Ohio racing update - Michael Shank Racing - 24 Hours of Daytona

Accuracy In Media - Dayton educators tout having ‘a way around’ Critical Race Theory bans by avoiding ‘triggering words’

Trans woman charged with public indecency for using female YMCA facilities

Jan 6 and intent of the people entering the building - federal prosecutions

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine delivers State of the State address:

• "Science of reading" and what is it?
• Money for vocational schools

Norm's Nuggets

• JD Vance backs bipartisan legislation to address catalytic converter thefts
• Former Columbus narcotics police officer sentenced for trafficking fentanyl

Stephen Palmer is the Managing Partner for the law firm, Palmer Legal Defense. He has specialized almost exclusively in criminal defense for over 26 years. Steve is also a partner in Criminal Defense Consultants, a firm focused wholly on helping criminal defense attorneys design winning strategies for their clients.

Norm Murdock is an automobile racing driver and owner of a high-performance and restoration car parts company. He earned undergraduate degrees in literature and journalism and graduated with a Juris Doctor from the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 1985. He worked in the IT industry for two years before launching a career in government relations in Columbus, Ohio. Norm has assisted clients in the Transportation, Education, Healthcare, and Public Infrastructure sectors.

Brett Johnson is an award-winning podcast consultant and small business owner for nearly 10 years, leaving a long career in radio. He is passionate about helping small businesses tell their story through podcasts, and he believes podcasting is a great opportunity for different voices to speak and be heard.

Steve: It is: 2323

Norm: I can't remember, although I'm more like Racer X. I'm the mysterious older brother, uh, who's been scarred, right?

Steve: I was thinking The Phantom Menace from Scooby Doo.

Norm: My pronouns are still he, him, and, uh, I love everybody.

Steve: All right, well with that backdrop, let's get right out of Common Sense Ohio. Uh, the typical format, if you haven't figured it out, is Norman brings with him these like, stacks of papers, all in some organized, I'm sure, fashion. And uh, he just throws out the topics we get to talk. It's easy for us.

Norm: Well, uh, uh, in keeping with, uh, the racing theme, um, we might as well start out with some, uh, celebratory news for, uh, Ohio racing fans, um, or Ohio fans in general. Just if you're a fan of the state of Ohio, it's, uh, really cool that, uh, this past weekend, uh, for 24 hours, michael Shank Racing, based in Petascula, Ohio, uh, won the 24 hours of Daytona in the top. Class running In The New IMSA GTP uh, Class, or I Should Say the Resurrected GTP Class and Took, um, that Bad Boy, uh, his Three racers, um, uh, um, who did, uh, Shifts, um, for 24 Hours, ran From Pole Position To, uh, the Checker flag. Well, they were challenged. They finished, I think, 6 seconds ahead of the second, um, uh, Acura Honda in their class. Uh, which was, I think a Penske entry, or Chipganasse Penske is doing Porsches, so it would have been Chip Ganassi in the other, uh, Acura is 6.

Brett: Seconds a big, big win?

Norm: Sorry, Wayne Taylor, I got that wrong. Uh, Wayne Taylor, six, uh, seconds after 24 hours of racing, that's considered sounds big. That's considered pretty tight. Now, in one of the classes a little further down, um, in LMP M two is the name of that class. The next class down the margin of victory was zero point 16 seconds. Um, they finished, like nose to nose. Guy made a pass coming out of the last turn at Daytona and pulled up on this guy and and literally beat him by like, six inches. Wow.

Steve: So it's almost like the guy wasn't paying attention at the finish line.

Norm: He got blocked a little bit by slower traffic. And the guy in second place, who ended up in first, used, uh, some drafting techniques.

Brett: I was going to ask.

Norm: A little bit of, uh, uh, uh, Earnhardt or Darryl, uh, Waltrip, uh, kind of action, little stock car move there, where he tucked in behind the lead car, um, and then pulled out just before the finish line. It was incredible.

Steve: Shake and bake, baby.

he won, uh, with Michael, the: 2021

Steve: Yeah, this is amazing to me, because, uh, as you were sitting there talking, I was like, well, what does this have to do with Ohio? I mean, obviously, you have the Ohio Racers, but it's dawned at me there are so many professional athletes and big names in different areas that have come from Ohio.

Norm: Right.

Steve: Just think racing. The Ray Hall crew. It's right here in central Ohio.

Norm: It's off the hook.

Steve: You got Jack Nicholas. You've got, uh, Joe Bru now showing up.

Norm: Big Pete, Pete Rose from Cincinnati.

Brett: LeBron James.

Steve: LeBron James.

Norm: LeBron James. I mean, um, basketball, right? They say some people say Michael Jordan, I don't know.

Steve: Archie Griffin. Yeah, he was a washout in the NFL.

Norm: Yeah. Well, he had a couple of good seasons with the Bengals, but he wasn't big enough.

Steve: Yeah, he was a college runner.

Norm: Yeah, he was a lightweight guy. Short. That's tough. You need to be a bull in the NFL.

Steve: Yeah. Back in those days, particularly, uh, it was a different style of offense.

Norm: Well, especially with Paul Brown coaching the Bengals. You hand the ball off, right, and it's a run.

Steve: Yeah.

Norm: I mean, who's throwing the football? It took Kenny Anderson to come along before they really I mean, if Kenny kind of like Joe Burrow, if Kenny Anderson had had a front line his entire career, you know, he didn't really get one till Anthony Munoz came along. But Kenny Anderson could have been, you know, off the hook. Oh, Ben Rothelsberger from Ohio. Yeah, there you go.

Steve: I mean Miami. Miami, Ohio.

Norm: Yeah. I mean, there's just a bunch I mean, we're short changing a lot of people.

Steve: This is just off the top of our head. Yeah.

Norm: But yeah, it's off the hook. And I'm sure gosh, there was that Darryl guy that won archery in the Olympics for like, four Olympics in a row.

Steve: He just went to like, an Olympic archery guy.

Norm: Yeah. Four gold medals.

Steve: Look, I'm not discounting his achievements, but not a guy I would remember.

Norm: Yeah, yeah. But I mean, you know, there's a, there's a goat and another discipline, so to speak. So yeah, it's pretty ohio's pretty off.

