Is Ohio AG Dave Yost counting on FirstEnergy execs to take the 5th in his civil suit?

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Why is Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost asking to proceed with his lawsuit against FirstEnergy?

Would witnesses exercise their Fifth Amendment right and decline to answer questions that could be self-incriminating? We’re talking about how a jury could infer the worst 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:

What would it take to make RTA completely free, and how likely is that to happen?

How might the probability of witnesses exercising their 5th amendment right against self-incrimination help Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost in his lawsuit against the miscreants in the corrupt HB 6?

Has fracking lived up to all of its economic hype of a decade ago? How big a business is it in Ohio?

With the Ohio Supreme Court’s rejection of the third round of legislative maps – because the Republicans gerrymandered them again – where do we stand? What is the redistricting commission doing now? How is Attorney General Dave Yost, who has no role in the mapmaking, trying to help get this thing on track?

What’s the issue for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s use of natural gas-powered buses, and how is it coping?

What is longtime Ohio Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur’s latest big idea for the Great Lakes, this time about developing the economy?

How many donations did the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center receive after news broke that the Browns have won that battle for quarterback DeShaun Watson, who is accused in 22 civil suits of sexual harassment and abuse?

How quickly will we see the implementation of police reforms now that a federal judge has signed off on incorporating those voter-approved reforms into a federal consent decree with the city?

What groundbreaking technologies did a Cleveland bioengineering professor discuss with President Joe Biden last week in a bit to set up a new agency to pay for such technologies?

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Read the automated transcript below:

Chris: [00:00:00] It’s our first episode of spring. What a great day it’s supposed to be sunny today. Even if it rains, the rest of the week. Spring is here. We are out of our long cold winter it’s today in Ohio. The news podcast discussion from cleveland.com and the plane dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Lisa Garvin, Lela Tossi Laura Johnston, all roared to go on a whole bunch of great stories that we published over the weekend.

Good morning. Good morning, morning. Good morning. See, I it’s a Monday and I can hear like a lilt in your voices. This is a good sign. It’s or maybe you’re just excited because you learned this morning, I’m off the rest of the week and I’m just doing podcast. Maybe it’s that? I don’t know. Let’s begin. What would it take?

To make RTA completely free. And how likely is that to happen? Lisa? This is something we’ve been talking about in Cleveland since Cleveland rising 2019 or so we had this big community gathering to talk about how to move the region forward. This was the most intriguing idea. Justin [00:01:00] bib, the numeric Cleveland is interested in it, but how we know what the challenges are.

Lisa: Yeah. Uh, RTA CEOs, India bird song came and talked to the editorial board last week. And she had a lot of interesting stuff to say. But as far as the free fairs question, she says, it’s not very likely. I mean, they get, you know, 18% of their revenue is from fairs. And when they did do a free fair week, last summer, The ridership went up 13% and that says, bird song causes unintended consequences.

If you gr give free fairs, you’re probably gonna have to have more equipment. You’re gonna have higher demand. You might have to change your routes a little bit. And she said, Free fares would cost RTA about 40 million a year, and those are pre pandemic numbers.

Chris: Okay. But we already do pay 75% of the money through our increased sales tax.

So we’re already making it mostly free. Um, I, shit, look, she was fantastic in this meeting cuz we asked the question and [00:02:00] in five minutes she laid out the path and the challenges in, in has developed a form as I can imagine. And the idea that. You know what happens if three times, as many people start using transit and the cost of that, I’m thinking, well, wouldn’t that be great.

If three times, as many people use the transit, that would mean all that fewer emissions from cars. And I mean, isn’t that all laudable goal is to get three times as many people to use it, but. As you said, that’s a big equipment

Lisa: cost, right. And they’re already spending 300 million, you know, over the next year or so to upgrade their rail car.

You know, a lot of their rail cars are 35 to 40 years old and they’re, you know, they’ve had a couple failed bids on new rail car. So yeah, they’re already gonna have some huge outlays for rent of the rail lines. She’s

Chris: also worried that there are people that would just get on the bus and sit on it all day, which is not really the purpose.

Although I would think you could pass some rules to make that less [00:03:00] likely, but it’s something they’re concerned about. I don’t know though, after hearing it all, I, I was sitting back thinking, you know, We really should aim for this. This would put Cleveland on the national map as, as a city. That’s really trying to do something about climate change and equity and inclusion.

She did say they’re going to do a study right about the equity of their fares.

Lisa: That’s correct. You know, they do right now and Cleveland rising brought this up. They said, you know, $5 a day, plus 260 working days a year is about $1,300 for riders, you know, so they wanna make sure that they can get a fair or a situation where it’s more equitable to people who would likely use, uh,

Chris: RTA.

And they are working on a pilot for a few different groups like pregnant moms or something. Right.

Lisa: Right. People who need to get to the hospital for healthcare, cuz they wanna make a dent in infant mortality rates. So they want to get healthcare facilities accessible to people who need them.

Chris: All right.

Lay Laura. I know it’s Monday and it takes a while [00:04:00] to get the brain firing. But come on. This is a big eyed idea. What do you think.

Laura: I, I mean it, since we don’t make that much money off the fairs, I feel like there’s probably a way to do it. And if everybody was riding the bus, I, I think that I’m. We don’t care more about RTA, right?

like, there’s a lot of people that are like, whatever. I don’t ride

Chris: it. And Leila, you were kind of unimpressed with Cleveland rising, except for this idea. As I recall, I thought, I remember you being like, wow, that’s a pretty cool idea.

Leila: Yeah. I mean, this was the only concrete idea that came out of Cleveland, rising.

Everything else was just like rainbows and you unicorns and free RTA. like, that was the only, only concrete idea. It was probably the only thing I remember at all from Cleveland rising. So I do like the idea, but, but she didn’t note that there are cities that tried it and then had to stop. And so I think that that is, um, you know, it’s worth taking that in that, that they, they, other cities couldn’t afford to [00:05:00] con to, to sustain it.

Right. Uh, and so I don’t know if it’s worth experimenting. I mean, sure. I, I, I don’t know.

Lisa: You know,

Chris: wow. There’s, there’s no optimism here. Let’s let’s be the city that makes it work. I do take issue. I was part of Cleveland rising. There were some other ideas that came out of that that were had pretty, but don’t ask me to remember what they were

Okay. Moving on.

Lisa: You really? You painted yourself in that corner just now. What was,

Chris: what were you thinking you’re listening to today at Ohio? How might the probability of witnesses exercising their fifth amendment, right against self-incrimination help. Ohio attorney general Dave Yost in his lawsuit against the MIS Koreans in corrupt house.

Bill six, Layla. This is fascinating because the fifth amendment in criminal court is considered very different. And then the fifth amendment. In civil court. It is. Yeah.

Leila: So the backstory here is that in the wake of the 60 million bribery…