So he did it for you so you don’t have to Yeah,
[00:28:39] Chris: he Did he do a video with that? That would be an interesting one to do a video
[00:28:43] Laura: with. Definitely. Photos. There’s photos. Yeah. There are photos. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:28:46] Chris: Okay, you’re listening to 10 in Ohio. That’s it for the week.
A beautiful week, and another beautiful week ahead. We hope you enjoy it. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks Laura. Thanks Layla. Thank you for listening to today in Ohio.[00:29:00]