Brett: The hook when you get the, uh was the OSU female basketball, uh, player. He did really well.

Norm: Right.

Brett: From, um, southern Ohio. She can't believe her name, but yeah, I mean, getting into the female realm of it. Yeah, absolutely.

Norm: Tons. Even female astronauts, which from Ohio.

Steve: Well, and Neil Armstrong.

Norm: Neil weapon. John Glenn.

Steve: John Glenn.

Norm: Curtis Lemay, World War II hero. Uh, Paul Tibbets, World War Two hero. Founded, uh uh, the, um gosh out of Port Columbus executive air.

Steve: Here's what we got to do. And this idea just came to me. We need the, uh, website, of course, for those who haven't looked it up yet, is common senseohioshow.com. But we have to have a section for famous Ohioans and even infamous. Infamous. Oh, yeah, just infamous. Famous. And I'm inviting all the listeners to contribute here, so send us your feedback on who the famous and infamous Ohioans, and we can cover one a day or something like that, or one per show to say, hey, look, this guy's interesting. He did yada, yada, yada, right?

Norm: That'd be cool.

Brett: Yeah, I like that.

Norm: The guy who ate people, jeffrey.

Steve: Jeffrey Dahmer. He was Ohio.

Norm: Great Ohio.

Steve: Yeah. Good quality guy. Good quality guys. We boast the, uh sorry.

Norm: I'm sorry. Right.

Steve: One of the serial killers of all time, nails from Ohio.

Norm: I know, I'm sorry. And and I know that one. I think Charlie everybody, I think Charlie Manson. I'm not sure where Cincinnati yeah, well, northern Kentucky or Cincinnati was.

Brett: Let's let's give him northern.

Steve: I think he was in a I think he was in like a juvenile detention center in Cincinnati at some point. Ohio makes it big yet again on the serial killer front, for God's sake.

Norm: Yeah, I'm sorry. Again, um, we should talk. Following up a story that we did in a previous show, I think two weeks ago, uh, where the accuracy and media people, uh, went around clandestinely filming, um, school officials and teachers and admins about their hidden CRT policies. Um, they released another video, this one featuring Kettering Local Schools, where the admin admitted on video that, uh, allowing boys who just assert without any biological change to them that they feel like they're a girl today. Uh, when? They go into the laboratory. He said this on film that 90% of them are doing it to get a free show quote on course.

Steve: Right.

Norm: Dude, you can't tell. Well, what can I say? I think it's illegal what they're doing to have a policy of the school board that reads such and such, but then they have a secret policy to work with woke parents to allow things to happen that are not so crazy.

Steve: Because people would be like, huh, you just said, I think it's illegal. Well, why would that be illegal? Because nobody would ever think of something so absurd to actually have to pass a law to make that illegal.

Norm: It's like, look, I only be by school board policy.

Steve: No, I understand that's how but what I'm saying is it's against the rules. You would think some um, rule except why would anybody ever promulgate such a rule? That if your kid comes into school and says, I happen to be a girl today, that you wouldn't reach out to the parents and say, hey, look, we got a problem with little Joey. We're not sure what's going on, but we just want to bring it to like, for every moment of time in public schooling until now.

Norm: Yes.

Steve: That would never have happened.

Brett: It's such a moving target on how to handle it.

Norm: Right.

Brett: What to do with this stupid so.

Steve: We'Re just not going to tell the parents?

Norm: Uh, yeah, I mean, it's like a good idea.

Brett: It's never a good idea.

Steve: Screw you. You think I don't know how to raise my kids? Screw you.

Norm: Right. Yeah. And feeding into that is a story down in Xenia, Ohio, at the YMCA down there. Um, this is almost an exact outcome of this sort of bizarre thing.

Steve: Chief all, by the way, is from Ohio. And he's from that area.

Norm: Yes, he is, certainly. Yellow Springs, I think, is where he lives.

Steve: Skipping a jump from Zen.

half. So, since September of: 2021

Steve: That voyeurism.

Brett: Yeah. I mean, you can turn into that. I mean, I guess you could look at it as Michael J.

Steve: Fox and Back to the future. He's a Peeping Tom, right?

Norm: Yeah, but in classic orwellian double speak, the YMCA says that they will maintain their members, uh, privacy and safety.

Steve: So you don't have to see the guy's, big throbbing Johnson, but he gets to look at you anyway.

Brett: Uh, your kids going into that Zingy YMCA, m six, seven years old, that's a great girl going to walk in.

Norm: There, kids underage, going to walk in.

Brett: And see big old Johnny Johnson come in trying to decide that day what he wants to be or he's changing.

Steve: Right. So you think the creepy pervert is going to say, all right, it's not morally right for me to lie about the fact that I'm really a man, so I'm not going to do that. Of course he's not going to do that. He's going to do whatever he can lawfully to get away with getting himself off, which is, look, he's got his own sickness, fine, get help. But this is absurd.

Norm: It is absurd. And I guess I'm trying to think of okay, so young, uh, girl goes swimming. She's got chlorine on her. She's going to go take a shower in the locker room, fresh it up, change into street clothes so she can go be with her girlfriends or go to school or whatever she's doing. Maybe she's on the swim team. She's there at six in the morning, I don't know. But whatever. So at some point, she's got to get naked to get dressed, right?

Steve: There's. Creepy Johnson right there.

Norm: And the YMCA saying the solution is to stay clothed in the locker room.

Steve: I got to tell you, this is absurd.

Norm: It's absurd.

Steve: I cannot believe that this is even a public debate.

Norm: Can you imagine how afraid an underage girl has to be with a 31 year old guy in there and the.

talking to their six, seven,: 8912

Steve: I would go ballistic.

Brett: Come on.

Steve: Look, I was a guy. So I do appreciate that guys have different, uh, risk assessments than gals do.

Norm: Got news for you, Steeper. You're still a guy.

Steve: Yeah.

Norm: You said you were a guy. I'm just helping you.

Steve: Well, how do you know how to tell you? It depends on whether I want to go into a girl's locker room. So but as a young boy, we had a membership at the YMCA and, you know, we would go work out or all, uh, family would split up and then we would, you know, I would shower, whatever in the locker room.

Norm: Sure.

Steve: And I'm trying to put myself in a little girl's position there. And if there's a creepy guy, it would be very disturbing.

