Why are Dee and Jimmy Haslam humiliating Baker Mayfield with their Deshaun Watson

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Browns made their offer to Deshaun Watson, hoping he’ll choose them over the three other teams he’s talking to. Meanwhile, Baker Mayfield wrote a heartfelt letter to Cleveland fans.

We’re talking about why the Browns are courting a player with 22 civil suits pending on Today in Ohio.

Listen online here. See the automated transcript at the bottom of the post.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with 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 for free by sending a text to 216-868-4802.

Here are the questions we’re answering today:

How does a report coming from the hands of U.S. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio show the federal government failed to track millions of dollars given to an anti-human trafficking group?

How is Tim Ryan, the Democratic congressman running for the U.S. Senate in Ohio, working to build a statewide Democratic ticket for lots of statewide officers?

What is swatting, and how are some legislators seeking to stop it?

How is Sherwin Williams’ building plans in Brecksville contributing to a threat against the last registered heritage farm in Cuyahoga County, meaning the last farm in the county where the same family has owned it for more than 100 years.

Capitol Letter, our weekday newsletter about all things politics and the Statehouse in Ohio, has unveiled a new weekly feature showing how much money candidates are spending in Ohio on advertising. What’s the goal here, and what does it show?

We don’t know what the lines are for the Congressional or Legislative districts, but the May 3rd election fast approaches. How is the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections staff trying to be ready? Do they think they can pull it off?

We talk a lot about the long wait for justice in the Ohio Statehouse corruption scandal, but little noticed is another corruption trial taking place this week, involving a Brecksville council member. What’s it about, and what has been revealed in the trial thus far?

Is an Ohio Congressman part of a move to end the mandate for masks on airplanes?

What’s the latest experience available in Cleveland for people who like to spend the night in historic buildings?

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Read the automated transcript below:

Chris: [00:00:00] Does anybody understand what D and Jimmy Haslam are thinking flirting with bringing Deshaun Watson to Cleveland. Everybody’s come out against this. Nobody wants this guy here. He’s got 22 civil suits against him, even though he was clear to the criminal charges and they’re making baker Mayfield look terrible.

Does anybody get this? How is this good for Cleveland? I

Lisa: don’t think it’s good.

Seth: Yeah. I mean, you know, I’m a big football fan and you know, I go, I’m a chiefs fan full disclosure, but I do go to Brown’s games, soft brown supporter, and, you know, baker has not been good. Like, I don’t think anybody can.

Okay. Yeah, that’s, I’m getting to that. Um, I mean, he’s had, you know, call it like half a good season, like Cumulus cumulatively or whatever, and I get the desire to move on, but to move on to Deshaun Watson, like this very clear, bad guy, like

Chris: we gotta, we gotta, we gotta keep going. I haven’t introduced the podcast yet.

Lisa, go ahead. I [00:01:00] was just going to

Lisa: say bad idea and I thought Deshaun wanted a warm weather team anyway.

Chris: That’s not us. Okay. It’s today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the plain dealer. I’m Chris Quinn. And I am here with, as you already know, Lisa Garvin, Seth Richardson, and so far the quiet Laura Johnston.

I don’t think that will continue. Just how to express a little bit of outrage about the dumb decision and the brown seem about to make in the face of. Pretty much universal opposition. Poor baker had to go on social media and say, Hey Cleveland, thanks for everything. I don’t know what they’re going to do with me.

I gave it my all it’s like, so pathetic let’s begin. How does a report coming from the hands of us? Senator Rob Portman of Ohio show, the federal government failed to track millions of dollars given to an anti-human trafficking group. Laura and interesting question to ask after we’ve just talked about the shadow.

Yes.

Laura: Supportment is the head of the [00:02:00] Senate committee on Homeland security and governmental affairs. And this group issued a report that found improper oversight, a $46 million in anti-human trafficking money that the U S government gave to an organization called the global fund to end modern slavery.

This money wasn’t stolen. We’re not looking at corruption, but the report. That the state department’s trafficking and persons office didn’t actually scrutinize the funds disbursement of the money to the subcontractors. And there was a whole lot of wasted tax dollars, basically one, I mean, they just, they, these things make no sense.

One sub grantee provided pigs to program participants, but no corresponding veterinary care or money to purchase medicine for the pigs. And then another provided goods for human trafficking survivors to sell it market. But there was no market to sell the gun.

Chris: Yeah, just, uh, it’s a strange one that it’s a lot of money or a lot of tax dollars, as we all know, we spend a lot of those.

I, it just didn’t make [00:03:00] sense that they would not pay attention to.

Laura: No, it doesn’t make sense. And you would think if you’re going to hand over $46 million to a fund, that you would make sure that they are legit and they know what they’re doing, but I guess the fund didn’t understand the rules for awarding government money.

According to us law, they gave money to programs that were ill conceived. And one other example is they were trying to train participants to fight human trafficking in languages. The participants did not understand. So literally it’s. Just noise. Yeah. You think that you would find a better group and there’s gotta be a lot of groups out there fighting human trafficking.

And it’s obviously a very worthy cause that we should be trying to end, but we need a better group to do

it

Chris: ever since Rob Portman announced he wasn’t running for reelection. Seems like we talk about them all the time. Where was he? All those years, he’s been busy as could be ever since he sat on leaving.

Uh, but, but that’s Rob Portman. You’re listening to today. How has Tim Ryan, the democratic Congressman [00:04:00] running for the us Senate in Ohio to replace Rob Portman, working to build a statewide democratic ticket for lots of the statewide officers. Seth, this is interesting. He hasn’t won the primary yet, but he’s already thinking of.

Seth: Yeah, it’s pretty clear that he’s operating under the presumption, that he is going to win the primary and kind of be the, uh, top of the ticket, so to speak. Right. Which, you know, there’s PR you know, like it’s a, it’s a relatively safe assumption, I would guess on his part. Right. And he’s also been the Democrat who’s been able to raise the most money.

Um, you know, if you look at anyone it’s interesting to me, not necessarily that he is doing it because I think that would be expected. Come November, right? You always have he’s he’s forming a, um, you know, sort of joint fundraising committee to, uh, directly give money to, uh, Jeff Crossman, Taylor Sappington, Chelsea Clark and Scott shirts are there that candidates running for attorney general, auditor, treasurer, um, and secretary of [00:05:00] state.

And. Yeah, I don’t, like I said, I don’t think it’s necessarily that weird. I mean, we saw Sherrod brown do it in 2018 where they form these kind of, you know, groups that make it easier to fundraise. Get more money down ballot candidates. I do think it’s a little interesting that he’s announcing it this early and giving money directly to the democratic party, because it does kind of say to me that, Hey, you know, I can raise money, but maybe everybody else can’t raise money, which I think speaks to sort of the, um, uh, the feeling about Democrats in Ohio.

Right.

Chris: Well there, the democratic ticket could be interesting because you have Jennifer Bruner running for the Supreme court, with the party affiliation on the ballot because of the new law. You have Tim Ryan who is becoming a more recognized name, those down ballot people. That will known. You’ll have John currently your Nan, will he running for governor…