Courtney Astolfi

[upbeat music] Is Cleveland going to blow it once again on a big thought that gets trashed by little thoughts? It's the first discussion on Today in Ohio, the news discussion podcast from cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.

I'm Chris Quinn, here today with Lisa Garvin, Layla Atassi, and Courtney Astolfi.

Layla, what are the multiple reasons that Chris Ronayne's last-minute bid to derail the downtown land bridge project to the Lakefront with a half-baked convention center expansion will fail?

Well, Chris, I think the biggest reason is that Cleveland has an actual project that's funded and it's moving toward construction, while the county has little more than an idea here.

An Ohio Supreme Court ruling in a date rape/drug rape case from Cuyahoga County seems especially salient this week, given the conversations about the Cornell rape case.

The Cuyahoga County case is horrible.

Courtney, what happened?

Yeah, this case, just like the Cornell one, deals with intoxication, memory loss, and consent, and it goes all the way back to 2010 when a woman was at a West Park bar and several men tried to hit on her.

First up on Today in Ohio, the news discussion podcast from cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.

I'm Chris Quinn here with Laura Johnston, Lisa Garvin, and Courtney Astolfi.

And Lisa, this is literally rarer than a Cleveland Browns victory this year, but do we have a political debate on the calendar in Ohio? Which candidates have broken with the common practice these days of declining to face off in person?

And these are two strong candidates, particularly the Democrat.