Norm: For sure, man.

Steve: I mean, it would be like off the hook disturbing for sure.

Norm: Yeah.

Brett: Uh, and I get the YMCA. They are a very welcoming community. They want all walks of life in there. Exactly. But it's like you got to start drawing the line in those restrooms, in those dressing rooms. You got to stop.

going to start building four: 5820

Steve: Every kind of creepo locker room. And then you got everybody else's locker room. So you got the two locker rooms that 99% of the people want, and then you got the creepazoid locker room. And guess what? Nobody's going into the creepazoid locker room because the creepazoids want to go into the girls locker room.

Brett: Well, this is because that's how they identify number one. That's what they're going to say. I'm not going in there because you're flagging me as a transgender person if I go in that room.

Steve: M, I didn't say trans locker room. I said creepazoid locker room. The creepazoids are the ones that are acting like they're trans. Look, I have a problem with all of it, but sure, this particular scenario is if I'm a creeper and I want to go be a peeping Tom and I want to do it without getting in trouble, all I have to do is tell the YMCA I'm a woman.

Brett: Yeah, that's it.

Steve: I'm a woman.

Norm: I'm not even sure you have to say that.

Steve: That guy is not going into the other locker room. Yeah, he's just not going to go to the YMCA.

Brett: Well, you know, that begs the point, too. How does the Y even address this? Okay, so let's say, um, I'm changing right up today, and Brett, I'm deciding. I just don't want the junk anymore, so I get a transition. But I'm still going to the Y because I want my body in good shape, so I have to tell the front desk I want to go in the girls women's changing room. How does that even happen?

Steve: Do you think, uh, do you have.

Brett: To wear m a bracelet or something?

Steve: Or manson gacy. Yeah, gacy. Do you think they would be somehow, uh, deterred, um, from lying?

Brett: No.

Norm: Come on, man.

Steve: Look, I have represented folks of all walks of life. They all deserve a defense. We can have that debate whenever you.

Norm: Want, and I love all of them.

Steve: But but there are people I've represented that I would not be comfortable no, I would not be comfortable with them having access to the girl's locker room.

Norm: Steve, you're just like a surgeon. Your clients come in off the, uh, from all walks of life, and they are who they are, and you're defending them. This is the thing that a lot of people don't understand about defense attorneys. They don't select their clients, so to speak. The clients select an attorney. The attorney then can take the case or not based on their availability or whatever. But it's just like surgery. If I'm going in for heart surgery, the doctor doesn't know if I'm on death row or, uh, if I'm a celebrated, uh, priest. It doesn't matter.

Steve: How do you represent those killed? It's like, well, look, if I didn't, I'd be broke.

Brett: And we set this country up that they are allowed to have a defense.

Steve: Sure.

Brett: Because it could be wrong of what they're charged with.

Norm: This whole thing about gender, uh, assignment is really up in the air right now, as we all know. And, like, you've got the, uh, getting.

Steve: To self select whenever you want.

Norm: Well, you got the NCAA debating whether or not to have a, uh, third or a fourth swim meet. So you will have traditional males, traditional females, which is hey.

Steve: And then the coin tossers.

Norm: Yeah. And then you're going to have people that have transitioned. But like Brett says, they're going to say that that's a violation of their civil rights because I'm just a trans man. Like that swimmer, uh, who beat everybody, who beat all the women, is going to be with his tackle. Right. He hasn't been operated on. It's just hormones or whatever. And he's beating all these women. He is going to say, you're violating my civil rights by not allowing me to swim in a swim meet against, quote, other women. But he's not a woman.

Steve: It's all about the definitions. Look, uh, this is the ridiculous extension.

Norm: Meanwhile, China is kicking our idea of.

Steve: This postmodernist idea that everything is relative. So when you start with this idea that morality is relative, that everything is about definitions, you see blue. It's really red. I see red. You see blue. And how can you tell me it's not red? When you operate in a world where there is no definitive definitions, where there's no objective reality, you end up with this lunacy.

Brett: I think, uh, going back to the common sense of it, it's that repercussions of this. Okay, allow it to happen. Great. Red is blue. What does that mean, though?

Steve: Eventually, you end up with a breakdown of any sort of agreement on anything else society.

Brett: So stoplight. Red is green. Green is red.

Steve: I'm going to run it because I'm.

Norm: Going to run it.

Brett: There are repercussions for all these things. We just had to draw the line of demarcation going, no more, no more.

t the Air Force general said,: 2025

Steve: Tanks here's what's interesting is that you wonder it makes me think of like, the Hunger Games. We're being diverted where you've got all these elites whose lives have become so easy that they get obsessed over nonsense. Yes, this total irrational nonsense.

Norm: Like the guys in Davos, Switzerland, right? The WEF that just met, and they have all these weird ideas, like their.

Steve: Ultimate economic form you're talking about that's, right.

Norm: Their ultimate goal kaus Schwab said, quote, their ultimate goal is for people to own nothing and yet be happy. Yeah, that's their goal.

Steve: Right. Do you know what that is? That's Stalin. What's?

Norm: Killing uh.

Steve: Go read about what Stalin did. Right. Everybody got so comfortable that now this is a debate. But here's what's interesting to me. I only think it's the elites. I think the heart of this country, the middle of this country, ohio, uh, also, but beyond Ohio, most of the people, even in probably California, will look at stuff like this and say, this is stupid, but we realize everybody's going along with it and why yada, yada.

Norm: Yada, I got to get to work.

Steve: I got to get to work. Nobody is going to hang their hat of, uh, nobody's going to draw the line, make this the pivot point of everything. But then the media blows it up. And now all of a sudden, if you don't agree, you feel, uh, chastised, or you're stupid or you're racist or you're sexist, or that you don't spend.

Brett: Time talking about it.

Steve: You don't spend time talking about it.

Brett: You don't, uh, have respect for it.

Steve: I guess it's not enough not to agree anymore. It's not enough not even to say anything anymore, because then you get beat down. So I think people are just sort of in their little corners are hiding and saying, I'm not going to involve in that mess.

Norm: Well, they're very afraid when they hear that the FBI is monitoring Twitter and Facebook and going to shut down certain posts or themes or memes that they want to bring up.

Steve: It's like nero. These people have run the politics into the ground. So now what do they do? They create spectacles so that people can it's so insane.

Norm: Yeah. They tell parents at those Virginia school board meetings that the FBI is looking into you as a domestic terrorist because you want to go to the school board and complain.

Steve: I think it was somebody.

Norm: So doesn't that then dampen down people's enthusiasm to go back to their school board? Because the communication is, well, we're counting noses just like we did the January 6 tapes, we've got our film, and.

Brett: We'Re identifying facial wreck and stuff like that.

Norm: It's lunacy, mancy.

Steve: I'm working on cases involving crime that they don't even come close to using those techniques.

Norm: It's crazy.

Steve: Insane.

Norm: And then they charge them with trespassing, right? Like, really?

Steve: I mean, we're not talking about people who are destroying anything, doing anything wrong or whatever. They're just sort of, like, walking around like, what the hell is going on?

Norm: This Guardian RV show, and all of.

Steve: A sudden, you're following the crowd.

Norm: Well, the guards holding the door, right? Joe Blow on vacation to go see Trump talk and his wife. They waddle into the Capitol Hill, indicted. And they look around at the pictures, and they snap a couple, uh, selfies, and they go home, and then they get indicted.

Brett: Right.

Steve: It's insane. Crazy.

Brett: Well, I guess to that point, I guess it's starting to melt out that luckily, they are just trespassing. Uh, yeah, but here's the thing. Uh, here's the thing, because that's all it should be. Some of it.

Steve: It shouldn't even be that, frankly, because if they're let in, then that's permission.

Brett: Yes.

Norm: It's not ruining people's lives.

Steve: This is the point. And it is a good thing that they're only getting charged with trespassing some.

Brett: Sort of trees that are huge, really ruining your life stuff.

Steve: But anybody who has been accused of a crime will understand this. It becomes everything that you've ever had to deal with in your life times 50 or 100, because it succumbs you. And then something like this, where you've got to go. You're going to be on Front Street. You're going to be on National Front Street on trial, because you happen to be there and walk in as a tourist. And, uh, look, you could say, well, if I were there, I wouldn't have gone in. And maybe you wouldn't have, but lots of people did without any sort of intent to do anything other than just, like, follow the crowd and say, well, this is interesting. I read about, uh, see what's going on here.

Norm: Yeah, I know this is in Ohio, but it kind of is. I because people from Ohio went there. But I know of a 46 year old physician from California, read his story. He, uh, treated Ashley Babbitt after she was shot. He went into the Capitol Building with his medical bag. Okay. He's a doctor. He's an anesthesiologist, specifically, and he rendered first aid trying to was it like.

Steve: The traditional black bag?

Norm: Yes, it was awesome.

Brett: It was.

Norm: And he was forcibly disassociated, shoved away from treating her. He treated her for a couple of minutes, and then one of the bully guys, one of the Capitol Police or whatever, the guy's shouting, I'm a doctor. I'm treating this woman's going to bleed out. They shoved him away right. And back out of the building. And he asked the same cop, you shoved him out. Could you go back and get my black bag so I can treat other injured people. The cop did give him his bag back, but now he's been charged with trespassing and all of this ridiculous let's take the case. He's saving the case. Honestly.

Steve: Yes, doctor, call me.

Brett: And I think we've touched upon this, too, but, uh, hopefully in the end, this cluster f will be figured out who protects what there. Because there are three protecting parties that should have been National Guard, the cops that are there on site. And it's like, uh, a cluster after there.

Steve: It's like everything in these kind of scenarios. There are so many factors, a multifaceted analysis that has to happen, except the media will only engage in one.

Norm: Right.

Steve: And that's the problem with it. It's not like the people who broke in and ramsacked offices. Well, obviously they should be treated differently than the people who didn't do that.

Brett: For sure.

Norm: Actual vandalism. Absolutely.

Steve: Look, I could see myself in that crowd walking in, like, for sure. This is interesting.

Brett: Absolutely.

Norm: Uh, I want to be a witness.

Steve: To just watching this stuff.

Norm: Right.

Steve: I could easily see that.

Norm: Absolutely.

Steve: And I see that as a complete distinction to the person who's breaking into Pelosi's office and stealing your laptop. Right. I can see them. If you can't see that, you're irrational.

Norm: Exactly. That's irrational.

Brett: Exactly. And probably well, you hear stories of 90, 80, 90% of them feel guilty for doing what they did. They got caught up in it.

Steve: But they shouldn't even feel guilty, frankly. They were there. They were voicing whatever concerns they had, whatever moment they had over time, and they were essentially let in, or they followed the crowd in.

Norm: It is a public building, for God's sakes. Right. And if the door is open and it's a public building, if I go down here to our state capitol, to the Rotunda down here in Columbus right. And the door is open right. Why would I think I'm not allowed to walk in?

Brett: I guess that's a good question. That building isn't during that specific time of the voting. The building is not locked down.

Steve: Uh, I guess.

Brett: Right.

Steve: And I don't know, uh, I guess I would assess it this way. Most crime like this requires some degree of mental culpability. You have to have some intent, and it matters what somebody's intent was. So if I'm just walking in, I wouldn't necessarily feel guilty about that. I'd be like, oh, crap, I shouldn't have done that. But I would be like, yeah, but I understand why I did it, and, um, it probably could happen again. And that's different.

Norm: Well, I see a Capitol policeman holding the door open.

Steve: Right.

Norm: I guess I can walk in then.

Steve: That wasn't the case for everybody. No, but that's the case for some people, and they're different.

Norm: And that would be a huge part of a crime.

Steve: They should not even be charged with a crime.

Norm: And that's where.

Steve: Prosecutorial discretion comes in, and that's where the Justice Department is compromised. I feel like these are political prosecutions, and that scares the crap out of me.

Norm: All right, moving on, moving on. Let's talk a little bit about Governor DeWine's state of the State. Um, okay, so this is my biased.

Steve: He'S the weirdest dude I've ever seen, but he is totally weird looking, right?

Norm: Well, okay, cut that out. You and your lilifusion jokes are forthcoming pretty soon.

Steve: I didn't say anybody.

Norm: Well, he's vertically challenged. Um, and he has Coke bottle glasses. Okay, I got it.

Steve: He's weird. And when he told me, we have the tools, we can do it again. It's like, no, you don't have the tools. You're forcing us to quit work, man. Go.

Norm: And my partner of 55 years, Fran, pretty good, actually. Okay, so he gave the state of the state this week. Um, and essentially, this is is he related to Gordon?

Steve: Gee?

Norm: He might be a twin. Okay. We will never have Dawine as a guest, will we?

Brett: No, it's not that you never want him necessarily.

Steve: Explain why you shut down.

Brett: My I know you would.

Norm: Exactly. I mean, this is just like, uh, Trump getting interviewed by CNN, which he did. So come into our lions den. Governor DeWine, we would love to have you here. Uh, I'm a fellow Republican, and I will launch a broadside at you, buddy. But let me tell you something. This was Governor Santa Claus this week. The state of the state was nothing but, hey, we are awash in tax dollars.

Steve: Give it back.

Norm: Uh, yeah, but we're not going to get we will in specific ways. Um, so all he did was announce for an hour of this program. And that program, since the state is real fat right now with money, how he's going to increase this and increase savings account?

Steve: It was just does the government have a savings account?

Norm: That rainy day account apparently is let's keep it.

Brett: You're not raining.

Steve: Well, I think you're not going to give it back. At least keep it in the same.

Norm: Well, your first impulse was the right one. Um, look, we're over taxed in this state. We are at the top of states that tax their citizens. We're one of the most egregious taxers. And that's why when intel or Amazon or Google or whoever comes into Ohio, uh, the state of Ohio gives away the store, right? Because they have to overcome our heavy taxation in this state. But between our income tax, our sales taxes, uh, our city taxes, city, uh, income taxes, our school district income taxes, uh, our excise taxes, it just goes on and on and on. How heavily we're taxed here that Ohio is not very competitive unless for a corporation. They give away the store, and that's what they've been doing. But some of the things, for example, uh, DeWine points out the obvious, that 40% of our public school students are not proficient in reading. For example, he goes on about how pregnant mothers in the inner city need help, and he goes through this list of terrible truths about Ohio. And then I turn around and say, but, yeah, Governor, you caused all this.

Steve: Non.

Norm: You're Governor Mask.

Steve: Let's talk about whole language reading and why these kids can't read.

Norm: So he has something that he has called Steve, and you may be able to break this down, and it's in quotes if you read the transcript of the state of the state, there is a program he calls Science of Reading. Quote Science of Reading, unquote. It's some kind of proprietary reading program, and I'll bet it involves also looking at the face of a teacher while they're enunciating words. He's Governor Mask, this guy can stand up and take a bow. Here's my guess for some of Ohio's children not being able to read or speak correctly.

Steve: Ah, yeah. Um, I don't know any about science of reading, but I'm going to guess I'm going to hate it, because for years and years and years, ohio took this position that we're not going to teach phonetics any longer. So it's not sounded out. And see the words like you described Norm. It's memorized a bunch of words, and then hopefully you'll be able to read. And that's called whole language reading. It failed miserably. And now we got a generation of kids or a percentage of them that can't freaking read. And Dwine is proud of it. And I'm going to guess he's doubling down with Science of Reading program, because here's the bottom line. Anybody who's ever taught somebody to read or anybody who learned to read, like in our era, you can read, right? Guess what? You can get better at it by reading more, right? It's an amazing how it works.

Brett: So I looked the science of reading up.

Norm: Go ahead.

Brett: Okay.

Norm: Go, Brett.

Brett: The Science of reading is the converging evidence of what matters and what works in literacy instruction organized around models that describe how and why.

Steve: Yeah, so this is a bunch of bullshit. This is a bunch of whole language nonsense trying to salvage this notion that whole language reading worked, I'm guessing. So everybody look, this is not me.

Norm: Acting as you want to bet Brand found this online?

Steve: I am guessing. I am guessing.

Brett: Well, it's funological awareness, phonics and word recognition, fluency, vocabulary and oral language comprehension, text comprehension.

Steve: This is they're trying to combine whole language reading with phonetics and phonics. And I tell you what. There's a program out there called Orton Gillingham, and it works. And it works for Dyslexic kids. It works for kids who aren't Dyslexic. And when anybody who had the little letters on the wall of their first grade classroom, like running, uh, boy running, boy, buh buh buh, uh, they know how to read, and they know those sounds, and we all learned it. And now, uh, they've ruined it for a couple of generations. And now this nonsense. Um, and I would want to know who developed the program, who's getting paid?

Brett: I would go into the program exactly, because always look at with following money, that's exactly where I was going to go with it.

Norm: I don't know, uh, on your research there, if it shows what company or.

Brett: Entity it's not in that article.

Norm: But I'll look around, somebody's getting paid because it's one of the first things in his state of the State as he talks about the science of reading. And it's in caps as if it is a trademark. Right? Uh, one of the most egregious things.

Steve: This is almost too disturbing for me to listen to.

Norm: I get Darby, I'm sorry, but one of the most egregious things that he's done right. So we have a department of family and I think it's called Family and Youth Services.

Steve: Job and Family Services.

Norm: Job and Family Service. At any rate, he is now breaking that out. He has created a new Cabinet, because.

Steve: That'S what we need.

Norm: Uh, we need another bureaucracy, another Cabinet position, and it's going to be called the Department of Children and Youth Services. Okay?

Steve: We already have county level children services organizations, so now we got a state level dude.

Norm: He got into funding those with a big increase, too.

Steve: Government raising our kids. That's what we need.

Norm: Believe me, he hit all of them. He even hit a program called anything.

Steve: That the government does called a program I immediately turn off. I don't want to know your program.

Norm: Well, HM. He hit on a program that I can only describe as the Children's Happiness Program, because his way of justifying is he got a letter or a text from a mother who said, my son now, uh, is filling our house with, uh, laughter and smiles. And I'm like, so it's the laughter and smiles program. We have transferred the oversight and the responsibility for our children by creating this huge bureaucracy. And now he's going to consolidate it all under this new cabinet position. All of these different programs will be brought under that, uh, rubric such nonsense. The government literally is raising our children now. He even got into the point, like, uh, charter schools now are going to go from five hundred dollars to one thousand dollars per pupil. Now, I'm in favor of this. This is right down my alley. He's going to finally, the state, uh, start spending back because they kind of cut it off. They're going to go back to spending more money on vocational ed, 300 million investment in things like welding, roofing, automotive, diesel repair, all that kind of stuff. Well, duh, they should have been doing that all along.

Brett: Well, there should be some this is kind of soft money to a certain degree, but marketing around, making, uh, it cool to do this right? It's not cool to necessarily not to take away from going to four year colleges of big renowned in the state of Ohio.

Norm: Right.

Brett: But you know what?

Norm: For everybody.

Brett: It's not for everybody. But damn, you make good money. You need a job.

Norm: You got you need to get a job if you're not going to college.

Brett: And if you feel the pole to work on autumn on on the cars, you go do it because you're going to be making $7,500 an hour.

Steve: I agree with all this, but I don't think the government needs to do a damn thing. All they need to do is just get out of the way. Because as soon as the government takes over teaching our kids how to weld, they're going to screw it up.

Norm: No, I'm private welding school.

Steve: They'll get it right.

Norm: No, dog. What this is again, ivy Tech, though.

Brett: Is an example of the opposite.

Norm: Ivy Tech screwed up. Hold on. Uh, I'm not picking on you, but.

Steve: I'd like to dig into not picking.

Norm: On you, steve So. What? Vocational ed is just for our listeners. This is not for Steve So.

Steve: No, I know what you're m talking about.

hool. And then maybe at like,: 11:00

Steve: In theory, I like it.

Norm: Dude, they're ready to go, man. I'm digging that program.

Steve: In theory, I like it.

Norm: And they used to have if they're.

Steve: If if the government is going to start throwing money at it, it's going to get screwed up and it's going to get corrupt.

Norm: Well, uh, I am a cynicols are corrupt. Right. So I'm just saying we, uh, need alternative corruption if we're going to live with the corruption.

Steve: It might as well be in that direction.

Norm: Mike Row as Mike to teaching some sort of if Mike Rowe was in here from Dirty Jobs or whatever that show is called, he would say, yes, we need this idea that everybody's entitled to college. Sending huge amounts of people to college that don't belong that really don't want.

Steve: To be there and don't belong there.

Norm: And don't belong there. But it's free, quote unquote. Right.

Steve: Uh, and so they go, I guess I just think this but they're never going to grant the market needs these people. They will come. They will come. Um, it'll happen. And, uh, you know what? They're not going to like, the elites aren't going to like because when they do come and when they do get these jobs, they're going to get richer than these elites. These, quote, smart elites are, and the smart elites aren't going to like it. And this is what look, this is Marxism. If you go back and read Italian Marxism, that's what happened there. The workers never revolted, right? And the elites didn't like that, so they had to create their own revolts.

Norm: We do have a constitutional obligation in Ohio. It's right in our constitution to educate children. Okay? So I take that very seriously. Right. It's got to be an education system that serves all the kids, right? And those who are drawn to college, they can do their Advanced Placement courses and all that. Get ready for college. Those that want to go into the military, God bless them, get your high school diploma, your GED, maybe go on to college and qualify for a military appointment or recruitment. Uh, if you are, uh, headed towards a trade, I don't think that you just graduate students with a, uh, general education and then say, okay, now you don't know anything about carpentry, you don't know anything about plumbing. You don't know anything about automotive mechanics. Let the market educate you. To me, that's not serving the kids.

Brett: I think most high schools do not have a system in play that once you're in that freshman or sophomore year to kind of guide you and kind of explore, uh, I don't know. And again, I don't think government needs to really support that.

Norm: Will it be crooked? Will it be screwed up? Of course.

Steve: Based on what you're saying here, I'm going to modify my position, and I'm just going to say this. I don't trust the program that Dwyane is rolling out to do what it says it's going to do.

Norm: Well, this is 300 million in additional funding for Vocab.

Steve: I just want to know where we.

Brett: Already and what is it going to do.

Steve: Well, I understand. We already have Vocab. Look, my son wants to do it. He wants to go to vocational bingo.

Brett: Great.

Steve: The second tier.

Norm: So this is great for him, right? Bring in better, uh, educators, bring in new equipment. He doesn't want to learn on an antiquated diesel engine.

Steve: He needs the correct I in favor of all this in practice, I am skeptical of those dollars going into the government program. Look, I'm with you.

Norm: I would love you to be on the school board overseeing that void.

Steve: I would love to see it, because I'm going to say where's the money going and how absolutely. Who has got control.

Norm: Your skepticism is perfect. I'm with you there 100%.

Steve: Let's just run it here at Hill.

Brett: Yeah, it's good.

Norm: I'll bring up something funny. There's a couple of things. I got some norms nuggets here if we're winding down. Um, I'm watching this Mark Wahlberg, uh, thing because it's winter. It was 14 or whatever last night. Right. Not feeling like going out and mowing the lawn, um, or raking up leaves or whatever outside. So watching this, uh, three season thing, uh, called Shooter. And it's not that good.

Steve: There was a movie with Mark Wahlberg, the shooter.

Brett: No.

Steve: Then they made the series.

Norm: Right. Mark Wahlberg is a producer, so he doesn't star in this. But there was a funny little moment where they showed a scene in Columbus, Ohio. So one of the Marines, um, uh, that star in the show when she leaves, uh, because she's scared and stays with her brother. Her brother lives in Columbus, Ohio, and they show a street scene and dudes, Mark, come on, man. You're producing. You got a Chevrolet car dealership here.

Brett: He didn't put it in the background or he did.

Norm: No, it is not Columbus. They used the street scene. So stupid.

Brett: Oh my god.

Norm: I mean, they tried to make this building look like the Huntington building in the background. It's not the Huntington building.

Steve: That's too bad. Jesse. Ellen, by the way.

Norm: And then another crime came along, right. In the same segment. At one point, the FBI person there, the good guy, FBI, uh, uh, agent she says, well, uh, the Cleveland office is, uh, waiting for us. It's just a 45 minutes drive from Columbus to Cleveland. And I'm thinking in what, an SR 71?

Steve: They were going to be at the Super Train.

Brett: They got the hyperloop set up in this movie.

Steve: Super Train or the show.

Norm: So, Mr. Wahlberg, I'm available.

Steve: Something about what you were saying. That little nugget. Maybe I said it. I love it. I'll say it again. Jesse Owens. Maybe think Jesse Owens in Columbus. Because I was thinking streets of Columbus.

Norm: Yeah.

Steve: Jesse Owens over there on the west side near Wahlberg Chevrolet. Anyway, Wahlberg, uh, does have a Chevrolet dealership here. I've never been there.

Norm: Yeah, he does.

Steve: He was on the tail on the.

Norm: Tailgate of every vehicle. Right. A truck or whatever. Trunk lid. Mark Wahlberg and you just know people are loving that.

Brett: And you get the other stickers as Marky. Mark and the funky bunch that's on the other side of the bunch.

Norm: I mean. A one time Fred and Lynn a one time Fred and Lynn Ryker. Right. But they were the signature, you know, like dealer.

Steve: I think it's Walford bunch.

Norm: Yeah. So, Mark, I was going to go buy a $90,000 Chevy pickup truck at your dealership this week. But hey, man, but that's where you.

Brett: Get the vehicle to drive 45 minutes to Cleveland. You missed a complete connection.

Norm: That's a Jado rocket bottle attached to it.

Steve: You know what has been sort of conspicuously out of the news is the Householder trial. I'm not seeing much about that at all.

Brett: Yeah.

Steve: And so I did a quick check here. It's like it's because there's no there's no still no it's going on. It's just like there's no I'm not reading any bombshell evidence so far. It's like there's an email going around within First Energy that uh, had a draft version of the bill that they were going to try to, um, lobby. I'm like, all right, would you expect anything different?

Brett: It happens all the time.

Norm: It better get better.

Steve: It better get better. This thing will end up turning on like a capone tax law thing where there were probably some reporting, ah, mandates, uh, that were violated, I would guess.

Norm: Oh, yeah, I'm sure.

Steve: But it's not going to be the high level corruption that they want it to be.

Norm: Sure, you're right. Ah, um, another nugget. Um, our new senator, newly minted Senator Vance, has, um, introduced, um, his first bill. I'm a little crestfallen, I have to say. It is a bill to track, I assume, with Vin numbers, vehicle identification numbers that are matched to your car, which they now stamp on a lot of things that are stolen. Um, he has, ah, introduced a bill. It's bipartisan, of course, because it's not controversial. But his first bill is catalytic converter tracking because there is stolen all the time. Yeah, I'm just like really? Look, JD. I love you, man.

Steve: Uh, because that's what we need. We need more regulations on auto parts.

Brett: Who put that into his head? I mean, who put that into his head that he do that?

Norm: Troy Balderson.

Brett: I'm not saying he couldn't come up on his own, but it's so ridiculous.

Steve: To what this lawn order thing? I'm sure he's done.

Norm: I don't think the idea is ridiculous. It's so low ball. It's so low hanging.

Steve: Well, think about it, though. So now they got to stamp a Vin on all the catalytic converters. Think what that does. Catalytic converter makers.

Norm: They're doing that and they got to.

Steve: Go through all this crap.

Norm: They're doing that, though, Steve, too, because.

Steve: People are stealing catalytic converters.

Norm: Well, but they're putting Vin numbers on probably 200 different components on cars already. On the computers, on the engines. It's like, this could just be a rule.

Steve: Didn't probably write didn't old Corvettes have that? If you buy old Corvette parts, most of those were like, unique to cars. Isn't that true?

Norm: Are you asking because there might be, ah, top secret documents stored in those Corvette? No, that was actually a serious question.

Steve: My recollection is, like, the Corvette guys, all that stuff is stamped. Like, all the Corvette classic parts always.

Norm: Had a lot of them had date codes, which is analogous, but no GM and Ford and Chrysler for a long time. Not until probably the mid 60s did an engine or a major component have a Vin number on it.

Steve: Yeah, I know. My Pontiac just had on the block.

Norm: On the block, exactly.

Steve: And then on the heads, it just had like a W. Exactly.

Norm: But see, if you're restoring your GTO or an old Corvette, the windshield glass, for example, would have a manufacturing date. And if you go to Bloomington Gold, which is a big Corvette meet where they judge Corvettes boy, that glass, your seat belts, every little Nicky Nacky thing on it better bear the traces of the manufacturing date.

Steve: Yeah, I just remember something about that. And the restoration was a real pain in the ass because of that.

Norm: It is a real pain in the ass. And you can imagine if you have, let's say you have $100,000 Corvette and a guy throws a rock up and cracks your windshield, you can imagine the challenge of you trying to get a properly date coated antique windshield, brand new, in the box. Good luck. Right?

Steve: Yeah.

Norm: Um, it's a challenge if you're going to have an old car.

Steve: But the point is, for this bill back to it, it's like now some company who makes catalytic converters has to retool on some level or what will happen, probably on the trying to coordinate. They can't just build them. They have to build them for a specific car.

Norm: Uh uh. Well, as you know, they use just in time inventory, but they're already doing that for, like, a couple of hundred other components or it puts them out of business.

Brett: So they don't make catalytic conversion. We have to go all even.

Steve: That's right.

Brett: And I know JD. Is not thinking that, but it's like but it could be a domino effect going well, we can't retool.

Steve: Well, now you're thinking like, I think I don't like that. But now you see, Eve, we're going EV.

Norm: The reason I'm crestfallen is, you know, as you know, I contributed to JD's campaign. We interviewed him here. We talked about his top priorities. I know what they are by heart. This is not one of them.

Brett: That's why I ask, where is this coming?

Steve: He's going to warm up a little bit.

Norm: Well, yeah, and I get that. Naturally, Mitch McConnell has screwed JD. On his committee assignments. So JD. Has been assigned to, like, the aging, uh, committee. He's been assigned to, like, their nickel dime committees. And it's clear that's because JD. Was not Mitch McConnell's candidate.

Brett: But you know what? If he's on the aging committee, he could actually do some good stuff.

Norm: Take what, reverse agent?

Brett: No, take the lemon and make lemonade out of it. Who's the base that could be voting him in all the time? Older people.

Norm: But he is the junior member of a party that's out of office in the Senate.

Brett: That I know. I'm I'm just trying to make, you know, put sunshine where where sunshine ain't really shine.

Steve: And so, yeah, let me throw a nugget to you now. So, Marco Marino, 45, age 45, Columbus, former narcotics officer, was sentenced yesterday I think it was yesterday, maybe a couple of days ago, but, uh, this is the proverbial cop hand in the cookie jar. He got caught dealing dope. This was a huge scandal.

Norm: Would you say his name again and say it like the Godfather would say it like you've got marbles in your mouth.

Steve: Marco Moreno.

Norm: My capo.

Steve: This is the man that we needed. Marco. Marco. We needed him, and we've lost him.

Norm: And to the Italian club here in Columbus. I want the Columbus statue back in the park. Right. So this is not a slur. There's nothing to with humor, so lighten up.

Steve: Yeah. All right.

Norm: I also imitate Irish people and all kinds of people. Greeks. I can do a bunch of them. We're having a little fun here.

Steve: Yeah, this is his.

Norm: Relax.

Steve: There's no, uh, Xenophobia going on?

Norm: No, I'm still coming down for the spaghetti dinner at the Italian Fest, so relax.

Steve: And I don't drink beer on St. Patty's Day anymore. But I used to. Um, anyway, he got nine years, which is a huge nut. I mean, that's a big number.

Norm: And you don't want to be a cop in prison, do you?

Steve: I would think not.

Norm: Probably a bad look.

Steve: Yeah. He'll probably get some protection. Um, he'll have some isolation, which sucks. I mean, I've represented folks. I've represented law enforcement officers who had to go to prison. And, uh, they're in protective custody, so to speak, where they're not in general population. But they're miserable because, uh, you don't have interaction with others. Your privileges are restricted, like being in the hole or in lockdown.

Norm: Uh, maybe a hook up with the Aryan Brotherhood or the Hell's Angels or something. Right? Yeah.

Steve: I mean, maybe so.

Norm: Maybe so. If Marcos white I don't know, whatever white means. I don't even know what that means anymore. But if I understand prison culture, uh, it is to your benefit to identify with some kind of a gang within the prison pretty quickly.

Steve: I would think so. Again, I know nothing about prison culture, and hopefully I'll never have to learn. Me neither.

Norm: A little bit of local news here. Uh, there was a suicide yesterday, I believe, at Pickrington Public, uh, schools where a stepparent, uh, they didn't identify whether it's a man or woman. I would think it's a man because the stepparent used a gun to commit suicide right there at the school following, uh, some sort of a meeting about some sort of abuse or incident or something that happened off campus. But it appears that counselors or school administrators brought in the parents of the child. And I'm going to guess, uh, subject to revision, that he then, following that meeting, popped himself with a gun and.

Steve: Uh, he's, like, accused of sex offense.

Norm: Or something that has not come out. That is a leap I'm not willing to go to because there's nothing on the record so far as I know about that. It's being investigated.

Steve: Got you.

Norm: Yeah. So, uh, that'll be one to kind of take a very unusual situation. Right. Who would think of killing themselves out of school? So now the school is closed today. Obviously, they have counselors. I don't know. I imagine they're going to open back up, uh, on Monday.

Steve: Yeah, I don't know about closing the school.

Norm: Yeah, I know. It's a little weird, right?

Steve: I mean, was it in the hallways where they got like a hazmat?

Norm: Again, don't know where specifically, but at the school is where he got you. Probably he committed suicide. I mean, I don't know too many women. I don't think it's a woman thing.

Steve: I think the stats on there are just as many women, maybe more women try to commit suicide, but not that way. But they are not successful. Yeah, there are more men who actually are successful than women committing suicide because men are more likely to use guns.

Brett: Yeah, I was going to say outside versus internalizing a pill or pills.

Norm: Pretty grim. Uh, that's what I got, guys.

Brett: Cool.

Steve: All right, well, with that, we're wrapping up a couple of announcements going forward. I do like the idea of getting a famous, uh, Ohio list on the website.

Norm: Yeah, I agree. Something that's been kind of bouncing around. Famous Ohioans or Thomas Edison.

Brett: We didn't even go back and forth. Thomas Edison.

Steve: I didn't know he's from Ohio.

Brett: Yeah.

Norm: Mellow park. So I think, uh, maybe great Ohioans. How about that?

Steve: Well, great. Grand dubious. I like to dubious.

Norm: Look, do you want to do yeah.

Steve: From Ohio. That's pretty cool.

Norm: Yeah, it's cool to know.

Steve: It's cool to like we're talking about stuff that people might like to talk.

Norm: About and then we can do adopted Ohioans. Like, uh, you mentioned Jesse Owens. Now he's from Michigan, but, uh, hey, we have a state park name. The largest state park in Ohio is named after Jesse Owens. And he sure as hell represented Ohio State at the Olympics in front of Hitler. So he's in Ohio, and as far.

Steve: As I'm concerned yeah, me too.

Norm: Uh, we'll adopt him now. George Custer, born in Michigan, but, uh, he lived in Ohio for a while.

Steve: I didn't know that either.

Norm: Yeah, before he died.

Steve: Right.

Norm: Yeah. Well, yeah, you got to live before you die. I would go along.

Steve: Common sense.

Norm: You list his s? Grant from Ohio. Uh, gosh a Sherman.

Steve: Well, the presidential list, uh, is impressive.

Brett: We still kick butt on that.

Steve: So we'll do something with that. If you check out the show or past episodes of the show, that was.

Norm: An Ohio one that, uh, stormed through Atlanta. That was Sherman, man.

Steve: Yeah, exactly. My buddy moved to Atlanta and named his dog Sherman, which is classic. Uh, at any rate, uh, if you want to check out this show past episodes of the show, subscriber make it easy to just, uh, get in touch with us. You just go to common senseohioshow.com? If you want to become a sponsor, there's a link there where you can just forward us an email. Um, we are signing them up. We are looking, uh, for, uh, different formats, bringing even guests in. If you want to be, uh, your business showcased here, we can take care of that, too. All you got to do is go to Commonsense, Ohio. Show. If you want to just support us, we're happy to talk about being a patreon, and we can, uh, uh, get you some info on that also. Uh, so for now, we are signing off. This is Common Sense, Ohio, right from the middle, coming at you every single week.